The phrase of “Witch Hunt” was originally from the 15th century in which many people were accused, arrested and punished for practicing and believing in witchcraft. “Witch Hunt”, in the modern world, usually happens when people have conflicts of interests, religious conflicts and ethical conflicts in their societies. All these types of conflicts are formed due to some people decide to live in their unique world, and resist other people who come from different races, cultures, background, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. They consider themselves are enormously superior to others, and constantly look for opportunities to get rid of their opponents. In many instances, they opt to use the unlawful and unethical means …show more content…
During WWII, the anti-Semitic Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler emphasized purity of race and opposed any forms of variation in the racial distribution of his country. To achieve his goals of racial purity, Hitler began to unfairly assert that the reason for the humiliating defeat of Germany was the betrayal of the Jewish population in the country. Through his memoir and propaganda, he provoked the public to discriminate against the Jews, or even eliminate them completely in the country. In addition, Hitler utilized many unethical and unjust means against the Jews such as destroying all the books written by Jews, and shutting down all Jewish-owned business. He even enacted the law to humiliate the Jews, and make them to become the targets of the public by forcing them to wear a yellow star mark. Hitler’s acts to the Jews were completely unethical and disrespectful of human dignity. Furthermore, Hitler’s massive killing of the Jewish people with poison gas in the concentration camps in Germany, and his allied territories were unlawful because all the Jewish victims were innocent citizens and had their human rights to live. About 6 millions of Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and that tragedy was all caused by people’s hatred and selfishness. Today, although the German government acknowledged their responsibility for the crime committed during WWII and provided financial assistance to the victims’ families, the massive illegal killing of Jewish people were
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Show MoreNight Night by Elie Wiesel is his own accounts of the Holocaust. Elie uses his experiences to inform others of the atrocities he saw, so that history will not allow such events to be repeated in the future. His family is separated. He and his father are sent to Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel survived the Holocaust and his accounts of Nazi death camps portray a dark time for moral values.
They have been seen as a mirror of the times' fears and tensions, as well as a warning of the risks of public frenzy, bigotry, and injustice. Witch-hunts were triggered by several circumstances, including
Since the Holocaust, the United Nations have made sure to let everyone throughout the world have equal rights. This mass killing of Jews violated every right that they had. They were beaten to death, shot on spot, starved, poorly clothed, et cetera. No one deserves the harsh treatment that they got throughout World War II. Nearly six million Jews died during this regime of a Nazi leader named Hitler.
The Salem witch trials began in October 1692, where the towns people of Salem Village Massachusetts thought they were being attacked by a conspiracy of witches. The Puritans also thought of North America as the devil’s territory, a super natural enemy. During the spring of 1692 a group of young girls started acting really bazar they claimed to possessed by the devil. The girls accused many older local women of witchcraft, usually all the women accused were usually outcasts. The result of those young girls Salem Village began a special court to hear the cases of accused women.
In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures. In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. Rather, recollecting others with distasteful memories such as witchcraft.
Tracing back to the 16th century witch hunting has been around causing the lives of many innocent people destruction. Witch hunting has never died off, it is still here today. In my opinion witch hunting will always exist and occur as long as we have fear, ignorance and jealousy. Many people were accused of being a witch or committing witch activity mainly throughout the 16th and 19th century. Primarily because people fear for what they don't know or can't understand.
According to merriamwebster.com the denotative definition of witch-hunt is ''the act of unfairly looking for and punishing people who are accused of having opinions that are believed to be dangerous or evil''. Another definition from dicionary.com says ''an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.'' both definition’s share the same meaning saying, that people are being punished for their supposed belief’s or actions.
The first known witch hunts took place in the early 1300’s (Wallenfeldt). As early as the 1400’s, prominent and trustworthy European figures like the pope released pamphlets on finding and persecuting witches (Saari 13-15). The Salem Witch Trials weren’t even the first to occur in America; a woman in Boston had been hung for witchcraft shortly before the Salem trials began. The people of Salem even cited the Boston trials as proof for their accusations; because their afflicted girls had the same symptoms as those in Boston, then clearly both must have been telling the truth (Alexander 194). It would make sense for Salem residents to look to past events to try and understand their current situation, since this is something that happens frequently through history and even
When they were hunting down communists and people were accusing everyone of being communists to keep the blame away from them. The term “witch hunt” is used today without any religious context to describe a period where people are accusing others of whatever the biggest issue was at that time. Salem wanted to alleviate itself from dangerous and threatening individuals. Greedy people wanted the new economic and political capitalism to themselves, and if that meant you accuse your neighbor of witchcraft, that’s what you did.
Hitler also changed the religious culture in many parts of Europe. One of Hitler’s main goals while in office was to eliminate the jewish and any other non-aryan people. In the process, Hitler made The Nuremberg Laws. Adolf Hitler, “implemented these laws to ostracize, discriminate and expel Jews from German society” (3) Diverse culture was rejected. Physically, the people of Germany, mostly jews, were affected because of Hitler trying to make the population one master race.
It is estimated around 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, each death leaving a scar on modern history, each death showing the monsters we all can be to our own people, or just revealing the monsters we truly are. Harsh changes were put on the Jews from the loss of basic human rights like freedom to the loss of lives. This inhumane treatment was done by their own kind, no sympathy, no empathy,
The Holocaust is the deadliest recognized genocide in human history. It lasted from January 30,1933 – May 8,1945 and would result in the l1 million deaths. The causes of the Holocaust begin at the end of World War One with what Germans referred to as “the stab in the back”. This was a myth that claimed the German Army did not loose World War One but was betrayed by the Jewish population who gave up land and supplies to the Allies. As this spread anti-Semitism or hate for Jewish people grew in Germany as people viewed the Jewish population as deceptive and traitorous.
If people allow themselves to be carried along with the crowd and caught up in the moment, they act in an irrational manner. The witch hunts of Salem and the McCarthy era serve no purpose, instead cause paranoia and fear. As a society, we are encouraged to stay vigilant, avoid witch-hunt mentality, and use caution when considering the condemnation of races of people such as those of Arab descent, lifestyles of people such as gays and lesbians, and profiling of people such as police officers targeting
Throughout the ages, people repeatedly use witch hunts as a method for dealing with issues that are widespread. A witch hunt is surprisingly efficient in dealing with all offenders because once the movement gains momentum, people are accused left and right for many reasons, such as protecting themselves or bringing down others. This goes so far that even once all criminals are dealt with, the crusade goes on to accuse innocent bystanders. It is particularly easy to convict innocent people in a witch hunt because when the accusations are for invisible crimes, there is no way for the defendant to prove himself innocent, leaving the accuser in a place of greater power.
A witch hunt is a campaign directed against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views or a search for and persecution of a supposed “witch”. Throughout history the idea of “witches” has changed dramatically from the 1600s when the events in Salem, Massachusetts where people were accusing women and child of using spells to bewitch people, bring chaos to a town, and associated with the devil (satan). Today people associate “the witch hunt” with a trail or hunt without physical proof or a valid reason to pursue this cause. Hysteria is an exaggerated and/or an uncontrollable emotion and/or excitement, especially among a group of people. This is one factor that allows people the perfect opportunity to create chaos and use scapegoats