Demonize

During the years of the Nazi regime, German doctors frequently argued that Jews spread disease. Reflecting common themes in Nazi propaganda, these medical professionals repeatedly pushed the false claim that Jews were especially responsible for outbreaks of typhus—a deadly contagious disease spread by lice

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The Nazi propaganda poster pictured was created in 1941 for public display in German-occupied Poland. The Polish-language words translate roughly to “Jews are lice; they cause typhus.” Designed to link Jews and typhus closely together in the minds of non-Jewish Poles, the poster shows one of the feared typhus-ridden lice drawn on top of the face of a Jewish man that has been made to look like a skull.

We must remember that the Holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers. It began with bureaucrats creating division among the people by sowing intolerance, envy, hatred and fear.

When your neighbors are dehumanized, it becomes much easier to rationalize