Hitler defined Das Volk (The ation) as the highest creation of a race, and therefore any polluting of that race was an act of betrayal. For many Germans during Weimar, the Jews controlled industry, banking, and suffered less in many ways due to their connections with international finance. Of course, this was just a small portion of Jews, but it became a mythos that many could believe in since it absolved Germany of fault and pointed it at a vast conspiracy. This was really the central core of the message delivered in schools, newspapers, over the radio and, after hearing it again and again, some accepted it as fact. Hitler went as far as declaring that racial conflict against Judaism was vital in order to save Germany: "We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice,…...
mlaNazism needed a scapegoat in order to lay blame for Germany's loss in World War I, the inefficiency of the fiscal system under the Weimar government, and the economic crisis that confronted them throughout the 1920s. The Nazis claimed that the Jews were the greatest threat to the German nation and the Aryan race. Their doctrine, so elaborated in Hitler's Mein Kampf, considered Jews a race of parasites that, throughout history, attached itself to various cultures and ideologies in order to preserve itself. Examples of this were wide and varied, for the Nazis could legitimately find Jews in numerous countries at numerous historical times espousing liberalism, democracy, capitalism, industrialism, Marxism, socialism, and even trade unionism (Ibid., 24; Dawidowicz, 1975).
One very seminal question often arises regarding this vast paranoid conspiracy. How did the Nazi Party manage to convince the German people of its veracity? The idea of a master-race was certainly not something new, there was plenty of literature to support that theory, and anti-Semitism in the form of pogroms existed all over Europe. Hitler defined Das Volk (The Nation) as the highest creation of a race, and therefore any polluting of that race was an act of betrayal. For many Germans during Weimar, the Jews controlled industry, banking, and suffered less in many ways due to their connections with international finance. Of course, this was just a small portion of Jews, but it became a mythos that many could believe in since it absolved Germany of fault and pointed it at a vast conspiracy. This was really the central core of the message delivered in schools, newspapers, over the radio and, after hearing it again and again, some accepted it as fact. Hitler went as far as declaring that racial conflict against Judaism was vital in order to save Germany: "We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice, but if we rescue Germany then we have removed the greatest injustice in the world. We may be immoral, but if our people are rescued we have opened the way for morality" (Hitler in: Koenigsberg, 2007, 21).
This fervent hatred was quite unbelievable to many Jews who considered themselves to be "good Germans," who were doctors, lawyers, and professors -- some even in governmental service. Hertha Nathroff, Albert Einstein's niece, wrote in her diary on the Jewish boycott and mounting tensions, "This day is engraved in my heart in flames. To think that such things are still possible in the twentieth century" (Nathroff, 2000, 179). Explaining that even the kindnest gentiles who had been friends and colleagues prior to the 1933 Jewish boycott, Marta Apple, wife of a rabbi in the city
Holocaust Studies
Main characters in Schindler's List
Oskar Schindler
During the Holocaust, Oskar Schindler who is a womanizer, war profiteer, and a Nazi member becomes the unexpected savior and hero of approximately 1,100 Polish Jews. He is a swindler and a moderately successful businessman who takes advantage of wartime to gain financial success. His business includes buying an enamelware factory previously owned by a Jew and using ingratiation and bribery to get contracts to make war supplies. At first, he was apathetic to the Jews, thinking that their situation was just a result of the war. He is a playboy who habitually cheats on his wife. He joined the Nazi party because he believes that it will help him make more money, and not for any ideological reason. According to the movie Schindler's List (2016), even though Oscar Schindler buys the factory that has been confiscated from Jewish owners and he is…...
mlaBibliography
Keneally, T. (1993). Schindler's List. New York: Serpentine Publishing Company.
Raven, G. (1994). 'Schindler's List:' A review. Retrieved from The Journal of Historical Review: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n3p-7_raven.html
Schindler's List. (2016 ). Retrieved from Spark Notes: http://www.sparknotes.com/film/schindlerslist/canalysis.html
SLE. (2013). Accuracies. Retrieved from SCHINDLER'S LIST: https://schindlerslisteight.wordpress.com/historical-accuracy/truths/
Nazi Policies
Following their dramatic loss in the First orld ar, the people of Germany were suffering greatly, both emotionally and physically during the period of the 1920s and into the 1930s. The harsh stipulations of the Treaty of Paris forced the German government into a fragile and fragmented institution which was ripe for the abuse of power-hungry would-be tyrants. The people, eager for a strong figure to look up to, would have accepted almost anyone with perhaps any political agenda so long as the person said the right things and gave the people hope. Enter onto the world stage one Adolph Hitler. Between 1932 and 1933, Adolph Hitler was able to rise from the position of relative insubordinate in the government, to fuehrer and leader of the entire country of Germany. The only way that one man could have achieved such political success in so quick a time has to…...
mlaWorks Cited:
Bergen, Doris L. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2007. Print.
Bessel, Richard. Life in the Third Reich. New York: Oxford University, 1989. Print.
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb. "To the German Nation." Modern History Sourcebook. 1806. Print.
Goebbels, Joseph. "Our Hitler: a Radio Speech to the German People in Honor of the Fuhrer's
Nazi Youth
Prelude
Mein Kompf was regarded as the "Bible" of the Hitlerjugend. On entering the Jungvolk at the age of 10, children took the following oath: In the presence of this blood-banner which represents our Fuehrer I swear to devote all my energies, and my strength to the Savior of our Country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God. One People, one Reich, one Fuehrer." (Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression)
Becker)
Nazi Youth formal agreement between the ehrmacht and the Hitlerjugend was published 11 August 1939. It recites that whereas 30,000 Hitlerjugend leaders had been trained annually in shooting and field exercises, the number would be doubled; that 60,000,000 shots had been fired in Hitler Youth training courses in 1938 and that a considerable increase in the figure was expected. The agreement recognized the close cooperation that existed between the Hitlerjugend and the…...
mlaWorks Cited continued
Simpson, Christopher. "Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's "Spiral of Silence" and the Historical Context of Communication Theory." Journal of Communication Vol. 46 (1996).
Stein, Howard F. "Disposable Youth: The 1999 Columbine High School Massacre as American Metaphor." Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society Vol. 5 (2000).
The Adolf Hitler Historical Archives. 2003. 29 Apr. 2004 http://www.adolfhitler.ws/ .
Williamson, David. "Was Hitler a Weak Dictator? David Williamson Examines Two Seemingly Irreconcilable Schools of Thought." History Review. (2002).
The German suffering after the first world war and the humiliation of Germany with other nations gave the Nazis the opportunity to feed hatred of the Jews and at the same time promise that if the People gave in to the Nazi ideology, they would be in the land that would hold them a superior way of life. That the followers of Hitler followed the Ideals as true and that they also created in their own minds the need to eliminate groups of people who disagree like the communists and the Jews was the fundamental cause of the holocaust. Why did it come about? It was argued that while the political climate of the times did not show much promise, Hitler was able to deliver what he promised even if it was based on evil. This gave him ground support. One of the chief supporters of Hitler, and Aman who…...
mlaReferences
Abzug, Robert H. 1985. Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi
Concentration Camps. Oxford University Press: New York.
Aroneanu, Eugene; Whissen, Thomas. 1996. Inside the Concentration Camps:
Eyewitness Accounts of Life in Hitler's Death Camps. Praeger: Westport, CT.
The authorities in charge of Lodz sought to completely separate the Jewish population from the non-Jewish population. Business were marked with the nationality and ethnic identity of the proprietors, which made it easier for Germans to target Jewish-owned stores and Jews were required to wear arm bands and forbidden to leave their houses between 5:00pm and 8:00am. In fact, Lodz was the first area to institute the armbands that would distinguish Jews from non-Jews. Jews could not use public transportation, public parks, or work at non-Jewish businesses. Furthermore, Jewish property was pillaged and taken, with official sanction. If the Jews abandoned any real property, that property went into receivership. Jews were prohibited from withdrawing substantial sums of money from their bank accounts or from keeping substantial sums of money in their homes. The government confiscated raw materials from Jewish workshops and prohibited them from engaging in certain trades. People…...
mlaReferences
Bauer, Y. (2000). Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Browning, C. (1992). The path to genocide: essays on launching the final solution. Cambridge:
Browning, C. (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution. Omaha:(University of Nebraska Press.
Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. (2007). The Lodz ghetto. Retrieved February
Nazi State
In the 1960s and 1970s, New Left historians in the Federal Republic of Germany reexamined the Third Reich in ways that created major controversies, especially because they found continuity between the Nazi era and attitudes and institutions that existed both before and afterwards. This meant "purging society" of its racist, authoritarian and paternalistic tendencies, and preventing revived Nazi movements like the National Democratic Party (NDP) from gaining a foothold in political life again (Gassert and Steinweiss 1). Fritz Fischer had helped initiate this historical controversy in Griff Nach der eltmacht (Germany's Drive for orld Power) in which he asserted that Germany had been the aggressor in orld ar I and that Hitler and the Nazis borrowed their ideas about Lebensraum and an empire in the East from their Second Reich predecessors. Indeed, the historical record demonstrates that during the Third Reich, the German people, the old conservative elites, industrialists…...
mlaWORKS CITED
Aly, Gotz and Jefferson Chase. Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State. Holt Paperbacks, 2005.
Caplan, Jane and Nikolaus Waschmann (eds). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Routledge, 2010.
Collier, Martin and Philip Pedley (eds). Hitler and the Nazi State. Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2005.
Gassert, Philipp and Alan F. Steinweiss. Coping with the Nazi Past: West German Debates on Nazism and Generational Conflict, 1955-1975. Berghahn Books, 2006.
In his study of the camp doctors, he noted,
The willingness to blame Jews for Germany's troubles, making them "arch enemies of Germany." The nation was itself reduced to an abstract essence, threatened by its enemies and in need of sacred renewal and purification, through blood sacrifice if necessary. One's identity as a German, as the Nazis defined it, crowded out other possible roles. As the embodiment of this "holy, divine Reich," the Fuhrer, and not the doctors, was responsible for all that happened in the camps. Yet "even the Fuhrer could be painted as 'helpless': because the Jew's evil forced the Fuhrer to act or make war on him."
So nefarious was this hidden enemy - the Jew - that he or she was quickly seen to be responsible for every conceivable social ill, real or imagined. "Jews -- or the concept of 'the Jew' -- were equated with every…...
mlaBibliography
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=65194469
Bailer-galanda, Brigitte. "8." In Antisemitism and Xenophobia in Germany after Unification, edited by Kurthen, Hermann, Werner Bergmann, and Rainer Erb, 174-188. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103409458
Bosworth, R.J.B. Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: History Writing and the Second World War 1945-1990. New York: Routledge, 1994. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103664388
Crew, David F. Nazism and German Society, 1933-1945. London: Routledge, 1994. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=33602574
Subversion: The Role of Politics and Pressure in the Nazi Rise to Power
Following the end of World War I, the people of Germany felt the consequences of their loss coupled with the reverberations of the American stock market crash. The effects of the Great Depression only trickled down slowly to the small German town of "Thalburg," the fictitious name of a real town whose privacy William Sheridan Allen wishes to protect throughout his work, The Nazi Seizure of Power. Attempting a democratic state in early twentieth century Germany was difficult at best, futile at worst. Using Thalburg as a microcosmic example of German social and political realities, Allen describes the Nazi rise to power as a function and result of divisions among the general populace. "In the wake of defeat came a revolution led by the working class which overthrew the Kaiser and established a republic in Germany," (p.…...
Pre-Nazi Germany exhibits the kind of delicate yet poignant tension that precipitates major calamity or revolution. Contemporary art, music, and literature capture the social and political atmosphere and all its nuances, especially as it impacts the lives of individuals from various social spheres. Heinriche Heine employs the medium of poetry to subversively satirize the seeds of political and social oppression that were being planted during this critical period in German history. In “Germany: A Winter’s Tale,” Heine draws on the age-old tradition of epic poetic narrative to frame parallels with Teutonic history, all the while capitalizing on the ability of poetic devices like metaphor and imagery to deliver effective and bitter political satire. Christopher Isherwood comes at pre=Nazi Germany from a whole other perspective and point of view. As an outsider looking in, Isherwood offers a mode of inquiry from a temporary looking glass in his collection of short stories…...
Nazi Germany
Nazi Propaganda and the Spread of Fascism
orld ar II was precipitated by the rise of fascism throughout Europe. As the mores of socialism began to take root in many parts of the continent, fascism emerged as a powerful counterpoint. For nations like Italy, Spain and Germany, the consequences of a sustained and devastating recession would be a coalescing of support behind strong, self-proclaimed and authoritarian leaders. Certainly, most notorious among them would be Adolph Hitler, whose Nazi party would first occupy Austria and Germany before ultimately pursuing a more global agenda. However, for our discussion, the primary interest is the degree of success that the Nazi party had in ultimately penetrating Germany with its values, ideals and policies. As the discussion here will show, propaganda would play a central role in the ability of the Nazi party to garner support and generate the impassioned loyalty of the German people.
In…...
mlaWorks Cited:
German Propaganda Archive. (2013). Es Lebe Deutschland. Bytwerk.com.
History Learning Site (HLS). (2012). Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Historylearningsite.co.uk.
Welch, D. (2011). Nazi Propaganda. BBC History.
The churches provided open opposition to Hitler, particularly as he had declared a form of war on them as he wanted the state to take over the churches and to direct them in ways compatible with National Socialism. Various religious leaders were arrested, hundreds of them, eventually resulting in a diminishing of the resistance from that front. Shirer notes that this persecution of religion did not arouse the German people as it should have: "A people who had so lightly given up their political and cultural and economic freedoms were not, except for a relatively few, going to die or even risk imprisonment to preserve freedom of worship" (Shirer 240).
hile a large proportion of the intellectual class has rightly been blamed for failing in its responsibility to criticize the rise of National Socialism, there were also leading men in philosophy and education, history, jurisprudence, economics, physics, and other disciplines who…...
mlaWorks Cited
Rothfels, Hans, the German Opposition to Hitler. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1962.
Shirer, William L., the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.
Friends of mine were killed for their beliefs. Of course, by that time I had distanced myself from them because our beliefs no longer matched, and talking with them about the great country that Hitler was going to create had become uncomfortable. So I put on the brown uniform of the SA and joined fellow Germans in doing everything we could to ensure that Hitler's dream of what Germany could be would become a reality in the near future.
One of the reasons that I and the rest of the SA admired Hitler so much was because of his childhood. He was frequently whipped by his father and mistreated, but he did not become defeated because of it; he instead grew stronger and more determined (Nardo, 2002). With that being the case, it was easy to see how the adversity that he would face as a leader would also help…...
mlaBibliography
Dufner, a. (2003). Rise of Adolf Hitler. Greenhaven Press
Gogerly, L. (2003). Adolf Hitler. Heinemann/Raintree.
Nardo, D. (2002). Adolf Hitler. Lucent Books.
Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi leader of the SS. Specifically, it will discuss his direct involvement with the concentration camps and the extermination of the Jewish people. Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) was an unsuccessful chicken farmer and fertilizer salesman who became a leader in the Nazi party in the mid-1920s. As head of the SS as well as the Gestapo, he was a cold, efficient, ruthless administrator. He was the organizer of the mass murder of Jews, the man in charge of the concentration and death camps.
HIMMLE THE EXTEMINATO
Heinrich Himmler was born in 1900, and studied agriculture. He fought in the very end of World War I, and never seemed to make much of himself until he met Hitler. "Himmler was a passionate farmer. He had studied agriculture for several years, had a degree in agriculture, and was later the chairman of the board of the Organization of Agricultural Graduates" (Hss,…...
mlaReferences
Devine, Carol, and Carol Rae Hansen. Human Rights: The Essential Reference. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1999.
Editors. "Who was Heinrich Himmler?" Holocaust History Project. 31 Dec. 1998. 17 Nov. 2002. http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/heinrich-himmler.shtml
Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Eisenhower, John. "Juxtaposed with History, Inquiry into why the Nazis Did What They Did." The Washington Times. 9 June 2002.
Even though the Gypsies in prewar Germany consisted of a very limited per capita population they received massive amounts of attention from the Regime and were left ripe for further marginalization and destruction.
Though they made up less than 0.1% of the German population (between 20,000 and 30,000), Gypsies, like Jews, received disproportionate attention from the authorities as the various agencies of the state sought to transform Germany into a racially pure society. etween 1934 and the outbreak of World War II, a series of laws and regulations created a web of restrictions that set Gypsies apart and severely restricted their ability, individually and collectively, to survive. In July 1934, a decree forbade intermarriage between Germans and Gypsies. 4 the same year, the law permitting the deportation of aliens was extended to foreign Gypsies. 5 in September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws declared the Gypsies "an alien People" 6 and restricted all…...
mlaBibliography
Crowe, David, ed. The Gypsies of Eastern Europe,. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 1991.
Csepeli, Gyorgy, and David Simon. "Construction of Roma Identity in Eastern and Central Europe: Perception and Self-Identification." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30, no. 1 (2004): 129.
Csepeli, Gyrgy, and Antal rkeny. "The Changing Facets of Hungarian Nationalism." Social Research 63, no. 1 (1996): 247-286.
Epstein, Eric Joseph, and Philip Rosen. Dictionary of the Holocaust: Biography, Geography, and Terminology. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.
I do not agree with the statement that opposition to the Weimar government from 1924-1929 was harmless. There were several significant opposition groups during this period that posed threats to the stability and functioning of the government.
Firstly, right-wing extremist groups, such as the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler, emerged during this time and gained considerable support. These groups vigorously attacked the Weimar Republic, spreading their ideologies of racism, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism. Their opposition was far from harmless, as they organized violent activities, attempted coups, and disrupted the political process. The Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, led by....
Systematic failures and oversights significantly contributed to the tragic events of the Holocaust. As one of the most horrific genocides in human history, the Holocaust was enabled by a variety of factors that allowed for the systematic persecution and mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II. This essay will explore the key systematic failures that paved the way for the Holocaust, including the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, the failure of international response, the complicity of bystanders, and the implementation of Nazi policies and propaganda.
Anti-Semitism has a long history in Europe, with....
1. The Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters in human history, was not an event that occurred in isolation but was the culmination of a series of systematic failures and societal shifts that facilitated the genocide of six million Jews and millions of others deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. Understanding the causes of the Holocaust requires a deep dive into the political, social, economic, and ideological conditions of Germany and Europe in the early to mid-20th century. This essay will explore the multifaceted reasons behind this tragedy, examining how a combination of historical grievances, political opportunism, and the exploitation....
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