In 1981, Todd Strasser wrote a historical fiction book entitled The Wave. Based on a true story, the novel is about an experiment conducted at a high school in California. The experiment was conducted to answer students’ questions toward a better comprehension of the Holocaust. The students could not understand how the killing of over ten million people could go unnoticed (Goldhagen). Others questioned how easy it was to fall for fascism. As the experiment continued, students begin to lose the idea of being anonymous (Strasser).
The Holocaust was a huge genocide in Germany before and during World War II, led by a dictator named Adolf Hitler (“The Holocaust”). It was extermination by Nazis targeting several ethnicities but mainly Jewish people. As Nazis killed various different ethnicities, Hitler gained more power everyday. “Genocide” is defined as “the complete removal of a specific group of people” (Goldhagen).
As stated in merriam-webster.com, the meaning of the word “genocide” is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” The Holocaust genocide is mainly blamed on Adolf Hitler. In spite of countless years of organized study, research shows that the responsibility cannot be laid on Hitler alone (“Responsibility of the Holocaust”). Part of the blame should be on the minor Nazi soldiers who carried out the mass extermination orders without questioning their superiors. Hitler was the dictator at the time, but nonetheless there are higher laws than those of Hitler’s. Eradicating the fundamental freedom of one’s society is wrong.
The minor Nazi’s are at fault because they tortured and executed any opponent, while monitoring public communication. The word genocide describes the removal of a group of people; had the minor Nazi not followed orders then the Holocaust would not have been a mass murder event in history. They were the ones who associated with society and they could have warned people about,