本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛这是两年前为朋友捉刀的一篇文章，随着这几天对犹太文化的讨论，一并贴出。 这个话题艰深且沉重，涉及的历史、宗教、文化、政治等方面的资料浩如烟海，难免挂一漏万。有失公允、有欠思索的地方，请各位不吝赐教。
The Roots of the Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic and state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators prior to and during WWII. In this essay I investigate the causes, both long term and short term, of the Holocaust. I start by tracing the history and heritage of anti-Jewish sentiments and hostilities in ancient Europe. Then, I discuss the intellectual and nationalistic origins of anti-Semitism in the 19th century that fostered the environment for massive persecutions of Jews. This is followed by a study of Hitler’s personal development of his anti-Semitic worldviews. Finally, I investigate the contemporary social conditions of Germany and Austria that allowed the Holocaust to take place without much resistance and questioning. I argue that it is the combination of all four factors, namely, the history and heritage of anti-Jewish sentiments in the Old Europe, the development of racial anti-Semitism in the 19th century, Hitler’s personal development after World War I, and the mentality of the German masses during the Nazi regime, that gave rise to one of the most horrific events in human history.
Before we can hope to understand the direct causes of the Holocaust, we must understand the cultural, social and historical background that gave rise to this incident, because the roots of the Holocaust lie deep in the European soil, among its peoples, and in the soul of the Western Civilization. Before the emergence and growth of anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th centuries, there had already been a millennia-long heritage of European hostility towards Jews. Roots of anti-Jewish sentiment can be traced all the way back to the era of the ancient Greek. The Greeks criticized the Jews because they refused to fully accept the culture and values of the Hellenic communities in which they lived in, and to adopt some of the social and religious norms of the Roman Mediterranean world. When Christianity emerged from the bosom of Judaism, it caused a split in the old Jewish religion. The Hellenistic Jewish Christians began to call themselves Christians and to convert non-Jews to the new religion. This created serious tensions between the traditionalist Judaic faction and the Hellenistic Jewish Christians over many religious doctrinal issues, the most important of which was the recognition of Jesus as divine. Gradually, with the effort of Paul, Christianity gained a favorable light from the Roman authorities and was instated as the state religion, while the traditionalist Judaism became marginalized and criticized by such Roman emperors as Constantine. Jews were cast in Christian theology as “murderers of Christ” and were therefore subject to discrimination and mistreatment throughout the European Christendom. The first major outburst of anti-Jewish sentiment occurred in the wake of the First Crusade in 1096 when mobs murdered Jews as “killers of Christ.”
Into the medieval age, the Catholic Church put increasing restrictions on the types of occupations that Jews were allowed to have. This forced many Jews into the despicable job of money lending which was strictly proscribed for Christians. Slowly the Jewish people became identified with money and usury. A growing jealousy and resentment towards Jewish money-lending practice helped create a new atmosphere of anti-Jewish sentiments. This was exacerbated by the popular claim that Jews had been carrying out ritual murders of Christians, especially children. From late 13th century on, Jews began to be expelled from countries on the Western European continent, beginning with Edward I’s decree that all Jews had to leave England by All Saints Day of 1290, ending with Jew’s final banishment in Spain and Portugal in the late 1490s. In the case of Spain, the decree of expulsion issued by Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492 remained effective until 1968 – an appallingly long period of time. During the intervening years, the Jews not only had to deal with the persecutions and expulsions, they also suffered deteriorating plight as a result of their alleged association with the Black Death – the great bubonic plague that ravaged Europe and decimated one third of Europe’s population – in which they were accused of spreading the plague by poisoning Christian wells throughout Europe. Mass murders of Jews took place in many areas where entire Jewish communities were annihilated. The 16th and 17th centuries saw renewed persecution of the Jews. Although the Reformation changed the face of Catholicism in Europe and created a huge stir with the establishment of the Protestant Church, it failed to improve the situation for the Jews. Even Martin Luther himself who was initially benign to Jews turned against them when they refused to convert to his faith. In 1574 Luther unleashed a harsh attack against the Jews in which he claimed that the Jews were infected by devils and punished by God for their failure to convert to Christian faith. In so doing, Luther effectively passed on a Jew-hating heritage to Lutheranism.
In summary, although the Jewish people have developed into and remained one of the most unique ethno-religious groups in the Western world, their rejection of Jesus’s divinity and messiahship as well as competition between Judaism and Christianity formed the basis of Christian antagonism towards the Jews. The bloody and violent history of the first sixteen hundred years or so after the birth of Jesus stands as testimony to the tragedy of the Jewish people; at the same time it lays the groundwork for the more massive and organized crimes of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is with knowledge of the past that we now turn to the pages of the 19th century.
If anti-Jewish prejudice of the past was a necessary condition for the success of anti-Semitism in the 19th century, it was not, however, a sufficient one for the Holocaust. The more massive and organized crime of the 20th century needed a more “scientific” and “systematic” justification and vehicle, and the development of anti-Semitism in the 19th century provided just that. Although by the 19th century most of continental Europe had enacted Jewish emancipation laws as a result of novel ideas brought by the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, anti-Jewish sentiments nonetheless survived in much of Western and Central Europe. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte sought to curb many Jewish privileges that earlier revolutionaries grudgingly bestowed on French Jews, such as full citizenship rights. With increasing industrialization, urbanization and commercialism, European societies struggled with problems associated with these issues. Medieval anti-Jewish stereotypes resurfaced: Jews were accused of controlling Europe’s capitalist wealth, and since capitalism was seen by many as the root of many social problems, Jews once again were blamed for the world’s perils. This social trend coincided with the emergence and development of a new branch of intellectual thoughts called Social Darwinism which was pioneered by intellectuals like Herbert Spencer. Spencer embraced Darwin’s ideas about natural selection and used the term “survival of the fittest” to emphasize the idea of racial superiority and inferiority. He said that if a race “is not sufficiently complete to live, they die, and it is best they die.” This idea was quickly embraced by racial extremists. A German physician by the name Alfred Ploetz used the term “racial hygiene” to describe the role of war and revolution, and engendered the extremist idea that inferior races should be sent to war as cannon fodders to preserve the lives of superior races. Ploetz’s ideas would later find fertile ground among German racists and chauvinists, particularly after World War I. The age-old anti-Jewish sentiments blended with these racial ideologies and ultimately gave rise to what became known as anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism differed from traditional Christian anti-Jewish sentiments in that the latter viewed Jews in a religious context, whereas the former saw Jews as a dangerous group not because of their faith but because of their racial characteristics. One of the best-known anti-Semitic was Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In his Foundations of the 19th Century, he looked at history from the standpoint of race. He thought that Germanic peoples had saved Western civilization from decay and collapse, and that Aryan Germans represented the best race, and he likened the Jews and the Slavs to the most destructive forces in European history, and he believed that Christianity’s negative Jewish elements robbed it of its vitality. Another famous anti-Semitic Theodor Fritsch expanded on the racist ideas and declared that the Jews were conspiring with the Freemasons, Roman Catholic, and Jehovah’s Witnesses in taking over control of the entire world. Therefore, he concluded, it was important to teach anti-Semitism in schools and that revolutionary tactics were needed to deal with the “Jewish problems.” Outside of Germany, anti-Semitism was also vibrant in Austria, France, and Russia where anti-Jewish sentiments had existed for centuries. Anti-Semitism was found not only in the world of philosophy and social sciences, it was also rampant in the realm of arts. The ultimate figure of the 19th century German culture, Richard Wagner, was an outspoken anti-Semite. He claimed that Jews, although born in Germany, could never learn to express themselves artistically and authentically because they lacked the German national spirit. He also attributed the “sicknesses” of modern German culture to the materialistic nature of Jews. In summary, by the end of the 19th century anti-Semitism permeated every facet of European culture and life. As we shall see, the anti-Semitic movements in Central and Eastern Europe were particularly important because they helped create the environment in which Adolf Hitler grew up and succeeded.
Steeped in the 19th century anti-Semitic traditions, Adolf Hitler’s distorted personal development is the third major reason behind the Holocaust. It is hard to explain exactly from where and how Hitler developed his hatred towards Jews because his childhood accounts showed little specific anti-Jewish tendencies, but two series of events later played crucially important roles in shaping his worldviews. The first series of events was none other than the First World War. Prior to the war, Hitler was influenced by the ideas of two prominent Viennese anti-Semites, George Ritter von Schoenerer and Karl Lueger. Through their writings he for the first time became aware of the so-called threats to the German people – Marxism and Jewry. For Hitler, the Great War symbolized the battle for Germany’s survival. He quickly enlisted in the army, fought bravely, was wounded twice, and received two Iron Crosses for his bravery which he treasured all his life. Germany’s humiliating defeat in 1918 dealt a fatal blow on young Hitler. It would transform Hitler and confirm his deep suspicions about the “dark forces” lurking behind domestic and international politics. He was convinced that German Jews had stabbed Germany in the back, and later wrote that it was Germany’s defeat that opened for him the path to politics.
The second series of events that nurtured Hitler’s hatred of Jews was the Treaty of Versailles and the policies of the Weimar Republic. In Hitler’s words, the Treaty of Versailles that the new Republic was forced to sign was an “instrument of boundless extortion and abject humiliation” for the German people. The Treaty, with its 450 articles, forced Germany to accept responsibility for causing all the losses and damages which the Allies had suffered as a consequence of the war. Germany ceded Alsace-Lorraine to France, lost all of its colonies in Asia and Africa, and became separated from East Prussia by a Polish Corridor that was carved out of German territory. In addition, the Treaty required Germany to pay an indemnity that totaled 132 billion gold marks. In response, former commander of the German army Paul von Hindenburg reiterated the claim that German army had been stabbed in the back, a claim that resounded in Hitler’s head. Hitler quickly embraced the “backstab” theory and charged that wartime Germany was run by a bunch of Jewish scoundrels who were responsible for Germany’s defeat. In 1919 Hitler joined the then largely unknown German Workers Party, whose leader, Drexler, dreamed of a German state free of Jews, Slavs, Communists, and any alien group and ideology that was harmful to the German national spirit. With his great talent in propaganda and oratory, Hitler quickly rose through the ranks and became its most important orator. “Anti-Semitism,” said Hitler, “must lead to … eradication of privileges of the Jews.” “Its final object,” he continued, “must be the total removal of all Jews from” Germany. Hitler combined his anti-Semitism with the desire for greater lebensraum (living space) for Germany. One of his party’s principal goals, he declared, was to acquire more lebensraum they needed to create a super Aryan race, and this could only be achieved through a “war of extermination.” His coining the phrase “war of extermination” here foreshadowed his later effort against the Jews – the Holocaust. To finance post-war debt payment, the Weimar government adopted inflationary fund-raiding policies. This tossed the mark from 40,000 to the dollar to 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar by the end of 1923. Taking advantage of the financial and political crisis in Germany, Hitler staged the infamous Beer Hall Putsch against the Bavarian government in Munich. Although the Putsch was easily smothered, the event marked a turning point in Hitler’s life and in the history of his party, and the use of violence in achieving political purposes would become a hallmark of the Nazi movement. In summary, Germany’s defeat in World War I and domestic political and financial crises in the Weimar Republic strengthened anti-Semitic sentiments among the German population, and in particular provided Hitler with a breeding ground for his distorted psychological development as well as ample opportunities to fulfill his anti-Semitic ambitions.
Last but not least, Germany’s social atmosphere and attitudes adopted by the German masses in the 1930s and 1940s played an important role in ensuring the successful execution of Nazi’s anti-Semitic policies up to and including the Holocaust. After Hitler’s ascension to power, the Nazi regime unleashed a series of countrywide persecutions of Jews. The tragedy in this is that the non-Jewish Germans regarded the fate of their fellow Jewish citizens with apathy and silence. As Steven Beller analyzed, while many Germans may not have approved of the severe anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis, “their disquiet” over these issues “never rose to the level that would overcome their fear of Nazi retaliation,” let alone challenge the Nazis. In the end, the attitude adopted by the German public was one of silent compliance with the Nazis and of indifference and helplessness towards their fellow Jewish citizens. Some Germans took the opportunity of Nazi persecution of Jews to advance their personal gains. The removal of Jews from important offices and lucrative positions as well as eviction of Jews from certain residential areas into concentrated ghettos left the German society with a political and social vacuum that was quickly filled up by opportunistic non-Jewish Germans. These people found good jobs, rapid promotions, excellent business opportunities, and the chance to acquire confiscated Jewish wealth and properties. Such opportunistic or functionalist roles played by non-Jewish Germans only exacerbated the deteriorating conditions of Jews in Germany, and constituted what Alexander Herzen called the “rational evil.” Jews, it appeared to the average Germans, if not hateful, were at least different from non-Jewish Germans, and therefore not one of “them.” This lack of sympathy and disregard for the Jews prior to and during the Holocaust led Hannah Arendt to formulate her famous theory of the “banality of evil,” which states that “the great evils in history were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.”
I have attempted to analyze how the Holocaust occurred from historical, cultural, social and political perspectives. Given the complexity of the countless threads revolving the Holocaust, this short essay is hardly sufficient to provide a full picture of the circumstances surrounding the event, and serves only as a precursory study anticipating a more thorough evaluation of the roots of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, I believe the several factors I have attempted to explore represent the major forces behind the Holocaust. Finally, I would like to reiterate my argument that anti-Semitism which sprouted from the fertile soil of European anti-Jewish traditions, coupled with the social turmoil under the Weimar Republic as a result of Germany’s defeat in World War I, aided in the success of Hitler’s severe anti-Semitic policies and gave rise to the wholesale persecutions and annihilation of Jews in Europe, during which the apathetic compliance of the German people cannot be overlooked. It was the joint effort of history, society, the individual, and the mass that resulted in one of humanity’s greatest tragedies.
[完]
Lifesucks
2010年8月
参考文献：
Crowe, D. M. (2008). The Holocaust – Roots, History, and Aftermath. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Beller, S. (2007). Anti-Semitism – A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Rosenbaum, A. S. (2001). Is the Holocaust Unique? Perspectives on Comparative Genocide. Boulder, Coloardo: Westview Press.
Dobkowski, M. N. & Wallimann, I. (1983). Towards the Holocaust: the Social and Economic Collapse of the Weimar Republic. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
The Roots of the Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic and state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators prior to and during WWII. In this essay I investigate the causes, both long term and short term, of the Holocaust. I start by tracing the history and heritage of anti-Jewish sentiments and hostilities in ancient Europe. Then, I discuss the intellectual and nationalistic origins of anti-Semitism in the 19th century that fostered the environment for massive persecutions of Jews. This is followed by a study of Hitler’s personal development of his anti-Semitic worldviews. Finally, I investigate the contemporary social conditions of Germany and Austria that allowed the Holocaust to take place without much resistance and questioning. I argue that it is the combination of all four factors, namely, the history and heritage of anti-Jewish sentiments in the Old Europe, the development of racial anti-Semitism in the 19th century, Hitler’s personal development after World War I, and the mentality of the German masses during the Nazi regime, that gave rise to one of the most horrific events in human history.
Before we can hope to understand the direct causes of the Holocaust, we must understand the cultural, social and historical background that gave rise to this incident, because the roots of the Holocaust lie deep in the European soil, among its peoples, and in the soul of the Western Civilization. Before the emergence and growth of anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th centuries, there had already been a millennia-long heritage of European hostility towards Jews. Roots of anti-Jewish sentiment can be traced all the way back to the era of the ancient Greek. The Greeks criticized the Jews because they refused to fully accept the culture and values of the Hellenic communities in which they lived in, and to adopt some of the social and religious norms of the Roman Mediterranean world. When Christianity emerged from the bosom of Judaism, it caused a split in the old Jewish religion. The Hellenistic Jewish Christians began to call themselves Christians and to convert non-Jews to the new religion. This created serious tensions between the traditionalist Judaic faction and the Hellenistic Jewish Christians over many religious doctrinal issues, the most important of which was the recognition of Jesus as divine. Gradually, with the effort of Paul, Christianity gained a favorable light from the Roman authorities and was instated as the state religion, while the traditionalist Judaism became marginalized and criticized by such Roman emperors as Constantine. Jews were cast in Christian theology as “murderers of Christ” and were therefore subject to discrimination and mistreatment throughout the European Christendom. The first major outburst of anti-Jewish sentiment occurred in the wake of the First Crusade in 1096 when mobs murdered Jews as “killers of Christ.”
Into the medieval age, the Catholic Church put increasing restrictions on the types of occupations that Jews were allowed to have. This forced many Jews into the despicable job of money lending which was strictly proscribed for Christians. Slowly the Jewish people became identified with money and usury. A growing jealousy and resentment towards Jewish money-lending practice helped create a new atmosphere of anti-Jewish sentiments. This was exacerbated by the popular claim that Jews had been carrying out ritual murders of Christians, especially children. From late 13th century on, Jews began to be expelled from countries on the Western European continent, beginning with Edward I’s decree that all Jews had to leave England by All Saints Day of 1290, ending with Jew’s final banishment in Spain and Portugal in the late 1490s. In the case of Spain, the decree of expulsion issued by Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492 remained effective until 1968 – an appallingly long period of time. During the intervening years, the Jews not only had to deal with the persecutions and expulsions, they also suffered deteriorating plight as a result of their alleged association with the Black Death – the great bubonic plague that ravaged Europe and decimated one third of Europe’s population – in which they were accused of spreading the plague by poisoning Christian wells throughout Europe. Mass murders of Jews took place in many areas where entire Jewish communities were annihilated. The 16th and 17th centuries saw renewed persecution of the Jews. Although the Reformation changed the face of Catholicism in Europe and created a huge stir with the establishment of the Protestant Church, it failed to improve the situation for the Jews. Even Martin Luther himself who was initially benign to Jews turned against them when they refused to convert to his faith. In 1574 Luther unleashed a harsh attack against the Jews in which he claimed that the Jews were infected by devils and punished by God for their failure to convert to Christian faith. In so doing, Luther effectively passed on a Jew-hating heritage to Lutheranism.
In summary, although the Jewish people have developed into and remained one of the most unique ethno-religious groups in the Western world, their rejection of Jesus’s divinity and messiahship as well as competition between Judaism and Christianity formed the basis of Christian antagonism towards the Jews. The bloody and violent history of the first sixteen hundred years or so after the birth of Jesus stands as testimony to the tragedy of the Jewish people; at the same time it lays the groundwork for the more massive and organized crimes of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is with knowledge of the past that we now turn to the pages of the 19th century.
If anti-Jewish prejudice of the past was a necessary condition for the success of anti-Semitism in the 19th century, it was not, however, a sufficient one for the Holocaust. The more massive and organized crime of the 20th century needed a more “scientific” and “systematic” justification and vehicle, and the development of anti-Semitism in the 19th century provided just that. Although by the 19th century most of continental Europe had enacted Jewish emancipation laws as a result of novel ideas brought by the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, anti-Jewish sentiments nonetheless survived in much of Western and Central Europe. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte sought to curb many Jewish privileges that earlier revolutionaries grudgingly bestowed on French Jews, such as full citizenship rights. With increasing industrialization, urbanization and commercialism, European societies struggled with problems associated with these issues. Medieval anti-Jewish stereotypes resurfaced: Jews were accused of controlling Europe’s capitalist wealth, and since capitalism was seen by many as the root of many social problems, Jews once again were blamed for the world’s perils. This social trend coincided with the emergence and development of a new branch of intellectual thoughts called Social Darwinism which was pioneered by intellectuals like Herbert Spencer. Spencer embraced Darwin’s ideas about natural selection and used the term “survival of the fittest” to emphasize the idea of racial superiority and inferiority. He said that if a race “is not sufficiently complete to live, they die, and it is best they die.” This idea was quickly embraced by racial extremists. A German physician by the name Alfred Ploetz used the term “racial hygiene” to describe the role of war and revolution, and engendered the extremist idea that inferior races should be sent to war as cannon fodders to preserve the lives of superior races. Ploetz’s ideas would later find fertile ground among German racists and chauvinists, particularly after World War I. The age-old anti-Jewish sentiments blended with these racial ideologies and ultimately gave rise to what became known as anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism differed from traditional Christian anti-Jewish sentiments in that the latter viewed Jews in a religious context, whereas the former saw Jews as a dangerous group not because of their faith but because of their racial characteristics. One of the best-known anti-Semitic was Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In his Foundations of the 19th Century, he looked at history from the standpoint of race. He thought that Germanic peoples had saved Western civilization from decay and collapse, and that Aryan Germans represented the best race, and he likened the Jews and the Slavs to the most destructive forces in European history, and he believed that Christianity’s negative Jewish elements robbed it of its vitality. Another famous anti-Semitic Theodor Fritsch expanded on the racist ideas and declared that the Jews were conspiring with the Freemasons, Roman Catholic, and Jehovah’s Witnesses in taking over control of the entire world. Therefore, he concluded, it was important to teach anti-Semitism in schools and that revolutionary tactics were needed to deal with the “Jewish problems.” Outside of Germany, anti-Semitism was also vibrant in Austria, France, and Russia where anti-Jewish sentiments had existed for centuries. Anti-Semitism was found not only in the world of philosophy and social sciences, it was also rampant in the realm of arts. The ultimate figure of the 19th century German culture, Richard Wagner, was an outspoken anti-Semite. He claimed that Jews, although born in Germany, could never learn to express themselves artistically and authentically because they lacked the German national spirit. He also attributed the “sicknesses” of modern German culture to the materialistic nature of Jews. In summary, by the end of the 19th century anti-Semitism permeated every facet of European culture and life. As we shall see, the anti-Semitic movements in Central and Eastern Europe were particularly important because they helped create the environment in which Adolf Hitler grew up and succeeded.
Steeped in the 19th century anti-Semitic traditions, Adolf Hitler’s distorted personal development is the third major reason behind the Holocaust. It is hard to explain exactly from where and how Hitler developed his hatred towards Jews because his childhood accounts showed little specific anti-Jewish tendencies, but two series of events later played crucially important roles in shaping his worldviews. The first series of events was none other than the First World War. Prior to the war, Hitler was influenced by the ideas of two prominent Viennese anti-Semites, George Ritter von Schoenerer and Karl Lueger. Through their writings he for the first time became aware of the so-called threats to the German people – Marxism and Jewry. For Hitler, the Great War symbolized the battle for Germany’s survival. He quickly enlisted in the army, fought bravely, was wounded twice, and received two Iron Crosses for his bravery which he treasured all his life. Germany’s humiliating defeat in 1918 dealt a fatal blow on young Hitler. It would transform Hitler and confirm his deep suspicions about the “dark forces” lurking behind domestic and international politics. He was convinced that German Jews had stabbed Germany in the back, and later wrote that it was Germany’s defeat that opened for him the path to politics.
The second series of events that nurtured Hitler’s hatred of Jews was the Treaty of Versailles and the policies of the Weimar Republic. In Hitler’s words, the Treaty of Versailles that the new Republic was forced to sign was an “instrument of boundless extortion and abject humiliation” for the German people. The Treaty, with its 450 articles, forced Germany to accept responsibility for causing all the losses and damages which the Allies had suffered as a consequence of the war. Germany ceded Alsace-Lorraine to France, lost all of its colonies in Asia and Africa, and became separated from East Prussia by a Polish Corridor that was carved out of German territory. In addition, the Treaty required Germany to pay an indemnity that totaled 132 billion gold marks. In response, former commander of the German army Paul von Hindenburg reiterated the claim that German army had been stabbed in the back, a claim that resounded in Hitler’s head. Hitler quickly embraced the “backstab” theory and charged that wartime Germany was run by a bunch of Jewish scoundrels who were responsible for Germany’s defeat. In 1919 Hitler joined the then largely unknown German Workers Party, whose leader, Drexler, dreamed of a German state free of Jews, Slavs, Communists, and any alien group and ideology that was harmful to the German national spirit. With his great talent in propaganda and oratory, Hitler quickly rose through the ranks and became its most important orator. “Anti-Semitism,” said Hitler, “must lead to … eradication of privileges of the Jews.” “Its final object,” he continued, “must be the total removal of all Jews from” Germany. Hitler combined his anti-Semitism with the desire for greater lebensraum (living space) for Germany. One of his party’s principal goals, he declared, was to acquire more lebensraum they needed to create a super Aryan race, and this could only be achieved through a “war of extermination.” His coining the phrase “war of extermination” here foreshadowed his later effort against the Jews – the Holocaust. To finance post-war debt payment, the Weimar government adopted inflationary fund-raiding policies. This tossed the mark from 40,000 to the dollar to 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar by the end of 1923. Taking advantage of the financial and political crisis in Germany, Hitler staged the infamous Beer Hall Putsch against the Bavarian government in Munich. Although the Putsch was easily smothered, the event marked a turning point in Hitler’s life and in the history of his party, and the use of violence in achieving political purposes would become a hallmark of the Nazi movement. In summary, Germany’s defeat in World War I and domestic political and financial crises in the Weimar Republic strengthened anti-Semitic sentiments among the German population, and in particular provided Hitler with a breeding ground for his distorted psychological development as well as ample opportunities to fulfill his anti-Semitic ambitions.
Last but not least, Germany’s social atmosphere and attitudes adopted by the German masses in the 1930s and 1940s played an important role in ensuring the successful execution of Nazi’s anti-Semitic policies up to and including the Holocaust. After Hitler’s ascension to power, the Nazi regime unleashed a series of countrywide persecutions of Jews. The tragedy in this is that the non-Jewish Germans regarded the fate of their fellow Jewish citizens with apathy and silence. As Steven Beller analyzed, while many Germans may not have approved of the severe anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis, “their disquiet” over these issues “never rose to the level that would overcome their fear of Nazi retaliation,” let alone challenge the Nazis. In the end, the attitude adopted by the German public was one of silent compliance with the Nazis and of indifference and helplessness towards their fellow Jewish citizens. Some Germans took the opportunity of Nazi persecution of Jews to advance their personal gains. The removal of Jews from important offices and lucrative positions as well as eviction of Jews from certain residential areas into concentrated ghettos left the German society with a political and social vacuum that was quickly filled up by opportunistic non-Jewish Germans. These people found good jobs, rapid promotions, excellent business opportunities, and the chance to acquire confiscated Jewish wealth and properties. Such opportunistic or functionalist roles played by non-Jewish Germans only exacerbated the deteriorating conditions of Jews in Germany, and constituted what Alexander Herzen called the “rational evil.” Jews, it appeared to the average Germans, if not hateful, were at least different from non-Jewish Germans, and therefore not one of “them.” This lack of sympathy and disregard for the Jews prior to and during the Holocaust led Hannah Arendt to formulate her famous theory of the “banality of evil,” which states that “the great evils in history were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.”
I have attempted to analyze how the Holocaust occurred from historical, cultural, social and political perspectives. Given the complexity of the countless threads revolving the Holocaust, this short essay is hardly sufficient to provide a full picture of the circumstances surrounding the event, and serves only as a precursory study anticipating a more thorough evaluation of the roots of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, I believe the several factors I have attempted to explore represent the major forces behind the Holocaust. Finally, I would like to reiterate my argument that anti-Semitism which sprouted from the fertile soil of European anti-Jewish traditions, coupled with the social turmoil under the Weimar Republic as a result of Germany’s defeat in World War I, aided in the success of Hitler’s severe anti-Semitic policies and gave rise to the wholesale persecutions and annihilation of Jews in Europe, during which the apathetic compliance of the German people cannot be overlooked. It was the joint effort of history, society, the individual, and the mass that resulted in one of humanity’s greatest tragedies.
[完]
Lifesucks
2010年8月
参考文献：
Crowe, D. M. (2008). The Holocaust – Roots, History, and Aftermath. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Beller, S. (2007). Anti-Semitism – A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Rosenbaum, A. S. (2001). Is the Holocaust Unique? Perspectives on Comparative Genocide. Boulder, Coloardo: Westview Press.
Dobkowski, M. N. & Wallimann, I. (1983). Towards the Holocaust: the Social and Economic Collapse of the Weimar Republic. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net