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"We must be careful in the process of looking to destroy monsters that we do not become monsters ourselves; and that as we stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at us." Nietzche
The reasons for the Shoah, as we have already mentioned are varied.
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Socio-Economic Causes
The economic/social causes of any society are by necessity intertwined. While most
persons are well aware of the anti-semitism and hatred that led to the Shoah, few are aware that it was the economic condition of Germany and also of Europe that led to the empowerment of Hitler, the establishment of the Third Reich and the willingness of the German people to yoke themselves under tyranny after attempts at a Republic. The main reason Hitler was able to get an economic foothold in the German legislature was the prevailing depression-recession following WWI. Up until WWI, Germany had a strong Military-Monarchy of Kaisers who provided strong but often despotical rule over the politics and economy of Germany. Following WWI, Germany was in ruins, financially and in many other ways. Loans from foreign nations including the US who were also experiencing economic depressions (ie. the stock market crash) placed Germany in even further financial decline. As the economy declined, employment declined. The employment crunch and 'hard times' fell most devastatingly on the blue collar middle class and the poor. There were not enough jobs. Hitler came into office making many political and economic 'deals' with different segments of the society. He promised and arranged better conditions for labor, he paid the pensions of Church Officials and Germany began to recover. In a cruel dealing though, as he deported massive numbers of German Citizens and enforced race laws against them rendering them unable to get work, German employment increased greatly, and there was almost no unemployment. By the end of the war, foreign workers had to be hired and brought in.
Political Causes
The Political Causes of the Shoah are varied. Events conspired to bring about
even the possibility that the National Socialists or Nazis, could even come to power!
In the 1920's, the Nazis were a small fringe group known for violent rhetoric and
and demonstrations, bookburning and extreme fascist views. In 1920s they garnered
less than three percent of the vote. Many issues pressed Germany during those next
ten years. Unemployment was high, Hitler and the Nazis promised a remedy. The Labor
Unions were dissatisfied: Hitler promised to work things out. The Church, once
a formidable power had become lukewarm; Hitler promised and followed through on
paying pastors' pensions if they would go along with him on other unpopular policies.
The Weimar Republic which had developed
after World War I had replaced the strong and somewhat tyrannical Kaiser system; but
the republic faltered with the looming social problems and the fragmented party system
which now included over 30 parties in a smaller country vying for control. Businessmen,
Labor, Military personnel and others were extremely unhappy: the economic system was
hurting everyone. Hitler promised law and order, a return to the pride of Nationalist
Germany, a new morality, a unified Germany etc. Within ten years the Nazi party rose
from 3% of the vote, to around 80% as Germans looked for a better lifestyle. Many
were willing to dismiss his radical religious views and vile anti-semitism in favor
of greater comfort and certainty. Others were strongly in favor of his polices of
judenreinor the ridding of Jews from Europe as prejudice and anti-Semitism
ran high in Europe at the time, with the Jews equated with "Bolshevism or what
we now call Communism. Hitler scapegoated the Jews politically and religiously with
all the ills facing the German People. Additionally, Hitler and other National Socialists
gained many seats and eventually controlling power in the German Parliament.
Other circumstances gained even more power for Adolf Hitler: previous to this point
there were both a Chancellor and a President: this afforded a division of power
with one having control over the military and the other levying other controls. When
Hindenburg died Hitler had enough
power in the legislature and enough 'deals' made with political factions to
consolidate the powers of Chancellor and President into one position. This led to his
despotic rule, for he was able to gain control over economics, politics, and the
military, effectively erasing the hope of healthy opposition.1-3
Historical Causes
Historical causes leading to the Shoah, of course overlap with political and religious causes.
Only modern historical causes will be mentioned because of space constraints, but the history
of Germany is a fascinating study.x
Sociological Causes
Sociological Causes can be difficult to separate from economic, psychological and religious because all are synthesized
in the social milieu. Perhaps though the two greatest sociological trends which contributed to the progression of the rise
of the Reich was 1) the deprecation of national morale and identity and almost conversely, 2) the debut of an emerging 'zeitgeist'
which introduced or reintroduced philosophies, ideas, and aspects of nordic culture which were either new, such as racial sciene
and Darwinism, or renewed interests such as runes, the occult, norse mythology, and peculiarly German sensibilities such as
ties to the land. (See Nazi Beliefs or Blut und Boden)
"Psychological" Causes
Psychological causes were many and had to do with a collective conscientiousness and mindset of not just individuals but the German People. After WWI, German was also in 'psychological' ruin: it's morale and concept of who they were as a people and nation was devastated. In the early days of the Third Reich, around the 1920s, with a weak moral and political landscape in the Weimar republic, people in Germany were torn between wanting representational government and wanting economic, emotional and national stability and safety. Hitler and his propagandist Goebbels were adept at human concept, reasoning and what effected emotion. A common enemy was chosen: the Bolsheviks or Communists, and the Jews, who Hitler and his men targeted as the mechanism for threatening Bolshevism in the German political scene. Both were to be hated and feared: they would, he taught vehemently bring about the destruction of Germany and the German lifestyle: Bolshevism would produce tyranny and lower lifestyles, and the Jews were reviled as a degenerate people who could ruin Germany and Europe( they had actually done the opposite.) IN the next 10 years, through a variety of events, Hitler rose to power, capturing reign over all aspects of military, police, labor, media, and domestic control: he began to re-psychologize the people of Germany. He taught them they were a great people, a part of the "Volk", a superior people to other races. He preached a gospel of Hubris, in which the German people would again take Europe and then the world. He 'showed' them
they were a physically superior and 'beautiful' people, re-defining beauty and aesthetics in the rhetoric of the 3rd Reich. He made them part of something big and powerful and wonderful, hardening their heart to the cause of the "Other" and teaching the "Fuhrerprinzip and "Befehlnotstand" or "blind obedience The Superior would always take responsibilty for the action, therefore the subordinate was able to act in complete obedience, without moral consequence. This principle occured in the military, schools, government, and even the church in Germany and filtered into the family where a strong patriarchal principle had always been in place. It was taught exclusively to the Hitler Youth Party, the Hitlerjugend who grew to become the families and soldiers of the "New Germany'. Additionally, with the removal of normal conscience, re-definition of 'moral's and values, and the instilling of personal hubris, the "psychology" of Germany entering the war was to the point of delusional. This coupled with the lifelong teaching of hatred for "inferior" races, lead not only to genocide, but to the destruction of Germany as well.
Religious Causes
It may seem at first odd to think that there were religious causes of the holocaust,
or Shoah, but the aetiology, or causal history of the Shoah is not complete without understanding
the religious climate of Europe, Germany and other Western powers at the beginning of the
century. The Church in Europe was not as diversified as the Church in the United States. Much
of Europe was Catholic or Formal Protestant. Germany was somewhat unique in the prevailing
Church membership being that of the German Christian Church: which was essentially the historic
Church established by Martin Luther, and akin to Lutheranism. Other much lesser segments of the
religious community in Germany included the German Bretheren, Hugenots(based in France), Jehovah's
witnesses, Baptists, and other forms of 'anabaptists'. Many reform Jews were well-integrated
into German Society, others such as Orthodox and Hasidic Jews kept their distances more both
culturally and morally. This was the face of religious life in Germany prior to World War II.
The Catholic Church was a powerful influence in Germany although membership in GCC was greater. Catholics were greatly influential in the German government: there are now many debates as to how influential certain Jesuits were in the Third Reich4 and what degree of financing for the German war effort may have come from Vatican sources.5
The Humanities- Causes
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Academic Causes
Most are not aware that the Modern, Western paradigm for the University, was German in
conceptual inception. Early in the history of University, they were limited and defined
studies. Traditionally, Hard Science and 'Letters' were taught, with the latter referring to
everything from Writing and literary critique, to Literature. Over centuries, certain 'quasi-sciences' were
added which gained respectability over time such as Anthropology, and later the 'soft' sciences such as Social
Sciences were added, all of which eventually came to be included under the rubric of 'Science'.
It was in this paradigm or progression that Academics did indeed facilitate the Nazi Movement and Reich
by adding Scientific respectability and auspices to 'Racial Science'. In the late 1800s, several philosophers
with the advent of Eugenicists, began to question whether there might not be a superior 'race' or Master Race,
or whether there might not be a potentially superior person. Voltaire had question this, but Nietszche took
the idea of a 'Superman' [Ubermensch] to new heights, postulating characteristics and etiology. The Zoologist
Haeckel at the University of Jena and other key 'life' scientists, began to synthesize botany, zoology, and biology
in developing a philosophically based 'science' of Eugenics or Racial Science. Racial characteristics were observed
and over-emphasized, and methods and measures of comparison devised: cranial measures, facial features, skeletal structure
and so forth. The new science incorporated Darwinism, Social Darwinism, Eugenics, Tests and Measurement and other aspects
of the Social Sciences. Plans for 'weeding out' racial inferiority were aided by the legitimizing of racial science.
The T-4 Nazi Euthanasia Program was based upon similar principles by Binding and others, to not only detect 'mental' and
'racial' inferiors but to dispose of what came to be called 'useless feeders' or anyone who did not contribute financially
to the benefit of the State and Volk.
Religious Studies and Theology also aided the onset of the Shoah, but lessening the importance, impact and desireability of the Jew in history, via a new 'Marcionism'. Most faculty were forced to sign loyalty pledges to stay employed when the Nazis came to office, so little oppostion to the encroaching Reich was raised. Further, theological departments, such as University of Tubingen and others were hotbeds of 'new' approaches to the Scriptures including the archetypal reinterpretation of God's Word, the school of Higher Criticism, and even theological approaches sympathetic to Nazi teaching, such as a neo-Marcionism, the dividing of and leaving out of the Old Testament and Jewish influence, and the 'New Testament Only' school. Rather than oppose Hitler, most professors at the Universities either stayed silent or were sympathetic towards the progressive new party.
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