Holocaust Essay

The Holocaust was a genocide that took place during World War II, in which Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, systematically murdered six million European Jews, as well as other minority groups such as the Romani people, disabled individuals, and homosexuals. The Holocaust began in 1933 when Hitler came to power, and it continued until the end of the war in 1945. The Holocaust was carried out in a variety of ways, including concentration camps, ghettos, and mass shootings. Jews and other minorities were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where they were subjected to forced labor, starvation, and medical experiments. Many were also killed in gas chambers or by other means. In addition to the concentration camps, the Nazis also established

The hostility towards Jews goes as far back to when the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and forced them to leave Palestine in 70 CE. Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889 and served in the German Army during World War I. Many antisemites in Germany, as well as Hitler, blamed the Jewish for the German defeat in the first world war. After World War I ended, Adolf Hitler joined the National German Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazis. Hitler was imprisoned in 1923 for

Nine years after being released from prison, he became the chancellor of Germany in 1933. After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler appointed himself as the supreme leader of Germany. At first, the Nazis only reserved harsh punishments for Communists and Social Democrats. The first concentration camp opened in March of 1933 near Munich and most, if not all the prisoners sent there were Communists. In July of 1933, the Nazis began to hold rallies where they burned books by Jews, Communists, and foreigners. Around that time, there were around 525,000 Jews in Germany (one percent of total population). For the six years that followed, the Nazis began implemented Hitler’s plans of “Aryanization” by getting rid of “non- Aryans” from civil service and closing Jewish owned businesses.

In September of 1939, Germany invaded Poland which started World War II. The German Police forced thousands of Polish Jews from their homes and put them in ghettoes, giving their homes to those who identified as German. Jewish ghettoes in Poland were surrounded by barbed wire and high walls. As well as widespread poverty, hunger, and unemployment, there was also poor sanitation and overpopulation which made the ghettoes prone to disease. At the same time, Nazi officials selected about 70,000 Germans with mental illness or physical disabilities