Why was the Holocaust allowed to happen and would it be allowed to happen in modern day society?

Answer 1

Answering that would take a Master's thesis, but the short version:The world of 1939 was far more anti-Semitic and uncaring about the plight of victims of brutality, particularly anti-Semitic brutality than it is now. Even powerful media organizations like Time magazine and the Oxford English Dictionary cheerfully printed anti-Semitic information. Time sneered in the 1930s that Albert Einstein "like many Jews, does not exercise." The OED used the word "Jew" as a verb, meaning "to cheat someone."

When the Nazis began their anti-Semitic outbursts, many people in the civilized world did not take them seriously...Hitler's ravings were just more political claptrap, and after a few heads were broken, there would be no more rowdyism. Many other people either publicly or privately applauded the anti-Semitic acts.

Jews were often seen as being either money-grubbing capitalists -- the classic caftaned pawnbroker, squeezing a penny -- or as underhanded and conniving Bolsheviks -- the equally classic long-bearded radical, bomb in hand. The upper Christian crust disliked Jews as socialists and Christ-killers. Joseph Kennedy, the pro-Nazi US Ambassador to England, told Ribbentrop that his pals in Boston admired what the Nazis were doing to the Jews, as there were many clubs that had banned Jews for 50 years. He just wished the Nazis would do it more quietly. Lindbergh blamed World War II on the Jews more directly. In fact, opinion polls in America at the time blamed the Jews for the war.

Anti-Semitism was a standard staple. Colleges and businesses had quotas on admissions and hirings, and glass ceilings. Hotels advertised, "No Hebrews or consumptives taken," or "Guests taken to church free of charge." Housing developments had "restrictive covenants." So when Hitler and his cronies began beating up Jews and killing them, many people across the globe reacted by saying, "Good on you, mate. About time, too."

Would it be allowed to happen today? It's going on right now...Bosnia, Rwanda, the Sudan. There is always money and time for hate.

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I don't think it had much to do with the world being more 'uncaring' in the 1930s and 1940s than now. Once the Holocaust proper (the systematic mass murders) had started in 1941, there was the severely practical problem of how the Holocaust could realistically have been stopped by the Allies ... There was no point in the Allies barking out orders to the German government.

Answer 2

1. At first the Allies were skeptical about the reports they received.
2. It was only in about June 1944 that the location of extermination became known.
3. There was not much that the Allies could have done at that stage.
4. Ending the Holocaust didn't figure as a priority with the Allies.

Obviously, there were things that the Allies could have done. In particular, they could have called on resistance groups to give a high priority to disrupting the process. There is only one - yes, precisely one - known case of a resistance group stopping a train with prisoners being taken to an extermination camp. The one instance occurred in Belgium and some of the prisoners were freed. (The train was guarded by SS men).

On top of that, what would the Allies have done? Asked Hitler nicely to stop?

Answer 3

Answer 1

With the presence of an influential leader and enough people willing to follow his lead, people can get in to a mob mentality and do things that they in another circumstance would never consider doing. This happened on a huge scale during the Holocaust in Germany. Hitler convinced the German people of his views and told them what they were to do and how they were to do it, and the mentality was one of "everyone is doing it, how could it be wrong".

Commentary on Answer 1

The above answer is based on the mistaken assumption that the Jews were murdered by a howling mob acting in some gigantic riot. In fact, the Holocaust was top secret.

Answer 2

Hitler saw that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk used genocide to claim Asia Minor as his country and rename it Turkey. He murdered 4 million Orthodox Christians: Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, and Assyrians. He also murdered Kurdish Muslims. These people were the majority and the Turks were had a homeland in Turkmenistan in Central Asia were the minority. They had the weapons and they decided to ethnically cleanse the majority. When Hitler saw that they successfully slaughtered 4 million people and no one said anything. Some people actually never knew this happened. Hitler said and I quote "Who remembers the slaughter of the Orthodox people of Asia Minor?" They were the majority while the Jews were the minority. I am happy to say we never forgot the Holocaust. But, I am sad to say no one cares the Holocaust the Turks committed against my people (Armenians).

Answer 3

The sad thing is that on a fundamental level groups of people and nations do not care about other groups and nations unless they can benefit either financially or politically from supporting them. Few politicians are willing to expend resources and political capital to "do the right thing" because "doing the right thing" does not get you elected. Additionally, when you have groups of people like the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, etc. who are maligned by a great majority of the world, it is very hard to get people to empathize. Since the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, there have been numerous slaughterings and genocides of minorities including, but not limited to: Russia's removal of the Caucasus Nations, China's Cultural Revolution, the Rwandan Genocide, the Anfal Campaign, the Genocide Against the Marsh Arabs, Darfurian Genocide, the East Timorese Massacres, etc.

Answer 4

all the governments that neglected to do anything about it while being aware of what was going on... one is America ...Canada ...etc.

The Roosevelt administration.

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The question seems to be based on the misleading assumption that a government outside Germany could have prevented the Holocaust ... It would have taken more than an order from the U.S. and a few marines to prevent it.

Answer 5

Because Hitler was the chancellor, hence he had the power necessary to bring his plan to existence.