In The Origins of the Final Solution, Christopher Browning argues that the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the Holocaust, was not planned but rather a possibility that was discovered through stages and process of elimination in regards to Hitler’s decision to eliminate the Jews from Europe. The final stage of mass killing Jews came with the thought that Germany will have a victory in Russia, race war, and racial imperialism in Eastern Europe. “Hitler had indicated in his 1939 Reichstag speech that the outbreak of the war would have fateful consequences, leading to the destruction of the Jews in Europe” (Browning 426), and this essential premise of Hitler’s ideology and the expanding military euphoria proceeded to the killing of Jews and anti-Jewish …show more content…
Germans were taught to fear the Jews as “Jews strove to destroy the nations by spreading racial pollution, undermining the structures of the state” (Friedländer 18), and this political manipulation of the German public brought the Nazis to power and proceed with their long term goal of terminating the Jews from Europe by strengthening their military power and world power. Supposedly, the State opinion of the Jews was motivated by the act of fear and belief that the Jews were ‘traitors’. The underlying cause for the chaos and the state of the nation had always been the Jews because Germany fought for another four years despite knowing the chances of winning the war was …show more content…
The invasion of the Soviet Union did call in order for the mass killing, but it was motivated because of the strong Nazi army during the invasion. In a 1939 speech, Hitler says, “the result will not be the bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!” (Hitler 131). Although, Jews in Germany were not murdered in 1939 and Hitler’s objective to remove all Jews was not fully formed, the thought of murdering the Jews was intact for Germany’s future plans. It is not possible for Jewish ‘cleansing’ to be an unplanned response to circumstances and benefits that arose for Germany as Hitler’s motivation has always been to murder the entire race of Jews for the ‘better’ Germany. Representation of the Jews as the revolutionists of liberalism and socialism that later evolved into Bolshevism and Communism labeled them as ‘backstabbers’ to Germany. The political culture of German society “to do one’s duty and support one’s country in the time of war” (Browning 429) enabled an upper-hand to the Nazis as the German public were willing to sacrifice and not react critically towards the war. Although the conquest of Poland in 1939 was the major step towards ‘racial imperialism’ and the beginning of the Nazi
before he came to power, he just used World War II as his golden opportunity to turn his dream into a reality. Others, with Andreas Hillgruber, argue Hitler was the only reason genocide even happened. If Hitler had not been in control, the Holocaust would have ceased to exist. His key sources include the Nuremburg Trials, quoting him saying “this struggle will not end with annihilation of Aryan mankind, but with the extermination of the Jewish people of Europe.” By using Hitler’s own words against him, Hillgruber makes it easy to prove Hitler’s malicious intent clearly and depict him as the mastermind behind the mass murder of the Jewish population. Gerald Fleming creates the last sub-argument in his book, “Hitler and the Final Solution,” provides an in-depth historical evaluation of German fascism and the mechanization behind the Nazi Party bureaucracy. His main point of reference is David Irving’s, “Hitler’s War,”
Glass) programme, all of which was aimed towards the Jewish. population, specifically to isolate them from the German society and to drive them out of the German area. After the June 1941 invasion of The Soviet Union, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) began killing operations aimed entirely at the Jewish community. The SS, the Elite. Guards of the Nazi state, soon regarded the mobile killing methods.
...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.
Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).
It is evident that World War II still affects the world today, but are these repercussions the aftermath of a master plan for destruction? The Nazi Party and Hitler were the most significant characters for World War II and thus, they truly made history, however, they made it worse. Many different causes for this devastation have been concluded starting with the end of World War I and the harsh blameful Treaty of Versailles, the new found control in Germany, and the Great Depression; even though was most harmful in America, affected the world in its entirety. Are these the factors that led to the ‘Final Solution’, are these the problems that encouraged Hitler to seize the world? There were many elements prior to World War II leading to the annihilation of Jews, Hitler’s experiences in World War I greatly influenced his outlook on warfare and the Jewish, another predominate factor was the approval of building the camps and chambers in Germany, and lastly the documented intentions for the ‘Final Solution’.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power was just the start to a horrifying 13 years. Hitler became Chancellor Hitler of Germany in 1933, knowing what his goal was and what he wanted to do, which he called "The Final Solution." According the The Holocaust: An Introductory History, published by Jewish Virtual Library, Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution" plan was to exterminate the entire Jewish population, and all of the other undesirerables. Every group of undesirerables is listed in the Nuremburg Race Laws. The Nuremburg Race Laws took away some of the Jews political rights, didn't let Jews marry anoyone of the German desent, and didn't focus on peoples' religious beliefs. Instead of focusing on their religious beliefs, they defined people as a Jew if they had three of four Jewish granparents, whether the individual defined people as a Jew or no...
During the summer of 1941, Chancellor Adolf Hitler initialized “The Final Solution'; to the “Jewish Question';. Hitler started this program because he wanted to create a highly centralized state and one for the master race, Germans. Exterminating Jews was, for Hitler, the only way to create a perfect Germany because it would eliminate the ‘malignant tumors’, the race that caused Germany to lose World War One. Hitler’s decision to start exterminating Jews changed the course of history. In the end, over 6,000,000 Jews were killed and a Jewish state known as Israel, evolved.
Starting with creating a Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship. Then moving on to pass a law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects. They also prohibit Jews from owning land, also from being newspaper editors. Jewish people are also banned from the German labor front and stripped of national health insurance. The Jews where also prohibited from receiving legal qualifications. The Nazis ban Jewish people from serving in the military. Hitler was trying to form his version of a perfect race by not only stripping Jews of their rights but also Gypsies, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s witnesses. The name for the plan of the mass extermination was called “the final solution”. The Jews where sentenced to death there was really no escape for them. Some people where very lucky, some people of Jewish ancestry were sometimes able to escape being sent to the Nazi death camps if their grandparents had converted to Christianity before the date of January 18, of 1871. This date marked the start of Germanys unification and the start of the German empire. After the beginning of World War II, N...
The Holocaust is one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill, gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be eliminated from the German population. He proceeded to reach his goal in a systematic scheme." (Bauer, 58) One of his main methods of exterminating these ‘undesirables' was through the use of concentration and death camps. In January of 1941, Adolf Hitler and his top officials decided to make their 'final solution' a reality. Their goal was to eliminate the Jews and the ‘unpure' from the entire population. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp that carried out Hitler's ‘final solution' in greater numbers than any other.
Nazi belief, and murder of the Jews a key policy. 2 German laws made by Hitler soon required everyone who had one or more Jewish grandparent to register. Those with one grandparent may have escaped but if you had two grandparents you were sent to a concentration camp and classifed as a Jew. One night symbolizing the begining of mass persecution was Kristallnacht, November 10th, 1938, "the night of broken glass". Jewish stores and houses were attacked, synagogues burned, and many Jews were sent to concentration camps. During this time, there were a few countries that would accept Jews. Hitler launched World War 2 by marching into Poland in 1939. Most of Western Europe then fell into the Führer (Hitler), who had personal command of the troops. Germany invaded the soviet Union in 1941, but Hitler, Crazed with power, had lost his military judgement. His failure to Capture Stalingrad, 1942 - 1943, was the turning point; unable to cope with defeat, he refused to recognize it or negotiate for peace. As the tide of war turned against him, his mass annhiliation of Jews, socialists, gypsies, and others was excelerated. After the Second World War had began in 1939, the Nazi's dropped all restrictions they had previously made towards the systematic murder of all Jews. In countries such as Europe, steps were made for Jews to follow in order to be seperated from the rest of the population. First Jews were required to register, then they were known to the Gestapo. Some families sent their children to live with christian families and live under an assumed identity. Hitler sent The Jews of Poland to live in poverty stricken ghettos where they were exposed to disease and malnutrition. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Nazi policy of murder began to operate with no restrictions. The armies in Russia were followed by an "extermination squad" who shot hundreds of thousands of people, the majority being Jewish. The Nazis had already setup thousands of concentration camps to imprison anyone who imposed them. These now began to operate as factories of death. Auschwitz was the biggest of these death camps, a city of barricks where hundreds of thousands of people starved to death amid indescribable brutality. At it's center stood gas chambers and creamatoria design to take train loads of human beings, gas them and burn them.
Evidence for the Holocaust The reason for the development of the final solution is under much historical debate. There is the structuralists who believe it was a result of wartime problems, that it was a improvised response to the problems. However there is the intentionalists who believe Hitler planned the holocaust due to his pathological hatred of the Jews. Now in this essay I am going to present the evidence for both schools of thought.
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.
“ Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people to prepare the country for war.” (Jewish Virtual Library), This piece of evidence shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race a...
In 1934, the death of President Hindenburg of Germany removed the last remaining obstacle for Adolf Hitler to assume power. Soon thereafter, he declared himself President and Fuehrer, which means “supreme leader”. That was just the beginning of what would almost 12 years of Jewish persecution in Germany, mainly because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews. It is difficult to doubt that Hitler genuinely feared and hated Jews. His whole existence was driven by an obsessive loathing of them (Hart-Davis 14).
“The modern German anti-Semitism was based on racial ideology which stated that the Jews were subhuman while the “Aryan” race was ultimately superior,” ("Nazi Propaganda"): (Goebbels)“I beg you and particularly those of you who carry the cross throughout the land to become somewhat more serious when I speak of the enemy of the German people, namely, the Jew, ("Nazi Propaganda"). “Streicher declared: "You must realize that the Jew wants our people to perish. That is why you must join us and leave those who have brought you nothing but war, inflation, and discord",” ("Nazi Propaganda"). “We know that Germany will be free when the Jew has been excluded from the life of the German people,” ("Ministry Of Public Enlightenment"). After Goebbels 's started to target the Jew’s with mean propaganda: It made blaming Jews a lot easier for Germany’s