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Genocide Holocaust
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Holocaust as genocide:
The word holocaust came from the Greek word "holos" (whole) and "kaustos" means burned. The word holocaust if seen from historical perspective was used for the sacrificial offerings that used to be done on the altar. By spinning the wheel of the history, it could be seen that since 1945, word holocaust turned into a horrible form, this word has been associated with the mass killing of 6 million European Jews by Germany.
Causes of the Holocaust:
There were many causes of the Holocaust that can be looked upon by taking a look at history. Holocaust is one of the most terrible and important events from the 20th century. It is probably most significant genocide in history till date. There could be witnessed various causes of holocaust and primary cause of holocaust genocide that took place in world for the first time, was the frustration and depression as Germany lost the value of its currency and was experiencing the high inflation because of the reparation payments that Germany had to pay because of the Treaty of Versailles. This frustration is considered as one of the root cause for setting the stage for the growth of ant-Semitism and Holocaust eventually. With the passage of time, this anti-Semitism led towards the Holocaust because it legitimized violence against Jewish in the eye of the German forces.
The next cause of the Holocaust was the promotion of idea of the master race and development of the eugenics. Eugenic is a cruel ideology in which through the selective reproduction some of the genetic traits are promoted while other traits are removed and this could be even seen in practice in modern age. Eugenic was most practiced by Germany and undesired people were forcefully removed from the land. For example, it could be seen that the first victims of the Holocaust were the disabled people (mentally as well as physically) because they were considered as a burden on society.
Next, there comes another major cause of Holocaust and that was the Social Darwinism theory. According to this theory, some races and ethnic groups were considered superior to others. This theory was given by a famous British scientist who was being credited for giving a theory of evolution in one of his famous book called Origin of Species. Though Darwin proposed this idea for biological studies, Germans implied Darwin's theory on humans. So it won’t be wrong to say that Darwinism was used in a wrong way by Nazi Germany for justifying Aryanism and policy of eugenics.
The next cause that could be considered as another important cause was the growth and popularity of ultra-nationalism. By keeping into account history, it could be seen that many of the historians and leaders preferred nationalism for expressing best form of patriotism. The scenario here, is little different as Hitler promoted ultra-nationalism (Lieberman,et,al,2018). Ultra-nationalism is quite different from the conception of nationalism as in ultra-nationalism various nations use violence against each other for showing patriotism persecution of Jewish people and other ethnic groups show ultra-nationalism.
Hitler claimed that any group who is going to kill more people of the other group would be more patriotic towards Germany. It won’t be wrong to say that Germans by the use of violence and power promoted nationalism of their own sense. Hitler considered Aryanism as a superior race than others and for him; they were the Northern Europeans with blonde hair, specific genetic traits, and blue eyes. Only the Aryan traits were promoted by Germans and the rest were restricted and eventually removed from society. So it could be said that ultra-nationalism led towards the Holocaust as Hitler and many Germans showed hatred for people who were considered as undesirable.
The final cause of the Holocaust was the fear of being killed as it was the furious ambition of Adolf Hitler as well as the Nazi Party. One of the major parts of their ideology was the promotion of anti-Semitism and Aryanism. Cruelty and inhumane killings were justified by the Nazi when they took shelter of eugenics and Euthanasia program.
One of the major causes of the Holocaust was Nazi racial discrimination in which they targeted specific people and races and for their ending they planned for this massacre killing that is commonly known as the Holocaust (Katz,et,al,2018). Jewish became the target of the Germans for various reasons such as they considered the Jewish as lower than Untermensch, killers of Christ, and copied Christians who must be exterminated through the massive killing of the Holocaust. This fact must be kept in mind that Hitler used to hate Jewish people and does not want them to stay with him.
Conclusion:
So as a whole, by taking a look at the history and all the circumstances that were created at that time, it could be said that Hitler and Nazi found many reasons for Holocaust genocide as mainly Jewish were the target of Germans. There are many causes that have been mentioned by the scholars and Germans tried their best for justifying these killing that happened in the Holocaust, but this fact cannot be negated that holocaust is one of the inhumane and horrifying events of human history. There could be found no justification of this genocide at all as it has been seen that people were brutally killed without any reason. There could be found no such example of brutality in history, like the one being created by Hitler.
References:
(2019). Nj.gov. Retrieved 16 April 2019, from https://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/curriculum/NorthAmericanGenocide.pdf
American anti-Semitism | Holocaust and Genocide Studies | Oxford Academic. (2019). Academic.oup.com. Retrieved 16 April 2019, from https://academic.oup.com/hgs/pages/american_antisemitism
Americans - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2019). Exhibitions.ushmm.org. Retrieved 16 April 2019, from https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/main
Katz, S. T. (2018). The uniqueness of the Holocaust: the historical dimension. In Is the Holocaust Unique? (pp. 55-74). Routledge.
Lieberman, S. (2018). After Genocide: How Ordinary Jews Face the Holocaust. Routledge.
The United States and the Holocaust. (2019). Encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 16 April 2019, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust
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