Compare And Contrast The Holocaust Vs Salem Witch Trials

From 1692 to 1693, twenty people were executed after being accused of witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts, many more died in jail, and around 200 people total were accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Records from the event indicate that the Salem Witch Trials started when a group of young girls began acting strange, claiming they had been possessed by the Devil and bewitched by local villagers. The Salem Witch Trials is a much debated event; historians argue over the motivation and causes behind the trials and executions, not over the proceedings. Each historian approached the Salem Witch Trials with their own brand of logic and interpretation building off of and criticizing the interpretations of their predecessors. No one historical theory can conclusively explain the cause of the Salem Witch Trials because there were too many variables and motivations among the villagers. These historians used the best of their abilities to examine the events of the Salem Witch Trials and the mere fact that there are so many interpretations means there are not certainties when it comes to this historical event. However, a combination of their theories could provide a better picture of the Salem Witch story and the many aspects in determining the outcome of the Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem Witch Trials was a very dark period in our history that occurred in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. These trials began in February 1692 and ended in May of 1693. There were over two hundred individuals who were accused of practicing witchcraft. Of those two hundred accused, nearly twenty innocent souls were lost. This was one of the most severe cases of mass hysteria in recorded history. There was a great effort exhorted by the Massachusetts General Court to declare a guilty verdict, that the framers of the United States Constitution went to great lengths to never let this type of tragedy occur again; commonly known as the eighth amendment. Remarkably so, some may argue that there were similarities in Salem and the

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. These trials began after a group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several other locals of witchcraft. After this broke out a special court convened in Salem to “hear and determine” (Mather 328)

During the Holocaust, thousands of people died because they were targeted by another group, the Nazis. Similarly, in The Crucible, about 19 people were executed. Although Salem was a smaller town, the characteristics of both events can relate to one another. The Holocaust was an act of genocide performed by a group called the Nazis through the 1930s and 1940s. This group was led by the notorious dictator, Adolf Hitler. The Nazis and Hitler took over Germany, killing many Jews. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, during the uprise of McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In Salem, Massachusettes, many people were accused of worshiping the devil because of doing something that was frowned upon. The government strongly influenced strict religion, so even dancing was inappropriate. The lack of importance placed in truth, chaotic riots, and discrimination are all the human characteristics that are seen in The Crucible and the Holocaust.

A modern day Witch Hunt that can relate to the Salem Witch Hunt and the Crucible due to condemnation of members of society, instinctual prejudice, estrangement of members of society, and mass hysteria is the Holocaust. To estrange members in society means to push people in society out of it. In the Salem Witch Trials, the people in society pushed the Witches out, and even pushed away the women and men they felt were going to be witches, so that they could look more like witches. In the Holocaust, the Jews were pushed out of society and because of that, they looked more suspicious to the human race.

By reading the two primary sources we are given a clear account of the Salem Witch Trials. John Hale describes the officials involved in the trial and those being prosecuted. Hale states, “I observed in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the Justices, Judges and others concerned, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right.” he then later states “But what chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors til they amounted to near about fifty.” While Governor phips goes into more detail in reference to the actual court proceedings, “When the Court came to sit at Salem in the County of Essex they convicted more than twenty persons of being guilty of witchcraft, some of the convicted were such as confessed their Guilt, the Court as I understand began their proceedings with the accusations of the afflicted and then went upon other humane evidences to strengthen that.” Only together the sources are able to give the reader the information needed, showing a disadvantage to using primary sources to evaluate history. These accounts illustrate comprehensively the picture of a court concerned with doing the right thing for their people and trying the accused in the way they see fit. They explain the use of accusations to testify against the convicted and

“He (Hitler) believed that a person’s characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behavior were determined by his or her so-called racial make-up”(“Site”). As well as victims of the Holocaust, people of Salem were discriminated against based on ideas set by one person. The Holocaust was a genocide of innocent people based on the Nuremberg Laws set by Adolf Hitler. The Salem Witch trials began when a group of girls ruled, by Abigail Williams started accusing innocent people based on behavior and their status in Salem. A mass murder of nearly six million innocent Jews based on the opinion of one leader can be connected to Abigail Williams influences during the Salem Witch Trials. The connections between the Holocaust and the Salem Witch Trials began with the ruthlessness of leaders, the demise of innocent individuals, as well as the factors that led to these horrific events.

The Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust are very similar and in many ways. During both of the terrible happenings, there were a lot of murders over nonsense. Innocent people were accused, disliked, mistreated, and killed.

The Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition were both the outcomes of religious fears. These events in history share several similarities, including the way people were accused and punished. The witch trials and Spanish Inquisition were used to cleanse the people. In both cases the accused did not have fair proceedings which resulted in wrongly accused innocent people. Although the Spanish Inquisition was more gruesome due to the horrific torture prisoners went through they both resulted in many unjustified deaths.

Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).

Does the Salem Witch Trials and The Holocaust Have Things in Common? During both of these times mass numbers of people were being killed and driven by fear in their own society. This fear became mass hysteria. Mass hysteria occurred in 1692 in the town of Salem and again “between 1933 and 1945, [when] more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust” (Lehnardt 1).

The Salem witch trials were one of many cases where innocent people were executed because of suspicion. However, other events among the years have expressed similar qualities. Long after the Salem witch trials, in the 1900s, Adolf Hitler put into place concentration camps where about 11 million innocent Jewish people were killed. Although the amount of casualties is greatly more than the Salem executions, the events

The people that were involved in the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust were tormented for different reasons. The Jews were tormented because they were Jewish, and Hitler despised the Jews. During The Salem Witch Trials people that were accused all had something to do with revenge or suspicion. People were being accused due to neighbor’s thoughts and suspicions. For example Elizabeth Howe was accused when she got into an argument with her neighbor. Her neighbor then blamed her for causing their cows and daughter dying. Eventually Elizabeth was put on trial and was

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

     The Salem witchcraft trials are very similar to the McCarthy trials in three aspects: unfounded accusations, hostile interrogation of numerous innocent people and the ruination and death of various people's lives. Mass accusations are made for personal gain and no good has resulted from these