Holocaust: Jews Essay

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Marium Sharif
English
Mrs. Nanas th
May 5
2013

Holocaust Essay
Who could have ever thought that a heartless dictator could convince and entire nation to wipe out a race and almost achieve that goal? The Holocaust is a dark event in modern history that left a black eye on civilized Europe. It is unfathomable to think that western civilized world allowed the mass murder of an entire race of people to bring them to an edge of extinction.
However, this happened not too long ago, in a region that is not governed by Feudal Lord in remote desert of Africa, but in the heart of civilized Europe. Six million Jews and five Million others were killed in death camps of Poland at the hand of Nazi Germans and their Allies. The word “Holocaust” comes from Greek language meaning “sacrifice by fire”. German Nazis believed in German racial superiority and Jews were an inferior race and cause threat to the purity of the German race. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143 . We live in a world that preaches tolerance and empathy. However, there is still genocide being carried out in the world. There was ethnic cleansing in Bosnia of Bosniak by Bosnian Serbs not too long ago. Sudani Arabs killed Sudani African in Darfur region of Sudan. Mostly these types of events happen when International community turns a blind eye and ignore the perpetrators, due to allegiance or proximity, till it becomes a genocide. It is of utmost import that coming

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generations are taught about Holocaust so they can understand the price of being indifferent and not caring as it does not affect us. These teachings are also important as it brings to light the impact of prejudice and discrimination, and teach younger generations that a person should be judged because they are different.
Jews and Christians were living in adversarial relationship since the first century. Jews refusal to accept Jesus as Messiah led to the accusation of Jews as accomplices to Jesus’ murder
(
the origins of final solution
). Not only were they accused of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion (Christ
Killer), but also the myth of blood libel. Blood libel was when Jews used the blood of Christian children as ritual sacrifices. The Jews were punished by the destruction of the temple of
Jerusalem for not excepting their faith of being Christian. Pogroms were launched against Jews by local residents and were encouraged by authorities. Pogroms were often started by the rumors of blood libel. In the beginning of 1900’s new stereotypes emerged including Jews used their citizenship to their advantage; they took jobs from other workers, controlled media to mislead others about their intentions, and joined communist movements to destroy the middle class values. Germans believed they had lost World War I due to Jews and communists working for foreign interests. Later a new myth was created stating that Jews had started the war to bring
Europe in ruins, so they could take over.
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria and served in the German Army during World War I.
Like other Germans Hitler blamed Jews as partially responsible for the German defeat. He joined the Nationalist German Workers Party known to English spoken world as Nazis. Due to a weak leadership in the Nazi party, Hitler grew to power fast. In 1933 Hitler was named the Chancellor of Germany and after the death of President Paul Von Hindenburg, Hitler assumed the title of

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Fuhrer. During 1923, while imprisoned for treason, Hitler wrote his memoir predicting a great
European war in which Jews will be exterminated. In those memoirs, he also produced the concept of Aryan, pure German race. In 1933 first German concentration camp was created under control Heinrich Himmler at Dachau. Most of the prisoners sent over there were communist. ( http://www.history.com/topics/the­holocaust )
By 1939 Germany occupied half of the Poland. Polish Jews were evicted from