Whom did Hitler want to eliminate?
1 Answer
He wanted to eliminate many different groups throughout his period of power.
Explanation:
Initially on coming to power Hitler's first targets were political opponents such as Communists and Social Democrats. They were the first occupants of Dachau, the first of the concentration camps.
He certainly wanted to eliminate their parties and many were actually killed but all were not physically eliminated. If by elimination we mean physical elimination then a number of groups can be identified as World War 2 progressed.
Firstly there were the Jews, of whom an estimated 6 million were killed.
Secondly there were gypsies. Some 500,00 Romanies were killed by the Nazis.
Hitler saw most East Europeans as sub-human and had either to be killed, starved to death or worked to death so as to create Lebensraum. Poland experienced the highest death rate per head of the population about 1 in 6. Millions of Soviet civilians and prisoners of war were killed. In total the estimate is 26-27 million.
Camps such as Auschwitz also saw the killing of groups such as Freemasons and homosexuals. Anyone who did not fit the Nazi ideal was a target.
