Meiin Kampf : The Holocaust And Dehumanization Of The Holocaust

“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.

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

The Holocaust which was one of many of the controversial events that have happened in the history of our world demonstrated a significant amount of cruelty and dehumanization. Because of such a controversial event, many have suffered through physical and unfortunately psychological upheaval and distress. With previous knowledge and novels’ read on the Holocaust, it came to be known that the event was triggered through obedience and conformity due to the not specifically the Germans’ beliefs of anti-Semitic and propaganda, but more of leader Adolf Hitler. The time of the Holocaust was used to dehumanize which enhanced the understanding of mental health and human psychology. During the Holocaust, many psychological principles affected individuals forever. The principles include groupthink and of course knowing the outcome of the event. Such principles sooner explain the reality of life because it stresses how individuals react due to their past experiences like the Holocaust and most importantly how traumatic events build them as who they are today.  Innocent Jews went through starvation, terrible working conditions, and the elimination of race through torture such as gas chambers. Furthermore, the history of this controversial event is now being used to be alert of the health and wellness of those who have gone through such events that sooner change their behavior and mentality for the better or even worse.

When many think of the Holocaust as a solely negative experience, and while it may seem easy to write the event off as a dark time in history that seems remote and unlikely to affect us today, there are some positive results, including the lessons that it brings for current and future humanity. The lessons that the Holocaust brings are applicable to every person in the world. While many of these lessons do focus on the negative aspects of the Holocaust, like what circumstances permit such a vast genocide and how many people can die because of widespread racial hatred, there are also those that focus on how some people, in all parts of Europe and throughout the world, retained their good human nature during the Holocaust. For example, what made some gentiles in Europe during that time willing and able to help Jews. Currently, Yad Vashem has recognized 26,513 rescuers throughout the world (Names), and the actual number of rescuers could likely be close to twice that amount (Baron,1). It is important that we analyze the reasons behind these rescuers’ choices to be upstanders instead of bystanders because we can learn about our own motivations when we face decisions between helping others and protecting ourselves, and possibly those we love, from harm. Fulfilling one’s self-interest was a potential motivation for helping Jews that will only be briefly addressed. This type of rescue potentially benefitted both the Jews and the Gentile rescuers; these Gentiles only helped Jews survive because they found personal gain, likely social or economic, in the action (Baron). However, in the situation that existed while rescuing the Jews, most efforts included the high possibility that both the rescuer and the rescued would end up worse off than they had begun with no potential for personal gain on either side. So those rescuers’ motivations are less easily explainable.

When the war ended in 1945, millions of Jews had perished. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime had almost entirely wiped out a single race of people in what would become known as the Holocaust. However, the Jews were not the only people who had been stripped of their dignity and killed. There were other groups who the Nazi’s persecuted against. The Roma, homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Political Prisoners were all systematically gathered up and killed. When the Holocaust gets mentioned, many don't talk about the other millions of innocent people who were murdered alongside the Jews. Many don't see these people as victims at all. The number of people murdered during the Holocaust reaches close to eleven million people. “Contragenics” is the term used to talk about all of the groups who were murdered under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. These innocent lives were lost in the Holocaust, and while history hasn’t forgotten, humanity has.

This investigation evaluates why common Germans took part in the Holocaust. In order to assess why common Germans took part in the Holocaust the investigation focuses on the participation and complacency of the German people during the Holocaust, specifically the extermination of the Jewish people, and the reasoning behind it. Different explanations for the German actions developed by a range of historians will be presented. The conventional reasons, like psychological and cultural, and the nonconventional reasons will be studied. There will be an in-depth look at the effect of Nazism and propaganda, human behavior, and anti-Semitism on the common Germans and the extent to which they led to the participation in the Holocaust. The scope will allow for analysis and conclusion to the most valid reason why common Germans took part in the Holocaust.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]”- Ephesians 6:12. This verse from a book of the Bible holds true in the event of the Holocaust. Dehumanization is the process in which the Nazis reduced the people of Jewish religion to nearly nothing just because the Nazis viewed the Jewish people as a nuisance. The horrendous effect of this process reduced the Jews not only in number, but also in spirit through many different unethicical actions. This helped the Nazis in many different ways. The German persecution of the Jewish as well as many other groups, had a generarion gapping effect on the people of

Dehumanization means to deprive one of their human qualities. Dehumanization is a very harrowing act that the Nazi soldiers used to create fear in the Jews. After creating this fear in the Jews, the Nazis would force them to obey their orders. The fear that comes from dehumanization makes one more likely to obey, because how can someone take a stand and say that they are not going to listen when they have been brought down to a point where they feel as if they are nothing. By using Dehumanization, the Nazis were reducing the Jews to no less than objects, positions which meant nothing to them, belongings that were just a nuisance. In Night, it is quoted that “I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less…” (pg. 52). The minorities of society fell victim to dehumanization at the cruel hands of SS guards and the inhumane camp where they were held captive for what seemed to be endless periods of time.

Inclination against or scorn of Jews- - known as oppression Jews - has tormented the world for more than 2,000 years. The Holocaust, the state-upheld abuse and murder of European Jews in the region of 1933 and 1945 by Nazi Germany and its teammates, is history's most phenomenal instance of Anti Semitism. However even in the repercussions of the Holocaust, oppression Jews remains a procedure with hazard. Indications of this hatred appear in composing, workmanship, film, talks, establishment, and on the Internet, and moreover in showings of viciousness.Compelled to leave their homes. Starved to Death. Seriously murdered. I will show through my investigation that the Nazi political social event impacted the world and also caused a champion among the most repulsive war regularly, going between various flawless Jews and locals and destruction all through Europe. Since they were insatiable and trusted that Jews were despicable.

Kitty Hart-Moxon recalls, “Arrival in Auschwitz is a defining moment in your life. The doors open, you are thrown out, greeted by barking dogs, screaming figures with whips, a stench of burning flesh and a glow of fire” (Harding). Hart-Moxon’s vivid memories of violence stayed with her a lifetime. If a person was fortunate to survive the agony of the Holocaust, one was left battered, broken, and in most cases asking why. Although the Jews, political dissidents, homosexuals, and other groups targeted by the Nazis will never get their lives back, they can gain some solace from identifying the perpetrators of the Holocaust and using that knowledge to ensure it never happens again. Many people share the burden of the crimes committed during the Holocaust, yet the three groups that can be allotted the most blame are top SS officers who planned the mass exterminations, the citizens of Germany who voted for and supported Hitler, and minor SS officers who carried out day-to-day duties.

The Holocaust was a very depressing and frightening era for European jews because of an unruly upcoming power in Germany. Adolf Hitler and at his side the Nazis Party seized Poland in the summer of 1939. His actions sparked to what is known as World War 11 which was about 2 decades after the first World war. Throughout all of this, the Holocaust was a mass murder of more than 6 million European jews that were discriminated against the Nazis and their leader Hitler who had an ambition of world domination. Many jews during the Holocaust lived a very dreadful life. They were taken from their homes and put into ghettos and also taken to concentration camps to starve to death. They lived through restrictions given by the Nazis that made life for them extraordinarily difficult.

The Holocaust was one of the greatest tragedies of the Twentieth Century. A holocaust is a demolition or slaughter on a mass scale, particularly brought about by flame or atomic war. The word “holocaust” means sacrifice by fire.

To begin with, ideological considerations alone do not explain the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, an even less do they clarify the methods and terrors involved in the Final Solution. The Holocaust is viewed against the historical backdrop of European anti-Semitism in earlier centuries, which fed immoral racism that we associate with the German Third Reich. This essay explores the economic, social, political and cultural differences that characterised the rise of extremist parties, such as the Nazis. Such political groups flourished in times of turmoil and extreme dissatisfaction, but it is important to remember that the Nazi Party was more effective than others in appealing to the discontented and in capturing popular support. Much of the Nazi warfare success was due to the leadership of the Austrian provincial, Adolf Hitler, who was convinced of his own greatness. The key aspect of the Holocaust is identified to illustrate an understanding of Nazi racial ideals and the emergence of Hitler’s personal plan according to German culture.

My heart stopped and my mouth became dry as I knocked over a chair and it fell onto the floor : this could be it, they’d find us and we’d all be dead. It wasn’t the best of times. Frankly it was the worst of times. I had a normal childhood. Our family had lived in Frankfurt, Germany from my birth in 1929 until 1933. My father, Otto Frank, decided to move us to the Netherlands in 1933 because of the rise of anti - semitism (biography.com). There, I attended a montessori school and had many friends, I was also “an inquisitive and bright student” (biography.com). Life changed for me when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940: I was forced to attend a Jewish lyceum and my father’s business was signed over to a non-Jew (People of the Holocaust). In 1942, my father converted an attic in his company warehouse in case we needed to go into hiding. And we did, that same summer. My race and I were strenuously condemned during my lifetime, and my loneliness became overbearing. Fortunately, I was able to counteract the adversities I have faced during my lifetime by relentless optimism as well as confiding to my diary.

The resentment and instability in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War 1 fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler. His invasion of Poland in 1939 pushed Britain and France to declare war on Germany. However, for those of Jewish decent, war and suffering had begun years earlier. The Holocaust was a horrific and disturbing act of genocide against the Jews, scarring the hearts and minds of the for years to come.