To what Extent did German Jews have a Sufficient Warning of the Holocaust

"Prior to the events of the Holocaust there is an issue of whether or not German Jews had the chance to escape and/or avoid the mass genocide of the Holocaust Adolf Hitler had instigated; this brings a debate if there was a clear indication if this event was going to happen. In this case it is the argument of 'To what extent did German Jews have a sufficient warning of the Holocaust?'. A sufficient warning is any clear indication of Hitler exploiting his plans of annihilation to all German Jews leading up to the Holocaust. The identification of enlarged or significant signs for an advancement of genocide against jews was not essentially provocative, however, there were minor indications of an advancement in the pursuit of a holocaust.

For the argument in defense to German Jews, Hitler was not a popular leader in the beginning, so this led to assumption of him being a temporary leader and in this case not taken seriously at the time. It wasn't until his power had led to such brutality had it only then become an actual issue. The severity of Hitler's reign was not noticed until his initial plan to rid of the Jews was taken place, so by this time it was already too late, the camps have already been created and German Jews were trapped. The main cause of there not being an actual threat was not only due to Hitler's unclear message, but he had not possessed a new and profound idea with strong hatred towards this race. German Jews had been accustomed to living in a hostile environment with Germans who already viewed them with prejudice in accordance to their different race and religion. Segregation and being forced to wear the star of David had not been a huge flag or warning sufficient enough for the German Jews to leave in time before the Holocaust had begun.

However, those who had wanted a secure or better life could not leave after 1941, this was due to rights being stripped away including the freedom to emigrate Germany. Those who had chosen to stay later had attributed that decision to the variety of reasons including: lack of reliable information, mixed messages from Nazi parties versus gentile Germans, the desire to remain optimistic or even the personal attachment of fatherland. In retrospect, Hitler's power in 1933 had been slow and not particularly alarming enough, which concludes the reasoning of overlooking his influence. There was no clear message given the problem of groups anti-Jewish that brought hostility or friendly neighbors who had no problems towards jews. As well as a slow growth in Hitler's influence as a leader quickly changed into events leading up to the Holocaust being suddenly a reality; being that the Jews had no idea of their violent fate, they were surprised by such subtle racial changes turned into a malicious act to rid their very existence.

Regardless of the German Jews defense, Hitler had made clear indications of his proposal of placing the blame upon them. Although his intentions had been contradicting, he was capable of using his influence to convince a particular race was reasoning behind Germany's misfortune at that time. It was his purpose to have consolidation of power, it may not be morally justifiable, but it was the beginning of small indications that had led towards a sufficient warning. Hitler may have been contradicting in his message but his idea of ridding the Jews from Germany was not established overnight. This furthermore brings the point of being a warning since the Jews living in fear because of the condition of hiding and enduring the temporary aberration, in this case the camps. Hitler had been clear with his intentions from the beginning it was just a matter of time whether or not others would join him. He used speeches to convince Germans the logical hatred towards Jews, it only made the hostile environment grow but Jews having been forced to live in. They are given the opportunity to believe that it was not a temporary situation. Rather this problem is growing worse and it was time to leave or make a change. Being that the misfortune of not foreseeing this would happen was because lack of identifying the signs that Hitler's action towards Jews was not to be taken lightly and overlooked.

Although there was small indications of the Holocaust becoming a reality for German Jews, there had been no sufficient warning that was clear enough to show Hitler's intent for a mass genocide. Yet the arguable topic has been proved that even if there had been a large enough indication of such an event, the German Jews were incapable of leaving Germany or escaping prior to the Holocaust. This had not only been from their decision to stay but those who wanted to emigrate were forced to continue living in Germany after 1941; not due to fear but because their rights had been taken. This concludes that through segregation, the required rule to wear a symbol of their faith and even being temporarily aberrated, it was not enough to declare a sufficient warning from Hitler of there being a Holocaust. However, the provocative decisions Hitler had made created fear and confusion leading to events that caused a more virulent affect. Including his influence of the Nazi party, his control and consolidation of power was a strong and effective tactic but not enough to specifically claim the Jews would endure a mass genocide.

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