The Holocaust started with words. Hitler and the Nazis took advantage of existing anti-Semitic sentiment by fomenting fear and prejudice and spreading false and/or misleading information (propaganda) about the Jewish people. They played on Germans’ patriotism, exploiting their fear and sense of righteousness, making them feel like it was the most logical and reasonable thing in the world to officially identify Jews and curtail their rights and freedoms in the name of security. They successfully made persecution of and violence against Jews and others seem not only acceptable, but necessary, as they clearly posed an imminent danger to the German way of life.