Anti -semitism :: essays research papers

Stop and think about this for a second. What if someone was torturing and killing other innocent human beings by the millions using methods of starving, shooting, gassing, burning, and hanging. You might say, “Oh, that could never happen.'; Well it has. During World War II, millions of innocent human beings were killed, all because of one man who had an obsession for power and supremacy. This man that I speak of is an anti-Semitist, meaning someone who is prejudiced against Jews or another race. This man along with his many other followers thought Jews were an alien race. Throughout this paper you will find out who this man is, what he did, why he did it. Also, you will learn about what life was like for the Jews during this time. After reading this I hope that you will have a better idea of what anti-Semitism is and how one man’s obsession turned to millions of lost lives. The man I mentioned in the first paragraph obviously had a name. His name was Adolf Hitler. Let me give you some background information on him. He was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. His father was a minor customs official and his mother was a peasant girl. He never completed high school and was a poor student. He twice applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but was not accepted for lack of talent. He read large amounts of books which helped him develop an anti-Jewish and anti-democratic attitude. Hitler fought in World War I for the Bavarian army. Although a courageous soldier he was never promoted above private first class because he was lacking in leadership qualities. In September 1919 he joined the nationalist German Workers’ Party. In April of 1920 he went to work full time for the newly renamed National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. In 1921 he was elected party chairman and given dictorial powers. By this time he had developed e xtreme racist qualities and an extreme hate for Jews. In 1923 he tried to seize Bavaria but had no success. There was an increase in the number of Nazi’s between the years of 1929 and 1930. Hitler was then appointed Chancellor of Germany. Hitler started a campaign to destroy world Jewry. He met with high ranking officials and created the final solution to the Jewish problem, and in 1933 the first of many German concentration camps was built.