Ethics and Holocost

Ethic and the Holocaust:

Definition of Holocaust: The Holocaust is generally considered to be the activity conducted by the German government from 1941-1945. The Nazis, the fascist government in power from 1933-1945 in Germany, systematically exterminated about 8 million people during these four years. The Nazis had been killing Jews, other minorities, and political enemies since the early 1930's. It wasn't until an SS conference, chaired by Heinrick Heydrick, convened in 1941. At that conference it was decided that there should be a disciplined, systematic method to take care of the multitude of people accumulating in the concentration camps. The Nazi jugernaught went to work to set up a "production line" procedure to dispose of these "enemies of the state". This became what is known as the "Final Solution" of Jews in Germany and its occupied countries.

For the sake of argument and not believe, I am going to take the stand that the Holocaust is "amoral", and normal standards of morality do not apply. The period known as the Second World War is a period of the greatest upheaval known to mankind. Upwards to 70 million people died. It was a period of unheard worldwide chaos. Most of the world was in turmoil. And to understand this circumstance one has to understand the history of why it happened.

The end of the First World War (1914-1918) left the world in ashes, disorganized. The German Empire was broken-up, by the victors (the Allies), and new states were franchised. War reparations were demanded from the Germans and restrictions placed on their government and society. German society broke down and a period of depression,early 1920's, ensued. It took a wheelbarrow full of marks, German curency, to buy a loaf of bread. Bands of veterans and storm troopers wandered the streets. Varied politics were rife. It was in this scenario that a little known political group, called the National Socialist Democrats, later known as the "Nazis" came into being. At the same time long festering anti-Semitic feelings started to spiral out of control. As an example, Hitler in his book Mien Kamph wrote that in post war Vienna where he was an aspiring artist. Every thing evil that he saw, there was a Jew behind it.

As this political and social chaos started to solidify, two main ideas became defined. Communism and Capitalism. The Germans felt that communism was a Jewish plot to disrupt the world and take advantage of subsequent economies. Nickolai Lenin, and Leon Trotsky two of the three men(Stalin was the third) who brought about the Communist Revolution (1917), were Jewish. Including Karl Marx the author of the Communist Manifesto. All of the industrialized nations feared communism. There was an undercurrent feeling that the Jews were responsible for the communist plot to take over the world. Hitler and his party played on this to gain power and support. Anti-Semitism was not only in Germany, but it was prevalent in most of Europe. It was a perceived concept that after the first World War, the Jews prospered while the rest of the population suffered. And, it was partially true. The European Jews were connected by origin and also by language. Yiddish (German root) was developed for exactly that reason, economics. They continued to do international banking and commerce