American History

World War II is the bloodiest and most destructive war in the history of mankind. The primary aggressor in this war is no other than Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler. One look at the massive number of global casualties in World War II is usually enough for anyone to condemn the war Nazi Germany started. However, the Nazis werent bent on evil for evils sake. In fact, experts today agree that there are at least two major reasons why Nazi Germany went to war. The first reason is that they feared the growing military power of Russia which they thought would likely attack them inevitably and soon. The second reason is that Adolf Hitler has a deeply entrenched hatred and racism against Jews who he says was conspiring to bring down Germany. In this paper, well show that while both these reasons made sense to many Nazis at the time, they clearly do not justify Nazi Germanys war at all, especially since it resulted in millions of innocent lives lost for a cause, which is irrational and inhumane.

Our chosen artwork vividly shows the horrors of World War II started by Nazi Germany. The painting shows a concentration camp where pale and emaciated male and female prisoners gathered around corpses in stretchers. Hooded men, who are apparently Nazi camp officials, seemed to have placed the corpses side by side probably after overworking them, gassing them, or killing them by other means.

The painting is very striking because it summarizes why Nazis were unjustifiable in starting World War II and treating it the way they did. They robbed Jews and other peoples of their human rights, such as what we can see in the painting, where prisoners can only look on helplessly as their dead fellow prisoners are laid side by side. Like animals, men are women are deprived of clothing food and proper shelter. The gray and brown tones of the artwork also drive home the overwhelming sense of resignation that permeates Nazi concentration camps. In a place where their only purpose is to die systematically, prisoners cannot do anything but watch helplessly as their murderers commit their horrific crimes.

We now turn to the man who has the most responsibility for all the suffering the world endured during World War II  Adolf Hitler.

Numerous writings on Adolf Hitlers beliefs and ideology, including Mein Kampf, highlight the fact that his drive for war and how it must be fought were heavily influenced by his racism against Jews. Somehow, Hitler truly believed that Jews were conspiring to bring down German culture and the entire country. This conspiracy was allegedly disguising as global Bolshevism with Moscow as its headquarters. Combined with the widespread fear of Russia mobilizing against Germany, Hitler decided it was necessary to draw first blood by hitting the Russians hard, thus, sparking a global war.

It is now evident that Hitlers fear and hatred of the Jews have no rational or logical basis at all. Jews residing in Germany at that time posed no threat to the government. Its also ironic that Germany would try to crush Jews supposedly thriving in Moscow when Jews in Russia were also persecuted at that time. Hitlers racism against Jews and Judaism was developed early in his youth and could even be described as pathological (Copeland 119). German society also supported Hitlers pathological racism with its harsh discrimination of Jews years before the war. Jews in Germany were racially isolated from the rest of the population and some of them were forced to work in ghettos prior to the commencement of the Holocaust. Thus, Jews had already died a social death in Germany even before they were literally murdered in the millions (Bankier 463).

The outcome of Hitlers racism against Jews and his power to drive the German army to wherever he wants it to be cant be more horrific. The Holocaust, or the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem as it was called by Nazis, resulted in millions of Jews in Europe dying horrible deaths. They were placed in concentration camps where they were systematically killed in droves in the most cold-blooded genocide in the history of mankind. Jews were already persecuted before the Holocaust but the racism and the inhumane treatment reached a fever pitch when Hitler made such acts official and a national duty.

The unbelievably huge number of deaths in concentration camps is not the essence of the unjustifiable nature of Nazis war and war activities. Conditions in concentration camps are enough to repulse any rationale being and make him condemn the war Nazi Germanys sparked. In some concentration camps, it is estimated that a prisoner cant live more than three months because of inhumane conditions. For example in Birkenau, there is no drinking water for prisoners. Both sick and healthy prisoners drank the polluted water channeled into the camp from the dirty swamps surrounding the area. Schutztaffel (SS) guards, who were the most criminal of Nazi Germanys soldiers, would make prisoners work to their deaths. There was only a single faucet for washing for eight thousand prisoners and the price of a bottle of water was equal to a half loaf of bread. Camp conditions were so terrible that on some days, as many as 225 prisoners died, many of them killed by Nazi guards for no reason at all (Yahil et al. 372).

Nazi Germanys occupation of Poland in 1939 is regarded by scholars today as the official start of World War II but the war didnt become global until Germany invaded Russia in 1941. In many ways however, Russias invasion has been one, if not the most important factor in Germanys decision to go to war. Russia was growing in military power and Adolf Hitler along with many generals at that time feared that once Russia mobilizes, Germany would be its first victim. Thus, Germany waged war for the same reason it did in the First World War in 1914, that is, it is afraid of the country with three times its population and forty times its land mass (Copeland 119).

Germanys military regularly investigated and measured Russias military power in the years leading up to its invasion. In February 1941, Hitler was shocked by the news of the skyrocketing numbers of units in the Russian air force, so he made it clear that war was now inevitable. When Hitler learned that the Soviet air force was not as far behind as they initially thought, Hitler even became more convinced that they had to launch an offensive immediately. Thus, Hitler and his army marched to Russian territory in 1941 and did very well in the first six months of the bloody war. In fact, Germany almost won if not for Hitlers mistake in not pushing forward to Moscow.

Other reasons for Hitlers decision to wage war on Russia are strategic. After assessing what the opponent had, Hitler came to the conclusion that if they attacked Russia, Great Britain would not have enough military strength to come to her aid, at least until the United States supplied its needs. Hitler therefore realized that to conquer Russia, he must do it in the swiftest possible time before Great Britain and the United States could interfere. If the attack achieves success, then all other conquests should follow (Commager 131).

While there is some reason for Germanys fear of Russias growing military power, the war still cant be justified especially since Adolf Hitler and the Nazis never planned to stop at conquering Russia. They wanted to invade all Europe and achieve world domination. Had they succeeded, more innocent Jews and other non-Aryan peoples would be subjected to their inhumane treatment and murderous intent. Thus, although the defensive purpose of Nazi Germanys war on Russia can be justified, the true motives behind it are irrational, inhumane, and essentially evil.

Perhaps, more unforgiveable than Nazi Germanys actual initiation of war is their treatment of war. Their war quickly turned to an excuse to torture and commit genocide against Jews and other innocent victims. Wars are inherently violent but Nazi Germany took its irrationality to a more terrifying level when they decided to murder millions of civilians.