Laura Creed-Research Holocaust Overview-Graded

7/31/2019 Laura Creed-Research Holocaust Overview-Graded

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Research Paper

Holocaust Overview

Laura Creed

English 102-102

Mr. Neuberger

25 July 2012


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The Nazi Party Members 1922

http://bit.ly/Nt0vdM

When one hears someone mention The Holocaust most do not understand what really

happened, how it began, and how innocent people were killed. The point of having history is to

learn from the mistakes that occurred and to not let it happen again, and The Holocaust is no

exception. The Holocaust is an event that most people cannot wrap their head around because it

is so shocking, upsetting and even disturbing. In order to comprehend this tragic event one needs

to know the series of events that occurred that allowed the Nazi to systematically murder over 11

million people.

Nazi Rise to Power

The World War I ended in 1918 leaving the German population infuriated that they were

disarmed and forced to pay reparations to France and Britain after signing the Treaty of

Versailles. The Germans felt as if they were betrayed and

stabbed in the back. According to A Teachers Guide to

the Holocaust (TGH), Adolf Hitler joined a small political

part in 1919 and rose to leadership through his strong,

emotional and captivating speeches. In some of Hitlers

speeches he encouraged national pride, militarism, and a

racially pure Germany. He also railed against the Treaty of Versailles and delivered anti-

Semitic tirades, blaming the Jews for Germany's problems. Since Hitler was a great speaker by

the end of 1920 the Nazi Party otherwise known as the National Socialist Party, had around

3,000 members and he became the leader also known as The Fhrer. The Fhrer ended up being

the foundation for all legislation. Hitlers power was unlimited along with his personal power, it l

was equated with the destiny of the German nation. (Rise of the Nazi)


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Nazis Views on Jews: Anti-Semitism

While Hitler was trying to form the Nazi Party, he also was trying to form his members

into being anti-Semitic towards Jews. Since Hitler was a strong speaker the members of the Nazi

Party started to believe that the Jews are not a true German also

considered as non-German. According to the website About Nazism,

Hitler wrote a book calledMein Kampf, and in the book he writes about

how he notices the Jews on the streets for the first time and then he

asks himself, Was that a German? (qtd. in Adolf Hitler; Mein

Kampf). He divides the human race up based on physical appearance.

Hitler openly announces his hatred for the Jews and why there is a need

to remove all of them so the German race can continue to expand.

Hitler is very detailed in why there is a need to expand the German race, and believes that the

Jewish genes are unworthy, and thats one of the reasons why they needed to be eliminated. The

bookMein Kampfwas not popular until after Hitlers rise to power, the book he wrote then

gained fame and virtually became for every Nazi the Bible. (Adolf Hitler; Mein Kampf)

Nuremberg Laws

After Adolf Hitler was announced the Chancellor of Germany, in 1935, the Nazi Party

announced here were going to be new laws that would need to be followed. Hitlers plan of

trying to make German the master race was moving in the direction he wanted. His power and

authority kept growing over the Jewish and German people. The website United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum (USHMM) describes that the first law called Protection of German Blood

and German honor, prohibited marriages and sexual activity between Jews and the German

people. Another law in the Nuremberg laws called the Reich Citizenship Law is where Jews

Hitlers bookMein Kampfhttp://bit.ly/MI1mGW


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were stripped of their German citizenship. These laws were stricter than they seem, being Jewish

was not based on religious beliefs. Anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was

defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or

belonged to the Jewish religious community

(The Nuremberg Race Laws). The photo in this

paragraph is the sign that was distributed over

Germany showing the standards of determining

whether or not you were Jewish. Another thing

that made the Jews stand out was they were

forced by the government to have a red J stamped

on their identity card, making it more visible and easier to spot Jews in the community. (The

Nuremberg Race Laws)

Propaganda

In 1933 Hitler wanted to persuade the German people more about Jews. He established a

Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

which was led by a man named Joseph Goebbels. The Nazi

Party used propaganda to motivate those who disagreed of

the mass murder of the Jews, to get more support and to

make their army of believers stronger. This made the

atmosphere around the Jews filled with violence and terror.

The website Holocaust Education and Archive Research

Team (HEART) explainsthat "The function of propaganda

is to attract supporters, the function of organization to win

The Nuremberg Laws that was posted to show the

determination of a Jew.

htt ://bit.ly/OVPB2U

Propaganda That Was Used.

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members... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes

them ripe for the victory of this idea...." (Nazi Propaganda). Hitler made sure that the

propaganda went through movies, flags, radio, cartoons, books, posters and music so that

everyone was always around his mass plan to have the German race be the main race. Hitler

wanted the propaganda to be everywhere, he saw propaganda as a transport of political

salesmanship in a mass market of people, and argued that it was a way of conveying his

message. (Nazi Propaganda)

Kristallnacht

After the Nuremberg Laws

a rush of hatred filled the air. According to the website Jewish

Virtual Library: A Division of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ADOTACE), it

explains why the Chief of Propaganda named Joseph Goebbels decided to attack the Jewish

people. In October a 17 year old boy found out that his familys possessions were confiscated

and they were forced to move over the Polish border. The boy opened fire killing the Third

Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris

Ernst Vom Rath; he intended toassassinate the

German Ambassador. In November 1938

gangs of Nazi troopers rampaged throughout

Germany freely attacking the Jewish people at

their work places, in their homes, and even in

the streets. Joseph Goebbels then decided to

attack the Jews he called his pogrom the Night of Broken Glass also known as Kristallnacht.

At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000

synagogues were burned (and possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish

Kristallnachtalso known as The Night of Broken Glass

htt ://bit.ly/Mi93UR


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businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000

Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. (Kristallnacht)

The Kristallnacht ADOTACE explains that this was the beginning of the first large wave of

Jewish people that were capture and sent to concentration camps. (Kristallnacht)

Rounding up the Jews

After the unexpected Kristallnacht, the roundup of Jews did not happen overnight an

months to complete. According the website The Guardian, many of the Jews were warned before

they started to round up the Jews. Twenty-eight thousand

people, including Jews of foreign origin, French Jews,

and other French subjects regarded as suspects were

wanted by the French and German authorities How the

Jews in France were Rounded Up). The children did not

get away easily, if they were over the age of three they

were taken away from their mothers. Most of the children were left on the streets with nothing.

None of the neighbors were able to help them, in matter of fact they were forbidden to taken

them in and if anyone found out they would most likely be killed because of it. Most of the Jews

were rounded up by trains and were taken to concentration camps. If they were not taken to

concentration camps they were taken to Ghettos where they had to live without barley anything

to survive off. (How the Jews in France Were Rounded Up) In these Ghettos they had to live in

secluded area where they could not leave. The website My Jewish Learning describes that

approximately 450,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles that was the

Warsaw ghetto. Other major ghettos were located in Krakow, Bialystok, Lvov, Lublin, Vilna,

Kovno, Czestochowa, and Minsk (Ghettos under the Nazis). The living conditions for the Jews

This is one way the Jews were rounded up.

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Where the Final Solution Conference was held. In the

villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee.

http://bit.ly/LGxjhX

in these ghettos included lack of food, water, and living space. The Jewish people in the ghettos

were forced by the German forces to wear arm bands with a yellow Star of David on it. One of

the main reasons the Jewish people were put in these ghettos was because it made it easier to

gather them and kill them. (Ghettos Under the Nazis)

Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution

The "Wannsee Conference" as it became known after the war, was a meeting that took

place in January of 1942. This meetings goal was to end the lives of all Jews which is where

they came up with the Final Solution. The full title

of the Conference was The Final Solution of the

Jewish Question in Europe. According to the website

USHMM, the SS men controlled the German police

force and the concentration camp systems. The

meeting consisted of fifth teen high-ranked Nazi Party

and German government in the villa in the Berlin

suburb of Wannsee. One of the most important people at the meeting was named Reinhard

Heydrich; he was a SS General at the time. Heydrich announced that During the course of the

Final Solution, the Jews will be deployed under appropriate supervision at a suitable form of

labor deployment in the East (Wannsee Conference and the "Final Solution"). The purpose for

the Final Solution was to kill multiple Jews at one time, instead of letting them die of sickness,

starvation, weather conditions and weakness. The point of the Wannsee Conference was clear to

its participants, to further the coordination of a policy aimed at the physical annihilation of the

European Jews.

Selection Process
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143


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Once the Jews made it to the concentration camps, the selection process began

immediately after the Jews were taken off the

deportation trains. The website Holocaust Memorial

Day Trust explains that during the selection process

people would arrive daily. The Jewish women and men

were all separated before they did the examination. A

Nazi physician would examine each person to see if

they were healthy enough to survive forced labor. If

they were healthy enough to do forced labor they

were

usually worked to death from long hours

and no food. The disabled, elderly, babies, young children, and pregnant women rarely had a

chance of surviving the section because of their condition. Those who were selected for death

were led to the gas chambers. If there were people panicking while in line for the gas chambers

the German forces would simply tell them that they were going to take a shower to remove lice

from their bodies. The Jews did not know that they were being led to their death. (Life in the

Camps)

Extermination Methods

There were many concentration camps that Jews were sent to. There was a reason for

different concentration camps, some camps were

extermination camps, and most were working labor

campsbutoverall the camps had the same intention,

killing all Jews. The website Holocaust Education

explains the killing methods used against Jews. The

most popular method of mass murdering was the gas chamber. The Jews would go in massive

The Selection Process

http://bit.ly/OiCYNo

Gas chamber building at Birkenau.

http://bit.ly/MzMAp5


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groups to take a shower and wouldnt come back. The web atrial states In Majdanek, on 3-4

November 1943, between 17,000 and 18,000 Jews were killed in one day as part of a mass

shooting (Extermination camps). There were different ways to kill the Jews,and besides gas

chambers some other methods were firing squads, and mobile gas vans. The easiest way for the

SS men to kill the Jews was the gas chambers. (Extermination camps)

Liberation

On June 6, 1944 was the day the Nazi power was starting to come to the end, this day

was also known as D-Day according to the website USHMM. The U.S General Dwight D.

Eisenhower had a plan to end the German Nazi power. Eisenhowers great plan needed many

troops; some came from Canada, and Britain. This plan was called the Great Crusade, the

destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of

Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and

security for ourselves in a free world (Liberation). The Soviet

forces found prisoners of 7,000 people that were left in the

concentration camps to die, once they found them they

provided them with the food and the needed medical support

that they needed. When the Soviet troops entered the concentration camps, they discovered some

frail survivors, piles of corpses, bones, and human ashes. Some of the German Nazis found out

that Eisenhowers army was coming so they made the Jews go on walks that lasted for miles

hoping to kill more before they could make it there. The article explains On May 8, 1945, less

than one year after D-Day, Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender became official, and the

world could celebrate the liberation of Europe from Nazi rule (Liberation).

After Liberation

Liberation days in Holland, in 1944.

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Life after liberation was also very hard, for many of the survivors. Ten of thousands died

of over-eating, epidemics and exhaustion according to the website Yad Vashem. Many of the

Jewish survivors feared to go back to their former

homes because they didnt want to be reminded of

how it all began. Since there was so much

antisemitism where they lived they feared it would

start all over again. The survivors who decided to go

back to their homes didnt find any of their personal

belongings. Hitler himself committed suicide after the end of the war and was never held fully

accountable for the deaths and destructions he helped with. Many of the Jews were placed in

Displaced Persons camps because they had nowhere to go. Soon after the Jews disbursed

throughout the world and started to live their own lives.There were millions of people murdered

throughout the course of the Holocaust because of the German Nazis. (After Liberation)

The Holocaust is history that must not be repeated. We cannot fully understand how the

conditions were because we did not live in that time era but educating our society on this topic

will prevent it from happening again. The Holocaust will remain the most one of the most tragic

and devastating periods of our history and will never be forgotten.

Jews with soldiers of the Soviet Red Army in

Latvia after its liberation.

http://bit.ly/Obz0rE


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Works Cited

Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf."Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf. About Nazism, n.d. Web. 18 July 2012.

"After Liberation." The Holocaust. Yad Vashem the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'

Remembrance, n.d. Web. 23 July 2012.

"Extermination Camps."Holocaust Education. The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide

Studies, n.d. Web. 23 July 2012.

Glazer, Susan D. "Ghettos under the Nazis."Modern History: Ghettos. My Jewish Learning, n.d.

Web. 23 July 2012.

"The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students." The Nuremberg Race Laws. United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), n.d. Web. 22 July 2012

"Holocaust History."Antisemitism. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), n.d.

Web. 16 July 2012.

"Holocaust History."Liberation. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), n.d.

Web. 23 July 2012

"Holocaust History." Wannsee Conference and the "Final Solution" United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum (USHMM), n.d. Web. 23 July 2012.

"Holocaust Memorial Day Trust."Life in the Camps. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 July 2012.

"Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party."Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi

Party. A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, n.d. Web. 16 July 2012.

"How the Jews in France Were Rounded Up." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 09

Feb. 1942. Web. 23 July 2012.

"Kristallnacht." Jewish Virtual Library: A Division of the American-Israeli Cooperative

Enterprise. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2012.


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"Nazi Propaganda."Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team (HEART). N.p., 2009. Web.

22 July 2012.

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Laura Creed-Research Holocaust Overview-Graded