Have you ever wondered what exactly led to the Holocaust? The Nazis massacred about six million European Jews and five million others from 1933 to 1945.
Almost eight decades later, the question still echoes… What were the causes of the Holocaust? The Holocaust resulted from a series of rumors and fabrications.
For instance, the Nazis believed the Jews were responsible for their economic problems. They also thought that they were secretly striving to control the world with the help of the media. Moreso, they were considered agitators and spreaders of communism.
What were the Causes of the Holocaust?
It is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is mostly associated with the Jews because of the sheer number of Jews that were killed. Others were Soviet prisoners of war, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and the disabled.
Here are five events that led to the Holocaust and their disproves.
Responsible for Germany’s Economic Problems
At the end of World War I, the German economy was in shambles. The effects and costs of war and reparations took a heavy toll on the republic. But the Nazis believed that if they had won the war, the financial challenges wouldn’t exist.
They claimed that disloyal citizens, the Jews, caused this “stab in the back” to the country. As a result, socialists, communists, and Jewish people were targeted as sabotages.
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Germany was held liable for the material damages in WWI (the Treaty of Versailles) and had to pay for them. There was also inflation in Europe, along with high unemployment rates. In addition, the returning soldiers from the war were now jobless.
Also Read: The Cost of the Holocaust to Germany
Besides the expensive reparations and impact of the Great Depression, there was hyperinflation. This series of events caused financial instability and an economic collapse.
Threat to German Culture and Identity
The Jews had their distinct way of life and traditions and were seen as a separate group within society. They were thought to be a threat to German culture because of their cultural and religious practices.
That’s because they placed a strong emphasis on family bonds, celebrations, and rituals for birth, marriage, and death. And they didn’t observe or celebrate Christmas or Easter but had Passover and Hanukkah.
They went to their synagogues instead of worshiping in churches. The same can be said of their diet; they practiced Kosher dietary laws, which prohibited certain foods like pork. All of which led to a lack of trust and an eventual erosion of their rights and freedoms.
Also Read: 9 Means of Attaining Peace Amid Cultural and Religious Diversities
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The Jews base their religious practices on their sacred book, the Torah. Their Passover, Sabbath, and other celebrations are symbols of their cultural heritage. And these practices were their identity, which they preserved and used to honor their ancestors.
A Threat to German Racial Purity
Racial purity was one of the major causes of the Holocaust, and false science was responsible for it. The then-rising influence of eugenics and phrenology fueled this racial divide.
It was thought that the brain had muscles, like other body parts, that grew bigger when used. That’s because phrenology links the bumps on the human head to people’s personalities. As a result, heads were accessed to determine people’s traits.
Eugenics, on the other hand, is the practice of regulating the human population through controlled breeding. The aim was to encourage desirable traits and end undesirable ones. Phrenology and eugenics tag one race as superior and others as inferior.
In 1859, the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection made eugenics gain popularity. And the intention to improve humans quickly appealed to the far-right groups in Europe.
Hitler and the Nazis used these popular theories to justify the superiority of the Aryans (Germans). And so, inferior races, such as the Jews, had to be eliminated to maintain Aryan purity.
Also Read: 10 Effects of Discrimination That You Need to Know
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Scientific advances and the study of skulls discredit phrenology. Equally, the morphology of the head shows no relationship with a person’s character. Moreso, the human genome project has established that all races are genetically identical, so no one is superior to the other.
Responsible for the Spread of Communism
In the 1910s, there was a conspiracy (Judaism-Bolshevism) that communism was a Jewish plot. It was believed that Jews were out to spread communism and destroy European nations.
The Bolshevik coup (Russian Revolution), in which many Jews played key roles, gave credit to this fabrication. Likewise, in old Hungary, several members of the revolutionary government were ethnic Jews.
Leaning on these, the Nazis blamed them for the chaos and bloodshed caused by the spread of communism. This was critical to the events that led to the Holocaust because of the conflicting views of communism. It was appealing to the working class, and the elite saw it as a recipe for societal collapse.
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Although those cases were true, these incidents were few and isolated. It wasn’t enough ground to see all Jews as propagators of communism.
Moreso, communist ideology clashed with the key principles of the Jews. Their views on private property, collective ownership, and wealth redistribution didn’t align. Also, the communists promote atheism, while the Jews value their religious beliefs.
Plan to Control the World
In the early 1900s, The Protocol of the Elders of Zion was published, in part, in a Russian daily. The exact origin is unknown, but the Protocols allegedly describe the meetings of Jews and their secret plans to rule the world. It claimed that they’d manipulate the economy, control the media, and cause religious conflicts to achieve this.
After the Russian Revolution, the Protocols became popular and made this myth appear true. Adolf Hitler praised the book The International Jew because it had a series of Protocols in it.
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The Protocol was plagiarized from a dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864). It later came to light that a chapter of Hermann Goedsche’s Biarritz (1968) inspired it. The success of many Jews in various sectors of Europe might have reinforced this belief.
The Cost of Fabrications
Misinformation has devastating effects, and the basis of many wars was founded on lies. You can see how rumors became the cause of the Holocaust.
In this digital age, where words go viral in minutes, it is important to understand that fabrications have consequences.
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