Holocaust was genocide which occurred during World War two where Germany helped by other local collaborators were able to murder more than six million Jews between 1941 and 1945. The Jews were mainly targeted for extermination, where Adolf Hitler was the leader. Nazi also targeted other groups of people such as Roma and women and children with no mercy at all. Other activists such as and groups such as gay and political opponents were also arrested as most of them died due to mistreatment in the long run. Adolf Hitler leads to the introduction of various concentration camps where most of the prisoners were detained since they were political opponents. Nazi party resulted to submission of Holocaust in the region which constituted increased suffering and humiliation for the Jews (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . Holocaust was one of the worst genocide which killed most of the Jews as it was based on nationality and race discrimination.
Overview of Holocaust
Nazi were mainly concerned in the attack which was a political party in Germany established after 1919. It continued to gain political popularity throughout the years with more number of supporters. Since most of the people were poor and did not have permanent jobs, most of them turned to Nazis with the hope they will receive the required financial assistance. Nazis were racist where they considered Aryan race important than any other in the region hence targeting Jews based on race (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . Besides, they also believed that Germany was a superpower and a better country than any other which resulted to Germany invading other countries. Most of the European countries were concerned due to inhuman treatment of the Jews hence need to liberate them. However, Germany had superpowers which resulted to creation of active military in the region.
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Holocaust mainly started with discrimination of the Jews people which resulted to killings of millions of people in the long run. Nazi believed that Jews were a threat to them since they were many and also financially stables hence the need to eliminate them. It was a brutal process which was against humanity where many innocent lives were lost in the long run (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . The Nazis came to power in 1933 and started persecuting people who they disliked and believed were not worthy members of the society who were mainly Jews and other groups.
There was introduction of laws which mainly discriminated against the rights of other people based on race and color. Jews were not allowed to enter certain places and could not acquire specific jobs which were set aside for the Nazis and the local people (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . Besides, there was introduction of concentration camps which Nazi would send people believed to be their enemies a form of punishment. In the concentration camps, Jews would be imprisoned and forced to work to change their political stand.
The first concentration camp was created in 1933 and would detain more than 5000 political opponents to the Nazi political party (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . In the fields, Nazis would make people work without enough food where a person would only have life expectancy of six weeks hence it has inhuman treatment of the political opponents. As part of Holocaust, Nazis operated five main built centers which were meant to kill then arrested people. In the killing center, victims were placed in sealed container trucks which would allow smooth killing and the bodies buried in the mass graves. More than 150000 Jews and other groups such as Gypsies died on the camp for no valid reason.
There was also another concentration camp called Belzec which was opened in 1942 where fatalities were brought to the camp using trains and later taken to the gas chambers which were disguised as showers. There was introduction of carbon monoxide that was propelled into the chamber, killing many Jewish who were buried in mass graves. More than 500000 Jews perished in the camp through an act of inhuman treatment. Sobibor was another concentration camp that was created in 1942 which also conducted inhuman treatment of prisoners. More than 300 prisoners managed to escape in 1943 and the remaining were shot as a form of elimination in the camp. Treblinka was also another concentration camp where more than 925000 Jews were killed as a form of racial discrimination.
The Socio-psychological Environmental Influences of Holocaust
During the final moment of the war, the security guard moved all the prisoners in the camps by train or through introduction of compulsory marches which were called death marches. It was all aimed to avert Allied freeing of the majority of the prisoners. The Allied forced traveled across Europe in a sequence of offensives against Germany and started to free most of the concentration camps where prisoners were locked. Later, Germany armed militaries gave in unconditionally to the associates which were a big win for the affected prisoners mostly the Jews. During that time, Second World War also ended and after Holocaust most of the survivors acquired accommodation in various camps supported by the akin powers. From 1948 to 1951 more than 700000 Jews were rescued and migrated to their homes (Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . All the concentration camps were closed in a bid to rescue the affected Jews and provide them with proper nutrition and shelter. As a result there was also significant restoration of humanity for the affected Jews where there was end to increased sufferings which created better living and cooperation. Soon after the end of Holocaust, psychologists started to study the psychological causes of the genocide. They wanted to understand why individual failed to stop the event and how one man, Adolf Hitler managed to persuade a whole population to commit such heinous acts.
Scientists such as Zimbardo Milgram, and Asch came up with theories to offer possible answers to this puzzle when they introduced Stanford Prison Experiment, Obedience Study and Conformity Study respectively to explain why people are willing to cause physical harm to other. Philip Zimbardo conducted experiment mainly based on Stanford University and did divide participants into guard and prisoners groups. He did watch the experiment as it turned to disaster for six days ( Psychologist World, 2019) . There was increased level of Harassment and brutality where he was able to conclude that in case men are equal and put in position of power, they will tend to harass the others (Haslam, & Reicher, 2012). The case is similar to Hitler where he was able to kill all the Jews for no reason. The concentration camps were used as the prison where there was high level of brutality towards the political opponents. Auschwitz- Birkenau was one of the largest Nazi concentration camp formed in 1940 under the instructions from Hitler. It was grouped into three main sections Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2 and Auschwitz 3. All this concentration camp was aimed to eliminate the Jews to make them inferior race in the region since Hitler knew they were a threat to his rule. In the above three concentration camps, inmates were given hard labor and provided with poor nutrition as a way to make them other people support Nazi party
Milgram experiment was conducted on obedience towards authority figures which was also part of social experiment conducted in Yale University. It was found that men and women different levels of education tend to obey authority figure. It was therefore applicable to the case where Hitler instructions were keenly followed ( Cherry, 2018) . A keen look at Holocaust and Milgram’s findings shows the two are linked by cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance refers to a state of tension between oneself, where one’s attitude differs from their behaviors. It varies based on the degree of commitment, perceived choice, and external validation. The Obedience Study Experiment shows that when the degree of perceived choice is low, individuals have no options but to do as instructed. For instance, when the experimenter prods the subjects to carry on using phrases like “please continue” and “You have no option but to continue,” then one has no alternative but to do as told (Haslam, & Reicher, 2012). Throughout the experiment, the subjects were given limited choices. However, once they noticed that experimenter was absent in the room, the teachers frequently begrudged by subjecting the subjects to low or no shocks. The case is similar to the Holocaust in that individuals acted on instructions since they felt as if they were not making the decisions.
Another aspect of obedience involves acting on someone’s behalf to fulfill their commands or orders. Milgram, in his experiment, found that 20% of the group obeyed orders when the commander in ordinary clothes. However, 65 percent of the group followed when the authorized person was wearing a lab coat. This clearly shows why Hitler managed to convince the population since he was considered more experienced during that era. Conformity appears to have played a significant role in the Holocaust (Haslam, & Reicher, 2012). Compliance refers to a situation where a person modifies their attitude, beliefs, or behaviors to match those of the majority. Perhaps many people knew that the Holocaust was not a good idea; they had no option but to support it due to conformity and enforcement. Besides enforcing the Holocaust, Hitler had many followers, and people had to conform without changing their beliefs.
Finally, Asch Conformity Experiment Study was conducted to understand necessary social pressure from most of the groups and how it would affect a person to conform to social norms. 50 male students were used where most of them were able to conform to the set rules and regulations ( McLeod, 2018) . The same case applied to the arrested people put in concentration camp in the study. Besides concentrating and monitoring the Jewish population, Nazi also created ghettos and mandatory labor sites during the war to weaken them. The forced labor camp was meant to serve as punishment centers for the concerned people in the region. Hitler continued to increase and strengthen his military to make them stronger during the Second World War. Hitler considered the purity of Aryan race and greatness of Germany. There was an introduction of propaganda to make more people support them where more gathering and rallies were held in open places.
Conclusion
Holocaust was genocide that was carried out during the World War two by the Nazi which aimed to target the Jews as they believed it was a threat to their political stand. The Nazi Party was racist and discriminated most of the people based on race and color. Adolf Hitler who was a German chancellor who built various concentration camps in Germany for detaining all the political opponents who did not support Nazi party. Besides, Germany implemented persecution of the Jews in stages in a bid to eliminate them. Nazis were able to believe that Aryan race was the only superior race than others hence one of the great concern. There was also introduction of anti-sematic laws which affected most of the Jews. The end of Holocaust was brought about by the end of world war two which was helped by the Allied liberation. There was great attempt to liberate and remove the affected prisoners in the concentration camps for them to gain complete freedom. The wrongdoings that occurred during the Holocaust normally devasted most of the Jewish communities which resulted to elimination of Jews communities in most of the Eastern Europe. More than 6 million Jews were killed which was against humanity and contributed to increased suffering. With the defeat of Adolf Hitler, it also resulted to great freeing of the concentration camps hence the end of Holocaust.
Reference
Cherry, K. (2018). Milgram's experiments and the perils of obedience . Retrieved on 27 May 2019, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-milgram-obedience-experiment-2795243
Dobroszycki, L., & Gurock, J. S. (2016). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941-45: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941-45 . Routledge.
Haslam, S. A. & Reicher, R. D. (2012). Contesting the “Nature” Of Conformity: What Milgram and Zimbardo's Studies Really Show. PLoS Biol 10 (11), e1001426. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001426
McLeod, S. (2018). Solomon Asch - Conformity Experiment . Retrieved on 27 May 2019, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html
Psychologist World. (2019). Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment . Retrieved on 27 May 2019, from https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/stanford-prison-experiment
