And what of the German Jews? They were caught in a terrifying, situation. No one had ever expected Hitler to become Chancellor; and certainly didn?t expect him to become Der Furher. HIs raving speeches and messages of hatred were to be ignored in a civilized world. Right? The Jews had suffered from the war and the inflation and the Depression just like everyone else. Now their home was a strange, hostile, dangerous place no matter where in Germany they lived and eventually no matter where in Europe you lived.
The SS beat Jews in the streets, raided synagogues, trod on sacred Jewish objects, and burned holy books, laughing and joking as they did so. They mocked, humiliated and murdered Jews. Goebbels fed the flames of hatred. All over Germany, the press reported false acts of Jewish treachery. Stories about Jews drinking the blood of Christian children. The lies rang like truth when they appeared in bold, black ink on the pages of respected newspapers.
Moviehouses, cafes, concert halls and other public places began to put up signs reading, ?Jews not wanted.? Signs at swimming pools read, ?No Jews and no Dogs.? As if there was no difference. In cabarets, German entertainers put on mock weddings between a German and a pig that was wearing a sign that said, ?I?m a Jew!? Hatred and suspicion were everywhere. Germans began to shun their former neighbors and friends. German mobs felt free to loot Jewish stores and homes. German children felt free to bully their Jewish classmates. April 1, 1933 there was a national boycott of Jewish stores. Armed, glaring, uniformed Nazis stood guard outside every Jewish store and allowed no one to enter.
On March 12, 1938 German troops marched into Austria. They were met not with resistance, but with flowers. Here too, Hitler launched a campaign against the Jews. Soon, Austria hated the Jews too. Jewish stores were, again, boycotted. The SS made Jewish men get down on all fours and eat grass, then climb trees and twitter like birds. They made Jewish women run until they fainted.
Now Hitler wanted Austria to be Judenrein too. But they were so annoying he wanted them out of all Europe. Let the Americans deal with them. Then one day, he decided he wanted them off the face of the Earth. He would make the whole world free of Jews. He needed an excuse to do so and was given one by a very enraged Herschel Grynszpan.
The seventeen-year old was living in Paris when he received word from his Jewish family that, being Polish they had been expelled from Germany and sent back to Poland. But Poland no longer recognized them as citizens and they were wandering around, stateless with invalid passports in the ?no man?s land? between Poland and Germany. On November 7, 1938, or Kristallnacht, ?Night of Broken glass? the angry boy went to the German embassy in Paris and shot the first official he saw. The boy was arrested and the official died two days later. This act triggered off events the dimensions of which Herschel could not have begun to understand or even guess at. It led to the Final Solution, the systematic murder of millions of Jews all over Europe. The Holocaust.
Hitler committed horrible crimes against the Jews and many others in the concentration camps, and ghettoes but he was never punished. In anticipation of his downfall Hitler killed himself in 1945. Because he did it himself he had the last laugh. His book, Mein Kampf is banned in Germany and considered a dirty word. Most Germans want to forget any of it ever happened. But perhaps they shouldn?t. The holocaust was plain, undeniable truth of the horror of humanity. It has been immortalized in pictures, in visual and verbal accounts of those who experienced it and the horrified minds and hearts of the world. If we always remember it and learn to understand it, then we can prevent it from ever happening again; if we answer the question, how did Hitler come to power?
Perhaps it is the weakness of democracies that anyone can take control. Hitler came to power the legitimate way, through participating in elections. True he broke or bent a few rules and cheated and lied but probably no more than any other politician. It is common belief that had Hitler come along at another less desperate time for Germany, history would have played itself out very differently. Germany was weak. The people were miserable and Germans were scared after being hit with wave after wave after wave of calamity.
The Nazis provided the answer for impoverished farmers, ruined shopkeepers and small-business owners, workers disillusioned with the socialists and communist parties, and a host of frustrated and embittered young people of all classes, brought up in the postwar years and without hope of personal economic security. Hitler did a lot of good for Germany, fulfilling most if not all his promises. He provided employment and stabilized the economy. Hitler told Germans they were the master race and promised them the world. He also provided them with a scapegoat; someone to pinpoint their anger at: the Jew. If someone had to suffer and pay the price for Germany?s prosperity then let it be the Jew. Such was their mentality. History books should not portray the Germans as evil; their eager acceptance of Hitler?s ideas and policies is the product o human weakness and imperfection.
But Hitler was evil. Perhaps the most evil of men. An amoral man he viewed his fellow human beings as mere bricks in the political structure he wanted to erect. Hitler has hurt and permanently scarred the world with his destructive message, a message that still lives. But he too deserves understanding. He was born to a submissive, quiet mother and a cold, fearful father. When he was eighteen, his mother whom he was moderately close to, died. He failed at his life?s ambition, to become an artist and saw the country he loved torn apart in a million directions; saw the people he loved starve. Maybe he did believe in every crazy thing he said. Who knows? But we must never forget the Holocaust or Hitler. Both event and figure have something to show about humanity that is ugly but always there. Always ready to strike out. If we forget, it might happen again.