From 1919 until 1945, Adolf Hitler was a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and he worked from the beginning to create an “ideal” racial community. By World War 2, it was clear he had specifically persecuted four groups of people, or racial “others”: the Jews, the Gypsies, people of African descent, and the disabled. Hitler’s decision to persecute who he did was obviously caused by racism, but according to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, those four groups had one thing in common: their biology. The main reason the Jews, the Gypsies, people of African descent, and the disabled were viewed as “the other” in Hitler’s racial state was because of the popular race “science” of the time.
In order to understand why …show more content…
In William I. Brustein’s book, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust, he cites that the Jewish population rose by 54,000 in Germany between 1880 and 1910. While percentage wise, that is not a massive amount of immigrants, it was still a noticeable change. The influx of Jewish immigrants came at the same time race sciences such as Eugenics were extremely popular, and for many anti-semites, “Jews could no longer be considered simply as a minority with their own religious beliefs,” but instead “Jews constituted a separate race, and, as a race, Jews were inferior to Aryans, but also the most dangerous of the inferior races.” One of the reasons Jews were viewed as a “dangerous” minority by Eugenicists and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was because they were intermarrying with Germans. Despite the influx of immigrants in the late 19th century, Jewish people were generally assimilating into German culture. This was a problem because, according to the science of Eugenics, it meant that their “bad” genes and biology were polluting the “pure” population of ideal Germans and dirtying the bloodline. The racialization of Jewish people allowed for race science to be applied to them, which is why they became “the other” in Hitler’s racial …show more content…
The Gypsies and people of African descent were believed to racially “undesirable,” in a similar way the Jewish people were, so race science such as Eugenics was used to classify them in an official way and work toward a solution that kept their bloodlines out of the “good” German population. The disabled were unique in that it was not their race that made them undesirable. Instead, it was their various disabilities that made their genes unsuitable to be passed on in the general population. Even though most of the people with disabilities who were prosecuted were Aryan, Hitler still used Eugenics and social darwinism as a way to justify his treatment of them. While it is clear that race science is why Hitler classified the Jews, the Gypsies, people of African descent, and the disabled as “the other” in his racial state, what might not be clear is why other groups he persecuted are not included. Hitler also persecuted people who were gay and communists during and leading up to World War 2. The reason why they are not a part of “the other” in his racial state is because, according to Hitler, being gay or being a communist was a choice, so he was not concerned about their biology dirtying the “racial hygiene” of his ideal racial community. On the other hand, being Jewish or a Gypsies was something you were born as, and it could never be a
In order to understand why …show more content…
In William I. Brustein’s book, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust, he cites that the Jewish population rose by 54,000 in Germany between 1880 and 1910. While percentage wise, that is not a massive amount of immigrants, it was still a noticeable change. The influx of Jewish immigrants came at the same time race sciences such as Eugenics were extremely popular, and for many anti-semites, “Jews could no longer be considered simply as a minority with their own religious beliefs,” but instead “Jews constituted a separate race, and, as a race, Jews were inferior to Aryans, but also the most dangerous of the inferior races.” One of the reasons Jews were viewed as a “dangerous” minority by Eugenicists and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was because they were intermarrying with Germans. Despite the influx of immigrants in the late 19th century, Jewish people were generally assimilating into German culture. This was a problem because, according to the science of Eugenics, it meant that their “bad” genes and biology were polluting the “pure” population of ideal Germans and dirtying the bloodline. The racialization of Jewish people allowed for race science to be applied to them, which is why they became “the other” in Hitler’s racial …show more content…
The Gypsies and people of African descent were believed to racially “undesirable,” in a similar way the Jewish people were, so race science such as Eugenics was used to classify them in an official way and work toward a solution that kept their bloodlines out of the “good” German population. The disabled were unique in that it was not their race that made them undesirable. Instead, it was their various disabilities that made their genes unsuitable to be passed on in the general population. Even though most of the people with disabilities who were prosecuted were Aryan, Hitler still used Eugenics and social darwinism as a way to justify his treatment of them. While it is clear that race science is why Hitler classified the Jews, the Gypsies, people of African descent, and the disabled as “the other” in his racial state, what might not be clear is why other groups he persecuted are not included. Hitler also persecuted people who were gay and communists during and leading up to World War 2. The reason why they are not a part of “the other” in his racial state is because, according to Hitler, being gay or being a communist was a choice, so he was not concerned about their biology dirtying the “racial hygiene” of his ideal racial community. On the other hand, being Jewish or a Gypsies was something you were born as, and it could never be a