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
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.
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.
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.
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.
16. Young, James. “Toward a Received History of the Holocaust.” History and Theory, Volume 36, Number 4, Theme Issue 36. December 1997.
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.
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).
Ofer, Dalia, and Lenore J. Weitzman. Women in the Holocaust. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. 1. Print.
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).
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
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
Securing his position as the all powerful dictator, or Führer, is central to all of Hitler's policy decisions, be they foreign or domestic, and this was achieved through his, and the Nazi?s use of racism. Initially, Hitler used persecution and hatred of minorities such as Jews and communists to identify his sympathizers and supporters throughout the Government and general population, mainly young people and big business, and utilized this power, and appeal to secure his position as chancellor and later president of a united Germany.