Scott McMasters Graded

8/3/2019 Scott McMasters Graded

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Scotty McMasters

Mr. Larry Neuberger

English 102-104

18 November 2011

Research Paper

Overview: The Holocaust


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World War II was a horrible event in the history of mankind. However, it was not the war

that was the most terrifying of the time period; it was the genocide that took place during it. The

massacre known as the Holocaust is one ofhistorys largest acts of genocide the world has ever

seen. Some believe the event never happened, but facts and proof show it did. One should know

not just how the event occurred, but how Hitler and his followers were able to commit such an

act in an extremely short amount of time.

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is the prejudice towards people of the Jewish

religion. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum (USHMM)Nazi Germany is historys most extreme

example of anti-Semitism, (Antisemitism)this by the evidence

given about the Holocaust it would be easy for one to understand.

Furthermore, in 1879 the journalist Wilhelm Marr originated the

term anti-Semitism, however, Marr did not just target the Jews he

targeted the liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political

trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated

with Jews, (Antisemitism) this shows that the Germans were using Jews as a scapegoat for their

problems or disagreed upon views (Antisemitism). Before the Nazis gained power over Germany

they had to gain the publics approval and propaganda helped give this to the Nazi party.

According to Yad Vashem, the first major propaganda made Hitler appear like a powerful and

trustworthy leader. Once Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control of Germany, Hitler used

propaganda to keep the publics eye and mind. Furthermore, Hitler created the illusion that

the German people had one enemy: the Jews (Propaganda, Nazi) and from that Hitler used

Propaganda Poster asking to get the

Jewish warmongers out ofEurope

Source: http://bit.ly/tvDslx


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A photograph after the events of Kristallnacht.

http://bit.ly/UX99

propaganda to make Jews the main target in making a racially pure nation. In addition to the

propaganda in posters the Nazis released a film called The Eternal Jew which depicted Jews as

dirty, immoral, and ugly (Propaganda, Nazi). The kind of messages in Nazi Germany

created distaste towards the Jewish people and made it more acceptable to imprison or get rid of

them.

Nuremberg Laws

By the year 1935 the Nazi party had control of

the government and passed the Nuremberg Laws. The

Nuremberg Laws stated that no Jew would be allowed

in Germany and the Jewish had lost their citizenship to

the country. According to an article The Nuremberg

Laws, seven sections and many articles make up the

Nuremberg Laws. The article also describes what these laws commanded the Jewish people to

do. The first section stated no one of the Jewish faith or nationals of German blood could not

engage in marriage. The next portion of the laws stated that the employment of a German female

by a Jewish individual was prohibited and that Jews could not raise the German flag, but the flag

of their Jewish colors. Furthermore, should those laws be disobeyed the person who broke the

rule would be put in jail or sentenced to hard labor or both (My Jewish Learning). The outright

discrimination and persecution of Jews caused much unrest throughout Europe.

Kristallnacht

The first noticeable acts of violence began with

Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass as

translated. Hitler sent his followers on a rampage

A picture of the Nuremberg Laws


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Windows broken from the riots

during Kristallnacht

http://bit.ly/aHp3P6

through the streets destroying Jewish business and terrorizing Jews. According to the USHMM

the event occurred through November 9th and 10th of 1938 and

Kristallnacht had not been secluded to Germany only, the attack

occurred in the recently annexed Austria and in portions of

Czechoslovakia occupied by German troops. German officials at

the time stated the assassination of a German embassy official by a

Polish Jew in Paris resulted in the spontaneous outburst ofpublic

sentiment (Kristalnacht) and mass destruction of property.

Furthermore, according to Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS)

website, Kristallnacht gave the Nazi government a threshold to removing Jews from the German

public both in economic and social life (Kristallnacht). Kristallnacht made the lives of the Jewish

people hard and opened the doors to much worse hardships in the future.

The Ghettos

The excuse to get rid of minorities in Germany had worked and the forced emigration to

ghettos had begun. Many Jews were rounded up and put in small neighborhoods called ghettos.

After observing the movieA Film Unfinishedit was easy

to see that life in the ghettos held awful experiences for

those that were forced to live there during the war. One

survivor by the name of Solomon Radasky had an extreme

experience in the ghettos in Warsaw. Radasky showed

that abuse was common in the ghettos when he described

being beaten until the blood ran down his back. Furthermore the Nazis referred to the Jews as

dogs because of the tags they were required to wear (Radasky). Ursula Levy also survived the

Nazis laughing as they beat a Jew

Source: http://bit.ly/5alGXd


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The building where the Wannsee Conference tookplace.

http://bit.ly/cxAOP9

Holocaust and had lived in the ghettos. Levy did not have much to do in the ghettos according to

her We didn't doing anything. We stood at role call most of the day. Also, Jews starved in the

ghettos and because of this it was observed that everything slowed down to me,(USC ShoahFoundation) the malnourishment slowed speech and energy down to a crawl (USC Shoah

Foundation). Ursula and Solomon both were transferred to Auschwitz, however, Ursula received

liberation from the Nazis by the Soviets before getting there. The ghettos broke the moral and

took a large toll on the population of the Jews. The prelude to the horrifying conclusion to the

Holocaust could be revealed at any ghetto at the time.

The Wannsee Conference

After the Jews and minorities lived in the

ghettos and the invasion of Russia had started, the Final

Solution to the Jewish Problem was devised at the

Wannsee Conference. According to Yad Vashem, a

Jewish site on Holocaust remembrance, the Nazis had

murdered the Jews and minorities by gunfire. However,

because extermination by gunfire took a toll on the

soldiers performance the Nazi officials decided to end that form of killing and move to other

forms. Instead, of shooting the defenseless people the Nazis decided that death by toxic gas

would be quicker and have a lesser toll on the soldiers. However, the use of gas by the Nazis had

not started there, according to Yad Vashem The Germans had already employed gas in the

Euthanasia Program. This Euthanasia Program was and early attempt to get rid of all the

mentally ill and physically disabled in Germany, but was stopped due to pressure from the

German public and clergy, (The Wannsee Conference) to stop. This shows the plan to


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Layouts of the gas chambers in Auschwitz


exterminate the Jewish people with gas may have come earlier than the Wannsee Conference.

The Jewish people became marked for dead and the systematic structure began.

Selektion

The process in which the victims of the

Holocaust received their demise consisted of a few

key aspects. According to The Holocaust Explained,

males and females had to separate into their individual

groups. From there anybody over the age of about

fourteen received the decision of fit to work. Next

the elderly, women, and children became condemned to death in the gas chambers, however,

the victims did not receive knowledge of their misfortune. Finally, after selection took place

those fit to work had to enter a room for registration, which consisted of being tattooed with an

identification number, their heads shaved, placed into disinfecting showers, and placed in striped

pajamas (Selection). Solomon Radasky described his induction to the prison camp at Majdanek

as follows, At Majdanek they took our clothes and gave us striped shirts, pants and wooden

shoes, (Radasky). The prisoners of the concentration camps now faced the beginning to life

within a death camp.

Concentration Camps

In Poland, Jewish people from all over Europe

were stationed in concentration camps. These camps had

one purpose and one purpose only, quick extermination

of innocent people. Prisoners had to surrender to many

thing when they arrived and the Nazis had more than

Prisoners being separated by gender and age

Source: http://bit.ly/tXJa5k


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Jewish in concentration camps. According to Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

(HEART)the first thing prisoners were forced to do was surrender everything they had, clothesand all. Nothing of value was allowed. Then the Nazis categorized the different peoples with

triangles to wear. A red triangle meant one was a political prisoner, a green triangle meant one

was a professional criminal, black triangles were for asocial people, purple triangles meant one

was from the Catholic clergy, a pink triangle meant one was a homosexual, a yellow star was for

the Jewish and a violet triangle was for a Jehovah Witness. In

addition to the triangles prisoners still had the tattoos with serial

numbers for identification (Auschwitz Concentration Camp).

The people worked very hard and until they could not work

anymore according to Solomon Radasky. Radasky had worked

in the camp at Majdanek and Auschwitz and stated in the

description of their treatment that If they could not get up, they

were shot where they lay. After work we had to carry the bodies

back. If 1,000 went out to work, a 1,000 had to come back. The Nazis did not care about the

well-being of their prisoners by the way Radasky writes and it is clear the Nazis did not care for

they opened up jails and they made the prisoners our bosses. Making murders and rapist run

a facility showed the carelessness of the Nazis (Radasky). The camps were horrible places with

the worst way to treat individuals. It is horrible to think that people were treated in such a way

during the time.

Killing Methods

The Nazis did not have just one way to murder the people in the camps. According to

PBS the Nazis did not plan the method of killing off millions of people, but that it evolved into

The triangle diagram that the

prisoners used

Source: http://bit.ly/utEU67


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Nazi death squads murdering hundredsSource: http://to.pbs.org/f5koEQ

Picture of an Auschwitz death chamber


an industrial procedure. PBS also described this

evolution into the mass killing factories. First the Nazis

killed men women and children with troops lining the

prisoners up and shooting all of them dead (The Killing

Evolution). According to The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, between

17,000 and 18,000 Jews were killed in one day as part of a mass shooting, (Extermination

Camps). Then PBS describes the switch to the next form of extermination, death by carbon

monoxide, because Himmler realized he had to find new methods that would spare his troops

the psychological strain of killing human beings at close

range,(The Killing Evolution) so the Nazis hooked upcanisters on the gas to shower heads so the Nazis would

not directly be taking a life. Then the Nazis decided to

experiment with the use of carbon monoxide and

disposing of the victims by using hell vans which were

nothing more than huge trucks with the exhaust pipes focused into the back to poison and killed

the prisoners making it easy to dispose of the victims. Finally the use of Zyklon B was

introduced and the massive gas chambers and crematoria with the properly heated room and

pesticide crystals the operation of killing about 4,400 people a day was made possible (The

Killing Evolution). The methods used in the Holocaust had gruesome descriptions and it is hard

to fathom the possibility of killing so many people.

Resistance

A common understanding would be that people believe the Jewish people just gave up

and did not resist the Nazis out of fear. However this is a wrong assumption. According to the


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USHMM some Jews escaped from the ghettos into the

forests and joined Russian partisan units or made their

own (Jewish Resistance). One famous partisan group, the

Bielski partisans, made life for the Nazis troublesome.

According to the USHMM, after the death of their parents

and two brothers, the three surviving brothers Tuvia,

Asael, and Zus escaped form the ghettos into the Zabielovo and Perelaz forests where they hid

and formed a large partisan group of about thirty families. In addition to escaping Tuvia was

elected as a leader by the other families because he had a military background. Furthermore the

Bielski partisans did a lot to rescue prisoners from the ghettos and also had a major hand in the

sabotage of trains and railroads and killing many German troops (The Bielski Partisans).

According to Yad Vashem The Germans grew so frustrated by their inability to catch Tuvia

Bielski that they offered a 100,000 marks reward for his capture, indicating that the large group

of Jews was a formidable opponent in the war (Bielski, Tuvia). The partisan groups made a large

difference in the war and saved many Jewish lives. The Bielski partisans give a well-illustrated

picture of Jewish resistance.

Though escaping and fighting back became an option for some it did not for others. Some

prisoners rebelled from within the death camps. According to USHMM the prisoners at

Treblinka and Sobibor stole weapons from the Nazis in an attempt to escape. Although many

died in the uprisings a few prisoners managed to escape the Nazis. Also an attempt to blow up a

crematorium on the Auschwitz death camp by prisoners failed and nearly 250 prisoners died as a

result during the attack and another 200 after. Finally the Jewish prisoners rebelled against the

oppression of the Nazis with spiritual resistance meaning they made conscious decisions in

A group from the Bielski partisans

Source: http://bit.ly/u98e8q


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preserving the history and lifestyle of Jewish the people. As well as this prisoner named Oneg

Shabbat took many forms of documentation to record what happened in the Warsaw ghettos to

ensure the story of the prisoners in the ghettos. The fact that prisoners still had the courage to

face a force more powerful than themselves is truly inspiring.

Liberation

When World War II was coming closer to an

end the Allied forces began liberating many of the

death camps. According to USHMM the Soviets

reached concentration camps first with the finding of

the Majdanek camp. Then the Soviets found that the

Nazis tried to hide the evidence of the mass murder

by demolishing most of the camp. Moreover the Soviets liberated Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka,

and Auschwitz. However, when the Soviets overran the Nazis at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka

in 1944 they found little survivors because in 1943 the Nazis had dismantled the camps due to

most prisoners in Poland had already been killed. Next the Soviets found the belonging of the

prisoners and several death chambers in Auschwitz, evidence of the mass murder. Finally in the

Bergen-Belsen camp when the British liberated the camp they released some 60,000 prisoner and

within the next week more than 10,000 died of malnutrition or disease (Liberation of Nazi

Camps). What the Allied forces witnessed when liberating the camp was horrifying and allowed

for the truth of the Nazis actions to be revealed. The liberations became a blessing and a horrible

revelation at the same time.

Conclusion

Anti-Semitism opened the doors to even more discriminatory act by the Nazis made

possible by skillful propaganda made by the Nazis. The Jewish people and all other prisoners in

Children being released from Auschwitz

Source: http://bit.ly/gSyMdZ


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the Holocaust had gone through some of the worst conditions a person should never experience.

The many live the Nazis had taken and the way that they did it would qualify as awe-worthy and

scary to say the least. Holocaust survivors made the evidence of event more solid and make the

stories feel even more unbelievable that an event like the holocaust could even occur. Hopefully

when researching the Holocaust one could look in depth the event and cruelties that occurs in

World War II and realize and help prevent such an event from ever happening again.

Works Cited

"The American Experience.America and the Holocaust.People & Events | "Kristallnacht" | PBS."

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"Antisemitism." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"Armed Jewish Resistance: Partisans." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 16

Nov. 2011.

"Auschwitz Concentration The Basics The Historical Timeline." Holocaust Education &

Archive Research Team. 2007. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

Barnavi, Eli. "The Final Solution - My Jewish Learning." Judaism & Jewish Life - My Jewish

Learning. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"The Bielski Partisans." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"Bielski, Tuvia." Yad Vashem. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"Extermination Camps." The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Web. 16 Nov.

2011.

Holocaust Survivor Ursula Levy Testimony - YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. USC

Shoah Foundation. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.


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"The Jewish Population Disbelieves Reports of the Extermination." Yad Vashem. Web. 17 Nov.

2011.

"Jewish Resistance." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9-10, 1938." United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"Liberation of Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"The Nuremberg Laws - My Jewish Learning." Judaism & Jewish Life - My Jewish Learning.

Web. 16 Nov. 2011

"Propaganda, Nazi." Yad Vashem. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

"Selection at the Concentration Camps - Key Stage 3 - The Holocaust Explained." The

Holocaust Explained - Homework & Online Education Tool for Students. Web. 17 Nov.

2011.

"Survivor Stories: Solomon Radasky." Holocaust Survivors. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"The Wannsee Conference." Yad Vashem. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

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