The modern Zionist movement was founded by Theodor Herzl in the 1890s, advocating for a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a solution to antisemitism in Europe.
Herzl himself explicitly argued that antisemitism could be harnessed to encourage Jews to emigrate. So yes, by the time Hitler came to power in 1933, Zionism was already decades old.
Catholic antisemitism (esp. the “deicide” accusation) certainly primed many Germans and Austrians to be receptive to Hitler’s rhetoric. (Deicide accusation is the accusation that Jews killed Christ)
It’s true: in the early 1930s, Nazi policy was emigration, not extermination.
The Haavara Agreement (1933) allowed German Jews to transfer some assets to Palestine — something both Zionists and Nazis saw as useful.
Roughly 60.000 of 520.000 people of the Jewish population in Germany at the time emigrated under the Haavara Agreement.
So while the Nazis weren’t ideologically Zionist (in public), their policies advantaged Zionist Jews while harming anti-Zionist Orthodox communities.

AshkeNazi Jews who had intermarried into broader European society (especially in urban, educated, or more assimilated circles) were more likely to have non-Jewish parents or grandparents, which under the Nuremberg Laws could place them in the Mischling categories (“half-Jew” or “quarter-Jew”).
Many Mischlinge came from assimilated, middle-to-upper-class Jewish families (bankers, lawyers, professionals).
Mischlinge weren’t just passive survivors; some were shapers of the Nazi war machine, particularly in the Luftwaffe and medical establishment. Milch and Wilberg are the clearest “influential” examples inside the regime.
While most Mischlinge were gradually excluded from top political leadership after the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, some remained in significant positions, especially in the military and bureaucracy, due to talent, usefulness, or patronage.

The modern Zionist movement was founded by Theodor Herzl in the 1890s, advocating for a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a solution to antisemitism in Europe.
Herzl himself explicitly argued that antisemitism could be harnessed to encourage Jews to emigrate. So yes, by the time Hitler came to power in 1933, Zionism was already decades old.
Catholic antisemitism (esp. the “deicide” accusation) certainly primed many Germans and Austrians to be receptive to Hitler’s rhetoric. (Deicide accusation is the accusation that Jews killed Christ)
It’s true: in the early 1930s, Nazi policy was emigration, not extermination.
The Haavara Agreement (1933) allowed German Jews to transfer some assets to Palestine — something both Zionists and Nazis saw as useful, though for very different reasons.
Roughly 60.000 of 520.000 people of the Jewish population in Germany at the time emigrated under the Haavara Agreement.
So while the Nazis weren’t ideologically Zionist (not in public), their policies advantaged Zionist Jews while harming anti-Zionist Orthodox communities.

AshkeNazi Jews who had intermarried into broader European society (especially in urban, educated, or more assimilated circles) were more likely to have non-Jewish parents or grandparents, which under the Nuremberg Laws could place them in the Mischling categories (“half-Jew” or “quarter-Jew”).
Many Mischlinge came from assimilated, middle-to-upper-class Jewish families (bankers, lawyers, professionals).
Mischlinge weren’t just passive survivors; some were shapers of the Nazi war machine, particularly in the Luftwaffe and medical establishment. Milch and Wilberg are the clearest “influential” examples inside the regime.
While most Mischlinge were gradually excluded from top political leadership after the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, some remained in significant positions, especially in the military and bureaucracy, due to talent, usefulness, or patronage.