Hitler's Tactics of Torture

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When Hitler and the Nazi Party first entered power, they proposed strict and unimaginably radical policies. Their goal as the dominant political power was to create a “pure” German society. The idea of a “pure” German society stemmed from the idea that certain racial groups and ethnicities were undesirable and inferior. With that in mind, they sought to completely eliminate, through annihilation tactics, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, biracial children, handicapped citizens, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and any other individual(s) who opposed their radical ideologies. However, the most questionable part of these tactics was how and why the Nazis chose them. Of the many ways dictators and corrupt governments had tortured their citizens in the past, why was Hitler determined that the Einsatzgruppen, ghettos, and concentration camps were going to be the methods of choice to mass murder the Jewish people. Robert Payne notes in his book The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler that Hitler was not satisfied with a gruesome murder of the Jewish race. He preferred them to die in agony and complete humiliation. Methods of mass murder such as killing squads (the Einsatzgruppen), ghettos, and concentration camps proved themselves as the perfect final solution. These tactics would exterminate Jews at an increasing rate while removing them of their respectable status.
Hitler’s first and foremost goal in Germany was to eliminate all of the Jews. With this plan in mind, he consistently sought different methods to kill Jews. One of the first methods Hitler used to complete this mass murder operation was the Einsatzgruppen. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, the Einsatzgruppen were killing units generally composed of German SS and police personnel(...

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...w understood that the Nazis didn’t simply stand as a corrupt and oppressive government; they represented the evil that can result from radical ideologies and their selfish, ignorant, and insane perpetrators.

Works Cited

“Rise of the Nazi Party.” A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust. University of South
Florida. 2005. Web. 18 May 2014.
Rummel, R.J. “Nazi Germany and Mass Murder.” Democide: Chapter 1. Hawaii EDU. 2002. Web. 18 May 2014.
Spiro, Ken. “The Final Solution.” Jewish History. Simple to Remember: Judaism Online. 2013. Web. 18 May 2014.
“The Camps.” A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust. University of South
Florida. 2005. Web. 18 May 2014.
“The Ghettos.” A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust. University of South
Florida. 2005. Web. 18 May 2014.
Trueman, Chris. “Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany.” History Learning Site. May 2012. Web. 18 May 2014.

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