What Are The Factors That Lead To The Holocaust

Systematic killing, extermination, an abborhant adversity (American Heritage Dictionary). All of these words can equate to the same thing, genocide. The Holocaust was the Nazi’s genocidal actions towards 6 million people, primarily European Jews (Oxford Dictionary). Kosovo was the Serbian’s genocidal annihilation of 100,000 Bosnians, which occurred in more recent history, a semicentennial later in the 1990’s. Both genocides were inflamed by ethnic cleansing, the former being anti-Semitism and the latter anti-Bosniak sentiment. The international community did not prevent the anti-Semitism which lead to the Holocaust because the Great Depression in France took precedence, the Nazis fabricated distractions by creating furor, and the U.S. government faced no compulsion because citizens were ignorant. The events became a learning point which turned into the prevention of the Kosovo genocide in the 1990’s.

“The Great Depression struck France later, but harder, than other countries” (European Response 116). The country was in deep trouble, but “France managed to maintain a false prosperity for a while because of its large gold holdings. By the early 1930s, it too suffered rising unemployment and budget deficits. Ministry after ministry took power, then collapsed within months” (European Response 116). Consequently, France endured disarray in the public and political instability which required the attention of France’s dynamic government and its resources. The French government was focused was on internal affairs and not international affairs, such as Germany’s military actions. With thought employed elsewhere, France was unengaged with the international events and entanglements of