Essay, Research Paper: The Holocaust

THE HOLOCAUST
Nearly six million Jews were killed and murdered in what was called the holocaust. In the years between 1933 and 1945, the Jews of Europe were marked for death. Inanition anti-Semitism was given legal sanction. It was directed by Adolf Hitler and managed by Heinne Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann. There were many other great crimes and murders, such as the killing of the Armenians by the Turks , but the holocaust stood out as the "only systematic and organized effort by a modern government to destroy a whole race of people." The Germans under Adolf Hitler believed that the Jews were the German troubles and were a threat to the German and Christian values.
Dating back to the first century a.d. the Jews and Christians were always at war. The Jews were considered the murderers of Christ and were therefor denounced from society, rejected by the conservatives and were not allowed to live in rural areas. As a result, the Jews began living in the cities and supported the liberals. This made the Germans see the Jews as the symbol of all they feared.
Following the defeat of the Germans in WW1, the treaty of Versailles and the UN resolutions against Germany raised many militaristic voices and formed extreme nationalism. Hitler took advantage of the situation and rose to power in 1933 on a promise to destroy the treaty of Versailles that stripped Germany of land. Hitler organized the Gestapo as the only executive branch and secret terror organization of the nazi police system. In 1935, he made the Nuremberg laws that forbid Germans to marry or commerce with them. Hitler thought that the Jews were nationless parasite and were directly related to the treaty of Versailles. When Hitler began his move to conquer Europe, he promised that no Jewish person would live.
Before the start of the second word war, the Jews of Germany were excluded from public life, forbidden to have sexual relations with non-Jews, boycotted, beaten but aloud to immigrate. When the war was officially declared, immigration ended and 'the final solution to the Jewish problem' came. When Germany took over Poland, the polish and German Jews were forced into over crowed gettos and employed as slave labor. The Jewish property was seized. Disease and starvation filled the gettos. Finally, the Jews were taken to concentration camps in Poland and Germany where they were murdered and killed in poisonous gas chambers in Auschwitz and many other camps despite the harsh treatment of the Jews, not many German people opposed this.
When the news reached the allies, they all refused to make any rescue plans for the Jews. American Jews were warned against seeking any action for the benefit of the European Jews although Zionists managed to save small groups of Jews and brought them to Palestine. The vacation condemned racism in general but did hardly anything to stop the German actions.

The victories of the Germans in the early years of the war brought most of the majority of the European under the control of the nazis. The Baltic's, Ukraine's and white Russians gladly joined the nazis. France and Italy sent 100,000 Jews to Germany, and Holland and Belgium were anti-nazis and refused to co-operate with Germany. Denmark protected it's Jews from Germany, and Norway sent it's Jews to Switzerland for protection.
Unaware that they will be gassed, the Jews kept quiet until the last moment. When there fate was clear, the first Jewish uprising came in April 1943 in Warsaw ghetto, when more than 60,000armed Jews decided to resist. The battle took 28 days before the heavily armed German forces stopped the uprising. Individual Jews also resisted by joining partisan groups. Jewish resistance was mainly spiritual.
The war in Europe ended on may 8th, 1945. A great deal of the Jewish culture and learning perished.



Bibliography


1."history of the holocaust",p.23-145.
c.1988,boston


Word Count: 644