What Was the Significance of Anti-Semitism to Nazism - Essay Example

What was the significance of anti-Semitism to Nazism? Introduction Prior to First World War, there was no homogenous or national German anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, hatred for Jews still existed but at a local level and lasted for relatively short periods, serving the interests of certain social groups. The period from 1916-1924 resonated with difficult political, psychological, social, and economic conditions that saw the festering of German mass anti-Semitism, and the dehumanization of Germany society and its elites. Similarly, the hyperinflation of 1922-23 was also in tandem with devaluation of human life. The gradual transformation witnessed during this period orchestrated modification on the centrality of anti-Semitism within German society. People whom anti-Semitism had had never been a way of life begun to adopt anti-Semitism jargon. This paper explores the significance of anti-Semitism to Nazism by exploring anti-Semitic propaganda, activity, and motives employed by Nazis. In a special way, the paper will spotlight the significance of race within the Nazi (German Worker’s Party) policy and political motives. Importance of Anti-Semitism to Nazism Anti-Semitism in Germany had a strong appeal of Nazis. In fact, anti-Semitism was fundamental to Nazism. Anti-Semitism was a decisive factor in Nazi rise to power as well as vast popularity of Hitler throughout 1930’s and early years of Second World War (from 1933-1945). The period from 1929-1933 has a lot of significance to the Weimer Republic history, the Nazi party, and German and Nazi anti-Semitism. It was at this period that Nazi became a mass political body. The Nazi party creatively employed anti-Semitic ideology and propaganda to rise to power (Lucy 1987, p.48). The most prominent element of Nazi ideology was the creation of a new Germany. The pledge of a national rebirth resonated well with the majority, especially during 1930s when the Weimar republic fought economic and political crisis. Nevertheless, not everyone was to share in Nazi vision of national community; in his speech, in January 1932, Hitler remarked that those who undermined the “body of the people” had to be mercilessly expelled. This remark was not novel in German society. Hitler and other Nazi leaders had repeatedly ranted on the need to cleanse Germany of diverse community aliens inclusive of three groups. These include political opponents (leftist), social outcasts (those considered as deviant such as homosexuals), and racial aliens (Rubenstein & Roth 2003, p. 119). Nazi Germany was a society hell bent to the Holocaust since Hitler assumed power on the premise of saving Germany from the Jews (Almog 1990, p. 33). The Nazi party largely won backing in the upper and middle classes who had a soft spot for anti-Semitism. By then, anti-Semitism had gradually become part and parcel of most people’s personal outlooks (Lindemann 2000, p. 90). For instance, student fraternities had for a long time become deposits of anti-Semitism. The fascist thinking of Hitler made him believe that Aryans possessed innate superiority that made the Nazis visit acts of terror on those whom they thought to be inferior such as Jews (Eatwell 2003, p.5). The ideals of Hitler that centred on Germany being superior stemmed from imitating Italian fascists. The charismatic leader spread his ideals most of which anti-Semitic to the followers of the party (Rubenstein & Roth 2003, p. 121). Hitler pursued the creation of a new state of people by removing ethnically and racially undesirable people from German people. Anti-Semitism and the eventual Holocaust acted as the cornerstone of Nazism in the Third Reich. A hardcore of radical anti-Semites existed within the party’s policy against the Jews and can be perceived as a gradual radicalization process. This is because racist, anti-Semitic tone became a pivotal element of the Third Reich ideology and propaganda from mid-1930s (Laqueuer 2008, p. 9). This was the time at which German and Nazi anti-Semitism entered a fresh phase to “the road to extermination.” The Nazi party capitalized on the context of the economic depression of the 1930s and employed racist as well as older social, economic, and religious imagery to engender anti-Semitism. This gave the party popularity to seize power and legitimacy (Ronnie 2006, p. 222). Nazi party presented the Jews as the source or cause of various political, social, economic, and ethical problems that confronted the German people. Adolf Hitler was the force behind the anti-Semitism in Germany. In drumming support for Nazism, he constructed theories of racial struggle alleging Jew’s intent to survive and expand at the expense of the Germans. The Nazis, as a governing party from 1933-1938, sanctioned anti-Jewish boycotts, organized book burnings and enacted anti-Jewish legislation. For instance, the Nuremberg laws (1935) defined Jews by race and permitted the total separation of “Aryans” or “master race” from “non-Aryans” (Blinkhorn 2000, p. 31). The origins of Nazism and subsequent Nazi anti-Semitism emanated from Weimar society as reflected by apparent radicalization and politicization of the society. Anti-Semitism was significant to Nazi ideology. The Nazis targeted the Jews by blaming them on communism and other left-wing tendencies. Nazi conspiracy theorists toyed with the imagination that communism was a Jewish plot regardless of the fact that the majority of communists were not Jews. This manifested application of ultra-reactionary mythologies to spread anti-Semitism (Rubenstein & Roth 2003, p. 143). Anti-Semitism, which was a central Nazi ideology and propaganda tool, was significant to Nazism in the sense that it attracted mass support. Anti-Semitism stirred national consciousness and gained the party a lot of support (Graml 1992, p. 5). In addition, Anti-Semitism was a manipulative tool for the Nazi leadership. The promise to restore order within the German society had been a core ingredient in the Nazi appeal to the German public. The Nazi, right from the beginning, did not hide their predisposition to anti-Semitism. The Nazi repression was apparent in the sense that they could not rely on unrestrained terror alone, but also a series of laws, decrees, and regulations, which painted some legality to Nazi terror. Anti-Semitism was widely diffused; there was vibrant interplay between the action of the leaders and those of rank and file. Whereas Hitler and other top Nazi officials set the tone and initiated crucial policies of repression, they mostly did not sanction every act of terror. Indeed, the local Nazi supporters, who were confident they were acting as per the wishes of Hitler, orchestrated the assault of the Jews, the leftists, and other social outsiders. However, the Nazi activists operated within the general framework shaped by Hitler and those at the top. Beside Nazi fanatics, most of the state and municipal officials sympathized with Nazism although they were not fervent supporters prior to 1933. One of the ideas was about social outcasts profiled by theories of eugenics and degeneration. Exclusionary discourses such as anti-Semitism became radical during and immediately after German defeat in First World War and intensely during final crisis years of Weimar state. Nazis anti-Semitism was the most vicious. Anti-Semitism was essential to Nazism as it set the agenda and fresh initiatives that others outside the Nazi government had been advocating. Thus, by playing anti-Semitism card, the Nazi was assured of active support from other racists (Kershaw 2000, p. 25). Nazis anti-Semitism was a radical transformation of the present norms and values. They instituted a moral climate in which drastic assaults on undesirables could be executed. Hence, measures previously rejected in the 1920s amassed more collaborators, especially among those who were previously not party to Nazi movement. Nazis’ use of Mass Murder as an Instrument of Policy The Nazis, under the cover of the war, had engineered the expertise, bureaucracy, and psychology of hate to exterminate Jews. The details on the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” were ironed out at the Wannsee Conference, which resolved that all Jews in Germany and occupied countries be rounded up and deported to sealed ghettos, which acted as holding areas (Lucy 1987, p. 70). The final solution provided of deportation of Jews, immediate death to those who could no longer work, decimation via forced labour, segregation by gender of remaining Jews, and eventual death to the remnants (Lucy 1987, p. 24). The Jews were subjected to inhumane conditions within the labour camps. Those who did not fit the profile of labour camps were sent directly to gas chambers in death camps. The entire state bureaucracy was employed to solely annihilate Jews, whereby German technological expertise was exploited to make mass murders efficient and of low-cost as possible. The S.S. head in October 1941 issued an order within Nazi chain of command, which proclaimed a radical shift in Nazi policy concerning the “Jewish Problem.” The new policy abandoned the policy of forcing Jews to emigrate. The new resettlement policy was a smokescreen for genocide perpetrated against the Jews. Deportation was indeed the first step in the Final Solution. Within the ghetto, Jews were subjected to social, economic, and physical isolation with starvation, disease, and cold leading to the deaths of many (Wolfgang 2000, p.10). Initially, the Nazi concentration camps, established beginning of 1933, were meant for imprisoning political opponents. However, after the “Night of the long knives,” authority and management of the camps was handed over to the S.S. who expanded the facilities and used them to hold other undesirables such as the Jews. Nazism created institutional collaboration by using anti-Semitism as the point of reference. Virtually, every department of the sophisticated bureaucracy was involved in the killing process. The anti-Semitism pervaded all sections of German society such as social, political, economic, and educational. Anti-Semitism availed an ideology that fuelled Nazism and was the basic motivation for Holocaust (Ronnie 2006, p.164). This ideology was grounded in the illusory world of Nazi imagination. The policy of exclusion was most sweeping against the Jews whereby countless initiatives against Jews such as social segregation and discrimination, economic isolation, expropriation, and detention were instituted. This ultimately resulted to mass murder of millions of Jews. The murders were systematic and state organized (Rubenstein & Roth 2003, p. 2). The German skill in adapting the 20th century techniques of mass production got a transfer as a result of engineering the Final Solution. In 1941, the proponents of Final Solution exercised the same principles to inexpensively and efficiently mass murder Jews and other undesirables. The plants where these atrocities were carried out were the death camps. The focus of the Nazi genocide was unquestionably directed towards the Jews (Laqueuer 2008, p. 91). Nonetheless, the Third Reich policy of mass murder never affected Jews only, but also other non-Aryans. During the Holocaust, five to six million Jews were murdered, which constituted almost two-thirds of European Jewry. Nazis’ Use of Mass Murder as an Instrument of War The onset of World War II in 1939 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 heralded the transition to the era of annihilation. Genocide was provoked and sustained by Nazi anti-Semitism; the policy of exclusion was changed into a policy of annihilation. Mass murder was adopted as an instrument of war (Laqueuer 2008, p. 107). Millions of community aliens were killed inside the Third Reich; this expanded borders across Europe. A clear contrast between pre-war policy and war policy can be pinpointed. In pre-war, murder was an exception, but during the war, it was the norm (Perry and Schweitzer 2002, p. 73). Nevertheless, the war did not necessarily turn Nazi policy on its head but rather it was a continuation of pre-war policy. Pre-war policies such as isolation, detention, identification, and deportation availed grounds for later war measures. During the war, there was a direct line to genocide. Nazis use of mass murder as an instrument of war by creating fear with the intention of warning broader sections of the population not to dare them. Nazi rise to power via hollow moral restraints attracted wide support. Conclusion The popular reaction to Nazi repression bordered on passive support, apathy, or biased criticism. The passive population gave the Nazi a lot of mileage in pursuing their radical policies of exclusion. Nazis dream of a golden future was closely interwoven with a dream of terror and destruction to the undesirables. In justification for the murder of the Jews, the Nazis employed racist arguments as well as arguments crafted from older negative stereotypes. The anti-Semitic arguments portrayed Jews as communist dissidents and a threat to internal security. These propositions stemmed from alleged Jews deep-seated disloyalty and opposition to Germany. This demonstrates the fact that the centrality of anti-Semitism in Nazism is undisputable and cannot be overemphasized. References List Almog, S. (1990). Nationalism and Anti-Semitism in modern Europe, 1815-1945, Oxford, Pergamon. pp. 7-35. Blinkhorn, M. (2000). Fascism and the Right in Europe, 1919-1945, Harlow, Longman. pp.30-40. Eatwell, R. (2003). Fascism: A History parts 1 and 2, London, Pimlico. pp.3-5. Graml, H. (1992). Anti-Semitism in the Third Reich, Oxford, Blackwell. pp. 5-10. Kershaw, I. (2000). The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation ch.2, London, Arnold. pp. 5-25. Lindemann, A. (2000). Anti-Semitism before the Holocaust, Harlow, Longman. pp. 85-90. Lucy, D. (1987). The War Against the Jews, Harmondsworth, Penguin. pp. 24-70. Laqueuer, W. (2008). The Changing Face of Antisemitism: from ancient times to the present day, Oxford, Oxford University Press. pp. 90-110. Perry, M. & Schweitzer, M. (2002). Anti-Semitism: Myth and hate from antiquity to the present, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. pp.73-75. Ronnie, L. (2006). The Nazi Holocaust: Its history and meaning, London, IB Tauris. pp. 160-225. Rubenstein, I. & Roth, J. (2003). Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and its legacy part 1, London, Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 115-145. Wolfgang, B. (2000). The Holocaust: A German historian examines the genocide, New York, Columbia University Press. pp. 5-10. Read More