German Genocide Target

It is hard to picture that along with others that, 6 million Jews were targeted and killed during the Holocaust. It is astonishing to realize how racist and cruel the Nazis acted towards the Jews. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, once Hitler was in control of the German government “he translated his harsh feeling toward Jews into many policies and statutes which eroded the rights of German Jews from 1933-1939” (“Victims”). The anti-Jewish racist legislation passed The Nuremberg Laws in September, 1935. These laws made an extremely in depth Nazi definition of who was Jewish. A lot of people who did not think of themselves as Jewish were now being seen as targets of Nazi discrimination. Jewish is not seen as a race, and Jews are a religious and cultural group. In fact, Jewish traditions urbanized for 2,000 years before World War II in Europe. Jews of both Eastern and Western Europe formed a way of life based on spiritual practice, education, language (mainly Yiddish), and arts and music. It was a complete ethnicity which the Nazis sought after to make vanish.

The Jewish genocide, rarely referred to but also known as Judeocide, started early in 1942. The Nazis singled out the Jews for genocide for a couple of reasons. It is quite obvious that Hitler and the Nazi Party had a different point of view and beliefs than any of the other groups. Hitler saw events in history as a racial struggle. He had blamed the German defeat of World War I on the Jews also other economic hardships. As well as that, they thought that the Aryan (Germans) were superior to the Mongrel (Jews) and non-Jewish people. According to Holocaust Museum Houston, the “Nazis considered the Jews a race whose goal was world domination and, th...

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...e Jews wanted world domination, and did not share all of the same religious and cultural beliefs. I feel that the German people allowed Hitler a great deal of authority than he considered necessary. Also that a lot more could have been done to be of assistance to the Jews and additional groups affected during the Holocaust.

Works Cited

Grobman, Gary M. "Who Are The Jews?" The Holocaust-A Guide for Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2014.

"The Holocaust: An Introductory History." An Introductory History of the Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2014.

"Holocaust FAQs." Holocaust FAQs. Source: Simon Wiesenthal Center, n.d. Web. 18 May 2014.

Nadler, Rabbi Avraham M. "Was the Holocaust Only Against Jews?" Aish.com. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 18 May 2014.

"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2014.