One of the more interesting questions about the Holocaust is its cause. Why did Hitler and his henchmen dedicate valuable resources to the rounding up and murder of millions of civilians? Was it motivated only by a hatred of the Jewish people as a race or religion?
The answer is a lot more complicated that simple racism. Yes, Hitler hated the Jews. He blamed them publically and privately for all of the problems in Germany. But, we need to remember that people of Germany had just experienced a horrible war (WWI) and were punished after that war for being the aggressor (and the loser). Hitler’s hatred played on the post-war fears and prejudices of the German people, so it was relatively easy for him to justify the confiscation of Jewish property and, later, the imprisonment of the Jews themselves.
He wasn’t alone -- other institutions and nations played roles in the Holocaust. State churches and institutions of German society were anti-semitic. Jews were denied immigration into other countries (including the United States). So, while Hitler’s madness was the primary cause of the Holocaust, a lot of other factors made the Holocaust more likely to happen.
It is good to understand the causes behind something as barbaric as the Holocaust because it should, hopefully, help societies from allowing something like this to occur again (but even today, this is not always enough).
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