No one quite knows why and when Adolf Hitler became the antisemite that enabled something like the Holocaust, but the following episode is one in which he himself cites as opening his eyes to 'the Jewish question'
Once, as I was strolling through the Inner City, I suddenly encountered an apparition in a black caftan and black hair locks. Is this a Jew? was my first thought. For, to be sure, they had not looked like that in Linz. I observed the man furtively and cautiously, but the longer I stared at this foreign face, scrutinizing feature for feature, the more my first question assumed a new form: Is this a German?
One of the lesser known aspects of the Holocaust was although it was evidently Jewish-centric, it wasn't limited to only Jews; homosexuals, people with poignant disabilities and those born with deformaties etc were amongst the victims. The central tenet that led to this genocide wasn't just antisemitism but a broader sense of 'racial purity'; they wanted a 'master' race. But if we look at modern society as an example, there are often other factors i.e. socioeconomic that perpetuate racism so I don't think it was just race relations that allowed young German men to execute children and women who would strip themselves naked in a final desperate plea.
