What caused the Holocaust?

Answer:

Causes of the Holocaust

There was no specific incident that triggered the Holocaust.


The most simple answer: Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler was the driving force behind the obsessive and fanatical Nazi persecution and ultimately also the mass slaughter of the Jews and various other groups, though the details of implementation were left to the terror apparatus, headed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. Here are more opinions and input:

• Nazi propaganda operated with conspiracy theories, especially the 'stab-in-the-back legend' and bizarre claims about an imaginary 'Judeo-Bolshevist' conspiracy against Germany, Austria and ethnic Germans. These ideas became popular among hardline nationalists in Germany, Austria and in some other countries. These fanciful, but dangerous notions were also fuelled by some refugees from the Russian Revolution and civil war of 1918-21. The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (first forged around 1900 by the Tsarist secret police and purporting to provide details of a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world) was particularly important in this respect.
• The Holocaust unfolded as Adolf Hitler's personal vision of the cleansing of his homeland of undesirables.
• In World War 2 the Nazis greatly exacerbated (increased, intensified) their self-inflicted 'Jewish problem'. As a result of the Nazi invasion of other countries and especially Poland, the number of Jews under Nazi control greatly increased. At first, they herded the Jews in Poland and some other areas into ghettos, with a view to moving them all out of Europe at a future date. When it became clear that they were not going to win the war quickly, the Nazi leadership moved from a 'territorial solution' to the 'Final Solution' - that is, the Holocaust.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were intent on ruling and wiping out everyone that they considered to be inferior. They believed in and wanted the "Master Race." They gathered up entire families that did not fit into their ideals of what people should be and put them into camps where millions were tortured and murdered. Obviously, there was a long-standing antisemitic tradition in much of Europe (and America), but this in itself does not explain the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was part of a wider Nazi campaign to rid the world of what they often referred to as 'Jewish Bolshevism'. It did not start with 'a big bang' in response to any particular incident but developed rapidly in the second half of 1941 during the early stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.


Please see the related question.

This answer is closed to changes. This is done in rare cases when questions are being vandalized or answers have become debates. E-mail reopen @ answers.com (no spaces) if you would like it to be reopened.