Twisted ideology of hate led to mass murder evil of Holocaust Published Nov. 3, 2006 By Capt. Richard Milton Military Equal Opportunity Chief Vance Air Force Base, Okla. -- Holocaust Remembrance Observance Week serves to remind Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference influence their lives. In a word, Nazi Germany was pure horror. Rights such as the freedom of religion, free speech and the right to live, that some may take for granted were stripped from the victims of the Holocaust. Who or what was to blame for this? As the leader of Nazi Germany Hitler was to blame, but he did not do it alone. There was something bigger than just one man that led to the atrocities committed during World War II. A sick and twisted ideology led to the Holocaust. What is ideology. It is a fundamental belief in something. It is ideology that leads to suicide bombers and terrorist attacks killing innocent men, women and children. It is ideology that leads individuals to commit horrible acts against their brethren. A means to an end based on an ideology of hate blurred the line between humanity and brutality for Hitler and Nazi Germany. One man led millions in mass murder in order to achieve his idea of the "perfect race." One man's picture of what the ethnically perfect German of Aryan decent defined who lived and who died in Nazi Germany and the rest of occupied Europe. Untermenschen. This is a word used by the Nazis to describe those that were considered "aproductive" or "socially unfit." Arguably, the Nazis could have used another word to describe those individuals. That simple word is the word "different." That is right ... different. Those deemed untermenschen or different were either sentenced to death by execution or murdered during long internment in concentration or work camps. The only crime that these victims had committed was being born different from the idea of what the "perfect" person should look like. During a Holocaust Remembrance prayer Commander Arnold E. Resnicoff, Chaplain U.S. Navy offered these words: "So, from the Holocaust, we learn: when we deny humanity in others, we destroy humanity within ourselves. When we reject the human, and the holy, in any neighbor's soul, then we unleash the beast, and the barbaric, in our own heart. And, since the Holocaust, we pray: if the time has not yet dawned when we can all proclaim our faith in God, then let us say at least that we admit we are not gods ourselves..." As mentioned above, we are not gods and yes, the Nazis failed as did Hitler's master plan, but not without leaving a legacy of more than 6 million killed. What stopped Hitler? Arguably, some would say that the same differences in the victims of the Holocaust that the Nazis battled so hard to stamp out were the same differences that allowed the United States and the rest of her allies to wipe Nazism from the face of WWII Europe. A demonstration of the sheer power behind diversity, utilization of differences and cooperation led to the destruction of Nazi Germany. All allied soldiers no matter how different from each other coming together to battle a common foe led to Nazi Germany's complete destruction and utter defeat. This combined strength of multiple countries having multiple ethnicities led to Nazi destruction. All soldiers fought alongside each other. Americans fought alongside Australians, the British, the French and Canadians, etc. The list goes on and on. It was the combination of determination and diversification which led to Nazi Germany's destruction ... lesson learned Hitler.