The Wannsee Conference
Have you ever had a business meeting, a conference? Could you imagine a meeting to draw an outline to exterminate a population, 11 million Jews? The Wannsee Conference was a “meeting” to discuss how they would kill all the Jews. The Wannsee Conference put the Final Solution in motion; the World had lost their opportunity to save 6 million Jews and others.
The Beginning
Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, after World War 1 when tensions were high because the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for the destruction the war caused and they were faced with the payment for all the damages, which sent Germany into economic downfall. The Nazi party got a lot of electoral votes that year in the government, and started creating propaganda against the Jews; they blamed the Jews for the terrible things happening in Germany at the time. Some of the propaganda the Nazi party made were pictures of Jews pointing out what makes them Jewish and their distinctive traits, so you can spot them. These were on the front of newspapers printed everywhere in Germany. (An Introductory History of the Holocaust) They began to take away individual rights, and picked the Jews apart. They also put the Star of David on all Jews clothing, so they could easily be spotted in public.
They made the Germans seem more important, courageous and stronger then the Jews so that it would appeal to non-Jews and make them be on board with what was happening and turn them on the Jews. They believed Aryan was the superior race, which is basically the opposite of a Jew. (An Introductory History of the Holocaust) Aryan’s were fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. The Jews have olive skin, dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair. The hate got worse wi...
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...in history to make sure it never happens again. Anyone can be the difference.
Works Cited
An Introductory History of the Holocaust | Jewish Virtual Library."Home | Jewish Virtual
Library. American Israeli Coopertive Enterprise. 2014. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/history.html "Introduction to the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. .United States
Holocaust Memorial museum. 2014. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
The Wannsee Conference and the "Final Solution"." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
United States Holocaust Museum. 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
The Wannsee Conference: EBSCOhost." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. EBSCO.
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Wannsee Conference — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."United
. States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Wannsee Conference., 2014. Web.30 Jan. 2014
The Holocaust could be best described as the widespread genocide of over eleven million Jews and other undesirables throughout Europe from 1933 to 1945. It all began when Adolf Hitler, Germany's newest leader, enforced the Nuremburg Race Laws. These laws discriminated against Jews and other undesirables and segregated them from the rest of the population. As things grew worse, Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing. The laws even stripped them of their citizenship.
Adolf Hitler came into power of Germany in 1934. Wanting power, land and revenge, Hitler gets troops ready to attack. Hitler was a troop in WWI for Germany. Once the Germans lost the war, Hitler took that personally, and wanted revenge. After coming into power with his army of Nazis, Hitler is quick to blame Jewish people for all the harsh debt and corruption in Germany. The Germans believe him, causing them to hate Jewish people. The holocaust happened throughout 1933-1945, it ended when Hitler killed himself.
Beginning in 1933, Hitler and his Nazi party targeted not only those of the Jewish religion but many other sets. Hitler was motivated by religion and nationalism to eradicate any threats to his state. It was Hitler’s ideology that his Aryan race was superior to any other. Hitler’s goal was to create a “master race” by eliminating the chance for “inferiors” to reproduce. Besides the Jews the other victims of the genocide include the Roma (Gypsies), African-Germans, the mentally disabled, handicapped, Poles, Slavs, Anti-Nazi political parties, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Homosexuals. In Hitler’s eyes all of these groups needed to be eliminated in order for his master race to be a success.
Although the systematic murder of Jews had not yet begun until 1941, there was still a practiced discrimination, which had come into practice years earlier in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler was elected democratically in the year 1932. He had always pitched a unified German party that would reignite the power and might of Germany, which they had lost after the Treaty of Versailles. Although his official rhetoric may not have included visions of an anti-Semitic state initially, people knew he had an exclusionary agenda. Hitler published Mein Kampf while in prison in 1925. In Mein Kampf, which literally means My Struggle, Hitler had already published his anti- Semitic rhetoric. Paradoxically, he equates all Jews as being Marxists, and the creators
The phrase “Final Solution” referred to their plan to annihilate the Jewish population. This plan stated that all European Jews would be killed by shooting, gassing, or any way necessary (Final Solution). The article “The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution,” documented that on January 20, 1942, the Nazis and Germans met to tell the non-Nazi Leaders what the Final Solution was, and that they were responsible for helping to get the Jews transported to the camps. The Final Solution was not the beginning for the elimination. This was already being accomplished by mobile killing squads that would shoot any Jewish men, women, or children. Later, on July 22, 1942 the gassing chambers were finished in the extermination or death camps. Camouflaging the chambers as large showers, the Jews would think they were going to bathe, when they were actually being gassed to death
The Nazis thought of the Jews as a race that they needed to get rid
First of all, the Holocaust started in 1933, when Hitler became the leader of Germany. Although Hitler was originally an Austrian, he was a German soldier during World War I. As an soldier, Hitler had been injured many times, and while he was in the hospital, Germany surrounded. He was unhappy about Germany's lost and he had ideas that he think will change Germany. He then tried to take over the government by man power, but failed and had been arrested to jail. While he was in jail, he wrote a book cal...
Roseman does not believe that the Wannsee Conference reveals how the conference happened, but rather why it happened. The Nazi leaders all had a different idea on why the Jews needed to go, but the common assumption that they needed to be dealt with was there. By getting rid of the Jews then it would better the entire society or so they thought. "Hitler's decision on deportation was a significant radicalization of existing measures and moved him significantly closer to realizing his long-expressed desire to rid Europe of its Jews." At first it was just a deportation of the Jews, but that would not last long. The idea of just moving them was not good enough for everyone. More importantly it was not enough for Heydrich and Hitler. The deportation would soon turn into "evacuation" which was a fancier way of saying: kill all Jews. People often believe that the mass killing is horrible, which it is, but what people need to realize is that Europe truly thought they were going to improve themselves by killing the Jews.
The Jewish people were targeted, hunted, tortured, and killed, just for being Jewish, Hitler came to office on January 20, 1933; he believed that the German race had superiority over the Jews in Germany. The Jewish peoples’ lives were destroyed; they were treated inhumanly for the next 12 years, “Between 1933 and 1945, more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately six million of these were Jews” (Levy). Hitler blamed a lot of the problems on the Jewish people, being a great orator Hitler got the support from Germany, killing off millions of Jews and other people, the German people thought it was the right thing to do. “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community” (History.com Staff).
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...
The Nazi Party, controlled by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. In 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi government began to take over. Hitler became a very influential speaker and attracted new members to his party by blaming Jews for Germany’s problems and developed a concept of a “master race.” The Nazis believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jewish people were a threat to the German racial community and also targeted other groups because of their “perceived racial inferiority” such as Gypsies, disabled persons, Polish people and Russians as well as many others. In 1938, Jewish people were banned from public places in Germany and many were sent to concentration camps where they were either murdered or forced to work.
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.
According to Jon Cox, who wrote Racial Ideology, Imperialism, and Nazi Genocide "The Nazis' ultimate ambition was unprecedented in its radicalism: to forge "an ideal future world, without 'lesser races,' without the sick, and without those who they decreed had no place in the 'national community". The Germans believed that only people of the Aryan race were pure. Meaning, basically if they weren't form German decent and didn't have blue eyes and blonde hair they were considered trash. The Germans theory became so sickening that they actually started to believe that what they were doing was morally correct or a "favor to society". According to the article EXTRAORDINARY EVIL NEW LOOK AT THE HOLOCAUST FINDS THE ANSWER TO `WHY?
Hitler had thought that the Jews did not believe in the “right” thing so he tried to eliminate the race. He did not want them to believe in what they did and still do. He thought that the Jewish race was inferior and did not mean anything. The way that Hitler treated the Jews were crimes against humanity and I know that many non Jews saw that but did...
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Germany was experiencing great economic and social hardship. Germany was defeated in World War I and the Treaty of Versailles forced giant reparations upon the country. As a result of these reparations, Germany suffered terrible inflation and mass unemployment. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party who blamed Jews for Germany’s problems. His incredible public speaking skills, widespread propaganda, and the need to blame someone for Germany’s loss led to Hitler’s great popularity among the German people and the spread of anti-Semitism like wildfire. Hitler initially had a plan to force the Jews out of Germany, but this attempt quickly turned into the biggest genocide in history. The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933.“...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.” –Adolf Hitler