Anti-Semitism In The Holocaust

The Holocaust transpired between 1933 and 1945, was the genocide of over eleven million people, including six million Jews, under the leadership of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Although the Holocaust took anti-Semitism to the extreme, anti-Semitism has prevailed for over two thousand years. The origins of anti-Semitism lay deep in human history, dating back to biblical times. Prior to the nineteenth century, anit-Semitism evolved from conflict over religious beliefs, into a policy of political and social exclusion and degradation. The common attribute of anti-Semitism through the ages is that Jews have been targeted because others have perceived them to be different. The first display of anit-Semitism was seen during the times of the Roman Empire, …show more content…
The German workers party promoted anti-Semitism. In the 1930’s, Hitler and the Nazis set up a campaign of propaganda towards the Jews, lead by the ‘Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda’, Josef Goebbels. This was done through forms of media and art, such as posters and films that portrayed the Jews in a poor way. This indented to dehumanize the Jews, labeling them as an ‘inferior race’. As much of Europe was already anti-sematic, the propaganda only intensified this attitude, resulting in widespread violence, humiliation and prosecution of the Jews. A film that depicts the humiliation Jews were subject to is the ‘The Pianist’. One of the main themes in this film is the degradation and dehumanization of the Jewish people who suffered through the Holocaust. The film depicts German soldiers forcing Jewish musicians to play for them at a checkpoint film’s depiction of the dehumanization of Polish Jews. In the Warsaw ghetto, the dehumanization of the Jews is portrayed through the Jews that while waiting to cross over the road for non-Jews, are forced to dance with one another is the street. The hated directed towards the Jews laid the groundwork for the mass genocide that was to come. Jewish business became under threat of the Nazi party, who encouraged non-Jewish people to boycott their stores. In 1935, The Nuremberg Laws were passed, which were anti-Semitic …show more content…
He believed in the superiority of the ‘German race’, or what he called the ‘Aryan race’. He believed that in order for the ‘German race’ or what he called the ‘Aryan race’ to remain ‘pure’. Hitler regarded the ideal ‘Aryan’ as a person with blue eyes, tall and blond, and for the ‘Aryan’ race to remain pure, all other exceptions were to be stamped out. While in prison in Landsberg, Hitler read about the theory of eugenics, and believed that Germany could become a ‘superior race’ if the theory was applied to German society. Eugenics is the belief and practice of improving the genetic quality of the human population. The Nazi’s took this theory to the extreme. Nazi eugenics were Nazi Germany 's racially based social policies that placed the improvement of the Aryan race. Those humans were targeted who were identified as "life unworthy of life, including criminals, homosexual, unemployed, insane, and the weak, for elimination from the chain of heredity. In the establishment of their racial policies, Hitler’s government relied a great deal upon Darwinism. Darwinism is a theory of evolution, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual 's ability to compete and survive. Part Hitler’s administration was the development and implementation of policies designed to protect the ‘superior race’.