The Driving Force Behind The Crutality Of WWII And The Holocaust

Between the years of 1939 and 1945 many of the people in Germany let out their inner beast. Some likely never knew this inner brutality existed within them and others had kept it hidden deep inside intentionally. Irma Grese used the Holocaust to express her inner most anger and hate. She abused, killed, and controlled the people in the camps she worked at, all with the blessings of the German Nazis she worked for. A Holocaust survivor, Olga Lyngel, later described Grese as a “twenty-two year old girl…completely without pity.” This description of Irma Grese only gives a glimpse into her true essence. She consisted of a nature so completely devoid of compassion and empathy it barely resembled anything close to normal human behavior.

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

After WW2, there was a thing called the holocaust. There were many concentration camps all over Germany where many Jews were killed in different ways. It happened between WW1 and WW2, 1933-1945. My position on why this happened is that Germany was going through a rough time, so Hitler wanted their country to resemble power. Read on to learn more about the causes and ways the Holocaust could have been avoided.

The Holocaust was one of the most despicable acts of crime committed in history. It was the slaughtering of six million Jews along with other minority groups. Anti-semitism was on the rise in Germany due to one man, Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader is known to be one of the most infamous dictators that were able to rise to power. Leading Germany, Hitler improved the economy, started World War II with the idea of Lebensraum, and exterminated Jews due to youth anti-semitic influences.

What causes conflict? Well, conflict is caused when there is a disagreement or miscommunication. The Holocaust was a huge and bloody disagreement that led to World War II and was a horrific event that took place in the 1930-1940’s. A man that we’ve probably all heard of, named Adolf Hitler, came into power and participated in the slaughter of nearly 6 million jews, 250,000 disabled, and 196,000-220,000 Gypsies (according to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum website). These deaths were all over the European continent that were under German rule. My position on the main cause for the Holocaust was that the end of World War I left Germany in poverty. With the government in corruption, the people were desperate for change, so they allowed Hitler into power with the belief that others could control him if he did something bad. This obviously wasn’t true.

There are so many remarkable people who have gone before us and shaped the world into what it is today. With the passing of yet another Veterans Day, people were reminded of the extraordinary sacrifices made by ordinary men and women who were unfortunate enough to have lived during times when their nations were at war. Many ordinary citizens lost their lives as a result of the war, just as soldiers did. While some survivors simply lived out their post war lives, others survived and influenced the world. One person who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust during World War II and used his experiences to improve social, political, and religious conditions throughout the world, is Elie Wiesel. Through the words of Elie Wiesel, the public can witness the evils of war, keep these memories alive in the collective recall of future generations, and take action upon witnessing injustices of its kind.

Nowadays, people tend to forget the morality of human beings. For instance, the people in today’s world are attracted to greed or power letting their mind and body rot them. However, are we doing a right in letting people like that win? It might not seem much or anything, but as history has shown us otherwise with World War II. Like letting a tyrant leader like Adolf Hitler take over different countries and bring in what is believed the most horrific discrimination ever known. Therefore, it is right to agree with Elie Wiesel a former target of the Nazi Final Solution that the moment race and religion are involved then that soon must become the center of the universe’s attention.

In his novel, Night, Elie Wiesel recounts the horrific experiences that he faced as a survivor of the Holocaust during World War II. The following passage presents the impossible struggle to maintain a decent quality of life in the face of war:

The fascist belief in “neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace” caused WWII and the Holocaust to be so horrific (Doctrine of Fascism). This quote simply means that fascism believes war is good. This belief causing brutality can be seen when Hitler invaded Poland. Germany had previously taken over both Austria and Czechoslovakia with no punishment from the other European nations (even though the Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI, prohibited Germany from conquering land). This gave Hitler reason to believe that if he invaded Poland in a massive blitzkrieg attack, there would be no consequences. However, this time the other European countries did care and two days later Britain declared war on Germany. (Murphy 5/10). The invasion of Poland was what started WWII, a war that led to millions of deaths. Had fascism not existed, Hitler would not have believed that war would give him more land and slaves, and this invasion never would have occurred. This positive view of war also led to Japan attacking the U.S. When the Japanese began expanding into the Pacific, the U.S. did not trust what they were doing and told them to stop. This led to Japan thinking that the U.S. was standing in its way and the only way to get what they wanted was to attack. As a result, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. In response, the U.S. declared war on Japan and the rest of the Axis Powers by association (Murphy 5/10). The belief that war is good made Japan think that attacking the US. would settle their problems. In reality, however, this attack caused more countries to be at war, which caused more people to die. Finally, the positive outlook on war led to the China Incident. Japan and China had long been enemies, but China always had more power. However, during the WWII era, Japan had modernized while China had not so they became more powerful. The Japanese wanted to take advantage of their upper hand by attacking China. In order to do so, the Japanese blamed China for blowing up their railroads in Manchuria and shortly after a military campaign began.

The Holocaust is well known around the world, and many people do not realize the devastation and the technology that was used in that time. What we knew before was that the Holocaust resulted in the death of six million jews, and was controlled by the Nazi Regime. Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany and came up with the Final Solution, a plan to exterminate all the people of Jewish faith or race during World War II. This then brought in the concept of concentration camps. Concentration camps did not just hold Jews captive, they also targeted other groups such as Gypsies, African-Germans, Homosexuals, Atheists, and the physically and the mentally disabled. Now, it is common knowledge that that many people were killed in gas chambers or

“Holocaust” hails from two Greek words “holos” meaning whole and “kaustos” meaning burned. The Holocaust is a name that was used to historically define a sacrificial offering that was burned on an altar. However, from 1945, the word holocaust attained a new and horrible meaning. It was used to define the mass murder of 6 million European Jews. The Jews were killed along with some other persecuted groups such as homosexuals and gypsies. Now, the term Holocaust is used to define the mass murder of the Jews and this paper will explore the occurrences surrounding the Holocaust.

Seventy-seven years ago marked the start of a disastrous world conflict, which left many countries in ruins. World War II was fought from 1939 to 1945 and caused an abundant amount of damage to the nations around the world (USHMM). Twenty-one years prior to this war, the first world conflict broke out and it left quite a mark. At the end of WWI, many countries were left in great economic debt. One country, in particular, was Germany. The country was blamed for starting the war in a treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain, and France. The Treaty of Versailles placed the blame on Germany and specified that a certain amount of money had to be paid to the three countries that signed the document. (around 33 billion U.S dollars) ("Holocaust Timeline."). Germany was also forced to downsize their army which made the country angry and defenseless. When a certain individual came into the picture, German citizens saw hope that he could rebuild and change Germany. This man would help Germany lower their unemployment rate and aid in getting their economy back to normal. This German political figure led over 11 million people to their deaths and caused one of the most known genocides known to mankind. This event is recognized today as the Holocaust.

Following the Second World War and the gradual acceptance of the Holocaust, the historiographical field devoted decades to the analysis of the causes, motives, perpetrators, and consequences of the worst genocide the world had seen. While thousands of scholarly articles and books have been published on the matter, Snyder veered from the Holocaust trend and focused on a particular geographical area, one he would come to call the “bloodlands”, after the fourteen million civilians who were “victims of murderous policy”. His book captures the horrors of systematic and targeted killings, ranging from mass shootings to induced starvation, through the lens of state policies and children’s naïve hopes for survival. The decision to move away from Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps and focus instead on the impact the Soviet Union and Third Reich had on the lives of men, women and children in the occupied zones of Eastern Europe sheds light on a region and a time that had unfortunately been largely reduced to a few notable locations. Snyder’s methodological research and vivid anecdotal injections allow for a striking comparison between Hitler’s Nazi regime and Stalin’s “political” action in the bloodlands, but ultimately the distinguishing feature between the two campaigns of atrocity was the relationship between ideology and practical circumstance.

Throughout the endless history, there were lots of important and influential event. For example the Dark Age, Enlightenment, Civil War, World War I and II and the Cold War. Over all of these event, there was one event that deeply influence the world and the Jews today, it was the Holocaust. Holocaust, a term that people use to describe the horrible event that happened during World War II which kill millions of innocent citizens. The Holocaust started at January 13, 1933, when Hitler became the leader of Germany. It continued until the V - E Day, which happened on May 8, 1945. 6 million Jews, and 5 million non-Jews were killed during the Holocaust. The causes and effect of the Holocaust was Hitler’s racism, poor economic conditions, and the death of 6 million Jews which led to the creation of the nation of Israel.

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.