History of the Holocaust

Holocaust Defined The Holocaust refers to the period from January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, to May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe ended. Germany’s deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate the entire Jewish population, a plan Hitler called the “Final Solution.”

Pre-Holocaust Germany Following WWI, Germany was left weakened, both politically and financially. Germany’s territory was diminished, they were forced to pay reparations for the damages of the war. Their national pride and economy were in fast decline

Anti-Semitism in Germany Hitler used popular anti-Semitic stereotypes to play on people’s existing paranoia and fear of German Jews. He used the Jews as a scapegoat to all of Germany’s problems, as the enemy the entire country could rally against.

Propaganda

Further Attacks Against Jews The daily Nazi newspaper during Hitler’s reign, “The Attacker,” printed at the bottom of every front page “The Jews Are Our Misfortune!” Hitler continued to preach the superiority of the “Aryan” race and the need to cleanse their country of “impurities.”

Legislation: The Nuremberg Laws Passed in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws dictated that no Jew could marry a German and that Jews were stripped of their German citizenship. Jews had their passports stamped with a “J” and were forced to wear a yellow Star of David to identify them.

The First Signs of Violence While many Jews tried to flee the country, others were deported to prison camps. Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) occurred in 1938 when a Jewish boy killed a German official when his parents were forced into deportation. As a result, Germans destroyed Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Many Jews were beaten and killed and some 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Jewish Ghettos When Germany invaded Poland, Germans rounded up Poland’s nearly 3 million Jews and forced them to live in isolation, in fenced-in, impoverished ghettos.

Deportation The Jews were then systematically rounded up and shipped in box cars to the death camps, like Dachau. There was no food, water, bathroom, or window

In the Camps Upon arrival, the Jews were separated into those healthy enough for labor and those who were to be exterminated. The sick and weak were gassed and their bodies burned.

German Labor The Germans needed a great amount of labor to keep their camps running and help their war effort. The Jews were literally worked to death, in order to help support the German army.

The End of the War In 1944 and 1945, the camps were liberated as the Allied forces swept across Europe, defeating and pushing back the German army. While many were saved from death, between five and seven million died in the camps.