...World War II: Hitler’s Jewish Genocide It is regarded as the most widespread and deadliest conflict in human history, killing more than 50 million people. World War II was the largest armed conflict in history, spanning the entire world, and involving more countries than any other war. The war has been generally believed to start on September 1, 1939 and lasting until September 2, 1945. Historians are still arguing about the exact cause of World War II, however the common belief of fault resides on the implementation of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was possessed by a passionate set of ideals to expand Germany, and with his election as German chancellor in January 1933, marked the start of an accelerating progression towards world war. Under the dominion of Hitlers ambitions, Germany invaded western Poland as a result of the intransigence between both countries. World War II ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict, and served as the justification for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany, under the order of Hitler. To fully understand how Hitler attained the support of a nation to agree with his ideology, one must know the conditions before the wake of World War II, and how Hitler instilled influential ideas of national pride. In this essay, I intend on showing why it is important to understand a certain aspect of World War II. I will first focus on establishing the importance of knowing what events led Germany into the circumstances it was in prior to...
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...Discuss Psychological Explanations of two or more forms of Institutional Aggression (8 +16 marks) Institutional aggression can be defined as aggressive behaviour that occurs within a place of confinement such as prison, and is motivated by social forces, rather than anger or frustration. One psychological explanation of institutional aggression is institutional aggression within groups. This form of aggression can be explained using the importation model which involves interpersonal factors. Research by Irwin and Cressey (1962) suggests that prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them into prison. This then influences their adaptation to the prison environment. They also argue that prisoners are not simply ‘blank slates’ when they enter prison. Due to this, many of the normative systems developed in the outside world would be ‘imported’ into the prison. Harer and Steffensmeier (2006) offer some research support for the importation model. This particularly applies when evaluating individual factors such as age, education level and race. Their study involved collecting data from 58 US prisons where they found that black inmates had significantly higher rates of violent behaviour. However, these people displayed lower rates of alcohol-related and drug-related misconduct than white inmates. Despite this, there is a problem of sample bias with Harer and Steffensmier’s study. This is because only US prisons took part. This means that the results are not representative...
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...Alexia Gonzalez Political Science 4823: The Holocaust/ the Shoah Final Paper December 12, 2013 The Comparative Analysis of the Holocaust Ethnic cleansing and genocide are considered to coexist in a spectrum of assaults on nations or religio-ethnic groups. These threats were more prominent during the 20th century which caused massive violations of human rights and jeopardized the overall security of humans. Determinants of ethnic cleansing and genocide root from socio-political factors influenced by deeply embedded ideologies which are manifested by political leaders of specific regime types. During World War II, German authorities targeted Jews and other minority groups like the gypsies and Pols due to their perceived racial inferiority. The German ideology in attempt to eradicate these auxiliary groups led to the conflict known as the Shoah. The Shoah is the biblical word meaning destruction and it is the standard Hebrew term for the murder of European Jewry. The Shoah was the systematic, bureaucratic and state sponsored persecution of six million Jews. Comparable to other ethnic based genocides, Germans believed they were racially superior and that Jews were inferior; and deemed a threat to the “German racial community” resulting in their mass murder. Various interpretations of the Shoah has given rise to similar attitudes and opinions regarding its historical events. The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database, is one of the largest resources of its kind which includes...
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...about the memory of the Holocaust than about the Holocaust itself During World War II, France woefully surrendered itself to the Nazi Regime. This new government, led by Henri-Philippe Pétain, was soon to implement Hitler’s anti-Semitic laws and, consequently, France became involved in an event recognised worldwide as the ‘systematic mass murder of European Jewry by the Nazis’ – the Holocaust. Following the end of the war, Charles de Gaulle hastily recovered France’s collective identity and repressed the reality of the nation’s collaboration out of shame. The result? A ‘crisis of consciousness’, in which French society was incapable of facing its shared responsibility. Resnais’s documentary, Nuit et brouillard, offered an even plane, where France was able to recover its memory of the Holocaust. In the forthcoming discussion, there will be detailed consideration as to whether the memory of said genocide is the fundamental theme of Nuit et brouillard, with close reference to the film’s imagery, text, and musical composition. Shot in 1955, ten years following the camp’s liberation, Resnais’s film begins with post-war colour images of Auschwitz, capturing what remains of the barren land. As the camera progressively moves through the barbed wire fence, the present day moment is established and one sees ‘une drôle d’herbe’ surrounding the edges. The inclusion of overgrown flora can be argued as a metaphor for the surface and deep memories of the Holocaust; the camps are undoubtedly...
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...Rowan 1 Ethan Rowan Henderson CRW1 14/4/17 Religious Racism in Europe Religious Racism has been a very big topic in recent years especially after the Holocaust. Religious Racism is the discrimination of someone based on their religion. There are many different forms of racism besides religion. It can come is Race, Religion, Sexual orientation, and many other ways. It has been many years since the Holocaust and Religious Racism has calmed down significantly but it has started to make a comeback against a different religion. The Islamic faith has been the target of many racist views and has caused many people to fear Muslims. There are many places where religious racism is slowly coming back but there is no place that is getting more impacted...
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...and genocide. These factors are primarily group cultural history and situational factors, including crises and authoritarian leadership. Human beings do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, people develop and live within a variety of cultures with distinct histories. Our identity and our perceptions of the world are formed by our culture. Our sense of what is normal, in terms of morality or interpersonal relationships are shaped by our sociocultural context. The three common patterns of a culture of violence are: the use of aggression as a problem-solving skill;...
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...The Contributing Factors of the Rwandan Genocide In the novel Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculèe Ilibagiza, she describes the horrifying experience she encountered in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda was made up of three different groups: A Hutu majority; a Tutsi minority; and a very small amount of Twa, a pygmy-like group of forest dwellers. Ilibagiza was a student a college during the genocide, in which about 800,000 died in 100 days including Ilibagiza’s mother, father, and two brothers. Ilibagiza’s story is an extraordinary experience to the power that gave her the strength during that horrific time. Some of you might wonder: What factors might contribute to a victim being able to survive a genocide? A person must preserve strong faith with the ability of accepting forgiveness while the violence continues. Preserving faith during a difficult time can be challenging because of the constant violence happening all around. “I entered my special place through prayer; once inside, I prayed nonstop, using my rosary as an anchor to focus my thoughts and energies on God” (95). Ilibagiza managed to conserve strong faith by searching within herself, constantly praying and also meditating every day; for the moment she was in hiding, in the priest’s bathroom she focused on her faith and building her relationship with God, meanwhile Ilibagiza prayed for many hours each day and also experienced religious visions. While in hiding Ilibagiza and the...
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...and Altinay’s piece correlate in theory and discourse. The resemblances between the two narratives are striking and complimentary of one another even though the focus of both articles are different, yet they share characteristics of remembrance, counter-memory symbolism, state and power structures. In this essay I will demonstrate the relationship in narrative and substance, which both authors are discussing. Aysi Gul Altinay is focused on the Armenian Genocide of 1915 by the hands of their Turkish rulers and the following historical counter-memory provided by Turkish nationalist historiography, specifically on the implications on the ‘un-silencing’ of the ‘Armenian question.’ Turkish nationalist history has largely accepted the silence on the events of 1915 as the historical norm, not to be questioned. In a way it is worse that this discussion, which has only surfaced recently in mainstream Turkish society, is not one of responsibility for the massacre of an estimated 2 million Armenians but rather one of the very existence of these atrocities. What few pieces of archived information that exist from 1915-1920 do not give specifics on the fate of so many Armenian women and children but do point to the survival of large numbers of women and children through Islamization. Ataturk’s own biographer gave reason and definition to the reason behind the organized historical silence of all things Armenian genocide by calling the period ‘a time best left forgotten’ thereby demonstrating...
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...humanizes oneʼs understanding of the Holocaust in unique and evocative ways. A unique feature of the text is clever fusion between personal accounts and documented history using mediums such as, interviews, official documents, poetry and song. This enhances the stories of the authorʼs parents, Yossl and Genia, whilst evocatively capturing the atrocities of the Holocaust. The relationship between history and memory is further explored in Kevin Ruddʼs “Sorry apology to Stolen Generations”. Bakerʼs “The Fiftieth Gate” suggests that memory humanises historical events, juxtaposed by the emotionless discourse of history in unique and evocative ways. Baker provides insight into the historical events associated with the Holocaust,emphasising number of deaths that occurred during the genocide. In Gate 26, Baker explores the deaths Geniaʼs parents witnessed in the lines, “Among 1380 people, one family survived by chance. They were Leo Krochmal and his wife Rosa who witnessed the shooting,” The impersonal tone and simple language in the lines underscores the straightforward and detached nature of history. In contrast, the recount of Genia hiding from Germans in Gate 6 is markedly more confrontative, “we could hear the footsteps, the shots, the screams”. The alliteration of “shots” and “screams” accentuates Geniaʼs fear and trepidation. The sensory imagery positions the reader as Genia, struggling to survive, humanizing the atrocities of the Holocaust. The inclusion of song, particularly...
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...Such historical events of massive genocides include the Holocaust; where Nazi soldiers killed six million innocent Jewish people based on their political and ethical reasoning. Troubled by situations of this nature, Stanley Milgram held a collection of experiments that his book “Obedience to Authority” outlines. Milgram tells us that “the aim of the study was to find when and how people defy authority in the face of clear moral imperatives” ( 4). Milgram found that there are social forces which allow populations to commit morally conflicting acts against other populations. The fundamental variable for this influence is ideology; which is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “a systematic body of concepts, especially about human life or culture”(“ideology”). Ideologies accompanied by social contagions, admit ordinary individuals to transgress in inhumane conformed evils. The obedient subjects of Milgram’s studies and the Nazi soldiers alike are not all necessarily sadistic psychopaths. Rather, they’re a result of ideological social conformity. It has been a commonly accepted idea that those who participated in the holocaust were all individually psychopaths, but conformity to a corrupt authority’s dogma influences ordinary people to behave malevolently. Between 1941- 1945, fifty-five thousand Nazi soldiers worked at death and work camps (Wikipedia, World War 2 casualties). Considering that there were so many participants in this genocide, it is not logical to simply label...
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...and morality both share the same conduct. When we look at ethics and morals, we think about right and wrong. The difference between them is that ethics refer to a series of rules that are given to us by an external source. They can refer to a system of principles or theory. For example, the Florida Bar has ethics and rules that it expects its attorneys to follow. Morals are our own principles regarding right and wrong. They are based on practices or teachings regarding how we conduct ourselves in either personal relationships or society. Another way addressing this view is that Ethics govern society while morals govern individuals. Socrates held that moral judgment have to be supported by reasons. He also pointed to wrongness in behavior as being caused by ignorance. Is there such a thing as a moral fact; a fact about ethics and morality? I think in a sense this question can be ambiguous. Does it differentiate whether moral facts exist in our minds and how we can distinguish what is right from wrong? Maybe. First we must look at the fact that ethics principles change very little compared to morals which change frequently. Where ethics is stable, morals are constantly changing. Ethics can cause a person to question their morals. For example, as stated by our Professor Luis Fonseca, for many Germans, the final solution (holocaust) was morally acceptable. Germans persecuted the Jews, taking their property, their dignity and their lives. It was morally acceptable...
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...Genocide Foundations Name Institution Affiliation Date Genocide Foundations Introduction Over the years, genocide studies receive positive and negative influences from both the cultural and political contexts. The two contexts have extensively influenced the view of genocide. The major view of genocide is that it is a domestic occurrence of states. On a literal perspective, various authors have contributed to the subject of genocide. The assignment looks to extensively explore the foundations of genocide based on book reviews. The paper will provide an in-depth analysis and reviews of three books on genocide, What is Genocide by Martin Shaw, Centuries of Genocide by Totten and On the nature of genocidal intent by Campbell. Shaw, M. (2007). What is Genocide? Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN: 0745631827. Martin Shaw’s takes up the subject of defining genocide in all contexts. Through the book, What is Genocide, Shaw seeks to address two major issues related to genocide definition. • Unchanging definition of genocide • Reasons and need for changing definition of genocide Modern comprehension of the genocide ideology arises from a historical and contemporary viewpoint. It is evident over the years that the definition of genocide has undergone minimal change. In the book, the author offers key reasons for the unchanging definition of genocide while at the same time offering major reasons...
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...HOTEL RWANDA RWANDA GENOCIDE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN CONGO By GRADI MUYEMBI KAYEMBE Fall 2014 Preface Our century has been portrayed by many issues that are not example for the next generation, but this is not the reason why we should cut off the history to the next generation. The reason why I decided to write about this topic is to share with you about what really happen and what is happening in Africa that people in the USA don't know. I signed for this class because I thought that it would be interesting to share the issues that other people are facing in world and particularly in the Congo where I am from. I don't have the full accuracy of everything written in this essay but I will share some researches that other people did through the issues and my own experience through the issues. Introduction Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The term Genocide has been defined by many people through out the 20 th century, but the UN defined it in 1946 after the holocaust as: A denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, and is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations. The General Assembly, therefore, affirms that genocide is a crime under international law whether the crime is committed on religious...
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...events of the Holocaust are revealed. Throughout the story, Wiesel describes the atrocities that took place during this period of genocide during World War II. As the story progresses, various relationships that Wiesel holds with certain individuals evolve, and these changes contribute to his survival. Two such characters that the author relates to through his horrifying experiences are God and his father. Wiesel starts out in the story as a firm believer in God; however, his faith in and relationship with God begins to change as a result of his agonizing experiences. Despite constantly being on the verge of life and death, Wiesel is able to carry on, partially because of this correspondence with God. At the beginning of the novel, Wiesel claims that "he believes profoundly." (1) The author has a naive, yet strong, faith in God at an early age, and he is constantly studying the Talmud and spending time in the Temple with his religious mentor, Moshe the Beadle. Months later, the Jews are placed in the ghettos, and then are expelled in cattle cars soon after. During the transport, the Jewish people receive false hope of good conditions in the labor camps, so "they give thanks to God." (24) Wiesel and his fellow Jews are not aware of the grim future that awaits them, so they are still optimistic and devoted to God while their confidence is still soaring. Unfortunately, hope cannot survive in gruesome times and places. As Wiesel witnesses the horrors of the Holocaust for himself,...
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...Source BBC: Adolf Eichmann did not work hard or do well at school and left without any qualifications. His father, who had meanwhile started an oil-extraction business, gave him a job. Eichmann worked on the surface and in underground oil-shale tunnels before moving to an apprenticeship with an electrical engineering firm. In 1927 his father used family contacts to get him a job with another oil company. Little attention has been paid to Eichmann's work experience, but it had a significant bearing on his career in the SS. Eichmann was adept at learning practical skills on the job, under the tutelage of seniors he respected. While he continued to live at home, he ranged over Upper Austria selling oil products, locating sites for petrol stations, and setting them up. He also arranged kerosene deliveries. On Saturday he conscientiously completed his paperwork and reported to his superiors. Eichmann did well and was transferred to the Salzburg district. But by 1933 he had tired of the job and, anyway, was laid off. He had learned a lot, though: how to identify prime sites at communication junctions, how to timetable and organise deliveries, how to sell a product and persuade people to do your bidding. During his trial he pretended to be apolitical, but Eichmann came from a strongly German nationalist family. Like many Germans his father lost his wealth during the post-war economic crisis and had the embittering experience of starting all over again. He enrolled his son in the...
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