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What were the causes of the Holocaust
What were the causes of the Holocaust
The causes of the Holocaust
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The Holocaust is defined as destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. Following 1945, the word has taken on a new meaning referring to the mass slaughtering of millions of European Jews as well as other persecuted groups (gypsies and homosexuals), by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. In Europe the Jews experienced anti-Semitism (hostility or prejudice against Jews) which dated back to the ancient world, to the time when the Jewish temples were destroyed and they were forced to leave Palestine by Roman authorities. This wide-spread hatred of the Jews augmented the virulent mindset behind the Holocaust.
On the night of January 30, 1933, an event occurred that spearheaded the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany. Born in Austria in 1889, Hitler served in World War I under the German army. Like many prevalent anti- Semites in Germany, Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s trounce in World War I in 1918. During Hitler’s imprisonment in 1923, he wrote a memoir, “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), which foresaw a European war which would result in “the extermination of the Jewish race in Germany.” Following Hitler’s release from prison, he resurrected the Nazi Party. He soon become the sole leader of the Nazi Party, thus all decision making was in his hands. The Nazi party began to multiply from 27,000 members (1925) to 108,000 (1929). Adolf Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the superiority of the “pure” German race. He viewed Jews as an inferior race, and as a threat to the German racial purity. Following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler appointed himself “Fuhrer,” making him the supreme ruler of Germany.
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...Greenhaven, 2001. Print.
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A holocaust is defined as a disaster that results with the tremendous loss of human life. History, however, generally identifies the Holocaust to be the series of events that occurred in the years before and during World War II. The Holocaust started in 1933 with the persecuting and terrorizing of Jews by the Nazi Party, and ended in 1945 with the murder of millions of helpless Jews by the Nazi war-machine. "The Holocaust has become a symbol of brutality and of one people's inhumanity to another." (Resnick p. 11)
16. Young, James. “Toward a Received History of the Holocaust.” History and Theory, Volume 36, Number 4, Theme Issue 36. December 1997.
Some would venture to state Adolf Hitler was just a mad man with a chip on his shoulder for the Jews, but he had the inspiration for the deed well before "The Final Solution." The first of these inspirations was the Jewish legends that were told throughout Europe. They covered many different stories, but the overwhelming theme was the carelessness and vile of the Jewish people towards Christians. Most of the tales concerned Christians that sold their children to the Jews in exchange for money, and the Jews sacrificing the child they had just bought like devils, but the most prominent legend is that of the "Wandering Jew." It was also said to be told throughout Germany. The story tells of am aimless Jew who roams the countryside. He says, "I must travel forever throughout the world." He eats no bread but asks, and he paces back and forth wherever he stays for shelter. This story coincides with the legend about the fate of Jesus' betrayer, Judas Iscariot. According to legend, Judas was given a severer sentence than the most painful torments in hell. God commanded him to walk around the world without being able to rise higher or fall lower, and everyday he sees his body hanging from where he committed suicide. These two stories match too awful well. If Judas Iscariot is the "wandering Jew" then he is the evilest person in the world. For it is obvious Jesus Christ was the greatest human being to ever set foot on Earth, and if you would destroy him you would in due form be the most devilish. So now Christians who hear and tell this legend apply the worst person in the world to the Jewish race. Blaming not only Judas for the betrayal of God's only begotten son, but the whole Jewish race.
The evolution of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question was executed in stages. Was the Final Solution truly the answer? During the time of the Holocaust this idea meant different things at different things. The Holocaust was one of the most traumatic and heart-rending killings. Six million Jews are believed to have been killed during the Holocaust. There were over preconceived ideas and political figures. It all evolved from hatred during the biblical ages. There are many reasons to why the Jewish people were despised. The population perceived the Jews as the killer of Jesus. People used the scapegoat of that they are a convenient group to blame. The hatred of the Jews was fueled by the claim that they are the chosen people. Society has viewed the Jews as having prosperity and supremacy. The one that was exaggerated most during the Holocaust was that of the idea that they are an inferior race. Hitler stated a shocking quote in his conversation with Josef Hell in 1922 prior to his power. ! Hitler was the one who proposed that they were the inferior race, and he ran with this concept throughout his life in the public eye. The different meanings of The Final solution were influenced from that current time period that was occurring. Four major occurrences altered and forever left an imprint on the lives of millions. The Anti-Jewish policy, new German governmental departments, the invasion of Poland, and the invasion of the USSR all impacted the meaning of the Final solution.
In the late thirties and fourties, the Holocaust occured. The Holocaust was the mass genocide of eleven million Jews and other undesireables. We learn about this event to remember all who lost their lives, and make sure something this awful never happens again.
Schleunes, Karl. The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-1939. Reprinted. Urbana, IL: University Of Illinois Press, 1970.
Bard, Mitchell G., ed. "Introduction." Introduction. The Holocaust. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2001.
Generations of the Holocaust. Ed. Martin S. Bergmann and Milton E. Jucovy. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1982.
It should come as no surprise to anybody that the Jewish Holocaust is one of the most appalling crimes against humanity the world will ever know. With a death toll of 11 million people, the Holocaust may not be the reigning champion for most murders, but it remains as a scar on the face of humanity that cannot be removed. Millions killed, simply because a single man who came to extreme power decided he didn’t want them around. The following essay contains a summary of what was learned about it, a review of one of the many novels written about the event, and the main idea we can all take from the Holocaust.
In Europe there was a little over a population of nine million jews. Most of these nine million jews lived in the country of germany. The part that the jews lived in were ruled by the Nazis. The Nazi did not like the jews and thought of them as a threat to their land. In order for the nazis to get rid of the jews they came up with a plan called “ The Final Solution” . This great genocide was later known as the Holocaust.
Hitler came to power in 1933 when Germany was recovering from its recession as well as depression from World War I. Similar to any other leader, Hitler had one motive, and that was to rebuild the lives and the entire country to give them confidence and believing they were a phenomenal group of people. In order for Hitler to make sure his goal was accomplished, he created lots of propaganda which stereotyped other races, brainwashed almost the whole country of Germany, and scapegoat other races and ethnicities (mainly minorities such as Jews). Since Hitler wanted what was best for his country, he decided to quarantine the entire Jewish population and then move them into concentration camps. In the aftermath, over six million Jews were slaughtered because he believed it was the correct way to “purify” his country. Hitler did an excellent job giving his people self-confidence. However, his actions, by committing genocide and creating stereotypes were not proper solutions when it came to attempting to rebuild a destroyed country.
The holocaust was a bleak and unrecoverable part of the history of the twentieth century that will always be remembered. Millions died for no reason except for one man’s madness. Although many people know why this war happened many don’t know when and what events lead up to this: the way Hitler came into power, or when the first concentration camp was established, and what city it was in, why Jews were hated so much by Hitler, and why the rest of the country also hated them as well as, and what the chronology of the Holocaust. These are some of the things I will explain in my paper.
Adolf Hitler joined a small political party in 1919 and rose to leadership through his emotional and captivating speeches. He encouraged national pride, militarism, and a commitment to the Volk and a racially "pure" Germany. Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting anti-Semitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. He changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, called for short, the Nazi Party. By the end of 1920, the Nazi Party had about 3,000 members. A year later Hitler became its official leader Führer. From this, we can see his potential of being a leader and his development in his propaganda.