A definitive answer? Why did Hitler pursue a policy of elimination towards the Jewish people?

Question

I have read of so many reasons, from Jewish prostitutes to his mother's Jewish doctor. Does this question have a definitive answer, or is it a "take your pick" from a series of events in his past?

Answer 1

There are many different theories behind it, but the only person in history who can really answer that would have been Hitler himself, so it is just a case of using what evidence is available to try and explain his actions, but no-one can be 100% sure.

Answer 2

Hitler felt that the treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany (i know he was Austrian)After WW1 Germany was a defeated bankrupt nation ,Inflation running out of control ,no work etc.When this happens ppl look for scapegoats and as the Jews (not all but generally) used the situation to there advantage,running pawn shops lending money  etc Hitler along with many others blamed them for Germany's predicament(wrongly of course)

Hitler has a very clear vision of how things should be and because of the situation his msg carried a lot of hope and optimism for ordinary Germans

Answer 3

Hi Spartacus,

Lets call a spade a spade. The Jewish people were not the olnly people to be eliminated by Hitler. He was an egotistical sociopath with no regard to human life. He didn't care about anyone but himself, but in answer to your question he also hated Egyptians, Americans, Hungarians etc. Aside from the 6 million Jews he killed he killed an additional 9 million of many diffrent backrounds.

Good luck my friend.

CATHORIO.

Answer 4

Because he was a sadistic, delusional, arrogant PIG!

Answer 5

In his mind Germany had not been defeated in the First World War but had been subjected to a very harsh punitive measure through the Versaille Treaty which in part he blamed the world banking community for imposing.There were many Jewish bankers and institutions present at the time and Hitler was convinced that they had conspired to bring about Germanys downfall.

Answer 6

His dad was Jewish and abused him.  Also, he was insane and overdosing on drugs.  He also needed a scapegoat for the harsh post WW1 economic conditions.

Answer 7

Hitler didn't pursue a policy of elimination towards Jews specifically. Firstmost you must remember Hitler was an artist. His perception of the world like most artists was a bit different. But he was also a decorated war veteran and ardent nationalist.

       His aspiration were led by his dream of a united German Empire. Furthermore however he dreamed of perfection. In his eyes perfection meant a unified state without ethnic minorities, religion, unity and complete social structuring from bottom to top.

        Hence his first moves was the euthanizing of all mentally and physically retarded people living inside Germany. These, in his eyes, inferior beings had no place in his new State. His next move was the segregation of all non-union thinkers. Intellectuals and free-thinkers who were breaking what he saw as his forced amalgamating of society. Next came the ethnic minorities, which at the time consisted almost purely of Jews who were put into segregation camps called Ghettos.

         Hitler's motivation behind the Jews? He saw them as negative on society. He believed they poisoned society. His reasoning is not to disimilar from that of today, when people say TV is ruining our children, when quite a bit of hollywood is owned or run by jewish businessmen. Back then Jews also had a large hand in the entertainment business and in the so-called "decadence" of society as Hitler called it. Also the fact that the two creators of communism, Marx and Engels were both Jews did not help suave his convictions. Also since his forced unity convictions, he disapproved of the shunning practiced by Jewish populations, also the practice of Jews still practicing their ways in secret even when forced to bend a new direction as was shown in numerous historical examples. So he saw them as a lost cause as well as seeing them as inferior and sought their segregation from German society. Hence the Nuremburg laws which stated any person with three/four jewish grandparents or a person with two jewish grandparents who was married to a full-jew should all be declared jews. This led to 200,000 people considered half-jews to still fight in the German army, since they were considered Aryan enough. The blueprints for the invasion of Poland was written up by an officer with a Jewish mother, but him having a German father and a German wife spared him. Also many half-jews opted to serve in the German military because of the rule Hitler enacted that all Jews who had their acceptable children serving in the military were to be spared. This led to many of the mischlinge or half-jews to join the military to spare the lives of either their mother or father, depending which one was Jewish.  In fact several of these half-jews fought very hard and very bravely, I believe the highest decorated one got his awards for the killing of 22 American soldiers in the Battle of Bulge.  Himmler and Borrman several times tried to arrest members of half-jews families who served in the army. They got heavy reprimandations from Hitler and the family members immediately got released from the camps again.

        At the end of the day however, Hitler so far as we can scholastically prove never called for or signed papers for the elimination of the Jews or the commencement of the holocaust. The very orchestration of the Holocaust sounds more like the work of Himmler, Borrmann, Eichmann and Göhring. Who were all rabid anti-semites who thought Hitler was too soft on his racial policies and often pushed him to harder stances. For example the first plan Hitler proposed was the shipping of all Jews to madagascar, this became impossible when war broke out between Germany and France/England. Hence in 1941, the Final Solution, hence even the name "Final" was enacted. Under the Wannsee Conference where Gähring and Heydrich were heads. Psychologically according to a study done in the 80s Hitler doesn't even seem to be the type to have thought up an event such as the holocaust since it didn't fit with his psyche and worldview. However it is definitely something that would have been the brainchild from men like Himmler or Eichmann who were anti-semitic enough to make Hitler look tolerant. However since Hitler was the leader, and these men his underlings, he is at the end of the day still responsible. Even if all he did was ok a project such as the holocaust which was thought up, orchestrated and planned out by others. There is the possibility Hitler didn't know the extent of the holocaust. Such line of thought is very controversial though, but it is realistic considering the politics of the time and the psyche of men such as Himmler. This is not being apologetic to Hitler, merely pointing out that the Holocaust is more the footprint of men like Himmler and Eichmann who even made it possible.

         However either way a group as homoegenous and shelved as the Jews were an issue for any state which purpose is to follow the motto "One people, one Empire."

        Also along with eliminating undesirables from society he forced out anti-social behavior. All Germans were required to be in social clubs of one sort or another. Children were forced to join the Hitler Youth (boy scouts more or less) without exception. Adoption was heavily promoted, due to the view of family above all. This led a policy called Germanization, the Aryan children of countries that were conquered were often kidnapped more or less, and put into the houses and raised as children of SS men. Abortion was declared illegal. Many homes for pregnant women were opened where they were cared for, which was unique in Europe at the time, since being an unmarried woman who was pregnant was usually a matter of shame, hence the government kept it's hands off it. If the woman after giving birth to the child was inable to raise it, she could and as often happened they signed the child over to the State, whereas it was then often adopted by the family of a member of the SS. Since the more children you had, your own or adopted was a matter of pride and distinction.

      In schools as well a method of union was formed. Children were indoctrinated that they were the greatest. The ubermenschen. This caused a unique phenomenom as a British teacher visiting once remarked. Cheating was almost unheard of in German schools at the time. This was because the children were so indoctrinated about their responsibility to their family, Germany and the Führer that cheating would bring shame on them all. Also the fact that this led to most of the class beating up a kid caught cheating for bringing shame on the class, after the test. Which was probably the biggest factor. However it also led to mayn suicides of children who felt they underperformed and could not hold up to expectations.

        As for Hitler personally. He also spoke a few times of enacting a vegetarian diet for all Germans. Since he himself was a vegetarian and considered it a superior lifestyle and ultimately the diet of the future. Hitler also refused to drink or smoke. Since such vices did not fit into his view of perfection, he held himself just as high in esteem as his vision of a utopian perfect society.

    I could go on and on. Point is thousands of books have been written about the Third Reich. Why? Because it is unique in history and so most intellectuals are both disturbed and drawn to it. Also the pure machine like efficiency of their attempts to reach their goals. People such as Mao or Stalin may have killed more people than Hitler's regime. However they did it inneficiently in work camps and killed indiscriminately. Hitler's regime murdered in clean 15 minute strokes, chose very specifically who was to be removed from society,  and did it very orderly like a well-oiled machine.

       So what should we consider the holocaust? I say the simplest way to put it in a sentence or two:

       It was the misguided attempt of a charismatic artistic and politically gifted man to bring about what he saw a perfect utopian world by eliminating all things he saw as not being able to conform. It is reminiscent of the story of Icarus, where Hitler did not learn the old adage that all attempts to reach for the skies and perfection end in dismal failure, since humans are not meant to aim for absolute perfection.

Answer 8

Far too painful a question to deal with.

Answer 9

He pursued a policy of elimination, because he had power and because of a grudge that he had from when he was about 16. When he was young Hitler dropped out of school, to pursue a career of art. Art was the only thing he was ever good at. Academically he was terrible at everything, except art duhhhh)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/...

http://www.hitler.org/art/dogs/dog1.jpg

http://www.hitler.org/art/dogs/dog2.jpg

Those are some of his drawings. You can see on the third he has signed it. With his talent, he decided to pursue a career in Vienna and so put together a portfolio of his work and presented it to Vienna art school. He was not accepted.

He had spent all his money getting here, because he was so sure he would get in. He tried a second time to get in after creating more works in his portfolio from street art, but failed. He then became a literally down and out on the streets living as a tramp. His family was quite poor; he was neglected by his father as a child. At this time Vienna had a large Jewish community (about 1905) Hitler developed his hate of Jews and foreigners during this time. He could not understand why they were not Austrian, were not hard workers, and yet they were rich. They did not bother to even spare him a penny during his long hard years as a tramp. He began to hate them more and more. He was young and alone, surrounded by Jews and foreigners, this is why he came to hate them. Then finally in 1914 he went into service for the German army, since he was rejected by the Viennese army. In the army he found his true calling.

From these pictures, you can see how he changes. The first picture is when he was 10; you can get an idea of his face shape.

http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/H...

From the next two pictures you can see his face looks sunken and worn

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ri...

http://z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/v/...

(Hes the one on the left)

You can see what being a tramp did to him. He hated the Jews for what they did; he believed them to be a germ. (Which he later explained in mien Kampf)

He was living proof of how the Jews treated people.

Of course his opinion and proof was completely biased. The Jewish community in Vienna was hated by the viennans, and so were outcast, far more than appeared. As a result they could not get jobs and had to start their own businesses, and so therefore became rich, very rich, unfortunately Hitler did not realise this. If they had helped him, they would of been imprisoned or something.

When the war came around Hitler enlisted in the German army and became a hero. Again, the Jews did not do anything, yet, they were outcasts, they weren't allowed, but of course, Hitler still blamed them. He received the Iron cross for his extreme bravery and was enlisted as a spy for the German army. He was very angry that the Jews had not helped in anyway to the war effort, or at least put some money towards arms for the soldiers.

Then about 29 years later, he became chancellor, after another year he became fuehrer, dictator leader. He now had the power. He blamed the Jews for the loss of the war because the vast community did not help, and the loss caused the economic crash which caused Germany to fall in economic crisis, hyperinflation set in. Stresemann came in, but because of the massive debts and a slow down in the economic market because of war debts and rebuilding from the war, and also because of American interests, the stock market crashed and Stresemann died. Hitler blamed the Jews for not helping in the first place. He told the German people this and they agreed.

Unfortunately, he got too powerful, and decided to kill them because they got on his nerves too much, and he had the power to do so.

Answer 10

he blamed the jews for everything and wanted to anihilate them, much the same way as the jews want to anihilate the Palestinians.