Jews have been persecuted since the beginning of documented time. This religious group has been poked, prodded, exiled, and in recent years, massacred for their religious beliefs. This racial prejudice is called anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is the vicious weapon of propaganda used to break down the Jews psychologically before the armies of Germany even began to annihilate this religious group during World War Two (“anti-semitism” 47). The NAZI Party led in this mass murdering of the Jewish people.
The head of the NAZI Party, Adolph Hitler, proclaimed that he was not a racist, yet killed over six million defenseless people because of their ace. Hitler also declared, redundantly, in his speeches, that he did not desire World War Two. These are some of his last words: “It is not true that I, or anyone else in Germany wanted a war in 1939. It was wanted and provoked exclusively by those international statesmen who either were of Jewish origin, or worked for Jewish interests. This led to the merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, International Jewery” (Rossel 10).
As one can see, anti-Semitism could not be stopped in the era of World War Two, because Hitler outlawed any media that wasn’t showing hatred toward the Jews. The only radio broadcasts were his hate filled speeches and news reports that he approved. The only programs on television also had to be approved by Hitler or someone under him. No newspapers were allowed to say anything that, in any way, insulted a Nazi, or any other German. If any Jew was caught insulting a German, they were immediately executed or tortured until death.
This fear that had been provoked by the death, starvation, and abuse of the Holocaust, was another type of propaganda brought about by the Nazis (Zeman 26). Another reason that Jews were hated was jealousy. They were believed to be God’s chosen people. Hitler took advantage of this, and used it as another opening for propaganda. Soon, the Jews were blamed for the death of Christ and said to have brought all of the pain and suffering on the world. It was said that God was punishing the Jews, and the rest of the world, for not receiving Him, and once the Jews were gone, the Garden of Eden would thrive again.
This ridiculous theory was later declared unchristian by the Second Vatican Council (Roth 47). Anti-Semitism was even in an innocent children’s fairy tale. In Snow White , the children were to think of Snow White as Nazi Germany after World War One, the apple that put the beautiful princess to sleep was the Jewish people, and the wonderful, handsome prince was Adolph Hitler who woke the beautiful princess with a kiss, which represented his leadership (Zeman 76). Another reason for anti-Semitism’s great popularity was that, for a fact, people enjoy hate.
They do not necessarily enjoy this emotion as they do “happiness,” but it brings about interest in an otherwise emotionless being. The emotion generated by Nazi propaganda and the show of the movement of the Holocaust that was presented to the Germans stood out against the drabness of everyday life in the Weimar Republic. This feeling was a splash of color on the subdued background of Germany (Zeman 13). As ridiculous a these approaches toward racial hatred may seem, the racism of the Holocaust was not limited to only the Jewish people.
In fact, it is generally believed that a total of eleven million people were killed by the Nazi regime, only about six million of these were Jewish. Among these victims were political opponents, Gypsies, the mentally ill, homosexuals, Jews, and others who were considered the “undesirables” of Germany (“anti-Semitism” 1). Another way of “getting rid” of these “undesirables” was to keep hese unwanted people from producing offspring, so the NAZI Party decided to outlaw any births outside of German families. Doctor Charny, a physician for the Nazi regime, drew the attention of the Jewish Delegation to the issue of births.
The Order was first issued on March 5, 1942. The latest date for authorized births was August 5, 1942. He (Charny) would extend this date to August 15, 1942. In the event of a birth taking place in a Jewish family, or other “undesirable” family after this date, the whole family would be removed, and the responsibility to kill the newborn and its family would rest with the Jewish delegates. This was extremely frightening to married couples, especially families who were already expecting a baby (“anti-Semitism” 1).
Just one more way of frightening the Jews was to raid their houses, taking jewelry, clothes, or any other possessions they would like to obtain. Then, suddenly, they would not only take the material items, they took almost every book they could find in the Jewish households. The main books taken were by philosophers who “put ideas of rebellion into the minds of the Jewish people. ” They did not take these books to read them, they made the people come outside and watch them burn.
This as frightening because, “Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn helpless human beings. That was said by Heinrich Heine, a survivor of one of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany (“anti-Semitism” 1). The Holocaust–the merciless massacre of over eleven million defenseless, innocent people, six million of which were Jewish–can be directly linked to the hatred and racism brought about by Nazi propaganda. The people of Germany let their minds be controlled and learned to despise the Jews. Hate is a powerful weapon that has the power to kill without mercy (Holocaust no pagination).
