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The Mass Murders of World War II

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"(Germany) is all-embracing; outside it no human or spiritual values exist." - Adolf Hitler After World War I, Germany suffered huge losses with reparations, loss of land, and demilitarization. There came about nationalist groups who viewed parliamentary democracy as, "something foreign  and "everything contrary to the German political will  (Fest, 945). Hitler rose to power because he opposed this revolution that was happening in Eastern Europe; he also described the mass murder and destroyed economy in Russia and instilled fear that the same would happen to Germany. National Socialism was appealing to the people of Germany because party's aim was, "annihilation and extermination of the Marxist worldview" (Fest, 947). Hitler had overwhelming anxieties about the Marxist party and the world conspiring against Germany which resulted in his racist views of the Jewish population. He feared that Germany would be exterminated because of the huge population of the Russian and Jewish population and the power they had over the world capital. Hitler described the Jews as, "evil-smelling, smacking his lips, lusting after blonde girls, eternal contaminator of the blood, but 'racially harder' than the Aryan" (Fest, 950). Hitler may not have been the one who actually took part in the act of killing but he gave the task to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel or the SS. Hitler indirectly attempted genocide of the Jews through Himmler with the holocaust. In Himmler's speech to SS leaders he makes a reference to the Night of the Long Knives and states that the extermination of the Jews will be another thing that won't be discussed. He expresses his worry that, unlike the SS leaders, some party members might not be able to live up to the task of mass murder. Also, Himmler states that even though it's their duty to kill the Jewish people they have no right to individually prosper from their wealth. He describes this duty by saying,

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