The Origin of Holocaust - Literature review Example

The Main Elements of Historians’ Debate about the Origins of the Holocaust Introduction Without dwelling on the controversial issue of historical objectivity, there have been several schools of though postulated towards unravelling possible causes of the Holocaust. Controversy existing around the historical constructs and perspectives largely emanating from the emotional attachment that followers of the topic have has for a long time resulted in ambiguous interpretation of its historical factors. Historical events prior to and after the World Wars overshadowed the actual holocaust and forces that could have facilitated its occurrence. To this end, historians input with regard to the causes of the Holocaust elicited different reactions that demonstrate the uncertainty that the topic presented to various sections of interest groups such as the historians (Evans 24). Soon after the World War II, there was a significant postulation by some major history scholars to the effect that the Holocaust never took place with a clear denial of the extermination chambers. Others gave a mixed up version of the story by claiming a much smaller number of Jews were killed. Alternatively, there was another section of scholars who toned down the brutality against the Jews by introducing the school of thought that several other non-Jew targets also existed in the extermination (Victor 354). In addition to these controversial positions held by historians, yet another division claimed that some bias was permeating into the topic since the number of Germans soldiers and nationals killed by the Allied forces during the World War I was way above that of the Jews Killed by the Nazis. In reiteration, they argued against isolation of the Nazis war against the Jews since the World War was such a war. It is the account of this ensuing debate that the following discourse attempts to give, visiting the elements of the given origin of the Holocaust. This discourse however restricts itself within the Holocaust debate until 1942. Origin of the Holocaust Denial Arguments Supporters and deniers of the Holocaust give different accounts of its origin, with the deniers largely refuting it existence. The historical account of the origin of Holocaust therefore becomes a debatable issue from the onset, which shifts the argument to the existence of the Holocaust. While it is largely acceptable that the Holocaust took place across the academic fraternity, the deniers’ account of the Holocaust is intriguing. According to Lipstadt (5) the impact of publications with the theme of Holocaust denial was detrimental to historical integrity for such serious events in world history. The author is fascinated by the ironical base of the denial postulates, since the evidence available from both the survivors and tangible documentary by far outweigh the arguments for denial. The deniers however find relief from the fact that Lipstadt had direct Jewish origin and possibility of bias in her argument would not be remote (Evans 8). One of the most vocal deniers of the Holocaust existence and happenings is perhaps David Irving, the British writer and history scholar. In many of his works, Irving took issues with the Allied forces regime after the World Wars and their apparent destruction of Germany through terrorist like intentions (Irving, 19). The author categorically denies the role of Hitler’s input in the Holocaust by stating that Hitler was unaware of the extermination program in the initial stages. Another prominent denier was Lucy Dawidowicz whose claim was to the effect that the ordinary usage and application of the word holocaust is out of place in the context of the Jewish extermination (Victor 542). He author argues that the wrong labelling of the alleged horror event is itself deceiving, probably due to the misrepresentation of the facts of existence of the extermination. In an ordinary holocaust, there is an element of unity between the sacrificed and the one carrying out the sacrifice, which is a holy religious practice. By connecting the relationship between the Jews and the Germans at the time, there was hatred that depicted the Jews as an evil and useless lot that could not fit in such a sacrifice. The author saw all reasons to refute the occurrence of the alleged extermination. Arguments toward the existence of the Holocaust The account of the origin of the Holocaust as documented by proponents of its existence as opposed to the position held by deniers seems to trace its factors from the period immediately before 1933. This is because the most definitive figure in the history of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, began his regime in Germany in 1933. By the time Hitler rose to power, Germany had terribly lost under the Versailles Treaty which effected harsh reparation penalties as well as disarmament. Following the huge humiliation, historians trace the turn of events for the fortunes of the country, particularly under the brutal nationalism oriented leadership that Hitler had promised his countrymen (Yahil 6). From the circumstances under which the country was surviving in at that time, it is clearly possible to isolate possible factors that triggered Hitler’s regime to facilitate the atrocities committed against the Jews. One of the factors that can be drawn from the circumstances prevailing in Germany immediately after World War I is the apparent instability at the helm of harsh international policy implementing the Versailles Treaty. Economic instability ensued from the heavy reparation that the country was to make to the Allies following the responsibility that Germany bore regarding the World War I. Furthermore, the great depression was still under the tunnel against the country, just as it was for other global economies. Coupled with the heavy military expenditure that the country incurred to support the World War I, these factors presented a seriously devastating inflationary pressure on the economy that left the country on the brink of a total collapse. These factors gave the opposition, the Nazi party the needed footing to win the election following promises of revival of the economy. It is from such background that the proponents of the occurrence of the Holocaust attach excuses for the extermination of the Jewish race. The Nazis employed propaganda to cool the rising political temperature after they had successfully incited the public against the government during and after the election. Having won in the election, the party’s political interest seemed solved while the economic challenge glaring ahead of its political regime seemed to be a nightmare. The propaganda wing of the party’s strategy had to work out a plan to apportion blame to the Jews and other minorities for the adversaries of the country. An anti-Semitic campaign was underway in Germany and threatened the life of the Jews in Europe under the Nazis (Wegner 157). Basing their arguments on the isolation criteria used by the Nazis, proponents of existence of orders to exterminate the Jews argue that racial theories had deeply been rooted in the Nazi regime. The regime had well articulated and protracted propaganda that applied evolutionary theory to support their evil treatment of the Jews. Theories to back the superiority of the Germans were doctored in a manner that would depict the Jews as an isolated case of existence and the only solution to deal with them was extermination (AICE 1). The initial support arguments were drawn from the adversaries of their country to the effect ha the lack of employment was as a result of the Jews wickedness. On the contrary, the German race was represented by the propaganda as an honest, industrious and blessed. To this end, the Jews who had dominated the most important positions in the economy such as finance, academic and press had caused the misfortune that befell the German economy. Legal repression According to Bergen (235), the Nazi policies divided the citizens into two categories, namely the Volksgenossen which meant "National Comrades" and the Gemeinschaftsfremde meaning “Community Aliens”. According to the policies, the Volksgenossen belonged to the Volksgemeinschaft (People’s Community) whereas the Gemeinschaftsfremde did not. The policies also divided the ‘enemies’ into three types namely the racial, political opponents and moral opponents. The Jews and the Gypsies were included in the racial group of enemies because of their ‘blood’. The political and moral opponents were taken to concentration camps for re-education so that they could eventually be absorbed back into the people’s community/Volksgemeinschaft. On the other hand, the Jews, being racial enemies, were treated as another ‘race’ and therefore they could never belong to the people’s community under any circumstances. This necessitated the total removal of these aliens from the Germany society. In 1938 Herschel Grunspan, a Jewish minor, assassinated a Nazi German diplomat called Ernst vom Rath in Paris. For the Nazis, this incident became the starting point of transition from legal repression to massive and open violence against Jewish Germans. As a result of this, the Nazi party and SA members conducted mass pogroms (Gilbert 168). The mass pogroms popularly became known as the Night of Broken Glass. During this night, the Jews were attacked while their properties were vandalized. More than 7,000 of their shops and 1,668 of their synagogues were destroyed. As many as 30,000 of them were sent to concentration camps where they stayed for several weeks. On their release, these Jews who had been held in concentration camps were suppose to proof that they would emigrate in the near future or alternatively, that they would transfer their property to the Nazis. Following this, a regulation that prohibited Jews from possessing weapons was passed (Dawidowicz 325). The inclusion of the Gypsies in the group of racial enemies supports the argument that there also existed other races in the termination process. However, up to 6 million Jews were killed. No such numbers were recorded among other racial minorities. This means that the Jews were the main target of the massive killings. Even as other deny that it never took place, there is no point in denying it because it was done openly and publicly. The destroyed synagogues stood for long as evidence in addition to the survivors who lived for long to tell a tale about this condemnable act against humanity. Nuremberg laws According to Hilberg (263), the Nuremberg laws were introduced by Hitler in 1935. They were basically laws for the protection of the German honour and the German blood. According to the Nuremberg laws, the Jews were prohibited from having sex with Aryans or marrying them. These laws caused the German Jews to loose their citizenship and civil rights. In the speech that Hitler made when introducing these laws, he said that if the Nuremberg laws could not solve the ‘Jewish problem”, then it had to be escalated to be handled by the National-Socialist Party for Endlosung (Hilberg 266). This actually meant that a final solution had to be found and duly executed. The term Endlosung was from then on used as the standard term for the extermination of the Jews in Nazi. In another of his speech, Hitler said that there would result an annihilation of Jews in Europe if at any other time the international-finance Jewry succeeded in plunging the world into another war. This comprised the efforts of those Jews inside and outside Europe. This speech was used to draw a conclusion to ‘The External Jew’, a 1940 Nazi propaganda movie. The purpose of this movie was to give a rationale and blueprint for the termination/elimination of Jews from Europe (Lipstadt 185). Sentiments of renowned Germans According to Harran (321), sentimental views about the Jews rose from propaganda which was being perpetrated by some popular individuals. Examples of such individuals are Richard Wagner, and Adolf Stocker. The view that Richard Wagner held was that there was an attempt by the Jews to modernize and control the old orthodox world. However, Wagner’s hatred was purely based on race and hence it had little to do with political motives. According to him, the Jews could not be artistically creative since they were strangers. He supported his argument by pointing out that all the art present in German developed from artists’ rootedness in the Volk. Therefore, his sentiments did not contribute so greatly in enhancing the anti-Jewish sentiments. Adolf Stoecker on his side did much to drive forth anti-Jewish sentiments/anti-Semitism among the Germans. Stocker was the chaplain to the Imperial Court and a person of high social credential. This greatly enabled him to have some very influential effect on the society. In 1878, Stoecker formed the Christian Social Worker’s Party. This party was formed purposely to oppose the Social Democratic Party. This was mainly because supporters of the Social Democratic Party advocated for equality and integration of the Jews. They had an anti-Christian influence on the society. This made the Jews to become an important part of the Social Democratic party. By forming the Christian Social Worker’s Party, Stoecker was directly fighting the assimilation of the Jews into the German society and the idea of treating them equally as the Germans. Protocols of the Elders of Zion Around 1900, the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ were published and distributed worldwide. This enhanced the development of anti-Semitism. To the disadvantage of the Jews, the protocols had purported Jewish authorship. They presented an appeal to the notion of the Jewish conspiracy to bring the world under their control. At this time, the notion was already a worldwide thing. These factors made the protocols to be very successful. Many statements that depicted Jewish endeavours to attain their goal of world domination were contained in the protocols. These included statements about Jewish shrewdness, cunningness, fraud and even treason. This created a lot of fear not only in Germany but across other nations in which the Jews had spread to. From this view, the Jews can be said to have a part in the development of holocaust (Victor295). Economic Depression in Germany Wegner (54) reveals that when the Weimer government was established, it was very ineffective. War and peaceful settlement had greatly devastated the German economy. This led to a rise in inflation and stress to the new government. At this time, the Social Democratic Party rose to prominence. This party held to their democratic principles. However, the prominence was not that positive. The Allied Powers placed restrictions on Germany after their surrender. There was also an assignment of guilt. As a result of this, the Germans sought for a place to lay blame. Eventually, the Jews and the entire social democratic party became the victims of this blame game. The anti-Semitism resulting from blame game went even a higher notch following repeated economic crisis. This found its basis on the political, social and economic prominence of the Jews. This led to the emergence of strong Volkish groups that were in opposition to the Jews an example is the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) which was under great influence of Adolf Hitler (Yahil 189). The search for Germany cultural identity The Jews were being viewed as mere outsiders by the Germans before the mid-nineteenth century period. Persecution of the Jews at this time took harmless form of limiting their social, political and economic activities in which they could participate in. The ‘Volkish’ ideology which was becoming more popular led to a transformation of this traditional anti-Semitism. John Gottfried is one of the proponents of the Volkish ideology. According to him, the Germany people were living in an artificial reality which was a structured, industrialized and increasingly urban society. The Volkish ideology increased national consciousness of anti-Semitism among the Germans. This was before the German unification in 1871. During this time, the German people really desired ties that would bind them together. This led to the emergence of the idea of German ‘Volk’. The word Volk was used to mean “the people”. This idea eventually succeeded in binding together the Germans. It became an eternal ideal that encompassed the whole community of the Germans. There was no probability of the idea undergoing any changes at that time or in the future. The German urban dwellers desired a return to the true Volkish lifestyle as experienced in the agrarian and medieval period. These dwellers claimed that they saw some moral values among the Volk for example uprightness and honesty. According to them, it would be good if these Volkish Ideals become common in Germany. This was to be required of all dwellers, whether local or alien. On the other hand, the Jews were not ready to identify with the German Volk-soul. Instead of assimilating the idea, the Jews stood outside its metaphysical identity (Victor 248). As a result of the Jewish rejection of the Volkish ideology, its proponents saw the Jews as being rigidly intellectual, materialistic, cosmopolitan and urban. They perceived all these as characteristics of direct opposition to the Volkish ideology hence an opposition to the Volk. This meant that the Jews were a threat to the German society. The Jewification of culture, also known as Verjudung, was gaining popularity in Germany at this time. The intellectuals expressed their fears that the legal safeguards that were meant to separate the Jews and non-Jews were being broken. German invasion In 1941, there was an invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany. This led to a new phase of the holocaust and its introduction in places where it never existed. Close to 80% of the Jews who occupied Luthania were exterminated by the Nazis. The Nazis were joined by some local occupants of certain Soviet territories in terminating the Jews. The Germans had greatly influenced them into seeking to exterminate the Jews. The killings were carried out in public as opposed to earlier trends of killings (Marrus 92). Having occurred in more than one part of the world, there is enough evidence that actually the holocaust took place. Conclusion The origin of holocaust is one matter that has generated controversy and heated debate than any other historical event among historians. Holocaust did not find its origin in one particular event or individual. Several societal and individual ideologies regarding the Jews merged in order to produce the final effect. Legal repression in Nazis, Germany economic depression, the search for Germany cultural identity, Germany invasion, protocols of the Elders of Zion, sentiments of renown Germans and the Nuremberg laws are some of the factors that led to the holocaust. Though some individuals deny its existence at any one time, the truth is that it happened and it stands to be condemned in one voice by all mankind today. However, the Jews can be blamed partly for having triggered such acts against them. 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