Barbara Smoke And Ashes: The Story Of The Holocaust

There was a horrific event that lasted twelve years. This event was fueled by hate for an entire group of people. For twelve long years six million Jewish men, women, and children were hunted down and killed. This event is known as the Holocaust and to prevent something as horrific as this we must research and study the Holocaust.

The mass murder of over six million people was ordered by a man known as Hitler. Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933 when Germany was in an economic depression. Hitler had many followers. These followers were the Nazi Party. Hitler was able to persuade many German citizens that Jewish citizens caused their economic depression and their problems. The countries that helped him achieve his goal of the extermination

(Rogasky, Barbara Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust)

Hitler called his plan the answer to the Jewish question. He and his peers called it the “Final Solution.” Hitler 's plan consisted of boycotts, Ghettos, Concentration Camps, and Death Camps. The Final Solution was put into stages. First came the Boycotts. Second, the Ghettos. Third, the Concentration Camps, and lastly the Death Camps. (“The Final Solution” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) The Boycotts were organized by the Nazi Party. They convinced the German people to stop buying from Jewish businesses. This drove many Jewish businesses to go bankrupt. The Jewish families that remained in Germany and the surrounding countries were given ration cards. Families were only given so much food. Next, men came and took people away. The Jewish people that were taken, were taken to Concentration Camps. The people remaining were taken to Ghettos. Concentration Camps were camps where the conditions were so bad that many Jewish men and women died from disease, starvation, or death by Nazis. At the Concentration Camps Jews would be put to work. It wasn’t

These camps were called death camps and their sole purpose was the annihilation of any Jews that were brought to them. The gas chambers were disguised as showers. This was a cruel mind trick that fooled many Jews into going into the “showers.” Sometimes cold water would actually fall out of the spouts. The water only lasted a few moments. Nazis started using a gas called Zykon because bullets were to expensive. Mobile killing vans were sealed on the inside and had pipes running from the exhaust to the inside of the van. Inside the different camps Jews worked. The Nazis planned this so that the Jews would pay for their own deaths. Jews were transported from camp to camp by cattle cars, trucks, or what the Nazis called Death Marches. On these Death Marches Jews were expected to walk miles each day to the next camp. They were given very little food and slept on the ground. Some Death Marches lasted weeks. The reason they were called Death Marches is because many Jews died on these marches. (Rogasky, Barbara Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust) The Nazis had planned this all out. An entire state bureaucracy was created with the task of make sure everything went smoothly as they killed over 6 million Jews and 5 million other undesirables. Undesirables were homesexuals, POWs, Gypsies, and Poltical Prisoners. The Nazis developed the technology and