The Holocaust was the main event during World War II, where over six million Jews were killed. Many factors contributed to sparking World War II, mainly the aftermath of World War I, and the horrific tragedies of the Holocaust. After World War I, German officials were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The Treaty stated Germany had to take responsibility for World War I, and they had to greatly reduce their army. The German government, or what was left of it, had to pay 6.6 billion dollars in restorations. There was also a vast amount of debt because of how much money Germany spent on World War I, as well as the restorations they were forced to pay. Another factor that played into the start of World War II was the fact …show more content…
Adolf Hitler started his reign in January of 1933, when he became dictator. Hitler also founded the Nazi party on February 24, 1920. Before the Holocaust, Hitler talked to others about the “Jewish Question”. Robert Boothby wrote a letter to Winston Churchill explaining his meeting with Hitler.“At the end of my talk with Hitler I asked him what he was going to do with the Jews, and there was a grand scene, like a Bateman cartoon. Eventually he said he was going to veto ‘pogroms’, which wasn’t altogether reassuring. I told him that if he beat them up, it wouldn't go down at all well in England.”(Boothby,1932). This was written to warn the Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, about Hitler’s plan. It also explains that Hitler talked about the “Jewish Question” with others outside of the Nazi party, and was not afraid to share his views on the Jews. Winston Churchill had shown he was worried, but Hitler did not state that he was going to hurt the Jews out loud, so Churchill had no proof. Adolf Hitler’s end game was Germany’s Aryan race, which was a person who was tall, had blonde hair, and blue eyes.“In his speeches and writings, Hitler spread his beliefs in racial ‘purity’ and in the superiority of the ‘Germanic race’—what he called an Aryan ‘master race.’”(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2015). Hitler blamed the Jews for the financial depression that Germany had fell into, because the Jews were not as affected by the financial depression like the rest of Germany