The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and forbids Congress from establishing a national religion. In contrast, totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany often include a single national ideology or set of beliefs that are imposed upon its people. Nazi Germany tried to exercise complete power over the individual. It controlled almost every aspect of private and public life of its citizens. It enforced the belief of “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” (Children, Kitchen, Church), created a definition for "Jew" (anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent) and specifically targeted those people who met this definition. The Nazis sought to expand their power and territory, targeting Jews wherever they invaded. By November 1938, Nazi Germany occupied parts of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and all of Austria.
When Kristallnacht occurred, Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were subjected to orchestrated attacks by the Nazi regime. As these attacks occurred, people throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, as well as the international community, stood idly by (as illustrated in the above photograph). This bystander behavior would repeat itself throughout the Holocaust and World War II and played a key role in enabling the perpetration of genocide.
When people stand by and say nothing as a crime is committed, they are signaling to the perpetrators that their actions are acceptable, or, at the very least, that they can get away with it without any consequences.
The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution states that no one should be deprived of life or liberty without a fair trial. While the Fifth Amendment was designed to protect lives, Nazi policy was designed to eradicate them.
Under Nazi law, specifically the “Final Solution to the Jewish problem,” all Jews were to be killed—not as a matter of guilt or innocence—simply because they were Jewish. When Allied soldiers liberated concentration and death camps, they were forced to confront the consequences of the “Final Solution.”