Comparing the Treatment of Jews and
Jehovah's Witnesses in the Holocaust
When you think of the Holocaust you immediately think of Jews and how many of them were cruelly and unnecessarily killed in the concentration camps. Many people will think that Jews were the only race of people to have been persecuted, however they are wrong. Among the Jews, gypsies and Anti-Nazis that were crowded into the concentration camps, there was another small but important group of people who refused to recognise the Nazi laws of their country. They were the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted because they refused to fight for the Nazis. They also refused to make the sign that represented hailing Hitler, as they
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They were not given a chance to convert and the average life span of a Jew in a concentration camp was 3 months. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses were thought of as individual people who got in the way of the Nazi regime as they refused to fight on Germany's side. When they got to the concentration camp every Jehovah's Witness was given a piece of paper to sign saying that they would give up their faith and fight for the Nazis. However thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses turned down this opportunity putting their faith in God first. The average life span of a Jehovah's Witness in a concentration camp was 10 years. This is a huge difference from the way that Jews were treated.
Children of Jehovah's Witnesses were taken away from their parents and put in Nazi schools whereas Jewish children were taken away from their parents to concentration camps where they suffered inhumane treatment. In these camps Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses alike both had to wear the same uniform. However where the Jews had to wear a Star of David, the Witnesses had to wear a purple
...upying Poland in 1939, the policy of forced emigration became untenable for the Nazi regime. It was simply unrealistic to make more than 3 million Polish Jews emigrate. This led to ambitious Nazi plans for a solution to the ’Jewish Question’.” The Nazis wanted to keep their place to themselves, and they disliked the Jews. They tried moving the Jews to another place, but the amount of time it would take was too long. Therefore, they thought of the Final Solution. They sent Jews to concentration camps, where they killed many Jews. They though that this solution would keep their place to themselves, not to share with any other race. This reminds me of the Rwandan Genocide, because both genocides wanted to remove a specific group or race. In the Holocaust, they wanted to remove all Jews, and in the Rwandan Genocide, the Hutus wanted to wipe the whole Tutsis population.
Jews' Beliefs and the Holocaust In the eyes of many Jews, the Shoah was the most evil act taken out on. the Jewish community and the community. Shoah is a Hebrew word meaning "desolation." and has become the preferred term for the Holocaust for Jews. scholars who believe the word 'holocaust' has lost its significance.
The Holocaust or the Ha-Shoah in Hebrew meaning ‘the day of the Holocaust and heroism’ refers to the period of time from approximately January 30,1933, when Adolf Hitler became the legal official of Germany, to May 8,1945. After the war was over in Europe, the Jews in Europe were being forced to endure the horrifying persecution that ultimately led to the slaughter of over 6 million Jews with about 1.5 million of them being children as well as the demolition of 5,000 Jewish communities.
The Change in the Nazis Treatment of the Jews Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-45?
The Holocaust tends to be a bitter memory and an unpleasant subject to discuss. Although this event took place many years ago, repercussions are still present in the twenty first century. Especially in Germany, the Holocaust not only influences patriotism, but it also influences education and immigration policies. In contrast to other countries where nationalism is common, Germany has been forced to lessen the sense of nationalism in order to dispose false beliefs some individuals have of German racism. By allowing people from other countries to become German citizens, Germany avoids transmitting the sense of being a better and a cleaner race. A further sector influenced by the Holocaust is the education system. Approaches to teach about this event are difficult since the Holocaust is a sensitive issue and continues having vital importance in numerous families. Although the Holocaust continues conveying negative influences, the Holocaust also led to positive medical and technological improvements. In fact, numerous improvements are unknowingly implemented in societies today. Therefore, the Holocaust is one of the most horrific and influencing events in history whose repercussions are still felt in Germany today. However, in spite of the horrific occurrences, the associated medical findings and technological improvements make it intricate to look at the Holocaust as plainly evil. Thus, societies should view the Holocaust with a broader perspective.
Superiority and discrimination have been the underlying problem in many world-wide events throughout history leading into present day. Whether it be a caste system issue or a race issue, there’s always a group that labels themselves greater than that of another. This affair was apparent in 1940s Germany. The German people would be persuaded into a dictatorship led by Adolf Hitler, who while in power would give rise to Nazism, allowing the mistreatment of Jews to commence. This extermination would be known as “The Holocaust” translated to “sacrifice by fire” and would affect many different people groups during and after the event.
Hitler came up with this elimation process called The Holocaust. He made laws called The Nuremburg Laws and in these laws there was a list of "the undesirables"; people who didn't follow Hitlers standards. The list consisted of mostly Jews. They had to wear the Star of David to be identified and they could not marry, own a bussiness, go to stores, be out passed eight o'clock, or ride in cars. Even if you were not Jewish and your last name sounded Jewish, you were therefore considered Jewish. It was against the law to hid Jews or for Jews to go into hiding. You were known to be a criminal if you did. There were many more undersirables, but they did not have to follow those laws. There was also Roma (Gypsies), Polish and other Slavakians, Political Dissidents abd Dessenting Clergy, the mentally and phy...
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.
Many people before the Holocaust, and before Hitler, still hated the Jews. But Hitler made it his goal to kill this imperfect race.“Born in Austria,Hitler served in the German army during World War One.”( The Holocaust) To him the Jews were an inferior race the needed to be eliminated. He thought that by using anti-semitism he would become more popular with the crowd. “While imprisoned, Hitler wrote,
Beginning in 1933, Hitler and his Nazi party targeted not only those of the Jewish religion but many other sets. Hitler was motivated by religion and nationalism to eradicate any threats to his state. It was Hitler’s ideology that his Aryan race was superior to any other. Hitler’s goal was to create a “master race” by eliminating the chance for “inferiors” to reproduce. Besides the Jews the other victims of the genocide include the Roma (Gypsies), African-Germans, the mentally disabled, handicapped, Poles, Slavs, Anti-Nazi political parties, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Homosexuals. In Hitler’s eyes all of these groups needed to be eliminated in order for his master race to be a success.
In 19th century Europe, Jews were classified as an "inferior" race with specific physical and personality characteristics. Some thinkers believed these traits would disappear if Jews received political and social emancipation and could assimilate into the broader society. Others felt that these traits were genetically passed on and could not be changed. An increasing emphasis on nationalism also highlighted the Jews as a "foreign element," which could contaminate the native stock and culture and potentially dominate the native population economically and politically. This long-standing history provided a seed-bed for the Nazi ideology and program of genocide.
"Who's Worse?" In the documentary "Witness to the Holocaust," Miles Lehrman suggests that perpetrators are not as dangerous as they are thought to be. In fact, he argues that bystanders are more dangerous than the perpetrators themselves. This is a logical claim. First, to support Lehrman’s claim, Kristallnacht serves as a prime example of the impact bystanders have on events and how they can be more dangerous than the perpetrators themselves.
Taking their possessions away and not allowing them certain rights (Beecroft). This is similar to how Hitler told the people of Germany that Jewish people were the reason the war was going bad and they were the reason Germany was in such a weak state. Just like the Turks the Nazis wanted everyone to be the same but in a little bit of a different way. In the Holocaust they started with the political opponents (“Holocaust”). The Nazis also took away the Jews jobs and possessions (Bard 13).
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.
The treatment of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi’s can be described as actions that could only be done by a totalitarian state. Hitler believed in eugenics, the idea of improving a race by selective breeding. Nazi ideology of the Jewish race was severe anti-Semitism and pure hatred. The Nazi policy towards the Jews has been said to be the most brutal and horrific example of anti-Semitism in history.