Student Question
What were Hitler's views on Jews?
Quick answer:
Adolf Hitler harbored intense hatred for Jews, viewing them as subhuman and a threat to his vision of an Aryan nation. He blamed Jews for Germany's economic and political struggles, including the Depression and the Treaty of Versailles, and portrayed them as "enemies of the state." Hitler's racial theories depicted Jews as destructive to society, justifying their extermination to achieve "racial purity" and national unity, ultimately leading to the Holocaust.
Basically, Adolf Hitler hated the Jews with a passion. To him they were not even human. Hitler had a dream of an Aryan nation and Jews were not a part of this nation. He believed in racial purity. He wanted to kill off "life unworthy of life."
He thought that Jews would do nothing more but drag the country down. During this time, Germany was economically unstable. They were experiencing an economic Depression. He promised the Germans that he would save them from this economic Depression, the Treaty of Versailles, communism, and other undesirable minorities. In his mind, the Jews needed to be extinguished.
Hitler cast Jewish people and many other groups as "outsiders" that sought to bring down Germany. His appeal to the "us vs. them" mentality was a critical component in solidifying his own power and creating an intense hatred of the Jewish people in and outside of...
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Germany. Hitler was able to invoke a sense of resentment about regarding Germany's weakened financial and political state. Rather than Germans engaging in self reflection and understanding, they accepted Hitler's political solution of blaming Jewish individuals for the weakened German state. In articulating a vision of "unity and symmetry," Hitler argued that there were individuals such as Jewish people who were supposed "enemies of the state." In being able to convince millions of this, Hitler was able to accomplish demonize Jewish people, leading to the Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler's basic attitude towards the Jews was that they were subhuman and that they were bent on destroying the German people.
According to Hitler's racial theories, Jews were a destructive influence in any society. He believed that Jews were not able to create any sort of a decent society. Instead, he believed, Jews were a people who went round destroying the societies that had been created by "better" kinds of people.
Hitler believed that Germany had been hurt by the efforts of Jews to undermine German civilization. This is one reason he wanted them exterminated.