Why were Jews scapegoats during world war 1 and world war 2?

Answer 1

Jewish citizens were targeted because Adolf Hitler believed the Jews had too much stake in accumulating wealth throughout Europe. Hitler's intent was to stop Jewish Imperialism. Hitler often made demeaning and racially offensive comments about Jews to rally support for the eradication by Caucasian Germans.

Answer 2

My response will sound facetious, but your question is one that I have pondered for years,

and my response is heartfelt:

If you can get a straight and logical answer to that question from the people who did it,

I will be honestly hungry to know what the answer is.

___

I think this role of the Jews was in many ways self-perpetuating. For centuries they had been demonized by the Church (obviously with varying degrees of intensity depending on time and place). By 'self-perpetuating', I mean that it was easiest to scapegoat a minority that had already been demonized and about which there were already many negative stereotypes; for example, trying to scapegoat people with red hair doesn't work, except perhaps for the odd day or two in some school playgrounds.

Just as they were achieving emancipation in Western and Central Europe, a new, secular (non-religious) type of demonization arose. The Jews were now seen as 'subversives', as 'liberals', as the carriers of modernity ... This went hand in hand with conspiracy theories claiming that the Jews were trying to 'dominate the world'.

Most of the time people can live without scapegoats. However, most German nationalists were in complete denial about the military defeat of Germany in World War 1 and desperately wanted a scapegoat. It was provided by the notion of "Jewish Communism".

Answer 3

Jews were used as scapegoats in WW1 and WW2 because many Germans did not want to believe that it was their fault that they had lost the war. Jewish people had always been thought of greedy and jealous people, so blame was put on their shoulders. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat to rise to power in the 1930s and it gave the German public someone to blame for all that was wrong in their lives. At this point Germany had been ravaged by WW1 and the 1939 Wall St Crash, so many took on Hitlers ideas that this was the Jews fault.

Additionally, Europe as a whole has a long history of anti-Semitism in the wake of a defeat; that is, it has been common for many European countries to experience a wave of anti-Semitism after a national defeat. Hitler, however, took this trend to a completely different level.

As to why Jews are frequently used a scapegoats in defeat, there are several major reasons why, historically, Jews have been chosen over other ethnic groups:

• Jews are always a small minority in any European country, seldom (if ever) composing more than 10% of a population, and usually only 1-2%. Thus, their small population makes them vulnerable to abuse by a much larger segment
• The cultural customs (language, dress, and practices) of Jews is very distinctive compared to the generic Christian population of Europe, making Jews easy to identify. Thus, they are easily picked out from a crowd, making the "Us vs. Them" distinction simple, which is key for a successful persecution wave.
• Jews have a history of conflict with Christianity, much of it political in original nature, but which has solidified into a the mentality of "Jews killed my God-head (Jesus)" amongst many Christians. This provided a convenient wellspring of resentment that was easily exploited.
• Jews occupied (and dominated) several economic niches of considerable importance in most countries, specifically the banking and finance industries (though not just those niches). This was mostly due to historical differences in Christian vs Jewish moral systems; however, the result was that the critical finance and much of the manufacturing industry was either Jewish-owned, or had very considerable Jewish investment. Potential anti-Semites saw this dominance as a platform for manipulation; more importantly, however, many anti-Semites saw it as an opportunity to steal from the Jews. That is, anti-Semitism was a cover for appropriating the Jews businesses.
• For entirely justified historical reasons, European Jews were rather insular. They tended to interact almost exclusively within their own community (including setting up completely parallel community organizations to "normal" public ones); at best, their contacts with outside groups was limited to certain business associations. This reinforced their perception as outsiders; mysterious, odd, and yet somehow generally better off than everyone else.
• As a whole, partially due to their heavy presence in the financial industry, but also due to cultural community values, Jews as a whole were generally better off than the majority of ordinary Europeans. This lead to obvious feelings of envy amongst the populace, which anti-Semites used to fan the flames of resentment.

As to why there were scapegoats at all, well, that goes back to human nature: it is far easier to blame someone else for any problems you experience, than admit that your own faults or mistakes caused those problems. At the national level, politicians found it far more productive to blame a "Jewish conspiracy" for defeats than take a hard look at their own national institutions and politicians, which is where the true blame resided.

Answer 4

The Jewish people were targeted to kill because Hitlers dad didn't like Jewish people .Because Jewish people are business minded and they would do more business and it was hard for other people to do the business's. so that's why Jewish people were targeted to be killed. and Hitler didn't like Jewish people the reason hasn't Bean founded yet.

Jewish people were not the only peoples to get killed it was also

the Gypsies

poles

handicapped

homosexuals

and etc...

Answer 5

Jews were victimized in Nazi Germany - if that's what you're referring to - mainly because Hitler used them as a scapegoat for Germany's problems.

1) He claimed that there had been lots of Jews in government when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. (The government at that time were known as the 'November criminals' because the Treaty was signed in November).

2) It was easy to blame unemployment and economic problems on the Jews because the Jews often had well-paid jobs such as Accountants or money-lenders, and were stereotyped as being tight-fisted.

Hitler played on these to create a hatred of the Jews.

Answer 6

In the books of the Torah, the first five books of the Christian Old Testament, in Leviticus, there are specific directions for the holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. There were two goats to be selected in each year, one to be sacrificed on the altar, the other to be "loaded" with the sins of the people and let go to wander alone in the wilderness. The wandering goat with the "burden of sin" eventually would die by falling off a cliff. This other goat became known as the scape goat, the one which was bearing the burden of sin. Both goats died, but the one with the sins was God's to dispose of.

The Jews became known as the scape goats because everything that ever happened in any country they went, the calamity was blamed on them. In other words, they were the cause of the calamity simply because they were there. Some of the passages in Isaiah are interpreted as being applied to the Jewish people rather than one single man. Bearing the sins of the world as a people, they are outcasts wherever they go, as the tradition goes.

As with all theology, this point is hotly debated among various groups.

Answer 7

because many people said the jews poisoned the well that others drank from because they were not getting as sick as frequently as others