¡§ The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, But because of the people who sit and let it happen.¡¨ -Albert Einstein.

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and attempted annihilation of the European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. According to Frank Chalk from the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies , ¡§Genocide is a form of one sided mass killings in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and members are defined by the perpetrator usually on the basis of whatever they share, national, ethnic, racial, religious, political, geographical, ideological...¡¨. Genocide is always a conscious choice and policy. It is never an accident of history. Before the Holocaust could occur, the Nazi¡¦s had to be able to systematically dehumanize the Jews.

Propaganda was an important weapon in getting other Germans to accept the way the Jews would be treated. ¡§Propaganda, Propaganda, Propaganda. All that matters is Propaganda!¡¨ ( Ross 1993, 16) Adolf Hitler is supposed to have said this after he had failed to seize power in Germany. And he was right. Propaganda, a war of w

The Nazis instilled the thought that the Jews were ¡§bugs that needed to be squashed.¡¨ (Wertheimer 1981, 11) Friends and Neighbors turned on each other and the Jews became their enemy. Many Pogroms and the destruction of synagogues and sacred text occurred. Schools taught children the Nazis views of the Jewish people. This is an excerpt from a teachers manual used during the World War II.(Bytwerk 2000, 4)

There was even greater deception upon arrival. The standardized message at the entrance gates to the camps read, ¡§ Arbeit Macht Frei¡¨ ( work makes freedom!) At Auschwitz a camp orchestra played for the passengers when they reached the platform but most new the true nature of the place that awaited them for there was no escape to the horrendous smell of burning flesh. The selection process would take place, some sent to the left, some to the right. People were sentenced to hard labour or death, and separated from loved ones never to be seen again.

Between 1933-1939 the Nazis took many actions were taken to dehumanize and eradicate the Jewish people. During this period they brought in over 400 anti-Jewish laws. On April 1st. 1934 the Nazis organized a one day boycott of Jewish stores. No German person was allowed to buy products from Jews. This was one of the first legalized ways of isolation. On April 7th, all non-Aryan civil servants were forcibly retired. Kosher butchering was forbidden on April 21st., leaving many Jews at a loss for they would not eat meat that was not kosher. On the 25th quotas were placed on the numbers of non- Aryan children who could be admitted to German schools and Universities so many Jewish children could not receive the further education they wanted. On September 6, 1934, it became illegal to sell Jewish newspapers on the street, thus taking away the voice of the Jewish people. These were all measures taken to differentiate Jews from other German citizens, to exclude Jews from mainstream German life and to prevent them from practicing their religion, and to isolate them as a common enemy.

The Nazis used the Jews as scapegoats for Germany¡¦s problems. Adolf Hitler was a major activist in this group. In November of 1923 he tried to take over Munich in the ¡§BeerHall Putsch¡¨ but this attempt failed and he was imprisoned. In prison he wrote ¡§ Mein Kampf¡¨ which outlined his master plan and how the ¡§lower races¡¨ were the ¡§Enemy Races¡¨. This came from the ideas of eugenics written about by Rosenburg at the end of the 19th century and which influenced many of the Nazis. Hitler advocated the sterilization of the mentally and physically challenged so they should not be able to have children. He also expressed the desire to kill those who are not ¡§socially productive¡¨.

In their efforts to find others to blame, an ideology took hold in which the German people would ultimately target the Jews as the source of their misery. The Nazis took this much further. They believed the Germans were ¡§racially superior¡¨ and the struggle was for their survival rather than that of the ¡§inferior race¡¨, the Jews. The Jews were a threat to the purity of the ¡§Aryan Race¡¨ or the ¡§Master Race¡¨ of blonde haired, blue eyed Germans.

In 1924 Hitler was released from prison and he reorganized the Nazi party, creating the SA guards (the Stormtroopers). From 1924-1928 Germany prospered, which did not help the fortunes of the Nazi party. In 1928 a farm crisis helped the Nazis spread their views among the peasants and in 1929 Germany experienced a depressi

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