Research Paper Holocaust Overview

Taishaun Thomas

Eng. Comp 102-101 Mr. Neuburger 20 April 2012

Thomas

The Holocaust remains one of the most devastating crimes against humanity, eliminating millions of people as if they were no more than a bug under a Nazi soldiers boot. For many, knowledge of the Holocaust remains limited to overzealous Nazis, death camps, and the persecution of the Jews. In reality, the Holocaust encompasses a much broader scope, and understanding the early as well as later years is essential to understanding the true nature of the Nazi beast. The Nazi rise to power According to the website, A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust, Germany was in an economic crisis after World War 1. The Treaty of Versailles placed several restrictions on the country which made it difficult to overcome the depression World War 1 left in its wake. Germany was forced to pay reparations to Britain and France to pay for the large debt incurred from World War 1. The German Workers Party was the beginning of the Nazi regime, and a young Adolf Hitler joined its ranks in 1919 and quickly rose to power giving speeches about racial purity, anti-Semitism, militarism, and national pride. According to the website, Hitler changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly shortened to the Nazi Party. Hitler became the leader of the Nazi party in 1921 and the partys ranks had reached nearly 3,000 members (Rise of Nazi Party). The website, The History Place, elaborates upon the already troubled countries strife. The people of Germany were becoming desperate; the German government had resumed making payments on the 33 million dollar debt incurred during World War 1which threw the already struggling country into chaos. Germans were losing their life savings, money had lost its value and there were hunger riots breaking out everywhere. There were many political parties vying for power, and the Nazi party was the largest with 55,000 followers and was also the most organized. According to the article, the

Thomas people were in a panic and wanted something to be done. Hitler had to take action or risk being replaced as the leader of the Nazi party. Hitler and the Nazis schemed to kidnap the leaders of the Bavarian government and force them to publicly accept Hitler as their leader. As the article continues, the next part of their plan was to win over the German army, begin a nationwide revolt and take down the German democratic government in Munich. The plan worked at first, through intimidation Hitler convinced the reluctant Bavarian leaders to accept him as their

leader, at gunpoint. The plan ended disastrously with the Nazi party crumbling and a despondent Hitler being arrested and taken to the Landsberg prison to await a public trial (Beer Hall Putsch). The article, The Rise of the Nazi Party, describes Hitler using his public trial as an opportunity to gain support for the Nazi cause and was quite successful. The judges sympathized with Hitler, so he was only sentenced to five years in prison with eligibility for early parole. Hitler did not waste time while in prison and spent his time writing Mein Kampf, fueling his twisted ideals of German nationalism and anti-Semitism. According to the article, Mein Kampf became a written cornerstone for the Nazi Partys perverted views about humanity. After only one year, Hitler was released and immediately began to rebuild the Nazi party. The article continues, Hitler once again politicked his way to the top of the party, and keeping with Hitlers sadistic desire for complete power, established himself as the only person who party members swore loyalty until death, and furthermore all final decisions were made by him (Rise of Nazi Party). The website, The History Place, details Hitlers rise to power in the article Holocaust Timeline. Through political plotting and underhanded scheming Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Hitler was not satisfied in his political climb until March of 1933 when German Parliament passed the Enabling Act giving Hitler Dictatorial powers (Holocaust Timeline). The Nuremberg Laws

Thomas The USHMM website gives a clear picture to the beginning of the Nazis dehumanizing of the Jewish people. In 1935 at the annual party rally held in Nuremberg, the Nazis announced laws aimed directly at the Jewish community. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and stated they could not have sexual relations or marriage with persons of German blood. The Nuremberg Laws set a new precedent of identifying a Jew not by religion, but by family ancestry. The Jews were given a brief respite from the Nazis during the 1936 Olympic Games that were held in Berlin. Anti-Jew signs were taken down to avoid criticism of the German government and avoid the games being held somewhere else and it was intolerable for

the Germans to bear the supposed slight on their reputation, and they also needed the revenue the large event would bring to their economy. The website goes on to explain the respite was brief and as soon as the games were over the Nazis were once again hell bent on chipping away at the Jewish community through acts separating the Jewish community from the rest of the country both figuratively and physically. In 1937 and 1938 the Nazis impoverished the Jews by requiring them to register their property and then giving ownership to non-Jew Germans who received the property at extremely cheap prices fixed by Nazis. Many Jewish professionals were commanded not to practice their line of business with anyone other than Jews (Nuremberg Race Laws). Nazi Propaganda The website USHMM describes how the Nazis effectively used propaganda as a means to spread Nazi ideologies. Immediately after gaining power in 1933 Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda with Joseph Goebbels in charge. Germany was infiltrated with an onslaught of Nazi propaganda in the forms of art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials and the press. The Nazis put out propaganda encouraging

Thomas violence against Jews, depicting them as diseased or less than human. Much of the propaganda depicted the Jews as parasites obsessed with sex and money attempting to take over and corrupt the German population. Although this propaganda was certainly despicable, even more

sickening were the postcards sent by prisoners to their families telling them they were living and being treated in a good manner. Shortly after sending the postcards these prisoners were sent to die in the gas chambers. The article further elaborates upon the necessity of Nazi propaganda to the success of the Nazi war machine. It was one of the most important factors in gaining the support and trust of the German population who truly began to believe the propaganda being optimally placed at exactly the right time in their lives (Nazi Propaganda). Kristallnacht The website, USHMM, describes the night of terror inflicted on the Jews in Germany, annexed Austria and newly occupied Czechoslovakia. Jewish owned businesses, synagogues, and homes were brutally destroyed and ransacked during the debauchery. Kristallnacht translates literally to Night of Crystal but is often mentioned as Night of Broken Glass. The name came from the aftermath; the streets were littered with sparkling shards of glass amidst the ruin of the buildings. According to the website, Kristallnacht was mostly instigated by Nazi Party officials. Members of the Storm Troopers and the Hitler Youth were told to commit the atrocities and make it appear as if was the general public uprising in protest of the assassination committed by Herschel Grynszpan of Ernst Vom Rath, a German embassy official stationed in Paris. The Nazis dressed in civilian clothing during their rampage and destroyed 267 synagogues as well as numerous Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Firefighters were forced to watch the Jewish buildings burn, only allowed to intervene if the fire threatened a non-Jew building. According to the article, in many areas

Thomas

Jewish cemeteries were a popular spot desecrated on that terrible night. The Nazis had not given the order to murder, but the death toll from that night numbered at least 91. Over 30,000 males were arrested and sent to prisons and concentration camps where many died due to the brutal conditions. This was the first time that the Nazis had ordered the mass arrest of the Jews for no reason other than their ethnicity. Most of the men arrested were released over the next three months on the condition they began the process of emigrating away from Germany. In order to further impoverish the Jews, the Nazis took a lucrative opportunity and blamed the riot on the Jews. The Nazis fined the Jewish community 400 million U.S. dollars, which they took from the insurance payouts to Jews whose homes and businesses were robbed or destroyed. In the next few weeks the German government passed several laws intended to deprive Jews of their property and their means of support. Jewish children that were attending German schools were promptly expelled and German Jews lost their right to hold a drivers license or own an automobile. The website describes the events of Kristallnacht as one of the most important turning points in National Socialist anti-Semitic policy. After the pogrom the passive nature of the German public indicated they were ready for more radical measures. The Nazis expanded their oppressive campaign against the Jews and took dramatic measures aimed at ultimately entirely eradicating Jews from Germany (Kristallnacht a Nationwide Pogrom).

The Ghettos The website, A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust, in the article The Ghettos, describes the living circumstances the Jews were forced to endure prior to the mass deportation to the Nazi death camps. The Nazis created 356 ghettos in Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary. The big cities had closed ghettos that were walled off

Thomas showing a clear boundary that if crossed by a Jew meant certain death. The ghettos were horrible places to live, there were not enough resources or space and the sanitation was

horrendous. The Nazis used the ghettos as a way to slowly kill the Jews through lack of medical supplies, food and heat during the ice cold winters. Despite the brutal conditions many of the Jews resisted the dehumanization and tried to incorporate some of their previous life into the one forced upon them by the Nazis. The website describes how parents taught their children although it was considered an illegal activity and religious meetings were held secretly despite the fact it could mean certain death. Word of the ghettos began to spread throughout the international community, and in an attempt to show the world that the Jews were living in good conditions; he Nazis established the Theresienstadt ghetto in northwestern Czechoslovakia as a propaganda ghetto. They constructed flower gardens, cafes, and a school in a cruel subterfuge which the Jews were forced to go along with. After the inspection by the International Red Cross, most of the prisoners of Theresienstadt was sent to Auschwitz to be murdered (The Ghettos).

The Death Camps The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies website article, Extermination Camps written by Peter Vogelsang and Brian Larsen, describes how for the first time in the history of man, industrial plants were used to systematically murder millions of people. A total of six extermination camps were constructed with one goal, murder the Jews. All of the death camps were located in rural Poland close to a railway line. The locations were ideal as it kept them

Thomas away from the scrutiny of international and German public. The death camps used several methods to carry out their nefarious plans to murder the Jews and others deemed racially unpure. The earliest death camps used firing squads and the exhaust from trucks to carry out the

murders, but the Nazis quickly sophisticated their killing methods to be the most efficient in eradicating the undesirables. This method is known as the gas chambers. The Jews were forced into the gas chambers and told they were going to take a shower, the doors were shut and Zyclon B was dropped into
Jews found unfit for work waiting to be sent to the gas chambers. Source: http://bit.ly/HSOdxV

the chambers to effectively murder

thousands of people a day. After they were murdered the bodies would be taken out of the gas chambers and looted for gold teeth before being thrown into mass graves or sent to the crematorium (Extermination Camps). The website USHMM describes another purpose of the gas chambers to make the murders more impersonal for the perpetrators involved. At Auschwitz, the Birkenau killing center had four gas chambers making it the most efficient of the Nazi death camps. Up to 6000 Jews were murdered there a day at the height of the deportations. Over three million Jews were murdered at the death camps, accounting for half of Jews murdered in the Holocaust (Nazi Camps).

Thomas Liberation

The website, USHMM, in the article Liberation of Nazi Camps, details the events following the German retreat and abandonment of the death camps. Allied troops swept across Europe fighting Nazi Germany. During their march they came across tens of thousands of emaciated prisoners suffering from disease. According to the article, Soviet forces were the first to liberate a major Nazi death camp at Majdanek near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. The Germans were caught by surprise by the rapidly approaching Soviets and attempted to cover up the mass murder of the prisoners there by demolishing the camp. The Nazis staff set fire to the crematorium used to burn the bodies of the victims, but due to the rushed departure of the Nazis the gas chambers were left standing. The Soviets also liberated the extermination and concentration camp Auschwitz in January 1945. Most of the prisoners had been marched west, which today is known as death marches. The Soviets only found a few surviving prisoners alive upon entrance to the
A pile of corpses after Liberation Source: http://bit.ly/HS08eb

camp. The article describes the evidence of

mass murder that the Soviets found; in the warehouses that had not been destroyed they found hundreds of thousands of personal belongings of the victims. They found hundreds of thousands of mens suits, over 800,000 womens clothes, and more than 14,000 pounds of human hair. The Soviets, British and American forces continued to liberate death and concentration camps across Europe. The liberators encountered horrors beyond belief in their encounters with the Nazi camps. The prisoners they found suffered from diseases, such as a typhus epidemic, and were in

Thomas

10

critical condition. According to the article, more than 10,000 died as a result of malnutrition or disease after being liberated. Many of the camps had to be burned to prevent the spread of epidemics. The Nazis carelessly left bodies unburied with no more regard than a piece of trash waiting to be thrown in the garbage. The prisoners liberated are described in the article as looking like skeletons because of forced labor and lack of food. Many couldnt move because they were too weak. Despite being liberated the Jews ordeal was far from over. After Liberation The website, USHMM, describes the events after liberation in the article The Aftermath of the Holocaust. After liberation many Jews had nowhere to go. They were afraid to go home because of the anti-Semitism that still lingered in parts of Europe and the trauma they had experienced. In Poland there were several anti-Jewish riots that broke out and people that had returned home there were afraid for their lives. The largest of the riots was in the town of Kielce in 1946 where Polish rioters killed at least 42 Jews and many more were beaten. Because there were so many Jews trying to immigrate to other countries, the chances were slim and the only option was to move westward to countries liberated by the western Allies. Refugee centers and Displaced Persons camps were created by the armies of the United States, Great Britain, and France. Many people from around the world attempted to help the Jews recover from the horrors committed on them by the Nazis. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee helped with clothing and food, and the Sh-erit ha-Pletah encouraged greater emigration opportunities. Many Jews wanted to immigrate to Palestine where many Jews were already living. Several attempted to go their illegally from Germany only to be sent back. Furthermore, the article describes how the State of Israel was established in May 1948, and Jewish people from the displaced persons camps and refugee camps began moving their in mass numbers. As many as

Thomas 170,000 Jewish displaced persons and refugees immigrated to Israel by 1953. President Harry

11

Truman issued a directive in December 1945 that allowed more people to immigrate to the U.S. if they had been displaced by the Nazi regime. Because of this directive more than 41,000 displaced persons immigrated to the United States. The U.S. Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act in 1948, which provided approximately 400,000 U.S. immigration visas for displaced persons between January 1, 1949, and December 31, 1952 (Aftermath of Holocaust). The Holocaust is one of the most heinous and violent crimes against humanity to date. Millions of people were brutally murdered on the ideologies of a mad man. Lies infiltrated the population through poisonous propaganda with calculated ease. It is imperative that anyone remembers, so this sort of abomination can never be allowed to happen again. During times of crisis people can be persuaded to believe things that would ordinarily be scoffed at, and people are willing to pay the price of humanity to ensure they are at the top of the food chain. We must never let the world fall into such a devastating, preventable predicament again. The events leading up to and after are necessary to understanding the Holocaust and provides uncanny knowledge that cannot be gained without an understanding of the atrocity as a whole, and knowledge is essential for prevention.

Works Cited "The Aftermath of the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. "The Beer Hall Putsch." The History Place. The History Place. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.

Thomas "The Ghettos." A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust. Florida Center for the Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Holocaust Timeline." The History Place. The History Place. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9-10, 1938." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Liberation of Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

12

"Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Nazi Propaganda." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "The Nuremberg Race Laws." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "The Rise of the Nazi Party." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. The Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Vogelsang, Peter, and Brian Larsen. "Extermination Camps." The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Tai,

Thomas

13

It has been wonderful watching you improve and grow as a writer. I have been truly blessed to have you in my classes. Your paper does a wonderful job of presenting the important information needed to cover the topic. You understand how to integrate sources effectively (even though you dont need to signal when you use a source with both article title and website.) I know you will learn from this minor mistake and not repeat it in the future. As for the rest of my comments, even though there are quite a few, most of them have to do with basic mechanics, which is easily fixed as you continue to write. I wish you nothing but good fortune as you move forward in life.

Thomas
Score Points Available

14

40 20 40 35 25 15 25

Content paper demonstrates understanding and confidence about topic Sources uses only primary and secondary sources In-Text Citations integrates sources within text with effective use of signal words and phrases Formatting properly uses MLA formatting Works Cited works cited page has the required number of sources and is properly formatted Pictures uses pictures to enhance the text with effective captions and source information Writing Mechanics Paper is free from errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

38 20 32 31 25 15 18
Total Score

Total = 200

179