The Holocaust

Sean Seow 9Y2

Hitler’s Rise to PowerAdolf Hitler joined the DAP,

Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was later known as the Nazi Party in September 1919. The party opposed to the post-Great War democratic government. He swiftly rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Being the best speaker in the party, he threatened to leave the party and not return, if he was not made leader. He was aided by those who shared his ideals for using violence to achieve political objectives to recruit party members. His book Mein Kampf helped introduce himself to the wider world.

Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. With Germans who opposed Nazism failing to unite against it, Hitler soon moved into complete control.

Our Only Hope: Hitler

Hitler’s Education CampaignHitler’s education campaign

started from a young age. It intended to make school children believe that Jews were bad and evil, and that they should be mistreated, so that they would grow up hating Jews.

The Poisonous Mushroom was a collection of 17 short stories by the Nazi writer Ernst Hiemer, with pictures by the Nazi artist Fips. The purpose of the stories was to brainwash young German children to despise and hate the Jews. The stories infiltrated the thoughts and beliefs of German children.

Hitler YouthHitler Youth was a paramilitary

organization made for German children from the age of 10-18. The members of the Hitler Youth were indoctrinated in anti-Semitism. On of the aims of Hitler youth was to create loyal soldiers who would fight faithfully for the Third Reich.

Many activities closely resembled military training, with weapons training, assault course circuits and basic tactics. Some cruelty by the older boys toward the younger ones was tolerated and even encouraged, since it was believed this would weed out the unfit and harden the rest.

PropagandaBefore World War II, Nazi propaganda strategy,

officially promulgated by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, stressed several themes. Their goals were to establish external enemies (countries that allegedly inflicted the Treaty of Versailles on Germany) and internal enemies, such as Jews, Romani, homosexuals, and Bolsheviks.

German propaganda during the war emphasized the prowess of German arms and the humanity German soldiers had shown to the peoples of occupied territories. Pilots of the Allied bombing fleets were depicted as cowardly murderers. One of the primary sources for propaganda was a daily radio broadcast that described the military situation on all fronts. Nazi victories lent themselves easily to propaganda broadcasts and were at this point difficult to mishandle. Satires on the defeated, accounts of attacks, and praise for the fallen all were useful for Nazis.The pervasive use of propaganda by the Nazis is largely responsible for the word "propaganda" itself acquiring its present negative connotations Don’t Buy From The Jews

Map of Nazi Extermination, Concentration, Labor and Transit Camps

Concentration CampsThe first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichsta fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime.The number of camps quadrupled between 1939 and 1942 to 300+, as slave-laborers from across Europe, Jews, political prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally ill and others were incarcerated, generally without judicial process.

Extermination CampsExtermination camps were camps built to systematically kill

millions of people by gassing and extreme work under starvation conditions. While there were victims from many groups, Jews were the main targets.Operationally, there were three types of death camp:• (1) Aktion Reinhardt extermination camps: prisoners were

promptly killed upon arrival. Initially, the camps used carbon monoxide gas chambers; at first, the corpses were buried, but then incinerated atop pyres. Later, gas chambers and crematoria were built in Treblinka and Belzec; Zyklon-B was used in Belzec.

• (2) Concentration–extermination camps where some prisoners were selected for slave labor, instead of immediate death; they were kept alive as camp inmates, available to work wherever the Nazis required. These camps — including Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Jasenovac — later were retrofitted with Zyklon-B gas chambers and crematoria, remaining operational until war's end in 1945.

• (3) Minor extermination camps, initially operated as prisons and transit camps, then as extermination camps late in the war, using portable gas-chambers and gas vans. Gas vans were initially developed at the Chelmno extermination camp, before being used elsewhere.

In total, about 4 million Jews were killed in these extermination camps.

Resistance: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Germans ordered the Jewish “police” in the Warsaw ghetto to round up people for deportation. Approximately 300,000 men, women, and children were packed in cattle cars and transported to the Treblinka death camp where they were murdered. This left a Jewish population of between 55,000 and 60,000 in the ghetto.

In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the troops retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.

The ghetto fighters were warned of the timing of the final deportation and the entire Jewish population went into hiding. On the morning of April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants.

Resistance: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

After the Germans were forced to withdraw from the ghetto, they returned with more and more firepower. The German commander, General Jürgen Stroop, ordered the ghetto burned to the ground building by building after seven days without quelling the uprising. Still, the Jews held out against the overwhelming force for 27 days. On May 8, the headquarters bunker of the ZOB at 18 Mila Street was captured. Mordecai Anielewicz and a large number of his colleagues were killed in the fighting, but several dozen fighters escaped through the sewers.

On May 16, Stroop announced the fighting was over. He said his forces had captured 56,065 Jews and announced that he was going to blow up the Great Synagogue on Tlomack as a symbol of victory and of the fact that “the Jewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exists.”

Approximately 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews were killed in the uprising, and another 7,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka. The outcome was preordained, but the dramatic act of resistance helped raise the morale of Jews everywhere, if only briefly.

The valiant display of courage shown by the 750 Jews who defended the rest of the camp cannot go unnoticed. They showedsuch courage against overwhelming odds.

Resistance: Youth Opposition in Nazi Germany

The Jews were not the only people who resisted the Nazi rule. Several resistance groups within Germany itself formed, mainly made up of young Germans. Groups such as Swing Youth and more notably White Rose (Right).

Resistance: White RoseIn the 1930s, teenagers Han and Sophie Scholl were like other Germans their age, and

they enthusiastically joined the Hitler Youth. Their father on the other hand, believed that Hitler was “God’s scourge on mankind”. Later, the Scholl siblings also came to the realization that “Hitler and the Nazis were enslaving and destroying the German people.

One day in 1942, copies of a leaflet entitled “The White Rose” suddenly appeared at the University of Munich. The leaflet contained an anonymous essay that said that the Nazi system had slowly imprisoned the German people and was now destroying them. The Nazi regime had turned evil. It was time, the essay said, for Germans to rise up and resist the tyranny of their own government. At the bottom of the essay, the following request appeared: “Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.” This essay had been written by Hans and his friends.

There were six different leaflets in total produced by the group. But they did not limit themselves down to leaflets. Graffiti started to appear on walls condemning Hitler.

On the February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie were caught leaving pamphlets at the University of Munich and were arrested. A search disclosed evidence of one of their friends, Christoph Probst's participation, and he too was soon arrested. The three of them were indicted for treason. They were sentenced to death, along with the rest of The White Rose.

The courage displayed by The White Rose is surely commendable.

The End of the HolocaustIn the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers.

Not the First time… Or the Last

The Holocaust was a horrific moment in human history. 5-11 million Jews’ lives were ended because of a single group of people. Though it was the most renown example, it was not the first or last time genocide was committed.• Armenian Genocide: 600 000-1 800 000

deaths• Rwandan Genocide: 500 000-1 000 000

deaths• Cambodian Genocide: About 156 000

deaths

Conclusion

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George SantayanaIt is essential man does not repeat its mistakes from the past. Things like the Holocaust is why studying history is essential: so man does not make such grave mistakes again.