Causes of the Holocaust, the Targeted Victims of the Holocaust - Essay Example

Holocaust Introduction Since the Nazis considered that the Jews were inferior to the Germans and likewise, regarded them as a threatening reality to the German racial community, the state sponsored such bureaucratic systematic murder all over their dominated territory during the World War II. This very disturbing historical incident was known as the Holocaust. Before the Holocaust, there were about nine million Jews in Europe, however approximately two – thirds of them were massacred by Adolf Hitler together with the Nazi regime. 1 With the given support of the state, there were different laws implemented in order to eliminate the Jews in which the Nuremberg Laws as introduced by Hitler had become one of the most notoriously known. 2 Even prior to the burst of the World War II, Nuremberg Law was ratified. On the one hand, the Nazis also subjected to slave labor and tortured to death the inmates seized in concentration camps. 2. Causes of the Holocaust What had made the Nazis to commit the Holocaust or the persecution of the approximately six million Jews was their discrimination and hatred against Jews or a phenomenon also known as anti – Semitism. The fundamental impetus for this disturbing massacre was only ideological. The Nazis had envisioned a world where the Jews would rule the world in which this was contradictory to the Aryan quest. They massacred millions of Jews as they regarded the Jews to be inferior to the Germans’ “supposedly” superiority. They killed these Jews because of the Nazi racial propaganda. 3. Pre-Holocaust German Culture and History The advent of the Volkisch movement in Germany and Austria – Hungary marked the second half of the 19th century. The anti – Jewish sentiments were so apparent. In fact, in 1895, a volkisch leader named Herman Ahwardt showed his discrimination over the Jews in a speech through referring to the Jews as "predators" as well as "cholera bacilli".3 Jews, according to Ahwardt, must be exterminated for the German people's sake.4 In this way, the German society would be at its greatest state. On the one hand, in 1912, Heinrich Class, also a powerful volkisch leader, stated in his best - selling book entitled "Wenn ich der Kaiser war" (If I were the Kaiser), that the it was pressed by Alldeutscher Verband to strip of their German citizenship all the German Jews and just be regarded of having an alien status.5 In addition to that, Class also called for the Jews to be singled out in all aspects of German life. Jews should not be permitted to own any land.6 For Class, they should not even embrace a public office or be engaged in banking, journalism and other professions of liberal nature where they could voice out their point of views.7 It was a total urge for anti - Semitism. 4. The Targeted Victims of the Holocaust The main victims of the Holocaust were the Jews residing in Europe. Hitler's Nazi regime massacred two - thirds of the nine million European Jews population. Nonetheless, it is of importance to note that during the Holocaust, the Jews were not only the segment affected. In fact, the Nazis also annihilated five hundred million Gypsies. Apart from that, there were more than three million Soviet prisoners of war who were killed. The mentally challenged and physically disabled individuals also were subject to killings. Under the Nazi rule, those undesirable to them including the Communists, Social Democrats, Polish intelligentsia, members of the trade unions, partisans, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and others were subject to persecution. Selection of Jews located at Auschwitz-II (Birkenau) in year 1944 It is also the case that the children were also victimized by the Nazis. They were also subject to death. Though the total number of children killed in this period was not known, an estimate as high as one and a half million children were believed to be murder. 8 5. Germany’s Responsibility of the Final Solution In 1930s, the world outside Nazi Europe had been aware of the persecution of Jews and the situation of remaining Jews. As a point of fact, both Great Britain and the United States of America did verify in 1942 Germany's aim to exterminate all the remaining Jews in Europe or what was called the Final Solution. Nonetheless, neither of these two countries attempted to discontinue or slow the genocide because of the anti - Semitism's influence as well as the fear of huge number of refugees that might come over their countries. Until in 1944, United States took rescue efforts but only to a limited extent. However, it was Denmark who happened to rescued majority of the European Jews and brought them to neutral Sweden. Even though it was not known when exactly would be the execution of the scheme of killing all the Jews in Europe, this was certain to happen in time for it was a plan devised by the Nazi rule. Having a decade of Nazi rule in Germany as led by a dictator named Hitler, the Nazis were indeed the sole responsible for the Holocaust which was disguised as cleansing Germany. 6. Conclusion Since the Nazis considered that the Jews were inferior to the Germans and likewise, regarded them as a threatening reality to the German racial community, the state ruled by the Nazi regime systematically singled out the Jews from all aspects of the German society until they were urged to exterminate them. The Nazi ideology of cleansing Germany of the sick and disabled followed by the recession saw the murder of millions of Jews and other innocent people during the Holocaust. Moreover, because there were many countries dominated by the German rule, they were tempted to cooperate with the Nazis’ genocidal propaganda. Nonetheless, powerful countries also made way to hide and rescue those targeted victims of the Nazis. Works Cited Hunt, Lynn. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Vol. C: Since 1740. Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2009. Friedlander, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945. Abridged Edition. Harper Perennial, 2009. Gramel, Herman. Antisemitism in the Third Reich. London: Blackwell, 1992. Niewyk Donald L. & Nicosia Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2000. Print. Read More