Causes Of World War II And Holocaust - Essay Example

 Causes Of World War II And Holocaust “The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” The theme of this statement is centered on the fact that if the people in this world who believe in and stand for good things don’t put their beliefs into actions and stay complacent and passive aggressive in their approach, then there will be no body in this world to give the people who are evil a tough time. With no one to oppose them, stand in their way or try to stop them, the evil people will have no hurdles in their way and thus evil people will win and good people will lose. This paper talks about the significant events in world history that led up to the Second World War. Further, it talks about how the quote mentioned in the thesis statement relates to the events of WW II. This paper will also elaborate on the Holocaust and how the theme relates to the Holocaust and the events that led up to it. There were many causes of WW II which fall under the broad categories of the Treaty of Versailles, the after effects of WW I, the Great Depression, Europe’s deep resentment after WW I, failure of the League of Nations and numerous other political and nationalistic forces. Two particular events that acted as catalysts were the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia and the invasion of China by Japan. The drivers behind these decisions were Hitler and the Nazis from the German side and Kwantung Army in Japan. The Treaty of Versailles was putting extreme pressure on Germany to accept blame for WW I and to pay the damages caused by the war. German land was taken away and many restrictions were put on it. Around this time Hitler was coming to power. Once in power, he built a secret army for Germany and provided it weapons. Hitler also created alliances with Japan and Italy who were aggressors in WW II. Hitler’s approach was also aggressive and kept breaking pacts made with other leaders and taking violent actions by invading countries he had expressly stated he wouldn’t and thus was a source of constant instigation. In the 1920s, the Great Depression hit and the conditions of the people worsened. Trade levels plunged, along with prices and business incomes while unemployment and despair shot up almost simultaneously. In the face of the Great Depression, the only thing that was holding these different countries together-The League of Nations-failed. It had no army and thus negligible power and the worst part was the aggressor countries like Germany and Russia were not even part of it. Civil wars broke out in several European countries, while Germany under Hitler carried on unabashed violence. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and all hell broke loose. In the background of this pre-existing chaos, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. In the same year Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; bringing the United States onto the forefront of the fight as well. WWII lasted for about 6 years and ended finally in 1945. In the case of WWII, we see that the United States which was also powerful at that time remained silent and did nothing to stop the ongoing chaos when it could’ve even when it knew that war was brewing and would break out if there was no intervention. Likewise, powerful European countries like Britain did nothing even when they knew that Hitler was building a Nazi army and providing it weapons. Even though these countries are not the direct aggressors of WWII, they theoretically made it happen by not standing up to the evil leaders like Hitler and Mussolini and in fact made it easier for them to continue being the aggressors of this war because they had little to no hurdles in their path and nobody stopping them and standing in their way. The same theory can be looked at from the perspective of the Holocaust. Hitler came to power in the early 1930s and soon after persecutions against the Jews started; their businesses were boycotted and they were fired from their jobs. They were banned completely from certain professions and from owning a business in their name. By 1938, Jews were arrested in masses and sent to concentration camps where they were subjected to heinous tortures. The Jews were stripped of their citizenships, delegated to separate living areas and forbidden from owning simple things like bicycles or radios, they were even forbidden from any sort of artistic expression. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were killed by the Nazi forces and ones who weren’t led miserable lives and were treated like they weren’t human but a degenerate species that had no place in the world. The persecutions continued throughout the world war, during which time Hitler remained in power and ended with the end of WWII and the end of Hitler’s regime. In this case as well, we see that Hitler was carrying on with his violent and torturous persecutions on the Jews unabashed and without facing any resistance from the rest of the powerful nations. No one came to the aid of the Jews who were suffering or stood up against the Nazi’s who were wreaking havoc on their lives. Hitler had no one to fear, not even anybody from his own country stood up to his policies, all averting their gaze from the messy chaos he had created and pretending like it didn’t happen or didn’t matter. Perhaps if other nations had stood up to his policies and demanded an intervention, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened or would have stopped sooner. “The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” As demonstrated by the lessons learnt from WWII and the Holocaust, we see that often the only thing evil needs to be successful, is for good to be complacent. Both times, the parties who were in the wrong and unjust carried on with their actions that culminated in historical disasters just because the parties who could’ve stopped them were too self-interested and passive aggressive to take any step to end their wrongful actions or intervene to work out a peaceful approach instead. This theme is as important for us today as it was then, because where on one hand it is applicable to the present macro world; it is also applicable to micro issues like our lives on personal levels. There is still unrest in the world, with civil wars in places in Egypt and Lebanon, terrorism, the Afghan war, the invasion of Iraq, the Israel/Palestine issue but now there are international bodies like the United Nations that regulate these issues and intervene so that evil forces may be subsided and the overall world’s good may be kept on the forefront. Now that we have realized the power of this concept of good being more proactive to be able to defeat evil and prevent another disaster like the world wars ever occurring, the international bodies like the United Nations, Red Cross and several trade unions like the European Union work to ensure high levels of cohesion and integration between the world’s nations. In cases of conflict, these international bodies work as intermediaries to resolve the issue, instead of sitting by and watching them snowball into far worse scenarios. In conclusion, as long as these ‘good’ forces remain an active barrier against the ‘evil’ forces of destruction and conflict, the world will never fall into a state of absolute chaos as it did in the past when this concept had not been adopted on a macro level and it was only each country for itself. Read More