FASCISM

European Fascism, Nazism and Holocaust

European Fascism, Nazism and Holocaust

Introduction

The world has seen many wars since its birth and continuation of war is still on. Most of the war can be seen in the context of fascism in any form. European nationalities have been involved as well as facing fascism in varieties, from Italy to Germany to Eastern Europe. The existence of fascism in Europe can be found in Italy where Benito Mussolini led the foundation of Italian fascism and in Germany where Adolf Hitler strongly introduced the fascism during the world war period. However, it is a fact that holocaust is recognized as a major example of European fascism that ended with the end of the World War-II (Morgan, 2003).

It can be seen during the World War-II that German leader Adolf Hitler, after gaining power in 1933, found determined to expel the entire Jewish population from his land and he started to exile the Jews through a systematic plan made by his political as well as military intellectuals. This movement of Hitler reflects fascism because the German government announced special laws for Jews living in Germany, in which it was mandatory for all Jews to have their special identification card (Morgan, 2003). It is important to know that these special Identification Cards were only issued to Jewish population. Later as the war gets intensified, movement to expel Jews from Germany also gets rapidness. It was also seen that Jewish businesses were destroyed, their houses were burned and many Jews were arrested by the German authorities. Further, all this movement lies at the heart of Nazism that came into existence on the name of saving as well as maintain pure German identity.

Discussion

Fascism in Europe

History reveals that fascism, once, has been the identity of some European nations where many fascist organizations emerged to attain their racial goals. It is a fact that Italy, Germany, Romania and Austria can be seen as axis of fascism in Europe. In addition, Spain also saw fascism when Falange emerged and proved to be an active organization with fascist ideologies that contributed in the eruption of civil war in 1936 (Morgan, 2003).

There is no doubt about the fact that Germany and Italian fascism received widespread attention of the world, but it is also a fact that fascism was also observed in Hungary and Austria where many fascist groups or organizations started movement concerning their rigid goals (Morgan, 2003). On the other hand, international community had concerns over the development of fascist ideologies in Austria and Hungary as they were of opinion that fascism will destroy Europe and it has to be stopped. In fact, these fascist movements in Europe were the result of uncertain as well as unusual circumstances. This was very true in case of Italy and Germany where economical, social and political circumstances favoured fascism.

Nazism in Germany

In Germany, Nazism or National Socialism (in German: Nationalsozialistische), is an ideological policy of the Nazi party, political party founded in Germany in 1920 and headed by Adolf ...