The Fourth Chapter Of The Book 'Why' By Peter Hayes

Grant Myers

Professor Mueller

WRTR 1313

March 1st, 2023

Zealous Takeover

The fourth chapter of the book Why? Explaining the Holocaust, author Peter Hayes highlights the Nazis' concern with racial purity and their belief that the "Aryan" race was superior in his explanation of the Holocaust. The Nazi party came to believe that in order for the German nation to survive and rule, specific ethnic groups had to be eliminated. This chapter discusses Jewish and other targeted communities' reactions to the unfolding events of the Holocaust, including any attempts at evasion or resistance. This chapter examines many themes like the Nazi regime's attitude of Jews changed over time, Nazi ideology, bureaucracy, and the impact of the war through Aristotle’s

Hayes looks at how the Nazi regime's attitude of Jews changed over time, moving from persecution and exclusion to ghettoization and eventually extermination. He points out that the choice to pursue total destruction was the outcome of a complicated interaction of forces rather than being premeditated. Also, Hayes examines Nazi ideology, particularly its anti-Semitic viewpoints, and how they acted as a catalyst for the determination to exterminate European Jews. He contends that this worldview gave Nazis the framework they needed to view Jews as a menace below human status that needed to be eliminated. Next, the chapter dives into the impact of Nazi bureaucracy. Hayes underlines how crucial Nazi bureaucratic institutions were in making genocide possible. He points out that meticulous planning, administrative processes, and the use of papers were essential to the Holocaust's successful execution. The last theme mentioned is the impact of the war. Hayes considers how the context of World War II impacted the implementation of the Holocaust. He argues that the exigencies of wartime helped to create conditions that allowed the Nazis to pursue their genocidal policies with increased urgency and

Explaining the Holocaust, providing readers with a comprehensive and well-researched understanding of this dark period in history. According to him, "[Hitler] wanted to cancel out the “negative selection” that wartime casualties would mean for the Aryan race by accompanying the inevitable attrition of young, vital, and fit Germans with the compulsory reduction of the number of those who were genetically deficient” (Hayes 116). In order to further bolster his arguments, he offers first-person accounts of people who assisted Jews in hiding from the Nazis during this time: "Exposed in January 1942 and court-martialed, he explained to his wife, ‘you know how it is with me and my soft heart,’ adding that ‘in my room are six men aged 17 to 23 who have the same fate. Condemned for desertion and cowardice in the face of the enemy. Jews too are the enemy—that’s just the way it is.’”