From 1939 to 1945 the world saw actions and atrocities unparalleled in the War against Germany, the legacies of such actions we are still seeing today. Perhaps the most notable atrocity that was born from this war was the persecution of Jewish people in Germany and around Europe and the corresponding murder of up to 6 million Jewish people . “When Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist party seized power on January 30, 1933, there were approximately 525,000 Jewish people living in Germany, less than one percent of the population.” Throughout the years leading up to the official start of World War Two the Jewish people were treated harshly and condemned for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, in 1935 the Nuremberg laws furthered this condemnation by defining “what it meant to be a Jew, deprived Jews of German citizenship and legally prohibited them from a variety of occupations.” Families were split apart and many families fled as far as they could have from the horrors of a country they once called home. Hitler’s view of the Jewish people is highlighted in his publication Mein Kampf :
A Jew is and remains a typical parasite, a sponger who like a noxious bacillus keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. And the effect of his existence is also like that of spongers: wherever he appears, the host people die out. The Jew today is the great agitator for the complete destruction of Germany.
This essay will explore the Diary of Anne Frank in
The Holocaust was organized by Adolf Hitler and it targeted Jewish people. In the beginning, the Nazis only targeted their political opponents such as Communists or Social Democrats. These were the people that were sent to the first concentration camp. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 labeled anyone with three or four grandparents as a Jew and those with two Jewish grandparents as half-breeds. Under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution (“History”). The Nazis portrayed Jews as a race and not a religious group. Religious anti-Semitism could be resolved by conversion, political anti-Semitism by expulsion. Ultimately, the logic of Nazi racial anti-Semitism led to annihilation (Berenbaum 1). “Kristallnacht” was a night in November of
January 30, 1933 started the calamity that would result in the mass murder of some six million Jews. It occurred in all countries that the Germans, also known as Nazis, occupied during World War 2, including Germany and Poland. Jews were sent to enclosed ghettos where they were given insufficient amounts of food and were in unsanitary conditions. By the time of 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution”, for their plan was to wipe out the Jewish people. Jews were sent to death camps of which they were put into gas chambers and killed. Many died from malnutrition. It was the time of genocide, of mass destruction. To the leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were considered a threat to German racial purity and community. They were an inferior
Horror struck on January 30, 1933, when Germany assigned Adolf Hitler as their chancellor. Once Hitler had finally reached power he set out to complete one goal, create a Greater Germany free from the Jews (“The reasons for the Holocaust,” 2009). This tragedy is known today as, “The Holocaust,” that explains the terrors of our histories past. The face of the Holocaust, master of death, and leader of Germany; Adolf Hitler the most deceitful, powerful, well spoken, and intelligent person that acted as the key to this mass murder. According to a research study at the University of South Florida, nearly eleven million people were targeted and killed. This disaster is a genocide that was meant to ethnically cleanse Germany of the Jews. Although Jewish people were the main target they were not the only ones targeted; gypsies, African Americans, homosexuals, socialists, political enemies, communists, and the mentally disabled were killed (Simpson, 2012, p. 113). The word to describe this hatred for Jewish people is known as antisemitism. It was brought about when German philosophers denounced that “Jewish spirit is alien to Germandom” (“Antisemitism”) which states that a Jew is non-German. Many people notice the horrible things the Germans did, but most don’t truly understand why the Holocaust occurred. To truly understand the Holocaust, you must first know the Nazis motivations. Their motivations fell into two categories including cultural explanations that focused on ideology and
Germany’s fate was changed on April 20, 1889, the day I, Adolf Hitler was born to German official, Alois and my dear, Klara Hitler. Little did they know of what a miracle that had blessed them that day. My destiny was decided for me every time my father lectured me about the abhor Jews, taking up our German property, and beat me for the childish mistakes I made. I realized my destiny was to punish the faults in our once perfect nation. My father’s strict upper hand was not the only contribution to my great plan. At the age of sixteen, I left my home to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. I enrolled myself into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. The vile Jews in charge of the school denied me acceptance into the school. I spent
At the end of WWI in 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins. There were very few jobs, and bitterness began to take over the country. According to the text, “Hitler, a rising politician, offered Germany a scapegoat: Jewish people. Hitler said that Jewish people were to blame for Germany’s problems. He believed that Jews did not deserve to live.” (7) This was the birth of Antisemitism--prejudice against Jewish people. Europe’s Jewish people have always been persecuted due to their “different customs and beliefs that many viewed with suspicion.”(7) Hitler simply reignited the flames, and a violent hatred was born.
Most of us have heard of the Nazi party’s horrific, genocidal regime on destroying the Jewish race, but what events led up to their dire judgement? In this study I aim to uncover the events, reasons and changes which led to the Holocaust and the further changes in the treatment of the Jewish race by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany, the beginning of the end for the Jewish. As soon as Hitler was named Chancellor he began passing laws that hindered the Jewish. It started with the Nuremberg Laws, which stated the Jewish couldn’t marry German citizens. Soon after, the Jewish were being openly thought of as ‘less than human’. The Jewish now had separate schools, hospitals, and even different park benches: “The Nazi persecution started with hateful words, escalated to discrimination and dehumanization, and culminated in genocide.” (ushmm). This quote shows how hateful words and indifference can have grisly consequences on the underdogs of the situation.The Jewish had to wear stars to show that they were Jewish so they could be avoided. Parades of anti-semitism were now common entertainment. German media was helping by spreading propaganda, in which they blamed the Jewish for all of their misfortune. The Jewish would be tortured in aforesaid ways for five years in silence before Kristallnacht, also regarded to as ‘the Night of Broken Glass’; for all the glass that littered the streets from Jewish businesses, which had been vandalized. Unfortunately, these acts were only the first of a myriad of adversities that the Jewish would have to suffer.
The intended audience for this article was towards readers who don’t recognize what is actually happening with the Jews and Anti-Semitism, and what could occur from it. This forms a teacher/student relationship between the author and her readers because she is teaching them from her own experience, and what she knows about the Holocaust and Jewish mistreatment. I will use this article to answer my GRQ because I believe it provides me with clear and concise evidence, and connects the treatment of Jews in modern day to the time of World War 2 efficiently. This article specifically relates to my GRQ by providing me with an evident answer for my question on how the treatment of Jews has evolved since World War 2. The author does this by saying “The horror of the Holocaust cleansed our society of anti-Semitism at the official level but the simmering resentment of a group that is different, that maintains its identity, that has been pilloried throughout history by religious and political leaders, remains” (Rebrik
The Nuremberg Laws effectively banned the Jews from any citizen rights. The ‘Blood Law’ or Reich’s Citizenship Law banned Jews from marrying Germans, it banned them from sexual relations with Aryans, it banned the Jewish people from displaying the National flag and effectively stripped them of their rights to citizenship. The debate about what defined a Jew tested Hitler in the weeks following the Nuremberg Rally eventually creating the ‘mischlinge’ category of 1st or 2nd degree half Jews, all of which were subject to less but varying degrees of discrimination. The two years that followed were also relatively quiet as far the Jewish question was concerned
It is hard to picture that along with others that, 6 million Jews were targeted and killed during the Holocaust. It is astonishing to realize how racist and cruel the Nazis acted towards the Jews. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, once Hitler was in control of the German government “he translated his harsh feeling toward Jews into many policies and statutes which eroded the rights of German Jews from 1933-1939” (“Victims”). The anti-Jewish racist legislation passed The Nuremberg Laws in September, 1935. These laws made an extremely in depth Nazi definition of who was Jewish. A lot of people who did not think of themselves as Jewish were now being seen as targets of Nazi discrimination. Jewish is not seen as a race,
2). Even though this was not a violent treatment of the Jews, it was an attempt to bankrupt and dehumanize them of everything they had worked for their whole lives (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). As a result, Jews became a segregated people. They had to ride on buses and trains only in the seat that were clearly marked for them (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Jewish children were allowed to be bullied at school in an attempt to keep them from coming to school. Hitler used this to brand the Jews as a lazy people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 gave even more power to the Nazis and took away more dignity of the Jews. The Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were not allowed (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). At this point, the Jews who could afford to pay a fine to leave the country were allowed to do so, but the ones who could not afford it had to stay behind and were not allowed to get food or medicine (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Hitler’s campaign against the Jews escalated in 1938 with “Krystalnacht” – The Night of the Broken Glass (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). After a Nazi diplomat was found shot to death, Hitler began a seven day war of terror against the Jews (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Shops that were owned by Jews were destroyed and robbed, homes and synagogues burned
The Holocaust is most well-known for the organized and inhumane extermination of more than six million Jews. The death total of the Jews is this most staggering; however, other groups such as Gypsies, Poles, Russians, political groups, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals were targeted as well (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Introduction to the Holocaust). The initial idea of persecuting select groups of people began with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. In January 1930, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany after winning over its people with powerful and moving speeches. From this point forward, it was a goal for both Hitler and his Nazi Party to rid the world of deemed “inferior” groups of people (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Timeline
Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis.
Jews in 1933 to 1939 were Nazis party scapegoat for anything you can name it.They blamed the jews for losing ww1 because jew were weak and socialist throughout Germany, although they had initially wanted Germany to lose they protest and attempt to kill German troops.Soon the Germans lost faith in their government's ability to fix this big issue.Hitler know he could help the people in Germany and he guaranteed them he will fix this .He also promised jobs for unemployed.Hitler began to make the German people like him and vote him for chancellor. ‘‘ Hitler blamed Germany's problems on the "corrupt" politicians, communists, and Jews’’.He made Germany believe that he can make these problems vanish
In the tumultuous period leading up to World War II, a series of laws were devised in Nazi Germany that subjected the Jewish people to prohibitory and discriminatory forms of treatment. Although the Jewish people only accounted for 503,000 of the 55 million occupants of the country, Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship preached the incorporation of anti-Semitism into law and practice in order to quell the people he considered to be the enemy of the country.