Kenneth Lavender

Mr. Hawkins
History 10 Period 4
18 March 2016
The social climate and events that lead to the state sponsored genocide known as the Holocaust
The twenty and thirties paved a path in way that no one could predict. For the first ten
years after WW1, the world entered a Golden Age. However, in the 1929, the global stock
market collapsed. This lead to a global depression, commonly called the Great Depression.
The depression hit Germany the most which lead to hyperinflation and mass unemployment.
These dire times in Germany allowed the near instant growth of the Nazi party. There remains a
question of what lead Nazi Germany to sponsor the Final Solution for the mass genocide for
certain ethnic and cultural monitories. The two main reasons for this was Nazi ideology and
Germany demanding revenge for WW1.
The first reason for the Final Solution program was Nazi ideology/propaganda. One of
their beliefs was, The Nazis apart from other people who dislike Jews is that the Nazis
believed that the Jews had acquired vast power (Evidence #3). The myth that Jews had
gained vast power was a core principle of Nazi ideology. These myths that were told as truth
fueled the idea of mass genocide into a program called Final Solution. Nazi propaganda also
created the myth of, It was the power of the Jews that had led to revolution in Germany,
had stabbed the German Army in the back and had brought down Imperial Germany
(Evidence #3). This myth would be the driving force that won the Nazi control of Reichstag on

23 March 1933. This myth also through Nazi propaganda won them massive popular voting
support. The final myth cooked up as truth against the Jew mainly was, The great corporations
during the 20th Century did have economic relations with the Capitalist countries and with
the Communist countries (Evidence #3). This idea about corporations of the day proved in
Nazi eyes that capitalist and communism was a construct of the Jews to gain more power. This
also fueled the Nazi in winning voter support around their plans for the economy.
The second reason for the Final Solution was Germans wanting retribution for WW1.
The first cause for revenge was, Marxists and Jews had been behind the failure in World
War One (Evidence #1). This diktat or stab in the back was why Germans elected the Nazis
with the promise to rid Germany of these dissents who had costed Germany the war. Initially,
Germany could arrest them, but they needed a more effective system which in turn would
become Final Solution to deal with these dissents. Another cause was, The early 1920s began
as reparations ended leading to hyperinflation and an impending economic collapse
(Evidence #1). This would lead Germans in a situation where they would elect the Nazis with
their promises of fixing Germany that would be free of Jews, ethnic, political and cultural
minorities. In addition, Nazi propaganda showed Germany as fantasy paradise if the masses
elected the Nazis into power. The final reason was, The economy was still dangerously
dependent on American money, and the political system was unstable (Evidence #1). When
American money stopped during the depression, the Nazis used the myth that it was the Jews
being greedy that lead to total economic collapse. Secondly, an unstable political system made
easy for the Nazis to secretly wipe out there political rivals when them more votes. In
conclusion, the use of Nazi ideology/propaganda and revenge lead to the creation of the Final
Solution.

The Nazis had two reason for the birth of the Final Solution which was Nazi
ideology/propaganda and Germany demanding that dissents who had cost the war where
punished. However, the plan for state genocide did not become official until 1942 at the Wannsee
Conference where a formal plan was drawn up and enacted. When the SS asked what the state
program should be called, Hitler responded by calling the Final Solution for whose the state
had marked for death. The overall importance of this essay is to provide greater understanding
for those who wonder what drove the Nazis to create and sponsor a state program designed to
kill millions of people Hitler deemed a cancer that must be killed at all cost.