The Holocaust “By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lords work” (Harran 50). This quote is the exact words of the worlds most accomplished mass murderer in history, Adolf Hitler. His goal was to exterminate the complete Jewish race, to make room for the “Aryan” race. “Jews have been discriminated against, hated, and killed because prejudiced non-Jews believed they belonged to the wrong religion, lacked citizenship qualifications, practiced business improperly, behaved inappropriately, or possessed inferior racial characteristics” (Harran 41). Due to the hatred that was formed against the Jewish people, over the years of 1933 to 1945, about six million innocent people lost their lives.
In my opinion the Jews had established a position and presence in German society by 1928, however it was not as secure as it could have been if not the racism that had developed after the end of the First world war. Jews had established a secure position within the German economy in many different sectors of German life. From the simple farmer all the way up to renowned Politian. This up had made itself more visible during the Golden Years of Weimar Germany [1924-1928]. The evidence for this is shown in the statistics that up to 80% of German Jews had moved to the big towns and cities to work, leaving the other 20% to work on agricultural land and in small villages.
Hitler’s Obession Holocaust survivor, Giuliana Tedeschi said, “There is a place on earth that is a vast desolate wilderness, a place populated by shadows of the dead in their multitudes, a place where the living are dead, where only death, hate and pain exist.” Concentration camps are camps in which large number of people are kept or arrested. They are usually under terrible conditions and there are no legal norms. The first concentration camp in Germany was established after Adolf Hitler became chancellor in Januray 1933. The Nazis thought they were racially superior than every other ethnic, specially the Jews. Hitler said Jews were a disgrace and a threat to Germany.
Survival: Luck or Wisdom? Art Spiegleman’s books, Maus I and Maus II, are graphic novels describing Art’s father, Vladek, and his plight through the Holocaust. During that time, the Jews were performing acts so unthinkable that if performed today, would be seen as crude and obscene. These acts, though looked down upon, were done with only one thing in mind: survival. Surviving the strict Nazis and traumatizing death camps depended purely on one’s good luck or one’s strategic knowledge.
Whereas others were taken to Ghettos. The Jews were killed in many horrific ways, with the gas chamber being the most ‘quick’ and ‘efficient’ way of killing the Jews. This links us on too ‘’Boy in the striped pyjamas’’ and ‘’life is beautiful’’ as both of them have death camps in Poland, whereas the pianist had ghettos instead. This is where Jews were taken after the German invasion of Poland. The war made it impossible for Hitler to get rid of the Jews so the Jews were trapped under the Nazi rule.
CASE STUDY: THE HOLOCAUST Prejudice is any preconceived attitude, opinion or feeling towards an individual or group of people, which could be either favourable or unfavourable. Most psychologists consider the holocaust in relation to prejudice. The holocaust was a specific period in the 20th century where the Jews were systematically persecuted and annihilated by the Nazi’s. During this era, the handicapped were also targeted. Millions more including: homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet (Russian) prisoners of war, and citizens who didn’t agree, died under the Nazi tyranny as well.
The Germans, as the strongest and fittest, were destined to rule, while the weak and racially adulterated Jews were doomed to extinction. Hitler began to restrict the Jews with legislation and terror, which entailed burning books written by Jews, removing Jews from their professions and public schools, confiscating their businesses and property and excluding them from public events. The most infamous of the anti-Jewish legislation were the Nuremberg Laws, enacted on September 15, 1935. They formed the legal basis for the Jews' exclusion from German society and the progressively restrictive Jewish policies of the
Racism, hatred, and abuse were all brought upon someone who did not believe in the same religion as Hitler. New Historicism is clearly present in The Book Thief as an eye opener to the life of a victim during these times and to show all aspects of Germany during the rule of Hitler. It is amazing how one can obey their leader so extendedly that they will kill even the
Hitler used the Jewish people as a scapegoat for the problems Germany had as a nation. They were his main targets throughout his reign of terror and the majority of those killed, approximately six million, in the Holocaust. However, Nazi ideology was not discriminatory to only Jews. Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, homeless people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and communists were all targeted and killed or imprisoned, along with the Jews (Bergen
Ashley Vargas April 28, 2011 Mr. Whitehead Global 10 Jewish Dehumanization The Holocaust is a controversial topic still all these years later. Adolf Hitler with help of his Nazi party systematically dehumanized Jews leading up to and during the Holocaust. First, they moved them all together then humiliated them. Moving Jews into ghettos and then making them work like animal in concentration camps were two ways in which Hitler slowly but gradually dehumanized Jews. Before the holocaust even started, Hitler was already degrading Jews.