Why did the Nazis destroy the Jewish nation? Why did the Nazis exterminate Jews? Alternative versions of the reasons for Hitler's hatred of Jews

Since the Middle Ages, Germany has had a large Jewish community. By the time they came to power, a fairly large part of the Jews had assimilated and led the same lifestyle as ordinary Jews. The exception was a few religious communities. However, anti-Semitism existed and even tended to increase.

At first glance, Hitler himself had no reason for special hatred of Jews. He came from a German background and was surrounded by people. Most likely, his views began to form as a reaction to the situation in Germany after the First. The country was in a political and economic crisis. In addition to external reasons - payment of reparations, defeat in the war - Hitler began to look for internal problems in the country. One of them was the national question. He classified Jews as inferior nations that harm development.

There is an opinion that one of Hitler's grandfathers was Jewish, but no official confirmation of this theory has been found.

Hitler drew on stereotypes dating back to the Middle Ages, emphasizing Jews and their desire to seize power. He tried to confirm the truth of his words by the fact that Jews historically, including the early thirties, owned significant property and often occupied high positions in the intellectual sphere. This provoked unsuccessful people, including Hitler, into thinking about a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.

Hitler's anti-Jewish views were supported by the population largely due to the intensifying political crisis in the country and the global economic crisis of 1929-1933.

The practical aspect of hostility towards Jews

Hostility towards Jews had not only an ideological, but also a practical aspect. At the beginning of the Nazi rule, Hitler supported Jewish emigration, while confiscating most of their wealth from those leaving. Initially, instead of the physical destruction of the Jews, their total expulsion from the country was planned. However, over time, the Fuhrer changed his mind.

Jews became free labor, thus providing an economic justification for their arrests and detention in concentration camps. Also, Jewish roots became an opportunity to control and intimidate part of the population. Those who had at least one Jewish relative, but were mostly German, were usually not deported, but the regime was able to exercise additional power over them.

Continuation.

Starts at No. 828

“The crime of the Germans is the most disgusting thing that has happened in the history of the so-called civilized nations. The behavior of the German intellectuals was no better than the behavior of the mob."

Albert Einstein,

Letter to Otto Hahn, 1949

“The Germans do not belong to the rotten civilization of the West, but are its enemies and gravediggers.”

Goebbels, recording

“And we knew nothing (about the extermination of the Jews),” says the widow of a German officer - the heroine (Marlene Dietrich) in Stanley Kramer’s film “The Nuremberg Trials,” 1961. This is an obvious lie: 900 thousand Germans served in the SS, they knew , could not help but know. They talked about this in letters and showed photographs of how the Jews dug their own graves and how the living laid row after row on the corpses of the dead. More than a million Germans were railway workers, trains with Jews went east day and night, they could not help but know. And the tens of thousands of pairs of men's and women's watches, millions of pieces of outerwear for adults and children, sets of underwear that the Fuhrer gave to the German people, where did they come from? Finally, 400 thousand Germans were intermarried with Jews, each of them had relatives, friends, just acquaintances, how could they not know? Let us remind you: Hitler divided all mixed families into 2 categories: “privileged” - an Aryan and a Jew, and “ordinary” - a Jew and a German. Jewish women from “privileged” families and their children were persecuted to a lesser extent and did not wear the Star of David. Jews from “ordinary” families and their children were practically equated with “ordinary” Jews. Their German wives were forced in every possible way to divorce, after which the Jewish half of the broken marriage, along with their children, was immediately sent to extermination camps. What about those who lived near camps such as Buchenwald and Dachau? They understood perfectly well what was happening there, they could not help but understand, because they constantly saw trains arriving there, filled with half-dead people and leaving empty. They were silent, afraid to end up in the camp themselves.

Nobel laureate writer Elie Wiesel, a former death camp prisoner, once said in Germany: “When I see an elderly German, I always ask myself: “What did he do during the war?” (I refer the reader to Ion Degen’s brilliant short story “Pluskvaperfect”, published in Notes on Jewish History, No. 10 (59), Oct. 2005).

“Hatred of Jews was for Hitlerism the drug with which Nazi functionaries fooled their people so that they would not think about their conscience or their own situation,” wrote the famous Jewish writer Sholom Asch. With the adoption of the “Final Solution” plan at Wannsee on January 20, 1942, the people were told that “this is a racial war. It comes from the Jews and, in its meaning and plan, has only one goal - destruction, the extermination of our people,” Goebbels wrote in the article “War and the Jews” (weekly Das Reich, May 9, 1942). “We confront the Jews as the only obstacle on their path to world domination. If the Axis powers lose the fight, there will no longer be a barrier that could save Europe from the Bolshevik flood."

“German people,” Goering said in a speech on October 5, 1942, “you must know: if the war is lost, you will be destroyed. The Jew, with his inexhaustible hatred, is behind these plans of destruction... Everything that is purely racial, that is Germanic, German - he wants to destroy all this...” “You need to at least once recognize the Jew in his Old Testament hatred,” he said in speech 30 January 1943, “to understand what... will happen to your wives, daughters, brides... how this devilish hatred, this atrocity will be poured out on the German people.” “The Fuehrer of the Reich, Adolf Hitler, has the absolute unanimous support of the entire German people,” Goebbels said in November 1943.

Of course, not all Germans participated in the Final Solution, but everyone knew about it, although they may not have fully realized the scale of the destruction. And yet, “the Germans as a people are responsible for mass murder and as a people must be punished for it... Behind the Nazi party stands the German people who chose Hitler after he made his shameful intentions unequivocally known in his book and in speeches,” Albert Einstein wrote in 1944 in “Address to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto.”

Even before Hitler, the Germans did not love Jews, did not recognize them as equal citizens, but did not experience the animal hatred for Jews that Nazism endowed them with. “Words are like tiny doses of arsenic, they are swallowed unnoticed... and after a while the poisoning is obvious,” wrote Victor Klemperer, a famous philosopher, a Jew, a Holocaust survivor, and the author of the famous “Diaries.”

Hitler transformed centuries-old German anti-Semitism into exterminating one. “I free man from the humiliating chimera called conscience... I am not held back by any theoretical or moral considerations,” Hitler proclaimed. And millions of Germans shouted back: “Heil Hitler!” National Socialism entered everyday life. The Germans have learned well that the Jews are poisoning and corroding the Aryan race. “If Germany had not been cleansed of Jewish poison, it would not have been able to wage war for so long,” argued Hitler’s short-term successor, Admiral Doenitz. Not only the SS and SD, the entire Wehrmacht officer corps was anti-Semitic.

Harvard professor Daniel Goldhagen, in his book “Hitler's Willing Accomplices: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust,” 1996, showed through a number of examples that Hitler had hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic executors who willingly participated in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

Here is one example. In November 1942, when soldiers of one of the Sonderkommandos were preparing to execute a party of Polish Jews, artists came to them from Berlin. Having learned about the impending action, they asked to be allowed to shoot Jews. They were met halfway.

More than a million children were tortured by the Germans in ghettos and death camps. How many of them were future cultural figures, scientists, future Nobel laureates?

Here are the names of three Nobel laureates who passed through ghettos and death camps in childhood or youth: Elie Wiesel, prisoner of Birkenau (Auschwitz) and Buchenwald, Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Georges Charpak, prisoner of Dachau, Nobel Prize winner in physics; Rold Hofmann, who found himself in the ghetto at the age of four, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Swedish professor Erzsi Eyhari, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Biology and Medicine, was a prisoner of the Czestochowa ghetto as a child. Israel's Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau was released from Buchenwald at the age of seven. The famous film director Roman Polanski was 7 years old when he managed to escape from the Krakow ghetto.

Simon Wiesenthal said that while a concentration camp prisoner, he worked for some time in an SS hospital. One day he was called to see a wounded, blind SS man, who, among the bandages on his head, had only one slit for his mouth. He told Wiesenthal that “In Dnepropetrovsk, a group of Jews were driven into a house, giving each a canister of gasoline. Then we started shooting from machine guns,” said the German. — People were jumping from windows. I saw a father close his child’s eyes before jumping.” “I listened to the confession of the criminal,” said Wiesenthal, “but it was not regret. I got up and left the room without saying a word.”

Well, and those who were not executioners, who stood aside and silently watched what was happening, did they understand that they were, at the very least, accomplices? Pastor Niemöller understood:

“First they came for the Jews,

And I didn't say anything -

I was not Jewish.

Then they came for the communists,

And I didn't say anything -

I was not a communist.

Then they came for the dicks

Trade unions,

And I didn't say anything -

I was not a union member.

Finally they came for me.

But there was no one left

Put in a good word for me."

Pastor Martin Niemöller was by no means a friend of the Jews. In 1935 he said: “We speak in our sermon about the “Eternal Jew” and see the image of a restless wanderer, without a homeland and finding no peace. And we see the image of a highly gifted people, generating ideas after ideas. But everything he starts turns into poison. And what he reaps is contempt and hatred again and again, and as soon as the deceived (by him - S.D.) world notices the deception, he takes revenge (on him - S.D.) in his own way.”

To be continued

With the Nazis coming to power, many anti-Jewish laws appeared. As a result of the adoption of these bills, it was decided to expel all Jews from Germany.

At first, the Nazis tried in every possible way to expel Jews from the countries under their control. This process was controlled by the Gestapo and the SS. So already in 1938, about 45,000 Jews left Austria. Before the outbreak of World War II, between 350,000 and 400,000 Jews left Czechoslovakia and Austria.

When Hitler's troops entered Poland, anti-Jewish policies became even harsher. The final solution to the Jewish question put forward by the German National Socialists was the mass extermination of Jews in Europe. Hitler considered the Jews to be a racially inferior nation that had no right to life. Now Jews were not only detained, but also shot. Special ghettos were organized (closed quarters for the complete isolation of Jews and supervision over them).

After Germany attacked the USSR, SS units began to exterminate Jews by mass execution. In 1941, gas vans (cars where Jews were poisoned with carbon monoxide) began to be used for this purpose. In order to immediately exterminate a large number of people, three concentration camps were created (Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor). At the beginning of 1942, the concentration camp Majdanek and Auschwitz served as extermination camps. In Auschwitz, up to 1.3 million people were killed, of which about 1.1 were Jews. During the entire period of the war, about 2.7 million Jews died.

According to historians, this policy of the Third Reich found support among the German people because all the property taken from the Jews was distributed to ordinary Germans. Thus, the Third Reich wanted to become even more powerful and gain the support of as many people as possible.

Algorithm for solving the Jewish question

Concentration of all Jews in certain areas (ghettos). Separation of Jews from other nationalities. Displacement of them from all spheres of society. Confiscation of all property, expulsion from the economic sphere. Reaching a point where labor remains the only option for survival.

Causes of genocide. Most likely versions

Hitler considered Jews and Gypsies to be the dregs of society who had no place in the civilized world, so he decided to clear Europe of them as quickly as possible.

The very idea of ​​destruction is connected with the Nazi idea of ​​​​dividing all nationalities into several groups: the first is the ruling elite (true Aryans). The second is slaves (Slavic peoples). The third is Jews and Gypsies (they must be destroyed, and the survivors must be turned into slaves). Hitler accused the Jews of all sins, including: the emergence of the Bolsheviks, the revolution in Russia, etc. Blacks were completely excluded from this hierarchy as an inferior race. The ruling elite believed that in order to conquer the whole world, fascist troops now needed major victories, so they were allowed to kill Jews and Gypsies as unwanted and the most unprotected. Thus, the morale of the soldiers increased. Most historical sources do not provide a clear explanation of Hitler's actions towards the Jewish people.

Consequences of genocide for Europe

As a result of this policy, about 6 million European Jews died. Of these, only 4 million victims could be personally identified. This course of events had a negative impact on European civilization. Yiddish culture began to fade away, but at the same time the self-awareness of Jews far beyond the borders of Europe increased significantly. Thanks to this, the surviving Jews were able to give new life to the Zionist movement, as a result of which Israel strengthened and grew (in its historical homeland - Palestine).

Even those who didn’t like history lessons at school know about Hitler’s cruelty towards Jews and Gypsies. He did not hide his hatred, but openly demonstrated it both in his public speeches and in his monstrous actions. But how to explain such a brutal attitude? Why didn't Hitler like Jews and Gypsies?

There are many versions, some are more or less reliable, and some are more like fiction. Of course, the Fuhrer’s hatred was not limited only to these two peoples; among his targets for destruction were the Slavs, the disabled, and the insane. This article reveals the supposed reasons why Adolf Hitler did not like Jews. We will also talk about gypsies. But first it’s worth mentioning how Hitler treated Jews initially. It turns out that he did not always feel wild hatred towards them.

Hitler's first impression of the Jewish people

While still a teenager, Adolf met a Jewish youth. They studied together at school. He looked withdrawn and behaved suspiciously, so other students had little contact with him. Hitler also did not establish a close relationship with that Jew. Although at that time he believed that the difference between Germans and Jews lies only in the way they worship God.

Then one day on the street of Vienna he noticed a man who did not look like everyone else, he noticed a very long frock coat and curls called sidelocks. This impressed Hitler so much that he decided to learn more about the Jewish people. To this end, Adolf began to research the relevant literature with his characteristic Austrian-German meticulousness. The first anti-Semitic brochures fell into his hands. They openly voiced negativity towards this people. But oddly enough, this information rather aroused in him a feeling of compassion (although such a word hurts the ear if used in relation to the future tyrant). He could not understand why the whole world was burning with hatred of the Jews, and at first he believed that this was unfair. But he soon found reasons for himself. Among the more or less probable ones one can name the then influential position of the Jewish people and their belonging to the “inferior” race.

The Power of the Jewish People

In one of his public reports (1941), Hitler called them “almighty Jewry, which has declared war on the whole world.” This speech partly explains why Hitler did not like Jews. Photos and videos of his performances clearly demonstrate his fanatical belief in the truth of his beliefs.

Basically, he was irritated by the fact that it was the Jews who constituted the top of political and economic life. This was partly true. After Germany's collapse in World War I, the value of the German mark plummeted, and the average worker's wages became worthless overnight. It was a sin for enterprising Jews not to take advantage of the current situation. During these years, many of them acquired enormous capital. For example, the Jews completely controlled the iron and metal market. They also had an overwhelming influence on finance. Before the start of the Third Reich, almost all bankers were Jews. The spheres of commerce and culture almost entirely belonged to them. Almost everywhere they occupied exclusively leadership positions.

Of course, in fairness it must be said that not all Jews were fabulously rich, although this people as a whole owned enormous capital in those years. But even poor Jews did not want to get their hands dirty with hard physical labor. They increasingly liked moneylending, or at least sewing clothes. In the eyes of the Germans, it looked as if they, the Germans, had to bend their backs for the benefit of some nominees who, moreover, were also non-Christians. Moreover, at that time in Berlin itself there were more Jews than native residents. The ambitious Adolf Hitler was disgusted by such superiority of the “inferior” race.

Not surprisingly, all of the factors mentioned caused enormous social tension. It is this situation in the country that explains why Hitler did not like Jews. He acted as a kind of public mouthpiece. The dictator also openly called them the most stupid, irresponsible and unscrupulous people of all living on Earth.

Hitler's racial theory

In his work “My Struggle,” Hitler explained in detail his theory about the superiority of the Germans, whom he called the Aryans. Only they, according to his opinion, are worthy of being the rightful masters of the world. He describes the external characteristics of the Aryans: blue eyes, fair skin, tall or average height, and identifies idealism and dedication as character traits. Hitler didn't like Jews because they weren't like that.

The second racial group - the Slavs - should be destroyed in the majority, and the survivors deserve to be only slaves of the Aryans.

Secondary reasons why Hitler did not like Jews also apply. Having placed them on the lowest level relative to all other nations, the convinced anti-Semite sought and found indirect evidence of their baseness. Here are some of them.

Uncleanliness

This is another reason why Hitler did not like Jews. Prim Germans from childhood were accustomed to cleanliness and observed the rules of hygiene. Unlike them, Jews, according to Hitler's observations, did not particularly care about their appearance. They often gave off an unpleasant odor. This increased Adolf Hitler's disgust towards them; he branded them as a dirty people, both physically and morally.

Low morale

As for morality, this is another reason why Hitler did not like Jews. The history of Jewish arranged marriages dates back to ancient times. In such families there was no place for sensual love, relationships were strained and cold, and spouses had to look for pleasure on the side. Hitler was especially indignant about the corruption of Aryan girls. He also argued that it was the Jews who were susceptible to vices who gave rise to the syphilis epidemic that was raging in Germany at that time. In addition, only Jewish names appeared among the publishers of pornographic literature. Hitler considered himself a hospital orderly whose goal was to cleanse Germany of evil spirits.

Resourcefulness and hypocrisy

The intellectual wealth of the Jews aroused not admiration, but envy of the Fuhrer. The sharp mind inherent in the Jews as a people in general and in each one in particular, more than once helped them get away with it. Everyone knows their ability to answer a question with a question and say only what their interlocutor wants to hear. Hitler saw such rather innocent qualities as a clear threat, and this also in some way explains, but in no way justifies, why Hitler did not like Jews.

Personal reasons

Rumor has it that Hitler actually disliked Jews after a Jewish prostitute infected him with syphilis in his youth. Then he had to undergo treatment for a long time.

Another version of why Hitler did not like Jews is that his mother died young because of an unscrupulous doctor, again a Jew.

He failed an exam at an art school due to a negative attitude towards him from a teacher with Jewish roots. But young Adolf’s original dream was to become an artist, and not the savior of humanity.

And the most discussed theory of hatred of Semites is this: Hitler himself was a quarter Jewish on his father’s side. Through the Holocaust he wanted to hide his shameful origins.

Each of these versions is based more on rumors than on hard facts, and does not have reliable written evidence.

Gypsies

So, if all the world’s crimes were attributed to the Jews, then what were the Gypsies guilty of? Why didn't Hitler like Jews and gypsies along with them? The reasons are almost the same. He classified the Gypsies as a “lower” race, although by their origin (from India) they are more Aryans, for that matter, than the Germans themselves. But still, Hitler considered them garbage that needed to be destroyed. It is no secret that gypsies lead a wandering lifestyle, are not engaged in physical labor, but more and more in songs, dances, theft and fortune telling. Consequently, they found no place in the society of the Third Reich. In addition, the same untidiness of the gypsies in relation to their hygiene played an evil role.

Results of Hate

Hitler began to implement his plans for the purity of Europe with his characteristic fanaticism. The monstrous numbers speak for themselves. The number of victims of the Roma genocide ranges from 200 thousand to one and a half million people. A third of the world's Jewish population lost their lives due to the Holocaust.

To summarize, Hitler came up with a common enemy for the German nation, who is to blame for everything, and if necessary, it would be possible to “hang all the dogs” on him. The sad history of these peoples shows what blind prejudice leads to.

Let's look at why the genocide of the Jewish people occurred during World War II. This question has always aroused people's interest. For what reasons specifically the Jews, what could they do so terrible that they would be exterminated en masse? Many people still do not understand why the Jews were exterminated. After all, they are exactly the same people and have the right to life. In order to understand this issue, let's turn to history.

What is genocide

This concept is relatively new, but it has its place in human history. Genocide is a crime directed against people differing in nationality, religion or race. The word “genocide” was first used by the Polish lawyer Rafael Lemkin. He mentioned it in his writings, in which he described the massacres of Jews. After this, lawyers began to use this term at the trial in Nuremberg, where the issue of war criminals was resolved.

Holocaust in Germany

Before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, about half a million Jews lived on its territory. They, just like the Germans, had equal rights. Jews took an active part in the life of their country and did a lot for its prosperity. Why were the Jews destroyed if they had the same right to exist?

Everything changed dramatically with the arrival of Hitler. He had a plan related to the Jewish people, and gradually he began to implement it. The main goal of the plan was to separate the Jews from German society. Hitler wanted to blame the Jews for causing problems in the country, and to present these people in a less than favorable light. At first they tried to evict Jews from Germany and deprive them of citizenship. To achieve this, people were fired from their jobs and their property was taken away. But it didn’t come down to murder. Then there were periods of calm, and the Jews believed that everything they had experienced was in the past.

During the Olympic Games in Germany, all anti-Semitic signs disappeared. Hitler had to show the world that in his country everyone lived in peace and friendship and honored their leader. Everything returned to normal; after the end of the Olympics, Jews began to leave the country en masse. The whole world treated the tragedy of the Jews only with regret and did not try to extend a friendly helping hand. Everyone was confident that the Jews would cope with their problems on their own.

But Hitler decided that there were still many Jews left in the country, and this problem needed to be solved somehow. The policy towards them has changed dramatically. All Jews over 6 years of age were required to wear a distinctive badge in the form of a yellow star. They also had to hang a star at the entrance to their houses and apartments. Jews were prohibited from appearing in shopping centers and near administrative buildings. Their winter clothes were taken away and sent to the front. They were given only one hour a day to buy food. And later they were prohibited from buying milk, cheese and other necessary products. Everything was done to ensure that they had no chance of survival.

In September 1942, the eviction of Jews from the German capital began. Jews were sent to the East, where they were used as labor. Death camps began to be built in the country. And the purpose of their creation was the destruction of Jews and people of other nationalities. The Nazis took all measures to destroy the Jews forever and prevent the continuation of their family. They were brutally abused, after which they were killed and even their remains were burned. Only because Hitler imagined himself to be God, who has the right to decide the fate of people. He believed that such a nation had no right to exist and they must be destroyed.