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If WW II had not taken place, would there have been a Holocaust? The history of mankind is overwhelmingly comprised of examples of mans inhumanity to man. Yet, the rationale for its study is to enlighten humanity to prevent future tragedies like the Holocaust. This abominable period in history is aptly named because it was a notoriously planned genocide that resulted in the murders of six million Jews. Traditionally historians viewed WW II, racism and scapegoat theory as primary causes of Holocaust. However, as thorough contemporary investigation shows, causes of the above could never be reasons for Holocaust.
In many ways, current researchers have proven that the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem was more important to Hitler and his Nazis than a winning World War II. Late in the war, when Germany was losing, German troops were taken from the Allied fronts and deployed to murder Jews. In July 1944, when the Germans needed every train to begin evacuations of Greece, not a single train was diverted from those taking Jews to death camps. When the Germans declared a ban on all non-military rail traffic in order to free trains for an offensive in southern Russia, the only trains exempted were those transporting Jews to their death. (Dawidowicz, War Against Jews, 141 - 142) Racism was considered another important cause of Holocaust.
Hitler and the Nazis found the association of anti-Semitism to racism to be extremely helpful in solving the Jewish Question. Now that the Germans understood the concept of Once a Jew, Always a Jew, any campaign directed against the Jews must be directed against all of them no matter what non-Jewish religious or nationalist identity they may hold. (Rauschning, 229) Hitler pointed out that all previous forms of anti-Semitism were in error when assuming that if Jews abandoned Judaism and adopted new values that they could assimilate and become non-Jews. (Wistrich, 68) The Nazis believed that by pointing out that the Jews had fixed characteristics and could not be changed for the better, they had established a reason to exterminate a group of people who could find no redemption. The only way to rid the world of the Jew' hostile ideologies, in Hitlers mind was to physically rid the world of all Jews. Every other solution, the Nazis said, had been tried and failed; they would implement the Final Solution. (Wistrich, 69) The third commonly held explanation for Holocaust was the scapegoat thesis.
According to this explanation, in order to obtain power, Hitler and the Nazis needed a scapegoat upon whom to blame the ills of Germany, and the Jews served this purpose most conveniently. The Nazis attacked the Jews not because attacking the Jews was central to the Nazi worldview, but because attacking the Jews was the politically wise thing to do. Though this explanation seems as plausible as the racism ideal, it has been strongly opposed by modern educators. Todays scholars believe in large that the Nazis did not attack the Jews in order to achieve power; rather they wanted power in order to attack Jews. (Dawidowicz, War Against Jews, 84) Another fact that has been used to eliminate the scapegoat thesis deals with Nazi policy for murdering Jews. Considering the Nazis severe manpower shortages, they should have used Jewish prisoners as slave laborers, not murdered them. Instead, the Nazis killed the majority of Jews who fell into their hands.
Even the Jews that were used for labor were often so mistreated that they died within a matter of weeks or months. While to most German military leaders the primary war was against the Allies, to the Nazis it was against the Jews. Finally, in the early years of the Third Reich the Nazis did not want the Jews to remain in Germany where they could have been used as scapegoats. In actuality, the Nazis encouraged Jews to leave. In January 1935, the Nazi party issued a decree that it would fully cooperate with the German Zionists (those persuading Jews to emigrate to Palestine). (Dawidowicz, Holocaust Reader, 85) Amazingly, two months later, also forbade Jewish organizations from encouraging Jews to stay in Germany.
There are many proven facts, which allow arguing that racism and scapegoat thesis were merely excuses for Hitler and Nazis to annihilate Jewish nation. In this case, WW II was an appropriate moment to implement Final Solution. Works Cited: Dawidowicz, Lucy. A Holocaust Reader. New York: German House, 1976. Dawidowicz, Lucy.
The War Against the Jews. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975. Rauschning, Hermann. Hitler Speaks. London: T. Butterworth, 1989.
Wistrich, Robert S. Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.
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