Similarities Between The Salem Witch Trials And The Holocaust

As we have learned on the class, these two distinguished historical events, the French Revolution and the Salem Witch Trials have obvious similarities and certain differences, we pay attention to them because these are two of the miserable man-made chaos in human history (although French Revolution has great positive importances to France and the whole world, there was unnegeletable chaos and massacres, that's what I what to illustrate above). In my point of view, after analysing different aspects of their backgrounds , we can say that besides the differences, there are also reasonable similarities between both of the events.

The Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition were both the outcomes of religious fears. These events in history share several similarities, including the way people were accused and punished. The witch trials and Spanish Inquisition were used to cleanse the people. In both cases the accused did not have fair proceedings which resulted in wrongly accused innocent people. Although the Spanish Inquisition was more gruesome due to the horrific torture prisoners went through they both resulted in many unjustified deaths.

For many years, there has been tons of comparison between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. Why you might be asking? Well first if you have read The Crucibles by now, you would know that Abigail accused innocent people of being witches. Similar to how Joseph McCarthy accused many people of communism. Both sides brought a downfall on many people because everyone was afraid that they could get accused next.

My thesis is that the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and the second Red Scare, also known as the McCarthyism Era in United States history, are essentially the same event repeated; with the exception of some key differences. The best way to recognize the differences and similarities is by looking at the things such as the people involved, how the movements began, the outcome of both events, and the legal standards at the time. The most infamous person in the McCarthyism Era is Joseph McCarthy, who it is named after. McCarthy was a senator at the time of the second Red Scare, which resulted in paranoia of a Communist uprising in the United States. The hysteria began to blossom when McCarthy began falsely accusing numerous people of being Communists

During the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the Communist Scare of the 1950s many people were accused of notions that they were innocent of. In the witch trials, people in the community were accused of witchcraft by figures who had no social standing in society. However, during the Communist Scare, otherwise known as the Red Scare, people were accused of communism by figures high up in social society. Joseph R. McCarthy was one of the men high in society that accused people of communism. There are many similarities between the Witch Trials and the Communist Scare.

Two similarities that were the driving force of both accounts in history, were the collective hysterical atmosphere of the population at hand, and the fear of one specific entity; in Salem that entity was the devil, and in the McCarthy era in was communism. During the witch trials, most residents believed in, and were in fact, terrified, of witchcraft, spirit conjuring, and spell casting. The overwhelming force backing all this, was the fear of the devil. Puritans were still very common during this time, and thus took being affected by the devil very seriously. It is because of this mass fear of the devil, that the residents of Salem were so easily frightened.

Certainly there are many parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy era. The events leading up to the

During both the devastating Holocaust in the Germany and the tragic Salem Witch Trials in the small town of Salem, innocent people were brutally killed, causing hysteria among the people. Both groups of people endured hardships because of the hysteria that occurred among them. This hysteria caused people to react in ways that they would not usually act. Both of these events are very historical and help The United States of America be a unified and prosperous country that it has grown to become today. Hysteria is defined as an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping

The Salem witch trials were one of many cases where innocent people were executed because of suspicion. However, other events among the years have expressed similar qualities. Long after the Salem witch trials, in the 1900s, Adolf Hitler put into place concentration camps where about 11 million innocent Jewish people were killed. Although the amount of casualties is greatly more than the Salem executions, the events

The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time.

The witch trials of Salem are often thought to be a hysteria that can be categorized as fake and sometimes “crazy”. The trials started by the belief of the supernatural and the practice of the devil’s ability to grant people the ability to hurt others. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams are the two young ladies that began the stereotypical beliefs in witchery. Williams and Parris started having hysterical fits and “uncontrollable” tantrums filled with screaming and crazy-like seizures. The result of all the insane opinions and conclusions to society were nineteen hangings, and one pressing. The Salem witch trials were a result of hasty decisions and the fear of God’s anger on the people of society. Today, the trials would be seen as crazy or fictional.

In this process essay the reader will learn how the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar. Both situations ended up taking on a mob mentality. The Salem Witch Trials started in 1690s when the Trials began, and by the end, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft. The people had a strong belief of the devil and were very religious. The outside threats that were surrounding the people of Salem had created a fear and suspicion within the town. Eventually, the people in Salem realized their mistakes.

“He (Hitler) believed that a person’s characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behavior were determined by his or her so-called racial make-up”(“Site”). As well as victims of the Holocaust, people of Salem were discriminated against based on ideas set by one person. The Holocaust was a genocide of innocent people based on the Nuremberg Laws set by Adolf Hitler. The Salem Witch trials began when a group of girls ruled, by Abigail Williams started accusing innocent people based on behavior and their status in Salem. A mass murder of nearly six million innocent Jews based on the opinion of one leader can be connected to Abigail Williams influences during the Salem Witch Trials. The connections between the Holocaust and the Salem Witch Trials began with the ruthlessness of leaders, the demise of innocent individuals, as well as the factors that led to these horrific events.

If one observes the past, they will notice that history is inevitable to repeat itself, and that throughout time there have been several events that shape how we live today. Two examples of those are the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism, both of which were a string of trials that charged people with being things they were not. The trials took place in Colonial Massachusetts from 1692 to 1693, while McCarthyism lasted from 1950-1957. The Salem witch trials involved accusations against alleged witches while the era of McCarthyism consisted of investigations held against alleged communists. Despite the two being over two hundred fifty years apart, they were still caused by the same basic reasons. The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism also had many resemblances. These included false accusations against citizens, unfair trials without any substantial evidence to prove a person’s innocence or guilt, and a widespread fear in the society against the people accused of the supposed crimes.

The Salem witch trials were trials for people who were being accused of worshiping the devil. They believed the witches were out to harm others in supernatural ways. They were believed to be able to turn into animals, cause others to become possessed by looking at them, and were accused of being the cause of illness or miscarriages. However, there are many false theories about the Salem witch trials causing many controversies. One of the bigger controversies was if people were really being possessed by the three women. Often times, if doctors could not find a cause to an illness they will blame it on witchcraft. “Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the spring of 1691 and winter of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He could not find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnosis of unseen conditions at the time”. They believed there had to be a cause to everything and if something