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Research Paper Holocaust Overview

Shelby Hendrix

Mr Neuburger English Comp 117 4 April 2013

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The Holocaust, seventy years later, is still the worst case of genocide in human history. Millions of people died during the course of only a few years and many more were unfairly treated for reasons no person should ever be. Religious views, political views, even sexual orientation were some of the reasons for mistreatment and often death. The Holocaust was more than a political movement which got out of hand, spearheaded by the distaste Germany had after the Treaty of Versailles. It was a reign of terror held over much of Europe for years. It is the most notorious mass murder in modern history. Nazi rise to power The Treaty of Versailles was not the cause of the war or even the Holocaust but more like the spark that vaulted the Nazi party to the top of Germany. After the treaty Germany was suffering greatly. The Allied countries forced Germany into a time of poverty and hardship with the treaty by making them admit fault for the war, limiting their military, and paying reparations to cover the cost of the war since they were held responsible for the war. These reparations were so great that the German government increased taxes on its citizens to help pay for them. Through these hard times a political figure in which the German people
A 1936 poster that says "Hitler- our last hope" Source: http://bit.ly/ZnxTHm

could believe in and rally behind arose. Adolf Hitler was that figure. Hitler used the money from wealthy business men to fund his elections and propaganda campaigns. Propaganda, Hitlers ability to speak, and great organizing skills all helped him to rise to the top and influence the German people to adopt his way of thinking and views. Tony Howarth, a modern historian, says [Hitler's policies] were half-baked, racist clap-trap... but among the jumble of hysterical ideas Hitler showed a sure sense of how to appeal to the lowest instincts of frightened masses.

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(Hitler's Rise to Power) While it may be hard for a modern historian to tell know exactly how Hitlers appeal worked there are quotes from the 1920s such as Karl Ludecke, an early follower of Hitler. Ludecke said in 1924, He was holding the masses, and me with them, under an hypnotic spell by the sheer force of his beliefs. His words were like a whip. When he spoke of the disgrace of Germany, I felt ready to attack any enemy. (Hitler's Rise to Power) Hitler used his influence to create and eventually follow through with his anti-sematic agenda. Nazis views on jews anti-Semitism The Nazi party viewed Jews as an inferior race that could not be trusted. A lower class of person is what Jews were viewed as to the Nazis. The Nazis had a superior race of person which would be viewed as the perfect human being. These people are called Aryans. Aryans were the type of human that Hitler wanted to represent Germany in the future. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were the stage which Hitler looked to prove his Aryan race was better than the rest of the world and most certainly the Jewish people. (The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936) Not only did Hitler and the Nazi party
A German anti-Jewish propaganda poster that reads "The Jew is an infection to the people." Source: http://bit.ly/15btX48

view the Jewish people as inferior people they also made them out to be the scapegoat for all of Germanys problems after WWI. The Nazis tried to make the Jews look like untrustworthy and evil people. Nuremberg Laws Once the Nazis came to power in 1933 the Jewish people soon found themselves restricted by over four hundred separate regulations and laws. From social to personal, Jews were

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not allowed to participate in a symphony orchestra or even own a pet cat. These laws and regulations are known as The Nuremburg Laws. These laws did more than just limit what animals Jews could own for pets but they tried to protect German blood from non-German blood. The Germans did this by prohibiting marriages and extra-marital intercourse between Jews and Germans. The German citizenship of all Jews was taken away thanks to The Reich Citizenship Law. The Nuremburg Laws made official the measures already taken against Jews up to their creation. (Noakes) The Laws were finalized September 15, 1935. Propaganda The views of the German people had of Jews at this time was not a view they were born with. Their views came from Nazi propaganda and maybe even brainwashing. There was a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment which was responsible for educating the people of Germany about political ideas and even attacking the Jewish people with their anti-Sematic words, slogans and teachings. The Ministry used the
This is a perfect example of anti-Semitism propaganda as the sign reads "The Jews are our misfortune" Source: http://bit.ly/YdPxhd

mediums of art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press to spread their views and hatred. (Nazi Propoganda) Among the people of Germany there were several audiences and the Ministry tried to cater to them. Propaganda campaigns created an atmosphere tolerant of violence against Jews in periods preceding legislative and executive measures against Jews. The Ministry also promoted passivism toward the Nazi government and painted a picture where the Nazis were restoring order and peace among the rattled German people.

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Kristallnacht On November 7, 1938 Ernst Vom Rath, a secretary of the German ambassador to France, was assassinated. This opened the door for Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers Chief of propaganda, to launch a pogrom against the Jews of Germany. Since Goebbels viewed the assassination of Von Rath as an attack by the Jewish community he launched one of his own. Rampaging mobs took to the streets on
Germans Passing Glass of a Jewish owned shop Source: http://bit.ly/Yr01ds

the nights of November the 9th and 10th to take revenge on the Jews of Germany and Austria. The mobs attacked Jews in the streets, their homes, and places of worship. The assault was more than just against the Jewish people but their businesses and properties as well. The mob smashed windows and burned Jewish businesses and synagogues. About one hundred Jews were killed, hundreds more were injured, more than one thousand synagogues were burned, almost eight thousand Jewish businesses were destroyed, and about thirty thousand Jews were arrested and sent to camps or ghettos. (Kristallnacht) Three days later the Nazis looked to hold the Jews responsible for Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. Rounding up Jews ghettos After Kristallnacht, Jews were arrested and taken to small areas where they were no more than refugees. These small areas could either be in rural areas or a closed off section in a slum part of town. Never the less these areas were called ghettos and were terribly overcrowded, filled with diseases, and starvation. The Jewish Ghettos were never meant to turn into a long term

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establishment, instead a temporary holding pin for the Jews before the final solution thought of and carried out. (Bard) Though in the ghettos, people stayed long enough to die of starvation. If someone was not strong and did not have a will to live they most likely would not make it. The conditions inside the Warsaw ghetto were so bad that one in ten people died while inhabiting it. Jews caught circumventing the Nazi rule over the ghettos to get food or other necessities were often put to death. (Ghetto) Resistance The Jewish people were no doubt weakened and helpless through much of the Holocaust. They were pushed around, abused, and led to their deaths. The Jews did not want this to happen to them and would have loved a way out at any cost other than a helpless death at the hands of the Nazis. As unlikely as the chances of a uprising against the Nazis was among the Jews it was even more likely they would succeed in their attempt at freedom, revenge, or justice. Though the odds were not in the favor of the Jews, some still preceded in some valiant but mostly unsuccessful uprisings. One of the earliest uprisings against the Germans happened in the Tuchin ghetto on September 3, 1942. About seven hundred Jewish families escaped from the ghetto in Ukraine, yet only 15 survived while the rest were hunted down. It seems a turn out such as this is about as good as it could get as the Jews had nowhere to go once they got out of the ghetto. The Jews also took a stand against the Germans in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. The inhabitants of the ghetto had arranged about one thousand fighters who were unarmed. When the S.S. entered the
Homeless Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto Source: http://bit.ly/YYSAO6

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ghetto for a new shipment of Jews to take to the death camps they were met by the fighter who hurled homemade weapons and fired a few guns, which were smuggled into the ghetto, at them. Twenty S.S. soldiers were killed. The Nazi military was then brought in and reduced the ghetto to no more than a large pile of rubble. It was a valiant effort but fifteen thousand Jews died and the rest were shipped off to death camps. (Jewish Resistance to the Nazi Genocide) There is at least one resistance story that has a good ending. In 1941 the Bielski brothers are a group of brothers that lead about one thousand and two hundred Jewish refugees in the forests of the Soviet Union. These brothers took in all kinds of people and every able bodied person did their part in order to stay alive and out of reach of the Nazis. (The
Bielski Brothers - Jewish Resistance and the "Otriad")
The Bielski Brothers Source: http://bit.ly/11dVICH

Wannsee Conference The Final Solution As the Holocaust progressed the amount of Jews in ghettos and work camps became increasingly larger than the capacity for them was. The Nazis needed a Final Solutions to relieve some of the building pressure. The Final Solution was the code name for the systematic extermination of the Jews. It was intended to be a deliberate and physical annihilation of the Jews of Europe. It was decided upon at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. A villa owned by SS-Nordhav Foundation in Wannsee was where the conference was held. There were over a dozen Nazi officials and doctors in attendance at the conference. Many versions of the Final

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Solution were discussed but many were discarded as they were either not practical or would lead back to the Nazis and their officials. (Wannsee Conference) Selection Selektion Once being deported from the ghettos to concentration camps, the Jews were loaded up on trains where it was standing room only. Aboard these trains there was next to little food, heat, and no place to go to the bathroom for the long ride to the camp. Upon arrival the Jews were escorted out of the train into lines where divided by variables such as age and gender. From there they were either selected to stay at the camp or sent for execution. The man making this decision would normally be a S.S. physician who would direct them left or right. If a Jew got to stay at the camp, they were used for hard labor, which often led to the result of being sent to the other side of the physician at the selection process. (Nazi Camps) The other side of the physician would be the gas chambers where the Jews were sent to be exterminated in an efficient manner.
Deportation from the Westerbork transit camp. The Netherlands, 19431944. US Holocaust Memorial Museum Source: http://bit.ly/Z3qL7p

Another side to the selection process is the experiments the Nazis did on Jews inside the camps. Most notorious for these experiments is Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as The Angel of Death. At Auschwitz he did a number of experiments on Jewish twins. Often the experiments were ones such as injecting dye into the eyes in order to change the color. Unfortunately

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injections to the eye were one of the more humane experiments he conducted at Auschwitz. Even more unfortunate Dr. Mengele was never caught and brought to justice. (Dr. Josef Mengele) Extermination Methods After being sent left of the line upon entrance to the camp the Jews were to be executed in a quick an efficient fashion. Among the methods of execution there were mass shootings or firing squads, gas trucks, and gas chambers most famous for being disguised as showers. These were the most common three methods of extermination. It didnt take long for the firing squads to stop though. The squads were an extreme waste of ammunition for the Nazis considering they were now fighting a losing war and needed to conserve what ammunition they could. On top of being viewed as a waste the squads took a huge toll mentally on those in charge of carrying out the orders to pull the trigger. As much as the Nazis are viewed as something that isnt human, even this got to them. So many
The brick chimney to the crematorium at Auschwitz Source: http://bit.ly/113hDxp

days of murdering crying and terrified people is more than enough to break down even some of the less human people. Gas trucks were another common form of execution. The Jews were loaded into the back of a truck and forced to breathe the exhaust of the truck taking them to their grave. By the time they got to their graves they were already dead and ready to be buried. This was a much more efficient process than the firing squads but it left evidence of the mass murder behind and the Nazis feared being caught if they lost the war. The third method of extermination was the gas chambers. Gas chambers were often a shower room with a simple hatch in the roof. Through the hatch a Zyklon-B was dropped. Once all the Jews inside the chamber were dead, they were moved to the crematorium where the evidence of the murder was destroyed. This

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proved to be the best fit for the Nazis, extermination wise, as it was cheap, effective, and disposed of any incriminating evidence. The death camps Death camps were something different form the traditional concentration camp in the sense that they were specifically for killing. Death camps existed for the systematic extermination of people who were considered to be undesirable to the Nazi regime. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the mentally retarded were all considered undesirable to the Nazis and there for persecuted and murdered in the camps. Upon arrival at a death camp the prisoners were quickly dealt with by being sent to the gas chambers. Death camps were not for forced labor or breaking their prisoners, but they were for the killing of their prisoners. (Inside a Nazi Death Camp, 1944) Liberation Near the end of the war the Allied forces were sweeping across Europe, pushing back the Axis forces. As they moved the came across Europe they found thousands of camps filled with Jewish prisoners. These prisoners were starving and had diseases due to the overcrowding that took place. The living prisoners were not all that the Allied troops found when they came to these camps. They found piles of dead bodies. The Nazis were unable to hide the horrors that took place at the camps from the Allies. (Liberation of Nazi Camps) The guards of these camps were executed for their crimes.
A look inside the barracks of a concentration camp Source: http://bit.ly/113npPz

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After Liberation until 1948 when Israel is formed After liberation many former prisoners found it hard to adjust from the terrible conditions they had endured during the Nazi reign of terror. Thousands of survivors actually died from over eating, pandemics, and exhaustion. Thousands of people were suddenly free and had nowhere to go and no way of
Modern day Jews now living in Israel Source: http://bit.ly/15fZ9zh

getting there. When the survivors eventually made it home they found their homes and families didnt exist anymore. Some survivors even encountered hostility and violence as they returned to their home towns. Many looked to leave Europe and start over. (The Holocaust) The Holocaust was a terrible time in human history. Though it was the first time the Jewish people have been persecuted, but it very well might be the worst. The Germans may have been the people who did it last but thats not to say it couldnt happen again. Any country or race is capable of the horrors that took place during the Holocaust and maybe even worse now. The Holocaust is still going on today in anti-sematic groups all around the world. It may not be near the scale that it was but all it would take is another great leader like Hitler to rally people again. Thankfully the world wont allow another Hitler to rise and repeat history again.

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Works Cited
Austin, Ben S. "Kristallnacht." Jewish Virtual Encyclopedia. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. Bard, Mitchell. "The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising." Jewish Virtual Library. The American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. "Dr. Josef Mengele." The Holocaust, The Shoah, The Nazi Genocide. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "Ghetto." Jewish Virtual Library - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. "Hitler's Rise to Power." Hitler's Rise to Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.Hitler's Rise to Power. n.d. Web. 10 April 2013. "Holocaust History." Nazi Propaganda. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. "Inside a Nazi Death Camp, 1944." EyeWitness to History - History through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "Jewish Resistance to the Nazi Genocide." Jewish Virtual Library - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. "Liberation of Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. "Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. New York: Viking Press, 1975. 10 April 2013. "The Bielski Brothers - Jewish Resistance and the Otriad." Jewish Virtual Library Homepage. Holocaust Education and Research Team, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. "The Holocaust." - Yad Vashem. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936. Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. "Wannsee Conference." The Holocaust History Project Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

Hendrix 13 Score Points Available

40 20 40 35 25 15 25

Content paper demonstrates understanding and confidence about topic Sources uses only primary and secondary sources In-Text Citations integrates sources within text with effective use of signal words and phrases Formatting properly uses MLA formatting Works Cited works cited page has the required number of sources and is properly formatted Pictures uses pictures to enhance the text with effective captions and source information Writing Mechanics Paper is free from errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

35 18 25 28 17 15 20
Total Score

Total = 200

158

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