These are indirect variables in the complex equation that is the Holocaust. They all indirectly supplied madmen with the power to decide if one human is better than the other. The most direct role when talking about the United States, lies at the door step of the fourth largest company in the world today, (Forbes, 2012), IBM. IBM is an American multinational corporation that originated in the data tabulation business, which is basically the census business. They partnered with the Third Reich at the beginning to not only count Jews and other “subhumans,” but identify them as well based upon bloodline. They did this using cleverly worded census surveys to coax people into revealing their lineage. If that didn’t work, they could also process …show more content…
During the war, IBM expanded its product line to supply the needs of the U.S. war effort and “Thomas Watson, Sr., set a nominal one percent profit on those products and used the money to establish a fund for widows and orphans of IBM war casualties,” (IBM). However, this was most likely in response to public outrage over Watson (President of IBM at the time) being awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle by Hitler, the highest honor received by a foreigner, in 1940. Along with this one percent profit margin, Watson also returned his medal shortly after the U.S. entered the war; Ford also recieved such an honor in 1938, however refused to return his. Furthermore, IBM did not stop producing punch cards for the Nazi murder machine until the war finally ended in 1945. Ford never stopped either; however, Ford was also arguably the most instrumental factor in the Allied war effort. “By the end of the war, Ford had built 86,865 complete aircraft, plus 57,851 airplane engines, thousands of engine superchargers and generators, and 4,291 military gliders,” (Grudens). This was just in the United States; Ford’s plants in Great Britain and Canada joined the production efforts, as well. His company also produced jeeps, armored cars, tanks, and robot …show more content…
While also investing money in the Third Reich, legally, to support fascism and a “pure” society in Europe. Although many investors turned their back on the Nazis when America entered the war, several companies continued to support the war effort and the Holocaust through building war machines and using slave labor to do such things. Vital resources and the methods to procure them were also given to the Nazis by American corporations; resources like ethyl fuel, synthetic rubber (buna), and synthetic fuel. None played a more direct role in one of the most efficient genocides in history than IBM, who gave the Nazis the technology and the methods to store and process any data necessary in the identification and extermination of Jews and other
This paper will consist of the explanation of the “Structural Strain Theory” of the Holocaust. The structural strain theory examines the social and culture structure. The Holocaust had a couple different cultures and social outlooks based on their ethnicity, or location they were from. The Holocaust had the separation of Jews, Polish, and the Nazis. With this separation it held different conditions and lifestyles for each particular group and the way they can properly function to do their own culture or social practices. This theory bases the deviances to the living conditions of each group on how much goods, supplies, and or shelter they have to achieve their goals.
They isolated and imprisoned millions of innocent people for something that was not of their doing. Both the Nazis and the American government created camps in which both groups were expected to live and adjust to unfair living situations. However, the holocaust was unique in history. As I previously stated many similarities took place for both events, but what makes the holocaust unique was the barbarity of how the Nazi’s treated the Jewish population, they were tortured, rape, humiliated and murdered. They lived horrors in the concentration camps, they were stripped of their dignity and humanity. That itself makes the holocaust a unique event in
The Holocaust is considered the largest genocide of our entire world, killing more than 600,000,000 Jewish people during the years of 1933-1945. The memories and history that have filled our lives that occurred during the Holocaust are constantly remembered around the world. Many populations today “think” that constant reminders allow for us to become informed and help diminish the hatred for other races still today. These scholars believe that by remembering the Holocaust, you are able to become knowledgeable and learn how to help prevent this from happening again. Since the Holocaust in a sense impacted the entire human race and history of the world, there are traces of the Holocaust all across our culture today. As I continue to remember the victims of this tragic time period I think of all the ways that our world remembers the Holocaust in today’s society. Through spreading the word, works of media and memorials across the world, I am continually reminded of the tragedy that occurred.
The atomic bombings of Japanese cities and the genocides of the Holocaust are horrific events in human history. Although these events have their differences, they influence the world greatly today because they differ from each other to provide comparisons for history, have significance because of the survivors who tell their personal story, and achieve significance morally as well as immorally.
Causes & Effects of the Holocaust There are times in history when desperate people, plagued by desperate situations, blindly give evil men power. These men, once given power, have only their own evil agendas to carry out. The Holocaust was the result of one such man's agenda. In short, simplicity, sheer terror, brutality, inhumanity, injustice, irresponsibility, immorality, stupidity, hatred, and pure evil are but a few words to describe the Holocaust. A holocaust is defined as a disaster that results in the tremendous loss of human life.
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...
When individuals think about the Holocaust, most place the responsibility of the terrible events on the perpetrators. However, bystanders played one of the largest roles in the Holocaust (Evans, Carrell) simply by staying safe for way too long (Florida Center) and the world wants to make sure it never happens again (Shriver Jr., Donald W).
...s of the Holocaust, the Allies held the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46, which made the horrifying actions of the Nazis known all over. The Ally forces pressured Germany to create a homeland for those who suffered through the Holocaust. Over the decades that followed, ordinary Germans struggled with the Holocaust’s bitter legacy, as survivors and the families of victims tried to regain their property and wealth that was taking away during the Holocaust. In 1953, the German government made payments to individual Jews and to the Jewish people as a way of apologizing for the crimes which were committed by the German people.
World War II began in 1939. America declared isolationism to avoid any association concerning the war (Foner, 845). Big businesses however, did not stick to the idea of anti-entanglement. Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company did business with Germany, by allowing Germany to employ slave labor to Ford Plants (Foner, 845). Shipments of American trucks, planes, and oil were sent to Japan (Foner, 845). However, the government attempted to stay neutral. In 1941, Japan led an airstrike on Pearl Harbor, American soil, and America then declared war on Japan. With the mobilizing efforts taking place in America, President Roosevelt took order to turn America into a country ready for war. Roosevelt created federal agencies to regulate various wartime expenses (Foner, 852). With these agencies, 3 million federal jobs were created, which drastically decreased the unemployment rate (Foner, 852). The Roosevelt administration also demanded industries to reassemble for wartime production (Foner, 852). With the numerous amount of manufacturing goods being produced for the war, the gross national product rose from $91 billion to $219 billion (Foner, 852). As people became employed, labor union memberships skyrocketed. Unions became greatly established during the war. While many men were deployed to fight in the war, women picked up the jobs that men left behind. While women worked, they
“Jews, listen to me! I see fire! There are huge flames! It is a furnace,” Madame Schachter imagined fire, the fire that would burn millions of Jews, gays, and disabled people. Many people died in crematory ovens during the Holocaust. The people who are responsible for the Holocaust are the minor Nazi soldiers because they didn’t question decisions, they ultimately pulled the trigger, and they separated families.
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.
Finally, as part of “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, they created concentration and killing camps. Another thing the Nazi’s did was to use eugenics as another means to micromanage the population. What is eugenics, you might ask? It’s the field of scientific study or the belief in genetically improving qualities, attributes and traits in the human race and/or improving the species as a whole—usually done by controlled/selective breeding. Those with positive, desirable, and superior traits are encouraged to reproduce and may be given monetary incentives by the government to have large families.
Background When classifying the types of people involved in an event such as the Holocaust, three categorical groups can be distinguished. First, and easiest to assess are the perpetrators. This category includes people directly related to the horrors of the Holocaust. The second category encompasses victims; all of the people that were killed, discriminated against, or otherwise harmed by the perpetrators. The final category defines those who watched, witnessed, or were otherwise indirectly involved in the Holocaust, without being harmed by the perpetrators.
Sociologists argue that the holocaust is an illustrative case of the destructive side of modernity. In his text, Modernity and the Holocaust, Bauman suggests that the holocaust allowed never before seen aspects of society to surface. Despite such aspects being new to society, they were natural and dormant in people until provided with the appropriate circumstances.