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Hitler's persecution of the Jews
Hitler and the Holocaust
Hitler and the Holocaust
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• I personally have mixed feelings about whether Albert Speer was in fact a ‘Good Nazi’. First of all, although being an architect could be harmless, his closeness and loyalty to Hitler seemed to tarnish his character, perhaps making him turn a cold shoulder towards the horrible things being conducted by Hitler and his government. There have been many arguments on whether Speer knew the full extent of what happened in the concentration camps and the upcoming fate of Jewish civilians. I believe that Speer did evidently understand the magnitude of what went on in the concentration camps and slave workers as he was present during Heinrich Himmler’s addressing of the Jews during the Posen Conference on October 6, 1943. Although Speer denies being
Speer’s well structured and thought out defence shaped historical interpretation for years to come. At Nuremberg he presented himself as a pure technician and not involved in the politics or ideology of the party. He also claimed collective responsibility for crimes against Jews but also his ignorance of the Nazi intentions. As he stated at a later time: “I just stood aside and said to myself that as long as I did not personally participate it had nothing to do with me. My toleration for the anti Semitic campaign made me responsible for it.” This admission of guilt won a fair amount of sympathy from the court. The reasons he gave for being with the Nazi party was that he was taken by Hitler’s personality and also realised that if he was to achieve his dream as an architect he will have to sell his soul to the party. This image of Speer was to be accepted for a while by most historians and was given little attention. This was probably because Speer was a little less ‘spectacular’ than Hitler’s other henchmen. There were however some suspicions. John Galbraith, a member of the US team that debriefed Speer before the Nuremberg trial, said in Life magazine 1945 that Speer’s claims contained “elements of fantasy”. He also believed that Speer’s confession was a part of his “well developed strategy of self vindication and survival.”
I think he felt that if he got your forgiveness then he could die in peace for all the bad he had done. A lot of Jewish people had died due to what Hitler ordered everyone in Germany army to do. Albert Speer was a high-ranking Nazi member and he was also Hitler’s minister and even though he knew he was going to jail no matter what was said at the Nuremberg trials he had confessed to all the things he had done. According to Speer “My moral guilt is not subject to the statute of limitations, it cannot be erased in my lifetime” (245). In making this comment, Speer knew that even though he was punished with twenty years of imprisonment that they only punished his legal guilt. Speer was haunted by the things he had done and he knew that he did not deserve anyone’s forgiveness. Even Speer, Hitler’s minister, knew that no one in the German army deserved anyone’s sympathy or
Speer’s Rise in the Nazi Party Albert Speer rose from a mere architect to be one of the most influential Nazi leaders of the Third Reich, and self-admittedly Hitler’s closest friend. As a young, struggling architect Speer joined the Nazi Party as a ‘Septemberling’, and subsequently began to design many of the displays and structures that succeeded in promoting the Fuhrer Myth. Within the NSDAP Speer progressed to the position of Minister for Armaments and War Production in 1942, a reward for his superior managerial skills, and effectively utilised in the Nazi war effort. However, Speer’s rise in the NSDAP was often degraded by the members of the ‘old guard’, who thought that he had not earned his affluent position in Nazi society, but was rather a result of his friendship with Hitler. Albert Speer was born on 19th March 1905 into an upper-middle class family in the German city of Mannheim, and as a result of his families affluent position in society, they were relatively untouched by the Second World War.
Simon Wiesenthal: The Nazi Hunter. There are many heroic individuals in history that have shown greatness during a time of suffering, as well as remorse when greatness is needed, but one individual stood out to me above them all. He served as a hero among all he knew and all who knew him. This individual, Simon Wiesenthal, deserves praise for his dedication to his heroic work tracking and prosecuting Nazi war criminals that caused thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other victims of the Holocaust to suffer and perish. The Life of a Holocaust Victim The effect the Holocaust had on Wiesenthal played a major role in the person he made himself to be.
The Holocaust was one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known. There were many key people who participated in this outrageous genocide however some get more attention then others. Adolf Eichmann is a classic example. Eichmann was a self-proclaimed “Jewish Specialist” and head of the Gestapo Department. Eichmann was responsible for keeping every train rolling right into the stations of the concentration and death camps during the holocaust. Now we will take a look into Eichmann’s childhood, life experiences, and his later actions to see what shaped into a man of hatred towards the Jewish race.
Did you know that even though Hitler had brown hair and blue eyes, his idea of a superior race was those with blond hair and blue eyes? He wanted this group of people to be superior to all other races because they represented a clean view of Germany. Hitler used his power to achieve this goal by enforcing many rules and creating many different projects. He wanted the people of Germany to believe that they were superior to all other races and they must do everything to maintain the standards of living in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler and his Nazis created the perfect race by influencing the education of children and creating bride schools, the Hitler Youth Program, and Lebensborn birthing homes.
and to confess to him that his public duty called on him to make a
Heimlich Himmler was one of the main responsible persons for the holocaust. He was born in Munich on October 7, 1900 to a Roman Catholic middle-class family. His father was a teacher and his mother was a devout Roman Catholic. He had two brothers, Gebhard and Ernst. Heimlich was a good student, but struggled in athletics. He had poor health with lifelong stomach complaints as a child.
Speer, after becoming acquainted with Hitler, became close friends, and he was accepted into Hitler's inner circle. In 1934, Speer succeeded Paul Ludwig Troost, Hitler's architect, who had died early in the same year.
[War] brings out the worst in people. Never the good, always the bad. Even in the midst the devastation of a national genocide, where one race turned against another in hate, good people existed and worked to counteract the hate through love and compassion. Oskar Schindler was one of these people. World War II provided him the means to become a very wealthy and powerful man, yet he did not exploit the Jews like many other businessmen during his time. He used his money and power to save thousands. Much can be learned from what happened during the holocaust and what Schindler did to save thousands of Jews.
He had a lot of authority in enacting what Hitler had told the Nazis to do. He was just about as responsible as Hitler was for killing all of those innocent people.
Every person has their own opinion on Adolf Hitler, but some do believe he was a good man. He did very terrible things that didn’t even need to be done, and ruined many lives. I have always wondered what could lead Adolf Hitler to want to do such terrible things to such innocent people and destroy so many lives. Only serial killers could find joy in killing a person because it gives them a rush. Once they feel that rush they want to feel it again and again. That’s what leads them to keep going and doing it over and over. Hitler’s mind was like a serial killers mind. He was so okay with going into other countries and destroying them and killing whoever came in his way. What does that have anything to do with the Jews? They were simple people just living their lives and he needed a target to make his campaign stronger. A Psychopath would kill 6 million Jews to make sure they can have what they
Albert Speer was one of the most prominent Nazi within the regime, and possibly one of hitler's only friends. However his complex personality as a result of his traumatic childhood, a combination with a cunning intelligence and tireless work ethic saw Speers rise to becoming one of the most powerful and prominent figures in the Third Reich. Three key events that ultimately established the position of Speer in the Nazi Party include: his joining of the Nazi Party on the 1st of March 1931 and early works within the party, that led to his ride to prominence, becoming Hitler's architect on projects such as Germania and Nuremberg Party Rally and further titled as minister of armaments in 1942.
Josef Mengele wasn't always a bad guy. During his childhood Mengele grew up in a Catholic family with both parents and two brothers, he being the oldest of the three. Shortly after his birth in 1911 his father became sole owner of a foundry that made farm equipment in Germany. His family became wealthy as the business prospered and they became the most powerful family in their town. While young Mengele was growing up, his parents were frequently absent due to the family business. But he expressed his desire to stand out from other members of his family and become successful in his own way, not involving the family business. Josef was a very excellent student. His favorite subject was anthropology, the study of the origin, development, and behavior of humankind. He abandoned the Catholic Church when he was a teenager and became a member of a patriotic young people's group ( “Josef Mengele.” Student Resources in Context ).
The Nazis are infamous for their heavy use of propaganda during their reign in the Third Reich, they used many means of propaganda such as posters, cartoons, radio, film, etc. The German citizens’ constant exposure to all of this propaganda from all directions had a deep psychological and psychoanalytical impact on them, it redefined their identity and who they were as well as what they thought of the world around them. Nazi propaganda often had deep symbolic meaning usually associated with anti-semitism and German nationalism, these elements were already present in the minds of the majority of Germans so it wasn’t hard for Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party to further provoke and enrage the emotions of people concerning these things, they merely had to tap into these pre disposed emotions in a way that would have the most favourable psychological impact for the Nazis. Some of the opinions and mindsets that German citizens had may have been there even before the Nazis came into power and made it seemed like they were brainwashing people with their propaganda, but with what justification can it be said that Nazi propaganda had a psychological and psychoanalytic impact on the German population to a great extent, rather than it being the work of pre set psychological states of mind of people due to the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, Hyperinflation, and other sources which may have led the German population to support and hold anti-semitistic and nationalistic ideologies.