Why did Hitler want to destroy the Jewish people?

Answer 1

he was part jew and hated his backround He specifically targeted Jews, but didn't EXCLUSIVELY target Jews. He also despised Gypsies, homosexuals, slavs and Communists.

Because Germany was in an economic depression and existing prejudices and blame were already held by some people aimed toward Jews, some of whom held wealth through banking, owning property, etc. for the depression. So Hitler was able to use those as a convenient political vehicle to get support from Germans for his political power. The Jewish people of Germany were a political scapegoat for Germany's problems.

Answer 2

He was after money to fund his war. He wanted to control all of Europe, so he picked people who he called "inferior", including Jews, Gypsies and mentally handicapped. These were the people he killed, and he took anything they owned to fund his war. To this day there happens to be very little evidence to prove Hitler did see homosexuals as "inferior". He also killed others too, for example Romas (gypsies), Poles, Russians, incurables, the handicapped, retarded etc. All these people were very easy targets. His targets tended to be people that he could easily pick out from a crowd, or people who did not resemble his "perfect race".

Answer 3

Answer 1

Read Mein Kampf. Hitler's own words explain, but understand that this publication is also an example of the propaganda it proposes be used to reunify and reinvigorate post WW1 Germany.

Hitler states in the opening words, "German-Austria must return to the great German mother country, and not because of any economic considerations."

Later in the text, Hitler discusses the purpose and use of propaganda: "To whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or to the less educated masses? / It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses....The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision. / The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. " Hitler proposed leading a nation, and to that end, using propaganda to aid in the endeavor. Be that propaganda factual or not was immaterial to the greater purpose he envisioned.

Hitler points out blatantly and not so multiple times in the text that a common enemy is needed: "...a multiplicity of different adversaries must always be combined so that in the eyes of the masses of one's own supporters the struggle is directed against only one enemy."

Simply stated, Hitler made use of the millennium old prejudice against the Jewish people (European Anti-Semitism) to develop a common enemy behind which the people of Germany and Austria could rally in defense against.

Answer 2

Hitler hated the Jews and other minorities. He focused the resentment of the German people toward those of different cultures, in order to achieve power. Some of the more important reasons that he hated them were the following:

1) Decay of the German State: During the 1800s, Jews and other minorities began to become more integrated in German National Life. They served in its government, its military divisions, and its industry. As was typical of Western Europe, the Jews had more of a hand in the higher echelons of government than their population percentage would account for. Hitler saw this increasing Jewish percentage in the government as a slow takeover of German policy and a corruption of the German people. They contrasted the great victories under Bismarck with the depressing failure of World War I and noted how a much larger percentage of soldiers in the latter war were Jewish. There was also the sentiment than in the early 20th century, values were beginning to ebb (this is similar to current politics in the United States) and the Jewish integration in the German apparatus (becoming teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc.) was to blame for this recession of values as opposed to modernity as a process. Other minorities were not seen as threatening.

2) Nationalism: Germany was brought together under the Nationalist conception that all peoples with German culture, history, and language should be united regardless of which principality currently held control. The German self-conception also had an ethnic component, holding that the perfect German was blond and blue eyed. Regardless of the fact that the majority of Germans were dark haired, Jews and Gypsies stuck out like sore thumbs because they overwhelmingly had darker hair. In addition, the idea of a German Jew was still rather new and both Jews and non-Jews tended to see the Jews in Germany as being part of a vast Jewish network and that these Jews just happened to be in Germany. The same perception existed for Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Communists. Hitler capitalized on this cosmopolitan sensibility by claiming that these people's allegiances were not to the German State, but to secret councils made up of these minorities that conspired against the German people.

3) Economy: Whether it was true or not, there was perception among Germans and Hitler in particular that Jews were wealthy individuals and had a higher per-capita income than the Germans. In many ways (because of the above two reasons) Germans felt that the Jews were "stealing" their money while they were poor and suffering. Given that Jews were perceived to be more wealthy on average than other minorities, the economic troubles of Germany amplified anti-Jewish sentiment.

4) Pseudo-Science: The late 19th and early 20th century was filled with radical new ideas concerning Social Darwinism, a movement that Hitler was a part of. It was believed by the Pseudo-Scientific community (which was rather in vogue) that different groups of people or races exhibited different emotional traits that were linked to physical differences. This led to the belief that Jews and Gypsies were corrupt and thieving by their irreversible nature and that they could not be "cured" and brought up as proper Europeans. This formalized Racism in Germany and made the situation much more dire for German minorities.

5) Heresy: Although not as much an issue in World War II as it may have been 500 years prior, Jews were still considered the heretics who murdered the LORD and Savior. This helped to justify Anti-Semitism as the Jewish comeuppance for their accepting of the Christ Bloodguilt.

Answer 3

Because Germany was just getting over a war and the Germans were not doing so good money wise and Jews were believe to have had a lot of money, which made Hitler mad. Jews also had dark hair/eyes and were mostly short. Hitler wanted a "perfect" race of only blond hair blue eyed tall people which he called Aryan. This doesn't really make sense because Hitler had dark hair and eyes, and was short. Some say that Hitler's grandma was a Jew, but no serious academic believes this.

See also the related questions.

Answer 4

He had claimed that the German or Aryan race was superior and Jews were inferior.

But not JUST Jews- all other races too. Durring that time, the German people were told that the Jews where the bad guys.

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See the related questions.

Answer 5

The Jewish race was targeted for a number of reasons. Firstly, they didn't fit into Hitler's "Aryan" race, and ironically, neither did he. He had strong anti-semitic views. Of course, this wasn't the first time that Jewish people have been singled out. For centuries, whenever a. . .plauge for example occured, the Jewish people were blamed. Also, Hitler singled out more than just Jews. They include Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

Answer 6

He didn't. There were other groups who also

attracted his attention for extermination.

Answer 7

They killed unarmed Jews in a disproportionate percentage, but they also killed many other civilians, especially Roma (Gypsies).