The Holocaust, a tragic and horrible event in history with about eleven million deaths. Of these eleven million, six million were Jewish. Racism played a significant role in the political and social events that led to the Holocaust because the Germans believed they were a superior race, Jewish people were denied many rights, and the Jews were victimized by the Germans.
The Nazis began to combine racial theories and theories on evolution to come up with the idea that their race was superior to the Jews as well as other groups. This caused them to be obsessed with the idea of making the master race. This “Aryan Master Race” include people who were of pure aryan descent and those who were tall, fair-haired and light-eyed. Ultimately, Hitler’s …show more content…
Propaganda was used against Jews across Europe, so people would gain a prejudice view towards jews. Since Germany suffered a great lose because of World War 1, propaganda was used to blame the war on the Jews. According to “Propaganda in Nazi Germany”, an online article going over the different types of propaganda used by the nazis during the time of the holocaust, it says “many posters that had Jews on them appeared to have a caricature. In other words, a bigger nose than usual in order to show the number six–which is the Devil’s number”(Trueman). Therefore, many people began to think Jewish people were evil because their nose “displayed” the Devil’s number. Afterwards, many people tried their best to avoid them or point them out in a negative way. They were also treated with prejudice because jewish owned stores were attacked. One example of this victimization by the german to the jews is Kristallnacht, which means “Night of Broken Glass”. The author reports in the book “Kristallnacht: prelude to destruction” that “On the night of 9 november 1938, SA thugs and Hitler Youth stormed the streets all over Germany and Austria, smashing and burning a thousand synagogues, destroying all identifiable jewish business, looting jewish homes” (Gilbert). This event shows that the Jewish community was victimized because Jewish owned businesses were targeted and destroyed. The “Night of the Broken Glass” didn’t occur to anyone, but the Jews, showing both prejudice and racism towards jews. The Nazi made Victimizing Jewish people easier because they made it easy to identify them by placing them together in the ghettos and using identification cards. It says on yadvashem.org, the world Holocaust remembrance center, “On October 5, 1938, Jews’ passports were invalidated, and those who needed a passport for emigration purposes were given one marked with the letter J. Another law from 1938 required Jews who did not have a