The Holocaust Or Shoah Was The Main Cause Of The Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust or Shoah was the murder of about 6 million Jews by the Nazi’s. This happened during world war two between 1941-1954. They wanted to eliminate the Jewish community in Europe. Jews were killed by death squads or taken to death camps. Six million out of eleven million Jews died. The Holocaust took place more in Eastern Europe like Ukraine and Poland. They also killed people who weren't Jews that they thought were racial or political enemies. (What was the Holocaust) Adolf Hitler was the main cause of the Holocaust. He was part of the National Socialist German Worker Party. On January 20 , 1933 he was made chancellor of Germany. After President Paul von Hindenburg died in 1934 Hitler made himself ruler or dictator

To stand up for Jews in a rapidly Nazifying culture in Germany or occupied lands took courage that most people didn’t have at the time. They wanted to avoid “ cognitive dissonance” which is the mental anguish between someone's belief and their actions, so they made quick decisions . For example people wanted to protect themselves, because if someone showed empathy for the Jews then others would too. Since the Jews were suffering anyone who showed empathy would suffer too. They distanced themselves from the Jews and devalued them even further in their minds then their society and culture devalue them already. To devalue something means to reduce or underestimate the worth or importance of something or someone. Without people who had the same opinion as you it was hard to “swim against the current.” (United States Memorial

The way you are raised shapes your moral values and belief. In Hitler's case he lived in a very anti-semitic town with an anti-semitic mayor. So his beliefs were probably anti-semitic as well. Maybe if he was raised in a city that wasn’t anti-semitic or as anti-semitic as Vienna then maybe he would treat the Jews better. Similar events that remind me of the Holocaust is all the school shootings. Everyone is afraid if someone will come to their school and cause a shooting and politicians are pressured to figure out how to stop them from happening. Two primary sources that support the two immediate causes are “I so not know what horrifies me most, the economic misery of my companions or their moral ethical coarseness.” - Adolf Hitler. This supports the economic depression Germany went through after World War I. “consequently ,the tone, particularly that of the Viennese anti-semitic seemed to me unworthy cultural tradition of a great nation.” -Adolf Hitler this proves how anti-semitic Vienna was. (Adolf Hitler quote A-Z quotes and Adolf Hitler quote Lib