Homophobic Violence and Murder in Contemporary Britain - Assignment Example

Criminology: Homophobic violence and murder in contemporary Britain Introduction Holocaust is knownto be amongst one of the most horrific moments that the Jewish community has experienced in Europe and all over the world. The main perpetrator of these massive killings is said to be German dictator Adolf Hitler. He is the one that engineered holocaust that accounted for the death of more than ten million people of which the Jews recorded a higher percentage of the killings. It is, therefore, approximated that the Jews killed were about six million. It can be said that although Hitler is the most blamed for the holocaust, but there are other reasons that are to blame as the cause of this inhumane act. Holocaust can be defined to be as a systematic, bureaucratic state sponsored perception as well as murder that concentrated towards the Jewish Community in Europe, and this happened just before the World War II. The Nazi regime with their accomplices not only wiped the Jews but also killed other groups that are considered inferior. These inferior groups included the Roma (Gypsies), the disabled and the people of the Slavic origin. The holocaust was inclusive of persecutions to other groups based on political, ideological and behavioural stands. Perceived Causes of Holocaust First and foremost, holocaust can be associated to the rising to power of the Nazis. Their climb to power came as a result of German defeat in the World War I. The defeat wounded the Germans especially with more pressure being instigated by the Versailles treaty. It blamed Germany to accept the blame for causing the world war. As a result, the Germans were demanded to pay huge amounts of money to their allies. Germans were forced to take some loan from the United States so as to cater for the financial cost of the war. Due to the Great depression, US started to demand for the loan repayment (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2010, p.01). Hence, the Nazi’s were committed to bringing a change and make Germany a great country thus they took over the government in order to make the promises of rebuilding the nation a dream come true. They got elected and took over the government (Rakoczy 2010 ,p.01). Secondly, public support contributed intensely to the occurrence of the Holocaust. The public support, therefore, played an integral part in the initiation of the holocaust. The political orientation of the Nazi mostly prospered due to the propaganda that was used to influence the public. The propaganda painted the Germans as the superior people and turned them against the Jews who ended up receiving much hatred and sufferings in the brutal hands of the Nazis (Lieberman 2009, p.01). Thirdly, the economic turmoil of the Germans was accused on the Jews. The Nazi party continually spread the propaganda that the Jews were taking all money solely for themselves. The propaganda was widely manoeuvred all over the population by Hitler together with his army and after time, this anti-Semitic behaviour seemed become acceptable in the rest of the German population. This government utilized radio sets as rumour mongers who ended up being believed by the public. Hitler’s anti-Semitism surpassed the religious anti-Semitism directed over the Jews for refusing embracing Christianity. Hitler contributed to the burning of the Jews’ businesses by claiming that they were out to take over the world (Yahya 2010, p.01). Fourth, the other cause of the holocaust can be linked to the lack of intervention especially from other nations from stopping the Germans from these activities. Even after the Evian conference and this was before the war, the Great Britain together with the US and other nations met to discuss the predicaments of the Jews in hands of Germans. During this time, the Jews were permitted to flee from German at will. The outcome of the conference suggested that Jewish quotas were to be developed for admitting the Jews in their territories. Unfortunately, only, Dominican Republic was the only country that had opened their boundaries to accommodate the fleeing Jews (Levy & Sznaider 2002, p.87). Modernity as a Condition for Holocaust 1. Moral Indifference Bauman explains following Ardent that there exists a fundamental form of pity that is existent in all humans that make it difficult for people to hurt others and more so harder to kill. Therefore, he argues that there is usually the driving force somewhere which allows people to overcome the natural barrier of executing killings and violence. According to Eichmen, who was one of the architects of holocaust strategy, defended his actions by the deeds were condemned simply due to the German loss but said it would be different suppose they had won. His view led to the claims that most of the actions performed during holocaust were normal in the abnormal conditions that existed. He speaks of three conditions that lead to the moral decay, and they include; Authority, Routinization and dehumanization. Authority makes people let of their moral responsibility which in the normal case they would uphold. Most of these killings done were as a result of the soldiers obeying orders of their seniors. Routinization happens one is subjected to doing a similar thing over and again hence killing the moral conscience of choice which they would have made. The habit and routines lead to the actions that do not present moral choice thus this condition impacted on the deaths of the many Jews. Lastly, dehumanization is termed to be the process that includes moving a person outside from the moral universe. Therefore, Bauman suggests that there are people whom moral morals apply. Thus he explains that if such people are reframed and renamed in a way that they do not fit in the universe; then this will deter them from the conundrum of executing killings to people (Novick 2000, p.66).  2. Long-standing Prejudice Anti-Semitism cannot be directly linked to being cause of the holocaust. The reason is so that from time immemorial, they have been anti-Semites but the act of holocaust was a new one. Anti-Semitics was in existence in the other European countries. Perhaps in German it was considered to be significantly lower as opposed to France and neighbouring states. Therefore, the anti-Semitism that occurred between the Germans and Jews was beyond scale limits in two aspects. This hatred had a long history attached to it. It dates back slightly shortly after the rise of Christianity. One of the unique features of the anti-Semitism is because it had been in existence for such a long period. The anti-Semitism between Germans to the French was different from that of Germans towards the Jews. The unique feature of this anti-Semitism was because the French had their country unlike the Jews who were considered homeless thus a nation without a nation. The interaction of Jews and Germans during the feudal era was a little bit stable, and this was because the social structure was in harmony. Therefore, the disorganisation that occurred over time has been highly blamed on modernity (Stone 2010, p.35). 3. Extermination Approach The Germans moved the act of repulsion to that of extermination. Such acts got spearheaded by the belief that if something proved incurable then it called for exterminated. According to the Nazi logic, the Jews were incurable to them and thus could not be rehabilitated. Bauman quoted Goebbels statement that there was no hope of bringing the Jews back to the world of civilization even if it’s by exceptional punishments. He persisted the will always remain to be Jews just as the Germans will forever be of the Aryan race. They believed that racism alone was insufficient in instigate holocaust hence aware that they needed activating some numbers to execute the mass killings. The continuous resentment led to the mass destruction of the Jewish community (Bauman 2013, p.106). 4. Extra-ordinary nature of the Genocide The holocaust cannot be likened to the other forms of genocides experienced in history. The features in the holocaust are untraceable in the previous genocides witnessed. Through the multiple riots or pogroms, the holocaust could not have been achieved since the applied rate of killing of Kristallnacte would have taken 200 years to match the number of deaths experienced during this time. Bauman, therefore, wants to emphasize his point that the nature of genocide that was perpetrated by Hitler was as a consequence of the modern ideological vision from the Nazis side. Arendt singled out the ideological basis of the totalitarian movements while Bauman was categorical to argue that these ideologies are specifically modern because they stem up from the desire to control as well as manipulate nature. Consequently, the killings executed by Hitler and Stalin were not for capturing a territory but rather aimed at making the world order perfect (Bauman 2013, p.94). 5. Bureaucracy Bureaucracy was given the approval nod to get rid of the Jews in German. The stages that were applied by the Germans made it possible to terminate the Jews without much struggle. The Germans followed the order of first making distinctions and then segregation effected. Thereafter, deporting followed and finally the execution of the Jews. This systematic process applied by the Nazis rulers was very important in increasing the social distance between the Jews and the Germans. The segregation led to the establishment of ghettos where the Jews were condemned to live in impoverished house structure lacking the necessary amenities. In the ghettos, they lacked access to food, water, space as well as the necessary sanitary facilities required for a healthy living. Such poor living conditions resulted to deprivation and starvation. They proceeded to put them in concentration camps, and this contributed greatly in aiding the Germans perform they intended motive of execution that led to the death of millions of Jews (Kimel 2010, p.01). The executions were condcted in an organized way. Germany formed four mobile groups which utilized to accomplish the killings. Each group comprised several units of commandos. The Jews were gathered by these groups and then marched into the huge pits that they had prepared earlier. They were then stripped, lined up and finally shot dead with automatic weapons as they fell into the already dug huge pits. The falling into the pits facilitated the process of burying the dead in mass graves (Bülow 2010, p.01). Conclusion Having had intensely studied the causes of the holocaust and concentrated to understand Bauman’s argument of modernity and holocaust, I can agree to some extent his way of thinking. The reason for my support to his thinking is that he has dated back clearly to the ancient of times when the social structures were strong thus good existence was present but modernity promoted disintegration of these structures. Also, the level of hatred that sprung up between the Jew and Germans can be attached to modernity as Bauman argues. The hatred that resulted to the holocaust was due to the modernity propelled by the Hitler and Nazis through the ideological vision resulted to holocaust. References Bauman, Z. 2013. Modernity and the Holocaust. Rutledge: John Wiley & Sons. Bülow, L., 2010. The Holocaust: Crimes, Heroes, and Villains. Auschwitz. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from www.auschwitz.dk/anker /holocaust/. Kimel, A., 2010. Direct Causes Of The Holocaust. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from kimel.net/direct.html. Lieberman, D., 2009. Causes of the Holocaust. Associated content. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from www.associatedcontent.com/article/1353270/causes_of_the_holocaust.html. Levy, D., and Sznaider, N., 2002. Memory Unbound The Holocaust and the Formation of Cosmopolitan Memory. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(1), 87-106 Novick, P., 2000. The holocaust in American life. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Rakoczy, C., 2010. Why Did the Holocaust Happen? Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/history/why-did-the-holocaust-happen.html United States Holocaust Memorial Museum., 2010. The Holocaust. Ushmm. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005143&lang=en. Yahya, H., 2010. The Causes of the Old Holocaust Are Building Up For a New One. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/the-causes-of-the-old-holocaust-are-building-up-for-a-new-one-1918168.html Stone, D., 2010. Histories of the Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More