Explain how the event known as the Holocaust was different from earlier persecutions and why this event raises difficult questions for the Jewish People;

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  1. (i) Explain how the event known as the Holocaust was different from earlier persecutions and why this event raises difficult questions for the Jewish People;

  Throughout history the Jews have been isolated and persecuted by many cultures and religions, and this has lead to the death of millions over thousands of years.

   The earliest recorded massacres of the Jews (known as Pogroms) took place in the year 38, in Alexandria, Egypt. The Romans placed restrictions on the Jews and isolated them to certain areas of the city, before killing and torturing them.  

  Many early persecutions of the Jews took place because Christians falsely blamed the Jews for the Roman execution of Christ and this led to the Jews being isolated and excluded from European society at the beginning of the medieval period.

  The Christian’s continued this persecution from the 1000’s-1200’s, when the Crusades were instigated to rid Jerusalem of non-Christians’. Although the Crusades were against all non-Christians’, the focus of the attacks was in fact the Jewish people.

  In the 1300’s, the Christians’ blamed The Jews for introducing the Bubonic Plague that killed one third of the European population. Because the cause of this plague was not known, the easiest solution was to blame the already hated Jews (they were the only non-Christians’ in the affected countries). Thousands were murdered.

       In 1480 The Spanish Inquisition began and lasted for three hundred years. The Catholic Church ordered Portuguese, Brazilians and Spaniards to force the Jews to convert to Christianity. Refusing would lead to torture and execution.

         There are a number of differences between these persecutions and the Holocaust. The scale of the Holocaust was larger, and unprecedented on organisation and detail. The aim of the Nazis was not only to drive the Jews out of Germany, but to exterminate them completely. Because of Nazi propaganda during the holocaust, many people were unaware of what was happening in the camps. Those that did know were too scared to do or say anything, so there was no one to help the Jews and no-where for them to escape to.

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     The holocaust left the Jewish people many unanswerable questions. The two main questions involve the existence of God and the nature of Evil. It is not surprising that after the holocaust many Jews were unsure of whether God existed, and if he does then he could not be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and all loving and caring. To let an event like the Holocaust happen, God must either be all powerful and not all loving, or not all powerful but all loving. The Jews must have also wondered why the tragedy was inflicted on them, ...

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