Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

Why do so many people share his antisemitic animosity?

Tomorrow is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations General Assembly to coincide with the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazis’ largest extermination and concentration camp, by Soviet soldiers on January 27, 1945.

This annual remembrance focuses on the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. One-fourth of them, 1.5 million, were children.

We remember the horror of antisemitic hatred so it will not rise again in our day.

But it is.

Antisemitism is surging on college campuses, part of a growing tide of animosity against Jews in America, Europe, and around the world. The Anti-Defamation League is reporting an unprecedented 337 percent increase in antisemitic incidents after Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, massacring more than 1,200 Jews.

What can we learn from the past to keep it from happening again in the present?

“The arsenal of antisemitism”

The roots of antisemitism go back centuries before Hitler:

• There was a widespread belief in Christian Europe that the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ.
• Because they rejected the Christian faith, they were considered agents of the devil.
• During the Middle Ages, laws restricted and prevented Jews from owning land or holding public office.
• They were excluded from most occupations, forcing them to make a living through money-lending, trade, and commerce. When they became successful at these professions, they were accused of using them to oppress their non-Jewish clients and community.
• They were also accused of causing plagues, murdering children for religious rituals, and secretly conspiring to dominate the world.

After World War I, the new Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat, falsely claiming that German Jews had “stabbed Germany in the back.” When his party took power in 1933, their antisemitic racism became official government policy and led ultimately to the “Final Solution,” the Nazis’ genocidal attempt to eradicate all Jews.

Three steps to a better world

From the Garden of Eden to today, one dimension of our sinful nature is our desire to blame others for our sins. When God called Adam to account for his sin, Adam blamed Eve (Genesis 3:12), then Eve blamed the serpent (v. 13).

Like our first parents, we are all tempted to blame others for our failures.

When Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I, his rhetoric found national support and led to the most horrific genocide in human history. Hamas does the same today, blaming the Jews for the plight of the Palestinian people and other suffering around the world.

How does God want us to respond to this perennial temptation?

One: Take personal responsibility for our sins.

Satan loves to tempt us to sin, then tempt us to blame others when we sin. The second sin only compounds the first and distracts from the forgiveness we need. Instead, we should immediately admit our sin, confess it to our Father, and claim his mercy and grace (1 John 1:9).

Two: Oppose racial prejudice in every way we can.

Such prejudice is one way inferior people can make themselves feel superior to others. If we decide that Jews—or Blacks, or Asians, or any other minority—are innately “inferior” to us, we therefore think we are superior people. This, too, comes from the “father of lies” (John 8:44) who comes to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

Instead, pray for God’s heart to love all people as unconditionally as he loves them (Galatians 3:28). Then help answer your prayer with redemptive acts of ministry and grace.

Three: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6).

Intercede daily for Israel and the Palestinians as they seek security and justice. Pray for global leaders to act with wisdom and courageous resolve. Pray for war in the Middle East to end and for righteousness to prevail.

If every follower of Christ took these steps every day, imagine the impact on our broken world. Imagine the consequences for Jews and all other persecuted peoples. Imagine the lost people who would be drawn to our Father as their Savior.

Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) observed:

“Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.”

Let’s choose faith and hope today, to the glory of God.

Friday news to know

• CIA Director Burns helping broker another deal to release hostages from Hamas
• A new tallest building in America has been proposed—and it isn’t in New York or Chicago
• 13 ways the world got better in 2023
• Alabama gasses prisoner with nitrogen in first new execution method in decades
• US economy grew at a surprisingly strong 3.3% pace last quarter

Quote for the day

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.” —Anne Lamott

Note: For more on today’s discussion, please see my latest website paper: “Why the ‘Holocaust’ was not a holocaust: A reflection on the gravest crime in human history.” I also invite you to listen to our new podcast on today’s subject, “Confronting the past: Why International Holocaust Remembrance Day matters.”

Denison Forum

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a group of scientists who were concerned about the impact of nuclear weapons on the world. Considering that many of them, such as Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, had been the ones to help develop those weapons, their fears were understandable. 

Every year since, their organization shifts the time in accordance with how close they think humanity is to global catastrophe. This week, it was set at ninety seconds to midnight, matching last year as the closest the clock has ever come to its final mark. 

Back then, the group’s decision was driven primarily by the fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make good on his thinly veiled threats of using nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. 

And while those fears haven’t gone away, this year the group seemed more focused on fears that the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel would escalate beyond those borders, as well as increased concerns over climate change and the advancements in artificial intelligence. 

As such, the official statement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warns that “leaders and citizens around the world should take this statement as a stark warning and respond urgently, as if today were the most dangerous moment in modern history. Because it may well be.”

Why the Doomsday Clock matters—and doesn’t

While the Bulletin’s sentiment seems a bit hyperbolic, the Doomsday Clock has been used as a basic barometer for global angst since its inception. As such, it can be a helpful way of understanding how some of society’s most influential minds see the state of the world. 

We don’t have to agree with them, but given how many global leaders do, their opinions are worth noting. 

They’re just not necessarily worth getting too worked up about. 

You see, the basic premise behind the Doomsday Clock is that, if we’re not careful, our world will end, and it’ll be humanity’s fault. As such, it’s meant to spark change—often much-needed change—by using fear as the primary motivator.

But, as Christians, that’s not how God wants us to approach things. 

Four signs of the end

Ultimately, no one but God knows when our world will actually end, but Scripture is clear that that moment will be preceded by Christ’s return. 

Still, Jesus did speak of signs that would come before that day, and Christians have been weighing events in their time against those signs ever since.

In one of his final lessons to his disciples prior to the crucifixion, Jesus told them to look for four signs in particular: 

• The warning that “many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray” (Matthew 24:5). 
• That we “will hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (v. 6–7)
• “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (v. 7). Moreover, the account in Luke’s gospel speaks of “pestilences. . . . terrors and great signs from heaven” as well (Luke 21:11).
• And finally, that “they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). 

But if we can’t know when that end will come, what good are the signs? 

After all, evidence of these precursors to the end times has existed in most every generation for the last two thousand years and Jesus still hasn’t come back. 

Why did Jesus give us signs of the end times?

The reason, as with most prophecy, is to give us hope and encouragement in the midst of such troubles. 

We err when we look at all the factors mentioned by the Bulletin group with any sense of assurance that these signs are the signs. Yet, knowing that our Lord promised such events would take place and that, ultimately, they will either pass or result in his return should give us the courage and perspective needed to walk through dangerous times without losing hope or being overwhelmed.

God’s goal is that when the world seems like it’s falling apart, his people won’t.

So as society looks at the Doomsday Clock and fears that our end is near, let’s use it instead as motivation to continue sharing the gospel and proclaiming that Jesus is Lord as we prepare for the day when Christ will return and remove all doubt as to the truth of that statement.

Denison Forum