The Holocaust: The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem

The Holocaust is defined as destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. Following 1945, the word has taken on a new meaning referring to the mass slaughtering of millions of European Jews as well as other persecuted groups (gypsies and homosexuals), by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. In Europe the Jews experienced anti-Semitism (hostility or prejudice against Jews) which dated back to the ancient world, to the time when the Jewish temples were destroyed and they were forced to leave Palestine by Roman authorities. This wide-spread hatred of the Jews augmented the virulent mindset behind the Holocaust.

On the night of January 30, 1933, an event occurred that spearheaded the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany. Born in Austria in 1889, Hitler served in World War I under the German army. Like many prevalent anti- Semites in Germany, Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s trounce in World War I in 1918. During Hitler’s imprisonment in 1923, he wrote a memoir, “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), which foresaw a European war which would result in “the extermination of the Jewish race in Germany.” Following Hitler’s release from prison, he resurrected the Nazi Party. He soon become the sole leader of the Nazi Party, thus all decision making was in his hands. The Nazi party began to multiply from 27,000 members (1925) to 108,000 (1929). Adolf Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the superiority of the “pure” German race. He viewed Jews as an inferior race, and as a threat to the German racial purity. Following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler appointed himself “Fuhrer,” making him the supreme ruler of Germany.

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