What possible reason can someone have for supporting or participating in the genocide and murder of millions of innocent people? During the period of the holocaust, the German peoples participation or indifference’s towards state sponsored genocide and murder could have been an effect of racism, national pride, and peer pressure. To begin with, Racism had a big effect in the genocide and murders in Germany. According A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, it states that “ It was the explicit aim of Hitler's regime to create a European world both dominated and populated by the "Aryan" race. Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards because of who they were,their genetic or cultural origins, or health conditions.” (“ Victims” ). It is so devastating that someone could kill or torture anyone who was not like them or who fought against them. The Jews were required to carry their identification cards. They were also excluded from businesses, parks, resorts, and forests. German children were taught that the Jews and Gypsies were not as good as the Germans. One of the methods used to teach German children was to make the Jewish children stand up and point out their distinguishing features. Later on the Jewish children were banned from schools and had curfews. John Boyne Quotes from his book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas “What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?” In his speeches and writings Hitler spread his believes in racial “purity” and in the superiority of their Germanic race. What he called an “Aryan master race”. These believes became the governments ideology and were spread in publicly displayed posters on the radios,m... ... middle of paper ... ...er of dividing and attacking his enemies one by one. He would win over people with tempting promises. In conclusion Racism,National pride and peer pressure played a major role in the German peoples participation in or indifference’s towards the state-sponsored genocide and murders in Germany. Works Cited Butler, Chris. "The Flow of History." Welcome -. N.p., 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 19 May 2014. . "Perpetrators." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 19 May 2014. . "Quotes About Holocaust." (147 quotes). N.p., 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 May 2014. . "Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 19 May 2014. .
“The Holocaust: 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust.” 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
Orlando: Houghton Publishing Company, 2012. 510-564. Print. The. Achieve 3000 “Remembering The Holocaust” 13 Mar. 2006.
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.
Throughout the twenty and into the twenty first century, the world has seen much academic and historical reflection on the subject of the Holocaust. Scholars have avidly debated both the motives of the perpetrators and the inaction of the Jewish race during the Holocaust. Both the offenders and the offended have been criticized in one way or another for s variety of reasons. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen specifically looks at the perpetrators, the Germans, and argues that in fact, the Holocaust could only have taken place in Germany because of the German peoples’ great anti-Semitism.
For many years, people time and time again denied the happenings of the Holocaust or partially understood what was happening. Even in today’s world, when one hears the word ‘Holocaust’, they immediately picture the Nazi’s persecution upon millions of innocent Jews, but this is not entirely correct. This is because Jews
16. Young, James. “Toward a Received History of the Holocaust.” History and Theory, Volume 36, Number 4, Theme Issue 36. December 1997.
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
After World War I, the social climate in Germany was depressing. The German people were humiliated by their country's defeat and by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The financial depression that resulted left millions of individuals out of work. The German government was weak, and the people sought new leadership. These conditions provided an opportune setting for a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler, reckless and powerful, was able to fan the flames of an ancient hatred into a wild and out of control holocaust (Altman 12).
Hitler felt that there was a major race struggle (“Auschwitz-Birkenau”). He felt that racial classes were needed to make the German society work (Lawton 6).
In conclusion, there were many groups besides the Jews that became victims to the persecution and murder by the Nazis. There were motivations in creating a master race, and occupying new land to create space for the German people, protecting and watching out for any political parties or cultures that may have gone against Hitler or damaged his master race, and he wanted to rid his country of those unhelpful to it or going against religious traditions.
A leader that discriminates, will cause the population he leads to revert to their murderous instincts. (Meier) Hitler believed in the “racial superiority of the Germanic peoples (the Aryan race) and in the inferiority of other races, especially Jews,” which only caused “many Austrian extremists” to become more violent and expressive of their hatred toward inferior races. BOOK QUOTE, CONNECTION
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
One group of people in the Holocaust who sometimes are overlooked are Jewish children. Every child of the Holocaust viewed situations differently, how could a child hold their sense of humanity when adults could not? One might say it was easier for children to hold on to their humanity during the Holocaust because of their ignorance of the deadly situations occurring around them. Being too young to comprehend life before concentration camps, genocide was an everyday occurrence. How could a small child living in a concentration camp have the comprehension to express dehumanization surrounding their everyday life? In this paper I intend to show Nazi propaganda and dehumanization during the Holocaust through a child’s perspective, and how a child, named Helga Weiss, held on to humanity while living in the most inhumane
During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were murdered due to Hitler’s plan to rid Germany of “heterogeneous people” in Germany, as stated in the novel, Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche. Shortly following a period of suffering, Hitler began leading Germany in 1930 to start the period of his rule, the Third Reich. Over time, his power and support from the country increased until he had full control over his people. Starting from saying “Heil Hitler!” the people of the German empire were cleverly forced into following Hitler through terror and threat. He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty.
Throughout Nazi Germany in the period 1928 through to 1941, racism was utilized by Hitler, and in turn his Nazi party, most predominantly to secure Hitler?s position as dictator, and secondly to unite the German people against a common enemy, which would lead to a united powerful state, ready and able to exert its national will. Whether or not his aims were totalitarian in nature is debatable, however, his aims for racial purification and domination over Eastern Europe are made obvious before Hitler?s assumption of power, primarily in the racist crude writings of Mein Kampf, and even from Moellers? Des drittes Reich from the 1920?s. It can be said, therefore, though Hitler may not have been successful in achieving a totalitarian state, he may certainly have desired it. Constantly, it is made obvious, through his use of racism in both Domestic and foreign policy that Hitler?s ultimate aim, was total power, both for himself and his master race - the Volksgeminschaft. Hitler's use of racism is continually evident from the beginning of his comings to power, through till his attack on the Soviet Union in June of 1941. Racism, was initially used by Hitler to identify his sympathizers, and most predominant to unite the German people again public internal enemy number one - The Jews. Anti-semitism, anti-communism and attacks on several other minority groups ranging from slavs to democrats, provided Hitler with the Stab-in-the -back theory post World War One, and provides and excuse for defeat with the treaty of Versailles. Being that Nazi philosophy is essentially social dawanism targeted again the Jews and Bolsheviks, providing valid excuses and moral reasons for any attack on, or failure of the German race, the fittest of them all, against minority groups was a legitimate claim and justification for exclusion of these peoples. Hitler used racism to appeal to the pre existing bitter and aggressive side of German nature, thus securing his position as dictator and reuniting his people.