Throughout history different religions have fought against one another, competing for both power and popularity. As seen in the past, conflicts such as religious discrimination have always resulted negatively, creating tension between nations and causing wars. Religious discrimination is the idea of valuing a certain person or group less because of their religion, or treating someone differently because of what they do or do not believe. Although religious discrimination continues presently, the most prominent incident of this occurred during the German Holocaust after Hitler rose to power in 1934.
Hitler, a powerful dictator, was obsessed with clearing Germany of all its foreign races and wanted the country to house only its own citizens. Hitler believed that as a pure nation, there would be fewer internal struggles, and Germany would be able to gain world domination. Hitler gave pure German citizens the title “Aryans” and classified them as having white skin and blue eyes. He also managed to convince the Aryans that since they were at the top of the social hierarchy, the Jews (who were at the bottom of the hierarchy), were conspiring against Germany and were stopping them from rightfully ruling the world. (RB 66)
Hitler promised the Aryans that by getting rid of the Jewish population, the country would prosper economically, politically, and socially. However, in hindsight, it is obvious that there were absolutely no economic benefits to this kind of religious discrimination. According to A History of the Holocaust, at first it was easy to distribute the jobs and property that were stolen from Jews among the Aryans, which gained Hitler many grateful supporters. However, as the Jewish population declined, Germany started to exhaust the critical labor that it needed to run local farms and factories. With an extreme shortage of labor, Germany would have been better off keeping the Jews alive; however, the Holocaust cost the Aryans a great deal in labor and expenses. (RB 66)
Politically, there were also no benefits to killing the Jews. The Jews were not actually a threat to the German government and it is because of their inability to influence the government that lead to the success of the Holocaust. However, Hitler and his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Gobbels still claimed that the Jews were as greedy capitalists leeching off of Germany’s wealth, and traitors with the enemy. In a speech, Hitler once said that if there were no Jews he would have had to invent them, in order for there to be scapegoats to blame for every setback that Germany suffered. But once Germany started killing off most of its Jewish citizens, Hitler had no one to blame for the Germany’s problems. (RB 66)
The social impact of the Holocaust was tremendous. By the time of Hitler’s death, Germany had lost most of its popularity amongst other nations and had managed to hurt itself more than anyone else. The Germans also lost a great deal of their religious diversity, as most of the Jews had fled Europe in order to start a new life. Throughout the ordeal, the church also struggled against Hitler’s unjustified treatment to the Jews and created problems for those who believed in liberty. (FL 16) In the end the Holocaust led to Germany’s humiliation and left the nation’s integrity completely scarred.
Although there is much that can be learned from the Holocaust, it seems that even presently, people have not realized that religious wars are quite pointless and just create trouble. Germany learned the hard-way that it was not correct to discriminate against people, and that to run a prospering nation, some diversity is required. By killing six-million Jews, Germany did not benefit economically, politically, or socially, and in the end, killing the Jews ended up being detrimental to Hitler and goals he had for the nation. The acts of the general population will probably never change, however it is important as individuals to remember that religious discrimination is wrong. The true heroes of the Holocaust were those who did not discriminate, and sheltered the Jews by taking them in as their family, and risking their lives to save one more life.
Botwinick, Rita. A History of the Holocaust. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
Littell, Franklin. The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1974.
