Research Paper Holocaust Overview

Trevor Decker

English 102-102 Mr. Nueburger 11 July 2012 More than just a word Racism is just a word, and no matter the religion, color, ethnicity of a man, racism is just a word but if acted upon and forced by power racism is much more. Words can crumble empires destroy men and kill millions. Racism is an act of oppression and the kind of oppression that was brought forth due to the Jewi sh people being blamed for the economic crisis that was the Great Depression. Nazi rise to power In the 1930s Germanys mood was grim and the morale was low. The economic d epression had hit Germany especially hard, and millions of people were out of wo rk. As stated in (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Still Fresh in the mi nds of many was Germanys humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during World Wa r I, and Germans lacked confidence in their weak government, known as the Weima r Republic. These conditions provided the chance for the rise of a new leader, A dolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers Party. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) (USHMM) The country of Germany was in such dis array that any leader willing to stand up and speak what they thought may have b een the next leader, however Hitler never gave them much a chance due to his par ty eliminating the competition as he campaigned for his positions, He was soon e lected chancellor by President Hidenburg, and then he soon become the furor or F ather of Germany. The rise of Nazi Germany was soon complete with Hitler in comm and. Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism was the cornerstone of the Nazi Party since the founding o f it in 1919, at the time of its birth it had fewer than 25 members and only 6 w ere promoting the ideals of the party. Hitler joined the party and shortly after its inception took control of it. As stated in the (Anti-Semitism) Hitler and t he Nazis promoted anti-semitism at every opportunity, and the concept became a k ey component of their rapid rise to power. From 1929 to 1932, Germanys economic d epression grew increasingly worse, and the Nazis used this to the fullest advant age by almost always blaming the growing problems on the Jews and others. By bea ting the drum of nationalism during these increasingly dark hours, the partys ran ks filled by the tens of thousands. (Simkin) Hitler used the Jewish people and v arious other groups as scapegoats for all the problems that were being caused in the German society. Nuremburg laws The Nuremberg Race Laws took all rights away from the German Jews. They no longer were citizens of the German community; it gave them the title of subje cts in Hitlers Reich. The law made it to were people of Aryan decent were not all owed to marry those of Jewish decent or even have sexual relations with one anot her. As said in the (Nuremberg Race Laws) The Law for the Protection of German B

lood and German Honor which protected Germans from mixing with Jews it was to pr otect the Aryan bloodlines from being tainted with Jewish blood. The second law was the Reich Citizenship law designating all Jews as subjects to Hitlers Reich. These Laws were followed by the law for the protection of the genetic health of the German people. As well as the Certificate of Fitness to Marry which you had to pass if you were going to get married and you would have to have been disease free to obtain this license. (Nuremberg Race Laws) However the Laws did do thei r job more than a dozen decrees were issued to outlaw Jews altogether. Kristallnacht Kristallnact meaning Night of Broken Glass was one the first reall major event to happen that really was a shot at the Jewish community and it set them back 4m illion dollars in todays economy. It all began with the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels when he announced a government sanctioned reprisal against the Jews. On November 9th-10th a pogram took place that raged throughout all of Austria and Germany, Synagogues were destroyed and burned along with Jewish shop windows. Jews were beaten in the street raped arre sted and murdered. As said in (The Night of Broken Glass) Police and firefighter s stood by as synagogues burned and Jews were beaten, only taking action to prev ent the spread of fire to non-Jew owned property and to stop looters. Those orde rs were issued by SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. 191 synagogues were set aflame, 91 Jews were murdered and 30,000 were taken away to camps like Buchenwald or Dac hau. The reason it got the name Night of Broken Glass was due to all of the glas s from the stores that had been looted or destroyed littered the streets. Rounding up the jews On the 21st of September Reinhard Heydrich told several SS commanders in Poland that all Jews were to be confined to special areas in cities and towns. These ghettos were to protected and bricked up with armed guards at all times. As stated in (Jewish Ghettos) the first ghetto was set up in Piotrkow on the 28th of October 1939. Jews living in rural areas had their property confiscated and t hey were rounded up and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghe ttos set up were Warsaw and Lodz. In October of 39, the SS began to deport Jews living in Austria and Czechoslovokia to ghettos in Poland. Transported in locked passenger trains, large numbers died on the journey. Those that survived the jo urney were told by Adolf Eichmann, the head of the Gestapos Department of Jewish Affairs: There are no apartments and no houses- if you build your homes you will have a roof over your head. (Simkin) Conditions were so bad in the ghettos that i t was estimated that 100,000 Jews died of starvation and disease in the Warsaw G hetto. Extermination Methods The Nazis used the most terrible methods of murdering Jews, Gypsies and other undesirables of the population. In an attempt to carry out the final solut ion as effectively as possible, different methods of mass murder were tested. Th ey began with shootings, then gas trucks. However these proved ineffective and t hey began to use quicker ways of dealing with the Jews. They set up facilities t o better suit the needs of the final solution. They began to use Zyclon B Gas an d it quickly killed any who were in the chamber when it was used. Youll see here in (Methods of Mass Murder) that the Germans did not care about the rights of Je wish people they would simply work them to death and then burn them. Millions up on Millions of Jews were killed in the death camps all throughout Europe. It was mainly due to the development of the Gas chambers which brought the death rate up drastically during the Holocaust. (Vogelsang) Closing The Holocaust brought a different feel to the war cause not only was it a terrible act started by blaming someone. It was all due to the fact that the e conomy was so bad that Germany had no stable government which made room for Hitl er to step up and usurp power. Throughout the whole war he was focused on riddin g the world of Jews and conquering all of Europe

Works Cited United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, . "Hitler Comes to Power." United state s holocaust memorial musuem. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 21 Jul 2012. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Simkin, J.. "Anti-Semitism." Anti-semitism. Spartacus Education, n.d. Web. 22 Ju l 2012. (Simkin) The Nuremberg Race Laws. The History Place- World War II in Euorpe, 2010. Web. 2 1 Jul 2012. (Nuremberg Race Laws) Rosenberg, J.. "KristallnachtThe Night of Broken Glass." Kristallnacht. about.com , 2007. Web. 22 Jul 2012. (Rosenberg) John Simkin, Simkin. "Jewish Ghettos." Spartacus Educational. N.p., 2004. Web. 2 5 Jul 2012. (Simkin) Vogelsang, P.. "Methods Of Mass Murder." Holocaust education. The Danish center for Holocaust and Genocide studd, 2002. Web. 25 Jul 2012. (Vogelsang)