Preview

Why The Nazis Attempted To Exterminate Jews

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
879 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why The Nazis Attempted To Exterminate Jews
Why the Nazis Attempted to Exterminate the Jews While a country is in turmoil, it is often easy to develop an us versus them way of thinking. That is exactly what the Nazis did when they had to pay billions of dollars in reparations to the Allies after World War I. But they described as being a war that has been going on for centuries. As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states, they believed Jews desired world domination, and that this goal would not only prevent German dominance but would also enslave and destroy the German race. (“Why Were the Jews Singled Out for Extermination?”). When Nazis began to slowly gain influence over Germany, the belief that Jews were responsible for Germany’s post-WWI problems and the desire for a …show more content…
They blamed the Jews for the Bolshevik Revolution and the collapse of the German army and Imperial Germany as a whole. To the Nazis the Jews were a force of evil that was coming to take them down. Not only that, they also have a stranglehold throughout the entire world. This way it would make the Jews look like the most terrifying group of people on Earth, a group of people that not only were pulling the strings of governments around the world, but were also a demonic force that were willing to take anybody down. The German people were led to believe the Jews should be stripped of their power and annihilated. All Nazi history taught them that the Jews had the power; Germany losing World War I was just another example of their power. One of the reasons Hitler segregated them from the rest of the people is because he believed if they were allowed to live normal lives in Germany they would come back to stab Germany back just as they did 1918. He was especially harsh on them during World War II because he believed all the political and economic power would be destroyed again, and made sure to destroy whatever Jewish community he found, such as in Poland or Belgium. He did this because he believed that if he did not subdue or silence the Jews immediately in that area they redirect the war effort in a different direction. It is not very irregular to find someone who believes that there is someone or something behind closed doors making sure everything goes their way for some secret agenda, but this is an example of extreme paranoia. This paranoia happened to be believed by most of a country’s population, and also had some unfortunate consequences. But it also was the perfect scapegoat for Hitler and the Nazis. There were already remnants of anti-Semitism throughout Germany. All they had to do

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    After the first world war, Germany was almost at breaking point with the ramifications it was subject to after signing the treaty of Versailles. By the 1930s Germany, along with the whole of Europe, had been forced in a state of economic crisis as a result of the Wall Street Crash. This caused hyper inflation, widespread unemployment and poverty across the whole of Germany. The economic crisis was adding fuel to the flames of the already present anti-Semitic bonfire. A scapegoat had to be found and the Jewish-Germans were chosen. At the time of the Nazi takeover in 1933, the Jewish religion made up about 0.8% of the German population and the historian Daniel J. Goldhagen in his book ‘Hitler's Willing Executioners’ preposes that the remaining majority of Germans and Austrians knew and approved of the extermination of the Jewish race and that most would have actively participated in it had they been asked to do so. Goldhagen argues that one person cannot be responsible for the wrongdoings of a whole country and that the German people…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the Nazis accused the Jews for the downfall of Germany, they sent them all to concentration camps to work for their life. The Jews had to go and live in disease infected camps with poor hygiene and a much too crowed room. It’s obvious that the leaders of the Nazis had much hate for them and that’s why they wanted them dead. It doesn’t mean they did anything wrong and they are definitely not the cause for Germany’s downfall. They are just a race and they just wanted to live. There was no proven fact that the Jews were plotting to give Germany a low…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hate and anger seem to be key points in Nazi ideology. To sustain the kind of anger the Nazis needed to sway the masses over to their side, they needed a common enemy, somebody or something that could be seen everyday. Jews were portrayed as extremists and revolutionaries. They were supposedly different from the average moderate Germans, and even more different than the Nazis. People like Hitler, Goebbels, and Julius Streicher played on this ignorance of other people to instill fear and loathing of the Jews. In general, people don't like what they don't understand. The Nazis exploited this truism by warping, retarding, and creating supposed grievances that the Jews were responsible. During the rallies, the speakers would rant and rave about how they would exact "vengeance against their eternal enemy, the Jew" (1), and how that "Europe will have defeated this threat only when the last Jew has left our part of the planet" (1). Hitler himself at the outbreak of "The German people will not be destroyed in this war, rather the Jew" (1). The Nazi leaders would spout out so-called scientific evidence that the only way to ensure the survival of the Aryan race is that of racial purity. Over and over through their speeches and pamphlets, they emphasized that:…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Nazi’s viewed the Jews as greedy people; they thought they would destroy the economy and Germany.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holocaust Dbq

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Germany, Hitler wanted to create the perfect Aryan race. He had a specific way that each person should look in the race but the Jewish people did not look like what he wanted them to look like. Hitler’s Aryan race was supposed to be, “Tall, long legged, slim… narrow-faced, with a narrow forehead, a narrow high-built nose and a lower jaw and prominent chin, the skin is rosy and bright… the hair is smooth, straight or wavy” (document 3). Hitler wanted to create a unified Germany made up of the best of the German people. This included the aforementioned blonde hair blue eyed slim Aryan race. Most of the Jewish people at the time, looked different than a stereotypical german person so they were persecuted and treated very harshly for their looks. The Jewish stereotype was curly dark hair and big noses. Furthermore, appearece was one of the ways the Nazi’s would determine who was Jewish and who was not. Since the Nazi’s blamed the Jew’s for their problems, they were treated very harshly if they were confirmed/suspected to be a Jewish person. Another way that the Nazi’s took down the Jewish people was by boycotting their businesses. One of the main ways to hurt the economy of someone is to stop their flow of income. The Nazi’s wanted to make the Jewish people more poor and easier to wipe out so they boycotted their companies and stores. The Jewish stereotype included a power and money hungry person and that they would do anything for more money. The Nazi’s knew the steriotype and acted upon it by spray painting “Jude” meaning Jew on the store windows so then everyone would know to boycott the store so the power hungry jews wouldn’t make more money. This made it so the Jewish people were not making enough money to keep their property and buy enough food. Furthermore, the Nazi’s made laws to protect themselves and hurt jewish people. The Germans did not…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay I will be answering the following questions; What group of people were targeted by the Nazis for extermination? Why did they pick this particular ethnic group? What methods did they use in carrying out their goals? What were some of the significant events during this period of time from 1933 to 1945? What other groups did the Nazis persecute as well?…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While there have been many anti-Semitic political parties throughout history, the Nazi party is one to have had the most success in gathering a mass following. A large reason for the success of the anti-Semitic Nazi lies in the party's use of pre-existing images and stereotypes of Jews. In their efforts to present a heavily altered view of Jews, Nazi propagandists claimed the Jews to be an alien race, poisoned their culture, seized its economy, and enslaved Jewish workers and farmers. The Nazis claimed that “race-mixing” through an ethnic population such as the Jews was one that could not be explored. As a result of the discrimination and hate presented against the Jews, anti-Semitic policies were created, to ensure Jews remained the inferior race.…

    • 1685 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia broke out, the other countries in Europe, or elsewhere, that had alliances with them joined to defend the two countries. Then the countries that had alliances with those countries joined and so on. When Germany lost in WWI it put shame on the country. Since Germany was upset by their loss they decided to blame it on the Jews and fire back. They claimed they lost because of betrayal of alliance. Germany's thought of payback wasn’t just another war but ended up resulting in the Holocaust. They wanted to get rid of the German race to prove they were better. At first they tried “expelling” the Jews from Germany but after that didn’t work the Germans felt the need to exterminate them. Germany mainly targeted the Jews because they were jealous that the Jews were more successful in life and in the war than Germany…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Nazis dehumanized the Jews through antisemitism and killing centers. Antisemitism is the term used for the hatred of Jews as a group or Jews as a concept. The Nazis considered themselves the model of mankind and the Jews as the destroyers. They convinced a lot of people that the Jews were the evil ones. They called the Jews microbes and germs.…

    • 168 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The first areas that we look at that were prevalent and were used to lay the foundation during the holocaust were those of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism. Racism can be defined as a “prejudice and discrimination on a basis of race”, and prejudice can be defined as an “attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way” (Henslin, J., 2014). Finally anti-Semitism is a “prejudice, discrimination, and persecution directed against the Jews” (Henslin, J., 2014). The leaders of the Nazi party used all of these elements (racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism) in the 1930’s to come to power by uniting the German people in a common cause and that was to purge Germany and ultimately the world of what was keeping Germany from being great and that was seen as the Jewish…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some people wondered to themselves why the holocaust happened. It happened because the nazis were racist and thought that the Aryan race should be the superior race. To them, they thought anyone whom was European and was not Jewish, Romany, or Slavic would have been able to not go to the concentration camps. Most of all the Nazis believed that Jews were a problem that HAD to…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hitler's Holocaust

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During World War One, The Jews did not participate in warfare or fight for Germany, instead, they focused on education and cultural development. This inceased Hitler. When Germany lost the war and surrendered to the Allies, Hitler believed that it was because of the Jews that they lost the war because the Jews did not help Germany. He thought that the Jews were a useless race and were not loyal to their country so they should be exterminated as they are only a waste of space, they were no help even in the war when Germany needed them, so Hitler conducted the Holocaust. Not only this, but Hitler believed in the Aryan Race as superior and Jews as a natural enemy of them, adding to the reasons. Hitler also included old and disabled people in the holocaust because he believed that they were too weak to fight for Germany so they were useless and best left to die.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The German people could not deal with the problems they were facing, which caused Hitler to be the solution to their problems and ultimately convive the German people the Jews were the cause for…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the German people’s mind they all had a common enemy, the money hungry people who caused the Great Depression and their suffering. Jewish people were portrayed as being inferior and driven by self interest in Germany under Hitler’s command . Children in schools and amongst peers were turned against them, propaganda depicted them negatively, and even laws were created to dehumanise the Jewish population. Depictions of Jews were spread through anti-semitic newspapers, films, cartoons, songs, schools, children’s books as well as the exhibition, ‘The Eternal Jew’ in Munich. The exhibition reflected the increasing radicalisation of the regime’s anti-semitic policies.…

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Germans, blinded by the hatred, could not find any other source of information to prove Hitler’s words untrue. Hitler made his citizens feel as though other nations were terrible while Germany was ideal and supreme. Maybe at that time, if Germans had another source of information, they would make their own decisions and the horrible genocide of the innocent would not have happened. Yet it was not only the Jewish citizens that suffered in that time period in Germany. People considered the “other” were segregated from the community and sent to concentration camps.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays