The Pros And Cons Of The Holocaust

They held the highest population in all and every camp. In retaliation to Jews for killing a German policeman in self defense on July 31, 1940 the nazis carried out a public mass execution(“Holocaust”). This day was later named “Bloody Wednesday”.They were tortured by anxiety, were insecure of the present, torn between hope and despair, and felt helpless. There were many people who were persecuted during the Holocaust that weren’t Jewish: spouses of Jews, Roma Gypsies, resisters, priests and pastor, Jehovah Witnesses, political enemies, homosexuals, the disabled, and African-German descent. Spouses of Jews had to choose between getting a divorce or being sent to concentration camps along with their Jewish Spouse.

November 9-10, 1938 was known as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. Anti- Semitic Germans carried out this vicious attack targeting innocent people of Jewish faith. During this event, over 1000 synagogues were scorched and over 7500 Jewish run businesses were looted. The Jews were victims of the horrendous practice of scapegoating. As defined by dictionary.com, scapegoatism is “the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself.” The German extremists blamed the Jews for the problems in their country such as hyperinflation caused by the German government printing an excess of money, not by Jewish bankers.

Nazis dehumanize the jews in multiple ways and for multiple reasons in the times of the holocaust. The holocaust took place during WWII. At this time the chancellor of Germany know as Adolf Hitler had ordered a crusade against the jewish race. In this time period over 6 million jewish people including men women and children. Families were stripped from their homes with nearly all of their possessions removed from them.After first entering the gates they weren't even allowed the cloths off their backs.Elie Wiesel introduces the theme of Dehumanization in the holocaust by reckoning event of his past life throughout the novel.

Since Hitler wanted everyone to be like the “pure” or Aryan race he created the Nuremberg laws which are the strict laws that eventually led to the Holocaust. By Hitler creating these laws it deprived the Jews as being German citizens. In the World War II Timeline it states “the Nuremberg laws are passed in Germany, stripping Jews of their rights as German citizens.” They were no longer permitted to work in certain professions and were forbidden to marry anyone of the “pure” or Aryan race . In “The Holocaust” “Nazi ideology” it states “...banned Jews from many professions, and prevented Jews from marrying those they considered Aryan or “pure” Germans.” This law had a tremendous part leading to the Holocaust because it restricted the Jews from having rights and it led to Hitler telling them what they could and could not

Although many atrocities were being committed, the Germans feared for their lives if they stood up for the Jews and disobeyed Hitler’s rule. David would be correct if he said that some Germans became systematically cruel, but the fundamental attribution error is introduced when David says that all Germans became systematically cruel.

In 1935, the Jews were stripped of their citizenship. This was followed by the Nazis destroying Jewish businesses, hospitals, and synagogues in 1938. This led to violence in which 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and 100 Jewish men were murdered. Not only that, but 6 million European Jews’ deaths was caused by the Nazi party. Overall, the Nazis did many cruel things to Jews that were completely unnecessary.

Similar to the middle class, Hitler also blamed the Jews for many of the problems that occurred at the time. As a result, the German’s supported the idea of the Final Solution. The Final Solution was the Nazi’s attempt to create the perfect Aryan race by annihilating the Jews. Through Hitler’s attempts to create a unified, perfect Aryan race by exterminating the common enemy, Jews, he was supported by the German’s. In document three, we see how appealing Hitler was in his speeches.

Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or a group of positive human qualities. This process was widely used across concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Hitler used this tactic to gain power over the people he imprisoned. Dehumanization is a disturbing process that nobody should have to endure and its terrible that so many innocent people had to experience it. Dehumanization makes people lose the will to live and made it easier for the Nazi’s to exterminate the Jews.

Millions of people through history have been treated unfairly. During WWII, the Holocaust was one of the greatest atrocities of all time. People were also wrongly accused and punished during the witch trials in Salem that occurred during the 1600s. these two events have differences but they also have similarities as well. The Nazis had empowerment over people.

The Nazis should not be solely responsible for the Holocaust because the Germans are also involved in playing a role with the massacres of Jews. The Germans bear the sole responsibility for the Holocaust because of their motivation to contribute in a significant role, their feeling of supremacy over minority groups, and their lack of resistance against the Nazi government. First of all, the Germans exhibited a deliberate will to contribute to the massacres of Jews in the Holocaust. Starting from October 1940, German soldiers were forcing 3 million Jews into concentrated ghettos in Poland, resulting in Jews being easily forced into extermination camps from the SS (Taylor, para. 3).