Why did the Holocaust start? 

Quite often people ask: why did the Holocaust start? There are many reasons for the Holocaust, just like there are usually several reasons for any genocide. The Holocaust started because of ingrained antisemitism both in Germany and the countries it conquered, compounded by propaganda and the resources of a powerful state, and the encouragement and leadership of political leaders. It also started because the passive and active perpetrators held deep feelings of animosity toward Jews—ingrained by almost 2000 years of antisemitism in Christian teachings‚ which made them receptive to the message of the Nazis, and which made the idea of eliminating Jews, even through extermination, reasonable and indeed desirable.

Gabriel Wilensky

The Reasons for the Holocaust

Why did the Holocaust start? Why didn’t the Germans simply force all the Jews out of Germany? Why did the feel they had to exterminate them?

“The Germans, like the Poles, Austrians, French, Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and others, were all taught, almost from the moment they could understand language, that Jews were evil.”

The Germans, like the Poles, Austrians, French, Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and others, were all taught, almost from the moment they could understand language, that Jews were evil, that they worked together with the Devil (indeed were minions of the Devil), that they were bent on defiling the Christian mind, taking over the economies of the world to enslave Christians, that they abducted and murdered little Christian boys to extract their blood to make Passover bread, that they desecrated the host, that they rejected Christian revelation and in fact murdered Jesus Christ.

After the Enlightenment, the old Christian anti-Jewish theology began to be replaced by an updated, modern and secular antisemitism. In an attempt to reconcile the hatred with modern ideas and science, antisemitism because racial, which at that time gave it a certain scientific allure. Of course from a strict scientific point of view all this is nonsense, but for people already prejudiced against Jews reason and truth were not compulsory requirements. Thus, long before the time when the Nazis came to power in 1933, the various peoples of Europe already viscerally hated Jews. Many times this feeling was fueled by noxious Christian beliefs about Jews spewed from the pulpits, and was reinforced by the antisemitism in the New Testament.

Throughout history Jews were expelled from many countries, sometimes more than once. In the fantastical platform of the Nazis, the desire to eliminate the Jews became a need, and they felt it was not enough to expel them. The Nazis felt they had to find a permanent solution to what they called the “Jewish Problem”, and that solution was extermination. Thus, when the circumstances were ripe to make effective “The Final Solution of the Jewish Question”, as the Nazis euphemistically called the Holocaust, they acted according to the plan Hitler had laid out years before. They began the systematic extermination, which they managed to do thanks to the acquiescence and often eager help of the local populations.

Want to stay informed about the topic?
Subscribe below.

1 + 10 =

Open Letter to Reverend Cantalamessa

Reverend Cantalamessa, you really messed up when you compared the attacks on the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict with the persecution of the Jews. I know you…

How did the Holocaust start?

The Holocaust started gradually. Centuries of ingrained theological anti-Judaism led to racial antisemitism, which resulted in the desire to eliminate the Jews from…

The Truth About Pope Pius XII: Are We Getting It?

When it comes to the role of the churches and of Pope Pius XII during WWII, the world seems to be divided into three camps: those who are neutral or…

What was the Holocaust?

These days people often use the term “holocaust” to refer to any genocide, but that is incorrect. The answer to the question “What was the Holocaust?” is simple: the…

The Foundation of Antisemitism: We Want to Kill Too

Efraim Zuroff is the Director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. I met him last March in his Jerusalem office and we discussed…

Defining “Non-Aryan”: Cutting Through the Fog

For the layman, sometimes it’s hard to know what things actually mean. After all, one cannot be an expert on everything, so we must rely on others whom…

About “We Remember – A Reflection on the Shoah”: Are We Remembering?

An article on Jewish Review, titled “Conference explores Catholic teachings from Holocaust” discusses the declaration We…

The Weapon the Church Didn’t Use: The Threat of Excommunication

Papal apologists often dismiss excommunication as a powerful tool. Yet, the Catholic Church could have used it during the Holocaust to…

Hitler’s Aides: Willing Collaborators in the Extermination of Jews

The Warsaw Ghetto was one of the many ghettos the Germans established in various European cities. The ghettos were created with the…

The Divided Nations: A Look at the United Nations

A cursory look at the history of the world reveals an unending stream of blood. The greed for power, intolerance and the utter disregard for the…