What do you think drove Hitler to specificly target Jews?

Question

Why did he hate Jews so much?
Was it a bad childhood that caused his madness?

Answer 1

One of the foundations of Hitler's and the NSDAP's social policies was the concept of racial hygiene. It was based on the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau, eugenics, and social Darwinism. Applied to human beings, "survival of the fittest" was interpreted as requiring racial purity and killing off "life unworthy of life." The first victims were crippled and retarded children in a program dubbed Action T4. After a public outcry, Hitler made a show of ending this program, but the killings in fact continued.
Between 1939 and 1945, the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere between 11 and 14 million people, including about 6 million Jews,in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere. Besides being gassed to death, many also died as a result of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers (sometimes benefiting private German companies in the process, because of the low cost of such labour). Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles (over 3 million of whom died), alleged communists or political opposition, members of resistance groups, resisting Roman Catholics and Protestants, homosexuals, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war (possibly as many as 3 million), Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed. One of the biggest centres of mass-killing was the extermination camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hitler never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the killing in precise terms.
The massacres that led to the coining of the word "genocide" (the Endlösung der jüdischen Frage or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") were planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Himmler playing a key role. While no specific order from Hitler authorizing the mass killing of the Jews has surfaced, there is documentation showing that he approved the Einsatzgruppen, killing squads that followed the German army through Poland and Russia and that he was kept well informed about their activities. The evidence also suggests that in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler decided upon mass extermination by gassing. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers."
To make for smoother cooperation in the implementation of this "Final Solution", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on January 20, 1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. The records of this meeting provide the clearest evidence of planning for the Holocaust. On February 22, Hitler was recorded saying to his associates, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".

Answer 2

OK, now listen:

The idea that Hitler killed the Jews because they were inferior is crap! That was not the reason, it was the pretext! We have to understand that in that time Germany wasn't doing so well: the Great Depression of the 1929-1930 destroyed the economy already weakened by WWI. This happened because Germany was "dollarized" a lot more than the other European countries thanks to two blokes called Dawes and Young who created a system of loans to the German state that permitted Germany to pay the bill after WWI (Nota Bene: Germany screw them all and payed only a small amount of the original "bill"). In this time a dollar was equal to 4200 000 000 000 in local currency!!!!!!!!!!!! You could buy a bread with 1/4 of that money!! So you (who I trust, are bright) might think only the ones with dollars were rich. And who had a lot of dollars? The Jews! So while the rest of Germany was pour, Jews had houses, cars, and spend a lot of money. They didn't steal the money but it just wasn't fair in Hitler's opinion.

So only now comes the thing with the races! The only way this mad man could have taken Germany was to make the Germans think they were superior! Jews were the black sheep!

Note1: my position to this answer is neutral! I don't blame the Jews because it would be like blaming Bill Gates for having to much money! Absurd!

Note2: I have nothing with the Germans! I think that they are the most ambitious nation in the world! Just think that in 90 years they suffered from 2 WW, communism and getting their *** kicked at football multiple times ( :) ) and the blokes are still strong!

Answer 3

Its hard to find out whether any one incident caused Hitler's Anti Semitism, because so much of his early adult life is a mystery. Its not surprising though, because many who came from the same cultural background would have the same attitude to Jewish people.

Anti Semitism has a long history, from England's expelling Jews in the middle ages and the caricature of the money grabbing Shylock as described by Shakespeare, to pogroms in eastern Europe in the 1800's. Even in the U.S.the Ku Klux Klan where not only anti black but almost as virulently Anti Semitic.

So he just tapped into a spring of opinion that was widespread, and he was not the only one, there where other nationalistic groups that where as fervently Anti Semitic as the NSDAP. Unfortunately for the Jewish people, the discredited pseudoscience of Eugenics was at its height, and this gave the Nazis some 'credibility' in there pursuit of racial purity, which was invalidated in the crematoria of the death camps.

Answer 4

There was already a great deal of prejudice against the Jews at the time. Even in the middle ages, the Jews were blamed for "poisoning the wells" and causing the Black Plague (never mind that the Jews drank from the same wells, and died along with the others). Jews were prohibited from owning land in many places, so many became bankers, jewelers, etc.

After WWI, the Allies forced Germany to pay reparations to them that were so harsh, they crippled the German economy. At one point it took a wheelbarrow of marks just to buy a loaf of bread. Hitler used this to his political advantage. He started with a truth--"The German people are poor." Then he tied it to a half-truth, "The Jewish people are rich." Yes, their assets were liquid, not in land, because they were businessmen, but they had to pay the same high prices as everyone else. Finally, he told a complete lie--"The German people do not have money because Jewish people took it from them." He swayed the German people, and they were so desparate that they would accept whatever it took to help their lives.

As to his childhood, he actually was not too bad off. He had a loving mother whom he idolized, an older sister who cared for him deeply, and he often was the leader among the local children.

And as to the above answer claiming he was a Christian, not at all. In fact, he was extremely interested in the occult. He tried to quash religions which threatened him, and set up himself as a living god. That's why you see so many adoring Germans saluting him--they truly saw him as their savior.

Answer 5

There was a large prejudice against the Jews, not only in Germany during that time, but for thousands of years previous. Let's not forget Stalin, who killed off millions of his own people, a large number of which being Jews. After WW I, Germany was in a massive depression. The German people needed someone to lead them, and Hitler seemed to be the right man. You see, Hitler blamed their defeat in the war, the depression, and all their troubles on the Jews, since they were a likely group to point the finger at. Most likely, they were just an easy group to attack. Whether Hitler had something personal against them, I don't think anyone knows. He was just exploiting a prejudice that had been in effect for thousands of years.

Answer 6

1. They were prosperous as a whole and also outsiders
in some respects because of their religious beliefs
and way of life. This made them an easy target.
And a lucractive one.

2. He hated Jews because he hated God--he was the one
who wanted to create his own race of "gods", his super
Aryan race of perfect people. And others besides Jews
fell under this category for extermination (the
imperfect Aryans).

3. What caused his madness was that he gave himself
over to evil with a vengeance.

Maggie

Answer 7

He never targeted Jews... he targeted Semites which included people from other religions besides Judaism. Hitler was a Nazi which is today’s Zionists. Zionism like Nazism are based on white man supremacy regardless of religion.

Answer 8

The history books state that his father taught him his hatred. Not surprising.

But he didn't "target" jews, he targetted EVERYONE who was not German-born.
He had a plan to exterminate the whole world...including the yehoos who claim to be Arayan. He was going to exterminate the Americans (yes, even those who flocked to the broken cross, so the yehoos of today wouldn't have been alive to be so stupid....is that a bad thing...?) as he would exterminate the Asians, Hispanics, Natives of all the Continents, and anyone else who wasn't born with a German address.

Hope this helps.

Answer 9

he hated how successful they became in business they always prospered over non jews but hitler saw them as second class and not worthy

Answer 10

Hitler was once not praised enough by some Jews for his paintings and he never forgave them