The Holocaust is generally regarded as the systematic slaughter of not only 6 million Jews, (two- thirds of the total European Jewish population), the primary victims, but also 5 million others, approximately 11 million individuals wiped off the Earth by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. It is hard to grasp the idea that it isn’t just 11 million deaths, but 11 million people whose lives were cut off because of racism and hate, all in a period of 11 years (1933-1945).
There are actually two main phases to the Holocaust, the period between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi rise, and the period between 1939 and 1945, the eriod of war, or more specifically, World War II. The first concentration camp opened in January 1933, when the Nazis came to power, and continued to run until the end of the war and the Third Reich: May 8, 1945. The idea that the Holocaust represents 11 million lives that abruptly ended is a difficult concept, but this is an important point, and one this site hopes to help bring across.
The Holocaust was the extermination of people not for who they were but for what they were. Groups such as handicaps, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, political dissidents and others ere persecuted by the Nazis because of their religious/political beliefs, physical defects, or failure to fall into the “Aryan” ideal. The unfortunate truth is that the Holocaust is a subject whose gravity is obvious, but it is easy to become almost numb to it.
As Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and famous Holocaust survivor has said, “the essense of this tragedy is that it can never be fully conveyed. ” When viewing this site, think about the individual people in the images you see. Remember that the Holocaust is something that we should all learn bout so that we never let such a terrible crime against mankind happen again. One of the reasons you can listen to survivors is that it helps to show that every one of those 11 million has a story, but they aren’t alive to tell it.
A Testament The Holocaust shows something amazing: the strength of the human spirit. Prisoners survived because of their sheer will to live, unwilling to be broken by the oppression of the Nazis. It is incomprehensible how life truly was for those in the camps, the day in, day out, monotony of horror that grew into weeks, months, and even years. The fact that there were survivors shows that there is something in us that cannot be taken away no matter what, and that is a true testament to the human spirit. Obviously this is a summary description of precisely what the Holocaust is.
Entire books could be written on the subject, but we are trying to provide you with a graspable overview to familiarize you with the subject. Period between 1933-1939 Once firmly in power, Hitler’s plans for the ending of the struggle between the Aryan race and the “inferior races” was set to work. These races were feared as a biological threat to the “master race” purity. Hitler gained further support for his ideas via The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, headed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, which filled the popular media with pro-Nazi material. Anything opposing the Nazi Party was censored and removed from the media.
All forms of communication: the Nazis controlled newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, rallies, art, music, movies, and radio. Bookburnings of books that didn’t gel with the “Nazi ideals” were frequent, some due to the their authors being Jewish, such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, but many of them by non-Jews such as Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, and Helen Keller (a particularly offensive person to the Nazis since she successfully overcame her handicaps). The Jewish population of Germany hovered around 600,000 in total, less than 1 percent of the entire German population.
Nonetheless, Nazi propaganda identified them as a “race” (incorrect) and an inferior one at that, the source of all the economic depression and defeat in World War I- failing to mention that many of the more than 100,000 Jews who had served in the war were highly decorated soldiers. The Jews of Germany still had some prejudices held against them but they were becoming more and more ccepted. Interfaith marriages were on the rise and many Jews were prominent citizens: fourteen of the 38 Nobel Prizes awarded to Germans went to Jews. This was about to change, and for the worse.
Laws were instituted against Jews forcing them out of public life, i. e. civil service jobs, law court and university positions, etc. Jewish businesses were boycotted as of 1935, the first organized boycott was on April 1, 1933. Jews were forced to label all exterior clothing with a yellow Star of David with the word Juden, (Jew). The “Nuremberg Laws” proclaimed Jews second-class citizens. Furthermore one’s Jewishness, according to the Nuremberg Laws, was dependent on that of a person’s grandparents, not that person’s beliefs or identity.
More laws passed between 1937 and 1939 exacerbated the problem further: Jews were more and more segregated and life was made much harder. Jews could not go to public schools, theaters, cinemas, or resorts, and furthermore, they were banned from living, or sometimes even walking, in certain parts of Germany. The Jewish population was less persecuted during the Olympics (Hitler wouldn’t want to ose the Games to another city) of Berlin in 1936, however, no German Jewish athletes were allowed to compete. The period between 1937 and 1939 also saw the economic hardship for Jews increase.
Actions against Jewish businesses and properties escalated from boycotts and seizures to destruction of stores and synagogues. In November 1938, the Kristallnacht took place, in which Jewish buildings were destroyed, and Jewish men were arrested and murdered. The riot (or pogrom) came be to known as the “night of broken glass,” thus the name Kristallnacht. Over 1000 synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish business ere wrecked. Dr. Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi officials had very carefully planned it all.
Thirty thousand more male Jews would be arrested the next morning for the “crime” of their religious beliefs. Some female Jews were arrested and sent to local jails. More restrictions were placed on the Jewish people, making it particularly tough for children, who were essentially housebound. Jews were not the only targets of Nazi persecution despite their status as the main “problem. ” Nazi hatred extended to include groups deemed racially or genetically “inferior,” which was advocated by scientists ho promoted “selective breeding,” or eugenics for the “improvement” of the human race.
Laws were passed between 1933 and 1935 to reduce the number of genetically “inferior” individuals in the gene pool through involuntary sterilization programs. The result: 500 African-German children and 320,000 to 350,000 people judged to be handicapped either physically or mentally were sterized surgically or subjected to sterilizing radiation. The program drew support from people claiming that the handicapped population was a burden due to their care costs. Many Blacks and Gypsies were also sterilized and revented from intermarrying with Germans.
The Nazi tradition of mixing old prejudices in showed again when laws were passed decreeing Gypsies (30,000 of which resided in Germany) as “criminal and asocial” as a race in general. Other victims of Nazi persecution included political opponents of Hitler and trade unionists as well as other “enemies of the state. ” Between 5,000 and 15,000 homosexuals were placed in concentration camps. Due to the newly revised 1935 Nazi criminal code, simply being called a homosexual could result in arrest, trial, and conviction.
The 20,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany were banned in April 1933 because their religion prohibited them from swearing any oath to the state or providing service in the state military. The literature of the Jehovah’s Witnesses was confiscated. They lost their jobs along with their unemployment benefits, social welfare benefits, and pensions. Many of them were put in concentration camps and prisons; their children went to juvenile detention centers and orphanages. In this time, approximately half the Jewish population of Germany fled along with more than two thirds of he Austrian Jewry, the latter fleeing between 1938 and 1939.
Emigration took them to Palestine (mainly), but also the United States, Latin America, Shanghai (where no visa was required for entry, a great convenience), along with eastern and western Europe, (a poor choice, since the Nazis would soon catch many of them again as they conquered Europe). The Jews who remained in Nazi Germany were either unwilling to leave or unable to obtain visas. Some could not get sponsors in host countries, or were simply too poor to be able to afford the trip.
Many foreign countries made it even harder to get out due to strict emigration policies designed to thwart large amounts of refugees from entering, particularly in the wake of the Depression. The United States, Britain, Canada, and France were among these. Thirty eight countries met at Evian, France to discuss the treatment of the Jews in Germany, but no real help was offered, to the delight of the German government, who was amused that while the world criticized their treatment of Jews, nobody was offering the Jews a place to go to when the opportunity was there.
