Examining Ethics Criminal Justice in the Class - Research Paper Example

Research Paper for Ethics Criminal Justice Task Research Paper for Ethics Criminal Justice Introduction Every humanbeing in this world has the right to life. This is a privilege and a human rights concept sponsored for every human being who is alive, indiscriminate of his or her age, gender, social status, race, color, tribe, ethnicity, economic status, or any other parameter of comparison. As such, the life of a human being is sacred despite their conditions or crime. Taking a human life simply because one has to follow orders is very wrong and unethical. This is because it denies the other individual the right to life, as well as brandishes the executor a murderer, a crime punishable by law, both biblical and secular. “According to Bloxham & Kushner (2005), it was very unethical for the commanders to follow the laws and orders of the Third Reich during the Holocaust.” The following quote show the hatred developed by most Germans against the Jews “A Jew is for me an object of disgust. I feel like vomiting when I see one. Christ could not possibly have been a Jew. It is not necessary to prove that scientifically – it is a fact. I do not need to prove this with science or scholarship. It is so!” Joseph Goebbels, Nazi The Third Reich was the official Nazi designation for the regime ruling Germany from January 1933 to may 1945 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. This Third Reich was a presumed successor of the medieval and early modern Holy Roman Empire of 800 to 1806, which was the First Reich, while the German empire from 1871 to 1918 formed the Second Reich. The Third Reich operated on laws and orders that were discriminatory to people who were of different races from the Germans, especially the Jews and the polish. As such, the obedience by their commanders of these laws and regulations to continually persecute and exterminate the Jews and polish in German concentration camps was very unethical. These laws and orders as followed by the Third Reich were extremely immoral and unethical. Furthermore, they were particularly against the Jewish people. “Bergen (2003) argues that their defense during the Nuremberg trials was utterly wrong and unsuccessful, as law or no law; it is unethical and inhumane to persecute and execute others just to follow orders”. The Holocaust The word Holocaust originates from the Greeks, comprising a combination of two Greek words, “holos” which means whole, and “kaustos” which means burned. The Greek used this word historically to refer to or describe a sacrificial offering that they offered burned on an altar. However, this term acquired a new and horrendous meaning during the Nazi regime and decades after. As from 1945, the word holocaust commonly refers to the mass massacre of over six million European Jews by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. The people who perished in the Holocaust also included members from other persecuted groups in the country, such as the homosexuals and the Gypsies. “The main motive behind these mass killings was the perception adopted by the anti-Semitic leader of the Nazi, Adolf Hitler, who presumed the Jews to be of an inferior race, and as such, an alien threat to the German racial purity and community (Brenner, 1999)”. The Jews living in Germany consistently suffered persecution and execution during the several years of Nazi rule under Adolf Hitler in what he termed as the “Final Solution”, now referred to as the Holocaust by modern day analysts. this final solution as adopted by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime came into fruition under the cover of the Second World War, whereby the Jews suffered mass killings in centers constructed at concentration camps occupied by the Polands. “An early report (Dawidowicz, 1975) provides that the Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored, bureaucratic persecution and murder of more than six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.” The Jews, as well as other groups considered by the Germans to be of certain racial inferiority suffered persecution and extermination, such as the Roma or the Gypsies, the disabled, as well as the Slavic people incorporating the Poles, and the Russians, among others. “A longitudinal study (Finkelstein, 2003) undertaken in this are shows that the indiscriminate persecution of the Nazi regime did not stop at the racial underdogs but rather extended to include more persecution and killings on ideological, political, as well as behavioral grounds, which wrapped up more groups such as the Socialists, the homosexuals, the communists, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.” This is evident through the following quote from Adolf Hitler “The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end, satanically glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her blood and removing her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew uses every possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people.” Adolf Hitler  As evidenced from the above transformations, the commanders had no valid reason to exterminate the Jewish and other groups in Polish concentration camps. There was no major criminal act committed by these people; neither was they acting against the law as to warrant their oppression and persecution as a punishment. “Gilbert (1986) concluded that it was very clear that the main reason behind these mass killings was merely discriminatory, especially on grounds of racial discrimination whereby the Germans considered themselves of a superior race as opposed to the Jews whom they considered as impure aliens who would corrupt their perfect race.” This was very unethical and against the human rights of the people involved, especially the six million persons who lost their lives during the Nazi regime. “According to Godfrey (2007), by early 1933, the population of the Jewish people across the Europe continent was a staggering nine million and above”. Furthermore, most of these European Jews lived in countries that the German Nazi would end up occupying or influencing during the Second World War. The Nazi regime developed what they termed as a “final solution”, a policy that advocated for the elimination of all the European Jews across Europe, leading to the killing or two out of every three European Jews in the continent. The Nazi prioritized the Jews as their main target because of the threat they felt would emerge from this race and overpower their superior race. The Nazis wanted to rule and dominate the world, and as such, had to eliminate any obstacles from their way, such as the impure and inferior Jewish. Other forms of persecution committed by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during the holocaust were the murder of two to three million prisoners of war from the soviets who starved to death, or died due to neglect, maltreatment, or disease. In addition, the Nazi regime also targeted the non-Jewish polish intelligentsia for killing, as well as deported millions of the soviet and polish civilians for forced labor in occupied Poland or Germany. These individuals deported in forced labor camps worked tirelessly and often met their deaths under very deplorable conditions. “As such, these victims of the holocaust died from numerous causes such as neglect, diseases, maltreatment, execution, as well as overworking under deplorable conditions (Rosenzveig & Wyman, 1996).” Administration of the “Final Solution” During the early years of governance in the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established concentration camps whereby it detained both real, as well as imagined political and ideological opponents. Consequently, increasingly in the years following before the outbreak of war, police officials and SS incarcerated the Jews, the Roma, and other groups as victims of both racial and ethnic hatred in these camps. The Nazi regime used these concentration camps to reduce the numbers of the European Jews in the continent. For instance, in an effort to concentrate and monitor the population of the Jewish, as well as facilitate their later deportation, these Germans alongside their collaborators created transit camps, ghettos, as well as forced labor camps for the Jews during this period of war. “A study by Hilberg (2003) found out that in addition to the Jews concentration camps, the German authorities further established numerous forced labor camps in both the so-called Greater German Reich and in the German occupied territory for the non-Jews whom the Germans also sought to exploit their labor.” “Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the world’s greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.” Richard Weikart, ethicist “LaCapra (1996) concludes that following the Soviet Union invasion, which took place in June 1941, mobile killing units referred to as “Einsatzgruppen” in German, and much later, militarized battalions of Order Police Officials, moved behind the German lines to execute mass murder operations against the Jews, the Roma, and the Soviet state and Communist Party officials.” Consequently, the German SS and police units, getting support by units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than one million Jewish citizens, inclusive of men, women and children, as well as, hundreds of thousands of other groups. During the same period of 1941 to 1944, the Nazi regime also deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of most of its Axis allies to killing centers and ghettos, often referred to as extermination camps, where they murdered these Jews in specially developed gassing facilities. End of the Holocaust “According to Yahil (1990), in the final months of the war, the SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, usually referred to as death marches, all in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of a significant portion of the prisoners.” The more the Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensive attacks against the Germans, the began to encounter and liberate prisoners in the concentration camps, as well as those prisoners who were en route by forced march from one camp to another. These marches continued to May 7, 1945, which was the day when the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces. On the other hand, the western allies of the war officially recorded the end of the Second World War in Europe on the following day, which was May 8, 1945 (V–E Day), whilst the soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945. The end of the Second World War also marked the end of the holocaust in Europe. Consequently, in the aftermath of the holocaust, most of the survivors of the holocaust found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied forces. As such, the following years of 1948 to 1951 witnessed the emigration of nearly 700,000 Jews to Israel, as well as 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations friendly to the Allied forces. This led to the closure of the last DP camp in 1957. The crimes committed during the holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities, as well as eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied Eastern Europe. This is evident through the following quote from a seeker of justice for the holocaust victims “For me the Holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy, but also a human tragedy. After the war, when I saw that the Jews were talking only about the tragedy of six million Jews, I sent letters to Jewish organizations asking them to talk also about the millions of others who were persecuted with us together – many of them only because they helped Jews.” Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor and justice seeker  Legal Review of the Holocaust The law governing the operations of the disciplined forces demands that commanders and officers follow the stipulated rules and regulations without defiance, or opposition. As such, every officer of commander has to obey the laws, and especially respect their superiors and follow their commands even if they are not in agreement with such directives. Consequently, it is also possible that some of the commanders of the Third Reich in German during the holocaust were against the persecution and oppression of the Jews and other groups in German concentration camps. However, they had to follow the rules and policies set by their superiors, especially by their commander in chief, His Excellency Adolf Hitler, who promulgated a “Final Solution” policy that targeted to eliminate all Jews across the face of the earth. “According to Bloxham & Kushner (2005), nearly six million Jewish people perished because of this directive.” However, the law also provides that commanding officers dispute orders that be against their conscience or morality, such as the implementation of the Final Solution policy by the Nazi regime. Therefore, those commanding officers not in agreement with the ruling elite that the Jewish were of an inferior race to the German and as such posed a severe threat to the German race, which warranted their extermination, would arbitrarily refuse to carry out the orders. This is because these orders were discriminatory, and quite unfair to the Jewish people, and totally against the human rights laws and provisions. It was very unethical for the Nazi regime to pass such a policy in the first place, because all human beings are equal and the same despite their race, skin color or ideologies. “Therefore, their rule to eliminate all the Jews because they were of an inferior race was purely out of malice and not out of justice, which makes the entire police unfair and unethical (Bergen, 2003)”. A commander’s quote emphasizes this obedience “You men of the Einsatzgruppen are called upon to fulfill a repulsive duty. However, you are soldiers who have to carry out every order unconditionally. You have a responsibility before God and Hitler for everything that is happening. I myself hate this bloody business and I have been moved to the depths of my soul. However, I am obeying the highest law by doing my duty. Man must defend himself against bedbugs and rats, against vermin.” Heinrich Himmler, SS leader Therefore, the commanders of the Third Reich’s execution of the Final Solution policy does not exonerate them from blame merely because they were following orders. They knew that the policy was both unethical and unfair, and as such, its execution and implementation would lead to the persecution and death of a large population within the continent. By implementing the policy as directed, these commanders were equally as merciless and inhuman as the persons who set the policy, especially Adolf Hitler who had a burning hatred for the Jewish people, as evidenced in the following quote “Was there any form of filth or crime without at least one Jew involved in it? If you cut into such a sore, you find, like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light, a Jew.” Adolf Hitler “As such, they only adopted the high-grade hatred for the Jews from their leader and passed it down on the ground where they killed and persecuted over six million Jews (Brenner, 1999)”. According to the criminal law and justice system, these commanders are equally guilty for their actions while in the line of duty, despite the fact that they were implementing a policy. This is because the policy they were implementing was unjust and unfair to a particular group within the society, and the consequences of their actions had grave repercussions to the targeted groups. Conclusion In conclusion, it is imperative to note that all human beings have equal rights and privileges, especially the right to life, which every universal law in every country upholds and maintains. Therefore, this law condemns all the actions of the holocaust as they were entirely against the law and breached the provisions of the human rights act. “According to Dawidowicz (1975), the Jews suffered in the hands of the Germans simply because the Germans detested them, and treated them an inferior race that would tarnish and dirty their pure high breed race.” The Germans argued that by eliminating the Jews from the face of the earth they would be able to maintain their superiority in the world. However, this entire setup is very wrong and unethical in human rights and in criminal justice. As such, the law finds guilty all the commanders of the Third Reich, alongside their leader Adolf Hitler, guilty of mass killings and persecution of innocent people, especially the Jews living in German and its collaborators. This is because they passed a wrong policy that threatened the well being and survival of the Jewish community in Europe, and then went ahead to enforce it by killing more than six million Jewish during the holocaust. “This act is both unethical, as well as unjust and no defense is valid from the Nazi officers that they were simply following orders while executing such murders (Rosenzveig & Wyman, 1996)”. References Bergen, D. (2003). War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Bloxham, D. & Kushner, T. (2005). The Holocaust: Critical Historical Approaches. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Brenner, M. (1999). After The Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Dawidowicz, L. (1975). The War against the Jews, 1933-1945. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Finkelstein, N. (2003). The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. London: Verso Books. Gilbert, M. (1986). The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Godfrey, M. (2007). Abstraction and the Holocaust. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Hilberg, R. (2003).The Destruction of the European Jews. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. LaCapra, D. (1996). Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, and Trauma. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Rosenzveig, C. & Wyman, D. (1996). The World Reacts to the Holocaust. Baltimore: JHU Press. Yahil, L. (1990). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More