posted on Sep, 30 2011 @ 12:37 PM
The op asked a fair question, as to why did Hitler do what he did, and there are many different opinions. The discussion should not be on why it is
only the Jewish population that was focused on, rather the reasons behind what happened.
To start, to even begin to understand the reason why, one must go back to before World War II, to the end of World War I, Germany had lost the war.
In that time frame, during the hammering out of the treaty, all sides agreed that Germany was primarily responsibly and sought to assess punitive
actions against Germany. The Kaiser was removed from power, and the power lay in the German chancellery. Those who were in the German Army at the
time of the surrender, felt betrayed by Germany, dissatisfied with the fact that they had lost the war. Combine that with the crippling conditions of
the treaty that Germany was forced to sign and the ground work was laid for World War II.
Germany for a shot time, did experience a good time and high life, the country was doing well, but when the stock markets fell, and the world’s
economies came to a crashing halt, those in Germany were already feeling the pain and pinch of a tight economy as it was, ended up crippled by this.
The German Mark Tanked, and fell where one day a loaf of bread might cost 10 marks, but the end of the day it was up to 1000’s. The value of the
German Mark continued to plummet and the people were suffering.
The Nazi party was just starting out, and while they had brilliant people there, they needed someone who was very charismatic to lead them, to be a
figure head, and thus you ended up with Hitler. His speeches were to the point of making people feel good about themselves, promising social changes.
Think about it, you are hungry, have a family, and not much, struggling to make ends meet, and then a political party comes up with an offer to help
you out, would you follow? Probably, as many did, and his speeches were effective, as he was able to use the power of words to sway the people. But
they needed a scapegoat, and the obvious choice was the affluent of society, the Jews. Consider this, before World War II, the Jews were mostly
bankers, doctors, educators, and successful businessmen. When the financial crisis happened, they were able to weather the domestic problems. Envy
set in, and Hitler used that dissatisfaction to a political advantage.
So while denouncing those who would be considered enemies of the state, slowly consolidating power, and slowly making laws to restrict one group from
interacting with the rest of Germany. Combine this with an improvement in the economic status of the average German Citizen, and most would be under
the belief, that yes it was the Jewish population that was the cause of all of this, along with those undesirables that the state proclaimed. Slowly
tightening an iron grip and then it was only a matter of time before they would start a reign of terror. Most of the German citizens were kept in the
dark as to what was going on, as they realized that if such came to light, it would mean a strong social unrest, and like all dictators, once they
have control over the money and a few people, it was a matter of creating and focusing the peoples anger towards one group every day. The propaganda
that was printed pretty much shows this going on, it was first they had to state who was and was not Jewish, then it was socially unpopular to do
business with those who were Jewish, and finally to enact the laws that lead to the Holocaust. Along with those who dare speak out. Even the
Churches and other organizations were under a watchful eye, make a mistake, and pay the price.
And once those doors were open politically, they were able to continue to keep them open to include others in that list of what was considered to be
undesirable, and against the state.
They did nothing wrong, except to be the affluent part of society in a country who was going through the economic hard times and under a crippling
treaty.
The lesson here, is be careful of what doors we allow the government to open, cause once opened, it can be something that non of us would want.