Judy Rebick Analysis

“Was German ‘Eliminationist Anti-Semitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?” is a fascinating and somewhat discouraging debate that explores the question of whether German anti-Semitism, instilled within citizens outside of the Nazi Party, played a vast role in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust . Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of “The Paradigm Challenged,” believes that it did; and argues quite convincingly that ordinary German citizens were duplicitous either by their actions or inactions due to the deep-seeded nature of anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. On the other hand, Christopher R. Browning, who has extensively researched the Holocaust, argues that the arguments of Goldhagen leaves out significant dynamics which were prevalent throughout most of Western and Eastern Europe during this period of history.

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.

German anti-Semitism played the main role in Holocaust and extermination of Jewish population in Europe during World War 2. There are different views on this subject among historians. Some support the fact that German society was anti-Semitic and ordinary

Through the course of history, the Jewish people have been mistreated, condemned, robbed, even put to death because of their religion. In the Middle Ages, they were forced to wear symbols on their clothing, identifying them as Jews. The dates 1933 to 1945 marked the period of the deadly Holocaust in which many atrocities were committed against the Jewish people and minority groups not of Aryan descent. Six million innocent Jews were exterminated because of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” This paper will exhibit how Adolf Hitler used the three anti-Jewish policies written in history, conversion, expulsion, and annihilation to his advantage.

In our society, there are a handful of people who believe that anti-Semitism is a matter of the past, and do not realize that it still exists today. Countless of Jews face it more than once in their lifetime, whether it may be an

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.

“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.

Imagine being treated like cattle - living one’s life inside a fence, starved, killed for no reason. Would one hang on to their humanity, or would they let go of their hope, their compassion, their faith? From 1939 to 1945, the Nazi German military systematically kidnapped, tortured and killed millions of Jews in their twisted effort to racially purify Germany. This genocide has come to be known as the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were mercilessly beaten, sadistically experimented upon, and killed for pleasure. Through these three ways, the Jewish people were treated as subhuman; through these three ways, the Jewish people began to believe it themselves.

Before there were survivors of the appalling Holocaust, there was the emanation of this fledgling abomination. It began in September 1st of 1939, when Nazi troops invaded Poland, and Germany surrendered sulkingly on May 8th of 1945 (“HISTORY” 3). This kindled the tyrant Adolf Hitler to wage two wars, and incidentally revived a new World War. The first war was against the allied forces, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union; Sadly, the other war was against the jews, this in turn gave way to the beginning of the Holocaust (3). This was all kindled only a few years after one survivor named Alicia Appleman-Jurman was born which made her nine years of age at the time in Poland. Jews who collapsed under the harsh hammer of the German’s control in the Eastern and Central Europe were almost immediately belittled in every way made possible (3). The effects were

The Jewish race lived in a time of hardships in the mid 1900’s as the Nazis began to take over Germany during the well-known era of the Holocaust. “The Nazis, who came to power in Germany on January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community (Children during the Holocaust).” Therefore, the Nazis began genocide with intentions to kill off all of the Jewish people under the command of Adolf Hitler. Many people were brutally tortured and murdered during this tragic time in Western Europe. However, Jewish children during the Holocaust were the most targeted and tortured groups of individuals.

While under the jurisdiction of the Nazi Party (1933 – 1945), Europe’s Jewish population experienced an enormous amount of injustice. This is evident through Jews being denied refuge from nations all over the globe in the build up to the Second World War. In addition, this belief also becomes apparent via the isolation of Jewish people in ghettos. Furthermore, the extermination of an estimated 3 million innocent Jews in death camps proves that Jewish populace suffered a vast amount of prejudice while the Nazi Party obtained control over Europe.

The Holocaust was a systematic, bureaucratic and state sponsored decision made by the Nazi German Government and their collaborators between years 1936 to 1945 to eliminate all Jews from European society. This decision was known as the ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’ (Todd Allan 2001). Although German authorities main target was the Jews they also targeted specific groups who were perceived as ‘racially inferior’ including; Roma (Gypsies), some Slavic people (poles, Russians and others), communist, socialist, Jehovah’s witnesses, the disabled, the mentally ill, homosexuals and other people deemed inferior (Introduction to the Holocaust 2016). Jews were the main victims of the holocaust as they were a source of hatred within Germany

Prejudice has been a constant scourge on human history with anti-Semitism at the forefront of this insidious social condition. The rise of Nazism was a frightening phenomenon for the peoples of medieval Europe and in its desperation it inspired an opportunity for some to practice a latent prejudice over the Jews. The persecution of Jews during the rise of Nazism was inspired by a government who identified an advantage to further its own political agenda. This is evident through a discussion of the history of anti-Semitism, how anti-Semitism rise and how the Nazis used anti-Semitism to their advantage.

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.

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.