Articles Tweet Causes Of The Holocaust The Holocaust is one of the greatest atrocities in history, and today it's hard to look at it and understand just what could lead so many German people to participate in such blind hatred of their fellow man. During the Holocaust, a huge percentage of the German population – 8.5 million – were members of the Nazi party. Soldiers and officers worked to round up more than six millions Jews as well as millions of other people they deemed undesirable, and then murder them outright. Trying to understand the causes of the Holocaust is difficult, primarily since there is really no single cause or trigger that can be pinpointed. Instead, many different factors have to be considered. Certainly, one can trace the roots of the Holocaust back to early Christianity. Many people to this day blame Jews for the murder of Jesus Christ, and it's easy to assume that this had something to do with the Holocaust. However, most agree that the causes of the Holocaust weren't actually religious in nature, but were rather born from political issues, economic factors, and more. Germany after WWI was a shadow of its former self. The German economy had suffered tremendously, German pride was bruised, and many Germans began to notice that Jewish people had begun to make good lives for themselves. Simply put, Jews were becoming an important part of European society. The combination of jealousy over this and the fact that German economic factors weren't where they once were helped make it easy for many to use the Jews as a scapegoat. Throughout history, Jews have often been blamed for a wide variety of perceived crimes, and in post WWI Germany, this sentiment continued. Hitler and the Nazis stoked those fires. Even those who had only a passing jealousy of a Jewish neighbor, for instance, could easily begin to hate when given the right fuel for their flame. Nazi propaganda, combined with psychological factors often called 'herd mentality', made it easy for the Nazis to begin spreading their message of hate and gradually gaining new followers. Of course, the causes go much deeper and become far more complex than just this simple explanation. But when scratching the surface of the Holocaust in search of causes, pure, unfettered racism combined with various political and economic situations, mingled with more than a small bit of jealousy, was enough to set the Holocaust in motion and eventually lead to the death of millions of people. Please help us with our fight towards Holocaust Denial. Donate by purchasing our DVD "Hitler's Children" or contribute to our FB Page. Thank you! Photo credit: Recuerdos de Pandora / Foter / CC BY-SA Children in the Holocaust We Must Never Forget The Holocaust So That It Never Happens Again