WAR & GENOCIDE: A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST

CHAPTER 1: PRECONDITIONS: ANTISEMITISM, RACISM, AND COMMON

PREJUDICES IN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE
Dry, combustible timber = acceptable prejudices
Spark that ignites the fire = Hitlers Nazi regime in Germany
Favorable, external conditions = World War II
Hitler/Nazis came to power in 1933 and remained in place until 1945
Anti-Semitism
Nazi propagandists labeled all of Germanys enemies as Jews or
judaized
Anti-Semitism was coined in the 1870s by a German journalist
Attacks on Jews were known as pograms
Jews blamed for plagues and disasters (i.e. Black Death of 1348)
1492: Jews and Muslims were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula
The Protestant Reformation Martin Luther thought Jews would
convert
Accusations:
Association with the devil
Used the blood of Christian children for rituals
Killed Jesus
Scientific anti-Semitism based on biological facts of blood and race
Social Darwinism
Jews never numbered more than 1 or 2% of the entire European
population
Karl Marx son of two Jews converted to Christianity
Judaism Sephardic (Ladino), Ashkenazic, Orthodox, Reform, Hasidic
Eugenics and the handicapped
Eugenics scientific/medical advances and social Darwinism led to
the idea that only the healthiest would reproduce.
Selective breeding
Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche: Germany was being weighed down
with living burdens; a human beings worth was measured in terms
of contribution to the community and nation

Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)

Criminality and degeneracy
Sinti Gypsies primarily based in German-speaking Europe
Thieves and tricksters who used their musical abilities and physical
charms to lure the unsuspecting to their ruin.
Accusations
Kidnapping children for evil purposes
Scapegoats for disaster/plagues
Poisoned the wells
Practiced magic
Consorted with the devil
Gypsies were skilled at evading formalities such as
government censuses
Roma varied in religion, lifestyle, language (Romani),
appearance, name, and occupation.
Imperialism and Racism
Led Europeans to believe they were the dominate race
Overtook African and Asian countries
Rhineland 5,000 African men (sexual predators) stationed there
(20,000 whites)
1924: 78 Rhineland bastards
Anti-Slavic
Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, and Serbs
Germans thought Slavic were primitive and barbaric
Freikorps: German soldiers reformed after WWI to fight Communists
Russian Revolution of 1917 and civil war were extremely violent.
After WWI, Germany believed they were surrounded by enemies
who conspired for their destruction.
Germans linked Communism/Russian Revolution to Jews
Lenin Russian Orthodox (not a Jew)
Asocials
Gypsies, homeless, criminals deemed incurable, mental, or those
accused of sexual perversions
Homosexuals

The German criminal code of 1871 explicitly forbade sexual

relations between men.
Prince Eulenberg
After WWI, homosexual men and women were more visible in
Europe and increased homophobic panic
Gay scene after WWI included clubs, restaurants, and
bathhouses.
Enforcement of gay laws was slacker, especially in major
cities.
Magnus Hirschfeld(forced out of Germany by Hitler):
homosexuality third sex
Jehovahs Witnesses (aka International Bible Students)
Founded in the US late 1870s
Early 1930s 20,000 members in Germany
As citizens of Jehovahs kingdom, they did not swear
allegiance to any earthly government nor serve in military
Labeled by others as a sect or cult
Emphasis on Old Testament connected with Judaism?
Nazis made JW the first religious group to be outlawed in
1933.
Freemasons
Devoted to the ideals of enlightenment: progress, freedom,
and tolerance
Conservatives and nationalists accused Freemasons of
spreading atheism, liberalism, and disobedience to authority.
Were associated with Jews as an international Jewish
conspiracy.
WWI and the cheapening of human life
Germany lost WWI (The Great War) and was forced to accept the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919 without being part of the negotiations.
Treaty of Versailles Article 231 = war guilt clause
WWI proved to Europeans that human life was cheap and
expendable.

WWI did not cause WWII/Nazism/the Holocaust; however, it left

behind the preconditions that made possible an explosion of
violence