The Other Victims of The Holocaust

During the tragic times of the German Holocaust, many innocent people were brutally murdered. Jews were not the only victims during this dark time. Roma (gypsies), Poles and other Slavs, the mentally and/or physically disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, African-German children, priests and pastors, and many other miscellaneous groups all fell victim of persecution and murder by the Nazis for various reasons.

According to A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust, the nomadic people from northwest India, also known as gypsies, were included in the implementation of Hitler’s race laws. They were deprived of civil rights, deported to ghettos, and later taken to concentration camps to be killed [“Victims”]. Roma gypsies were chosen for total annihilation, like the Jews, all because of their race. The Germans believe that the gypsies were racially inferior and degenerate, therefore worthless to the state [“Non-Jewish”]. Along with sending them to concentration camps and ghettos, many gypsies in Russia, Poland, and the Balkans were shot by the Einsatzgruppen, paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany [“Victims”].

Another group of people who were primarily targeted by the Nazis were Christian Poles and other Slavs, mainly from the Ukraine and Byelorussia. According to A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust, the Nazis considered the Slavs as “Untermenschen, or subhuman’s, and nothing more than obstacles to gain territory necessary for the superior German Race.” [“Victims”]. The main reason for almost all of Hitler’s victims was the Germans belief of racial superiority. Millions of Slavs were deported to Germany for forced labor while intelligentsia were imprisoned in concentration camps or publicly executed [“Victims”].

During the Holoca...

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...inated during the Holocaust. These devastating times changed the lives of several millions of people. About eleven million people were killed because of Nazi genocidal policy from many different races and religions. Not only the Jews, but the gypsies, Poles and Slavs, mentally and physically handicapped, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, African-German children, religious leaders, and many other small groups were tremendously affected and destroyed during this dark time period.

Works Cited

Schwartz, Terese P. "The Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims." Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust. American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2014. Web. 16 May 2014. .

"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." Victims. Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 14 July 09. Web. 16 May 2014.