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Persecuted In The Holocaust

Decent Essays

Other Groups Persecuted in the Holocaust Jewish and Hebrew peoples are best known as the targets of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, though many other groups were persecuted. Details of those persecuted were shared in PBS Inside The Nazi State (“Inside the Nazi State”) PBS. 2006; as well as Jewish people, Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled were said to be housed in Auschwitz or killed on cite. Why were these groups targeted? This question is explained on “Victims.” A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust University of South Florida, it is stated that Hitler chose to exterminate millions that did not fit into his ‘Aryan’ master race. Hitler’s ideology …show more content…

In the book: “Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust.” By Karen Silverstrim, University of Central Arkansas, the author explains some reasons for the persecution of non-Jews. Three million Poles were executed for nationalist and racist reasons as they were considered a lower race and Hitler’s plan was for the land area of Poland to belong solely to the Germans as some of the territory had been previously held by the German Empire prior to World War I. Many Ukrainians were targeted due to their establishment as a lower race and the fact that Hitler wanted to use the land area of Ukraine to grow crops to support Germanic peoples after the war. Yugoslavians were singled out as Hitler believed the country they occupied rightfully belonged to Germany and they were seen as unfit to inhabit the state. Countries directly connected to Germany were more affected by selections for elimination due to their proximity to the places targeted people were processed. Some classes of people were targeted for complete destruction while others were not, the distinction lies in the ideology of Hitler and why he wanted to kill millions in the first place. Nationalism played a major role in World War II as countries had been introduced to the idea of nation states, wanting homogenous culture race and language. Eugenics was a driving force for the racism of the holocaust as it enforced the idea of an Aryan master race and disparaged other

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