The Origins of the Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Origins of the Holocaust - Essay Example In general, scientific racism has always prevailed during the colonial policies pursued by the developed European countries in relation to other cultures and peoples. Apotheosis of scientific racism could be observed during the existence of Nazi Germany. It claimed that the Germans were the most advanced human race, while other cultures and peoples were primitive. In this regard, the Jews were seen as the most insignificant people, and therefore anti-Semitism was seen as rather justified policy. Scientific racism can be seen as an ideology that argues the superiority of one people over another one. Racism first received its scientific basis during the Enlightenment, in particular, in the works by Charles Linnaeus (Hossain). The feature of the racial classification proposed by Linnaeus was that it determined the degree of importance of individual nations based on an analysis of their mentality. In particular, Asian and African nations, as well as Native Americans were endowed with negative qualities such as baseness, vileness, a low level of intellectual abilities, etc. Against the background of these peoples, the Europeans were considered as carriers of the most positive qualities, such as erudition, the high intelligence, ingenuity, honesty, a high level of compliance with the law, etc. Such an understanding of the significance of various peoples allowed the developed European countries to carry out the colonial policy based on the idea that the advanced countries had the right to colonize the peoples who had a low level of culture and civilization. Nazi Germany used and developed a whole arsenal of the ideology of scientific racism that had existed previously. Scientific racism presented in Nazi Germany relied on the various arguments for the superiority of the German nation over other nations. Not only biological but also mental qualities