The Holocaust and the murder of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi Germany during World War II was and is till now one of the few genocide attempts, which were precisely organized and planned for total annihilation of the Jews. Many other plans such as this one were attempted before, taking as an example by Alexander the Great, but first: the idea never occurred to Alexander's mind. Why? Because "the technology of his time did not make such a thought conceivable" (Cargas, 132). So, ethnic violence has not been uncommon in world history, but the Holocaust stands out as the only systematic effort by a modern government to destroy an entire people. Not only Jews were killed by the Nazis but also Slavs, Gypsies, Polish intelligentsia, resistance fighters from all the nations, German opponents of Nazism, homosexuals, Habitual criminals, and the "anti-social" such as beggars, vagrants, and hawkers. Every Jewish community in occupied Europe suffered losses during the Holocaust solely because of the fanatic Nazi belief that they were the carriers of a genetic inheritance that threatened German and Christian values. But how was Adolf Hitler able to convince the German populat

ion of his fanatic ideas, how did all this started, and who is responsible for the Holocaust?

Hostility between Christians and Jews is ancient, but "the anti-Semitic bias was [increasing] everywhere in Germany before and especially after the First World War"(Cargas, 16). In the late 19th century many Germans came to see the Jew as the symbol of all they feared: the big city, international finance, secularism, big business, liberalism, and the erosion of traditional ways of life. German nationalism, which was conservative and ethnic, intensified the hostility toward Jews, who were not thought to be part of the German "Volk". After World War I, when Germany faced political and economic crisis including the raging inflation and the great depression of the 1930s, the Nazi party became the leading German anti-Semitic movement. "Lucy S. Dawidowicz, in her 1975 definitive book, The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945, states that in the years of 1907 to 1910 [ ], anti-Semitic organizations proliferated, anti-Semitic writing and propaganda poured forth in an unending stream" (Cargas, 16). By the outbreak of World War II, Jews were being excluded from public life, forced to surrender their property, and also boycotted, beaten, imprisoned, and sometimes killed. The idea of the "Final Solution" (Endloesung) began as the German armies moved to the East. While thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis or died as a direct result of discriminatory measures instituted against Jews during the years of the "Third Reich", the systematic murder of Jews did not begin until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The term "Final Solution" refers to Germany's plan to murder all the Jews of Europe. Special units began the mass shootings that killed two million Jews, others were driven into ghettos in Polish cities and kept there waiting for their transportation to death camps . Other Jews were killed immediately in gas chambers, their bodies were cremated after their gold teeth, hair, and clothes were taken off.

At the beginning of the 21st century a meeting was held between the Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping in Tel Aviv. At this meeting Barak noted the close ties between Israel and Germany and expressed the gratitude of the Israeli government for Germany's contribution toward the construction of the navy's new submarines. "The three submarines were built in shipyards in northern Germany, and two of them were funded by Germany" (Barzilai, 1). Germany is now seen as the second largest supplier of weapons systems, after the United States. Although Germany tries to be as neutral as it could be concerning the weapons sales to the region, it has sold Patriot missile batteries to Israel. Also during the 1998 Gulf war "Germany provided Israel with thousands of gas masks" (Barzilai, 2). There are still many people in Germany today who want to remember the past and are sympathetic towards Israel, and the government even if it does not admit it, is still aware of the moral debt. But with the changes in Europe and the ultimate passing of the Holocaust generation in both countries the relationship is likely one day to become normal in every sense.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jews Palestinians, Jews Despite, West Germany, United Germany, War II, Israel Israelis, Germans Jews, Refugee Board, Europe Special, Federal Republic, world war, murder jews, creation israel, israeli government, world war ii, jewish people, moral debt, war ii, west germany, holocaust jews, holocaust main, destruction european jewry, holocaust main reason, systematic murder jews,
Approximate Word count = 3048
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)