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... unit poverty and humiliation to Germany. These two events frustrated and angered German citizens, thus increasing internal strife. It was much easier for Germans to blame the Jews for the loss of the war than to accept responsibility themselves. The German citizens were then able to direct anger and hostility at the Jews because they were thought to be responsible for the loss of the Great War (Mazian 145 - 6).
The severe economic strains due to World War I added to the internal strife. Unemployment and inflation were only two strains that served to increase Germany's great number of problems. War reparations as specified in the Treaty of Versailles could not be paid as the main industrial areas of Germany had been taken away. Inflation, a result of the attempt to pay war reparations, severely crippled the population, especially the lower middle class.
Unemployment rose to record levels and workers wages dropped incredibly, resulting in a decrease of buying power. There was disillusionment for soldiers upon their return from war and the ceded territory uprooted German citizens. All of these situations caused a great amount of internal strife and created vast amounts of hostility. This hostility could not be expressed in any facet of life so Germans eventually channeled it at the Jews who were already blamed for so many other problems (Mazian 146 - 53). The serious economic and social problems, along with creating internal strife, created the need for an individual or group that would provide an answer to Germany's problems. Adolf Hitler proved to be the solution to these problems.
When Hitler became Fuhrer in 1933, he had two goals uppermost in his mind. One was the acquisition of more land and the other was to destroy the Jewish population (Mazian 157). There was no question as to how Hitler viewed Jews. "I shall judge the depth of peoples love for their country by the degree of hatred which they show this rabble" (Mazian 156). Hitler despised Jews, and he had the essential ingredient for the realization of his goal for their annihilation; complete power over Germany and the German citizens. With Hitler firmly in power sustained by popular support, the German citizens generally accepted his idea and his goals were attained (Mazian 157 - 63).
Hitler himself was a special condition that proved to be essential to the acceptance and ultimate practice of genocide. The power that Hitler held was unquestionable. .".. the leader is absolute and infallible. Only he is endowed with mystic qualities; only he knows what is best and how to achieve the ultimate good for his people" (Eisenberg 47). The National Socialist German Workers Party was governed by a fundamental law called Fuhrerprinzip, the leadership principle.
It said that "according to the [leadership] principle, each Fuhrer has the right to govern, administer, or decree, subject to no control of any kind and at his complete discretion, subject only to the orders he received from above" (Mazian 159). Because of Hitlers absolute power in Germany, anything he did could not be questioned nor criticized in any way. Therefore, his order to kill the Jews was not questioned and simply accepted. Hitler increased his power as Fuhrer as well as Germany's hatred for the Jews through propaganda, yet another condition that allowed for the acceptance of the Holocaust in pre-World War II Germany (Mazian 171). .".. The Fuhrer became the substitute for the Savior...
The Jews were depicted as always being enemies... parasites" (Bauer 9). The overriding theme of Nazi propaganda was that Jews were The Enemy (Garden 151). In this way, Nazis, more specifically Hitler, were seen as the upright and ethical leaders while Jews were depicted as evil and harmful.
Jews were seen as spiders, toads, vampires, rats, poisonous mushrooms, and vultures in a tabloid owned and operated by Julius Stretcher called Der Stuermer. Childrens books compared Jews to tapeworms and bacteria (Mazian 178). Childrens courses of study were determined by the Nazis and under this direction, the schools became propaganda mills. An example of a math problem follows: "The Jews are aliens in Germany. In 1933, there were 66, 066, 000 inhabitants in the German Reich, of whom 499, 682 were Jews.
What is the percentage of aliens?" (Raab 11). The Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Joseph Goebbels, eventually controlled the mass media throughout the Reich. Only things that Goebbles decided were politically expedient could be expressed on radio, cinema, the press, or party platforms. In this way, the media was manipulated to convince the German citizens of the evil of Jews and increase anti-Semitism (Mazian 178). Propaganda was also used to make the war against Jews a holy struggle by saying "We know that this war is an ideological struggle against world Jewry. England is allied with the Jews against Germany...
England is spiritually, politically, and economically at one with the Jews... For us England and the Jews remain the common foe" (Share 275). By using such an enormous amount of propaganda, the Nazis were able to effectively create a "psychological enemy" to make the German citizens hate Jews and actually believe that they were doing the right thing by supporting the inhumane treatment of Jews (Garden 151). The propaganda used to increase hatred of Jews convinced many Germans to follow the organized plan of Hitler. The incredible amount of organization present in the Nazi party in pre-World War II Germany provided the method for the mass murder of so many millions of people (Mazian 185). Neil Smelser said that the level of organization of aggression directly correlates to the degree of formal organization or a group (Smelser 255 - 7).
This basically meant, the more organized the group, the higher the level of aggression. The Nazi party was historically known as being extremely well organized. They had specific steps that were followed in the destruction of the Jews: definition of the concept of "Jew, " Jewish deprivation of possessions and jobs, concentration into ghettos, and extermination of European Jews (Hilberg 31 - 9). The fantastic leadership of the Nazi Party provided a chain of command in which administrators of these steps always carried out their superiors orders (Mazian 186).
Allegiance was very high as can be seen through the oath that German soldiers were required to take. It included the line .".. I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler" (Mazian 159). With such an organized party, according to Smelser, the aggression should be very high. History a...
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Research essay sample on World War Ii Adolf Hitler
