Masco Randy Masco Ms.

Huneke Honors English II 25 January 2012

Injustice Beyond Injustice

The Holocaust of World War II is known today as the biggest offense against mankind ever to occur. Millions upon millions of innocent people perished for what was known as the greater good by Adolf Hitler and his army of Nazis, and the world they wanted to create was nothing short of a Nazi vision of utopia in which Nationalist Socialist Germany reigned supreme (Vosburgh). It is well known that a high percentage of these victims were of the Jewish faith, but a fact unbeknownst to many is that there were more targets of this mass genocide. Throughout the Jewish purges, thousands of members of other minorities were being put in prisons, concentration camps, and being executed. In fact, of the 400,000 registered prisoners of Auschwitz, only about half of these prisoners were Jews (Feldman 259). Adolf Hitlers prejudiced views on humankind were not limited only to Jewish people; he only favored one group of people in actuality, the Aryans. The Holocaust was therefore not only an attack on Jews, but also an attack on everyone Hitler deemed immoral and unworthy of life, which included mentally disabled people, homosexuals, gypsies, and members of the Jehovahs Witness Church. Mentally disabled people were often the subject of scrutiny by Adolf Hitler, and he often questioned their place in society, because he believed they could not work and could not provide

Masco Germany with any profit. He called them lives unworthy of living on several occasions and believed they did not deserve to exist (Baumslag 41). Eventually, Adolf Hitler began to take action to prevent the births of deformed and mentally retarded people. This process began with the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, which called for the sterilization of those considered mentally disabled. According to Linda Jacobs Altman: Many people were sterilized without their consent and some without their

knowledge. Because surgical sterilization was time-consuming and expensive, the Nazis tried mass methods. In one such experiment, subjects were seated at desks and told to fill out lengthy questionnaires. While they worked at the task, machines hidden beneath the seats focused Xrays on their genitals, producing sterility. (18) Using this method, nearly four hundred thousand people were sterilized. (Altman 11-25) After Hitler deemed sterilization to be too ineffective a method (mentally disabled infants were still being born), he began to move toward using euthanasia as a method to rid Europe of the mentally disabled. Nothing initially happened, because the Nazi doctors could not find any willing participants to test, but eventually they did have a considerable subject. This first participant was an infant born with severe physical deformities, volunteered by his father, after requesting permission for a mercy killing. Hitler pursued this case, and in the end, he was satisfied with its outcome. After this, Hitler began ordering all newborns deemed deformed, paralyzed, or mentally disabled to be recorded, so the medical specialists could decide which infants live and which die. After the decisions were made, the children deemed unfit were removed from their current homes (their parents were told they were leaving for treatment), and killed by painful methods including poison gas, overdoses of morphine, and phenol injection.

Masco Adults considered mentally ill and retarded were handled in a different matter. They were taken

from their homes and immediately sent to one of the six killing centers designated for euthanasia. These doomed adults were killed through gas chambers disguised as showers, much like the methods used to kill Jewish people in concentration camps. When this program, called T4, ended, many people were furious with it. Many charges were filed against those who allowed, committed, and maintained these procedures, and because of this, Hitler closed the centers used for the gas chambers. By the time these facilities closed, there had been more than 75,000 deaths accounted for. However, even though the legal centers were closed, the deaths still continued on through what was known as wild euthanasia. These murders were committed undocumented, by both doctors and nurses, and became part of the daily routine of such people. The victims were killed by means of starvation, neglect, and overdose of sedatives. Because of the brainwashing beliefs of the Nazis, doctors believed killing someone deemed useless was only to help further the greater good that was hoped to be achieved by Adolf Hitler. (Altman 11-25) Along with the mentally ill, homosexuals were a main target of Hitlers beliefs. Adolf Hitler originally disregarded homosexuality in Germany, since it in certain Nazi circles was tolerated or ignored (Gutman 2; 687). Hitler refused to allow an investigation within his troops for homosexuality, and he strongly defended them. However, when the troops he defended were no longer necessary to the advancement of the Nazi party, Hitler rid himself of them. He actually homosexuality as the reason behind their deaths, when in reality, it was just that they werent needed anymore. Linda Jacobs Altman elaborates on the first case of these murders: In June 1934, Hitler ordered a purge. Over a three-day period, Ernst Rhm and nearly one hundred others were executed. To justify the blood-letting, Hitler claimed he was cleansing the SA of evil homosexual influences. He then banned

Masco homosexuality in all Nazi organizations [] Hitler ordered all SA commanders and all party leaders to expel homosexuals from their ranks. (76-78) After this incident, Hitler began a full war on homosexuals, ordering all of the Gestapo to

research and find the names of homosexuals in Germany. However, this search was only pushed towards homosexual males, because Nazis believed it can be generally assumed that if a woman is seduced she will not for that reason lastingly withdraw from normal sexual relations (Berenbaum). This is when arrests of homosexuals began, made under accusations of indecent contact between males. It had been illegal in Germany since 1871, but it was re-amended and given crueler regulations in 1935. Thereafter, homosexuals were controlled by the legal system. They were arrested on ridiculous charges; they were very miniscule and even hard to notice without looking for it. Nazis defended their arrests by claiming that homosexuals do not further Germany, since they do not marry and have children. One SS officer, Heinrich Himmler, stated he believed homosexuals recruit people to join their lifestyle, which reduces the number of men willing to reproduce. He created the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. This group was dedicated solely to the persecution of homosexuality and abortionists, and immediately began tracking such people after its formation. Fortunately, many homosexuals were difficult to track, since they belong to many ethnic groups and religions, and were already accustomed to hiding from and avoiding society. However, the agency did find uncover thousands of homosexuals through various methods: torture of one homosexual to reveal others, scouring personal property, and citizen reports. These methods ended up being very effective, meaning by the end of 1938, they had made over eight thousand homosexual arrests. After these arrests, homosexuals were sent to concentration camps along with Jewish people and gypsies. Their clothes were embroidered with pink triangles and they were subjected to vicious

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attacks by homophobic guards and fellow prisoners. Deaths numbered 11,000, and by the end of the war, and only four thousand survived imprisonment and were released. (Altman 75-83) Gypsies are known for their dark-skin and their nomadic ways. They often travelled in large groups and spoke their own languages. Hitler disliked the fact that they refused to speak German. The persecution of gypsies in Germany included all of the methods used for other minorities. Many gypsy children were euthanized along with handicapped children, many were sent to concentration camps along with Jews and homosexuals, and they were all racially discriminated against in their public schools, considered racially inferior and worthless. Eventually, gypsy children were excluded completely from the German education system, because their schooling was not of serious concern to Nazi authorities (Bard 118). The gypsy childrens euthanasia were also for reasons very similar to the mentally handicapped, Nazi physicians considered the elimination of those they considered diseased and deformed as essential to their aim of racial purification (Bard 119). Gypsies were also banned from owning property due to their racial inferiority (Uschan 27). In the concentration camps, gypsy infants and adults treated similarly to Jews. The babies were immediately sent to their deaths, being deemed worthless since they could not work machinery and could not participate in labor. The mothers often went with the babies, because they would not leave them behind to die. According to Mitchell G. Bard: Gypsy children and thousands of institutionalized handicapped children [] were murdered [] their respective chances for survival and their ability to perform physical labor varied enormously by age. Chances of survival were somewhat higher for older children, since they could potentially be assigned to forced labor in concentration camps and ghettos. (117)

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There were only about 1,100 young survivors of the Holocaust, and only about 500 of them were expected to by gypsies. (Bard 116-120) Although Christians are often considered the persecutors of ancient times, causing the deaths of millions of people during the Spanish Inquisition and other various points in time, they were also victims of the Holocaust. Christian minorities who very strong in their beliefs often refused to participate in Hitlers salutes and other Nazi rituals. Specifically, Jehovahs Witnesses, a small Christian sect, refused to do this because they believed that God was the only person they should honor (Uschan 27). Because of these beliefs, they were reprimanded and scorned by teachers, co-workers, and peers. When opposed by a Christian, the Nazis arrested them on false charges, also imprisoning them. In 1938, eight hundred ministers and priests were arrested. (Uschan 27-29) Throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the Holocaust has remained a common topic of conversation in everyday life. People are constantly speaking of how much of a wrong has been done to the Jewish population and the Jewish population alone. This shows how neglected the other victims of the Holocaust are, simply because when such a conversation arises, it isnt often stated that homosexuals, gypsies, and those who are mentally handicapped have also suffered a loss. These groups of people were put through the same turmoil and suffering that the Jewish people were, but they are smaller groups so therefore smaller amounts of people had to endure it. It needs to be further recognized that Hitler was not only prejudiced against Jewish people, but also against nearly all groups of people deemed different, unique, or abnormal. Many types people suffered a loss in this horrible tragedy, and hopefully that will be made well known sometime in the near future.

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Works Cited

Altman, Linda. J. The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust. New Jersey: Enslow, 2003. Print. Bard, Mitchell. G. The Holocaust. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 2001. Print. Baumslag, Naomi. Murderous Medicine. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. Print. Berenbaum, Michael. Witness to the Holocaust. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1997. Print. Feldman, George. Understanding the Holocaust. Detroit, CO: Gale, 1998. Print. Shaul, Elisheva. Homosexuality in the Third Reich. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Ed. Isreal Gutman. New York, NY: Macmillian, 1990. Print. Uschan, Michael. V. The Holocaust. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2005. Print. Vosburgh, Rod. Nazi New Order: World War II. World at War; Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. Web. 13 Jan. 2012.