Varför blev judarna hatade under nationalsocialistiska tyskland?

While Jews carried on money transactions in most countries of the Diaspora, their long-range success was most remarkable in Germany. In the documents found in the Cairo Geniza, covering the 11th to 13th centuries, we find adequate testimony of Jews carrying on commerce from one end of the then known world to the other -- from Spain to India. But these communities -- after flourishing for some centuries, died out. German Jewry, however, existed for over 1,000 years.
In the Middle Ages, Jews were often restricted by law to money lending and tax collecting. Even a great man such as Rabbeinu Tam was a "banker" in the medieval sense -- even operating his "bank" during Chol Hamoed.

German Jews came to their full bloom in the years shortly after the 30-year war, when the Germany of the monolithic "Holy Roman Empire" fell into three small duchies and municipalities, each with financial worries and needs for financing. The local dukes and princes would reach into the ghettos of Germany to select skilled Jews with proven ability to manipulate money. Some of these rulers had insatiable appetites for money -- to be used on their lavish courts, their military campaigns and repayment of old debts. This need created the position of the Court Jew, occupied by an exceptionally fine class of Jews who excelled in finance but also in their concern for their suffering and oppressed brethren. Some of the finest Court Jews were Oppenheim, Wertheirmer of Vienna and Behrend Lehmann of Halberstadt in the 17th century. Without them, German Judaism would have died out.

They also laid the foundation for the great banking families of the 18th century. As an example, Behrend Lehmann who had achieved the position of virtual Minister of Finance to the King of Saxonia, established far-flung branches of his business with sons and nephews manning offices in various European cities. Lehmann's example was copied by the Rothschilds a few decades after his death. By distributing five sons -- to Vienna, Paris, London, Naples and Frankfurt -- the founder of the dynasty, Moshe Amsehl Rothschild, established one of the most powerful financial empires the Jews ever possessed. But the Rothschilds were not alone in achieving banking greatness.

Here is a partial list of Jewish bankers and the dates when they were founded: 1750 N.M. Bamberger, Berlin; 1764 Gebrueder Veit, Berlin; 1795 Joseph Mendelshn Berlin; 1798 M.M. Warburg, Hamburg; 1803 S. Bleichroder, Berlin; 1811 Leopold Seligman, Cologne; 1815 A.S. Goldshmidt, Coblenz.

As Germany was unified into an empire in 1871, the need for large scale loans grew. Kaiser Wilhelm and Count Bismarck founded their administration almost entirely on the financial help rendered by their Jewish banker, Bleichroeder.

In 1856, when the Russian Czar needed a large loan, Jewish bankers helped him out without regard to the oppression which their Jewish brethren suffered under him. Only one Jewish banker, Jacob I. Schiff -- whose descendents founded the American private bank Kuh, Loeb & Co. -- refused to lend his money to a Russian czar!