The Holocaust is most well-known for the organized and inhumane extermination of more than six million Jews. The death total of the Jews is this most staggering; however, other groups such as Gypsies, Poles, Russians, political groups, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals were targeted as well (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Introduction to the Holocaust). The initial idea of persecuting select groups of people began with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. In January 1930, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany after winning over its people with powerful and moving speeches. From this point forward, it was a goal for both Hitler and his Nazi Party to rid the world of deemed “inferior” groups of people (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Timeline of Events).
The Holocaust was the murder and persecution of approximately 6 million Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis came to power in Germany in January of 1933. The Nazis thought that the “inferior” Jews were a threat to the “racially superior” German racial community. The death camps were operated from 1941 to 1945, and many people lost their lives or were forced to work in concentration camps during these years. The story leading up to the Holocaust, how the terrible event affected people’s lives, and how it came to and end are all topics that make this historic event worth learning about.
The Holocaust was a definitive event of the 20th century. During the Holocaust more than 6 million people of mixed background were exterminated for a variety of reasons revolving around the application of racial hygiene. The placement of the Holocaust in the time line of World War II combined with the logistical and bureaucratic considerations involved meant that the Holocaust was conducted like any other battle or war, albeit one conducted against a civilian population. The Holocaust employed the same manpower, technological resources and military hierarchy as any other battle front of World War II except where the goal of other battles was the acquisition of land or resources, the goal of the Holocaust was the extermination of populations and racial annihilation. The Holocaust was Hitler's second war, or a war within a war, where the objectives and tactics were different but the expected outcome was the same: to win. Hitler believed the “Aryan” race was besieged, and no doubt had little trouble reconciling the destruction of millions as a defensive actions in light of that belief.
The word holocaust was originally used to describe the destruction or slaughter on a mass scale (especially cause by fire); however, this term has been more widely accepted to refer to the genocide orchestrated by Adolf Hitler from January 30, 1933, when he took over as prime minister of Germany, to May 8, 1945, the end of the war in Europe. There is controversy over whether or not the term “Holocaust” includes only those murdered of Jewish decent. Today, it is generally held that the term “Holocaust” refers to all those put to death in the Nazi concentration camps, ghettos, and murder squads, and the term “Final Solution” is given to refer to the genocide of the Jewish people (also referred to the as “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”). There is no way to determine the exact number of lives taken during the Holocaust, but six millions is the widely accepted death toll for Jewish victims and five millions is the accepted ...
One of the greatest horrors of the 20th Century was the extermination of over 6 million Jews and 5 million others during the Holocaust. In the face of this atrocity many have wondered how such a tragedy transcended in a supposed "civilized" European society. What role did religious institutions play in the prevention or lack of prevention of the horrors inflicted by the Nazis? How did the German government create, within a reasoning public, acceptance and even support for the extermination of a people who previously were considered equals? The inhumanity of the Holocaust was procured with effective use of propaganda on the German people who were willing to support anyone who could return Germany to the thriving time prior to World War I. The Holocaust was able to sustain vitality during the war because of the Westís ignorance and indifference of the horrendous reality that was the Holocaust. The murder of millions at extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau was the end result of a series of events that did not develop through extraordinary circumstances, but rather from an educated German and Western societiesí abandonment of their responsibility to the minority.
The Holocaust, carried out by the leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, from 1933-1945 in various European countries resulted in the extermination of minority groups deemed inferior by the Nazis, other groups being displaced, taken from their families, removed from their homes, and leaving to start a new life. Hitler’s actions were unknown before this time, and did not involve just the German states, but instead brought in countries from across the globe, and caused many new international ideas to be created, such as the illegality of Nazism, and the term ‘genocide.’ The Nazis believed that it was their responsibility to deal with the “Jewish Nuisance,” and severely limited the rights of oppressed groups. Hitler rose to power via the desperation of the German state, as they had recently lost a major world war, and were being blamed as the cause of the war in the first place. They constantly searched for an answer to their woes, so when a well respected and fantastic public speaker by the name of Adolf Hitler named the Jews as the problem, the public was more than happy to accept these sentiments. Adolf Hitler rose to become chancellor of the German Third Reich and the leader of the Nazi Party on January 30, 1933. He took absolute control of the government, and the Nazi party adopted the motto, “Ein volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer,” meaning “One voice, One Nation, One Ruler.” This marked the beginning of a series of widespread events costing millions of innocent peopl...
n January of 1933 the Nazi regime took control of Germany with the belief that Germans were “racially superior.” Throughout this time period called the Holocaust, which is a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire,” the Jewish people were deemed inferior, and were the main threat to the German racial community. Though the Holocaust was a systematic and bureaucratic war, racism is what fueled the persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime. Racism is defined as “a belief or doctrine that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” This framework of racism was what Hitler believed would “carve out a vast European empire.” (Perry,
From 1933 onwards, Adolf Hitler and his Nazis began implementing simple discrimination laws against the Jews and others who they did not see part of their master race. Hitler and the Nazis believed that German power was being taken by the Jews. Hitler was able to convince his followers of this issue with the Jewish question as it was known, and get away with murdering millions of people in an attempt to cleanse society of anyone inferior to the master race. The Holocaust lasted for 12 years, until 1945. Starting as early as 1944, the Allies were finally advancing on the Germans and began taking over their camps. These liberations and takeovers by the Soviets, American’s and other allies slowly began to remove Hitler from power. In my essay I will go into detail on the final years of the holocaust and how it ended.(1)
The laws that divided society in Nazi Germany were the first indicators of Jewish oppression in Germany, as the “gemeinschaftsfemde” consisted of Jews, Christians, communists, and other groups that the Nazis did not believe were “pure German” or “pure Aryan”. These divisions in social structure were created so that the Nazis could identify certain people, and so the Nazis could use future laws in order to target only those in the gemeinschaftsfemde group. The divisions created led to the future use of what are known as Nuremberg Laws. Michael Berenbaum for the Britannica Encyclopedia defines Nuremberg Laws as “…two race-based measures depriving Jews of rights, designed by Adolf Hitler and approved by the Nazi Party…one deprived Jews of German citizenship, and the other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and ‘citizens of German or kindred blood…’” (1-7). Nuremberg Laws
Although Hitler claimed “that the Nuremberg Laws would actually help the Jews by creating a ‘level ground on which German people may find a tolerable relation with the Jewish people,” his implementation of those laws were “to ostracize, discriminate, and expel Jews from German Society” (Noakes and Pridham). With these laws, Hitler took “the first step toward getting rid of” the Jews, thus “imposing racial conformity on society” (Noakes and Pridham). Subsequently, “the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 laid the foundation for the next ten years of racial policy” (Noakes and
In 1942 right after the agreement of ‘the final solution’ by the Nazi officials, the Holocaust began. The Holocaust had many causes and consequences, but for this essay I will be writing about the two most important causes and the two most important consequences. The two most important causes were eugenics and social darwinism and Hitler coming to power in 1933. The two most important consequences were the displacement of Jews and the creation of Israel. The positive consequence would be the creation of Israel and the negative consequence is the displacement of Jews.
Those of half and quarter Jewish descent remain largely forgotten in the history of the Third Reich and genocide of the Holocaust. Known as Mischlinge, persons of deemed “mixed blood” or “hybrid” status faced extensive persecution and alienation within German society and found themselves in the crosshairs of a rampant National Socialist racial ideology. Controversially, these people proved somewhat difficult to define under Nazi law that sought to cleave the Volk from the primarily Jewish “other”, and as the mechanization toward Hitler’s “Final Solution” the Mischlinge faced probable annihilation. The somewhat neglected status of Mischlinge necessitates a refocusing on German racialization as well as reconsideration of the implications wrought by the alienation and ultimate persecution of the thousands of half and quarter Jews subjugated in Nazi Germany.