What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind. Whatever led to the Holocaust? Some state that Germany was devastated that they lost the first war. “ The Germans were forced to sign The Treaty of Versailles feeling betrayed.”( Aretha 11) They used their hatred for the Jews as the reason why they lost, and using them as their scapegoat. Little did people know that “ The Treaty of Versailles led to the second world war, a war more terrible than anyone could imagined.”(Rossel 14) Many people before the Holocaust, and before Hitler, still hated the Jews. But Hitler made it his goal to kill this imperfect race.“Born in Austria,Hitler served in the German army during World War One.”( The Holocaust) To him the Jews were an inferior race the needed to be eliminated. He thought that by using anti-semitism he would become more popular with the crowd. “While imprisoned, Hitler wrote, “My Struggle,” where he foretold the war that would lead to the death of many Jews.” (The Holocaust) The Jews were used as scapegoats by the Germans. They were treated terribly and lived in very poor conditions. Many of the Jewish children were put into homes,ther... ... middle of paper ... ...ven branded like cattle. They starved to death and many got infections that were not taken care of properly. They were beaten for the simplest things and they were used as experiments. They were taken into gas chambers where they were tricked into thinking that they were taking baths. They lost their friends and family they were torn away from their children, mostly they were never seen again. In the final months of the war they were taken on marches killing off even more of them.When they came to their old homes ( even though some ceased to exist) they were still hated they were beaten and killed by rioters. Many were lost, but in the end there were survivors people that made it through this torturous place. “ No tiger can eat me no shark can beat me... even the Devil would lose his teeth biting me I feel it ; I will get out of this place.” - Fritz Loehner.( Aretha)
At a time of loss, the German people needed a reason to rebuild their spirits. The Jews became a national target even though Hitler’s theory could not be proven. Even as a Jew, he accused the Jews people for Germany’s defeat in order to rally the people against a group of people Hitler despised. The story-telling of the Jews’ wickedness distracts the Germans from realizing the terror Holocaust. Millions of Jewish people died because Hitler said they caused the downfall of Germany. Innocent lives were taken. The death of millions mark the rise of Hitler. He sets the stage for the largest massacre in
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.
Jews way of living while in a concentration camp was a harsh time. They died of many different causes. For example: Starvation, Diseases, gas chamber, shot, burned to death, beat to death, or put to working hard labor. Some lived without the knowing of what was happening to their family members because they were at a different camp. For a fact, every jew lived in fear while they were locked up at a camp. They never knew when there time was to come. The more they showed fear the more harsh the Nazis
When you have millions of people in a struggling country, it is often easy to blame a group of people or a certain aspect of society. That is exactly what the Nazis did when they had to pay billions of dollars in reparations to the Allies after World War I. But they described as being a war that has been going on for centuries. As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states, They incorrectly believed Jews had a natural impulse, inherited through generations, to strive for world domination, and that this goal would not only prevent German dominance but would also enslave and destroy the German race (“Why Were the Jews Singled Out for Extermination?”). They created a fake war to make people scared, and then that fear turned into hatred. The Nazis also regarded the Jews as an inferior race and that the Aryan race was the race that should dominate. Negative stereotypes were presented such as Jews were the murderers of Christ, agents of the devil, and practitioners of witchcraft (“Why Were the Jews Singled Out for Extermination?”). The hatred also came from anti-Semitism.
In the end, genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. During the Indian Removal Act thousands of Native Americans were forced out of their home because they weren’t American and most died from diseases. Millions of people were killed during the Jewish Holocaust because they were Jews. Both of these events are alike and different in many ways. These incidents are considered genocide because people were killed because of their race or
Hitler’s rise to power before World War II was due to his anger at Germany’s defeat in World War I and the punishment Germany received from Britain and France. He also directed his anger at Jews and communists he believed contributed to that defeat. He blamed them for the loss of World War I, which he thought was a Jewish conspiracy (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 1). He also believed that the Treaty of Versailles was a Jewish conspiracy designed to take down the country of Germany (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 1) as well as the hyperinflation of 1923, which he believed to be an international conspiracy by the Jewish people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (The History Place: Holocaust Timeline pg. 1). This was the rise to power that he needed to carry out his campaign of evil against the Jewish people. After his rise to power, Hitler branded the Jews as
A holocaust is defined as a disaster that results with the tremendous loss of human life. History, however, generally identifies the Holocaust to be the series of events that occurred in the years before and during World War II. The Holocaust started in 1933 with the persecuting and terrorizing of Jews by the Nazi Party, and ended in 1945 with the murder of millions of helpless Jews by the Nazi war-machine. "The Holocaust has become a symbol of brutality and of one people's inhumanity to another." (Resnick p. 11)
Hitler realizes he must eliminate the Jews because they control the press, and the only way that the Nazis can gain support is through the press. Hitler then goes into detail about how great the Aryan nation is and how belittled the Jews are. Hitler writes about the Jews, “The Jew remains united only if forced by a common danger or is attracted by a common booty…If the Jews were alone in this world, they would suffocate as much in dirt and filth, as they would carry on a detestable struggle to chat and to ruin each other…” (Mein Kampf, Page 416.) From this passage Hitler truly believes that the Jews have no place on this earth and that they serve no purpose in helping humankind advance. Through his writings in Mein Kampf Hitler was able to create a following that believed
Hitler's main idea was to, as he called it, 'cleanse' Europe of these non-deserving people. Hitler despite having gained anti-Semitic views on his own from things. he saw he was influenced a lot by Neil Darwin. He based a lot of his racial arguments and views on this. However, another point to consider was that the Jews were being used as scapegoats for German problems.
Many people including Adolf Hitler in Germany blamed the Jews for the country’s defeat in WWI. Hitler was also obsessed with the idea of the “Aryan,” which was supposedly the “perfect” German race. The Germans believed that the Jews were going against the Germans in WWI and for this, they decided to exterminate the Jews. They believed that if they destroyed the Jews, they would probably win other wars. This also caused Hitler into thinking that there was an actual perfect German race (Aryan) that would help Germany achieve that goal. Another reason was because Hitler wanted to increase the Nazis status, Hitler used the weakness of his enemy’s as a weapon to make the Nazis gain more power. (History.com). Hitler believed that the Jews were the key to gaining more power because people would be more aware of what he can do to people who opposed him. This would also increase Nazis status because more people would fear
The Holocaust was a devastating period lasting from 1941 to 1945, secretly known as the persecution of Jews. The Jews were targeted by the Germans in many aspects. The Jews were persecuted by a means of fear, their living situations, and the post trauma the survivors have to deal with. In all these ways the Jews were not given the same rights as people of another religion they were restricted of many freedoms, this occurred in the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman accurately portrays persecution through the eyes of his father, Vladek by explaining in detail what he had to go through at this time.
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.
Some had no chance, like mothers and young children, they were killed immediately. Elie’s mother and sister were taken from him without him even knowing that would be the last time he’d ever see them. In a single moment they were gone. If the Germans had any mercy in them at all they would’ve at least let them say their last goodbyes. They were not looked at like human beings but rather objects that were a nuisance to the Germans. To the Nazis, the Jews had no souls, no worth, no emotions. They might have been as important as a piece of dirt to the Germans. Those who didn’t starve or die from illnesses were killed in gas chamber by the thousands. Families became strangers. Friends became enemies. These people undergoed such traumatic and unrelenting cruelty that they’ll never be who they were before. “One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror… From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” (115)
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 Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro