Sarah Reynolds

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History, Period 3 P
21 March 2016
Research and discuss the social climate and significant events that ultimately led to the states Sponsored Genocide in Nazi Germany.
1.Some of the things that lead to the state sponsored genocide in Germany was Anti-Semitism, World War 1, and the attitude
that most of Europe had towards certain people at the time. Anti-Semitism was popular in Europe for many centuries because, Jews at
this time composed only about one percent of Germanys population of 55 million persons. German-Jews were mostly cosmopolitan in nature and
proudly considered themselves to be Germans by nationality and Jews only by religion. They had lived in Germany for centuries, fought bravely for
the Fatherland in its wars and prospered in numerous professions (The History Place 1). The Jews had lived in Germany "or many years,
obviously, but they were still as they were in some other countries, the minority. That means that they were open to the worst
treatment if any were to come. They werent just the minority, though, people also hated the must because they were who they
were, daily Anti-Semitic slurs appeared in newspapers, on posters, the movies, radio, in speeches by Hitler and in the classroom. (The History
place 1). The people were becoming just downright racist toward the Jews. They were beginning to feel as if they were the reason for
everything wrong with the country. The hatred for the Jewish or any other kind of different people, By now experimental mobile gas

vans were being used by the Einsatzgruppen to kill Jews in Russia. Special trucks had been converted by the SS into portable gas chambers. Jews
were locked up in the air-tight rear container while exhaust fumes from the trucks engine were fed in to suffocate them. (The History Place 1).
The people now believed that the Jewish and other people were an actual problem that needed to be solved. -heir solution
was extermination.

2. The social climate in Europe was already bad, but when Hitler came to rule in Germany, it was even worse. People had
already been racist and other -ists to people, but Hitler brought it to another level. The anti-Semitism began many centuries before
World War in Europe, but During Hitler anti-Semitism was implemented in its most grotesque form. The Nazis used antiSemitism to carry out the Endlosung, the final Solution of the Jewish question. Through persecution and later extermination
of the European Jews, the Nazis hoped to solve the Jewish problems once and for all * strongly backed by anti-Semites in the
Balkans, the Soviet union and other eastern European countries /The Danish center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2).
The people really thought of the Jewish people and other types of people that they considered to be below they were a problem. Of
course, they had to fix this problem, naturally, but to these people fixing meant annihilation. The Jewish people hadnt really ever had
a home country of their own, so they were always the minority in someone elses country. Through centuries, Jews were a
persecuted people. (The Danish center for Holocaust and genocide Studies 2). Typically, the minority people are never really
treated very nicely, and that was very true here. The people who werent part of the a5ority lived alone in further parts of the cities so
that they wouldnt be with the people who thought that they were better. Racist in Europe was worse than it had ever been during the

rule of Hitler, After world war two, the German anti-Semitism reached new heights. The returning and dethroned German
soldiers * among the Adolf Hitler * accused the Jews on the homefront of being responsible for the defeat. According to the socalled stab-in-the-back legend, social democratic politicians, revolutionaries and especially Jews had stabbed the army in the
back. (The Danish center for Holocaust and genocide Studies 2). As said before, the people of Germany felt the need to blame
someone for their loss in WW2, the best people for that was the people that they wanted out of their country anyway the Jews and
whoever else they didnt find flawless. Politicians and such were also in danger because they had been at the head of the wars, and
according to the common people, the probably the ones who also started it.
3. Some main events and attitudes responsible for the genocide in World War 2 were the strong Anti-Semitism, the economy,
and nationalism. The racism wasnt knew to Europe though, Eastern European Jews lived a separate life as a minority within the culture of
the majority. They spoke their own language Yiddish, which combines elements of German and Hebrew. They read Yiddish books, and attended
Yiddish theatre and movies, (War and genocide inchlit 1). The Jewish people had not had their own country for hundreds of centuries, and
so they were always treated as the minority. All of the counties around, and including Europe, had it as tradition to treat the people as
if they were at a lower rank. When the First World War was lost, someone needed to be blamed for the aftermath, and so that
someone became the minority, Ravaged by World War 2, the German state was already in poor economic shape before the depression of 1948
struck reparations demands and awakened infrastructure led to inflation and unemployment. The democratic institutions artificially established by
the allies and a feeling of global alienation as a result of a guilt clause and land seizures in the Treaty of Versailles exacerbated social turmoil and left

Germany looking for someone to blame (War and Genocide inchlit 1). The Germans had lost the war and were forced to pay for the whole
thing with money that they didnt have. Of course they would be looking for someone to blame, which Hitler and many others felt was
to be the imperfect ones. This loss and need to (lame lead to many horrific things like, During the Holocaust, between 1.1 and 1.5
million children were murdered" (War and Genocide inchlit 1). The Germans didnt care whether the people they were killing had
been part of the previous war or not, they wanted all of the people they believed to have brought them down to be exterminated
completely. It wasnt just children who died though. Even more adults were murdered just because they were imperfect in the eyes
of the Nazis.