Could the Holocaust have been avoided?

Question

If Hitler was assassinated etc.

Answer 1

Of course the holocaust could have been avoided. In hindsight, the way to stop it is clear. If the US, England and France had stood up and demanded Germany pull out of the Sudetenland, Hitler would likely have backed down. He may even have been forced out of office. If the big three had attacked Germany after Hitler came to power, and before he built up a massive army, they could have defeated him.

But "what if" questions like that are easy to make. Another (to me, more interesting question) is: Could Hitler have won the war. Absolutely. He made several major errors that led to his defeat.

Answer 2

If Hitler was assassinated, the Holocaust would be extremely likely to happen. Adolf Hitler would become a martyr.

Remember also that Hitler was not alone in his anti-Semitism. His fervor was largely the result of his association with the Thule Society, an extremely pro-German group operating out of Munich. His involvement is often debated, but it is often cited that the group had a large influence on him.

Germany at the time was largely not in favor of the Jews or other targeted groups for that matter. There is very good evidence to suggest that due to the political climate, the powers that be would not have stayed that way for long, with or without Hitler.

If Hitler had not started the Holocaust, there would still like be a major backlash against German minorities that would end in violence. Not the same scale, but violence against minority groups nonetheless.

And if it did not happen then, the world would not be allowed to learn its lesson from genocide, and the horrible acts would be committed by someone at a later time. Cruelties such as this still happen and something equivalent to the Holocaust would have happened sooner or later.

Answer 3

Absolutely.

In many ways:

- It is not sure if it has been avoided if Hitler had been assassinated before it happened, as there were many other convinced Nazis, but actually I think the Nazi rule very much depended on Hitler's personal charisma, it is uncertain if anyone else could have become the "Führer". What I mean is that without Hitler, the Nazi regime could have lost the public support it needed as it could not control the masses by terror alone.

- This leads me to the second possibility, if not so many people had adored Hitler that regime might have collapsed before the Holocaust, it might not have been possible to make all these German soldiers conquer all these countries etc. In part people were forced to do what they did, any individual soldier who disobyed was killed, but the regime would have not been able to fight down a mass mutiny of the army. Remember the war was a precondition for the Holocaust and of course the war was also extremely murderous by itself.

- If a significant percentage of Germans had opposed to anti-Jewish measures from the beginning, maybe the persecution of the Jews had not been aggrevated like this ending with the death camps. I mean it seems to me that with each step the Nazi leadership tested how far they could go. There was a reason why the persecution of the Jews was increased gradually. I think that with each step they wanted Germans to get more used to the thought that Jews were total outlaws for whom no moral concepts had to be applied. For each step they needed the acquiescence of the population and they got it. If there had been a huge uprising and declarations of solidarity with the Jews in response to the dismissal of the Jewish professors from the universities in 1933 and to the boycott of Jewish shops, who knows if there had ever been further steps.

- Germany's strong rearmament before the war which made the war possible was in violation of existing treaties and was obviously dangerous as it must have been apparent to other countries that Hitler was not a peaceful man and that he rearmed Germany not without a purpose. If they had intervened at that time and stopped Germany there would have been no war and no Holocaust. Something we should remember now thinking of Ahmadinejad.

- At least when Germany invaded Poland there should have been a more serious intervention immediately. America started to fight much too late.

- Other countries should have opened their borders for Jews from Europe. That would not have prevented the Holocaust but would have saved many lives.


And we need to learn from it in order not to make the same mistakes ever again.

Answer 4

You already have some great answers. I have to answer just to say, SMITTY IS AN IDIOT. Yes it could have been avoided. To many things had to happen, not just the assassination of Hitler. To start with, Germany should never have been allowed to rearm. That was in the treaty after WW1. As for knowing this has happened will prevent further Genocide, it hasn't. Genocide in Bosnia, Chechnya, and all over the African Continent. Not to mention parts of the middle east. Man is inhuman. It boggles my mind. Earth is the only place we have to live. We should have learned from the past, but we don't. It could be a Paradise with no war and no prejudice

Answer 5

Sure it could have been avoided. I watched this show called the final solution and it showed that when Hitler asked the different countries of Europe to hand over the Jews to them they complied. If more governments had said no then possible less Jews would have died. The allies were also partly to blame as apparently they learnt about Auschwitz from a captured German. they did nothing about it until it suited there purposes.So possibly if the Allies had acted immediately they received the knowledge then less Jews would have died.

There are so many what If scenarios they can be put forward

Answer 6

There many failed attempt to assasinat hitler, but all failed . One was by a carpenter a cting alone.He instelled a time explosive under the area where Hitler was supposed to speak in Nurmberg in l938. The weather was bad that day and Hitler decided to leave 30 minutes earlier then schduled abbrevaiting his speech. Instead of flying out back t to berlin, he took a train. The carpenter who was not affiliated with any group was caught whn he was about to escape to Switzerland. he was never tried and pit into a concentration camp. he survived untila couple weeks before the end of the war when he was murdered along others such as Admiral canaris, the head of the German nazi intelligence.(Abwehr) who had allegedly had a tie to the plot to kill Hitler in 1944. The order was given by Heinrich Himmler to get rid of concentration camp prisoners . No mass demonstration once he became Chancellor in l933 ever occurred. So, the German nation as such is responsible for the cowardice of its people.

Answer 7

I think that if something is destined to happen......then it will happen. If Hitler was assassinated then I'm sure we would have someone else who WOULD have done it.
Has anyone seen that episode of Outer Limits? You know, where a woman goes back in time to kill Hitler when he was a baby? Well she did eventually jump off a bridge with the child and the nanny bought another baby off some woman on the street.

Answer 8

Yes I think it could have but if it had would there be a Jewish Homeland. If Hitler had been killed I think something else would have happen. Say the US loses the war, for without England and the USSR that could have been a possibility. When you go down that time line there are so many futures. Here is another thought where would you be, think about what happened to your family. Were they in the war?

Answer 9

Hitler wasn't alone. Many of his senior staff were in full agreement with his ideas about the Jews. Most Germans seemed to have little objection either.

We can imagine a different history: If the allies had stood up to Hitler sooner; if the people of Germany had realized who they were voting for; if Hitler's generals were brave enough to stand up to him; etc.

The more important question is whether we can avoid the next one.

Answer 10

I actually have a cyber buddy that tells me on the endtimes Islam believes the Jews would be destroyed. Supposedly Islam has no problems with Christianity as they actually have faith interior the Virgin beginning. He praised Adolf Hitler and that i asked why? He replaced into an evil mass murderer and the international desires to keep in mind such atrocity. His motives weren't Noble for the destruction of the Jewish country. Now I understand why extra and who cares in the event that they are indignant. i'm ill and bored with Muslims being indignant each and all the time. i'm Christian and that i'm indignant that I might desire to examine such tripe and that i locate that very vulnerable of the British to not prepare it. might desire to be that Socialism putting right into a variety of Fascism there. meaning not by utilising a dictator like Mussolini putting words yet like a undeniable team of folk putting words and each physique else backing off and bowing right down to not offend. Stand your floor! Hitler replaced into Evil. the international desires to under no circumstances ignore That. If it somewhat is Offensive. Too undesirable. So is Evil so Face the Demon