Alex J. Hogeland Mr. Brandon Glasford Honors Junior English 22 April 2014 The Holocaust was a horrible event that happened not every long ago. There were many atrocities committed. And at the base of this horrible event was the tenet of Anti-Semitism. This is why we must study History to prevent the Holocaust from happening again. It is our duty to purge all signs of Anti-Semitism, discrimination, or racism we see. There were many precursors to the Holocaust. This was not just a sudden event. The world should have known that this persecution was going on. I believe they did to some extent. However, there is no way they could have possibly known it would end up as it did. A primary cause of the Holocaust was the rise of the Nazi Party. They made promises to bring Germany into the “Third Reich”. The people of Germany were in a desperate time and were looking for a strong government to pull them out of economic depression. The Nazi Party filled this void. They used propaganda and made unreasonable political promises. They blamed all of Germany’s political, social, economic, and ethical problems on the nation’s Jewish population. The Jews, however, made up only one percent of Germany’s total population. The people’s support of the Nazi Party is evidenced when the Nazi Party won thirty-seven percent of all the seats in the Reichstag (The German’s Parliament building). This is determined to be the majority. The Nazi party continues to grow and upon achieving the majority of seats in the Reichstag, the young, ambitious leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler demanded to be named Chancellor of Germany. Chancellor is sort of like an understudy to being the president. Initially President Paul von Hindenburg did not want to name Adolf Hit... ... middle of paper ... ...at the time. About five million of those killed in the Holocaust were not Jewish. One and a half million children died. There were only two hundred thousand survivors. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never" -- Ellie Wiesel
Not even the most powerful Germans could keep up with the deaths of so many people, and to this day there is no single wartime document that contains the numbers of all the deaths during the Holocaust. Although people always look at the numbers of people that were directly killed throughout the Holocaust, there were so many more that were affected because of lost family. Assuming that 11 million people died in the Holocaust, and half of those people had a family of 3, 16.5 million people were affected by the Holocaust. Throughout the books and documentaries that we have watched, these key factors of hate and intolerance are overcome. The cause of the Holocaust was hate and intolerance, and many people fighting against it overcame this hate
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
At the start of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, no one would have been able to foresee what eventually led to the genocide of approximately six million Jews. However, steps can be traced to see how the Holocaust occurred. One of those steps would be the implementation of the ghetto system in Poland. This system allowed for Jews to be placed in overcrowded areas while Nazi officials figured out what to do with them permanently. The ghettos started out as a temporary solution that eventually became a dehumanizing method that allowed mass relocation into overcrowded areas where starvation and privation thrived. Also, Nazi officials allowed for corrupt Jewish governments that created an atmosphere of mistrust within its walls. Together, this allowed
During World War II there was event that lead to deaths of millions of innocent people. This even is known as the holocaust, millions of innocent people were killed violently, there was mass murders, rapes and horrific tortures. The question I will attempt to answer in the course of this paper is if the holocaust was a unique event in history. In my opinion there were other mass murders that people committed justified by the feeling of being threatened. But I don 't believe that any were as horrific and inhumane as Germany’s genocide of the Jewish people.
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)
Holocaust Facts The Holocaust has many reasons for it. Some peoples’ questions are never answered about the Holocaust, and some answers are. The Holocaust killed over 6 million Jews (Byers.p.10.) Over 1.5 million children (Byers, p. 10). They were all sent to concentration camps to do hard labor work.
Causes & Effects of the Holocaust There are times in history when desperate people, plagued by desperate situations, blindly give evil men power. These men, once given power, have only their own evil agendas to carry out. The Holocaust was the result of one such man's agenda. In short, simplicity, sheer terror, brutality, inhumanity, injustice, irresponsibility, immorality, stupidity, hatred, and pure evil are but a few words to describe the Holocaust. A holocaust is defined as a disaster that results in the tremendous loss of human life.
As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.
The holocaust was a catastrophic event that killed millions of innocent people and showed the world how inhuman mankind can be. This dark period in world history demonstrated unmatched violence and cruelty towards the Jewish race that led toward genocide. Genocide did not begin with the Holocaust; nor was it a spontaneous event. Many warning signs within world events helped provide Germany and Adolf Hitler the foundation to carry out increasing levels of human depravity (Mission Statement). These warning signs during the Holocaust include; Anti-Semitism, Hitler Youth, Racial profiling, the Ghettos, Lodz, Crystal Night, Pogroms, and Deportation. However, their exposure comes too late for the world to help prevent the horrors of the Holocaust. For example, Anti-Semitism was never put into reality until the holocaust overcame the attitudes of its’ German Citizens. It also provided the driving force behind the education of the Hitler youth. Hitler’s persuasive characteristics consumed the people into believing all of his beliefs. This is how racial profiling came about; Hitler made it so that the Germans had the mindset that Jews were horrible, filthy, people that did not deserve to live like the Germans or have the same luxuries. As a result, they moved all the Jews into one secluded area away from the German citizens; an area called the Ghettos. One of these Ghettos was the town of Lodz, who kept meticulous historical records of everything that went on in the city. However, it was not a safe for Jews; never feeling at ease not knowing the uncertainties or dangers lying ahead. For instance, in Crystal Night, they did not know that it would be the last night for some of them to be with their families. In general, Jews were just living...
On the night of January 30, 1933, an event occurred that spearheaded the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany. Born in Austria in 1889, Hitler served in World War I under the German army. Like many prevalent anti- Semites in Germany, Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s trounce in World War I in 1918. During Hitler’s imprisonment in 1923, he wrote a memoir, “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), which foresaw a European war which would result in “the extermination of the Jewish race in Germany.” Following Hitler’s release from prison, he resurrected the Nazi Party. He soon become the sole leader of the Nazi Party, thus all decision making was in his hands. The Nazi party began to multiply from 27,000 members (1925) to 108,000 (1929). Adolf Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the superiority of the “pure” German race. He viewed Jews as an inferior race, and as a threat to the German racial purity. Following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler appointed himself “Fuhrer,” making him the supreme ruler of Germany.
The Holocaust was an extremely horrific period of history. Millions were killed and lost everything, including money, family, and dignity. However, it has taught many lessons. We can study it today to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
1933 -1939 as well as Adolf Hitler and his racist views which influenced thousands of Germans. The main reason for the holocaust happening was that Germany had been anti-Semitic for many centuries, and during those centuries. anti-Semitism gradually got worse. Therefore because this was becoming a racial war, this was an opportunity for Germany to cleanse itself of Jews like it should have done centuries ago. With Hitler was Anti-Semitic and a strong leader for the Nazi party.
The Holocaust was a terrible time. This terrible time was all a plan, led by Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was sent to prison for treason. Even after he got out, he worked with the government of Germany. He even rose to be the Dictator of Germany, with the luck of the last leader's passing. He blamed others for his "struggle." He passed laws, to make it legal to descriminate and to single out groups of people, races, and religions.
It is often a topic that many are uncomfortable talking about and tend to push to the side. There is a very big problem with that though, people in this generation need to know what happened in the past and be fully educated on everything that happened, in order to help prevent something terrible like that from ever happening again. The Holocaust was caused by a very few distinct reasons. Hitler’s very strong belief of anti semitism and his extreme hatred for the Jewish community was among the most powerful of causes for the beginning of the Holocaust. Also , the various political, economic, and social problems that the country of Germany was facing during the time leading up to the second World War massively contributed. The Nazi Party’s effective use of propaganda, scapegoating, and their military strength were also very strong factors. These causes therefore were the reason why the Holocaust occurred, and it had very many effects that arose from its happening. Millions upon millions were dead after it had finally reached an end. The survivors suffered vast amounts of physical and mental pain and challenges. Finally, lots of books and websites were made about the Holocaust in order to provide information to people about the terrible event that had occurred. All in all, the Holocaust was a very terrible and heartbreaking event that occurred in our world 's history, but also it is a very crucial thing for
The Holocaust, the mass killing of the Jewish people in Europe, is the largest genocide in history to this date. Over the course of the Holocaust nearly six million Jewish people were killed by the Nazi Party and Germany led by Adolf Hitler. There are multiple contributing factors to the Holocaust that made it so large in scope. Historians argue which of these factors were most significant. The most significant contributing factor is the source of the Holocaust, the reason it occurred. This source is Adolf Hitler and his hatred for Jewish people. In comparison to the choices of the Allies to not accept Jewish refugees and to not take direct military action to end the Holocaust, the most significant contributing factor of the Holocaust is that Adolf Hitler was able to easily rise to power with the support of the German people and rule Germany.