The Holocaust: A Brief Overview

"The word Holocaust comes from the Greek, it means whole burned. It refers to the almost complete destruction of the Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany." ("The Holocaust" paragraph #1 .) The Holocaust was hands down the most horrific event ever. The people that were involved should be hailed as heroes in our society, for we have never and will never suffer as they have. The Nazi animals subjected them to the most inhumane and belittling torture ever in modern history.

Following World War I, Germany was severely poverty stricken. It had problems with disease and starvation. The once very powerful military giant crumbled due to The Treaty of Versailles. This treaty forced Germany to admit starting World War I, prohibited them from having an army of over one-hundred thousand, assembling of any large weapons, and worst of all pay enormous amount of reparations to the Allies. The proud country had to find a scapegoat, they chose the Jewish minority. They had issues with the Jewish people from as far back at the 1542, when Martin Luther wrote out against them in his pamphlet called "Against the Jews and Their Lies." Even the Catholic Church taught that the Jews killed Christ and should therefore be hated.

From 1919-1933 Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, Nazi for short, slowly gained power in the political community. In 1929, Germany's financial problems cause the New York stock market crash. They looked for someone strong to get them out, they chose Hitler. He too was strongly anti-Semitic as he depicts in this quote from his book Mein Kampf "If we pass all the causes of the German collapse in review, the ultimate and most decisive remains the failure to recognize the Jewish menace." page#56. He is famous for the propaganda he used against the Jews, he had newspaper articles and even speeches. He then used his great persuasive skills to get President von Hindenburg to sign the decree "For the Protection of the People of the State." "The decree canceled all individual and civil rights, placing power in the hands of Hitler and his party."("The Holocaust" page 19.) In 1934, Hitler was fully in control of Germany.

The Nazi's saw themselves as the superior race, they were called the "Aryans", the Jewish community was named the "Semitics." Some people who were not even members of the Jewish community were considered Jewish [by the Nazi's] . "If three or four of your grandparents were Jewish, you were considered to be as well. If one or two of your grandparents were Jewish you were labeled as a "Mischinge", or half breed. You were considered Jewish if you were married to someone who was Jewish. If one of your parents were Jewish your Jewish too."

("Holocaust." paragraph # 3.)

The longer Hitler was in power, the worse things got for the Jews. The Jewish people were fired from public and private positions, removed from public schools, and excluded from public events. Hitler made several different laws that further deteriorated Jewish life.

"In November of 1938, Hershel Grynszpan shot and killed Ernest Von Rathin in Paris. Hershel was a 17 year-old Jewish boy and Rathin was the third secretary of the German Embassy. Hershel was said for be distraught of the deportation of his family." ("History of the Holocaust" paragraph 7.) Shortly following the assassination, Nazis set fire to 267 synagogues, smashed Jewish owned store windows, and thousands of Jews were beaten arrested, and killed. This night has since been called Kristallnact, the night of broken glass. Following the rampage the Nazis fined the Jews Four hundred million dollars for the damage they did.

As the Nazis entered into World War II more populations of Jews fell under their control. When Poland was taken over the Polish Jews were forced to live in jail like housing. These captive city states were called Ghettos. The Ghettos were enclosed by high fencing with razor sharp barbed wire. Food was scarce and many people died from starvation. Sanitation facilities, space, and water were also lacking. Due to the conditions of the ghettos many people died of disease. These ghettos contained more than 10% of the Polish population. Ghettos were just another step in the Nazi machines plan, having all the Jews in one place gave them easy access.

In 1941, Germany took over the Soviet Union, this started the next phase of Hitler's plan. Four mobile killing units, Einsatzgruppen A,B,C, and D were set up. The units would take a number of Jews out, stand them next to a large pre-dug hole, machine gun them, and then the mass graves were covered with dirt and forgotten. This was just the first part of the "final solution to the Jewish problem." Sadly, entire Jewish communities were wiped out in this manner. In one city on September 29, 1941, 33,771 citizens were killed in this horrible way. And still the most horrific parts of the Holocaust lie ahead.

Several camps were built equipped to gas large numbers of people in Poland. There were 3 different types of camps: slave labor, transit, and the infamous death camps. The Nazi killing machine took a lot of manpower. If the captured Jews were healthy they would be worked in slave labor camps. These people were forced to work in factories and do whatever else they were needed. They worked long hours without adequate food or water, many were literally worked to death.

Trains transported thousands of Jews from ghettos and labor camps to the death camps. After being shoved into a crowed cattle car for hours, Jews arrived at their final destination. Everything they had was taken, shoes, clothes, glasses, and even false teeth. They shaved heads and even pulled gold fillings from their teeth. They even took your name; everyone was given a number that was tattooed on their forearm. Sleeping arrangements consisted of cramped wooden shelves with no pillows or blankets. Disease was a large part of everyday living in the camps. Pregnancy was also very common due to the common sleeping quarters of men and women. Once unworkable Jews were killed in mass numbers in large gas chambers. After being gassed my poison, the bodies were taken to an incinerator and burned. The cause of death was simply marked "SB" . "SB" stand for Sonderbehandlung, this is German for special treatment. "The Jews were like "sheep to the slaughter'."

(The Holocaust-Historical Overview. Paragraph #11.)

Things started to go down hill for the Nazis in the war. Land was slowly being won back by the allies. A large amount of the prisoners were forced to walk many miles. This was all in hopes of preventing the Allies from liberating large numbers of Jews captives. Many of the Jews were already weak from the poor life inside the camps and died in route. Around one fourth of the Jewish prisoners died as a result of these "death marches."

Between May 7 and 9, 1945 World War II finally ended and the Jews were again free. Only when the Allies saw what had been happening did they understand the suffering. Estimates have said that anywhere from five to six million Jews were killed. That's one-third of the world's Jewish population; five thousand were communities where totally wiped out. "To use a modern figure, imagine Shea Stadium totally full. Then image someone coming in and killing everyone and putting their bodies in the parking lot. To show how many lives were lost in the Holocaust you need to fill and empty Shea Stadium 118 times."

(Fox, Ruth. Paragraph # 2.)

"The Holocaust is one the darkest chapters in all of human history. It was truly a time when the inmates ran the show, when evil was turned loose on the inhabitants of a whole continent and became official policy." (The Holocaust (Anne Frank)paragraph # 6)

It is vital that we learn about events, like this, from the past because if not history is bound to repeat itself. We need to learn that it's never right to disregard human life, no matter how evil we may think the people to be. We always have to remember that everyone of those people was someone's mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, or best friend.

Work Sited

Fox, Ruth. "Exploring the Holocaust" Emergency Librarian vol.24 May/June 1997[online] available Ebsocohost May 3, 2002.

"History of the Holocaust". Holocaust Memorial Center,. [www.holocaustcenter.org/historyof.shtml](May 3,2002)

Payne, Robert. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler

Rosser, Selmour. The Holocaust. 1981 1-7,9-19

The Holocaust (Anne Frank). 1996 Teacher Created Materials, Inc. 26,27

"The Holocaust- Historical Overview." [online] April 28, 2002

"The Holocaust" Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-Rom 2001 edition.Hitler told Himmler thatit was not enough for the Jews to simply die: they must die in agony. What was the best way to prolong their agony? Himmler turned the problem over to his advisors, who concluded that a slow, agonizing death could be brought about by placing Jewish prisoners in freight cars in which the floors were coated with ...quicklime...which produced excruciation burns. The advisors estimated that it would take four days for the prisoners to die, and for that whole time the freight cars would be left standing on some forgotten siding... Finally it was decided that the freight cars should be used in addition to the extermination camps." (Payne, Robert. Pg #15-16.)