THE HOLOCAUST

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THE HOLOCAUST

The Holocaust was the mass annihilation of the European Jews by the National Socialist Party (Nazi) of Germany from 1933 to 1945. In The War of the Jews, Dawidowicz explains the conditions that made anti-Semitism politically acceptable. The Germans of the nineteenth century "inherited a Christian-inspired popular and intellectual anti-Semitism that depicted Jews as foreigners- a state within a state- killers of Christ, well poisoners, and a cause of every misfortune, whether natural, economic, or political. The forces of naturalism, Volkist theory, bogus racial science, and fear of modernity reinforced and built upon this foundation." 1 The impact of the Holocaust has greatly affected the society of the past and the present.

These feelings were fortified by Nazi propaganda blaming the Jews for everything from Germany’s loss of World War I to the depression that followed. "A raving lunatic, a comic-strip character, a political absurdity. Yet his voice mesmerized millions, ‘a guttural thunder,’ according to Heiden, ‘the very epitome of power, firmness, command and will.’ "2 Adolph Hitler is remembered as the founder and leader of the Nazi party. Hitler was born in Austria on April 20, 1889 to an abusive half Jewish and a mother who breast-fed him until the age of five. As Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews.3 "Hitler’s ideas about the Jews were at the center of his mental world. They shaped his worldview and his political ambitions, forming the matrix of his ideology and the ineradicable core of National Socialist doctrine. They determined the anti-Jewish policies of the German dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, and they furni...

... middle of paper ...

....203.

9. See Dawidowicz, p.206.

10. See Dawidowicz, p.207.

11. See Dawidowicz, p.209.

12. George Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust (Amherst: The University of

Massachusetts Press, 1988) p. 13.

13. See Rosenburg, Myers, p.428

14. See Rosenburg, Myers, p.433

15. See Rosenburg, Myers, p.434

16. George M. Kren, Leon Rappoport, The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human

Behavior (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1980) p.127

17. See Rosenburg, Myers, p.434

18. See Kren, Rappoport, p.127

19. See Kren, Rappoport, p.85

20. See Kren, Rappoport, p.128

21. See Kren, Rappoport, p.128

22. See Kren, Rappoport, p.125.

23. See Kren, Rappoport, pp.126-127.

24. See Eisen, p.12

25. See Eisen, p.13

26. See Eisen, p.13

27. See Rosenburg, Myers, p.433

28. See Rosenburg, p.434

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