Why did the Holocaust happen?

+15 votes
asked Apr 10, 2019 in Culture & Society by MadieDuell50 (260 points)
edited May 18, 2019
I have learned about the Holocaust in high school history class. I have studied it further in college. And I have watched several documentaries about this period in history. I know that this event really did happen and many atrocities were committed, but I still do not understand the enact reasons why. There are so many events of World War II that could have caused the Holocaust, but it is hard to put my finger on the exact one. Why did the Holocaust happen?

2 Answers

+30 votes
answered Jul 16, 2019 by Rosie (940 points)
edited Aug 12, 2019
The major reason why the Holocaust happened was because the Nazis decided to create the Final Solution, also known as the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. This plan was Nazi Germany’s solution to their perceived Jewish problem. The Nazis were anti-Semitic and blamed the Jews for the political and economic problems that affected Germany during the 1920’s and 30’s. They also wanted to eradicate other unwanted populations of people, such as the mentally disabled and Gypsies.

During World War II, the Nazis created this plan to get rid of the Jewish population for good, which meant killing them in mass numbers. At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, top Nazi officials met to plan how to build concentration camps in Poland that were designed to exterminate the Jews. As you may know, the Nazis, particularly Adolf Hitler, believed that the Jews were inferior because of their different beliefs and practices. They were used as scapegoats for all of Germany’s problems. Also, Hitler believed in the purity of the Aryan race and wanted only strong, able-bodied Germanic people to live in Germany and the rest of Europe.
commented Oct 11, 2015 by MaybellMorwo (100 points)
Awesome answer. Now I could understand a little better why did the holocaust happen.
+9 votes
answered Jun 12, 2019 by ErikaLofton4 (350 points)
edited Jul 18, 2019
The Holocaust happened because the Nazi Party practiced anti-Semitism that became rampant in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. Although not all German people were anti-Semitic, there were many of them who encouraged anti-Semitic behavior or did nothing to stop it. Other Germans fought against the Nazis’ policies, but they were quickly found out and quieted. Many Germans were powerless to stop the Nazis because the government killed or tortured people who did not agree with their policies. As a result, this extreme form of anti-Semitism culminated into the Holocaust that we know today.
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