The Holocaust
Definition
The Holocaust was the attempted extermination of European Jewry by Nazi Germany. About 6
million people with Jewish belief were murdered in the years from 1933 to 1945.
The Holocaust was initiated by mainly German and other European national socialists (Nazis)
under German dictator Adolf Hitler. Among the persons who orchestrated the Holocaust were
Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Müller, Adolf Eichmann, and Josef Mengele.
Sources:
Rossel, Seymour. "Holocaust." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 12 May. 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
Ideology
The ideology leading to the Holocaust can be found in a pseudoscience (false science) called
“eugenics”. In the age of colonialism people in Europe, but also North America, South Africa,
and Australia, thought to be superior to other people.
The expression of racial “purity” was introduced by the French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau
(1853-1855, An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). In his writings he told people that
“racial-mixing” will lead to chaos in an advanced society.
The German eugenicist Alfred Plötz established the expression of Rassenhygiene (“racial
hygiene”) in 1895. He was concerned about mentally ill and disabled people to cause not only a
financial burden for society, but also to weaken and destroy society in just a few generations.
Plötz was worried about the “healthy” people in society being replaced by the “ill”.
http://img.welt.de
Just a few decades later, after World War 1, Adolf Hitler would combine several
pseudoscientific theories in his book Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”, 1925). Hitler deemed all
people with Jewish belief inferior and a danger to German culture. He thought it was the Jewish
responsibility causing the defeat of Germany in World War 1. He held Jews also responsible for
the ills in German society, such as a high unemployment.
After Hitler took power in 1933, he introduced new laws, murdering the people he thought to
be “unfit” for a new German society. His ideology became a murderous reality in Germany and
the Europe he conquered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_hygiene
Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") - http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt
Nuremberg Laws – Euthanasia – Berlin Wannsee
After Hitler took power in Germany (1933), the Nazis introduced the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
These laws defined which people belonged to a „pure“German race and society, and which
people were excluded. Jewish Germans were taken away their rights and citizenship. It was
now forbidden for a „pure blooded German“ to „mix“ (e.g. to marry) with Jews.
Another aspect in regard to Nazi laws is euthanasia. Some people around this time (not
only in Germany) believed in „mercy killings“. They thought handicapped people with epilepsy
and other illnesses would be better off dead than alive. An American attempt to legalize
euthanasia in Ohio had failed in 1906 (Henry Hunt, mayor of Cincinnati), but Nazis in Germany
started their euthanasia program in 1939. German physicians declared people either „fit“ or
„unfit“ for life in a „Greater Germany“. The mentally ill were then murdered in special carbonmonoxide filled chambers and with lethal injections. This idea was used later in extermination
camps for the Jews, Roma and Sintis, and homesexuals. The carbon-monoxide gas was replaced
by the more lethal Zyklon-B, a pesticide.
(Screenshot
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=374 May12,2014)
Nazi senior officials met in Berlin Wannsee on January 20, 1942. The German military
recently had conquered vast territories in the East, with a great number of Jewish population.
German soldiers showed signs of post traumatic stress after they were ordered to mass execute
Jews along the frontline. Nazi senior officials at the Berlin Wannse Conference tried to find a
„Final Solution“ to their problem. Hermann Göring, second most powerful person in Germany,
gave authorization to Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich, to construct several extermination
camps in the east. About 6 million Jews would soon be murdered in camps such as AuschwitzBirkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek, and Chelmno.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_camps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference
Witnesses and Survivors
Some people today think the Holocaust could not have happened. They deny the facts, because
the atrocities seem unbelievable. A few other don’t want to be reminded and just deny facts.
Several witnesses give testimony to the Holocaust. Among these witnesses is Simon
Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, and Anne Frank, whose diary was published by her father.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_frank
Anne Frank, a young German Jew, fled with her family to the Netherlands when
the Nazis took power. After the German occupation of the Netherlands Anne Frank and her
family went into hiding in Amsterdam. She writes in her famous diary about the bad and
segregated circumstances Jews had to live in society. She reports about segregation in school,
when she still was allowed to attend classes, and that she was bullied by her teachers. She also
was forbbiden to use public transportation. Anne writes about the Star of David that Jews have
been forced to put on their clothes. Her diary stopped when her hiding place was discovered,
and the whole family was deported to an extermination camp. Anne Frank (1929-1945), her
sister Margot (1926-1945), and her mother Edith lost their lives, while her father Otto Frank
survived the horrors that followed. He later published her diary as book. Simon Wiesenthal
interviewed other survivors, and was able to write about what happened to Anne Frank and her
sister after both were seperated from her parents. Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus in
Bergen-Belsen because of malnutrishment and harsh weather conditions. The basic needs in
life were taken systematically away from Jews during times of the Holocaust. Anne Frank‘s book
Diary of a young Girl gives testimony to how Jews were persecuted and how they suffered
under the Nazis. Due to American immigration restricitions not many Jews were able to flee to
the US, and those who remained in Europe, often died later in concentration and extermination
camps, after they were forced to live segregated in ghettos.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10007867&MediaId=559
(Screenshot May12, 2014 – US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005) became a famous Nazi hunter after Word War 2. He hardly
survived the concentration camps in Buchenwald and Mauthausen, weighing only 90 pounds,
when he was liberated by American troops on May 1945.
One of Simon Wiesenthal’s main goal after liberation was to catch Josef Mengele (1911-1979),
an extermination camp doctor in Auschwitz-Birkenau, who did horrific human experiments to
prisoners in the name of the Nazis pseudoscience. With help of Wiesenthal his grave was
discovered decades later in Embu das Artes, Brazil. Mengele died 1979 swimming. In order not
to stand a trial for the m ny war crimes that he had committed he had fled to South America,
like some other Nazis.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0763852/ Simon Wiesenthal, Screenshot May12, 2014
Simon Wiesenthal‘s legacy is not only that of a Nazi hunter, but also that of an educator and
peacemaker. He wanted people to get along, no matter what different religion, nationality, and
background. To honor his life’s work a center was built in Los Angeles, USA. In the center’s
library you can find books such as „Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust“.
Auschwitz II-Birkenau main entrance and train wagon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Auschwitz_II-Birkenau_main_entrance_and_train_wagon.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wiesenthal
http://www.wiesenthal.com
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060
Israel
After 1945 and World War 2 many people with Jewish belief migrated to Palestine, in the hope
to be safe from new persecution. Israel was recognized by the United Nations as a new country
in 1947/1948. Since then Israelis struggle for recognition with its Arab and Muslim neighbors.
Conflict among warring Israelis and Palestinians caused several wars about territory. This
resulted in about 700thousand Palestinians fleeing their country. Combined with the
descendants of these refugees the number is estimated to be about 5 million strong today.
Israel and Palestine are still struggling today to live together in peace. Israel wants to be
recognized as a nation, and Palestinians fear segregation and even annihilation of their own
country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords
https://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Israel
Genocide
The definition for genocide is “the persecution or destruction of a national, racial, or religious group”.
("Genocide." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 12 May. 2014)
Taking this definition into consideration the Holocaust is the attempted genocide of people with Jewish
belief.
After the defeat of the Nazis their deadly ideology didn’t cease to exist. Several other attempted
genocides happened not too long ago. Some Serbian politicians tried to murder Kosovars and Bosnians
(1994) just because they were Muslim. Mass murder happened in Rwanda (1994), when Hutu extremists
killed about 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu.
The War in Darfur (Sudan, 2004) also can be considered an attempt of ethnic genocide.
Another event in recent history is Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Between 2 and 2.5 million people
died because of their brutal reign.
The United Nations tries to prevent conflicts among its members peacefully, but sometimes fails their
good ambition. Genocides still could happen in future, and it is important that people educate
themselves what happened in the past. It is important to listen to survivors and witnesses, such as
Simon Wiesenthal and Anne Frank. Maybe people will think twice in future before they follow blindly
another deadly ideology that is similar to that of the Nazis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history
http://www.un.org/