Vandiver 1

Research Paper Holocaust

Alyssa Vandiver

Mr. Neuburger English 102-118 18 April 2013

Vandiver 2 The Holocaust is a tragic event in history that happened during World War II in Germany and all throughout Europe. The Holocaust can be defined as the mass murder of the Jewish people, along with others by the Nazi army. The History Place explains that the Holocaust started in 1933 and ended in 1947 (Holocaust Timeline). There were many factors contributing to the Holocaust such as the Nazi and Hitlers rise to power, antisemitism, Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, Jewish ghettos, the Final Solution, death camps, liberation, and life after liberation.

The rise of the Nazi party According to the article, The Rise of the Nazi Party, after the loss of World War I Germany was left with a weakened economy and injured pride. The Germans were looking for someone to blame, and the military and political leaders who were responsible claimed that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leftwing politicians, Communists, and Jews. In 1919 the German Workers Party, the start of the Nazi Party, introduced a new ideology. A German soldier, Adolf Hitler, joined this group and soon became a leader of the party. Hitler introduced the idea of a pure German race. He condemned the Jews showing antisemitism towards them. Hitler changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party, the Nazi Party. The party had around 3,000 members and Hitler became its official leader. In 1923 Hitler and the Nazi Party had the Beer Hall Putsch which was an attempt to over throw the authorities. This failed and Hitler was put in jail. While in jail Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf, the book was filled with his ideas of German Nationalism and antisemitism. The book became the base for the Nazi Partys racist beliefs. After Hitler was
International Response to Hitler's Rise to Power Source: http://bit.ly/YJrY1e

Vandiver 3 released from jail he worked his way to the sole leader of the Nazi Party and by 1929 the Nazi Party had 108,000 members. The partys popularity grew with younger people and lower middle class citizens. The Great Depression in 1929 left the German government very weak and the Nazi Party won some government control. The president in Germany was Paul von Hindenburg and in 1932 his term was up. Hindenburg did not want to run again, but he knew if he did not Hitler would win the election. The German economy was still weak and the Nazi Party was gaining more and more power (Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party).

Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism was a major contributor to the Holocaust. The word anti-Semitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) states, the Holocaust is historys most extreme example of anti-Semitism. The Nazi party showed their antiSemitism by using propaganda to gain followers. They presented the Jews as the source of political, social, economic,
Signs demonstrating Semitism Source: http://bit.ly/17nHmDa

and ethical problems for the German people. Some of the effects of anti-Semitism were antiJewish boycotts, book burnings, and destruction of Jewish-owned stores and synagogues. AntiSemitism during the Holocaust lead to the Nuremberg Laws (Anti-Semitism in History).

Nuremberg Laws

Vandiver 4 The Nuremberg Laws had a huge effect on the Holocaust. The laws were made to prove that Jewish people were not considered German citizens. Jewish Virtual Library explains a conference on August 20, 1935 was held to establish new laws and policies against the Jews. In the following months the Nazi Party held an annual Party Rally in Nuremberg which is now known as the Nuremberg Laws. On September 15, 1935 the laws were made. The first law, called The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor which meant that Jews and Germans were not allowed to be married, and German women under the age of forty-five werent allowed to be employed in Jewish households. The second law, called, The Reich Citizenship Law this law stripped Jews of all of their German citizenship. The Nuremberg Laws were enforced by Nazi Leaders and the laws demanded that the Jews be deprived of their rights as citizens (The Nuremberg Laws).
Picture of the Nuremberg Laws Source: http://bit.ly/1ByPsp

Kristallnacht Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass was a horrific event that happened during the Holocaust. According to Kristallnacht - Horror On The Timeline Of World War 2, 8,000 Jewish shops, 1,600 synagogues, and thousands of homes were destroyed during Kristallnacht. This event took place all throughout Germany on November 9th and 10th 1938. The Nazi Army stormed through Germany smashing windows, doors, and
Kristallnacht Source: http://bit.ly/14tTBJ

Vandiver 5 buildings that belonged to Jewish families. This night was the start of Jewish people being taken to concentration camps. The article states that more than 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps. Many Jews were beaten to death in their homes and in the streets. Hitler planned this event after the Nuremberg Laws. Some historians believe that the whole event as started because of a seventeen year old Jewish boy named, Herschel Grynszpan when he shot and killed a German Embassy staff member. Kristallnacht is so important because after Kristallnacht more than 15,000 Jews and were put on trains and forced out of Germany (Ezine Articles).

The Jewish Ghettos United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) depicts the definition of a ghetto as a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships. This is exactly what the ghetto was for the Jews but no one was allowed in or out of the ghetto. The Nazis were not the first to invent the ghetto for Jews (Ghettos). According to Holocaust Research Project, the ghettos origins can be traced back to medieval times. Where restrictions on the places where Jews were allowed to reside were commonplace throughout Europe. The restrictions were usually only in towns or cities, but in some cases entire countries (The Warsaw Ghetto). Nazis could control the Jews easier if they were all together in one place. This is why they created the ghettos. The Jews were
Jewish children in the Ghetto Source: http://bit.ly/aCXPoy

Vandiver 6 all stuck in one area and the Nazis controlled their every move. The ghettos were cramped, filthy, somber, and cruel. Many Jews died in the ghettos. One of the biggest and most famous ghettos was the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. According to the article The Warsaw Ghetto Wall, the ghetto was surrounded by eleven miles of ten foot high brick walls, topped with barbwire. No one was allowed in to the Warsaw Ghetto and no one was allowed out (Scrapbook Pages). The
The Warsaw Ghetto Wall Source: http://bit.ly/4kxOpB

Jews were crammed in the Ghetto. USHMM states, there were over 400,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. German authorities

forced ghetto residents to live in an area of 1.3 square miles, with an average of 7.2 persons per room (Warsaw Ghetto ). Along with being caged in like animals the Jews were also starved in the Ghetto. The Jewish Virtual Library explains, smuggling started as soon as the Ghetto was established. Without this most of the Jews wouldnt have survived. The Germans forced the Jews to live on 180 grams of bread a day, 220 grams of sugar a month, 1 kg. of jam and 1 kg. of honey. It was calculated that the officially supplied rations did not cover even 10 percent of the normal requirements. If it werent for Jews giving their food to others, almost everyone would have starved to death (Life in Warsaw Ghetto). Furthermore, USHMM explains, the average Jew in the ghetto subsisted on 1,125 calories a day. Czerniakw who was the head of the Jewish Council wrote in his diary on May 8, 1941: Children starving to death. In the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940 and 1942, 83,000 Jews died of starvation and disease. Widespread smuggling of food and medicines into the ghetto was the only way to survive and this is what kept the death rate from increasing (The Warsaw Ghetto). Death was everywhere in the ghetto. Survivors

Vandiver 7 from the holocaust say that everywhere you went in the ghetto there were dead bodies everywhere. People would die on the streets and there was nowhere to put them. In the documentary A Film Unfinished you can see people walking down the street and stepping over dead bodies. The Final Solution The final solution was the Nazi plan to exterminate all Jewish people. The article The Final Solution briefly states that the Final Solution occurred in stages. After the Nazi rise to power, anti-Jewish laws, boycotts, and Kristallnacht all started the Final Solution. The ghettos were established and the Jews were kept there until 1941 when mobile killing squads began to kill whole Jewish communities. The article states further, after the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Nazis began to deport the Jews from all over Europe to extermination camps. Chelno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, AuschwitzGas chamber used during Final Solution Source: http://bit.ly/vRH3HN

Birkenau, and Majdanek were all big extermination camps built by the Nazis. Around three million Jews were killed in the camps. Gas chambers, shootings, random acts of terror, disease, and starvation were all ways that the six million Jewish people died. The Nazis exterminated nearly two-thirds of Europe Jewish population (USHMM).

Death camps Nazi death camps were a sad part of the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum explains that between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi established about 20,000 camps to imprison their victims. The camps were used for forced-labor, temporary placement,

Vandiver 8 and extermination. In 1933 the Nazis built facilities to imprison enemies of the state and these camps mostly held German Communist, Socialist, Social Democrats, Gypsies, Jehovahs Witnesses, criminals, and homosexuals. After Kristallnacht the Nazis arrested large amounts of Jews and put them in camps. Many Jews died in forced-labor camps
Bodies in ditches, outside a Death Camp Source: http://bit.ly/rEa1ua

from starvation, exposure, and exhaustion. In some camps Nazi doctors would perform horrific experiments on the prisoners. The death camps and killing centers were built to carry out the Final Solution. The camps were set up all throughout Germany and Poland. The camps were designed for efficient mass murder. Many Jews were killed by gas chambers built by the Nazis. At its highest point around 6,000 Jews were gassed each day (Nazi Camps). Liberation Liberation came for the Jewish people in 1945. The Nazi Army was losing the war and losing power. The article Rescue and Liberation explains that the final rescue happened when the Allied troops entered the Nazi territory. The troops found concentration camps and were shocked to see ditches filled with bodies and all the other signs of the Nazi brutality. General Eisenhower made sure that photographs were taken to document the horrific things that had happened so future generations would not make the same mistakes (Holocaust Timeline). Furthermore, Jewish Virtual Library states the death camp, Majdanek, in Poland was the first to be liberated by the Soviet Army. Not many prisoners were found alive, but they had found over 800,000 pairs of shoes. After that the Red Army overthrew many other killing centers and on January 27, 1945 they entered Auschwitz where they found hundreds of prisoners. The Germans left the prisoners their because they had tried to make a quick retreat. The American Allies didnt

Vandiver 9 liberate any camps until April 1945. The Germans didnt leave any prisoners behind but left evidence of what they had done. Even after being liberated many of the prisoners died from malnourishment and disease. The survivors didnt know what to think about their new freedom. They looked forward to seeing their family members, but also felt guilty for surviving when many of their
Jewish people after Liberation Source: http://bit.ly/Jgg3PJ

friends and family did not. Some of the survivors were overwhelmed and couldnt grasp the idea of their freedom (Liberation).

Life After Liberation Life after liberation was not easy for many Jewish people. The Holocaust left many Jews with no family or home to return to. The article The Aftermath of the Holocaust states that many Jews were afraid to go back to their homes because of the anti-Semitism that still remained in Europe. Even after the Jews had been freed there were still many anti-Jewish riots. A particular one in the town of Kielce, Poland in 1946, Polish rioters killed around 42 Jews and beat many others. Emigration wasnt possible for many Jews so thousands of homeless survivors migrated west to other European territories that were liberated by the Allies. Many survivors were put in refugee centers and displaced persons camps. These camps were set up by The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Many Jewish agencies were created to help Jewish displaced persons. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee provided survivors with clothes and food. Other programs like the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training offered training to refugees. The United States and Britain both restricted immigration.

Vandiver 10 Many borders throughout Europe were closed to homeless survivors. Almost 4,500 Jewish survivors relocated to Palestine. In May of 1948 the State of Israel was established. The Jewish people began to move in to the new state and by 1953 nearly 170,000 had immigrated to Israel. Other Jewish refugees emigrated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, Mexico, South America, and South Africa (USHMM). The Holocaust is still a very important thing to many people all over the world. There are museums set up to educate people on this historical event. Survivors still give their testimonies and the Holocaust continues to be a major lesson for the world.
Holocaust Museum Source: http://bit.ly/15gwb2h

The Holocaust was a terrifying and horrific time in history. The effects of the Holocaust are still being felt today. It will always be remembered for the systematic mass murder of Jewish people along with others. The Holocaust will never be forgotten, and using knowledge from historical documentations future generations can be sure to not repeat this horrible history.

Vandiver 11 Work Cited

Dill, Danny. "Kristallnacht - Horror On The Timeline Of World War 2." Ezine Articles. N.p., 5 Mar. 2008. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"The History Place - Holocaust Timeline." The History Place - Holocaust Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

"The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students." The "Final Solution" N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"Holocaust History." The Aftermath of the Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "Holocaust History." Antisemitism in History: Nazi Antisemitism. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"Holocaust History." Ghettos. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"Holocaust History." Nazi Camps. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"Holocaust History." Nazi Camps. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "Holocaust Timeline: Rescue & Liberation." Holocaust Timeline: Rescue & Liberation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

Vandiver 12 "Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party." Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

"Liberation." Liberation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

"The Nuremberg Laws." The Nuremberg Laws. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "The Warsaw Ghetto Http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." The Warsaw Ghetto Http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.