Holocaust Overview

Cassie Brasher








English 102-104
ProIessor Neuburger
28 September 2011
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Soon aIter World War I ended in 1918, World War II was just around the corner. When Hitler
was elected as the 'Supreme Fuhrer, he started an event what became known as the Holocaust.
The Holocaust became the state sponsored murder oI over eleven million people that took place
in Germany and across Europe. However, knowing that the Holocaust occurred is not the only
thing that is important. How the Nazis were able to systematically murder so many people in
such a short time is equally important.
Nazi Views on Jews, Anti-Semitism
According to Brigitte Aldman, a Holocaust survivor, beIore Hitler`s rise to power Jews
and Germans got along just Iine. In her survivor
testimony, Aldman talked about how she had German
Iriends until Hitler`s rise to power. During the time oI
Hitler`s rise to power German girls at school stopped
sitting with her and even the teachers became unIriendly
to her and other Jews making them Ieel like they didn`t
belong there (Aldman).
When World War I ended the Treaty oI Versailles was made blaming the Germans Ior
the war and ordering them to pay Ior reparations. This made the Germans angry and hurt their
economy. According to Yad Vashem, Hitler and the Nazis took control oI Germany`s
government in January oI 1933 and started to blame the Jews Ior all oI their problems. Hitler
used propaganda to turn others against the Jews. One oI the Iirst things he did to was write Mein
Kampf, a book describing propaganda and the need to eliminate all Jews Irom their society.
Hitler believed the Jews were inIerior to other people and needed to leave Germany so they
could have a 'superior, racially pure nation. In addition, the Nazis used propaganda in the Iorm
Cerman soldlers bruLallzlng a !ew ln oland
Source hLLp//wwwshamashorg/holocausL/phoLos/
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oI newspaper articles and movies. In the newspaper they made articles describing Jews as
inIerior and perverted. These articles also had drawings oI the Jews made to be very ugly with
hook noses, big ears, and crooked legs. The Nazis made a Iake documentary oI Jews showing
that they use the blood oI Christian children Ior rituals. In other propagandist movies they
showed a Jewish man rape an 'Aryan woman and showed all Jews as ugly, dirty and immoral
(Propaganda, Nazi).
Nuremberg Laws
According to the Center Ior Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, in 1933 the Nazis passed the Iirst anti-
Jewish law removing Jews Irom proIessions and
businesses. The Nuremberg Laws were passed in
September 1935. One oI these two laws was the 'Reich
Citizenship Law. This law described Jews as second-
class citizens and took away their basic political rights.
Jews lost the right to vote and hold oIIice (Nuremberg laws). According to the nytimes.com, the
other oI these two laws was the 'Law Ior the Protection oI German Blood and Honor. This law
prohibited marriage and sex between Jews and Germans. Jews could not employ Iemale
Germans under age 45 in their household. Jews also could not show the national Ilag or colors
(Word Ior Word/the Nuremberg Laws). The Center Ior Holocaust and Genocide studies also tells
how these laws caused a lot oI debate on who is considered a Jew. The Germans considered
anyone that had three or Iour Jewish grandparents a Jew whether they practiced the religion or
not. Eventually anyone with even one Jewish grandparent could be at risk Ior anti-sematic
treatment. (Nuremberg laws).

Chart determining who is a Jew
Source: http://bit.ly/gzBO4Q
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ristallnacht
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum(USHMM), ristallnacht
means night oI crystal, but ristallnacht is more oIten called the night oI broken glass. On
November 9 and 10, 1938 a wave oI anti-Jewish
violence broke out in Germany that came to be known
as ristallnacht. The Nazis and the SA started this
violence. German oIIicials claimed the violence was a
reaction to the assassination oI Ernst Vom Rath, a
German embassy oIIicial who a Jew shot a Iew days
earlier. During ristallnacht Germans destroyed and
burned Jewish businesses, houses, and synagogues and also attacked Jews in their own homes.
FireIighters ordered only to put out Iires to keep non Jewish buildings Irom burning just let these
disasters happen. At least 91 Jews died during ristallnacht and aIterwards a high number oI
rapes and suicides took place. About 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and taken to
concentration camps where many died Irom brutal treatment. The German government made the
Jews responsible Ior the damages and would not allow them any insurance.
In addition, UHSMM mentions that aIter ristallnacht things only got worse Ior the
Jews. The Germans completely removed them Irom public liIe taking more and more oI their
rights away. Jewish children could no longer attend German schools; Jews could no longer have
driver`s licenses or own a car. They could not use public transportation, movie theaters or
concert halls (ristallnacht: A Nationwide Progrom).

Rounding up Jews ghettos
Synagogue afLer krysLalnachL
Source hLLp//hllLkrlsLallnachLblogspoLcom/
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In 1939 Germans started putting Jews in isolated
communities known as ghettos. These ghettos were all
very small and overcrowded with horrible living
conditions. Some ghettos started out allowing the Jews to
leave and go into town to buy Iood or other things Ior a
Iew hours, but over time they all became closed. No one
could leave at all Ior anything. Brigitte Aldman, a
Holocaust survivor, explained how there was no sanitation in the ghettos, and usually a Iamily
would have one room to live in. Aldman and her Iamily depended on strangers until her Iather
Iound some attic space in a Iarm house that they could live in. Yael Hersonski`s documentary
called Film Unfinished showed the biggest ghetto, the Warsaw ghetto. This Iilm showed these
horrible conditions along with dead bodies lying on the side oI roads. Corpses lay in the street
every Iew Ieet. They eventually dealt with these corpses by throwing them in a mass grave where
they literally dropped the bodies down a slide into a pile oI other corpses. Germans provided
very little Iood Ior them. Lots oI people starved to death in these ghettos, and almost everyone
else was so close to starving that they looked like skeletons. Film Unfinished mentions that the
Germans gave only 186 calories per person per day even though the average person needs 2000
calories a day. They had no coal or wood to warm themselves in
winter, and disease was everywhere. Many people died oI
starvation, disease, and winter temperatures (Hersonski).
Wannsee ConIerence The Final Solution
According to the USHMM, the Wannsee ConIerence was
a meeting between IiIteen government oIIicials that decided the
Chlldren ln Lhe Warsaw gheLLo
Source hLLp//blLly/Lsbsnf
Reinhard Heydrich, chieI oI the SD
Source: http://bit.ly/horb
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'Final Solution. Some people in this meeting included SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the chieI
oI the Reich Security main oIIice and state secretaries. The 'Final Solution was the code name
used Ior the plan to eliminate all Jews. Hitler himselI had already planned this 'solution and had
Heydrich go to this meeting to gain support Irom government industries and to let them know
that Hitler himselI coordinated the operation. In addition, this article describes that not even one
oIIicial at this meeting objected these plans oI mass murder, and most knew it had already been
taking place. In this conIerence Heydrich estimated eleven million Jews would be killed. This
included non-axis controlled countries like the United ingdoms and neutral nations like
Switzerland, Ireland, and Spain. Some oI their plans Ior the Jews included death by 'natural
causes which they considered working until they die or starving because they have no way oI
getting Iood (Wannsee ConIerence and the 'Final Solution).
Selection selection
According to The Holocaust Explained, the
process oI deciding who would live and who would
immediately die became known as selection. Usually
anyone over age 14 that seemed Iit enough to work was
sent to registration where they would be sent to a labor
camp. OIIicers sent elderly people and women with
children straight to the gas chambers (Selection).
According to Holocaust survivor Jacki Handali, The Germans rushed the Jews oII oI trains Ior
this selection process. First, they separated women Irom men. They then split these lines into two
more lines. He describes this process as 'quick like a conveyer belt. He also mentioned that he
lost his Iamily that night. (Handali). Another survivor Rita Weiss described the selection process.
Waiting Ior 'selection at Auschwitz
Source: http://bit.ly/vtVQ2v
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She also described how the Nazis rushed them out oI the trains and the weak and sick were
thrown out oI it. Weiss`s sister told her to say she was 19 and pinched her cheeks giving her
more color so she looked healthier. A Nazi took a baby Irom its mother and handed it to a
random person in the death line. The mother wanted her baby back and was sent to the death line
also (Weiss).
Extermination Methods
According to the Danish Center Ior Holocaust and Genocide Studies, AIter 'The Final Solution
Nazis started killing with mass shootings. They then used
gassing trucks. They would pile people into sealed vehicles
with the exhaust pumping right into the vehicle suIIocating
them. This was the Nazi`s Iirst attempt to Iind a more
eIIicient way to kill large numbers at a time. This method
also helped the murderers Ieel less like murderers, because
they didn`t actually watch them as they died or pull a
trigger. The Nazis decided they could Iind more eIIective ways oI mass murder and started making entire
camps in which the only purpose was to kill. They mostly used gas chambers Iilled with exhaust or
zyclon B to kill in these camps. They Iound these methods more eIIective. Some were put in labor camps
and died Irom Iorced labor, but anyone not Iit to work went straight to the gas chambers (Methods oI
Mass Murder).
The Death Camps
According to the Danish Center Ior Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, there were six camps made Ior no
reason other than mass murder. These came to be known
as extermination camps, or death camps. These camps
Cermans burnlng bodles of murdered
Source
hLLp//wllllamsengllshllwlklspacescom/PolocausL
ueLall of a deaLh camp
Source hLLp//wwwshamashorg/holocausL/phoLos/
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were all built between 1941 and 1942. Auschwitz took more lives than any other camp. This one
camp killed between 1 and 2 million people. Most people died here in the gas chambers. In some
oI these camps the bodies oI these murdered people went to a crematorium right aIter to be burnt.
The crematorium was usually underneath or very near the gas chambers. They usually burned the
bodies, but also (beIore they decided it wasn`t eIIicient enough) had the victims dig their own
grave which they would be shot into. On their way, many Jews heard they were being taken to a
new home with actual jobs and homes, but as soon as they got out oI the trains Germans Iorced
them to give all oI their belongings to them, remove their clothes, and soon aIterwards they
would be killed (Extermination Camps).
World War II
According to the USHMM, aIter a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union the
Germans started World War II by invading Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France
declared war on Germany on September third. On June
10, 1940 Italy, one oI Germany`s allies, joined the war.
AIter invading Yugoslavia and Greece, the Germans
broke their peace pact and turned on the Soviet Union
on June 22, 1941. This caused the Soviet Union to
switch sides. On December 7, 1941 Germany`s other
larger ally, Japan, dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii bringing the United States into the war. The British Royal Air Force made the Iirst attack
in Germany with a thousand bombers. Allies kept bombing German industrial plants and cities
Ior three years. The Germans kept trying to invade more countries, but the Allies kept stopping
them. On June 6, 1944, (the day known as D-day) over 150,000 allied soldiers landed in France
Marine shooting a Japanese sniper
Source: http://bit.ly/t3TXpz
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which was liberated soon aIter. In September U.S. troops crossed into Germany with Soviet
troops soon to come in the East. The German city oI Dresden was bombed, then Soviet troops
made their way Ior the capital, Berlin. Hitler killed himselI beIore the Allies could get to him,
and Germany surrendered soon aIter. The war with Japan ended aIter the U.S dropped two
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The entire war took about 55 million lives (World
War II in Europe).

Liberation
According to the USHMM, as the Allies came
to Germany the Nazis made their last eIIort to
eliminate all Jews. They sent any prisoners remaining
in ghettos to concentration camps or lead them on
marches that lead nowhere. People died oI exhaustion
or were otherwise killed on these marches. The Nazis
tried to hide evidence oI what they'd done beIore abandoning concentration camps, but Allied
troops saw the gas chambers, horrible living conditions and even ashes and remains oI the people
murdered there. When Allies liberated camps, prisoners did not realize at Iirst that they were
actually Iinally Iree. AIter all they had been through many could not believe it at Iirst (Liberation
oI Nazi Camps). According to the Virtual Museum oI Canada, many people tried to Iind Iamily
members aIter their liberation. The Red Cross, the United Nations Rehabilitation and RelieI
Administration (UNRRA) and some other Jewish organizations tried to help reunite Iamily
members. Some liberated prisoners tried to go back to old homes and Iound them destroyed or
taken over by strangers. Furthermore, the website explains that many oI these people had
LlberaLed ollsh prlsoners
Source hLLp//blLly/fo8wql
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nowhere to go and ended up in Displaced Person camps. These camps, oIten built on sites oI
labor and concentration camps, once again gave the Jews poor sanitation and nutrition. At Iirst
the UNRRA provided Iood, clothing, and medical supplies, but by Iall oI 1945 Jewish welIare
organizations took over. They also provided child care, hospitals, and trade schools. By 1946
conditions in these camps started to improve. Many oI these displaced people eventually moved
to Canada the United States and Palestine where they could Iinally start back their lives (The
Journey).
AIter liberation - until 1948 when Israel is Iormed
According to USHMM, It was unsaIe Ior Jews to live in Germany because oI lasting anti-
Semitism even aIter the war. Immigration restrictions only allowed a couple thousand displaced
people into their countries. Some oI these displaced people tried to illegally sail to Palestine but
Britain stopped them. The United Nations General Assembly voted on November 29 1947 to
split Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Arabs
rejected this idea, but the state was divided anyway on
May 14, 1948 because oI the bad situation and Jewish
homelessness. This new Jewish state came to be known
as Israel. In 1953, the national institution Ior Holocaust
commemoration, Yad Vashem was established and Jews
Iinally had a chance to start a new liIe (Postwar ReIugee
Crisis and the Establishment oI the State oI Israel.)




Palestine newspaper telling oI the new state oI Israel
Source:
http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id561288
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Works Cited
A Film UnIinished. Dir. Yael Hersonski. 2010. DVD.
Handali, Jacki, and Rita Weiss. "Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: Selection in Auschwitz
- YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast YourselI. Yad Vashem, 10 Feb. 2010. Web. May-June
2011.

"Holocaust Survivor Brigitte Altman Testimony - YouTube." Interview by Ellen Appel.
YouTube - Broadcast YourselI. Shaoh Foundation, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"Liberation oI Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 17
Nov. 2011.

untz, Tom. "Word Ior Word/The Nuremberg Laws; On Display in Los Angeles: Legal
Foreshadowing oI Nazi Horror - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking
News, World News & Multimedia. New York Times, 4 July 1999. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"Nuremberg Laws." Center Ior Holocaust & Genocide Studies : University oI Minnesota.
University oI Minnesota, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"Selection at the Concentration Camps - ey Stage 3 - The Holocaust Explained." The
Holocaust Explained - Homework & Online Education Tool Ior Students. London Jewish
Culture Center, 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "ristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November
9-10, 1938." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Nov.
2011.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Postwar ReIugee Crisis and the Establishment oI
the State oI Israel." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 17
Nov. 2011.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Wannsee ConIerence and the "Final Solution""
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
6 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "World War II in Europe." United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 17
Nov. 2011.

Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. "The Journey." Virtual Museum oI Canada (VMC).
Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

Vogelsang, Peter, and Brian B.M. Larson. "Extermination Camps." The Danish Center Ior
Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The Danish Center Ior Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
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Vogelsang, Peter, and Brian B.M. Larson. "Methods oI Mass Murder." The Danish Center Ior
Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The Danish Center Ior Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.