Analyse and explain the events that led to the Holocaust.

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Analyse and explain the events that led to the Holocaust.

After loosing the War in 1918, Germany was a desperate country. After being forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, the country was in economical ruin. As a stipulation of the Treaty, Germany had to admit that they started the War, therefore they had to pay for damages occurred to other countries, reparations.

‘…Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage…’- Treaty of Versailles

The price that Germany had to pay was high; 20,000,000,000 marks. In order for them to pay this price, more money had to be printed. This caused inflation, and eventually hyperinflation. This is where the value of the currency- the mark- goes down at an incredible rate.

For example in 1918 the cost of a loaf of bread was 0.63 marks, by November 1923 the peak of hyperinflation, people were paying 201,000,000,000 marks for a loaf of bread.

Obviously many people couldn’t afford this. People went shopping with wheelbarrows full of money because one mark was virtually worth nothing. Those with pensions, or money in the bank, lost everything. There were few businesses as people couldn’t afford to keep them running, therefore there were few jobs. The prices rose faster than people were earning their money.

There seemed to be no hope for Germany. Until in 1924 Gustav Stresemann came to power. He helped Germany back on its’ feet. He borrowed money from America to pay back the reparations, and to help get Germanys’ economy back on track. This was called the Dawes plan.

However, in October 1929 the USA went into economical depression as a result of the Wall Street Crash. This not only affected America, but many other countries including Germany. All the loans that were keeping Germany going, had to be paid back. Companies all over Germany went bankrupt, therefore workers were no longer needed, unemployment rates were at an all time high.

This was good news for Hitler and the NAZI party. Now that people were depressed and had lost faith in the government, and traditional political parties, they turned to more extreme groups. People were finding truth in the words of Hitler, and joining him in his ideas. They wanted reasons why their lives were so miserable, and why they didn’t have enough money to provide for themselves. The easiest way, was to blame someone else, Hitler used this to his advantage.  

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The economy played a very big part in the starting of the War. Had the people of Germany not been in a state of commercial disaster, they would have had no reason to turn to the ways of the NAZI party, they wouldn’t have needed to find someone to blame for their hardships.

It wasn’t only the fact that people had no money, jobs or homes that they turned to the NAZI party. The Political situation in Germany at the time was awful, and Hitler made his campaign appealing to the people when no other parties ...

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