I'm not going to get into the history of how the Jews came to be killed en masse as they often were within the Holocaust, because a) I'm only alive because my paternal grandmother survived one of the camps and fled the country and b) it's emotionally draining to explain, but basically the Jews were first disarmed - their guns and weapons literally confiscated after laws were passed forbidding them from owning firearms - then tricked into compliance. Told they were going to "work" camps, not death camps. It didn't say "work will set you free" at the entrance to many death camps just because some Nazi assholes thought it would be funny to use that phrase as these camps' welcome signs - though that was part of it, too - but also to keep up the ruse that it was indeed a work camp.
Jews weren't told they were being gassed, they were told they were getting showers. They didn't know the truth until gas instead of water came on. As to being mowed down by gunfire in the thousands, I'm not familiar with that, but chances are that being tricked about the nature of every gathering and kidnapping they were subjected to was part of it, along with, as you said, being worn down from starvation and other severe mental and physical stresses.
I used to think the same thing - why did my people not fight more, fight harder, or at least run faster from this surely-well-known threat - but when you're in a Germany where Hitler got elected on the premise that he was merely talking up his hatred of Jews to get the popular vote because hating Jews was one popular stance to take, let me tell you - and would surely turn down his rhetoric and not seriously harm Jews upon winning office, when as a Jew your rights as a human being are taken away not all at once but step by tiny step, little by little over the course of 10 years, when you are lied to as a Jew about every step in the process being taken to eliminate you - not just to fool you, but also to fool the surrounding populace so as not to alarm them, which could send waves overseas that might also alarm unfriendly countries - then yes, a lot of damage can be done.
I'm assuming you don't know exactly how much Hitler and the Nazis lied - to the German public, to the Jews themselves, but it's all easily researchable so as another person, like you, of German origin (I'm also Irish, but let me not touch that with a 10 foot pole right now), I would ask if you might read more on it if you're concerned about similar things happening here. The sheer amount of lies told in Nazi Germany can explain, to my mind at least, easily 70-80% of "how it happened".
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chiming
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Date: 2016-03-27 03:47 am (UTC)From:Jews weren't told they were being gassed, they were told they were getting showers. They didn't know the truth until gas instead of water came on. As to being mowed down by gunfire in the thousands, I'm not familiar with that, but chances are that being tricked about the nature of every gathering and kidnapping they were subjected to was part of it, along with, as you said, being worn down from starvation and other severe mental and physical stresses.
I used to think the same thing - why did my people not fight more, fight harder, or at least run faster from this surely-well-known threat - but when you're in a Germany where Hitler got elected on the premise that he was merely talking up his hatred of Jews to get the popular vote because hating Jews was one popular stance to take, let me tell you - and would surely turn down his rhetoric and not seriously harm Jews upon winning office, when as a Jew your rights as a human being are taken away not all at once but step by tiny step, little by little over the course of 10 years, when you are lied to as a Jew about every step in the process being taken to eliminate you - not just to fool you, but also to fool the surrounding populace so as not to alarm them, which could send waves overseas that might also alarm unfriendly countries - then yes, a lot of damage can be done.
I'm assuming you don't know exactly how much Hitler and the Nazis lied - to the German public, to the Jews themselves, but it's all easily researchable so as another person, like you, of German origin (I'm also Irish, but let me not touch that with a 10 foot pole right now), I would ask if you might read more on it if you're concerned about similar things happening here. The sheer amount of lies told in Nazi Germany can explain, to my mind at least, easily 70-80% of "how it happened".
And it can easily happen again.