Living in Nazi Germany Peter Gay and his family did not feel a strong need to flee because they did not identify as Jews, Peter still attended school and adapted to a new country seemed difficult. As events unfolded and the Nazi Party became more powerful, the need to leave became more and more necessary for Peter and his family to escape Nazi Germany before it was too late. There were three ways to be classified as a Jew in Nazi Germany which were: conversion, birth or decree. Peter and his family did not consider themselves Jews, they were only considered Jews by Nazi classification by decree (Gay 48). They considered themselves Germans and atheists (Gay 50). The family did not think it was logical to classify a “race,” which was produced by non-scientific and non-historical elements (Gay 110). To distance the family from Jewish classification, they did not have the “look” that could help distinguish your Jewishness. Peter had a straight nose, blue eyes, and brown hair (Gay 57). He could go out in public and blend in, which gave him the opportunity to participate in sporting events where he could blend in with his surroundings (Gay 57). Peter still had the opportunity to attend public school because his father had been wounded in the World War, which gave his family some exceptions to being admitted to such a small number of Jews, when most could not at that time. The school started slowly with anti-Semitism but then became more transparent. They began to sing a song that referred to Jewish blood flowing from a knife (Gay 64). Although every day in his school, anti-Semitism became more and more evident as teachers harassed Jewish pupils (Gay 65). Peter Gay's parents decided to stay because they only spoke German... middle of paper... .en how to approach America after arriving in Cuba. In the 1920s and 1930s the rise of the Nazi Party was gaining supporters through Adolf Hitler. We learn from Peter's memoirs that he gained followers through propaganda. When he gained enough support he began to strengthen the threats in which it became known as the Third Reich, Hitler began with boycotts, legal excursions, the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht and then a total ban. The most alarming and eye-opening event was Kristallnacht, when the Germans broke the windows of Jewish homes. It also cost the lives of a hundred Jews and sent more than twenty-six thousand Jews to concentration camps. (Gay 132) These made clear the power of Hitler who did not want Jews in Germany and emigration was mandatory. That this time it wasn't just a threat, but that it will be enforced.