Antisemitic thinking remained on the fringes of German society until the loss of the World War I and the collapse of the German Empire. Radical nationalists, including the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (Nazis) who were eventually led by Adolf Hitler, accused the Jews of undermining the German war effort and blamed them for their defeat.
When Hitler and the Nazis were elected into power in 1933, some 525,000 Jews lived in Germany, representing less than 1% of the population. During this time, antisemitism became central to German politics and society.