The different phases of the Holocaust (the different solutions to the Jewish question) from 1939-1945. Throughout history, Antisemitism has come in many forms, changing from religion-based, economics-based and then eventually to race-based Anti Semitism around the time of the Second World War. At that point those opposing the Jews, particularly Hitler and the Nazis, put many measures in place to oppress the Jews who they believed to be an evil and inferior race. However, these measures, and the Systematic Legal Champaign, were only the first parts of the process of answering the Jewish question: how to get rid of Jews altogether. Introducing the argument to the. When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, they were met with the vastness …show more content…
Ghettoisation had a very high death toll due to the terrible living conditions in the Ghettos, such as the poor sanitation and high population density, and thus the easy spreading of diseases. However, Hitler and the Nazis needed a more permanent solution, and yet again looked for different options. Insert Line of Argument. The Soviet Union was invaded by Germany on 22 June 1941, known as Operation Barbarossa, thus marking the start of the next step towards the final solution to the Jewish Question. Since there was a large amount of Jewish people in the Soviet Union, like in Poland, the Germans needed a solution, and after realising the ineffectiveness of ghettoisation, they knew they needed a permanent solution. Thus began a war of extermination, aiming to destroy all Jewish people. Insert Line of Argument. The final solution was decided to be genocide by bullet, and Einsatzgruppen were put together to march Jews to the outskirts of town, dig (or make the Jews dig) mass graves, and then shoot the Jews. This proved to not work well, because of the large amounts of time and money that this method needed, as well as the massive psychological toll that it took on the members of the Einsatzgruppen. Thus, the Germans needed a cheaper and faster solution to the Jewish question. Insert Line of
“Modern anti-Semitism, in contrast to earlier forms, was based not on religious practices of the Jews but on the theory that Jews comprised an inferior race. Anti-Semites exploited the fact that Jews had been forced into exile by extolling as ‘fact’ that their ‘rootlessness’ had a genetic basis. A Jew was a Jew not because he or she practiced any particular religion, but because it was a character of his or her blood.”
Glass) programme, all of which was aimed towards the Jewish. population, specifically to isolate them from the German society and to drive them out of the German area. After the June 1941 invasion of The Soviet Union, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) began killing operations aimed entirely at the Jewish community. The SS, the Elite. Guards of the Nazi state, soon regarded the mobile killing methods.
Throughout history Jewish people have been discriminated against relentlessly and while one may think that the world has finally become an accepting place to live in, unfortunately the battle against discrimination still exists even in countries such as the USA. Different opposing groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the Knights Party have not only discriminated against people of non-white races, but they have helped promote anti-Semitism in the United States. Anti-Semitism is the hatred of or discrimination of against Jews, which according to Efron et al. “anti-Semitism was born of modern racial theories and political ideas, or for that matter with Christian anti-Semitism, fueled by distinctive theological ideas unique to Christianity” (Efron et al. Pg. 68).
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.
German officials even supported emigration and Zionistic movements. By 1939 only half of the Jews had left, so the Jewish problem still rested unfinished. In September of 1939, the Germans declared war on Poland in an attempt to conquer Lebensraum. [Living space] After starting the war, they decided they could no longer let the Jews emigrate (Browning 12). By capturing Poland, they inherited three million Jews.
As the Ghettos (in Poland) were quickly filling in occupants, the Nazi Party started ‘Mobile Killing Squads’, which traveled from one neighborhood to another ripping Jews from their home and killing (using gas vans or guns) them in the street. But, this method proved inefficient with the number of Jewish People who ran, and the number of killers that were being affected by the gases. This then caused the anti-Semitic party to start sending Jews to the six extermination camps throughout Poland. Which according to Paul B. Kern was all a part of the Final Solution.
Haugen, David M., and Susan Musser. The Holocaust. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2011. Print. Perspectives on Modern World History.
For some, it seems that the Holocaust in another lifetime, but for others it will be something they will never forget. Holocaust was a time for fighting. The Jewish would fight for the right to live as they were killed solely for being Jewish. The Holocaust began in 1939 and would continue through 1945. It was introduced by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, although he did not act alone. His mission would be to “exterminate” all minorities, but most abundantly, the Jews. Based on information given by About.com, it is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Six million of these were Jews.
During the summer of 1941, Chancellor Adolf Hitler initialized “The Final Solution'; to the “Jewish Question';. Hitler started this program because he wanted to create a highly centralized state and one for the master race, Germans. Exterminating Jews was, for Hitler, the only way to create a perfect Germany because it would eliminate the ‘malignant tumors’, the race that caused Germany to lose World War One. Hitler’s decision to start exterminating Jews changed the course of history. In the end, over 6,000,000 Jews were killed and a Jewish state known as Israel, evolved.
Adolf Hitler came to power over Germany in January of 1933. He hated Jews and blamed them for everything bad that had ever happened to Germany. Hitler’s goal in life was to eliminate the Jewish population. With his rise to power in Germany, he would put into action his plan of elimination. This is not only why German Jews were the main target of the Holocaust, but why they were a large part of the years before, during, and after the Holocaust. Hitler’s “final solution” almost eliminated the Jewish population in Europe during World War II. At the end of the war and along with his suicide, the Jewish population would survive the horror known as the Holocaust and the Jews would eventually find their way back to their homeland of Israel as well as find new communities to call home.
The aftermath of the Holocaust left over six million Jews perished and the survivors in pain and anguish, each of their lives impacted forever by reliving the horrid events of this unspeakable tragedy every day. They needed to pick up the pieces to continue living by fleeing to different countries, assimilating into new cultures, and beginning new families to create happy memories. This being challenging for many of them, forced some of the survivors to suppress their emotions about the past in order to accomplish these newer lives while others to talk about it frequently. Each of them had their own methods to cope with the affects and thoughts they had after the Holocaust; their methods having its own advantages and disadvantages. This goes to show that the Holocaust survivors were affected more than ones mind
A Holocaust is a disaster that results in the large-scale destruction of life. Although this name has been used to describe many catastrophes over centuries, today it has a more specific meaning. The Holocaust refers to the annihilation of 6 million Jews, men, women, and children, in addition to other groups of people by Hitler and the Nazi party during World War II. Such a destruction of a particular group or race is called genocide. (Resnick 9)
The Holocaust, occurred between 1933 and 1945. The actual definition of “holocaust” is a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned on an altar. The definition has now been altered to describe the slaughter of six million Jews during World War II. The leader of these mass killings was Adolf Hitler. His ideologies of the perfect race, were deemed reason enough to murder millions of human beings. How were the killings done on such a massive scale? Concentration camps. Jews, and other imperfect aryans, (homosexuals, gypsies, and the disabled), were transported to “work” camps. Here, crematoriums, gas chambers, and shootings awaited them. If you made it past your first once-over, you were expected to work in back-breaking conditions throughout
Anti-Semitism, a hatred of Jews, has been present for centuries in many places. However, the term ‘Anti-Semitism’ itself only came into use in the nineteenth century, and along with it came an ideology which fuelled this deep psychological hatred to develop into a political movement which culminated in Nazism. Throughout history, the reasons for Anti-Semitism have differed and in Imperial Germany, it was a combination of religious, racial and political factors which led to such hostility toward Jews. However, the economic state of the nation is often thought to be the main reason behind the way in which Jews were treated during this period.