The Holocaust: A Brief Overview

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The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi Regime and its collaborators ("Introduction to the Holocaust."). Once Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor-President, the second most powerful position, of Germany, in January of 1933, he immediately started to attract the attention on many Germans by being an eloquent speaker. As a result, he began to gather followers, which started the major formation of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party), which later became the Nazi Party. Hitler and his National Socialist movement belong amoung the many irrationally racist mass movements after the social desperation that followed World War 1. On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler began World War 11 by invading Poland, where he immediately followed with the liquidation or slaughter of Jews; this is when the Final Solution began.

During the years 1933 to 1945 was the twelve years of the Third Reich, a regime that changed history and the world forever; Hitler youth, a branch of the Nazi Party, was officially formed in 1926, but did not become popular until Hitler’s term of service. This gave its members excitement and a chance to revolt against parents and schoolteachers. Millions of boys and girls who belonged to this group wore the name proudly. At a time when the Fatherland, Germany, was suffering from a inadequate, rickety government, high-unemployment, and prevalent poverty, the Nazi Party promised young Germans a great future within the country- if they become loyal members of Hitler’s’ Youth. These children lived by the motto “For the flag we are ready to die.” Melita Mashmann, a fifteen-year old member of the girls’ branc...

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..." 20th Century History. About.com. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. "The Bloody Handprint." Introduction. Hitler Youth Growing up in Hitler's Shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005. 9-15. Print.

"History1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/tp/holocaust.htm - Similar Sites and Reviews | Xmarks." Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

"Introduction to the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D.C. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

Paldiel, Mordecai. "Holocaust Essays and Poems." The Holocaust, Crimes, Heroes and Villains. Louis Bülow. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

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