The Holocaust - why and how it happened

anti-Semitism - the hostility to the Jews (Germany was actually the least anti-Semitic country in 1933, why so many Polish and Russian Jews had moved there) - on the other hand Austria and Russia were very anti - Semitic

Holocaust - interpreted differently by different historians. But in general it relates to the persecution of minorities, by Decree or banishing them etc..

Final Solution - the colloquial used to describe the annihilation and extermination of people after 1941

WHY??

long term reasons...

1) Jews were Scapegoats, it was them who stabbed Germany in the back in WW1

2) Hitlers fixation and pursuit of purism and Aryans

3) Hitler's personal hatred - much younger before he had even entered the Nazi Party (his mother died in the care of a Jewish doctor)

4) Assertion of Germanic Values - long standing anti-Semitism

short term reasons...

1) Occupation of Europe led the the acquisition of more Jews. Germany had the least amount of Jews in Europe (not even 1% of General populace) - but Poland for example had over 3 million

2) The German economy wont be able to support their growing empire, and the Jews were there to provide forced labour

3) There was a rivalry between Nazi officials working towards Hitler, - high ranking officials vying with one another

4) Once the tide began to turn - when pushing they were being pushed back, they believed it was a mentality from 1942 of ridding the world of the unwanted. They were doing them a favour

HOW??

1) through legislation, removal of Scapegoats - with decrees making it increasingly difficult for the Jews.

2) Jews and other minorities were sent into Ghettos, in the East - a hold so they could then find somewhere to put them next

3) Einsatzgruppen - the…