What factors influenced the evolution of Nazi racial policy from Essay

What factors influenced the evolution of Nazi racial policy from 1933-1939 - Essay Example The racial policies of Nazi targeted peoples,  specifically the Jews, as well as the  Gypsies, handicapped and homosexual people. The Nazi racial policy consisted of two components: eugenics and racial extermination. The Nazis therefore attempted to keep their â€Å"race† free from illnesses and abnormalities (eugenics) and keep Aryan race sealed to other †inferior† races.  The eugenics factor saw the Nazis initiate a forced sterilization of hereditary ill and performed euthanasia (emergency killings) to nearly 200,000 physically and mentally disabled Germans.   The other component of the racial policy, racial extermination, was initiated so as to persecute and suppress all non-Aryans, starting with the Jews. However, the gypsies were also incorporated in this melancholic form of â€Å"apartheid†. The belief was that non-Aryans created danger against the German blood as well as the German Volksgemeinschaft (‘people’s community’). The policy also included laws of racial expulsion: the Jews were compelled to emigrate. The fact that this policy was so much successful in Austria in 1938 saw it introduced inside Germany under the motto: Germany for Germans! The eventual leader of the party, Adolf Hitler, was appointed the Chancellor of Germany, in 19933, by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler quickly established a totalitarian regime referred to as the Third Reich, and under this the party gained nearly unlimited power. Nazi philosophy emphasized the racial purity of German people. It persecuted those it viewed as either enemies or Lebensunwertes Leben, meaning "life unworthy of life". This consisted the Jews, Roma, Arabs, Slavs, Africans and h77omosexuals together with Jehovahs Witnesses, the physically and/ or mentally disabled, socialists as well as communists. To execute these beliefs, this party and German state that it

Since the early 20th century, ideologies such as Arab nationalism Essay

Since the early 20th century, ideologies such as Arab nationalism Ba'thism and pan-Islamism have enjoyed varying degrees of su - Essay Example Confronted with the obvious failure of Arab ideologies, specifically Arab nationalism, Ba’thist Arab Socialism, and pan-Islamism, to achieve wider Arab unity, several intellectuals resorted yet again to religion. An unnamed writer in Jordan described the experience of the Arab world in the ideological domain throughout the 20th century, and concluded that the Arab world â€Å"never enjoyed a comprehensive ideology except under the State of the Prophet Muhammad and his great Caliphs, Abu-Bakr and Umar† (Rejwan, 1974, p.32). This essay discusses why ideologies such as Arab nationalism, Ba’thism, and pan-Islamism have failed to achieve a wider Arab unity. Arab Nationalism and Arab Unity It was only at the end of the First World War that the relevant concept of the ‘Arab nation’ surfaced and Arab nationalism slowly became a political movement. Intellectuals instead of political figures were at the vanguard of the movement. They adopted the ideology of na tionalism from Europe and they utilised it to break new ground for the Arab nation (Young, Zuelow, & Sturm, 2007). However, Arab nationalism was an utter failure. There were challenging, overwhelming hindrances along its route. Primarily, there were rivalling allegiances to religion, faction, and tribe, as well as opposing identities. Moreover, there was persistent conflict between Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and other regional states and the bigger, inclusive Arab identity. The other, and possibly most unexpected, barrier to the idea of a united Arab world was linguistic differences in the region (Choueiri, 2005). However, the most influential rival of the notion of a secular Arab world was the idea of a unified Islamic community. Islam was one of the grand cosmopolitan ideologies with a right to the loyalty of most Arabs. Islam is more encompassing than pan-Arabism for it did not set apart Arab from non-Arab. The Islamic community was a union wherein ethnic background is irrelevant. Given these profound and persistent rifts and differences, it was an almost unachievable mission to attain the two core goals of Arab nationalism—sovereignty and unity. Another goal was created at the end of the Second World War—to protect Arab ownership of Palestine. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War was the critical stage in the fight for Palestine (Joffe, 1983). It was expected that Arab unity would be built on the combat zone against a single adversary. It was the most important ordeal for the newly autonomous Arab states, but they did not pass the test. The failure of these states to synchronise their military and political campaigns was one of the main reasons for the defeat of Palestine (Podeh, 1999). The hopeful possibilities that emerged once the Arabs conducted war against the Zionist enemies raised disenchantment and anguish over the miserable destruction of Arab Palestine. A very unique aspect of modern-day Arab nation is the startling discrepancy between vision and rea lity. Pan-Arabism is the declared ideology among the powerful elite and the dominant belief among the Arab people, but the Arab nation still struggles with the decline of civil life and deep-rooted disunity. Attempts at political and social unity have been prevented by oppressive situations,