Rumman Sikdar RE Coursework Draft Holocaust IM

  1. The Holocaust is not an entirely unique event in Jewish history in my opinion. This is because I feel that many other events in Jewish history were similar to the Holocaust but were at a smaller scale in comparison to the Nazi’s extermination policy.

In the 13th Century BCE the Jews were enslaved in Egypt and pharaoh Seti I murdered first-born Jews. The Egyptians wanted to extend their territory and influence so they captured and enslaved the Jews. Male Jews were murdered to control the number of Jews in the country; Jews were considered a threat to national security as they were in Nazi Germany. Unlike the Nazis though, the Egyptians didn’t single out the Jews from all other groups but treated them all as defeated enemies.

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In the 8th Century BCE, Babylonian Jews were exiled from Babylon when their land was taken over. Again they were treated as a defeated enemy and not targeted because of their ethnic group.

In the 2nd Century BCE, Jews were made to conform to Grecian ideals as the Greeks forced their culture and practises on the Jews. They even had the temple in Jerusalem dedicated to Zeus. Like the Nazi oppression, Jews were resented because of their state of economic prosperity.

The Romans also oppressed the Jews as they used violence and brutally quashed Jewish revolts. This wasn’t very ...

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