Rise of the Nazi Party

Figure 1 – Adolf Hitler greets Paul von Hindenburg (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

On January 30, 1933—a day many had feared yet anticipated—Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi Party), was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2025). This event marked the beginning of the Nazi era: a period characterized by totalitarian dictatorship, repression, widespread anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and ultimately, World War II.

In the months and years that followed, numerous German, Austrian, and other European scientists—many of them Jewish—fled their home countries to escape Nazi persecution. The urgency of their departure intensified with the passage of Hitler’s first anti-Jewish law in April 1933, which stripped “non-Aryan” academics of their teaching positions. As a result, 25% of German physicists—among them eleven past or future Nobel Prize winners—lost their jobs (“Scientific Exodus,” 2014). Many of these displaced intellectuals found refuge in the United States, where they were able to resume their work and make enduring contributions to science and society.