Hitler's Racial Policies Adolf Hitler example essay topic
At the start of World War I, Hitler enrolled in the German army and was put to run messages back and forth during the war. Hitler did an exceptional job and was given an award for bravery. After the war was over, Hitler was homeless and had no real direction in his life, but politics and the military served as a guide for him. Adolf Hitler, the leader and founder of the Nazi Party was a front-line soldier in World War I, and after the war he truly believed that he was the chosen leader for his nation. Hitler used nationalism as the main reason for his political revolution. Hitler said that there was a need for a revolution because democracy and modern life had plagued the nation of Germany.
Hitler had placed the blame on diversity of race for the detriment of society, and he made racism the central feature of his nationalist ideology (Brower 109). Adolf Hitler created the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party, and it was the foundation for his revolution. Hitler's followers understood the term Nazi to mean someone "who knows no higher ideal than the welfare of the nation". The first step that Hitler made was creating a special group within the party called the Stormtroopers, otherwise known as the SA. The SA was made up of mostly war veterans who were dressed in special uniform and were always prepared to defend the party at all costs (Brower 110). A short time later, Hitler created a group called the Schutzstaffel, which is also known as the SS.
The SS was like Hitler's personal bodyguards, they were dressed in black and needed to prove their racial purity so that they could take an oath to obey him unquestioningly (Brower 110). Hitler stated that his Nazi party would only support the cabinet if he became the leader. The German government totally disregarded the violence that the Nazi Party used and they saw it as a large movement that was dedicated to nationalism. In 1933, President von Hindenburg chose Hitler to be chancellor of Germany and had unknowingly taken a large step towards Nazism.
Eventually Hitler persuaded the President to give extraordinary powers "for the persecution of the people and the state". The President gave approval to the Enabling Act, which granted Hitler the authority to rule without constitutional restraints (Brower 111). The country of Germany had become a one-party dictatorship, and anyone who opposed him was sent to concentration camp. In time the SA began to show opposition towards Hitler and to end the threat, he secretly planned for their removal. In 1934, he sent the SS squads to execute over seventy political leaders who he wanted eliminated, that night was called "night of the long knives" (Brower 111).
Hitler claimed that he was responsible "for the fate of the German people". At the time of death of President von Hindenburg, Hitler declared himself head of the state and commander and chief of Germany's armed forces. Each and every soldier in the army had to make an oath of "unconditional obedience" and "as a brave soldier, to stake his life at any time for that oath". The SS group loved to exercise their unrestricted power to arrest and punish anyone. The main law of Germany was "the will of the leader has the force of the law". Hitler's efforts and the support of his followers had created a new empire known as the Third Reich (Brower 112).
The Nazi Party felt that there was no place for Jews in their country and that hatred turned into inspiration for the policy of racial segregation and persecution. Hitler put forth the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which banned Jews from having any part in German society. Hitler also released writings from the Mein Kampf, which glorified his racial policies against the Jews. In the Mein Kampf Hitler gives reasons to why the Jews should be persecuted, but he words it in such a way that it seems justifiable.
"The sin against the blood and the degradation of the race are the hereditary sin of this world and the end of mankind surrendering them". Hitler is saying that it is a sin against the blood to be Jewish and if you are of Jewish descent you are a degradation to society. Hitler used Nationalism to gain the support of his followers; he promised the German people that the country would get better if he got rid of the inferior race, which is the Jews. Hitler also believed that marriage was only good if it were between two pure German people so that they could preserve their race. Hitler also believed that in order to be a good citizen you must be strong and ready for battle. "Thus the entire education has to be directed towards employing the free time of the boy for the useful training if his body".
Hitler had the strong belief that everything was supposed to be done for the betterment of the country no matter what it was. Hitler felt that the Jewish people were a disease to his society, and the only way for his country to become powerful was to exterminate them one by one. "For here, if necessary, one will have to proceed to the pitiless isolation of incurably diseased people; a barbaric measure for one who was unfortunate enough to be stricken with it, but a blessing for the contemporaries and for posterity. The temporary pain a century may and will redeem millenniums from suffering". Hitler believed that racial mixing added to the pain of a society and that leaders should do anything it takes, even by violent means, to make sure that there is racial purity. Hitler came into power through the use of force and violent threats to anyone who opposed him.
He justified his actions by stating that everything he was doing was for the good of the country. He gained the support of the masses because after the First World War the country was in desperate need of a good leader that would heal the damaged Germany.