Final+Draft

[|Checklist] [|Rubric] Jodie Huju Stephanie Hobbs Honors English I TAG 24 April 2009 Hitler’s Hatred Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, 1889, born to Americans in the 1930s, and committed suicide on April 30th, 1945. As the leader of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s, Hitler made the Nazi storm troopers well known. Hitler, as said by Hillary Swank’s character in Freedom Writers, “decided to give them some pride”. To give the Nazi party pride, Hitler blamed the Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, intellectuals, and physically and mentally handicapped people of Europe for his difficult life. The Nazi party is known widely for its anti-Semitic ways. Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews. But what is the hatred of people who are not the ideal race? It’s the cause of the Holocaust and the belief of perfection. **//Many lives were changed and some were lost because of Adolf Hitler’s desire for perfection, his destruction of property, and his death traps.//** Adolf Hitler had a strong aspiration for perfection. To Hitler, the ideal race was a physically able Aryan: blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin (Collotti 78). Blacks and Jews did not fit the description, nor did the physically or mentally handicapped. Gypsies were thought to be witches in the mind of Hitler. Hitler used his want for perfection to disgrace all peoples who were not fit. He blamed Jews, Gypsies, and others for his difficult life. His difficult life consisted of his mother have three children before him, who all died, making him overprotected (Berke). Some sources said he blamed Jews because his mother was sick and was treated by a Jew, but later died (Berke). “To be born a Jew, in the eyes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, meant that one was […] unworthy of life” (Wistrich xi). Jews especially were not perfect in the eyes of Hitler and the Nazi army. In fact, Jews were far from perfect in their eyes. Jews were blamed for the fall of Germany because Hitler grouped all Jews together to be appalling people who killed his mother. The lives of many people, Jews in particular, suffered- through the destruction of their property- under the hands of Hitler’s perfectionism. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi storm troopers caused destruction to Jewish homes and businesses. One famous night, Kristallnacht, made Jews fully aware they were in danger. Translated into English, Kristallnacht would be “the night of broken glass” (Collotti 79). Hitler and his men took property belonging to Jews. Synagogues were burned and houses were torched (Collotti 81).They were forced to give up their businesses giving them no support for their families. Jews were forced to wear the Star of David and live in ghettos (Collotti 82). Hitler required Jews to wear this so they were easily identified in public as a disgrace to Germany. Living in ghettos gave Jews a sense of disgrace, exactly what Hitler wanted. Nazi soldiers took many things away from Jewish people. One of which Jews will never get back is their pride. Nazi soldiers replaced Jewish pride with disgrace, causing the slow killing of themselves. Jews, Gypsies, and others were sent to die in many forms. One way led to concentrations camps, perhaps the worst death trap. The ride to the camps was the first trap. Uncomfortable, overcrowded freight cars were their means of transportation (Wistrich 225). Upon arriving at one concentration camp in Austria, out of the thousands of concentration camps across Europe, 35,000 people were killed (Collotti 118). Often taking many days to arrive at the camps, unloading was the worst part. Dead bodies piled up from the unsanitary conditions. The concentration camps were also overcrowded and dirty. Bunk houses were often filled with disease carrying vermin (Wistrich 78). Another infamous death trap Hitler and the Nazi regime used was the gas chamber. Jews were sent to “take a shower” after their long trip. Soldiers would then turn on “water” and soon the incapable workers would be piled up dead. Nazi soldiers, with instruction from Hitler, ended many peoples' lives. Their lives were taken along with the many possible offspring who were never given the slightest chance to live. Hitler’s prejudicial acts, his want for perfection, and his destruction of the world and its people brought death and change to the lives of the "unfit". With millions of deaths, Hitler brought a new meaning to death and life. Death was brought to those unfit to live. Life was only fit those who had blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, German ancestry, and followed Hitler’s beliefs. “The Jews were not condemned to die for their religious beliefs or for their political opinions. Nor were they an economic or military threat to the Nazi state. They were killed not for what they had done but for the simple fact of their existence” (Wistrich xi).