Description:
Adolf Hitler’s ambitions to dominate Europe and strengthen the "Aryan race" in the 1930s resulted in the Holocaust—a mass annihilation of ethnic groups, particularly the Jews. Before the start of World War II, Hitler strengthened anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, declaring the Jews an "inferior race," and often labeling them as capitalists or communists. The Kristallnacht spurred the brutal acts of violence and discrimination towards the Jews on a national scale preceding the war. The Nazis then used the methods of expulsion, emigration, ghettoization, and surges of killings by the Einsatzgruppen to remove Jews from society. However, in 1941, Hitler’s "Final Solution" emerged—a plan to eliminate the entire Jewish population, along with other minority groups. In the last months of 1941, the Nazis began to transport their victims from ghettos and occupied nations, such as France, Belgium, Greece, and Austria, to concentration camps. By 1942, extermination camps were established. The six main ones were located in Poland (Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau). Confined to the brutal Nazi institutions, Jews were forced to withstand extreme starvation, disease, forced labor, torture, unethical medical experiments, and merciless executions. Gas chambers and crematories evolved, allowing the Nazis to exterminate larger amounts of people at a time. When the war ended in 1945, approximately six million Jews were dead, excluding the killings of other minority groups.
Adolf Hitler’s ambitions to dominate Europe and strengthen the "Aryan race" in the 1930s resulted in the Holocaust—a mass annihilation of ethnic groups, particularly the Jews. Before the start of World War II, Hitler strengthened anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, declaring the Jews an "inferior race," and often labeling them as capitalists or communists. The Kristallnacht spurred the brutal acts of violence and discrimination towards the Jews on a national scale preceding the war. The Nazis then used the methods of expulsion, emigration, ghettoization, and surges of killings by the Einsatzgruppen to remove Jews from society. However, in 1941, Hitler’s "Final Solution" emerged—a plan to eliminate the entire Jewish population, along with other minority groups. In the last months of 1941, the Nazis began to transport their victims from ghettos and occupied nations, such as France, Belgium, Greece, and Austria, to concentration camps. By 1942, extermination camps were established. The six main ones were located in Poland (Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau). Confined to the brutal Nazi institutions, Jews were forced to withstand extreme starvation, disease, forced labor, torture, unethical medical experiments, and merciless executions. Gas chambers and crematories evolved, allowing the Nazis to exterminate larger amounts of people at a time. When the war ended in 1945, approximately six million Jews were dead, excluding the killings of other minority groups.
Ten Best Articles:
1. Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany: Preceding World War II and the Holocaust, the German Nazis unleashed a fierce campaign of anti-semitism in the early 1930s. Stemming from the belief of Aryan superiority, Hitler’s policies sought to purify Germany and eradicate European inferiors, especially the Jews. "Thus, hundreds of individuals in all levels of government throughout the country were involved in the persecution of Jews as they conceived, discussed, drafted, adopted, enforced, and supported anti-Jewish legislation. No corner of Germany was left untouched."
2. Kristallnacht: Livid by the dispossession of his family’s store and their deportation to Poland, Herschel Grynszpan decided to shoot the German ambassador during his visit in France. Because the Ambassador was not around, he targeted Third Secretary Ernst von Rath in Paris. "The assassination provided Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Chief of Propaganda, with the excuse he needed to launch a pogrom against German Jews. Grynszpan’s attack was interpreted by Goebbels as a conspiratorial attack by ‘International Jewry’ against the Reich and, symbolically, against the Fuehrer himself. This pogrom has come to be called Kristallnacht, "the Night of Broken Glass."
3. Jewish Refugees: Starting in the early 1930s, a wave of Jewish immigrants fled to neighboring nations to seek refuge from German brutality. Although some nations accepted their entries, a refugee crisis emerged. "The events of 1938 caused a dramatic increase in Jewish emigration. The German annexation of Austria in March, the increase in personal assaults on Jews during the spring and summer, the nationwide Kristallnacht ('Night of Broken Glass') pogrom in November, and the subsequent seizure of Jewish-owned property all caused a flood of visa applications."
4. The Final Solution: Preceding Hitler's "Final Solution" were four others: expulsion, emigration, ghettoization, and the establishment of the Einsatzgruppen—responsible for hunting down Jews in the Soviet Union. However, each "solution" never fully satisfied Hitler and his quest for Aryanization. "Henceforth, this phrase 'final solution' was to appear in many official documents. The 'solution' itself was as follows: Jews living throughout Europe, whether confined in the Polish ghettos or still living in their own homes in western Europe, were to be rounded up (wherever possible this was to be done by French, Dutch, Belgian, or other local police), detained locally in special holding camps, and then deported by train to distant camps in which they would be murdered by gas."
5. The Concentration Camps, 1933-1945: One of the most dreaded institutions established in Europe were the Nazi concentration camps. Although they were not the sites of mass murder, as best associated with extermination camps, Europeans in the concentration camps endured starvation, disease, exhaustion from forced labor, and arbitrary executions. (But between the years of 1941 to 1945, six main extermination camps were also created: Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek.) "The most current reliable figures from scholars are at least 500,000 and perhaps as many as over three-quarters of a million died as a result of the inhuman slave labour, hunger and disease in concentration camps."
6. French Children of the Holocaust (Excerpt from Book): One of the most despicable occurrences during the Holocaust was the extermination of French Jewish children, who were forcefully separated from their families before the Nazis made "reforms" to keep them together. "So disturbing was the image of small children fending for themselves, deprived of their mothers… A child was simply pulled on the leg and thrown on a lorry… then when it cried like a sick chicken, they chucked it against the edge of the lorry."
7. The Killing Evolution: Before and during the start of World War II, the Germans continued to develop effective methods of murder to eliminate the Jewish population. Initially, Jews died at the hands of firing squads. However, many German soldiers could not handle killing other humans directly, so Nazi leaders scrambled to find new methods. The use of carbon monoxide, "Hell vans," and Zyklon B spread throughout Europe. Perhaps the most well known forms of killing were the gas chambers and crematories. "Particularly in Germany and Poland camp commandants experimented with various killing methodologies and consulted with one another on their successes and failures. The ability of a single camp to kill 2,000-3,000 people per hour took years to achieve."
8. Nazi Medical Experiments: During the Holocaust, German doctors conducted unethical experiments on Jews from the concentration camps. Victims were forced to endure incomprehensible suffering in order to advance German medical science, and find cures for soldiers suffering from war casualties and disease. The experiments included high-altitude, freezing, and tuberculosis. "Some of these experiments had legitimate scientific purposes, though the methods that were used violated the canons of medical ethics. Others were racial in nature, designed to advance Nazi racial theories. Most were simply bad science."
9. Extermination Through Labor (Excerpt from Book): As the systems of concentration camps and extermination camps grew more extensive, the Nazis had a shift in policy. They wanted to use their pool of Jewish laborers to their advantage economically. "From the point of view of the SS, mass murder and mass production were easily linked with the system of 'extermination through work. The concentration camp system could also be extended, and the proof for its adaptability to the conditions of war demonstrated.'"
10. Hungary and the Holocaust (Excerpt from Book): In 1943, the German government persistently pressured the Hungarian government to deport its Jews. However, Hungary's leaders were reluctant to carry out the discriminatory acts. "The German insistence on the issue proved crucial in keeping the 'ally' under control. If the Hungarian government, so the German calculation ran, could be forced to hand over the Jews domiciled in the country, the Hungarians would lose their 'guarantee' vis-à-vis the Western Allies, and would thus be bound for good or ill to their German 'partner.'"
*You can also read the short article about Slovakia above the "Hungary" section in the PDF file.
Audio/Video:
1. The Path to Nazi Genocide: The United States Holocaust Museum Memorial provides a brief video explaining the rise of Nazi power in Germany.
2. The Holocaust: Historians give a brief overview of the conditions of the Holocaust. Survivors recall the horrific memories of Nazism and the concentration camps in Europe.
3. Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Yaacov (Jacki) Handeli describes his personal experience in Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
Primary Source Documents:
1. Jewish Emigration: Either willingly escaping from Germany's clutches, or being deported by the Nazis, thousands of Jews streamed into other nations across Europe (and in the Western Hemisphere). However, this German Jewish newspaper from 1933 reported grim news for the Jews. "... We have asked our foreign correspondents to report on the current situation in their respective countries. The following is the essence of their reports which – we must state from the outset - agree in an uncanny way on one point: the opportunities for German Jewish emigrants everywhere are close to nil."
2. Figures for the Final Solution (Excerpt from Book): At the Wannsee Conference of 1942, the Germans established the future Nazi protocol to permanently eradicate the Jews. They had specific figures in mind. "Such activities, are, however, to be considered as provisional actions, but practical experience is already being collected which is of greatest importance in relation to the future Final Solution of the Jewish problem. Approx. 11,000,000 Jews will be involved in this Final Solution of the European problem, they are distributed as follows among the countries."
3. Himmler's Speech in Poznan, Poland: Heinrich Himmler, a Nazi leader and military commander, made a speech in Poznan, Poland. In it, he restates the supreme goal of the Nazis—to eradicate the Jews. "The Jewish people is being exterminated," every Party member will tell you, 'perfectly clear, it's part of our plans, we're eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, ha!, a small matter.'" (Click here to hear the speech.)
Maps: