Ordinary Germans and soldiers are culpable in the Holocaust in addition to Hitler and the Nazi inner circle. They are guilty for the Holocaust as well because of their long-standing antisemitism, knowledge of the enormities, and actual assistance in the Holocaust. Although Hitler was the leading force for the Holocaust, he was supported by ordinary Germans and soldiers who agreed with his beliefs and participated in the atrocities just as much.
Antisemitism was the beginning and the cause of the Holocaust. The term antisemitism was actually created by a German Journalist by the name of Wilhelm Marr, created to give a name for the hatred for Jews (Ezard). Antisemitism fueled the Holocaust, the German hatred for the Jews was there even before Hitler as described by historian Robert Gellately: “What the Nazis actually did was to unshackle and thereby activate Germans’ pre-existing, pent-up antisemitism” (qtd in Ezard). One of the major decisions Hitler made inspiring this hatred was the creation of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, these laws made Jew a completely different race, and created Aryan into a superior race (Ezard). These laws made it official that the Jews were a lesser “race,” giving another excuse for the people to wreak hatred upon them. If the Germans had tried to stop the Hitler and the Nazis the Holocaust couldn’t have happened (Mckay). If even half the Germans had resisted the damage would have been much less drastic.
Many of the atrocities of the Holocaust
The Holocaust systematically murdered 11 million people across Europe, more than half of those people were Jewish. The Jews were blamed for the German’s failures, such as World War I. As a result, Hitler established anti-Semitism throughout his army and the majority of Europe. The Holocaust consisted of three phases to annihilate the Jews. The phases did not create racial purity and they did not successfully annihilate all of the Jews as the Nazi party planned.
The road to the creation of the Holocaust started with one man. Adolf Hitler. Although thousands of people agreed with anti-Semitism at the time he was the one who started to take his thoughts into actions. After World War 1, German was in great poverty, unemployment and starvation. And the one group of people to blame were the Jewish people. Christians have been angry at the Jewish people ever since they killed Christ, and Adolf Hitler thought of this idea to eliminate the Jewish people once and for all.
Anti-semitism was one of the factors that lead to the horrific genocide, yet this genocide began with the spread of words and ideas from “Hitler’s” point of view. He started the spread of hate. On November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria. Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass” was a time of horror. Germans (Nazis) invaded Jewish communities and destroyed everything Jewish. The Nazis wanted to strike fear into the Jewish people, so they destroyed
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
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.
There are several various causes of the Holocaust event, the most common being the adamant hatred of Jewish people in the immediate community. Anti-Semitic views had already been widespread in Europe, even before Hitler’s time. It was believed that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Hitler had tried his hand at becoming a professional artist in Austria, but was struggling heavily. When he would see the Jewish people around living and doing better in life, his hatred grew--presumably out of jealousy. Germany’s defeat in World War I only made it worse. He, and other German soldiers, had blamed Jewish people even further for their loss. In the war only about one hundred-thousand Jews went to war, and only twelve-thousand were lost.
Six million people wiped off the face of the earth like they were never anything more than a whisper on the wind. The holocaust took the lives of millions of innocent people and the blame can be pointed in numerous directions, but Hitler and the german citizens are the most responsible. After them is the soldiers who ran the camps and collected the people. Next is the people of neighboring cities and nations that sat back and either were not able to do anything or didn’t do something soon enough to help those being torchered and killed. The jewish people, Yahweh, and U.S. citizens are not responsible for the Holocaust. Responsibility for the Holocaust relies on a bunch of people and groups, this is my perception.
The fault of the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust lies mainly on the top SS officers. One of the officers was Joseph Goebbels, the head director of propaganda for Hitler and the Nazi party. In an article about him, it says “His mission was to censor all opposition to Hitler and present the chancellor and the Nazi Party in the most positive light while stirring up hatred for Jewish people” (Joseph Goebbels). Through propaganda, Joseph Goebbels was able to figuratively control the thoughts and beliefs of the people. This helped the party to gain a lot of support. Another top SS officer was Dr. Mengele. In the book, Night, it says “Three SS officers surrounded the notorious Dr. Mengele...Dr. Mengele was holding a list: our numbers” (Wiesel
Hitler had the power to murder millions of helpless people.He had the authority to kill whoever, but hitler never killed anyone, only ordered the top SS too. He was responsible for the mass executions in Poland, and ordered the Nazis to go and massacre thousands of Jews, taking out most of the polish Jew population.”Hitler spoke at various occasions openly about the annihilation of the Jews in Europe. It can be ruled out that the massive preparations for the systematic murder of European Jews in extermination camps in Poland”"Adolf Hitler and The Holocaust." Adolf Hitler and The Holocaust. 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.Hitler developed the idea of the concentration camps and just handed over the part of killing the Jews to the top SS.This man was ambitious to the German people he was the figure they looked up to and voted for but in reality he was a coward. To have ordered so many helpless and harmless people to be murdered in cold blood, yet he didn't actually murder any Jews with his own hands. Even though he wasn't directly linked to the murders of all those people, he was still highly responsible for all the people who committed these
The Holocaust began in the early 1930s which was controlled by an Austrian-born dictator, Adolf Hitler. Hitler believed as a “different” and a minority race, Jewish people should not live amongst those who were considered “perfect” in Hitler’s eyes; Germans who had blue eyes and blonde hair. The ultimate reason why the Holocaust came in history in the first place is because Hitler wanted a pure German race, so in order to achieve that goal he wanted the Jewish people to be put in concentration camps, take over their lives, and eventually kill them off. Over
The Holocaust war criminals consisted of any SS officer in a concentration camp, doctors that made experiments on the prisoners, and some of the Gestapo. These men were brutal and unrelenting they murdered hundreds some even thousands of civilians living in Europe. The men like Klaus Barbie, Adolf Eichman, and Ivan the Terrible were some of the worst SS in World War II.
According to an article titled” Why did the Holocaust Happened”, Nazi’s “had been denigrating and dehumanizing the Jews of Germany for nearly a decade before the holocaust began in earnest. This period of dehumanization likely had a dramatic effect on what people actually thought of the Jews. Many Germans considered the Jews to be a sub-race of humans, or barely human at all. This allowed them to feel little to no guilt when forcing them into labor camps and marching them to their deaths”. To add to that point, although there were a large portion of those who supported Hitler and the Holocaust, “The Nazi party was not actively advertising what it was actually doing to the Jews.
The world today is still uncertain about the major cause of the Holocaust. Many people have a wide range of opinions on this traumatic topic leaving the identity of those responsible unknown. The real question is who had most to do with being responsible for the holocaust out of the Nazis and the German people. The German’s were said to be manipulated by Hitler’s powerful speeches and propaganda which he used to make himself appear powerful, making the German’s feel as though they had no choice but to elect him as their leader. The Germans worshipped Hitler and demonstrated acts of love and support by celebrating and voting for him. The Germans didn’t hesitate to stop their beloved leader from ordering the Nazi party to wipe out the entire
Sources “Holocaust” say that “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community”. The source “Holocaust” defines Anti Semitism is a discriminative prejudices against Jews based on their culture, religious beliefs and ethnicity. We must protect our fellow human beings who also have every right we have by abolish the practice of Anti Semitism all around the world by fighting against it with commitment and Unity
The origin of the Holocaust can be attributed to Adolph Hitler coming to power and imposing his ideals on everyone. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler expresses hatred for Jews and his plans to rid Germany of them. Once he came to power, Germans started to boycott stores owned by Jews, restrict