The Perpetrators : Killers, Victims, Or Both?

2367 WordsFeb 13, 201510 Pages
Matthew Weiler D Track Modern World History Ms. McKellar 2-13-15 The Perpetrators: Killers, Victims, or Both? German dictator Adolf Hitler once declared in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, that if the Third Reich was to achieve its goal of purifying the Aryan race, then “the blood of the victims is to be tapped by force” ("The Persecution of the Jews" ). Describing the Jewish tradition of Passover as a “ritual murder,” Hitler spread his propaganda campaign of hate and anti-semitism to the German people, distorting the truth about Jewish Passover so that those who read his material would believe that the Jews truly did use “a small part of the blood [...] to be poured into the dough of the matzos and into the wine” ("The Persecution of the…show more content…
The ones being tied consisted of more than 100 Germans and Austrians being accused of committing murder, torture and other inhumane acts. Prior to the trials, 3 highly ranked Nazi officials had already committed suicide including Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, while 24 other perpetrators went on trial at Nuremberg, including Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess. A couple of questions asked to the perpetrators included why they worked with Hitler and how the Holocaust affected them. These were two very difficult questions for the accused to answer, as they had, in one way or another, each repressed their moral obligation to end Hitler maniacal design throughout the duration of the Holocaust. Thus, although a great number of Hitler’s followers shared his justification for The Final Solution, nevertheless, a large percentage of the perpetrators participated primarily as a means of coping with intimidation by the authoritarian regime, an experience which therefore haunted the accused for the inhumanity suffered at their own hands. Before one examines Hitler’s effect on the perpetrators, one should understand the significance of Hitler’s manipulation of the German nation prior to the start of the Holocaust. Hitler strategically rose to power during an era of economic and political struggle in Germany during the global depression of 1929.
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