I can't wrap my head around it. What factors led to the holocaust not being prevented? Was it a global brainwash of eastern Europe or something? How did something on this SCALE not reach the allied troops news lines? How did none of the german soldiers begin to defect? The sheer ratio of jewish:germans in concentration camps screams revolt and uprising.
Someone please explain the factors that permitted the holocaust to take place...
Religious beliefs - Back in that day, there was a lot of religious discrimination in the 1st world with the j*ws recieving it very badly. Also in conjunction with how supposedly Hitler brought Germany out of the great depression so at least around that area (Germany, Austria, Shitaly), they were worshipping this guy and would follow whatever he says.
Part of the reason it was not worse was because the US president at the time did not trust Hitler at all and allied with Russia as a result. had the US president actually trusted the fool, the hollocaust could have possibly taken place in your own backyard.
Germany: started 2 world wars and is now a key player in an economic war out in europe. As shocking as this does sound, I would not be surprised if as a result of this WWIII begins despite massive threats from the middle east and the commy korea
I will take a stab:
It was a totalitarian regime in Germany such that anyone that spoke out against the government would be harassed, locked up, carted off and/or killed. Kinda keeps people from rebelling.
The Allies had indications of the Holocaust but there was not a lot that could be done once the war was under way. The camps were far behind the lines. Sending bombers? Knock out train lines? They were re-built quickly all over Europe pretty quickly in other areas. Cannot bomb the camps--kill the very people you are trying to rescue?
The German soldiers fell into several categories including true believers,people just doing what they were "supposed" to do, fear of reprisal including being executed for desertion.
At least some Germans near the camps knew what was going on, but with the SS/Gestapo/etc all ready to pounce, what could one really do?
The way to stop the Holocaust would have been to avoid electing Nazi's in the first place (their position was well known). The Allies could have offered more visas to allow more Jews in. However, neither Great Britain or the US at the time were models of tolerance at the time. Also, the depression reduced the desire to bring in more people. Anti-Semitism was rampant within the halls of Congress, the White House and Whitehall.
No internet, smartphones, CNN, satellite surveillance...things were about a billion times easier to keep on the down low back then.
I met a former member of the Nazi army and asked him something along the same lines, although a little more tactfully put. I think the short answer is this: Years and years of Jews banding together and controlling government, newspaper, and business created a lot of tension. Relations between Jews and the "heathen" were strained, it didn't take much propaganda to sway the majority of the people against them.
Only a few people knew about the gas chambers. It's not like all of Germany knew they were annihilating Jews. And, of course, my Nazi friend didn't believe they ever existed. He claims the word "holocaust" came from a mistranslation and the Jews used it to gain sympathy. He claims they were all starving to death when the war ended because the Allies had been bombing German supply lines for weeks before actually finding the camps.
I don't believe that "revisionist" history, though. Most of our proof of the Holocaust came via eyewitness testimony, such as this:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_da.php?ModuleId=10007147&MediaId=5628
"Affidavit signed by Rudolf Hoess attesting to the gassing of Jews while he was the commandant of the Auschwitz killing center. The German text reads: "I declare herewith under oath that in the years 1941 to 1943 during my tenure in office as commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp 2 million Jews were put to death by gassing and a 1/2 million by other means. Rudolf Hoess. May 14, 1946."
This is the short answer.
The cold hard truth is anti semitism was a long time tradition throughout Europe for many centuries and was engrained in the minds of many. Did you ever consider why there wasn't much of a Jewish population in France to begin with before the 20th century began? They had their own phases of mass murder and expulsion of Jews. Same with Spain. Then Hitler came along wanting to renew the supposed glories of the Middle Ages. That included anti-semitism and renewed focus on unquestioned duty to their lords and masters. That was nothing out of the ordinary. Except by the 20th century all Germans pledged their loyalty directly to Hitler. You hear about kings and queens who ruled nations in Europe for centuries. But the truth is for much of the middle ages Europe was like the U.S. in the 19th century before the Federal government grew. Real power was wielded at the state and local level. No one person had power over millions. Therefore an endeavor like the Holocaust could have probably never happened even though there probably were sick twisted leader who wanted to. Add in modern technology like rail roads and industrial chemicals and I think the story becomes pretty clear.
athiest2013 wrote:
I can't wrap my head around it. What factors led to the holocaust not being prevented? Was it a global brainwash of eastern Europe or something? How did something on this SCALE not reach the allied troops news lines? How did none of the german soldiers begin to defect? The sheer ratio of jewish:germans in concentration camps screams revolt and uprising.
Someone please explain the factors that permitted the holocaust to take place...
You're missing the first step.
The first step was the controlling patriarchal culture of parenting in German families.
The Father ruled over all. Women and children had no power, no say.
Massive Volumes have been researched and written in the field of psychology on "how could a Hitler happen, and how could he take a whole society with him?"
It's been 20+ years since I studied this stuff closely, but in a nutshell here is what happened: You had a culture where the father ruled over all. You had generations of children with sub-conscious pent up anger and rage, add a victim to direct that at...and there you have it.
Yes, Jews have been persecuted for a long long time. Lot's of Jewish culture highly valued education, advanced degrees, and financial security.
German's were a said to be angry as a society for how they were treated after WW1.
To go even further, the history of "civilization" is essentially man "evolving" from one world conqueror to another.
Humans are animals. Animals who can think and talk and plot to control and kill other animals, including other human animals.
Humans contain the ability to, as a group, hate another group of humans (tribal warfare), and that is essentially what humans do.
Today, a lot of that war fare is economic. Cases can be made that the Chinese and the Germans are trying to take over the world / huge pieces of it, economically.
While you are busy being divided between blue states and red states, China has been arranging to own the world resources for the next 100 years / forever.
Check out what they are doing in Africa...
German philosophy is the worst thing that ever happened to the world. The ideas of Immanuel Kant and his descendents, especially Hagel brought about an utterly insane society in Germany that was nothing like what you know in the USA. Yes, the people were brainwashed, but they lost their minds long before Hitler came along. The same basic ideas that brought Germany to Hell are taught in American universities, but the difference is that Americans do not accept them. The intellectuals are relatively marginalized here, thank God.
holocausts are everyday activity of people.
there are several major holocausts going on today and nobody gives at rats a s s about it.
denial
There is a difference between mass killings and genocide.
That you don't mention firebombing Germany betrays you as a racist.
Think about how much open racism there was in the US (segregation of blacks, Japanese Americans rounded up after Pearl Harbor) at that time and it's not a stretch to see how atrocities could happen in Nazi Germany, USSR, and Japanese-occupied China.
Why didn't anybody stop Native American genocide in the 1800s and before? Why didn't any American soldiers refuse to participate this? Think about how European Americans took over America from the Natives and this is basically the mindset that people in these countries had.
It's too bad for Germany. Look at a map of the German Empire. They had a lot of land after both wars. Both World Wars were big mistakes for Germany.
Ummmm...WW2 was a factor. German army was pretty formidable. Also, lots of anti-semitism around.
in every century someone is top dog and exterminates millions of whom they hate for whatever reason they invent out of thin air.
in this centrury it's the united states exterminating millions of muslims.
it doesn't make a bit sense how millions of muslims are murdered by the u.s. and how we all just stand aside and let our government exterminate who they feel like in the world every second of the day.
but neither did any of the other holocausts make a bit of sense to people, did they?
German army was pretty formidable.
At least the Teutonic Knights and Knights Templar fought on to the last man before they were totally annihilated. People thought they vanished from existence after the Mongol Hordes hunted down every man, woman, and child for 50 years. Yet the Teutonic Knights and Knights Templar re-emerged from the forests 100 years later.
The German soldiers of the WWII era were the worst cowards ever. In WWII on the Russian Front a full German Army of 250,000 surrendered to the Soviets, Every one of the Germans were executed by the Soviets per Mongol tradition. They gave up without a fight. 250,000 German men surrendered. Total cowards.
Inside Look wrote:
You're missing the first step.
The first step was the controlling patriarchal culture of parenting in German families.
The Father ruled over all. Women and children had no power, no say.
The patriarchal culture still exists in most/many countries and is something American Cacuasian males are ruthlessly fighting to retain.
There is this religious factor:
There is one way to read the New Testament that is very anti-Semitic. In St. Matthew's gospel when Pilate asks the crowd if he should release Jesus, St. Matthew uses a truly unfortunate phrase. "The crowd replies: 'Crucify him! ... Crucify him! ... Let his blood be upon us and our children'." {Matthew 27: 22, 23, 25] And throughout history, this has been the justification for some groups - the religious "stick" - to beat down the Jews. [Martin Luther wrote a very vile book titled: "On the Jews and their lies".]
I believe it was Eichmann - one of the architects of the Holocaust - who said at the Nuremberg trials: "We only put into practice what the church has preached for 2000 years."