Chris Sebrechts

Mr. Mettee
Euro Studies
6 April 2015
Bourgeoisies and Nazis

The French Revolution, which took place in the year of 1789, gives us a glimpse

into some of the most deadly atrocities that have haunted this earth. The Holocaust, on
the other hand, is on par with the worst of the worst of full-fledged genocides, involving
death camps, gas chambers, firing squads and endless amounts of pure torture. The
painting of Liberty Leading the People by Eugne Delacroix is an image where the
bourgeoisie, or common folk, rebel and kill the nobles of France, as well as other nonBourgeoisie of French society. The Bourgeoisie, unlike the Nazis, had a good reason
to rebel, but like the Nazis had a poor reason for the mass killings during the Reign of
Terror. It was organized and led by Maximilian Robespierre, who infamously ended the
French Revolution. The Holocaust, which means destruction or slaughter on a mass
scale, was led by Adolf Hitler, widely known as the most important fascist leader of the
Nazi Party. At the beginning of the 1930s, Hitlers hatred towards the Jewish population
or anti-Semitic views grew within the Nazi party. Anti-Semitism simply began with the
boycotting of Jewish shops and businesses. Following the unsuccessful boycotting of
Jewish business, a series of laws were passed called The Law Of The Restoration Of The
Civil Service. It made Aryanism a necessary requirement to hold a civil service position
making the already tight situation nearly impossible for the Jewish population. The
Holocaust slowly grew into a full-fledged genocide as sixty-three percent of the entire

Jewish population in Europe were murdered leaving only three and a half million of the
original nine and a half million of the original Jewish population alive within Europe.
The Nazi party, formerly known as the National Socialist German Workers, was
founded in the year of 1919 and grew from a meager six thousand to eight and a half
million followers in a mere two years, making up over ninety percent of Germany. Like
the Bourgeoisie, the Nazi party was mostly made up of the middle and working class. The
tables had turned as the peasants now ruled the rich as seen in the painting Vive Le Roi,
Vive la Nation, as a peasant or third estate rides on the back of the first and second
estates noble and clergyman. Adolf Hitler's ideology grew rapidly in the coming years,
through his book of Mein Kampf and the support of major political leaders throughout
Germany. The Mein Kampf explains a variety of things ranging from how government
should operate, to how each individual citizen should be treated. It goes into the desired
race of people, being the Aryan race, and explains his outrageous reasonings behind his
beliefs. His ideas and demands originally appeared quite reasonable but as one continues
to turn the pages one can see the true terror shown in his ideal society. His ideas appear
very reasonable at first, and most likely would have been a good addition to the current
society but through his persuasive writing and speaking, his dangerous and harmful ideas
led the Nazi party, and all of Germany on a gloomy, dark, genocidal, anti-Semitic path.
Adolf Hitler's ideals did not simply start from the ground up, but were reinforced by
those of Dietrich Eckert. Eckert was part of the reason for Hitler's rise through the
political field. Like Hitler, Maximillien Robespierre's mentor played a large role in his
rise through the political structure. Like The Mein Kampf, the Social Ideology became
the spark for an inevitable revolution. A poor economy and weak political structure only

fueled the fire making the eventual outcome of mass genocide inevitable. Robespierres
reasoning behind the justification of terror was Virtue without terror is fatal; terror
without virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than justice: prompt, severe, in
flexible. It is therefore an emanation of virtue a consequence of the general principle of
democracy applied to our countrys most urgent needs. His connection between virtue
and terror explicitly shows how madness occurred during the French Revolution. Hitlers
anti-Semitic views can be summed up in the following sentence, ...the personification of
the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. Comparing the
Jewish population to the devil is not only completely out of line and illogical but also has
no reasonable basis. As the assassination of Jews grew through the 1930s and the
governments began to get involved some of the methods used included gas chambers,
firing squads, and starvation. The Jews would be herded like cows into a small room
expecting to take showers, as the Germans would make the rooms somewhat appear to
look like showers. They would design the room with showerheads, or some sort of tile
making it seem like they were about to bathe. After the Jews entered the room, they
guards would put the Zkylon B crystals in the showers either through the ceiling or
through the showerheads themselves, and close up the area for at least thirty minutes, to
make sure all the people inside had died. Unlike the Nazis method, the French method
was much quicker and much less painful. The guillotine was the primary form of
execution during the French revolution. Even though the majority of the population went
under the guillotine, a substantial amount of the accused people were subjected to much
harder conditions as the Law of 22 Prairial was passed in the year of 1794. It removed
the rights of the accused persons expanding the methods to be used against the

individuals. Unlike the Nazis, the people selected to be executed had to have violated one
of the Law of Suspects. The Law of Suspects was a created by the Robespierre dominated
committee to arrest individuals who had opposed the resolution created following the
French Revolution. Although the French population may have been subjected to a harsh
reality during the reign of terror, a meager thirty thousand counter revolutionaries were
killed compared to over six million Jews. Although Maximillien Robespierre and Adolf
Hitler both may have felt like the Kings of the World at the time, they both were destined
to come crashing down as Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 in an underground
bunker in Berlin, Germany. Maximillien Robespierre was executed under the guillotine
on July 28th, 1794. These two events both proved to change the course of society, as the
world slowly continues to approach a utopian world.