The Holocaust
As Hitler became more and more powerful, he sot to have a new order for Germany, and then the rest of Europe. He proclaimed that Aryans, or Germanic peoples, were a "master race", and non-Aryans peoples and Jews were inferior. The Nazi government made a series of policies that discriminated against all Jews. In 1945, the Nuremberg Laws were created depriving Jews of their right to German citizenship, and property. Jews were forced to wear a bright yellow star on their clothes, the star of David, to make it easier for the Nazis to identify them. However, that was only the beginning, after November 9, 1938, also know as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass", many Jews fled Germany looking for refuge in other counties, but many of them remained in Germany. As a solution to "the Jewish Problem" in Germany, Hitler sent many Jews into ghettos, or segregated Jewish areas. The Nazis wanted the Jews inside to starve to death or die from disease. When Hitler realized that wasn't enough he ordered his "Final Solution", a program of genocide, the killing of an entire people. In early 1942, Nazis started building extermination camps, the largest one being Aushwitz (OUSH-vihts), once there the prisoners were separated, the strong from the weak, who would die that day. Those who were chosen to die were undressed for a shower so that they were unaware that the showers were actually cyanide gas chambers, and they were about to die. Later, the Nazis installed crematoriums, or ovens to burn the bodies. These horrific action continued for years until the Nazis were defeated in 1945.
As Hitler became more and more powerful, he sot to have a new order for Germany, and then the rest of Europe. He proclaimed that Aryans, or Germanic peoples, were a "master race", and non-Aryans peoples and Jews were inferior. The Nazi government made a series of policies that discriminated against all Jews. In 1945, the Nuremberg Laws were created depriving Jews of their right to German citizenship, and property. Jews were forced to wear a bright yellow star on their clothes, the star of David, to make it easier for the Nazis to identify them. However, that was only the beginning, after November 9, 1938, also know as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass", many Jews fled Germany looking for refuge in other counties, but many of them remained in Germany. As a solution to "the Jewish Problem" in Germany, Hitler sent many Jews into ghettos, or segregated Jewish areas. The Nazis wanted the Jews inside to starve to death or die from disease. When Hitler realized that wasn't enough he ordered his "Final Solution", a program of genocide, the killing of an entire people. In early 1942, Nazis started building extermination camps, the largest one being Aushwitz (OUSH-vihts), once there the prisoners were separated, the strong from the weak, who would die that day. Those who were chosen to die were undressed for a shower so that they were unaware that the showers were actually cyanide gas chambers, and they were about to die. Later, the Nazis installed crematoriums, or ovens to burn the bodies. These horrific action continued for years until the Nazis were defeated in 1945.
Best Articles
1. Ghettos: After discriminated against by the Nuremberg Laws, Jew were put into overcrowded ghettos. The United States Holocaust Museum goes deeper into everyday life of the Jews, who were forced to live there. "Jews responded to the ghetto restrictions with a variety of resistance efforts."
2. Killing Centers: Unlike concentration camps, killing centers was where all Jews unable to work were sent.German SS and police murdered nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing centers either by asphyxiation with poison gas or by shooting. "Unlike concentration camps, which served primarily as detention and labor centers, killing centers (also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were almost exclusively "death factories." 3. Holocaust History: In this New York Times article, is a story told by Laszlo Schwartz, and his survival during the Holocaust. Schwartz was 14 when he and his family was moved to Auschwitz., and the article ends with Schwartz being freed, ad living in the United States with his uncle. "Germany is not alone in fretting over how to teach the Holocaust once the survivor generation is gone, but its role as perpetrator heightens a sense of urgency." 4. Jews Killed Away From the Death Camps: This article follows Rev. Patrick Desbois, in his journey to find answers about his grand-father's stay in Rava-Ruska, a concentration camp for french soldiers. "The shock of the discovery of concentration camps was one factor. The camps had survivors, found in place, who told their unimaginable tale." 5. The Wannsee Conference: The United States Holocaust Museum discusses the importance of the Wannsee conference, and the key moments during it. "The 'final solution' was the Nazis' code name for the deliberate, carefully planned destruction, or genocide, of all European Jews." |
6. Children during the Holocaust: Children during the Holocaust were extremely vulnerable, the Nazis killed as many as 1.5 million children, including over a million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy)children. "The Germans and their collaborators killed children both for these ideological reasons and in retaliation for real or alleged partisan attacks."
7. Forced Labor: Learn about the kind of forced labor that was pushed among the Jewish community. "Even before the war began, the Nazis imposed forced labor on Jewish civilians, both inside and outside concentration camps." 8. Liberation of Nazi Camps: Read about the day the Jews were sent free, and the concentrations camps were no more. Although the camps are in the past, they are still apart of all the survivors. "As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners." 9. Antisemitism: Hitler installed the antisemitic ideology into the people of Germany, learn where this word came form and how it became a word of hatred. "The trends under attack included equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, finance capitalism, and pacifism." 10. German Jews during the Holocaust: Learn how life was during World War II for German Jews. Living in a country surrounded by antisemitic people, who discriminated against them and hated them. "In the years between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi regime had brought radical and daunting social, economic, and communal change to the German Jewish community." |
Videos
Primary Source Documents
The amazing Diary Of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. Click here for several excerpts from Anne Frank's diary.
Poster used by Nazi Party to explain regulations of Nuremberg laws.
Kristallnacht order from SS-Grupenfuhrer Heydrich.
Maps
The placement of extermination camps and concentration camps throughout Europe, and which cities had Jewish ghettos and major travel routes.
Ghettos throughout German occupied Europe from 1939-1944