Conflict In The 20th Century- Research Activity On World War II, The Holocaust

Term Paper Title	Conflict In The 20th Century- Research Activity On World War II, The Holocaust
# of Words	1205
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.82

Conflict in the 20th century- Research Activity on World War II, The holocaust

By David D.

Why Germany wanted to get rid of Jews & Why the Holocaust happened

Jews had lived throughout Europe for more than a thousand years, but this did not stop nearly six million of them being killed in what historians have called, the "Holocaust." A holocaust is described as "a great raging fire that consumes in its path all that lives." In this case it was the German Nazi party led by Hitler, who set out to destroy the Jewish race (lives of innocent Jews). Germany's political leaders wanted to create an "Aryan" race of only Germans.
In 1933, approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945, the year the war ended, two out of every three European Jew had been killed. Although Jews were the main victims, thousands of "Gypsies", and at least 250, 000 mentally or physically disabled persons were victims.
Between 1933 and 1945 millions of other innocent people were persecuted and murdered. Three million Soviet prisoners of war were killed because of their nationality. Almost two million Poles and Slavs perished as a result of slave labor. Homosexuals, communists, socialists, trade unionists and Jehovah's witnesses were also persecuted, for their beliefs and the way they acted.
In 1933 German Nazis began to put into practice their racial ideology. The Nazis believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that there was a struggle between them and "inferior races." Jews, Gypsies and handicapped people were seen as serious threat to the German "Aryan" race, called the "master race." An Aryan was seen as a tall, slim German with blonde hair and blue eyes. Many Jews did not fit in with this ideology, hence, they were annihilated.
     Of all the different races in Germany the Nazis were mainly against the Jewish race, around 500 000 lived in Germany at the time. Propaganda was used against them that unfairly blamed them for Germany's economic depression and the country's defeat in World War I . All of this was untrue but Hitler's public speeches and propaganda turned the people of Germany against Jews.

Living conditions for Jews in camps

     Concentration camps were set up all over Europe, most of them next to railway lines. Jews were rounded up in ghettos and shipped out to the camps by train. This project was named Operation Reinhard after Heydrichs death in May 1942. Heydrich was one of Hitlers chief followers.
Jews arrived at the camps on the overcrowded trains, most of them weak and tired from not eating for days. When they arrived they would be ordered off the train and form two lines, women and children in one and men in the other. They then went before a table where Nazi officers sat, they would decide who would live and who would be killed immediately. The surviving men were sent to work, the women given cleaning duties and the children sent to school.
Although the camps were far worse than the ghettos, Jews were told to have hope. This was a lie that was repeated to each of the millions who died. Those who were allowed to live later wished that they had been killed. German guards and Jewish Police ran the camps, ready and willing to beat or shoot anyone who did not obey orders.
     Thousands of people were crammed into barracks designed for hundreds. For over 400 people there was only one bathroom. Thin soup that contained no nourishment was the only food served. Dead bodies littered paths, caused by starvation, freezing temperatures and disease.

Why German people taught to hate Jews &
How Jewish men and women were treated

     Through Propaganda and anti-Jewish teaching Hitler convinced people that Jews...

Read entire document