Factors Leading to the Holocaust

Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis. Both the German economy and the Nuremberg Laws stimulated the Holocaust; nevertheless, a majority of the Nazis’ and Hitler’s actions towards Jews were because of the victims’ ethnicity.

The German economy complicated the Nazis’ financial situation because of events that happened before the Holocaust. Due to the poor condition of the economy, the funds made traced back to the Jews, causing more disagreements to arise. The Treaty of Versailles from World War I said, “…Germany undertakes that she will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population…and their property…” which caused Germany to be in debt (Duffy). To compensate, the government resorted to getting the money from their citizens, but the Jewish had to pay special taxes. This produced injustice among the citizens and protesting, but the government executed or punished those who protested. Before the Holocaust, the German economy was in ruins from World War I and Hitler blamed the Jews for it (“Holocaust” 296). Hitler onl...

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