Resource Paper Holocaust Overview

Robyn Wilson

ENG Comp 102-102 Mr. Neuberger 02 April 2012

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The Holocaust occurred over a two to three year time period, but it took over thirty years of thinking and planning to accomplish the event. This event needed a ruthless leader, a regimen known as the Nazi party, anti-Semitic attitude, and a propaganda machine which allowed the systematic killing of over twelve million innocent people right under the nose of the world. The innocent people, the Jews, as well gypsies, homosexuals, and Russian prisoners of war were treated in the most horrendous ways. One may wonder how Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were able to commit all these atrocities. In order to understand the Holocaust one needs to know about the series of events that led up to the Holocaust, the methodology involved with extermination, and the plight of the Jews after, as well as during the reign of the Nazis. Adolf Hitler/Nazi Rise to Power Adolf Hitler was born of a lowly German family. He was a shy, quiet boy but would give to short burst of anger when anyone would disagree with him. Adolfs life goal was to be a painter but after failing the entrance exam twice, he decided to live on the streets and take menial jobs. According to a web article young Adolf, the article states, Within a year he was living in homeless shelters and eating at charity soup-kitchens. He spent his time reading anti-Semitic tabloids and pamphlets available at the newsstands and at local coffee shops, (Young Adolf, Adolf Hitler). Reading those tabloids and pamphlet lead him to blame the Jews for whom he portrayed as responsible for all of the problems and evils of the world, particularly democracy, Communism, and internationalism, as
Young Hitler Source: http://bit.ly/HxaeBb

Wilson 3 well as Germany's defeat in the War, according to the web article. (Young Adolf, Adolf Hitler: Rise from unknown to dictator). When World War 1 started, Adolf felt he finally had a purpose. He went to Munich and volunteer for the Germany army and was decorated twice and promoted to corporal. After the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1918, this treaty stripped Germany of its right to bear arms and made them relinquish most of its territory. Adolf still living in Munich joined the Nationalist Party which was the beginning of the Nazi party. Nazi Rise to Power. According to the website Jewish Virtual Library(JVL), Hitler was sent to investigate a small nationalist group of idealists, the German Workers Party. Hitler joined the group and soon changed the name to National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and had imposed himself as its Chairman by July 1921 (World War I). Here, he discovered his gift of oratory inside the party. Hitler also gave the party a symbol, a swastika. His hoarse, grating voice captivated audiences. Hitler became known as the Fuhrer of this movement. In 1923, Hitler wanted to overthrow Munich and created the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler was met by the police; this uprising caused sixteen people to be killed and Hitler being arrested and tried. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein
Hitler during WW1 Source: http://bit.ly/HKDlBh

Kampf, a book about his struggles which became the bible to the Nazi Party. Hitler only served nine months of his five year prison

term and when he was released, prison had transformed him into a shrewd political tactician who would never be met with gun barrels of army or police until they were under his command.

Wilson 4 The JVL further explains, in 1925, Hitler was ready to unleash his wrath on the Jews who he felt was not really a race but an anti-race and the true enemy of Germany. The Nazi party had a ban placed on it since the incident at Munich; Hitler immediately removed this and began speaking to the crowds. Hitler was once again trying to move himself into a position of power; his influence reach far beyond Bavaria but to the Right and Left of his movement. He felt the only way to put the Jews in the place they dissevered was for him to be the leader of the Nazi party. According to the web article, Though the Nazi Party won only twelve seats in the 1928 elections, the onset of the Great Depression with its devastating effects on the middle classes helped Hitler to win over all those strata in German society who felt their economic existence was threatened. In addition to peasants, artisans, craftsmen, traders, small businessmen, exofficers, students and dclass intellectuals, the Nazis in 1929 began to win over the big industrialists, nationalist conservatives and army circles, (Rise to Nazi Party). Slowly but surely, Hitler was rising up in the Nazi party, when voting time came in 1930 the Nazi party voting went from 810,00 to 6,409,00 to receive 109 seat in the Reichstag. With this win, Hitler decided to become a citizen of the Germany and run for presidency. According to Jewish Virtual Library, The
Hitler with von Hindenburg Source: http://bit.ly/HZoX67

following month Hitler officially acquired German citizenship and decided to run for the Presidency, receiving 13,418,011 votes in the run-off elections of 10 April 1931 as against 19,359,650 votes for the victorious von Hindenburg, but four times the vote for the communist candidate, Ernst Thaelmann. In the Reichstag elections of July 1932 the Nazis emerged as the largest political party in Germany, obtaining nearly fourteen million votes (37.3 per cent) and

Wilson 5 230 seats, (Rise to Nazi Party). With his oracle persuasion, he convinced von Hindenburg to endorse him to chancellor. With this new found status, Hitler began to further his reach by trying to out maneuver his rivals and diminish Jews, communist and any Social Democrats from their role in political arena. With this move, he began to bring Germany into a totalitarian one-party state. From this move, Hitler became known as the Fuhrer of Germany, and the undisputed dictator of the Third Reich. According to the author William Shirer, A few moments later they witnessed the miracle. The man with the Charlie Chaplin mustache, who had been a down-and-out tramp in Vienna in his youth, an unknown soldier of World War 1 a derelict in Munich in the first grim postwar days, the somewhat comical leader in the Beer Hall Putsch, this spellbinder who was not even German but Austrian, and who was only forty-three years old, had just been administered the oath as Chancellor of the German Reich, (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich). Now that he was in power, he could ignore the Treaty of Versailles and began assembling an army much larger than allowed. He persuaded Great Britain to increase its naval forces and began vanquishing anyone who opposed him. When he had finally extended his territory, he established the Nuremberg Laws, laws that striped the Jews of the rights and informed them to leave Germany. Nazis views on Jews-anti-Semitism The Nuremberg Laws were just the beginning; Hitler wanted to purge Germany from the filth that his race gave? Hitler began to spread his beliefs that race purity must happen and the true Aryan race of blue-eyed and blonde hair and tall must

Wilson 6 prevail. According to the website United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), When Hitler and the Nazis came to power; these beliefs became the government ideology and were spread in publicly displayed posters, on the radio, in movies, in classrooms, and in newspapers. The Nazis began to put their ideology into practice with the support of German scientists who believed that the human race could be improved by limiting the reproduction of people considered inferior, (Nazi Racism). His brunt just didnt fall on the Jews but on the several groups such, gypsies (Roma), homosexuals, people with handicaps and ethnic minorities, he felt these groups of people did
Measuring for perfect race Source: http://bit.ly/crqzI9

not deserve the right to reproduce and carry on their traits. He began informing doctors to sterilize them. After Hitler took power, Nazi teachers in school classrooms began to apply the "principles" of racial science, the website USHMM explains They measured skull size and nose length, and recorded the color of their pupils' hair and eyes to determine whether students belonged to the true "Aryan race." Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) students were often humiliated in the process, (Nazi Racism).

Propaganda. His view just did not stop here but he used propaganda to instill in the youth of Germany in school on which books should not be read, those written by Jewish authors and censored any books that dealt with overcoming a disability. Hitler wanted the Germans to think a certain way about the Jews or the minorities as he called them. He used any means possible to instill how inferior the Jews were such as videos of a Jew rapping an Aryan woman. Hitler wanted to

Wilson 7 control; he used whatever means to achieve this, such as doing away with school holidays but celebrating days such as Hitlers birthday and the day he took power were now celebrated. Hitlers propaganda was a ruse to foreign government He allowed them to think that Nazi Germany was making understandable and fair demands for concession and annexations, according to USHMM, He warned his fellow true Germans to be wary of western culture influence. This was just the start; Hitler was on the verge of rounding up the Jews and placing them together so he could figure out how to get rid of the problem. While he was rounding them up he used the guise of Nazi government was stepping out and taking order. Even
Jews destroying culture Source: http://bit.ly/IYvTB1

after he rounded up the inferior people, he would have them falsify how life really was inside their hell (Nazi Propaganda). Kristallnacht. The event is considered the turning in the abuse on the Jews. A few days before Kristallnacht a low level Germany soldier was killed by a Jewish refugee, due to being deported from Poland; this killing sparked the Nazis to round up the some Jewish leaders, abuse them and finally set synagogues on fire where they had taken them. This caused a riot resulting in many Jewish buildings having windows smashed, being looted, and hundreds of Jewish homes and synagogues burned. According to the

Synagogue burning during Kristallnacht Source: http://bit.ly/I2Zsgz

website Yad Vashem, Some 30,000 Jews, many of them

wealthy and prominent members of their communities, were arrested and deported to the

Wilson 8 concentration camps at Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald, where they were subjected to inhumane and brutal treatment and many died. During the pogrom itself, some 90 Jews were murdered, (Kristallnacht). Dachau was the first concentration camp that housed over 4,800 prisoners, which were not only Jews but Romas, and social prisoners of this propaganda. This camp was created for the Jews convicted of violating the Nuremberg Laws, but expanded rapidly after the Kristallnacht happened. The prisoners here were forced to work such as the tearing down old munitions factories, under terrible conditions. This camp was the training grounds for the future camps or ghettos. Rounding up Jews- ghettos Once Hitler decided he wanted all Jews to be placed together in small areas throughout Germany and other countries. Hitler composed that set up life in these villages (ghettos) and wanted life to proceed as usual. There were ghettos set up in Warsaw, where most of the Jews interned, Belorussia, where the Russian Jews intern, Auschwitz were the Hungarian Jews interned and Budapest where some 7,000 Jews were sent, as describe by the website Yad Vashem, (The Ghetto). The Jews tried to keep a positive outlook even though they knew the impending circumstances that would ultimately lead to their death. As the Jews were being deported to certain ghettos (camps) they could only take what would fit into one bag. The ghettos were packed full of Jews living in horrid condition with scarcely enough food with filth and disease. This was the Germans idea to shove several Jews together, watch them closely and work them consistently. Stripping them of everything they own and causing vulnerability, the Jews had nothing but to depend on the very people enslaving them for everything.

Wilson 9 Ghetto life was hardest on the children. Even though life was supposed to mimic normalcy, the children were terrified every day. In her testimony, Ursula Levy explained how scared she was of the dogs and how her mother would try and comfort her as she cried. (Levy) Also depicted in The Film Unfinished, the

Life in the Warsaw Ghetto Source: http://bit.ly/HSmTQj

children would beg for food, had to live in only one room of a house and witness death and abuse on a daily basis. Use to a

life of happiness and family, this was hardest on the tiny victims of the Holocaust. Wanasee Conference-The Final Selection According to Mr. Neuberger, Instead of the ghettos fixing the problem of eradicating the Jews, there was still just as many and there also was the problem of where do we put the bodies. There were several mass graves but those were causing a terrible stench that neither the guards nor the Jews could handle as they were burying the dead. Plus America had now entered into the war and Hitler was concerned about being able to rid Germany of this filth. So he came up with the Wannsee Conference, which was the final solution to the Jewish problem- mass murder of the Jews. The ways he came up with were firing squad but this took a toll on the Germany army moral. Next was the mobile gas chambers, which had been used in the extinguishing of the physically and mentally handicap. This worked well but they wanted a way to gas several thousand instead of just a few at a time. Plus it left behind evidence which could be traced back to the Germanys. So how do they gas the masses and make sure it is effective. They tried using Zyklon B in Auschwitz on the Soviet prisoners of war and they were dead within minutes. The results were reported back to Hitler and was recorded in The minutes of the Wannsee

Wilson 10 Conference Due to the war, the emigration plan has been replaced with deportation of the Jews to the east, in accordance with the Fhrers will, according to Yad Vashem website. (The beginning of the final solution). Selection process from Wannsee Conference was to keep just enough Jews alive to keep the camp functioning. The Death Camps With the decree from the Wannsee Conference, each ghetto had the pain staking job of ridding each camp of the occupants. The camp at Auschwitz was the main camp with Jews arriving daily, but when the final solution was given trains began to arrive in groves on the same day with Jews to be gassed. More than 1.3 to 1.5 million Jews were gassed at Auschwitz according to website I Survived, and the website goes on to says, More than 90% of Jews were exterminated here with the other 10% the rest of the minorities and prisoners of war, (What Happened at Auschwitz). Auschwitz was a huge camp surrounded by electric fences. The majority of the people sent there were killed by the gas chambers. The Nazis fearing retribution started dismantling the gas chamber and sent the rest of the prisons on a death march. The I Survive website also states, Over 50% of the registered prisoners died as a result of starvation, labor that exceeded their physical capacity, the terror that raged in the camp, executions the inhuman living conditions, diseased and epidemics, punishment, torture
Auschwitz surviving prisoners Source: http://bit.ly/HGyQDK

and criminal medical experiments, (Auschwitz: The Concentration and Extermination Camp).

Wilson 11 Sachsenhausen was another camp that did experiments on its inhabitants to investigate the causes of, and inoculations against epidemic jaundice. Experiment subjects were deliberately infected with epidemic jaundice, some of who died as result, and others were caused great pain and suffering all for the benefits of the German Armed Forces. Chelmno was a camp strictly for the gassing of the Jews, and for mass burial of the Jews bodies. When the Jews would arrive here from the railcars they would be asked to hand over their valuables. Next the soldiers would explain to them they were getting ready to work detail after they had been disinfected and showered. They would be taken to the cellar for the washroom but it was actual a ramp
The victims from Chelmno camp Source: http://bit.ly/I0U8i2

leading into a rail car and be gassed, within 10-15 minutes they all would be dead. The driver would than

take the bodies to the second camp and discard of the bodies in mass graves. (Auschwitz: The Concentration and Extermination) Liberation Even though, America came and liberated many of the Jews from the many concentration camps, when they were freed most of them did not have any place to go The Americans not knowing what to do with the freed people put them into displacement camps with were like the concentration camps just without the abuse, depravity, starvation, and strict rules. Even though they were free, many still felt they were confined. Soon the question was where do we put all the displaced Jews?

Wilson 12 The stories of many of these survivors were incredible. To imagine to the inner strength or tenacity to will your body to survive the punishment, some of the stories are just so unbelievable that anyone could withstand that much. Such as Jeannine Burk, who was hidden as a child in the outhouse of a womans. She can remember the Nazis parading the Jews up and down the street in humiliation. Her family was separated to be saved; her mother having the perfect Aryan coloring of blue-eyes and blonde hair allowed her to bring her children back together and even border a soldier. Later they found out that her dad had died at
Displacement camp in Landsberg, Germany Source: http://bit.ly/Ikx0JM

Auschwitz.

The Holocaust was the most brutal event known to man. How any person could harbor that my animosity for one race is beyond comprehension. The treatment this race received at the hands of Adolf Hitler, a man not even of German descent, is remarkable in itself. Testimony after testimony shows how much strong this race really was and how weak and scared Hitler was.

Wilson 13 Works Cited "Adolf Hitler." Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. "Adolf Hitler: Biography." Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish Virtual Library. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. "Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Complex --data and Summary Facts." Holocaust Remembrance, Sanctuary, and Tribute to Survivors. Holocaust Remembrance, Sanctuary, and Tribute to Survivors. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. Burk, Jeannie. "Survivor Stories: Jeannie Burk." Holocaust Survivors. Holocaust Survivors, 1999. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. The Film Unfinished. Dir. Yael Hersonski. Oscilloscope, 2006 "Holocaust History." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. "Jewish Holocaust Website." Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; a History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. Print. USCShoahFoundation. "Holocaust Survivor Ursula Levy Testimony." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

Nicely done for the most part. You have good info in your paper. I especially like the Shirer citation and the Ursula Levy testimony. In the future, I would suggest rereading your paper to look for those little typos that can hang the reader up.

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Score Points Available

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.

34 20 32 33 20 15 18
Total Score

Total = 200

172