The Holocaust is a period of history known widely as the extermination of the Jewish race and other minorities that occurred in Germany during World War II. For years, there has been a debate among historians on whether the Holocaust was an idea created by Hitler or if it was one that emerged from the Nazi party ranks. These two differing ideas became known as intentionalism and functionalism and have both gained support among historians. Intentionalism holds Hitler accountable for the actions taken against Jews and believes that the Holocaust originated from him rather than the Nazi party. The functionalists believe that the Nazi party was a party in disarray, with members competing with each other for dominance within the party but with the …show more content…
It was Hitler’s ability to make group identity salient within the Aryan German population, the transformation of his ideas to ideology, and his deep hatred for the Jews that ultimately led to the Holocaust. Although Anti-Semitism was already present within German society before Hitler rose to power, he was the actor that enacted policies against Jews and what ultimately led to the Final Solution Hitler was successful in activating a group identity within the German population when he associated Jews as the enemy and Aryans as the dominant race who would save the world from the Jews. By making the Aryan Germans group identity salient he created an in-group/out-group relationship between the Aryans and the Jews. This in-group/out-group relationship leads to group bias which affects how people perceive others that are not part of their group. By cultivating the idea that the Jews were different than the Aryans, Hitler was able to successfully create a divide between …show more content…
Since anti-Semitism was already present, it made manipulating the German public into perceiving the Jew as an enemy an easy task. In political psychology it is believed that politics can cue identity and this is clear when it comes to German society and Hitler. He was able to play on the fear of others and the threat to German culture in order to come to power and fulfill his plan of the extermination of the Jew. Which is what intentionalist believe was what he had set out to do from the beginning. Like Karl Dietrich Bracher states, “Hitler was the most radical expressor and the most effective propagator of a set of ideas and emotions forming the nucleus of extreme German nationalism, that is, anti-democratism, imperialism, and racism.” Hitler was the perfect leader for a nation that was disappointed with the Weimar government and that had a strong sense of nationalism. He tapped into this deep love of nation and used it to turn Germans against Germans, making them fear and hate one another. Intentionalists believe that without Hitler there would have been no
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach,” Adolf Hitler (The National World War Museum). The German Nazi dictator utilized his power over the people using propaganda, eventually creating a sense of hatred towards Jews. After World War 1, the punishments of the League of Nations caused Germany to suffer. The Nazi party came to blame the Jews in order to have a nation-wide “scapegoat”. This hatred and prejudice towards Jews is known as anti-semitism. According to the Breman Museum, “the Nazi Party was one of the first political movements to take full advantage of mass communications technologies: radio, recorded sound, film, and the printed word” (The Breman Museum). By publishing books, releasing movies and holding campaigns against Jews, antisemitism came to grow quickly, spreading all across Germany. The Nazi Party often referred to the notion of a “People’s Community” where all of Germany was “racially pure” (Issuu). They would show images of ‘pure’, blond workers, labouring to build a new society. This appealed greatly to people who were demoralized during Germany’s defeat in World War 1 and the economic depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hitler, along with Joseph Goebbels, used developed propaganda methods in order to suppress the Jews and spread anti semitism.
The book Mein Kampf written by Hitler, explicitly states Hitler 's hate for the Jews. This hate is what led him to believe that it was his responsibility to create a pure country out of Germany, by excluding the other types of races and focusing on the Aryan race, which is what he believed to be the superior.This idea would later result in in the Holocaust. Although Hitler was an intelligent individual the scientific and cultural basis he uses to prove his beliefs are completely foolish, and the facts that he uses to differentiate the Jews and aryan races do not add up. Hitler 's views eventually laid the foundations of anti -semitism.
Hitler blamed the Jews for the evils of the world. He believed a democracy would lead to communism. Therefore, in Hitler’s eyes, a dictatorship was the only way to save Germany from the threats of communism and Jewish treason. The Program of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was the instrument for the Nazis to convince the German people to put Hitler into power. Point one of the document states, “We demand the union of all Germans in a great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.” 1 This point explicates the Nazi proposition that Germany will only contain German citizens and also, that these citizens would display his or her self-determination towards Germany to the fullest.
Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people, to prepare the country for war. This shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race and other races.
The fear of the Jews that was created by the Nazis was effective. Small Jewish shops were burned or heavily destroyed by the German people. The propaganda that was used to cause the hatred of Jews was created to show how to solve Germany’s problems. According to the Anne Frank House, the solution to all of Germany’s problems was to banish Jews from society (“Banish”). According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, Jews were not allowed in movie theaters, swimming pools, and resorts (“Victims”). Jews were forced out of Germany at one point. The whole point was to get rid of any other race beside Aryan. Hitler believed if Germany was completely Aryan and stro...
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.
In January of 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power. His hate towards the Jews was immense and blamed them for everything bad that had ever happened to Germany. His goal in life was to eliminate the Jewish population and with his rise to power in Germany he would put this into action. Hitler’s “final solution” almost eliminated the Jewish population in World War II. In the end of the war he resulted into committing suicide and in result the Jewish population survived the horror known as the Holocaust.
Hitler was a totalitarian leader in Germany during WW2 who rose to power due to his promises to make Germany a better country. Germany was at a weakened state, facing a Great Depression, excessive amount of respirations, and other problems had taken a toll on them and resulted in a loss of faith in their country. The lack of hope allowed Hitler to gain a political role in the country, because unlike other leaders at the time he had answers. Although they weren't the cause of the debt and pain that Germany faced, Hitler blamed the Jews. Hitler influenced Germans that Jews were the cause of all their countries problems and noted that with his power he would make sure that they were punished. He went on to later become one of the most vicious
A Holocaust is a disaster that results in the large-scale destruction of life. Although this name has been used to describe many catastrophes over centuries, today it has a more specific meaning. The Holocaust refers to the annihilation of 6 million Jews, men, women, and children, in addition to other groups of people by Hitler and the Nazi party during World War II. Such a destruction of a particular group or race is called genocide. (Resnick 9)
Hitler and the Nazis had very strong views. They believed that there was a ‘superior race’. The Aryan race consisted almost completely of tall blond haired, blue eyed people and that anyone outside of that description didn’t deserve to live. This was quite ironic as Hitler and a lot of his men didn’t have blue eyes or blond hair. The Nazis used a brainwashing technique called propaganda to convince the German population that the non-Aryan and more importantly the Jewish people were ‘rats’ and
Holocaust I've thought, and thought about resistance in the Holocaust and I've come to this comprehension: No phrase or verse or detailed explanation can illustrate the level of terror and oppression that took place. The Holocaust was probably the most arguably infamous series of despiteful human rights and cold blooded murder in modern history. The rise of the powerful Adolf Hitler has set his war against Jewish people, Jewish culture and Jewish memory. If the twisted philosophy of the Nazi regime was to eradicate Jewish memory, then it is our duty to remember the Jewish lives that perished and to keep Jewish memory alive. There was approximately six million Jews were sent to death camps and killed during World War II (1939-1945). So what do you think that led up to this? Why Adolf Hitler hatred towards Jews is so strong that made him did the inhuman cruel murder? Well the resolution lies in the ethnic undercurrents that ran beneath the peripheral of Germany and the world.
Hitler saw that most of Germany didn’t fit this picture at all, so he decided to solve it in one of the most awful ways possible. The mass murder, or Holocaust of over six million Jews, and long with the innocent Blacks, Gays, Gypsies, and both physically and mentally Handicapped. He mostly targeted the Jewish because in World War II, the Jewish was the main reason why Germany lost in World War II. This mass murder lasted over years and years of murder, forced lab...
... able to capitalize on the anxiety felt by Germans as a consequence of the revolution in the early 1930s. In his Reichstag speech, Hitler attempted to unite the German nation together, and eventually even convinced the German people that the Jewish people were to blame for their troubles. As the slaughter of the Jewish people took place in German nations, the world was on the edge of its seat, waiting to see who would be dragged into the new world war, and this, without a doubt, increased the chaos and anxiety felt during The Age of Anxiety.
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the German government and leader of the Nazis. The Nazis, under Hitler’s rule, believed unifying all German people to create a super-community. From the text, I gleaned that the Nazi’s developed the anti-Semitic doctrine, a dogma that
After World War One ended, Adolf Hitler and many other Germans felt humiliated for losing the war. Adolf blamed the Jews, he felt they were the reason the war was lost. Hitler had been obsessed with race, specifically the purity of the German race. Which he believed to be the “master race”. Aryan is what he claimed the master race was, those with blonde hair, blue eyes and tall. This belief in the “Master Race” created a horrific massacre of nearly six million people with Jewish descent over the course of twelve years.