The Holocaust: The Cause Of The First World War

Causes of the Holocaust The Holocaust took place for a number of reasons some of which were long term and others short term. The main reasons are; for centuries Germany had been an anti-Semitic country Jews were used as scapegoats for German problems. Also centuries of Nazi persecution caused the Holocaust in particular 1933 -1939 as well as Adolf Hitler and his racist views which influenced thousands of Germans.

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.

Treated like dirt through a majority of his life is all Shep Zitler knew, he was born into a religious family and a tough culture surrounding him, the Holocaust effected his life to the extreme but along with all his suffering and the tragedies in his life the Holocaust did not take him. He stuck by his believes and made it out alive.

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.

As the Soviet Union made their way for the camp, the camp began to evacuate its three main camps and 44 subcamps. “SS units forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west from the Auschwitz camp system” (“Auschwitz,” n.d.). Prisoners were transported to Germany concentration camps. The travels to these camps were unbearable, and many prisoners lost their lives during the travel or were killed if they could not keep up during the marches. These marches are often referred to as “The Death Marches.” “On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered [Auschwitz-Birkenau camps] and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying” (“Auschwitz,” n.d.).

Eleven million innocent people died and many did not know what they did or why it was happening to them (Rice 11). The Holocaust happened because of the Germans after World War 2 thought that the reason that their economy was falling down was because of Jewish people. The Holocaust followed the Ladder of Prejudice is a started with speech and moved its way up to “The Final Solution” also known as extermination. Hitler did not start with killing Jews. He killed Jews,Gypsies,homosexuals and many more religions or cultural people and Hitler also sent people to concentration camps if they spoke against the Government, then he moved to the Ladder of Prejudice, he used discrimination, physical attack and, extermination.

Imagine your normal days turning into dreadful nights for such a heartless reason. In 1930 the hatred of Jewish people extended, laws were passed changing every Jew’s life into a terrifying life full of torture, sadness, and lack of education.

During World War II, the world witnessed unspeakable acts of violence, particularly that of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a mass genocide primarily of, but not limited to, the Jewish population in Germany, and other countries that were controlled by Germany. From 1941 to 1945, the Jews were targeted and methodically murdered because of Hitler’s views of his Utopian society made up of an Aryan a race. Hitler fought to create this society through creating an anti-Semitic movement, his motivation and thirst for power and through his rituals of violence used to purge society of the undesirable races.

When people elevate to the status of citizen in their respective country, it’s surely a momentous occasion. However, once the title of citizen is acquired there are certain responsibilities that must be fulfilled. Tim Holden said "The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction"(Holden). Holden’s quote has a specific point that is incredibly important which is confronting the consequences of inaction. Anger and revulsion can arise from a variety of epicenters, but one that undoubtedly protrudes is Adolf Hitler throughout World War II. Inaction can be a godsend, but definitely has a dangerous side which held true during the Holocaust and still holds true today.

“Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor. The largest mass murder in all of human history is known as The Holocaust, or in Greek, stands for “sacrifice by fire.” After rising to power in 1933, Germany’s Nazi Party planned a highly organized strategy of prosecution, murder, and genocide targeting Jews specifically due to their “race.” Leaving nearly six million Jews and five million Slavs, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, disabled, and political and religious dissidents dead, The Holocaust was called the largest mass murder ever recorded in history, lasting for nearly twelve years.

Since the terrorist attack on Paris, to the natural disasters in Haiti; there have been a variety of tragic events that have occurred throughout history across the world. Perhaps one main tragedy that leaves people feeling baffled is the Holocaust. Eric Lichtblau described the Holocaust in his article, The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking, as a genocide in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its associates killed approximately six million Jewish people because the Nazis believed that exterminating the Jewish people was justified. They believed this for the reason that Jewish people were not only a “low” and “evil” race, but were affecting the lives of the Germans negatively and blamed them for all the social and economic problems in Germany (Lichtblau). The puzzling part is what would make an authoritative figure, such as Adolf Hitler; do such an atrocious thing to a group of people? Social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiment on obedience to authority in 1963 analyzed what makes people obedient to an authority. Milgram’s experiment found that factors such as the authority figure, the use of deception and the agentic state of the person can further explain why people obeyed Hitler to the point that induced the Holocaust.

During World War I Adolf Hitler served his country which the defeat of his country lead him to blame the Jews. Hitler after the war joined the National Socialists German Workers’ Party, which was known to the English as Nazis. In 1923 he wrote his memoir “Mein Kampf” which translates to my struggles, in which Hitler expressed his obsession for the idea of a perfect Aryan race. January 20, 1933 was when Hitler was named the chancellor of Germany. The first concentration camp that Adolf opened was Dachau in March of 1933 which was under control of Heinrich Himmler. In November of 1938 is a night remembered as Kristallnacht because the Jewish synagogues were burned, shop windows were smashed and close to 100 Jews were arrested or killed. Jewish people began to flee while those who didn’t suffered from the fear of what happened. In 1939 the German Police had forced over tens of thousands of Jews into ghettos that were surrounded by high walls with barbed wire on the top. Later that year, over 70,000 Jews who were deemed unfit were gassed to death in what the Nazis called a Euthanasia Program. In 1941 was when the Nazi officers began making the Jews wear a yellow star to help identify them. The idea of using Zyklon-B came from testing done on over 500 Soviet prisoners of war. In the late 1941 was when Germany began mass shipment of Jews to the concentration camps. The elderly and those who were weak and young were the first taken to the camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau

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.

The holocaust was a series of events that took place in Germany then throughout the rest of western Europe. Firstly Adolf Hitler was imprisoned for high treason after leading a failed coup d'etat on November 8th-9th 1923. During his incarceration he wrote a book called ‘Mein Kampf” or “My Struggle”. In the book he went on to say that the “Judes” or Jews were to blame for Germany’s problems and later went to create the Nazi party. Later on German occupation was to establish Jewish ghettos in Poland in October 1939. The purpose of this was to dehumanize and segregate Jews from the rest of German/polish civilians while they were designed to be temporary some lasted for days while others lasted for several years, because of the deplorable living conditions of which the Jews were subjected to many men,women, and children died mostly of starvation, disease, or deportation to a concentration camp or “death camps”. This brings us to the next set of events that makes the Holocaust the atrocity it is known as today, after being ripped from their homes Jews were forced to spend days or even weeks in train cars with little to no food or clothes, most people in the cars either starved or froze to death. Those that did make it to one of the 40,000 camps men and women were then separated and forced to work as slaves, dig their own graves, shovel other dead Jews only to later be burned, gassed, starved, or plain shot in the back of the head etc. this took place from 1933 to 1945. A Nazi