Holocaust and Other Atrocities of the Third Reich - Essay Example

The Holocaust The horrendous actions of the Third Reich during WWII are well documented. The result ofthe Nazi’s immoral ideologies included occupying much of Europe and the ‘final solution,’ the murder of more than six million Jews (Dawidowicz, 1986: 3). Throughout the history of the world, many countries have conquered others for a variety of motives while oppressing its citizens but what was the motive for systematically exterminating a particular race of people? How could such a passionate hatred of Jews spread through an entire national conscience causing such horrific acts to be perpetrated? Despite popular opinion, the Holocaust didn’t occur because the German people fell into a hypnotic trance of some sort and suddenly felt obligated to kill innocents simply from hearing Hitler’s charismatic speeches. Most German citizens did not know of the Concentration Camps, including the residents of the cities where these camps of death were located. The executions were performed by the German military with SS troops, paramilitary police unit, in charge of the operations. Both the unknowing German citizens and the most fanatical of Nazi’s did have something in common however, a nationalistic idealism which was the underlying motive for the annihilation of the Jewish race. This common idealism was derived from the result of a long developing German cultural connection via the ideology of Volkism, with beginnings from the previous century. This paper will show evidence that Nazi foreign policy ambition before 1939 extended not only to regional military invasions but to total racial, ideological and cultural dominion on a global scale. It will look at the Aryan Nazi aspiration to be the world’s main power in terms of obtaining territory beyond simply Europe and Russia. No greater illustration is the Nazis plans to eventually invade the U.S. Additionally the paper will examine the significance of eliminating the Jewish race so that the Aryan race could govern the world and the Nazi’s association with art, the symbolic meaning behind controlling the world’s works of art so they could control the world’s combined culture. The Nazi state did not focus on production or preserving Germany’s economic condition but instead on its ability to prey upon other societies. Guided by authoritarian and racist political theories, the Nazis rapidly eliminated basic freedoms in an effort to construct a ‘Volk’ community. A ‘volkish’ community, according to Nazi ideals, united all regions of Germany and social classes behind a supreme leader. It was widely considered true that the German spirit was entrenched in nature. The people thought the rural culture as authentically German. Jews were not permitted to own land by directive of law during the late 19th century in Germany and Christians were not permitted to lend money by religious order. Unsurprisingly, many Jews made their living by loaning money to Christians. Anti-Semitism grew fairly rapidly. The Jews were once a tolerated race but became one of contempt following each bad harvest season. A farmer was economically forced to borrow money either before or following a poor harvest season then had to forfeit his farm if the debt could not be repaid. Because Jews were the only lenders and were already seen as encroaching on German lands, the fact that they progressively owned more and more German soil made them an easy target of racial hatred. Jews were widely thought of as taking German identity and heritage by the despicable act of foreclosures in farming areas, the heart and soul of the volkish ideal. These socially provocative factors, a powerful sense of nationalism and the perception of an occupying race appropriating coveted land made all Jews an enemy of Germany. Additionally, Germans blamed Jews for trying to sabotage (modernize) the political and social structures by proliferating communism and liberalism (Burleigh & Wippermann, 1991: p. 36). The influence of the Volk ideology was inspiring to Germans during the 1920’s and 30’s. It advocated regaining a sense of country that was damaged due to their defeat of WWI. Widespread discontent and confusion reigned over Germany immediately following the WWI surrender. Nationalist Volkish groups of that time period often held Jews responsible for the defeat of World War I. They claimed that Jews joined ranks with communists and socialists to defeat Germany. The anti-semitic ideals of the right wing nationalist faction conflicted with the democratic philosophy of the leftwing liberal factions. The volkish groups demonstrated disdain for the leading party of Germany, the Weimar Republic, critisizing its willingness to sign the Treaty of Versailles following WWI. “From the perspective of extreme rightwing groups, the Weimar Republic was equated with the ‘Jew’ Republic. One of the many volkish groups that existed in 1919 was the German Workers’ Party, precursor to The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (The organization that launched Hitler’s accent to power). The party was based in Bavaria, where there were pitted battles between rightwing nationalist groups and the radical leftwing groups sympathetic to Communist ideas” (Wegner, 2002). The foreign policy agenda of the Nazi regime before 1939, as it is generally understood, included growing Germany’s borders well into the former Soviet Union to the West in addition to encompassing all of Europe and eventually Britain too. This observation is correct but Nazi military ambitions went much further. Starting in 1933, the Nazi regime radically expanded its power by attacking other nations with its own appalling style of terror, murder and complete domination. In the beginning, conquering and seizing other countries came somewhat effortlessly which further encouraged the Third Reich to re-examine their objectives and consider ever higher goals including the take-over of the whole world. However, even as the Nazi military machine was conquering and subjugating its neighbor nations, the Nazi’s public stance was that it was only interested in taking back particular regions that were formerly German territories which had been aggressively taken from them by military actions or treaty. After taking back what was theirs, the Nazi regime led the public to believe it would stop its aggressive tactics. Hitler’s actual plan, however, was to first conquer Europe and realized that he ultimately would have to conquer the U.S. too if his ambition to rule the world could ever happen. (Wegner, 2002). Another fact the German people were oblivious too was that the Nazi’s foreign ambition went well beyond just conquering countries, people and territories. Hitler thought that art facilitated the defining of a nation culture consequently the art of occupied nations must be taken along with the lands so as to attain total domination of the people. Existing forms of art considered to be opposed to Nazi philosophy was trashed while newer forms of art and faced censorship. Art was an instrument of Nazi propaganda which they used to characterize the Nazi ideal. Art was also used by elite Nazi Party members as a measurement of power and status. They embezzled, stole or otherwise acquired art from other nations in their effort to identify the growth of the expanding empire and individuals within the Party traded art to enhance social status and position within the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Additionally, the Nazis attempted to eliminate those they thought of as being an inferior race from countries they occupied. “The ‘Final Solution’ as the Nazis termed the mass killing of Jews, was as much a part of the foreign policy strategy as was the conquering of nations and claiming its people, property and art.” (Wegner, 2002). Hitler and the Nazi regime came to power based principally on their campaign to induce feelings of nationalism within the German people. They believed that they had to employ all of these tactics if it was to realize total global domination. What Volkish thinking shared with the Nazi movement was a sense of cultural supremacy along with intolerance for ethnicities or cultures within their nation that did not correspond with their cultural ideal. This sense of nationalistic solidarity fit perfectly and conveniently within the objectives of the Third Reich. The Volk could include only those of the Aryan race, according to the Nazi’s, therefore excluding the Jews was never a subject of debate. The concept was simply accepted as part of the national philosophy. The idea of the Volk, the ‘German Race’ to remain untainted was loudly and regularly articulated by the Third Reich. (Wegner, 2002: 1). The German’s want for bloodline purity and commonly held myth regarding the treacherous Jews was created from the Volkish philosophy regarding the racial soul being transmitted through bloodlines. “Julius Langbehn espoused the notion that the Aryans possessed the ‘life-force’ in a ‘life-fluid’ which flowed from the cosmos to the Volk. Jews did not possess this ‘life fluid’ because they had ‘long ago forfeited their souls” (Mosse, 1985: 97-99). The notion of Volk became came to mean not only the people of the nation, but a unifying spiritual energy enveloping the people’s customs and traditions. Religion, folklore, art, music and literature are all manifestations of the people’s spirit, the volkgeist. This desire to unify inspired a sizeable interest in the German people’s common legends, folksongs, myths and overall. (Wegner, 2002). Germans were continually encouraged by the Reich to regard the German Aryan people only as members of the Volk and to visualize themselves as an advanced race, a collection of superior people that are worthy and fated to of rule the world. Nazi’s utilized propaganda to fan the flames of nationalism, feelings which was already deeply entrenched in the minds of the German people. Nazi rhetoric though literature and charismatic speeches evoked strong emotions among many German people. Although the average German had no knowledge of the Holocaust, many agreed that the German race was superior to the Jewish race and considered the attacks of neighboring sovereign countries as a patriotic mission. It is not possible to determine if the average German shared similar aspirations of global dominance. Given the existing ‘superior race’ philosophy, it is very possible that Germans might have considered themselves to be intellectually, spiritually and biologically predestined to govern over all other ethnicities, cultures and nations of the world. To their credit the Nazi’s were effective and efficient in their tactics. They evoked massive destruction and fear by using employing blitzkrieg tactics, took possession of thousands of priceless pieces of art that had been a vital part of a nation’s history for many hundreds or even thousands of years, confiscated lands and homes in addition to killing or enslaving the local population. Patriotism and nationalism are generally thought of as honorable expressions and thoughts which tie a country’s people together. It is common wisdom that the fervent nationalistic mind-set obscures people to the truth about their government and society. Blind patriotism makes one blind to reality. The Holocaust is a massive, immeasurably horrific example of this blindness and demonstrated how these feelings can be used by regimes to advance their agenda, no matter how destructive. Examples, though not this excessive, are present in most all countries. Works Cited Burleigh, Michael & Wippermann, Wolfgang. The Racial State. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press. (1991). Dawidowicz, Lucy S. The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945. New York: Bantam Books (1986). Mosse, George L. Nationalism and Sexuality: Middle-Class Morality and Sexual Norms in Modern Europe. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (1985). Wegner, Gregory Paul. Anti-Semitism and Schooling under the Third Reich. New York: Routledge Palmer Press. (2002). June 14, 2011 Read More