Faith in the Holocaust
By: Julie Smith
Did Hitler really have to move to the dark side to become supreme ruler? The Holocaust was the worst time of our history, with all the murder and deaths. The Jewish people were struggling to display their faith during the Holocaust. Hitler’s laws and rules got in the way of people expressing who they really were. The main concepts of the people involved with the Holocaust one needs to understand Hitler’s beliefs, the German soldiers backgrounds, and the Jewish community. Did this all happen because of what Hitler believed, or because of the Jewish community?
German Soldier's Beliefs and Backgrounds
German soldiers were many different faces with many different backgrounds, forced to kill many Jewish people. This allowed them to save their families and themselves. Most of the German soldiers were blackmailed so they would have to help Hitler. If they did not help Hitler then their families would die, and so would the German soldiers. All soldiers to this day feel as if they did nothing wrong. The soldiers joined and saved not only his life, but his families lives too. Soldiers took risks and helped some of the people fleeing their country. As the soldiers went through the towns taking people to camps just as they were told they thought nothing of it, but as the soldiers reflect they get more and more disturbed. Disturbed of what all they did. They wonder how they let it all happen, why they listened and followed Hitler in the first place. Hitler became chancellor of Germany, and he assumed dictatorial powers. This had the Nazi party growing in massive movements as they went out as ruling Germany until They were defeated and convicted of crimes against the murder of six million Jews. The Nazis were normal everyday people prior to the rise of Hitler. The Jews were the minority people living with the men who became soldiers, and now must go into hiding.
Victims of the Holocaust and Threat to Their Religion
The Jews had to keep moving into new hiding places knowing that if they were found they would have been persecuted. As this happened this put their religion on hold. All this was told by Anne Frank. These people who were being targeted first were not necessarily targeted first because of their religion, but for their location. Hitler targeted Germany’s closest neighbor to the east, Poland. Poland was an agricultural country with little military power, making it easy for Hitler to invade and take over. With Hitler’s vision about an Aryan master race in mind he made lots of propaganda. The propaganda did not only convince the German people, but countless others. With the victims running and hiding it made it pretty hard to keep their faith through it all. The faith is built on hope that light will come again for the word, but many died thinking this. This time period seemed to drag on forever for the Jews.The Nazis who came in invading the town’s privacy were heavily armed. So as many ran and hid that forced them to stay silent, not even to hold a little church session. All they could do was read the bible. The Jewish people had to put their religious life on hold to retreat and hide from Nazis, who wanted to send them to concentration camps.