Masters Of Death : The Ss Einsatzgruppen And The Invention Of The Holocaust

In the early 1930s, the residents of the picturesque city of Dachau, Germany, were completely unaware of the horrific events about to unfold that would overshadow their city still today. The citizens of Dachau were oblivious that their city was going to become the origin of concentration camps and of the Holocaust, the mass murder committed by the Nazi s in World War II. Dachau Concentration Camp, which would soon be placed on the edge of their community, would serve as a model for all Nazi extermination camps. This perfect prototype of a Nazi killing machine has come to represent the start of the horror-filled Holocaust and the Nazi's determination to achieve a perfect society during World War II.

The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many

In the last few years, some publications have appeared that treats one group or another, yet the state of our knowledge about the perpetrators remains incomplete. We know little about many of the institutions of killing, little about many aspects of the perpetration of the genocide, and still less about the perpetrators themselves. As a consequence, popular and scholarly myths and misconceptions about the perpetrators abound, including the following. It is commonly believed that the Germans slaughtered Jews by and large in the gas chambers, and that without gas chambers, modern means of transportation, and efficient bureaucracies, the Germans would have been unable to kill millions of Jews. The belief persists that somehow only technology made horror on this scale possible. It is generally believed that gas chambers, because of their efficiency, were a necessary instrument for the genocidal slaughter, and that the Germans chose to construct the gas chambers in the first place because they needed more efficient means of killing the Jews. It has been generally believed that the perpetrators were primarily, overwhelmingly SS men, the most devoted and brutal Nazis. It has been held that had a German refused to kill Jews, then he himself would have been killed, sent to a concentration camp, or severely punished. All of these views, views that fundamentally shape people's understanding of the Holocaust, have been believed as though they were

In the book Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning tackles the question of why German citizens engaged in nefarious behavior that led to the deaths of millions of Jewish and other minorities throughout Europe. The question of what drove Germans to commit acts of genocide has been investigated by numerous historians, but unfortunately, no overarching answer for the crimes has yet been decided upon. However, certain theories are more popular than others. Daniel Goldhagen in his book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, has expounded that the nature of the German culture before the Second World War was deeply embedded in anti-Semitic fervor, which in turn, acted as the catalyst for the events that would unfold into the Holocaust. It is at this

I asked Karl Boem-Tettelbach how it was possible in the 1930s that someone could respect Hitler and what he was doing for Germany when Jews were forced to lose their jobs and leave the country. In his reply spoke, I believe, for millions of other Germans: "That never came up. Everybody thought the same, that you were in a big team and you didn't separate from the group. You were infected. That explains it a bit." (2) And as for actual officers, during the Nuremberg Trials, a Commandant named Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess had this to say of his indifference, "Don't you see, we SS men were not supposed to think about these things; it never even occurred to us. And besides it was something already taken for granted that the Jews were to blame for everything….It was not just newspapers like Sturmer but it was everything we heard. Even our military and ideological training took for granted that we had to protect Germany from the Jews….We were all so trained to obey orders without even thinking that the thought of disobeying an order would never have occurred to anybody." (3) So there is a delicate balance between conscious and unconscious actions of every individual of Nazi Germany. The majority was bewitched by the charismatic Hitler who not only gave them a reason as to why they were suffering with ubiquitous propaganda, but also promised to strengthen Germany until she was beyond restored. (4) For some it was an underlying hatred that had finally found a vent. For

The Holocaust was a time where millions of Jews were killed, and for what reason: their religion. Over time, the Holocaust has been taught throughout the world as a learning experience about the horrendous incident that occurred .The word "Holocaust" is from Greek, which means "sacrifice by fire”. The people who were responsible for such a horrendous event in history had to have the power and the ability to do something so appalling. The two most responsible for the Holocaust were Adolf Hitler who was the mastermind that guided the Holocaust, and the Top SS who were equally responsible because they fulfilled Hitler’s ghastly mission and goals for the Holocaust. In this essay i will prove that the two most responsible for the horrible event

During World War II, the Jews were the primary victims of Germany’s most atrocious act, the Holocaust, where thousands of Jews were senselessly slaughtered in the name of Nazism. Countless innocent Jews perished in concentration camps, while the majority of the Nazis watched and did nothing. To them, the Jews were not human beings, but rather mere animals, who deserved concentration camps. This reasoning baffled the Allied countries, as they understood that regardless of race and religion, no one should be subjected to concentration camps. Yet, the Nazis completely disregarded and violated the basic rights of humankind. The Nazis successfully propagated this anti-Semitic mentality because ordinary Germans were consumed by their ignorance

The Holocaust is widely considered to be one of the darkest times in history- an abominable genocide with casualties measured in millions. With infamy comes inquiry, leading many to question and examine the exact motives behind the Nazi regime that killed masses. There are various factors to be considered when pinpointing the root causes of the Holocaust, among these being the historical and cultural hatred of Jews, the growing German unrest following WWI, and the Nazi Party’s ability to effectively utilize propaganda as to spread their doctrine. Despite this, anti-semitic ideas and propaganda spread before and during WWII were decidedly some of the most influential causes of the Holocaust.

The Third Reich was a racially motivated killing machine that resulted in the death of six million Jews. However, the regime’s murderous campaign was a response to a set of circumstances that allowed it to obtain control over Germany. Today, the question of what circumstances ignited the Third Reich has gained attention from historians all over the world while creating a variety of possibilities. Thus, the different perspectives have caused the subject to become controversial among the devoted historians. This is especially true when considering the views of writers Daniel J. Goldhagen, Robert Gellately, Hans Mommsen, and Norman M. Naimark.

Beginning when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in late January of 1933 and concluding with the official end of World War II in May of 1945, the Holocaust was a period when Jews residing in the German Empire and German-occupied territories were persecuted and harshly murdered. The individuals of the Third Reich were not the first to have anti-Semitic prejudices; however, they were the first to take this type of racism and accomplish massacres on such a grand-scale. The successful killing of approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust can be best explained through the actions of ordinary German citizens as a result of convincing propaganda.

Bauer,Yehuda. “A history of the Holocaust revised edition.” assistance by Nili Keren,revised edition., Scholastic INC 1982,Danbury CT.

Over seventy years ago, one of the deadliest wars of human history took place named World War II. In 1933, Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. Along with the Nazi Party, he viewed Jews, mentally handicapped, gypsies, and others “undesirables” as inferior to those of Aryan blood. “The Final Solution” was the name of Hitler’s plan to kill all those deemed “undesirable”. To exterminate the many “unfit”, the Nazis set up death and concentration to slaughter the many who were forced to travel there. The Schutzstaffel, also known as the SS, was “Hitler’s personal army”, and did a lot of his “dirty work” like implementing the Final Solution (Britannica Encyclopedia 2015). The SS, was an organized, loyal and deadly group of Aryan men.

The concept of conducting camps used to incarcerate, degrade and essentially murder millions of innocent people who were deemed ‘unsuitable’ would be barbaric, nonsensical and deranged to nearly any person. But what was truly intriguing was the fact that these camps were at a point in time supported and encouraged by many. The formation of these camps known as “Concentration Camps” were notorious for being one of the most unnerving events in not only WWII, but even world history. The treatment that citizens like Jews had to experience still influence people nearly 70 years later, after the end of World War II in 1945. The establishment that began this process was known as the Nazi Regime. Their ideas lead by Adolf Hitler brainwashed

The emergence of the Holocaust and the Nazi party views can largely be determined as a result of modernity, as a reaction against the times. Yet, at the same time it can be argued that the National Socialist party can be characterized as a modern development. Modris Eksteins, George Mosse, and Zygmundt Bauman offer an in-depth look into both the anti-modern and modern aspects of the Nazi movement and the resulting Holocaust. Ekstein's work proves to be the most thorough of the three works in following the growth and progress of the Nazi party and Hitler's rise to power. Bauman covers more of the political side of the National Socialists, and especially appeals to morality and ethics, or rejection thereof, to portray his very

The holocaust was a bleak and unrecoverable part of the history of the twentieth century that will always be remembered. Millions died for no reason except for one man’s madness. Although many people know why this war happened many don’t know when and what events lead up to this: the way Hitler came into power, or when the first concentration camp was established, and what city it was in, why Jews were hated so much by Hitler, and why the rest of the country also hated them as well as, and what the chronology of the Holocaust. These are some of the things I will explain in my paper.