Because of anti Semitism, Nazi propaganda, and the rise of Hitler’s message, the citizens of Germany embraced the Nazi Regime believing the allegations against the “unwanted Jews;” therefore, they were bystanders to the Holocaust by yielding the party power to move forward and annihilate the Jews.
The German citizens made Jews their scapegoat for their economic and political problems.
People like the Germans find others to blame other than themselves.This helped create Anti Semitism. David Downing suggest that, Jews were viewed as “ Christ killers”. They were blamed for many things since they were the people’s external scapegoat. People always look for others to blame, and during the challenging times the Jews were blamed. (Origins of the Holocaust 10) He also stated “When things started going wrong, however, Jews were rapidly made the scapegoat.” ( Origins of the Holocaust 26) In conclusion, the Jews were blamed.
The Jews were considered outsiders of Germany; therefore, they were blamed. Germans did not want Jews a part of them. Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany stated, the Germans desired a pure Aryan race, they do not desire to spoil their blood by mixing it with a Jews. Jews lost all of their rights as a citizen; therefore, they were completely segregated. Jews were not granted to marry a German ( United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) In conclusion, they were separated. and they looked even worse to the Germans.
The German economy suffered major economic hardship at the time of the Holocaust, the German people were frustrated and jealous of the Jews. People began to grow enraged because the Jewish financial status in Germany was so high. They began to be very easy targets for the country to blame and be...
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After Germany lost World War I, it was in a national state of humiliation. Their economy was in the drain, and they had their hands full paying for the reparations from the war. Then a man named Adolf Hitler rose to the position of Chancellor and realized his potential to inspire people to follow. Hitler promised the people of Germany a new age; an age of prosperity with the country back as a superpower in Europe. Hitler had a vision, and this vision was that not only the country be dominant in a political sense, but that his ‘perfect race’, the ‘Aryans,’ would be dominant in a cultural sense. His steps to achieving his goal came in the form of the Holocaust. The most well known victims of the Holocaust were of course, the Jews. However, approximately 11 million people were killed in the holocaust, and of those, there were only 6 million Jews killed. The other 5 million people were the Gypsies, Pols, Political Dissidents, Handicapped, Jehovah’s witnesses, Homosexuals and even those of African-German descent. Those who were believed to be enemies of the state were sent to camps where they were worked or starved to death.
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There are many factors which lead to the Holocaust, however anti-Semitism was the greatest cause of the conflict. Anti-Semitism is the common name for anti Jewish sentiments. During Hitler was in power, anti-Semitism was used by the Nazis too carry out the Endlosung, which means “final solution to the Jewish Question” (“The Roots of the Holocaust”). However, anti-Semitism was not something that was created by Germany. Through centuries, Jews were a persecuted people. Jews have faced heavy discrimination throughout the Middle Ages, 1800s and mid early 1900s.
The Jewish people were targeted, hunted, tortured, and killed, just for being Jewish, Hitler came to office on January 20, 1933; he believed that the German race had superiority over the Jews in Germany. The Jewish peoples’ lives were destroyed; they were treated inhumanly for the next 12 years, “Between 1933 and 1945, more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately six million of these were Jews” (Levy). Hitler blamed a lot of the problems on the Jewish people, being a great orator Hitler got the support from Germany, killing off millions of Jews and other people, the German people thought it was the right thing to do. “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community” (History.com Staff).
The causes and atrocities of an event like the Holocaust further the existence of the dark side of human nature. Before the Holocaust occurred, certain events foreshadowed danger for the Jewish community. For example, Germany suffered greatly after losing World War I. After the war ended and the stock market crashed at the end of the twenties, many countries were left in economic and political ruin, especially Germany. Some Germans blamed the Jewish population for the country’s loss because they were not faithful to Germany. Hitler represented the Nazi Party and became Chancellor of Germany by advocating this popular belief (“Adolf H...
What possible reason can someone have for supporting or participating in the genocide and murder of millions of innocent people? During the period of the holocaust, the German peoples participation or indifference’s towards state sponsored genocide and murder could have been an effect of racism, national pride, and peer pressure.
The Holocaust, the mass killing of the Jewish people in Europe, is the largest genocide in history to this date. Over the course of the Holocaust nearly six million Jewish people were killed by the Nazi Party and Germany led by Adolf Hitler. There are multiple contributing factors to the Holocaust that made it so large in scope. Historians argue which of these factors were most significant. The most significant contributing factor is the source of the Holocaust, the reason it occurred. This source is Adolf Hitler and his hatred for Jewish people. In comparison to the choices of the Allies to not accept Jewish refugees and to not take direct military action to end the Holocaust, the most significant contributing factor of the Holocaust is that Adolf Hitler was able to easily rise to power with the support of the German people and rule Germany.
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