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Germans salute Hitler at the 11th Olympic Games. |
There is no easy answer to that question, as is the case with most questions about the Holocaust. No one reason alone paved the way for the Holocaust to occur. It was the combined result of many factors: "racism, combined with centuries-old bigotry, renewed by a nationalistic fervor which emerged in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, fueled by Germany's defeat in World War I and its national humiliation following the Treaty of Versailles, exacerbated by worldwide economic hard times, the ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic, and international indifference, and catalyzed by the political charisma, militaristic inclusiveness, and manipulative propaganda of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime, contributed to the eventuality of the Holocaust." (USHMM Teaching Guidebook). What exactly does that all mean? Let's find out.
World War I never totally resolvedRavaged by World War I, the German state was already in poor economic shape before the Depression of the 1920's struck. Reparations demands and a weakened infrastructure led to inflation and unemployment. The democratic institutions artifically established by the Allies and a feeling of global alienation as a result of a guilt clause and land seizures in the Treaty of Versailles exacerbated social turmoil and left Germany looking for someone to blame. The Weimar Republic, a weak democracy, never really effectly governed Germany and therefore was not much of a match for the Nazi party when it gained power.
An old prejudice rears its ugly headDaniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners aroused a great deal of debate in 1996 with its suggestion that ordinary Germans were in fact responsible for the Holocaust, zealously carrying out orders to execute Jews rather than being coerced by their leaders. The issues have not been yet resolved, as this debate shows.But the fact remains that anti-Semitism, much less ethnic hatred in general, was not unique to Germany. Jews were historically persecuted as excellent scapegoats. In the medieval times they were blamed for the plague, depicted as having horns and cloven feet as well as sacrificing Christian babies. During the Crusades Jews were killed by pillaging Christians on the way to "reclaim the Holy Land." Jews were often subjected to prejudice, boycotts, exclusion, restrictive laws, attacks, and killings. Some Christains felt that Jews were Satanic because they killed their Messiah. The Spanish Inquisition of the 1400's forced Jews to convert, leave Spain or be burned at the stake. Jews became increasingly distant from Christians following physical separation during the first century, the waxing of Christianity and the waning of Judaism, and the preservation of practices by Jews that were adopted by Christians. For example, the Saturday Sabbath, circumcision, not eating pork, and reading Hebrew. Medieval Jews were kept out of guilds and forced into the job of moneylending. There was a popular myth that Jews killed Christian children to make unleavened bread that led to persecution. The fact that the Jews of the diaspora was often wandering about without clear roots made them even more alien. The Protestant Reform of 1517 did not help the Jewish relations with the Church as well. Martin Luther, first desirous of Jewish conversion to his Church was inviting, but upon the decline of his offer of conversion, his failure turned to hatred of the Jews and their religion. He declared the Jews unfit to live. It wasn't until recently (1994) that the Lutheran Church re-examined his racist ideology and rejected that portion of it; similarly, it wasn't until 1960 that the Pope offered any sort of apology for the treatment they suffered at the hands of the Catholics over the ages. A forged book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in 1900 and proven to be a fraud led to the belief that there was a Jewish world domination plot. To this very day it remains in translation around the world, despite its well documented status as a complete fake. However, none of the discrimination that Jews were subject to elsewhere could match the inhuman extremes of Adolf Hitler (and the Nazis), who claimed he was acting with the Lord and "finishing the job."
A new level of hate and blameHitler was able to exploit anti-Semetic feelings. His plan to do so was spelled out in Mein Kampf in 1924 (written during his short stay in prison for a failed coup); by 1933 it had sold over a million copies. Although his ideas seemed ridiculous at the time, (and therefore garnered little international worry until it was too late) he managed to implement them. His singular leadership seemed to have ignited problems boiling under the surface of Germany. It is a classic example of hopeless people falling in love with someone who tells them what they want to hear: Germany was in sad shape, and Hitler and his ideals made it easy for them to say it was someone else's fault.Hitler, perverting the ideas of Social Darwinism, felt that the Jews were an evil that was at the root of Germany's problems and must be therefore must be eliminated. Hitler claimed that Germany never really lost World War I but was stabbed in the back by a Jewish/Communist conspiracy. The discovery of a scapegoat gave the Germans something to work toward eliminating. The anger and humiliation was now directed away from themselves, Germans could focus all of their negativity on the Jews. Nazism became widespread and its oppression of the Jews grew into the genocide that was the Holocaust.
Not something that had to happenJust because the Holocaust did happen doesn't mean that there was no other way. World powers chose to look the other way and their silence essentially condoned the Nazis behavior. Had the Allies chosen to fight earlier, it is certainly possible that millions of deaths could have been averted.Hopefully you realize that it was not one set condition, not one set event, but a combination of things led to the Holocaust. A look at the interactive timeline can give you a detailed account of events as they happened over time, and examining Nazi rise to power will solidify your understanding of the events that led to Nazism's total control of Germany and implementation of Hitler's plan. |
Hitler and Himmler during Reich Party day, reviewing SS troops. |
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Baldur von Schirach, Julius Streicher, and other Nazi officials oversee a parade of Hitler Youth in Nuremberg. |