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The Holocaust, An Injustice And Tragedy
INTRODUCTION
The Holocaust was not just an event. It was a process that continued for over a decade and involved millions of people. It was the effort of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany to exterminate the Jews and other people that they considered to be inferior. As a result about 12,000,000 people, about half of them Jews, were murdered. The first people to be systematically murdered by the Third Reich were not Jews or "gypsies" (properly the Roma and Sinta), but Germans who were considered "useless eaters" and "life not worthy of life. The murders were done by every means imaginable but most of the victims perished as a result of shooting, starvation, disease, and poison gas. Others were tortured to death or died in horrible medical experiments. Adolf Hitler and his accomplices did not just take over Germany. They tried to create a new Germany based on their ideology.
PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
The Nazis targeted many groups for persecution, among them Catholics, Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, but only three groups were targeted for systematic extermination: Jews, the handicapped, and the Sinti and Roma, often known as Gypsies. Of all the examples of injustice against humanity in history, the Jewish Holocaust has to be one of the most prominent. In the period of 1933 to 1945, the Nazis waged a vicious war against Jews and other "lesser races".
The Holocaust was a dark time in the history of the 20th century. When the Nazi party of Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler, came to power. Hitler's anti-Jew campaign began soon afterward, with the "Nureraberg Laws", which defined the meaning of being Jewish based on ancestry. These laws also forced segregation between Jews and the rest of the public. It was only a dim indication of what the future held for European Jews. Anti-Jewish aggression continued for years after the passing of the Nureraberg Laws. One of these was the "Aryanization" of Jewish property and business. Jews were progressively forced out of the economy of Germany, their assets turned over to the government and the German public. Most, if not all Jews in German-occupied lanRAB were rounded up and taken to ghettos or concentration camps. The ghettos were located inside cities, and were a sort of city/prison to segregate Jews from the rest of the public. Conditions in the ghettos included overcrowding, lack of food, and lack of sanitation, as well as brutality by Nazi guarRAB. Quality of life in a ghetto was probably not much above that in a concentration camp
KRISTALLNACHT
Other forms of degradation were pogroms, or organized demonstrations against Jews. The first, and most infamous, of these pogroms was Krystallnacht, or "The night of broken glass". This pogrom was prompted by the assassination of Ernst von Rath, a German diplomat, by Herschel Grymozpan in Paris on Noveraber 7th, 1938. Two days later, an act of retaliation was organized by Joseph Gobbels to attack Jews in Germany. On the nights of Noveraber 9th and 10th, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 175 synagogues demolished, nearly 100 Jews had been killed, and thousanRAB more had been injured, all for the assassination of one official by a Jew. In many ways, this was the first major act of violence to Jews made by the Nazis. Their intentions were now clear.
THE FINAL SOLUTION
The Nazi's plans for the Jews of Europe were outlined in the "Final Solution to the Jewish question" in 1938. In a meeting of some of Hitler's top officials, the idea of the complete annihilation of Jews in Europe was hatched. By the time the meeting was over, the Final Solution had been created. The plans included in the Final Solution included the deportation, exploitation, and eventual extermination of European Jews.
The Final Solution was mainly carried out by a military group known as the SS and a security service known as the SD. The Gestapo was part of the SD. One of the end results of the Final Solution was the horrible concentration and death camps of Germany, Poland, and other parts of Nazi-controlled Europe. During the first part of this extermination 1,500,000 Jews and other people were murdered by military groups which rounded them up and shot them. Gradually the emphasis changed to concentration camps, where the prisoners were worked to death as slave laborers, and extermination camps, where they were murdered in the gas charabers. The most famous of these was Auschwitz, which was both a labor camp and an extermination camp. About 1,300,000 people perished at Auschwitz; approximately 1,000,000 of those died in the gas charabers. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, people around the world were shocked by final tallies of human losses, and the people responsible were punished for their inhuman acts.
INTRODUCTION
The Holocaust was not just an event. It was a process that continued for over a decade and involved millions of people. It was the effort of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany to exterminate the Jews and other people that they considered to be inferior. As a result about 12,000,000 people, about half of them Jews, were murdered. The first people to be systematically murdered by the Third Reich were not Jews or "gypsies" (properly the Roma and Sinta), but Germans who were considered "useless eaters" and "life not worthy of life. The murders were done by every means imaginable but most of the victims perished as a result of shooting, starvation, disease, and poison gas. Others were tortured to death or died in horrible medical experiments. Adolf Hitler and his accomplices did not just take over Germany. They tried to create a new Germany based on their ideology.
PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
The Nazis targeted many groups for persecution, among them Catholics, Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, but only three groups were targeted for systematic extermination: Jews, the handicapped, and the Sinti and Roma, often known as Gypsies. Of all the examples of injustice against humanity in history, the Jewish Holocaust has to be one of the most prominent. In the period of 1933 to 1945, the Nazis waged a vicious war against Jews and other "lesser races".
The Holocaust was a dark time in the history of the 20th century. When the Nazi party of Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler, came to power. Hitler's anti-Jew campaign began soon afterward, with the "Nureraberg Laws", which defined the meaning of being Jewish based on ancestry. These laws also forced segregation between Jews and the rest of the public. It was only a dim indication of what the future held for European Jews. Anti-Jewish aggression continued for years after the passing of the Nureraberg Laws. One of these was the "Aryanization" of Jewish property and business. Jews were progressively forced out of the economy of Germany, their assets turned over to the government and the German public. Most, if not all Jews in German-occupied lanRAB were rounded up and taken to ghettos or concentration camps. The ghettos were located inside cities, and were a sort of city/prison to segregate Jews from the rest of the public. Conditions in the ghettos included overcrowding, lack of food, and lack of sanitation, as well as brutality by Nazi guarRAB. Quality of life in a ghetto was probably not much above that in a concentration camp
KRISTALLNACHT
Other forms of degradation were pogroms, or organized demonstrations against Jews. The first, and most infamous, of these pogroms was Krystallnacht, or "The night of broken glass". This pogrom was prompted by the assassination of Ernst von Rath, a German diplomat, by Herschel Grymozpan in Paris on Noveraber 7th, 1938. Two days later, an act of retaliation was organized by Joseph Gobbels to attack Jews in Germany. On the nights of Noveraber 9th and 10th, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 175 synagogues demolished, nearly 100 Jews had been killed, and thousanRAB more had been injured, all for the assassination of one official by a Jew. In many ways, this was the first major act of violence to Jews made by the Nazis. Their intentions were now clear.
THE FINAL SOLUTION
The Nazi's plans for the Jews of Europe were outlined in the "Final Solution to the Jewish question" in 1938. In a meeting of some of Hitler's top officials, the idea of the complete annihilation of Jews in Europe was hatched. By the time the meeting was over, the Final Solution had been created. The plans included in the Final Solution included the deportation, exploitation, and eventual extermination of European Jews.
The Final Solution was mainly carried out by a military group known as the SS and a security service known as the SD. The Gestapo was part of the SD. One of the end results of the Final Solution was the horrible concentration and death camps of Germany, Poland, and other parts of Nazi-controlled Europe. During the first part of this extermination 1,500,000 Jews and other people were murdered by military groups which rounded them up and shot them. Gradually the emphasis changed to concentration camps, where the prisoners were worked to death as slave laborers, and extermination camps, where they were murdered in the gas charabers. The most famous of these was Auschwitz, which was both a labor camp and an extermination camp. About 1,300,000 people perished at Auschwitz; approximately 1,000,000 of those died in the gas charabers. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, people around the world were shocked by final tallies of human losses, and the people responsible were punished for their inhuman acts.