Molly Sledge-Research Paper

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Research Paper

Holocaust Overview

Molly Sledge

Eng- 102-102

Mr. Neuburger

23 July 2012


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1926, Top Nazi Party OfficialsMarching bit.ly/SACrZO

The Holocaust was one of historys darkest times, filled with hysteria, pain, and death. A

horrific two and a half year period in which over eleven million people were killed. While

painful and gruesome, it is important to understand how it came to be. It is said that history

repeats itself. By educating oneself in understanding the Holocaust, one can hope that such a

disaster will never take place again. In order to comprehend this tragic event, one needs to

understand the series of events that led up to the systematic slaughter of over eleven million

people.

Rise to Nazi Power

With the end of WWI in 1918, Germany was forced to swallow the bitter pill of defeatand comply with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. According to Yad Vashem website, many

Germans thought the terms of the peace treaty and the compensation payments that it entailed

were an injustice and revenge of the victors. The site states the

frustration caused by the treatys terms and whispers of the

growing surge of communism, created perfect circumstances

for the growth of radical right-wing groups such as the Nazi

Party. At this time a man by the name Adolf Hitler became the

groups leader with his strong b eliefs and pristine speaking

capabilities. Furthermore, the site goes on to explain how

despite Hitlers imprisonment after attempting to forcibly seize

power in Munich, he came back stronger than ever with his

infamous book Mein Kampf which expressed his ideas on Nazi global domination. Hitler

reorganized his party and in 1932 the Nazi Party became the largest faction in the house with


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German sign at village entrance that states: Jews whoenter endanger themselves at their own risk.

http://bit.ly/OGbY8q

Hitler as Chancellor a year later (Rise of the Nazis to Power in Germany). Later on he named

himself as Fuhrer and soon began his dictatorship over Germany.

Nuremberg Laws

Soon after Hitler came to power, Nuremberg Laws were implemented to restrict the

freedoms of Jews. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) describes the

Nuremberg laws as institutionalizing many of the racial theories found in Nazi ideology. The

laws excluded German Jews from Reich

citizenship, prohibiting marriage or sexual

relations with persons of German bloodand deprived Jews of most political rights.

Moreover, the museum explains how in

1937 and 1938 the government set out to

impoverish Jews by requiring those to register their property which led to many Jewish workers

being dismissed and replaced with non-Jewish Germans whom bought the businesses at bargain

prices set by the Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews and Jewish lawyers

were not permitted to practice law. In addition, USHMM proceeds with Jews required carrying

identity cards with the letter J stamped on in bright red. These laws not only orchestrated against

Jews but gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, and those with disabilities were soon included

(Nuremberg Race Laws).

Anti-Semitism

Upon the Nuremberg Laws running

strong, the government stepped it up a notch with

the encouragement of Anti-Semitism or hatred

Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany 1935. bit.ly/HAPw3S


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Marburg, Germany, a synagogue on fireduring Kristallnacht. bit.ly/J3xZx3

and prejudice against Jews. According to USHMM, Anti-Semitism is known as the longest

hatred and has plagued the world for nearly two thousand years. As Jews integrated into

mainstream society, political forms of Anti-Semitism emerged. The Nazi Party exploited that

hatred to their advantage (Longest Hatred). With their fast growth, the Nazi party staged book

burnings, ordered anti-Jewish economic boycotts, and enacted discriminatory anti-Jewish

legislation. The Nuremberg Laws defined Jews by blood and in effect legalized a raciest

hierarchy (Antisemitism).

Kristallnacht

Among the various forms of anti-Semitism, were pogroms or violent riots against Jewsencouraged by the government. The site Holocaust Research Project explains, one such famous

pogrom happened November 9, 1938. Otherwise known as Kristallnacht or Night of Broken

Glass, Nazi party officials and the SA instigated the pogrom throughout Germany by breaking

windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community

centers, and plundered many Jewish homes. An estimated

7,500 Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed and looted,

Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, and mobs of SA men

prowled the streets killing some 100 Jews. In despair of the

destruction, many Jews and their families were driven to

suicide. Furthermore, the site goes on to state three days

later, on November 12 th, a meeting of the top Nazi officials

was called to assess the damage and to place responsibility. It was decided to blame the Jews for

Kristallnacht and hold them legally and financially responsible for the damages done, six million

marks to be paid to insurance companies for the broken glass. The Nazi officials used the events


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Ghetto street scene. 1941 Warsaw, Poland.http://bit.ly/MR3HiD

of the proceeding days as an excuse to pass a wide-range of anti-Semitic laws designed to further

distance the Jews and literally remove them from the German economy (Kristallnacht).

Ghettos

With the Jews being further segregated from society, it was decided by Nazi officials to

establish ghettos. The USHMM describes their reasoning as a provisional measure to control and

segregate Jews. Ghettos were city districts in which the Germans isolated Jewish communities

from the non-Jewish population and forced them to live in miserable conditions. At least 1,000

ghettos were established in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union.

Conjointly, the USHMM explains the three types of ghettos that were established, closed, open,and destruction ghettos. Closed ghettos consisted of walls and fences of barbed wire which

closed off the Jews from the outside world. Extremely crowded and unsanitary conditions along

with inadequate housing, starvation, extreme weather conditions, and chronic shortages led to

repeated outbreaks of epidemics and high mortality rates. Majority of the ghettos were of this

particular type. Open ghettos had no walls or fences, but harsh restrictions were followed on

leaving and entering. Destruction ghettos existed between two and six weeks before the Germans

deported and shot the Jewish population concentrated in them and were tightly sealed off (Types

of Ghettos). Daily life in the ghettos, as explained by

the USHMM, required Jews to wear identifying badges

or armbands and perform forced labor for the German

Reich. German authorities would appoint Jewish

councils to enforce orders such as foreseeing the

deportations to killing centers. These Jewish policemen

were under close scrutiny and the Germans did not


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The villa in which the Wannsee Conference took place. Wannsee, Berlin,Germany. bit.ly/HbME9y

hesitate to kill any who were thought to have failed in carrying out orders (Ghettos).

Wannsee Conference- Final Solution

Amidst the staggering amount of Jews in ghettos, German officials had to ask what was

to be done with them, that question was answered at the Wannsee Conference. An article from

the Holocaust History Project (HHP) describes the Wannsee Conference took place in Berlin on

January 20 th 1942. SS- Lieutenant General Reinhard Heydrich and fourteen other men who

represented the governmental and military branches met in a villa owned by the SS- Nordhav

Foundation in order to discuss the Final Solution. Leading up to the Wannsee Conference, the

phrase Final Solution of the JewishProblem had several ramifications

including voluntary emigration,

confinement to ghettos, deportation to

concentration camps, and

extermination. Reinhard Heydrich,

whom presided over the meeting,

wanted to instill the fact that the

phrase would refer specifically to the slaughter of all European Jews. Additionally, the article

reports the conference lasted no longer than an hour and half with an atmosphere of cooperation

and affinity. Rather than being called to decide the fate of the Jews, the Wannsee Conference

was held to clarify all conditions regarding to their extermination. Heydrich wanted to make sure

all who attended understood what duties their offices were expected to fulfill. By January of

1942, the two death camps in Belzec and Chelmno were already under construction with their

gas chambers (The Wannsee Conference).


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A Gas Van or Hell Van used to kill Jews. bit.ly/A7nDBY

A German soldier preparing toshoot a Jewish prisoner.

bit.ly/njL6AL

Extermination Methods

Once the Final Solution was made official, several methods of killing were

implemented such as Hell vans, firing squads, medical experiments, and gas chambers. In

accordance with the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, an article from the Aktion

Reinhard Camps (ARC) website explains the use of gas vans. These vans or hell vans were air-

sealed with a removable tube that led exhaust

fumes into the interior. The vans could

contain fifty to seventy people depending onthe size. Before entering, victims were

ordered to remove their clothing and all

valuables. Two doors at the back would then

be closed and the exhaust tube locked into

place, a small lamp inside would be lit for a short time in order to calm victims. Once the van

was turned on, it would run in neutral gear for duration of ten minutes, causing the motor to

produce carbon monoxide gas. The victims would slowly

suffocate and once the banging stopped, the driver would then

drive to burry victims in mass graves or a cremation site (Gas

Vans).

The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

(DCHGS) reveals the first method used in the extermination of

Jews was mass shootings. Many Jews captured or arrested were

often forced to dig their own graves and be shot into them or placed along mass graves, then shot


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Aushvitz main camps gas chamber. bit.ly/QrNRAy

so they fell into them (Methods of Mass

Murder). Due to the psychological

affects to German soldiers, the cost of

bullets used, and the time consumed in

these firing squads, another method was

developed otherwise known as gas

chambers. USHMM illustrates the Nazis

began experimenting with poisonous gases in late 1939 on mental patients deemed inappropriate

to live. Several death camps such as Hadamar, Brandenburg, and Sonnenstein used chemicallymanufactured carbon monoxide in their gassings. It was discovered at the infamous Aushwitz

that Zyklon B proved to be the most effective gassing method and was soon implemented to

many other death camps (Gassing Operations).

Aside from firing squads and the infamous gas chambers, one other extermination

method was known as using prisoners as medical experiments. The Holocaust Encyclopedia

(HE) divides these unethical experiments into three categories. The first contain experiments

aimed for the survival of German military personnel. Conducting high-altitude tests using a low

pressure chamber to determine a max altitude

pilots can parachute safely, freezing

experiments for hypothermia treatments, and

testing various methods to make seawater

potable were of the few used for this category.

Another category included pharmaceuticals

and treatment of war related injury or illness. Immunization compounds were tested on prisoners

Medical personel experiment on a prisoner at Buchenwaldconcentration camp. bit. ly/LHX2eu


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Main entrance to Auschwitz. bit.ly/MWmacT

with diseases such as malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis. The

HE states bone-grafting experiments were conducted and prisoners were subjected to phosgene

and mustard gas for possible antidotes. A third category consisted of experimentation on

improving the Nazi race. Twins were extensively examined and dissected, gypsies were tested to

see possible racial differences in withstanding disease, and many other gruesome experiments

such as sterilization methods were also conducted in the hopes of mass sterilizing the Jewish

population (Nazi Medical Experiments).

Death Camps

In order to carry out the Final Solution, Death Camps or Killing Centers wereconstructed. According to USHMM, more than three million Jews were murdered in these killing

centers alone. Majority of death camps were located in Poland due to its large Jewish population

and in 1941, the first death camp built named Chelmno utilized gas vans. Later in 1942 Belzec,

Sobibor, and Treblinka were opened. These camps were well known for their gas chambers used

to kill impersonally and efficiently. One of the most infamous camps, Auschwitz, used four gas

chambers and gassed six thousand Jews

a day (Nazi Camps). Prisoners of these

death camps lived in horrid conditions

and were often described as having

zombielike demeanors. When the

Soviet Union began to invade, German

officials sought to dismantle these

camps to erase evidence of their crimes. Moreover, USHMM reports there being only seven

people to have escaped Chelmno before it was dismantled (Chelmno), Belzec had no survivors


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and was dismantled to be disguised as a manor around 1943 (Belzec), Sobibor experienced a

resistance resulting in three hundred escapees in 1943 (Sobibor), and Treblinka camps were

hastily dismantled in 1944 before the Soviet Union overran the site (Treblinka).

With the obvious outcome of the war, many German officials strove to cover their tracks

by dismantling death camps in 1944. Many of them were successful in dismantling camps,

however, they were not fast enough. Soviet forces soon approached and it was evident the

gruesome truth of what took place. The end of the war brought about a bittersweet taste of

happiness and sorrow as the full scale effects of the Final Solution came to light. An estimated

eleven million people were brutally murdered during the Holocaust and the pain inflicted willnever be forgotten. While there is no way to bring back those who were lost, society can prevent

such a mass killing from happening again through education and remembrance. This overview of

the Holocaust gave a glimpse of the cruelty humankind is capable of and it should never be

repeated or forgotten.


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Works Cited

Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM.

Web. 16 July 2012.

Antisemitism. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 16 July 2012.

Belzee. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22 July 2012.

Chelmno. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22 July 2012.

Gassing Operations. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 23 July

2012.

Gas Vans. Holocaust Education & Archive Reasearch Team. Aktion Reinhard Camps. 22August 2006. Web. 20 July 2012.

Ghettos. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 20 July 2012.

Kristallnacht. Holocaust Education & Archive Reasearch Team. Holocaust Research Project.

Web. 18 July 2012.

Methods of Mass Murder. The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Holocaust

Education. Web. 23 July 2012.

Nazi Camps. United States Ho locaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22 July 2012.

Nazi Medical Experiments. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22

July 2012.

Sobibor. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22 July 2012.

The Nuremberg Race Laws. Unite d States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 16

July 2012.

The Rise of the Nazis to Power in Germany. Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem. Web. 16 July 2012.


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The Wannsee Conference. The Holocaust History Project. Holocaust - History. Web. 20 July

2012.

Treblinka. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 22 July 2012.

Types of Ghettos. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM. Web. 18 July 2012.

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Molly Sledge-Research Paper