In 1938 and 1939, the Order Police expanded rapidly as theincreasing threat of war gave prospective recruits a furtherinducement. If they enlisted in the Order Police, the new youngpolicemen were exempted from conscription into the army.

In a brief two years between the autumn of 1939 and the autumn of1941, Nazi Jewish policy escalated rapidly from the prewar policy of forcedemigration to the Final Solution as it is now understood—the systematic at-tempt to murder every last Jew within the German grasp.

on 30 January 1939, Hitler prophesied “the annihilation ofthe Jewish race in Europe” in the event that “international financeJewry” succeeded in “plunging the nations once more into a worldwar.”

Sühneleistung, or “atonement fine,” which a ministerial conferenceset at one billion marks. Jewish taxpayers were required to handover 20 percent of their total assets in four installments ending inAugust 1939.

In September 1939, after the invasion of Po-land, unter uns became legally enforced Aryan space when a decreeprohibited Jews from owning or listening to radios;

the national sports competition organized by the Hit-ler Youth enrolled seven million boys and girls in 1939, twice asmany as in 1935, and provided opportunities to achieve distinc-tion.

On the eve of the war, in 1939, most Germans ex-perienced the Third Reich as a cherished period of economic andpolitical stability. These were achievements that the population wasdetermined to hold on to.