Adolf Hitler Anti Semitic Essay

Anti-semitic views have been present and put in practice through out history with the earliest accounts dating back to the 3rd century BC. The Germanic people like the majority of other European countries had anti-semitic history far before Adolf Hitler was even born. This has made historians challenge the traditional view that Hitler was solely responsible for the introduction of the anti-semitism ideology and that in fact the anti-semitic seeds were already sown within the German people.

After the first world war, Germany was almost at breaking point with the ramifications it was subject to after signing the treaty of Versailles. By the 1930s Germany, along with the whole of Europe, had been forced in a state of economic crisis as a result of the Wall Street Crash. This caused hyper inflation, widespread unemployment and poverty across the whole of Germany. The economic crisis was adding fuel to the flames of the already present anti-Semitic bonfire. A scapegoat had to be found and the Jewish-Germans were chosen. At the time of the Nazi takeover in 1933, the Jewish religion made up about 0.8% of the German population and the historian Daniel J. Goldhagen in his book ‘Hitler's Willing Executioners’ preposes that the remaining majority of Germans and Austrians knew and approved of the extermination of the Jewish race and that most would have actively participated in it had they been asked to do so. Goldhagen argues that one person cannot be responsible for the wrongdoings of a whole country and that the German people
It wasn't until 1938 that the anti-semitic truths somewhat became clear which by then Hitler had almost total control of Germany and the German population could only comply with the regime or live in fear or be subject to the