Antisemitism

This post is going to be about anti-Semitism which was common in Germany before and during the holocaust. Anti-Semitism is what Hitler based his ideas off. Before anti-Semitism can be understood, the word prejudice needs to be defined. The word prejudice means to make up your mind about someone without knowing things about them. It is making an instant judgement on someone before you know them properly. All humans make judgements about other people, consciously or not. For example, you may decide not to approach a man because he has tattoos and piercings. Examples of prejudice are treating someone differently due to their age, religion, race or job. There are many more examples but in the holocaust, the prejudice was about Jews. People felt more comfortable among people similar to them so they were very judgemental about the Jews. This is similar to making friends. Usually you are attracted towards people with similar interests and personality traits to you and you may be wary of someone very different to you.

Anti-Semitism is the term used when people are prejudiced against Jews. It is a fairly modern racial term but anti-Jewish feelings go back very far into our history. There can be religious reasons behind this opinion. For example, Christians believe that Jesus was crucified by the Jews which forms the basis of why some Christians don’t like Jews. They believe that killing Christ is the worst of crimes so anyone who did it must be hated forever. However not all Christians believe this.

The Nazis tried to encourage anti-Semitism in Germany as part of their campaign for a 'pure' country. They did this in Germany first and then tried to spread this belief in the rest of Europe. Adolf Hitler didn’t believe that Jews could be German citizens and he didn’t let them have any say over the country. He was also very worried about communism and thought it was a serious threat. Communism is a system of government where properties and businesses are equally owned by everyone. This was another reason why he hated the Jews because communism was a Jewish invention.

So, in conclusion there are religious reasons why the holocaust happened but does this make it acceptable? We believe that no matter what your opinions are, you should never kill another person so we don't think that the holocaust was acceptable whatsoever.