why was the holocaust able to happen?

Question

i need some help on a question " why was the holocaust able to happen " i already know a few reasons e.g. many jews could not fight back , jews could not fight back i still havent got enough though.

Answer 1

good question. Jews were you used a s a scapegoat in post WWI Germany. After WWI Germany was in a state of bankruptcy; The allies placed hard economic sanctions on Germany after WWI so that Germany would be punished and also unable to rebuild their massive army and arms. For example, the French who whose infrastrucure was destroyed the most by Germany in WWI were allowed, through the sanctions, to take the coal mined by German men and not pay the Germans ofr them. This created a great distaste for the way things were in Germany among the common people - the commoners wanted to blame someone besides themselves for their dire (they worked all day and still did not get paid to feed their families) situation. Also, Germany had to pay reparations and money to the allies to replenish not only what the Germans destroyed of the allies (mainly Britain and France), but also the money the allies had to spend on building weapons and an army to fight of the Germans who launched the war after the assassination of a man the German's had an alliance with (cousin of the German royalty). This debt in still being paid off by the German Government to this very day! It is vitally important to understand that after WWI many German soldiers (who were only teenagers when they entered the first World War and so knew nothing but how to be a soldier) did not believe that they and Germany lost WWI and were pissed off they were in debt for a war they fought hard for and did not lose (in their opinion - In reality germany's war machine was so broken in the last year of WWI that theri soldiers were fed bread made of mostly sawdust and their munitions were scaled back tremendously).
But why were the Jews such a perfect scapegoat??? First, it is important to realize that the Jews were not the only people killed in the genocide: gypsies, handicap, peoples of color, etc were also murdered en masse.
One sound theory on why Jews have, in general, been picked on over the years follows:

Jewish people have wandered the world for thousands of years. They enter into lands where there is a set culture and stick together in their own culture: eat and drink only with each other because everything they eat and drink has to be kosher, and they speak a foreign language that people in the lands they wander and set up home in do not understand.
It is common for people of one culture, especially the dominating culture, to be afraid of and point fingers at people of the minority culture whom they do not understand.
To make matters worse for Jews, when Christianity began to grow in Europe, many christians would not want to deal in the business of money because it is considered wrong in certain Christian ideals (not all Christians believe nor believe this of course), andx so the only people who could run this business is minority culture among these Europena Christian societoes: the Jews. When the Jewish bankers would charge interest on the money they leant out the Jews were called callouse and greedy, today we call this normal banking practice: interest is simply the amount of money we pay for the use of money now, and if banks do not charge interestr then their is no way for them to cover their costs and stay in business, let alone any incentive to go out of their way to perform banking business.
Germany also saw the rise of Adolf Hitler (who was a failed artist, but perhaps a succesful political artist and one of the greatest actors who ever lived if you have seen the footage of his speeches-that guy riled up his country to obviously unjust causes) wo took advantage of the dire German situation and attempted to fix it with his own delusions (the swastica is an ancient Aryan symbol that represents 1,000 years turned backwards to represent how Hitler thought the rule of his Third Reich would last for 1,000 years. Interestlingly, ancient Aryans were not blonde haired and blue eyed like Hitler's imagined Master Aryan Race -of which he was nort really a part of because he was a brunette-but the ancient Aryans were likely black if not very dark skinned).


Germany is the worst example of picking on minorities as scapegoats to blame problems on and to look for hope in theri eradication. America successfully pulled off the near complete genocide o the Native Americans, then in the early 1900's America implemented the Chinese Exclusion Act (then extended the law forever, which was not repealed for decades) because Americans were unhappy with the influx of Chinese who moving into America and setting up their own succesful towns based on Chinese culture.

There are other supposed motives for why Hitler himself hated Jes so much, one is that his father (who apparently beat him according the History Channel) was fired by a Jewish businessman and young Adolf was likely beaten or poorly fed beacuse of this firing - I'm not sure if there is truth in this story though.

Ther is, of course, more to this awful story, but hopefully this information gives you a decent background story to understand how it was posible for the atrocitoes of the Holocaust to occur.

I will leave you with an opinion from a Judge from the Nurmeberg trial were the surviving (and arrested) high ranking Nazi officers were tried: the Judge made a point at the end of the trial to point out that Himmler, one of the engineers of the Holocaust was not a ferocious looking beast. he had no horns on his head. no red eyes, or fangs. no crooked smile or hoofed feet or trident in his hand: Himmler was just a man.
The judge pointed these obvious traits of this man out to make clear that a man capable of so much evil is still just a man - that these evils exist in all of us, but must be championed over with reason, comapassion, and reflection.

Answer 2

One of the first things the Nazi organization did upon assuming power was to recall every registered firearm. This is not to say hunting weapons were a match against an organized military, but it could have been a factor what swayed the battle in a couple of places, notably in Prague.

Historically, the Jews have been delegated to ghettos in Europe by many different types of government. The Jews were wise stewards of their moneys thus enabling them to lend money at reasonable interest rates. The Europeans would get angry, burn the ghetto down, force baptism on any strays running around and cancel the debts. Fifty or so years would pass by, the Christian merchants would find no one to borrow money from, and they would invite the Jews back into the commerce picture.

It wasn't just Nazi but the war time German government certainly did annihilate the largest number.

Answer 3

First of all it was war. Second of all Hitler and the Nazis where in power. They had for years prior to the war villainized Jews and saying they where the root of all evil and such, so the anti-Semitic feelings grew. Remember that during this time racism wasn`t the same as it is now.
At first Jews just had to register, then they were moved into the ghetto. After a while they were moved into the concentration camps, which the Nazis called labor camps, and we all now what happened there. So it wan`t actually common knowledge what happened at the camps.
Basically the holocaust happened because it was ordered and because very few actually at that time knew it happened.
Hope this helps.

Answer 4

The holocaust was the culmination of European hatred for the Jews. Jews have been persecuted for a couple of thousand years.

Germans weren't the only ones persecuting the Jews they were only the most efficient. The Russians had pogroms against the Jews in the 19th century.

The Catholic church used forced conversion,exile and burning at the stake during the inquisition.

The Romans massacred Jews during the first century.

They have earned a homeland (Israel) where they can depend on themselves for safety.

Answer 5

After the war the west , suggested they did not know of the extent of the holocaust...Although many believe they were lying . In those years sad to say the Jews weren't popular with the workd

Holocaust was able to happen as in those years , Jews were disliked by everyone in the world, though no country went to the extent of killing them

Hitler firstly tried packing them on boats and shipping them off, but no country would except them

Answer 6

The holocaust was able to happen because even though other countries knew the mass extermination of jews was occuring, no one did anything to stop it, including the U.S. Also, Hitler was a very evil man and told many lies to make it seem like the holocaust was not as bad as it may seem and that it was really beneficial to all.

Answer 7

Three main reasons were racism, denial, and fear. But the Holocaust did happen, not like many are saying that it never happened, that it's all lies. We have the same thing going on right now in Darfur, but we ignore it---we don't want to get involved. Funny thing, but if you ask a German living in Germany about the Holocaust today, they just turn their head and won't answer you. Talk about denial. But, then again, what can they say!

Answer 8

One of the many reasons is that countries like the United States did not want to get involved early on because they were trying to avoid another world war. If powerful countries had stopped Hitler early on, then the Holocaust would probably have never happened.

Answer 9

jews in gereral had more money and better jobsbecause they were allowed to run banks while the chritian faith (the majority of the people) doesn't alow banking.
the people wherer in a depresdstion and then hitler came along and promised all theres things and blamed jews for the problems, at first he made things better for the people so he earned there trust and they let him have power.

PS all the people that said a war was on are wrong. Germany was in a depresstion after WWI because they lost and had to pay reparartions. there was massive inflation and money was worth less than the paper it was written on. a loaf of bread would cost you 1000 doight marks. then when Hitler took over Poland WWII was declared with the allied powers

The US didn't want to get involved because they didn't want to get involved in the war in Europe, Kinda sounds like what people wanted to happen in Iraq no?
this is why i hate anti war in the middle east things b/c if we don't get involved now Alqueda will be just like the Nazi party by with bigger better weapons, and they don't care if they live or die.

Answer 10

Its a difficult question. The Nazis definitely had the German population terrorized, so even if one had a Jewish neighbor one would be hesitant to stick his neck out to save that neighbor. It was kept rather under wraps, it was not spoken about officially, so the general population did not know it was going on. People would be herded onto cattle cars and disappear, and that was all the general population of Germany knew. People did know something was going on, it was hard to hide something that massive, yet they let it go on out of fear and also out of hostility to Jews, Gays, Gypsies, and the mentally challenged. The Nazis controlled the press and was able to generate hatred, exactly like talk radio in the US today.

Answer 11

Because so many native Germans grew to resent the success of the Jewish minority.

Germany never defined it's self as a melting pot and here are these non Germans coming into Germany, keeping their own subculture and they own the banks and the stores and getting richer and richer as the common German go poorer and poorer.

Combine that general observation with lots of propaganda and people are willing to see the Jews go away and turn a blind eye to how it actually happens.