Jessica Freeze Research Paper[1]

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The Holocaust

An Overview

Jessica Freeze

ENG 102

Mr. Neuburger

20 July 2011



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The Holocaust: An Overview

When reading about the holocaust, it is difficult to imagine that such a horrific event

could be state sponsored. Hundreds of millions of men, women, and children of Jewish descent

were killed and disposed of, simply for being who they were. Most point to one person, Adolf

Hitler, as the person responsible for such atrocities. Hitler led the events contributing to the near

destruction of the European Jewish population, but these events were tolerated and overlooked

by a society whom either supported or were indifferent to racial hatred and discrimination, or

simply feared retaliation for speaking out. History has the tendency to repeat itself, therefore it is

beneficial to study and remember such events so that the warning signs can be detected and dealt

with. In order to understand how such an event could come to pass, one must first try to

understand the views of the Nazi party and the German societal attitudes toward Jews.

Nazi views on Jews²anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism was not a newfound idea in the 1930s. It is an attitude that has persisted

to some degree throughout Europe since the birth of Christianity as a prominent religion (Hilberg

5). Since the driving force of Christianity has been to save souls from an eternity of suffering in

hell, Jews were seen as deplorable and dangerous to Christianity for their inability to convert to

the religion. The Jews were eventually met with an ultimatum to convert to Christianity, or else

face expulsion. The Nazi Party adopted these early anti-Semitic policies from the work of

Christian leaders over the centuries. (Hilberg 7)

The Nazi¶s racial ideology developed from loose interpretations of the theories of Darwin

and Genetics.The Nazi Party believed that some characteristics of a person, such as attitudes,

abilities, and behaviors, were determined by race. These traits were considered inherent and



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passed down with each generation (³Nazi Racial Ideology´). Not only did they believe that an

individual was unable to overcome these innate

qualities, but they believed that natural selection

applied to human race. Some races were deemed more

³fit´ than others; therefore, it was natural for different

³races´ to compete for land and resources. (³Nazi

Racial Ideology´)

It may be difficult to understand how the Jewish community would be considered such a

threat if they were viewed as more inferior to Hitler¶s ³Aryan´ race. Jewish influence was the

biggest threat to the Nazis. (Hilberg 28) Intermarriage was one of the main concerns because it

was believed that the offspring produced from these unions would dilute the superior traits of the

Aryan race and hinder the race in its competition for survival. Those who exhibited certain

social ills were also targeted because they were said to influence the racial ³hygiene.´ This list

included those with mental illness, physical disabilities, criminals, alcoholics, even

homelessness. (³Nazi Racial Ideology´)

Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws were a series of legislation designed to define the differences

between so-called Aryans and Jews, strip the Jews of their citizenship, and further define and

limit the relationships between Germans and Jews. The German Interior Ministry, with theinfluence of the Nazi Party, decided on what characteristics defined a ³Jew.´ On April 7 th, 1933,

a decree stated that German officials of ³non-Aryan´ descent´ were to retire. (Hilberg 27-28)

³Jews are not wanted here.´http://bit.ly/qxasB8



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³Non-Aryan´ descent was described as any person who had a Jewish parent or grandparent. The

non-Aryan description covered full Jewish, three-fourths, one-half, and one-fourth Jewish

persons; their aim was to eliminate any Jewish influence.

(Hilberg 27) On September 13, 1935, Hitler ordered a decree to

be written in just two days outlining the ³Law for the Protection

of German Blood and Honor.´ (Hilberg 29) This law

prohibited any marriage or extramarital intercourse between

Jews and German citizens, the employment of female German

citizens under the age of 25 in Jewish households, and bannedthe raising of Reich flags by Jews. (Hilberg 29)

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht was an event that took place on November 9, 1938, that served as the

starting point of the Holocaust.(Lisciotto).Although Nazis had a plan in place to solve the Jewish

³question,´ the murder of Ernst VomRath gave the Nazis ammunition to carry out their

plan.VomRath, a German diplomat stationed in Paris, was shot two days earlier by a 17 year old

named Herschel Grynszpan. Greenszpan, a polish Jew, was upset over his parents¶ deportation

without notice. Almost two weeks earlier, the Polish

government withdrew the passports of about 15,000

Polish citizens who had been abroad more than 5 years.

German officials had to choose between accept ing these

stateless ex-polish citizens, or else send them back to

³Protect yourselves. Don¶t buy fromJews.´

http://bit.ly/fCMQxg

Synagogue destroyed during Kristallnacht.http://bit.ly/qFuokA



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Poland before the withdrawal took effect. The Germans chose to round up the ex-Polish citizens

and drop them off on the Polish side of the border, near Posen. Thousands of people died in the

dead of winter. (Lisciotto)

Upon hearing of VomRath¶s death, Hitler ordered the Gestapo to burn synagogues, places

of business, the housing of Jews, and to spare German property under all circumstances.

Gestapo were to seize the archives from synagogues and other community organizations in order

to obtain records of the Jewish ancestry. (Lisciotto) Synagogues and other Jewish property were

looted and burned all across Germany and parts of Austria, and firemen were instructed to let

those structures burn, yet prevent the fires from spreading to German properties. Windows were

smashed and Jewish cemeterieswere desecrated. Jewish men were attacked in the streets and

about 100 of them were beaten to death. Others committed suicide over their losses. (Lisciotto)

On November 12, 1938, a meeting was called with an effort to explain how the Jews were to be

held responsible for the pogrom. As a result, the Jewish community was fined for the destruction

of its own property. (Lisciotto)

Rounding up Jews²The Ghettos

A series of laws were implemented oppressing the Jews. By November of 1939, Jewish

people who had reached the age of 12 were forced to

wear white armbands with a blue Jewish star.

(Hilberg74) Jews were forbidden to move freely; theycouldn¶t take up residences unless they were local. A

curfew was imposed and Jews couldn¶t enter the streets

between 9am and 5am. Travel by railwaysJews building the walls enclosing the Warsaw ghetto.

http://bit.ly/pTwVDs



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Number of Jews listed in the plan for thefinal solution.

http://bit.ly/cxAOP9

wasforbidden except for approved trips. Judenrate (or Jewish councils) were formed to oversee

the Ghettos and relay German orders to the population. (Hilberg 76) The Judenrate was

composed of 10 to 24 council members based on the size of the population it served. Most of the

council members had previously been leaders in the Jewish community.

Conditions of daily life in the ghettos were inhumane. Jews were stripped of their

property and told to bring only few possessions. (The Ghettos) The ghettos were overcrowded

and often lacked basic infrastructure. As a result of limited food rations and a lack of sanitary

conditions, starvation and killed many people. Warsaw, Poland was home to the largest ghetto

with nearly 500,000 Jews interned there. It boasted some of the worst living conditions with an

average of 6 to 7 people to each room and daily food rations that were about 1/10 of the required

minimum daily caloric intake. Economic activity, especially the smuggling of food and other

supplies into the ghetto, was illegal and punishable by public execution.However, values,

education, and religious traditions persisted despite the horrible living conditions. The arts

maintained their presence in the ghettos. (The Ghettos)

Wannsee Conference²The Final Solution

According to YadVashem, there is no tangible

document that specifically details how the extermination of

the Jewish community was decided upon. (Kopolovich)

Shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union, the massmurder of men, women and children began. It started with

gunfire, but that method wasn¶t efficient enough. It is believed by scholars that orders were

given by Hitler, or with his knowledge, in an oral manner. (Kopolovich)



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Deportation orders were usually served around the holidays when the Jewish community

was distracted. The local and Jewish appointed police were ordered to carry out the Aktion, or

round up of Jews. (The Ghettos) These people were ordered to gather, usually near a train

station, bringing few possessions. Anyone who refused orders or couldn¶t keep up with the pace

was shot immediately. The cruelty began with the cattle cars that the Nazis used to transport the

Jews. The cars weren¶t properly ventilated and were sealed from the outside. The Jews were left

in the cars for days without water or food. As a result of those conditions, many Jews perished

on the way to the death camps. (The Ghettos)

Selektion

The process of selection was carried out in a very specific way. Victim¶s belongings

were placed in the barracks. Then, they were lined up into two columns, one for men and boys

and the other for women and children. (³Deportation´) SS Physicians were in charge of the

selections and decided based on appearance if an individual was fit for labor, or if they should be

sent straight to the gas chamber. (³Deportation´)

Children were especially vulnerable in the selection

process. They were considered of little use because they couldn¶t

be put to work, yet they used up limited resources. Therefore,

many children were among the first to be sent to the killing

operations. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the majority of children were sent directly to the gas chambers. (³Children

during the Holocaust´) Those children 13-18 years had a better

chance of survival because they could be used as laborers.A woman and her child being deportedfrom Lodz ghetto.http://bit.ly/q5oclK



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Kristine Keren, a holocaust survivor, spoke with the Shoah Foundation of her experiences

in the Warsaw Ghetto. (³Holocaust Survivor´) Although a very young child of 5 years, she

recalled vivid memories of the day the Germans invaded Poland and the measures her father

would take to avoid multiple selections. She remembers constantly looking for hiding places for

her and her baby brother in the event that the German soldiers came looking for children while

her parents were off working in labor camps. One day she was playing with her cousin and a few

other kids. She sensed that something was wrong so she found a place to hide. She watched as

her cousin and the rest of the children were taken away by German soldiers. Her father

bargained with the soldiers on multiple occasions to spare his family from deportation. One dayher family watched as her father nearly became the victim of a public execution for reporting late

to a work assignment. Her family was one of few who survived the selections by finding an

escape from the ghetto through the sewer system. (³Holocaust Survivor´)

Many children were killed in the hospitals immediately after birth. Other children who

had resided in orphanages were ³liquidated.´ One brave director of an orphanage at the Warsaw

ghetto, JanuszKorczak, refused to leave the children under his care and travelled with them to the

Treblinka Killing Center, and straight into the gas chamber. (³Children During the Holocaust´)

Overall, roughly 1.5 million children were killed during the holocaust, a million of them Jewish.

The other 500,000 were German children with mental and physical disabilities, Romani, Polish

and children in the occupied Soviet Union.

Extermination Methods

The first state-sponsored killings came out of the ³Euthanasia Program.´ The Nazis were

concerned with racial ³hygiene´ and the economic burden that the mentally and physically



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disabled patients were believed to carry on society and state. (³Euthanasia Program´) The Nazis

carried out this program about two years prior and up to the Holocaust. On August 18, 1939, the

Reich Ministry of Interior called on physicians, nurses, and other providers to report newborns

with severe mental and physical disabilities. Parents were then urged to admit children to these

facilities, where they would be murdered by lethal doses of medication or starvation. Children

up to 17 years of age were eventually targeted and it is estimated that more than 5,000 children

were murdered by this program. (³Euthanasia Program´)

Like children, disabled adults were secretly targeted in a program called Aktion T4, led

by Phillip Bouthier and physician Karl Brandt. (³Euthanasia Program´) Questionnaires were

distributed to health providers that questioned these individuals capacity to work, whether or not

they were of German blood, whether or not they were criminally insane, or if their stay lasted

more than 5 years. Patients were then transported to one of six gassing institutions²

Brandenburg, Grafeneck, Bernburg, Sonnenstein, Hartheim, or Hadamar. Once these patients

were gassed with carbon monoxide, they were cremated, sent via urn to the family members with

a death certificate and a false cause of death. The program eventually became public knowledge

and Hitler put an end to the killings in August 1941. More than 70,000 individuals were killed

between January of 1940 and August 1941. Disabled adults and children continued to be killed

by drug overdose and starvation in subsequent phases of the program. It¶s estimated that a total

of 200,000 adults and children were killed in all phases. (³Euthanasia Program´)

The Nazis developed a systematic method of killing the millions of Jews. According to

YadVashem: The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, gassing victims

became the primary means of extermination. (³The Death Camps´) Chelmo was established as

the first killing site and it began operations on December 8, 1941. Mobile killing units, or gas



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vans, were the first method of killing. Victims would be ordered to undress and hand over their

belongings. The victims unknowingly boarded a sealed

van with an exhaust pipe connected to the interior. The

vans drove to a mass grave at a nearby forest, where

Jews were forced to unload the corpses. Three gas vans

killed 300,000 Jews and 5,000 Sinti/Roma. Only three

Jews survived Chelmo. (³The Death Camps´)

The gas chambers operated in a similar way as the mobile killing units, offering a more

efficient, systematic method of extermination. (³The Death Camps´) Those selected for the gas

chamber would be informed that they were to strip down so that they could be sent to the

showers. The gas chambers resembled large showering facilities. The Carbon Monoxide from

large tank engines was released into the sealed chambers, suffocating the crowded victims within

minutes. Gold teeth were extracted from the corpses, and women¶s hair was cut. The corpses

were then removed from the chambers and cremated by the Sonderkommando, a Jewish labor

unit. (³The Death Camps´)

The Nazis chose Zyklon B as a more potent alternative to Carbon Monoxide (CO)

because it was more efficient for large scale mass killings. (Zyklon B 1) Zyklon B was the

commercial name for Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and had been tested on Soviet Prisoners of War.

Zyklon B came in crystal pellet form that sublimated as it was exposed with the air. The crystal

pellets would be placed into the packet gas chamber, killing victims within minutes. (Zyklon B

1)

Gas chamber in the main camp of Auschwitz.http://bit.ly/rsHlip



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The Death Camps

One March of 1942, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were formed at the eastern boundary

of Generalgouvernement, the southern portion of pre-occupied Poland. (³The Death Camps´)

The camps were intended for the sole purpose of mass killings. These facilities were equipped

with permanent sealed gas chambers and cremation

became the practice of disposing thousands of corpses.

No selections were necessary at these sites, because

victims were sent directly to the gas chambers. Nearly

1,700,000 Jews were murdered at the three camps.

(³The Death Camps´)

Majdanak was a smaller camp established in 1941. It served as a concentration camp for

soviet prisoners of war and Poles. By 1942, it was equipped with gas chambers and crematoria.

Thousands of Slovaks, Czechs, Germans, and Poles were murdered at this site. (³The Death

Camps´) Only a few Jews were spared at the killing centers and chosen for a special unit called

the ³Sonderkommando.´ These Jews were chosen and forced to carry out the task of sorting

clothing and possessions, removing corpses from the gas chambers, and carrying out the

cremation of the corpses. On average, their lives were only spared for about 3 to 4 months

before they were killed and a new group of Jewish laborers was chosen. (³The Death Camps´)

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a concentration camp established to serve as a labor camp andas the largest extermination site in Poland. (³Auschwitz´). A small percentage of those who were

transported to the facilities were chosen for labor in the camp, munitions labor at other camps,

while others were chosen for the ³medical experiments´ of Dr. Jospef Mengele. ZyklonB was

In Auschwitz, clothing of women who had beenmurdered.

http://bit.ly/qgMsQF



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also introduced at this location. The death toll of Auschwitz included 1,100,000 Jews, 70,000

Poles, 25,000 Sinti/Roma, and about 15,000 Prisoners of war from multiple countries.

(³Auschwitz´)

Conclusion

A person must wonder how such horrible atrocities could be carried out by the state and

overlooked by a society when presented with the facts. It is hard to conceive the German people

weren¶t aware of the large scale mass killings of the Jewish population. There is always a

potential that a state will serve a will that is other than that of the people. That¶s why it¶s

important to remember the Holocaust and other genocides in history.



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Works Cited

"Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp - YadVashem." Yadvashem.org. YadVashemThe

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2011. Web. 19 July 2011.

Bacharach, Walter Zwi. "The Holocaust - YadVashem."YadVashem. The Holocaust Martyrs'

and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2011.Web. 06 July 2011.

"Children during the Holocaust."United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum, 06 Jan. 2011. Web. 07 July 2011.

"The Death Camps - YadVashem." Yadvashem.org. YadVashemThe Holocaust Martyrs' and

Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2011. Web. 19 July 2011.

"Deportation to the Death Camps - YadVashem." Yadvashem.org. YadVashemThe Holocaust

Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2011. Web. 18 July 2011.

"Euthanasia Program."United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum, 06 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 July 2011.

"The Ghettos - YadVashem." Yadvashem.org. YadVashemThe Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'

Remembrance Authority, 2011. Web. 19 July 2011.

Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1985. Print.

Keren, Kristine. "Holocaust Survivor Kristine Keren Testimony."Interview by Florence

Schuster. Youtube.com. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 26th June

2011.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd7WKPMcFbA&playnext=1&list=PL1DEE787E7

468D11C>.



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Kopolovich, Zvi. "The Wannsee Conference - YadVashem." YadVashem. The Holocaust

Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2011.Web. 07 July 2011.

Lisciotto, Carmelo. Kristallnacht "Night of Crystal"-"Night of Broken Glass" Holocaust

Education & Archive Research Team. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team,

2007.Web. 07 July 2011.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.United States Holocaust Museum.Web. 22 June

2011.

"Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 07 July 2011.

"Zyklon B." Yadvashem.org. Ed. Shoah Resource Center.The International School for Holocaust

Studies.Web. 19 July 2011.

<http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206400.pdf>.

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