Anti-Semitism and Lack of Concern Among Non-jews During the Holocaust

Robert S. Wistrich defined antisemitism as hostility and/or prejudice against the Jewish people or their religion of Judaism. Many people in today’s world instinctively associate antisemitism with Nazi Germany because of the mass genocide that took place. Hostility towards the Jewish people dates back thousands of years ago when the Roman Empire forced them away from their homeland that is now known as Israel. With the Jewish population forced from their homes they began to spread out all over the world and so did the prejudice against them. The Judaism religion was looked down upon in many parts of the world and people felt like it was their duty to treat the Jewish people with inequality. Antisemitism took a different turn when statesmen begin to use it in their campaign to gain the citizens support.

The Holocaust systematically murdered 11 million people across Europe, more than half of those people were Jewish. The Jews were blamed for the German’s failures, such as World War I. As a result, Hitler established anti-Semitism throughout his army and the majority of Europe. The Holocaust consisted of three phases to annihilate the Jews. The phases did not create racial purity and they did not successfully annihilate all of the Jews as the Nazi party planned.

Consistent with Rossel, Germany has had a past of anti-Semitism, starting in 1542 when the great German Protestant leader Martin Luther wrote a booklet called Against the Jews and Their Lies. Even earlier the Catholic Churches had taught that the Jewish people killed Crist and should therefore be hated (10). Early teachings of anti-Semitism lead to a hating of the Jewish community, but with the German’s calling themselves the “Aryan Race” and the Jewish people calling themselves the “chosen one’s” there was bound to be competition on who was superior.

Racial antisemitism was born in the Nineteenth Century when laws were passed in many European countries posing the Jewish people as second-class citizens, not receiving the same rights as others in society. While they had reached a level of religious emancipation in some countries, Judaism had become recognized as an ethnicity as well, and this ethnic difference from the Aryans therefore made them “inferior.” Pogroms began across Eastern Europe in the late 1800’s which resulted in

Anti-Semitism as a term to describe hatred of Jews was not used until the second half of the nineteenth century, but a bias against Jews had existed for thousands of years. This resentment of the Jews as a people can be traced back to theological roots as well as practical concerns in early Europe. The most significant and accepted origin of anti-Judaism is the death of Jesus. Jews were branded as the murderers of Christ and Jesus’ followers developed a deep hatred of them. This undertone to Christianity endured over time and became an inherent facet of the religion. Later, when Jews attempted to assimilate into European societies, they faced strong discrimination and resistance. Other citizens viewed them as economic competition. In addition, negative stereotypes evolved about the Jews in relation to their

A common misconception about the Holocaust is that the world was naïve of the atrocities happening under the Nazi’s rule. The horrors of the Holocaust were not left undocumented. Unfortunately, many saw these malicious acts as insignificant to the global population; people only start sympathizing when the hindrance affects them. Hitler, with the help of his many allies, achieved to murder millions of innocent men, women, and children. After spending this semester studying the Holocaust, I have realized that the Nazis’ greatest ally was neither an individual nor a country; Hitler’s greatest ally was indifference.

“It is the darkest day of my life, and it is still with me.” said Israel Arbeiter. Years after the Holocaust occurred, the time remains haunting for many people affected by it. The Holocaust was a very tragic time for many people. Millions of lives were lost; many people killed or wounded. This all occurred because of a perceived opinion, prejudice, of Jewish people. Racism, antisemitism, and prejudice need to stop. Respect for people with different views is important.

Before the Holocaust, Jews were still facing persecution. Prejudice against Jews is called anti-semitism, and it was first supported by Christians when mistrusted Jews remained faithful to old traditions and would not convert. During the mid-1500’s, a religious reformer, Martin Luther, issued extreme violent attacks against Jews for not converting to his new religion. Jews were also not allowed on certain land and had to live in communities called ghettos. They had to pay special taxes and could not enter certain homes. It wasn’t until the 1800’s when people began to discriminate Jews. Then, in 1933, Hitler became the head of the German government, quickly becoming a dictator, and added an anti-Semitism policy to the government policy.

Anti-Semitism, or the hatred of the Jewish people, has been prominent throughout history, even long before the Holocaust during World War II. Stemming from biblical times, the Jews were often ridiculed for wanting to remain a separate religion, refusing to adopt the belief system of the non-Jewish community (ADL.org). Not only that, the early Christians, both Catholic and Protestant believed that the Jews were single-handedly responsible for the death of Jesus Christ (“Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred”).

In the year 1933, six years before World War II began, the Nazi party came to power in Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. At this point, the German nation was in an

Surprisingly, many deny that the Holocaust ever happened. They believe that it was made up or exaggerated in order to advance Jewish interests. This belief is generally motivated by anti semitism. However, it is important to confront those who deny the occurrence. It is known that the genocide started as hateful attitudes toward Jews. However, it spiraled into dehumanization and discrimination.

This deeply rooted hatred for the Jews brings us to the cause of anti-semitism and more specifically the rise in the late nineteenth century, jealousy. As a period of industrial growth began, many changes occurred in the every day life of German and Jews. Because of Christian beliefs, many Germans were religiously unable to hold certain jobs that required them to perform acts that went against their ideals. This in turn lead to Jewish citizens filling these positions. The changes did not stop there though,

Before WWII and even WWI, Jews had always been persecuted and looked down upon before these two horrific wars. The hatred towards the Jewish population was not new, yet it became more acceptable to be anti-Semitic as the propaganda and the political groups sprouted up throughout the nation, and blamed many Jewish people for Germany’s financial woes. This racial discrimination took moral and ethical barriers down throughout Germany, as harassment of the Jewish populace became more intense throughout the 1930’s, culminating with Kristallnacht, where many Jews were killed and persecuted, and Jewish businesses were burned. “In 1938 Nazi anti-Semitism reached a radical stage…the clearest sign of treatment of Jews of Europe would face within a few years occurred in the fall of 1938…thousands of Jewish businesses; thousands of Jews were beaten in the streets and in their homes and about one hundred were murdered…some synagogues were destroyed, and several thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps.”[4] These events led down a slippery slope toward the final solution. The Nazi party perpetuated this hatred, and often took part in the events. The Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the Nazi policy of detaining Jewish people, based solely upon their ethnicity. Hitler had authorized these events, and was finally realizing his long-lived plan of racial purity within German and Austria. There were also a social precondition against the Jews before the two wars and this prominent

One of the main reasons the Holocaust came about was the presence of anti-Semitism, bolstered by the rationalization and logic that justified the treatment and murder of the Jews. Before the Nazi Regime, anti-Semitism was no doubt present, even rampant, in Germany and the rest of Europe. However, this anti-Semitism took a form of an underlying hatred, which was rarely acted upon. It was only during the peak of modernism that this hatred erupted into a fully formed organized, rational and powerful political force. Anti-Semitism and modernity proved to be perfectly

According to Dictionary.com, anti-Semitism is the discrimination against or prejudice toward Jews, (Dictionary.com, 2016). Conflict has existed between Christianity and Judaism since Biblical times, (Katz, 1996). By law the Jews were obliged