The defeat of Germany in the First World War burdened many proud Germans. Coupled with the sudden defeat and the harsh debts of the Versailles Treaty, Germans sought restitution for losing a war they believed they could win. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party embodied a proud and rebuilding Germany that many people identified with and followed. However, Hitler had additional agendas, believing that the Jews were responsible for Germany’s lose in World War I. Obsessed with the idea of a superior Aryan race, Hitler believed Jews to be sub human and pursued their destruction ("The Holocaust", 2017). The following steps are necessary to ensure history never repeats the atrocity of the Holocaust
1. Identify the SignsHitler’s Holocaust did not happen overnight. It was an evolving process that took years to enact his “final solution.” Beginning in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws authorized the liquidation of Jewish assets and the removal of Jewish families from Germany. The onset of war in 1939, saw Jews rounded up by invading Nazis and interned in Ghettos or overcrowded housing with no means of escape. In the summer of 1941, the “final solution” to the “Jewish question” was enacted. Jewish prisoners were moved from Ghettos to death camps known as concentration camps. The result was the murder of approximately six million Jews before the end of the war in 1945 ("The Holocaust", 2017).
|
Photo credit: The Vault
|
Acts of genocide have historically occurred after government failure usually in conjunction with war. (Scheffer, n.d.). The signs were evident as Hitler, and the Nazis rallied Germany to make the Jews the common enemy for the loss of World War One. Non-Jewish Germans turned a blind eye to the anti-Semitism because they agreed with Hitler or they were afraid of reprisal if they openly disagreed ("The Holocaust: An Introductory History", 2017). Outside powers such as Britain and France did nothing because they were having internal political problems. The United States was a nation of isolationism, still recovering from the tolls of the First World War. Most significant, no one saw it coming. Additionally, no one believed Hitler could rally the defeated nation of Germany and begin a conquest of Europe ("The Holocaust", 2017).
2. Intervention
By the time Allied nations intervened, it was too late. Hitler had already captured Poland and interned more than three million Polish Jews ("The Holocaust: An Introductory History", 2017). At this point in the war, the Allies had no idea of Hitler’s intent to exterminate Jews but merely displace them. Territories that the Nazis controlled were unhindered by any resistance. The Germans could do with the Jews as they pleased unimpeded. The Nazis also went to great lengths to keep the death camps a secret from the German people, although it was obvious something was afoot ("The Holocaust", 2017).
|
|
3. Accountability
Prevention of future genocide requires holding perpetrators accountable for crimes against humanity (Scheffer, n.d.). The horrors of the Holocaust did not come to light until after the culmination of the war. The scale of the death camps shocked the liberating armies. As a result, high ranking German officers and officials that knowingly participated in the Holocaust were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. The trials spotlighted the Nazi atrocities for the rest of the world ("The Holocaust", 2017).
|
Photo Credit: Lynn University
|
4. Never Forget
The fourth step was not an option at the time of the Holocaust. According to "Genocide Timeline" (n.d.), “As the German forces advanced further east, SS, police, and military personnel carried out atrocities that moved British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to state in August 1941: We are in the presence of a crime without a name.” (para. 5). We must ensure history is not lost on younger generations, so atrocities like the Holocaust never happen again.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayana
|
Berlin Holocaust Museum
Photo Credit: Visit Berlin |