Holocaust

Holocaust

The Holocaust remains, and will continue to remain as one of the most horrific things that has happened to a group of people. The absolute inhumanity of the Holocaust puzzles people even today. Contemporary people wonder just how it happened, how could a people be systematically killed, tortured, murdered. The answer will probably never be found, but future generations can avoid something like the Holocaust by studying it, and never forgetting.

The Nazi’s did not start out with “The Final Solution”, which did not come till later. The first step on the path to that solution was the Nazi decree defining a non-Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith.". The distinction of who was “Aryan” and who were not was very important to Hitler. This distinction allowed the Jews and others to be discriminated against. At this time the German people probably have no idea what these laws will lead to. Next came the exclusion of the Jew from the arts by the Reich Chamber of Culture, every time a right was stripped away from a Jew it was easier to view them as not human. In September of 1933 the Nazis prohibit Jews from owning land, the rights of the Jewish people were being taken away at a frightening pace. In 1934 more was done to the Jewish race. Jews are banned from the German Labor Front, not allowed national health insurance, and prohibited from getting legal qualifications. The following year Nazis ban Jews from serving in the military, force Jewish performers/artists to join Jewish Cultural Unions, and the Jew Codes (Nuremberg Race Laws) were established. These Jew Codes prohibited many things, not only was it against the law for an Aryan to marry a Jew, it was against the law to have sexual relations between Aryans and Jews also. Jews were also no longer considered to be citizens of Germany, they were now subjects. In 1938 things continued to get worse with the order for Jews to register wealth and property, Jewish owned businesses were to register, Jews were prohibited from trading and providing a variety of specified commercial services, the Nazis ordered Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, Jewish doctors were prohibited by law from practicing med...

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...Russians would not catch the Germans. Most of the inmates on these marches either dropped dead from exertion or were shot by the SS when they failed to keep up with the column. As World War II came to a close, many Nazi officials tried to hide the evidence of the death camps, but they were unsuccessful, the horrors that had taken place there were revealed to the world.

In the end around 6 million Jews died as a result as the Holocaust. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire.". The people that died in it did not have to. Only through the participation of the German and other people did it occur. Today we say that something like the Holocaust could never happen again, but it can. If groups of people are dehumanized like the Jewish race was in these times, another Holocaust could easily happen. Its important to look at the early laws that were passed in Germany, how easy it was to start the machinery that allowed 6 million people to die. It’s the duty of every citizen, of every country to make sure that it does not happen again. Future generations need to keep the events that happened during World War 2 and before it, or they are doomed to repeat them.