Scapegoats In Germany

It is extremely evident that Jews were the main target for dire judgmental opinions, but there was one man who had a passion for Germany; he believed he was the ‘saviour’ of Germany, this man served in the first world war, and it was then, near the end of the war, recovering from a war wound, when Germany was weak and crumbling, he made a vow to himself, that he would be the one, to make Germany strong, he was: Adolf Hitler.

According to ushmm.org, over 18.5 million lives were affected by the Nazi Party. After World War 1, many people had their own opinions about the Jews. People who blamed the Jews for their loss in the war formed a group that later became the Nazi Party. Opinions can bring people together or tear them apart. Before the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazi Party arose and began to change the lives of many Jews. First, Hitler’s early life affected his actions in starting and leading the Holocaust. Second, the Nazi Party was formed with one thing in mind. Third, the Nazi Party used Jews as scapegoats (a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others).

Propaganda throughout the years had promoted people into thinking Jews were these evil creatures, prompting people to think like Hitler did, and how Martin Luther thought, and how Wilhelm Marr thought many years before Hitler’s

Historically, the hostility against Jews was present in the ancient, medieval, and modern world following World War I. From the crusades to the Age of Enlightenment, hatred for the Jews was common amongst the diversity of European culture. The only action that was unprecedented was the death camps. Adolf Hitler is often seen as responsible for the Holocaust. Many believe that without Hitler, there would not have been a Holocaust. Adolf Hitler was primarily motivated by the lust for power and domination. To acquire this power, he needed to find a way to unite the disparaged people of Germany. He used the historical dislike and mistrust of Jews and blamed the problems of Germany on them. He accused the Jews of wanting to overrun German society and destroy the German state: "The Jew, whether consciously or unconsciously, whether he wishes it or not, undermines the platform on which alone a nation can stand."[2] With this preface, the only way for Germany to survive and thrive was to get rid of the Jews.

Through propaganda, the Nazis’ ideals are spread effectively to the people so that they have the support as a complete country, accomplishing the first step in their plans. For the Germans, “propaganda [is] the tool by which nearly every facet of German life [dictates]” (Kinser???). Propaganda has become a stepping stone for what the Germans has to offer, even more to anti-semitism. Similarly, the ideologies of German are anti-semitic so they use that to their advantage, combining it with propaganda even though most images are false. The Germans blames the Jews for all their errors and has become the scapegoats for Hitler. All the posters about Jews by the Germans, “[has] little to no truth behind them, but [are] rather elaborate myths [that are created] to single out a group of people that [are] seen as a threat” (Kinser?). This prompts to unity amongst the people with the same perspective toward a single race.

I have learned that after World War I, Europe experienced severe economic and political problems that intensified anti-Semitism almost everywhere. This added to the old charges that Jews were unpatriotic and greedy and there was the accusation that they were behind the spread of Communism. In Germany, Adolf Hitler, who had become a racial anti-Semite as a youth in his birth country of Austria, made attacks on the Jews from the beginning of his career in the Nazi party in postwar Munich. Such attacks became the mainstay of Nazi propaganda throughout his rise to power, but he did not always use them. Hitler and his followers used these attacks when it played for their position and not when it served against them.

“Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat, blaming them for Germany's economic and social problems,” (“Background: Life Before”). Germany during Hitler’s rise was desperate for change and hope. When Hitler brought the German people up from economic troubles that came from World War 1 they were more than willing to agree and do nearly anything Hitler said. Hitler took his antisemitism to the extreme with the help of his people were able to conduct one of the worst mass killings known to man. Anti Semitism may have existed beforehand but it was never on the scale of what the Holocaust

On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler and his army of Nazis attacked Poland, marking the first day of six years of war, fear, and suffering. Hitler had long since came to power in Germany. After World War I, Germany was stripped of many things; money, cultural worth, dignity and power. The Germans needed a place to look to for help; they needed a promising future, and Adolf Hitler promised them just that. Blaming the Jewish religion, Hitler began to rise from the masses of Germans. He convinced Germany that the Jews were “untermenschen”, of what roughly translates to in English as “subhuman” or less of a human. So eager for hope of a better way of life, the rest of Germany trusted and gave him the power he needed to carry out multiple acts of destruction.

After German lost WWI, Hitler became obsessed with the Jews conspiracy. In fact, the two greatest obsessions of his life is to conquest great empire in the east and the destruction of the Jews. Nothing was more staggering than Hitler’s belief that he could turn his obsession to reality by sheer will power. “he was trapped in his own beliefs, he created a myth about himself which he worked very hard at that he was a man sent by providence to save Germany” said Lord Bullock, biographer of Hitler (The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler). One of Adolf Hitler famous quote, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” (50 Famous Quotes by Adolf Hitler). Even he himself fell for his own lie.

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.

During the years of 1933-1945, the German Nazi regime killed around 6 million European Jews as well as others who were seen as mentally retarded or homosexual (McMorran). To the Nazis’ leader, Adolf Hitler, people of Jewish decent were seen as inferior. Hitler had a stereotype that Jewish people were a threat to the German racial purity and community. The Jewish people living in Europe during Hitler’s rule were discriminated against and ultimately were segregated from all other races. During the segregation of Jewish people, Adolf Hitler wanted the Jews to be physically separate from all other ethnic groups and racial groups by forcefully moving the Jews into concentration camps, keeping the Germans the dominant group in Hitler’s eyes. The social concepts and theories of prejudice, segregation and discrimination forced upon the Jewish people were seen as a result of Adolf Hitler’s stereotype about the Jewish ethnicity.

Germany's antagonism from the loss of WW1 caused the rise of Hitler and hatred of the Jewish people. Germans after the loss of WW1, were angry and looking for someone as a scapegoat which lead to the hatred of the jews. Secondly, they were angry about their accumulated debt from WW1. After the loss of the war Germany wanted to recover their patriotism and develop a purified master race. Lastly the jewish group had a prior history of conflict between them which assisted in creating the blame and hate directed towards Jewish people. This is why the loss of WW1 created anger and a chain of events to lead to the scapegoating of Jewish people along with the rise of hitler and the holocaust.

Hitler persuaded the German people using methods of propaganda to “deceive the public” through forms of media. Also portrayed Germany as a victim and blamed the loss of the war on the Jews. He would put on speeches and shows to try to persuade people that Jews were not good. He made the argument that Jews had “financial success and power” (Tollar). The main reason he disliked the Jews was that they were wealthy and in his mind, wealth leads to power.

Hitler had shown unwillingness to tolerate the Jews and once he was appointed Chancellor, he started to take elimination measures like deportation, forced emigration, and isolation to enforce his belief. He took advantage of Germany’s weakness in World War One, then used it as an opportunity to blame the Jews for Germany’s defeat. Hitler’s political party was the largest political party in Germany thus allowing them to draw very large crowds to gatherings. He had very good oratory speeches with hand gestures that easily manipulated people to adhere to his views. Hitler constantly targeted the Jews because he knew people believed in these speeches. People in Germany were already anti-semitic but Hitler made it worse by constantly consuming them in his speeches. From the way he spoke about the Jews, we could clearly see the possibility of genocide. Hitler wanted Germany to be free of any humans that anyone other than his ideal master race so he personally selected bodyguards to be part of a group called the SS. Hitler was responsible for ordering the SS to carry out the extermination of anyone who did not fit this ideal. The SS handled oppositions using force and as a result of which people were forced to give into the idea of violence. Sometimes people purposely went along with this Holocaust ideal due to the fear of getting killed. These terrors allowed the holocaust occur

Hitler also fostered anti-semitism by blaming Jews as the reason why Germany lost the 1914-1918 war. Once more, Hitler used the scapegoating of the Jews by the middle class, but brought it to a more intense level, charging the Jews with all the wrongs of Germany.