Janice O’Brien Due Tuesday May 21,

2007
Self-Directed paper History/Sociology

Events that made the Holocaust Possible:

The Holocaust, arguably one of the most horrific events in the history of
mankind, a representation of the hatred that can bring men to treat other men as less
than human, was a culmination of many historical events. The inhumanity of the
holocaust is what frightens us, and we as members of the human race campaign for
awareness and remembrance, to prevent history from repeating itself. However, the
people who committed the crimes of the holocaust were mere victims of human
nature and tumultuous times. To prevent another holocaust, we must understand the
origin of the World War II holocaust and the events that led up to it.
The first origins of the holocaust were created from the end of World War I 21
years before World War II erupted. Ironically, the Great War was the “War to end all
Wars” because it was assumed that in the resolution of this war world peace would
prevail. Instead, seeds of many wars to come were planted, and the holocaust was too
created from the post-war policies. Included in the Treaty of Versailles that ended the
first World War was a section called the War Guilt Clause which blamed Germany for
the entire war. Germany also lost much of its land, which was divided among the
winning countries, was forced to pay for war reparations, which ruined Germany’s
economy, and was forced to limit the size of its military. The German people felt
stabbed in the back and blamed the economic and political chaos that followed these
decisions on the foreign leaders who had written the Treaty of Versailles as well as
many other individuals. The economy fell out, and in an attempt to keep the money
flowing, the German government ordered the mass printing of paper money, a plan
which backfired as the paper money was worthless in such large quantities.
 As mandated by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany’s government rearranged
itself into an unstable democratic republic nicknamed the Weimar Republic. The
economic chaos led to the evolution of literally hundreds of political parties, all at
extremes with one another, and each claiming to have the solution to Germany’s
problems. Unlike modern day America, which runs on a 2-party system (democrat
and republican) where a majority vote is 51% or more, a majority vote in the Weimar
Republic was approximately 26%, so laws could be passed that were unsatisfactory to
the majority of the people, but passed because they technically had a majority in the
government. The governmental structure had many flaws that allowed Hitler to rise to
power. The Chancellor held too much power while the President held not enough, and
the Reichstag, the equivalent of parliament, was a tumult of hundreds of political
parties. The government was inefficient and impotent. The German people held to the
stab in the back theory, blaming the Marxists, French, Treaty of Versailles, and
especially the Jews, many of whom were bankers during the war and stopped funding
the war for economic interests.
By 1919 Germany was economically, socially, and politically unstable. The
government sent spies to infiltrate small political parties and keep them in check. One
of these spies was Adolf Hitler, a proud German who hated any form of democratic
rule, claiming that it promoted individualism, not nationalism. Hitler infiltrated the
German Worker’s Party in 1919 in Munich. He soon became a member of the party
and the party grew in popularity. Hitler also discovered fascism, an ideology created
by Mussolini, and translated it to National Socialism, or Nazism. Nazism appealed to
the German people who felt stabbed in the back, claiming a return to tradition. In
Nazism, all power is given to a dictator who acts in the interest of the nation.
Although to Americans this idea of a dictator seems treasonous, to the German
people, this was a return to their traditional ways of kings. Nazism appealed to the
emotions of the people, rather than to their minds, because it promoted a unity within
a tumultuous country, pledged morals and values that few had seen since before the
start of the first world war.
Hitler rose to power through a series of unfortunate events. The government
recognized the young leader as a potential threat, and in an attempt to keep its friends
close, but its enemies closer, the government appointed Hitler to the position of
chancellor. The death of the president, Von Hindenberg, gave Hitler the chance to
seize power of the entire government. The Reichstag voted to give Hitler total power
in an attempt to make the government more efficient, and Hitler intended to capitalize
on that. By 1935 Hitler had renewed Germany. He had restored political stability and
removed any potential threats to his power, restored the German military to its pre-
WWI prestige, resumed military production, increased employment to nearly 100%,
restored the economy and German pride and nationalism.
With the German people now on his side, Hitler began his attack on the Jews.
Germans did not appreciate the Jews, and with this new surge of nationalism, the
threat of outsiders caused tensions to grow. Hitler took advantage of this and passed
several laws called the Nuremburg laws. These laws decreed that it was illegal to be
anything but a Nazi and if you belonged to any other political party, you could
convert or be sent to a concentration camp. They also began by slowly encouraging
the German people to act more and more resentful towards Jews. The first laws were
not even laws. Hitler simply asked the Germans to boycott Jewish stores for a few
days. Next came the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,
which deemed it illegal for any Germans to marry non-Germans. Each person in
Germany was required to have their heritage recorded, and if they were descended
from a Jewish ancestor, they too were considered Jewish. The Reich Citizenship Law
prevented any non-Germans from being considered citizens. Slowly but surely, the
German people were growing increasingly suspicious of the Jews.
Soon the Nazis forced the Jews to carry identification with them, and they had
to wear a Star of David on their clothing at all times. Not far later all Jewish families
were moved from their homes into ghettoes separated from the Germans. The Hitler
Youth and all school children were taught how to distinguish a Jew based on facial
features. From an early age the indoctrination of the German children held its ground
and the children hated Jews as much as Hitler did. When the Jewish families were
deported from the ghettoes into concentration camps, the Germans did not say a
word. German people never stepped up or stopped the Nazis from continuing their
extermination of the Jews because they were fully loyal to the party that had brought
them peace out of complete chaos, and because Hitler had capitalized on the
German’s early dislike for Jews and encouraged people to separate the Jews. In small
increments, from a simple boycott to the concentration camps, Hitler made the
German people hate Jews just a little more every time. By the end, the ugly side of
human nature was revealed, but too late for millions of innocent civilians.