What caused the Holocaust?

Causes of the Holocaust

The most simple answer: Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler was the driving force behind the obsessive and fanatical Nazi persecution and ultimately also the mass slaughter of the Jews and various other groups, though the details of implementation were left to the terror apparatus, headed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. Here are more opinions and input:

• Nothing "caused" the holocaust. The holocaust was a deliberate policy of Germany, personally conceived and ordered by Adolf Hitler. Hitler believed that the Jewish people were vermin; of no more value than rats or cockroaches. And, like rats and cockroaches, he believed that they posed a danger to superior human beings, namely Germans. Therefore, just like an infestation of rats or cockroaches, he ordered them to be exterminated.
• Nazi propaganda operated with conspiracy theories, especially the 'stab-in-the-back legend' and bizarre claims about an imaginary 'Judeo-Bolshevist' conspiracy against Germany, Austria and ethnic Germans. These ideas became popular among hardline nationalists in Germany, Austria and in some other countries. These fanciful, but dangerous notions were also fuelled by some refugees from the Russian Revolution and civil war of 1918-21.
• The Holocaust unfolded as Adolf Hitler's personal vision of the cleansing of his homeland of undesirable people, but I'd say the responsibility for the atrocity belongs not only to him and his cabinet, but to every citizen and country who knew what was happening over the course of years and did little or nothing to stop it.
• Xenophobia is defined as "Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign." Hitler wanted to rule Europe and wanted to find a way to fund his war. To do that he took advantage of the xenophobic attitudes of many Germans, thought up clever ways to make the Jews appear to be less "human" and confiscated their property, killing the Jews to fund his war.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were intent on ruling and wiping out everyone that they considered to be inferior. They believed in and wanted the "Master Race." They gathered up entire families that did not fit into their ideals of what people should be and put them into camps where millions were tortured and murdered.

First answer by Mlmontagne. Last edit by Bobins123. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 85 [recommend question]