Learning about the events leading up to the Holocaust helps people understand how such a horrific time in history could occur. The hope is that this knowledge can be part of a comprehensive strategy for genocide prevention. These incidents continue today, although never has the world seen genocide on the scale it was perpetrated by Nazi Germany.
Official numbers for the Nazi attempts to exterminate the Jewish population do not even include other mass killings during World War II. Examples include Soviet prisoners of war, ethnic residents of Poland and large numbers of Romani people.
Historians believe the Holocaust should have been preventable. They seek to fully understand why so many men and women were willing to ignore what was happening or to directly participate. Some were deceived into believing nothing questionable was occurring, but studies show this was probably not the case for most of the nation’s residents.
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party managed to desensitize the nation through propaganda campaigns in which Jews were depicted as less than human. This is a common tactic in other genocidal efforts as well.
Today, researchers look for early warning signs that a country or a certain population is at risk of mass killings and other atrocities. Then, governments and influential organizations can intervene.
These efforts to gain further understanding and to educate the public may be of significant help for future genocide prevention. To learn more about this topic, interested individuals may visit the online presence of the ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation at https://www.zachorfoundation.org.
