Genocide and Holocaust in 20th Century Europe

Fascism and dictatorships and the misery they bring do not arise out of a vacuum. In Russia, 1917 was a revulsion of the Czarist regimes for millennia. In Germany, the end of the first World War brought an end to the Kaiser, but the inability to establish a truly democratic, or republican state. Worse yet, the Armistice and the harsh financial burdens imposed on Germans caused unheard of inflation, joblessness, and the need to blame someone. "To be sure, the Germans were staggering beneath terrible political and psychological burdens: There was the shock of defeat, the moral censure of the Versailles Treaty, the loss of territory, and the demand for reparations" (Reilly 2000 384).

It was this defeatist attitude and economic and political distress which spawned National Socialism and Hitler. It is still curious, generations later, how so many Germans could have believed in, and followed Hitler. The fact is simple: he bred fear: Fear of Communism and Marxism. And, he capitalized on the partially-hidden German anti-Semitism. "Anxiety was the permanent emotion of the time" (Reilly 387). Germany, as Reilly (388) points out had lost its imperialist superiority. Even the bourgeoisie as well as the academics now had some sort of fear- whether of revolution, of failure to find work that sustained their families, even the negative view toward Germany of the rest of the world. "It remained for Hitler to bring together these feelings and to appoint himself their spearhead" (Reilly 389). But, it is one thing to fear Marxism or revolution, even to accept a right-wing government, it is quite something else to participate in the slaughter of some six million Jews, mentally and physically challenged, gypsies, and homosexuals. While all these were sent to camps and, most of them, killed one way or another, it is the Jews of Europe that suffered the most. They became the scapegoats. They were seen by many Germans as not really German, but a culture and ethnicity all their own. Jewish bankers, such as the Rothschilds, once rescued Europe. Now, they were seen as enemies of the state, responsible for the misery of the German people.

Suddenly the idea of a Germany judenfrei (free of Jews) appealed to those Germans who needed someone to blame. And, just as suddenly the disaffected unemployed, the marginal people of society, the "little guy" who had no say-so before, joined the Nazi party and, with armband and uniform, became "somebody". They took out their frustration in events such as Kristallacht, November 11, 1938, when thousands of Jewish stores had their windows broken, synagogues were fire-bombed and destroyed, many tens of thousands of Jews either physically harassed or taken to concentration camps. It was an ethnic hatred toward people who were not truly "German":- not Nordic, and therefore "not one of us". Still historians grapple and struggle with finding a true answer to "Why?" Benz (155) wonders whether it was Hitler's intention from the very beginning, or simply the consequence of opportunities that arose" (Benz 1995 156). One has to wonder what Benz means by "opportunities"? Does he mean the jealousy of the "have-nots" for the "have's"? What the Holocaust was, it would seem, was more than revenge or anti-Semitism, or racial cleansing. It was the determination of a few in power to find a reason to coalesce the Germany nation in a single "event"- a single target (actually a multiple target, eventually, when Russia and Communism and Marxism were united in this cleansing of foreigners from Germany).

To those skeptics who still doubt the existence of the Holocaust, Benz' book should be an eye-opener. Perhaps the key to the Holocaust was not various anti-Semitic acts in the Nineteen Thirties and the early years of the War. It was the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942. "On the agenda....was the singularly most monstrous crime committed in the history of mankind: the genocide of the Jews" (Benz 1995 2). It was here, in a friendly breakfast meeting, that the term Final Solution was coined. The decision was aussiedlung (resettlement) of all Jews in Germany. It was here, also, that the idea of mass executions was determined too labor intensive. And, so were created the ovens and gas chambers, mass crematoriums and harsh concentration camps- Theresienstadt, Majdanek, Dachau, Treblinka Auschwitz, among the most notorious.

The bureaucratic, detail-oriented Germans kept meticulous notes and journals about the mass extermination, including, of course, the "experiments" of Dr. Josef Mengele. Everything from experimenting on Jewish twins, to the mutilation of women, and the extraction of gold teeth and fillings before the bodies were tossed into infernos.

One cannot excuse the Vichy French, many of whom participated in capturing and exiling French Jews to German camps for eventual extinction. Why in France? One lingering question concerns the activities of the conservative French Catholic hierarchy, who also saw Jews as Christ-killers and enemies of the state. There were sectors of resistance, of course, especially by French Protestants who also suffered at the hands of the dominant Catholic church. "The memory of persecution made them suspicious of authority, sympathetic to other minorities, and comfortable with clandestine life" (Reilly 403).

Of course, there were some Germans who had Jewish friends. Some even complained that their friend was "a good Jew". Heinrich Himmler, is quoted as saying that "80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his own decent Jew" (Reilly 393). Himmler, in rallying his SS to commit more murders, urges his troops that they are doing these things "in a spirit of love for our people" (Reilly 394). Did the SS really believe that extermination of millions of Jews was a labor of love for Germany? The answer, unfortunately, is Yes. Trainloads of Jews were sent to the camps in the East, herded in to barracks, and eventually gassed or starved to death. And, the troops in these camps took great pride in the efficient manner of disposal of the living and the dead. Himmler even excused his reasons for killing Jewish children: "I didn't consider I had the right to eradicate the men...and have the children to grow up and take revenge on our sons and grandsons" (Benz 154). The Germans were so proud of their careful records that at the various trials after the War it was difficult to protest that most Germans knew nothing about the Holocaust and that it was all handled by a very small, elite group of Nazis.

Hitler gave details from the very beginning: that the Jews (in Germany and throughout Europe) conspired to "make Germany...the object of worldwide conspiracy....directed...by the bloodthirsty and avaricious Jewish tyrant" (Reilly 290). It became a matter of "them or us", to put the Holocaust into somewhat simplistic terms.

One has to look at other genocide activities: The Russians slaughtering thousands of Poles in the Katyn forest, the anti-Semitic pogroms of Russians and Poles, the ghetto-ization of Jews in Warsaw, the killings in South Africa and Kenya, Idi Amin in Uganda, the massacres in Rwanda, and, of course, the Serbs in Kosovo and the racial cleansing of the Kurds and Shiites by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It is not the instigation of one person" Not Milosevic, not Hitler or Stalin or Saddam alone. It is a combination of fear, racial, religious and ethnic hatred and the need to put the blame on someone for national pride defeat in war, unemployment, inflation, or revenge for previous persecution.

In the introduction to The Holocaust, the questions are raised: "Is Nazism unique to Germany...or is it a mere accident that the Nazis appeared in Germany? Did those in occupied Europe who averted their eyes have any real choice, or could have done more to protect Jews?" (Benz viii). No one has yet given the definitive answer that satisfies everyone. We have made an attempt at the Nuremberg trials, and those covering Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, as well as the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann. But, Reilly refers to the "Left's characteristic ineptness in dealing with people's needs and impulses (Reilly 390).

While Jewish groups, such as the Jewish Defense League has as its motto "Never Again!", the likelihood of genocide sometime in the future is as certain as hatred and fear and jealousy and revenge as a human trait.

WORKS REFERENCED:

Benz, W. (1995) The Holocaust New York: Columbia University Press

Reilly, K. (2000) Worlds of History Boston MA: Bedford/St. Martin's