Question

1. How did the leaders responsible for the The Holocaust. explain their involvement? What was the purpose of their actions?



2. What impact did the decisions and actions have on the leaders responsible? Did their power increase or decrease as a result? Did they face repercussions for their actions? Explain. Consider both the long and short-term impacts.



3. How did the The Holocaust impact the group(s) targeted? Consider the long and short-term impacts.

Answer 1

There's a lot to go over here, but I can give you a hand with a short summary of each. You can also find a lot of details and answers to most of your questions at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum site here:

http://www.ushmm.org/

1) Most of the leadership involved in the Holocaust explained their actions by simply "following orders" as an excuse. It also didn't help that Nazi propaganda had, over many years, dehumanized their victims to the point where they were regarded as non-human.

2) The excuse didn't hold water for a number of reasons, one of which was that by simply following orders, they ceased being human. A number of concentration camp leaders and the Nazi party leaders were made to answer for "crimes against humanity" at Nuremberg after the war.

3) One result of the Holocaust was the formation of Israel as a homeland for Jews. Another was in how Germany confronted its past over the following decades.