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In 1933 Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany. He wanted to wipe out the Jewish population and conquer the world. At this time there were about three million Jews living in Germany. The Nazis believed that the Germans were superior. They mistakenly saw Jews as a specific race, therefore claiming them to be inferior and a prime target for killing. "Holocaust" is a word that means widespread destruction.
Hitlers hatred for the Jews and his need for total power definitely created widespread destruction in Germany. The Holocaust first started out as the persecution of the Jews in Germany and other places ruled by Hitler in 1933. There were many laws and restrictions imposed by the Nazis that robbed the Jews of their rights and their possessions, leaving them with nothing. Jews could not own property or businesses.
They could not attend public school or go to college. The Jewish people could not go to theaters, cinemas or vacation resorts. They could not even walk in some parts of Germany. To further rid Germany of this "inferior" race, the Nazis subjected 350, 000 people to a type of radiation that would prevent them from having children. Then, suddenly on the night of November 9 th 1938, the Nazi Party members went on a rampage for about 48 hours and killed dozens of Jews and sent approximately twenty to thirty thousand other people concentration camps. These camps were for political prisoners.
The prisoners lived in horrible conditions in the concentration camps and therefore many died of disease and starvation. Their synagogues and businesses of Jews were destroyed throughout Germany. This particular night is known as Dristallnacht, which means " the night of broken glass. " Prisoners at concentration camps were worked to death as slave laborers and were murdered in gas chambers. Other methods of killing the prisoners consisted of beatings, hangings, and using prisoners for medical experiments. Much of what went on in the concentration camps was kept secret to deceive the victims and to avoid resistance. The six main concentration camp sites were Belief, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Auschwitz was the most famous of these camps. Auschwitz was a slave labor camp. This camp was known to be "The Death Factory." Over 2. 5 million people died here. Only about 200, 000 people survived this horrible camp. There were three main camps within Auschwitz, the Auschwitz I, II, III. This is where the largest number of Jews died.
In Auschwitz, nine out of ten people that died were Jews. Chelmno was the first camp to use gas chambers. In Sobibor 200, 000 people died through gassing. Treblinka was the largest killing center that used the gas chamber method of killing. It was originally used for those accused of crimes. Then, not even a year later, it became a camp to exterminate Jews.
The Jews were told that they were there because they were going to be resettled. To lower the chances of the Jews taking a rebellion against the German SS officers, the officers would put different things around the camp that were very important to the Jews. They would place the Star of David on the front wall of their gas houses, and they would have a sign on the door in Hebrew saying, "This is the gate through which the righteous pass. " Although over 350, 000 people died here, not everyone was sent there to die. Some were went there to help or "work" for the Nazis so they could keep the camp running.
The one good thing about this camp, is that when it was over thrown by the allied forces in 1943, it was soon there after turned into a farm. There were many other kinds of people being killed in concentration camps besides the Jews. There were Catholics, Poles, Jehovahs Witnesses, Communists, and Gypsies. However, the vast majority of the victims were Jewish. During the years of 1933 and 1939 half of the Jewish population and two thirds of the Austrian Jews fled from the Nazis.
They emigrated to the U. S. , Latin America, China, and Palestine. The others that stayed in Germany and Austria were unwilling to uproot themselves from their homeland. In 1940 German forces had taken over Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
In 1941 German forces invaded the Soviet Union. When the Allied forces were closing in on Germany, SS troops decided to evacuate the concentration camps. They tried to cover up any evidence of there ever being a concentration camp in their area. They sent the prisoners on "Death Marches. " Most of the prisoners didnt survive.
Leaders of certain camps tried to make deals with allies towards the end of the war. They knew that otherwise they would be punished for what they did. In 1945 when Nazi Germany collapsed, the SS troops fled and it seemed like there werent even any concentration camps. Most of the camps, afterwards, were turned into camps to hold and take care of the disabled survivors of the concentration camps. The Holocaust was an Era of death and devastation. Adloff Hitler and his SS officers convinced the people of Germany to trust them.
The SS were not only able to discriminate against the Jews and a few other groups of people, but they tortured and killed them in numbers that no one could imagine. It took years before the total devastation was understood. Bibliography:
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