Paper Example on Second World War

Introduction

The responsibility of the horrors that were experienced by the Jews during the Holocaust is still a subject of hot historical debate that has spanned over years. In fact, most scholars can only speculate the identity of the people who were responsible with most of the evidence pointing in several directions. According to the book "Ordinary Men," the cause of bloodthirst persecution of the Jews should rest fully upon the German police unit who were used by the Nazi regime to identify and put the Jews into detention camps. According to Browning, the group of notorious German police unit carried out a number of cold-blood murders during the war and were solely responsible for the death of many Jews in Germany. Therefore, the author coincides with other scholars who believe that the blame can not only be placed on the Nazis or the German but also the unrelenting police unit, peer pressure, and other cowardice groups that took the opportunity presented by the Nazi government to pick on the Jews. Based on these facts, this paper aims to exceptionally provide the realities on the major perpetrators of the act with the special interest of positioning Vichy France and the German Civilians.

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During the Second World War, Holocaust is the most notifiable event that occurred and still haunts many Jews and the world as a whole. The Holocaust was a bureaucratic, systematic elimination and persecution of the Jews by the Nazi regime in the name of ethnic cleansing. After the Nazi government came to power in 1933 they had a belief that the German race was the superior race and the Jews were a threat to the Germans. However, it was not only the Jews who were targeted at the time by the German Nazi but also other racial group and the people with disability were harassed and persecuted on the grounds of political and ideologies of the Nazi people. However, the ideology did not stay only in Germany but its spread like a wildfire in Europe where the Nazis and their collaborators killed many Jews. It was until the end of the Second World War when the German armed forces surrendered to the allied forces that the persecution of the Jews ended.

According to Browning, the core perpetrators of the Holocaust war comprised of Reserved Police battalion 101 units which had over 400 men from Hamburg. In a period that was less than two years, these groups of young men became responsible for the killing of over 1,500 Jews and deportation of approximately 44,000 people with Jews background. By 1938-1939, this police unit had been expanded rapidly to be able to continue with their service to the Nazi government by persecuting the Jews. The police unit with no time had grown and became a formidable force in every aspect of their operations thus continuing with their massacre operations. In fact, they were subdivided into some uniformed units thus were able to carry out their duties perfectly and access the necessary resources they needed. Based on their actions, it is believed that these members produced almost the same pain and suffering just as their Nazi leaders. The German police units had to perform their duty perfectly as per the orders from the highest authorities. Therefore, they had no time to spare any Jew and both men, women, and children were persecuted and killed.

The story of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 continue to suggest that no matter the choices these members were provided with to opt out, they had to continue committing the atrocities. In 1942, the entire battalion arrived in Poland to help in taking part in the killing of the Jews in Poland which shows their dedication towards their service to the Nazi regime (52). The group comprised of many ordinary middle-aged men. Within three weeks after their arrival in Poland under the leadership of Major Wilhelm Trapp, they were commanded to carry out the shooting on the Jews, an act that he terms as "special action (53)." According to the major commander, all the women, children and the elderly were to be shot. In fact, none of the army members was expected to opt out of the act thereby ending up killing millions of Jews. Therefore, the entire episode was horrific but most of these ordinary men had no choice but to continue complying with the orders from the Nazi government. This trend further implies that the ordinary men, the Reserved Police Battalion 101 as well as the Nazis were all responsible for the Holocaust.

According to the historical records, both the Vichy France and German civilians had a special role and position in the Holocaust. Following the German inversion in Poland, Vicky France spent nearly eight months watching the progress of the war while waiting to strike. While the Germans continued to push inwards, the Vicky France decided to retaliate. In fact, the period 1940-1944 marked one of the darkest moments in the history of the Vicky France. The retaliation resulted in quite a number of deaths of French civilians who were shot as hostages and as members of the resistant groups. Despite the extremities that were inflicted on the French people, Petain worked extra hard to prevent his people from these form of excesses. The resistance marked the true nature of France and many people supported the move. It was the best time when a majority of the France people understood the value of unity and reconstruction of their country.

Nevertheless, this trend was not experienced for a long time, Petain and his government made a decision to move forward and agree on a permanent treaty with Hitler. State collaboration was formed with the view that Hitler would defeat the enemies and anew order of Nazi and German would prevail in Europe. The state collaboration reached its limits when France agreed on the set of requirements from the German Nazi government. Through these protocols, France aimed to gain its political power in return to the military recession that was made by Germany. On the other hand, Germany wanted to gain access to French military resources and to exploit their potential in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, France wanted a completely new era in political concession and co-operation and they betrayed the Jewish people. Therefore, both French and the Germans had different reasons and perspective of understanding the nature of their collaboration which saw the persecution of the Jews people within the French territories.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the facts identified above on the Vichy France special role in the persecution of Jews in French territory prove Browning idea that it was not only the German Nazis who had the largest responsibility for the Holocaust but also the Reserve police Battalion 101 and the ordinary men. This trend implies that it is one of the greatest eye openers in the understanding of the progress of the Holocaust. The Vichy French under Petain collaborated with the German Nazis to persecute the Jews within their borders with the aim of reducing the Jews dominance in French politics. The Vichy French are equally liable to the death of many Jews during the Second World War as well as the ordinary people who saw the persecution of the Jews as a chance to gain riches by usurping the Jews households and property.

Bibliography

Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary men. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. Pp 1-189

Overy Richard. The Bombers and the Bombed: allied air war over Europe, 1940-1945 PP 230-265

Sweets, John. Choices in Vichy France: The French Under Nazi Occupation. Oxford University Press, 1986 pp 1-29