Summary: Ten Step Of Genocide

Classification is the first step of genocide. People will begin to “...distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew...” (Genocide Watch- Ten Steps of Genocide). Hitler knew what his followers would look like: mainly blonde hair and blue eyes. They became to be known as the Aryan race. The Holocaust is very similar to the racial segregation of African Americans in the late 1800s because the leaders would separate and classify who is limited and who gets privileges. In this case, the Germans would represent the white people and the Jews would represent the colored.

When the Jews were being classified as a Jew and not a German citizen, it was around 1934 or 1935 when Hitler announced himself as Fuhrer or leader. The Nazi Party now had authority to begin changing the laws. Jews were to recover their German registration with the new passports and the yellow Star of David patch which symbolized
Rallies and other symbolic acts performed by the Nazis showed party strength, intimidating the Jews and instilling the outright fear mentioned earlier. An example of the propaganda was saying that the Jews worked for the Allied forces secretly, making German citizens angry and they accepted the fact that the Jews were to be tortured and eradicated because they started WWI according to Hitler. The Nazis created a scapegoat out of the Jews, making them look like the enemy. During the Nazi rallies which took place from 1933-1938, the majority of propaganda was used in the Holocaust.

The bestial degradation of the Jews was the next step leading to the genocide of the Final Solution. Now, they were being stripped of their humanity and being treated like animals. The German people hated, discriminated, and dehumanized the Jewish people, resulting in widespread Jewish