In Europe long before Adolf Hitler came to power, and even before the Nazis, Jews were viewed as an inferior group of people. Not only because they had separate religious beliefs, but they had a very specific and obvious difference in cultural practices as well. The intolerance of Jewish people was stretched across all of Europe, and existed among all of the people, and became known as anti-semitism. Jews first came to Europe in masses, and lived along side the Western people. The Jews intimidated these Western people with their superior knowledge, and cleverness. From this point on everyone not only viewed but also treated the Jewish population differently. The rest of Europe’s population then became aware of the Jews and prevented them from entering the rest of Europe by establishing laws and regulations. They did this in order to protect their own values and beliefs.
The severe disapproval towards the Jewish race because of ethnic background and different religious beliefs is in no way any excuse to be discriminative towards them. This feeling of hatred was dealt with in an extremely inappropriate way. Since when did it become okay for people to be viewed as unequal? Europe became brainwashed to believe that the Jews were the reasons behind their failures and mistakes. I don’t believe that it is acceptable for Jews to be punished because they are viewed as a threat. Their is also a difference between being anti-Jewish and trying to exterminate the entire Jewish population. Anti-semitism was still an issue even before Hitler, so this hatred was not only the ideas of one man, but the beliefs and ideas of an entire country. Just because Jews were different and viewed life differently than most of the other populations doesn’t make it okay for them to be physically and mentally damaged. Anti-semitism made the rest of Europe feel like they had power, which made them feel like they could do what ever they choose to this group because they didn’t belong. There is no reason for people to be considered less. After all, the entire reason behind them being discriminated against was because of their advanced knowledge, so it makes absolutely no sense for them to be talked down to. Europe’s hatred was so incredibly strong, Nazis, the specific group dedicated to eliminating the entire race of Jews, became overly popular. This just shows how isolated Europe truly was, and showed how incapable they were of change. They were also obsessed with power, and since Jews were socially brilliant, they were a threat and acted on impulse by trying to immediately some how get rid of the entire Jewish race. This hatred however, gradually got worse. When Hitler came to power in 1937 he strongly believed in the idea of anti-semitism, and began to turn the entire country against the Jews. I do not think this is fair at all, because, although there was a disapproval of Jews before Hitler, he was still a major part in blowing it out of proportion. One man should not be able to change the minds of people in order to destroy an entire population of Jews. The whole idea of anti-semitism is disgusting and truly upsets me. After all, if society was like this today, it would be truly impossible for any distinctive race to survive.
