Michael Hammond IR- Period 5 Holocaust 30 November 2011 Holocaust The Holocaust was a tragic event in history.

It was the systematic, bureaucratic, statesponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority," such as: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. Over 11 million lives were lost because of cruel racial prejudice. In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. During this time the Nazis developed The Final Solution, a plan to get rid of all the Jews; and by 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews. Jews were the primary victims of Nazi racism, but other victims included some 200,000 Roma (Gypsies). At the same time the Nazis developed the Euthanasia Program, in which at least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients were murdered. As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people. Between two and three million

Soviet prisoners of war were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment. The Germans also targeted the non-Jewish Polish intelligentsia for killing, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians for forced labor in Germany or in occupied Poland, where these individuals worked and often died under deplorable conditions. From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and others whose behavior did not match prescribed social norms. German police officials targeted thousands of political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah's Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of incarceration and maltreatment. Nazi policy did a great deal to facilitate denial of the Holocaust even as the killing operation unfolded across German-occupied Europe during World War II.The Holocaust was a state secret in Nazi Germany. The Germans wrote down as little as possible. Most of the orders were verbal, in which Hitler's orders to kill Jews was issued only on a need-to-know basis. The Germans destroyed most documentation that did exist before the end of the war, and whatever survived relating to the killing program were classified as Top Secret. As Heinrich Himmler said in a secret speech to SS generals in Posen in 1943, the mass murder of the European Jews was a secret, never to be recorded. To hide the operation, Hitler ordered that the Germans use codenames and neutral-sounding terms for the killing process. For example: special treatment (Sonderbehandlung) meant killing.A simple example: in 1939, just before the start of World War 2, Lodz had a Jewish population of about 215,000. After the Holocaust about 800 Jews were left in Lodz. A small trickle of further survivors found their way back in the following months. This may help people understand something of the scale of human devastation caused, and why this is called the Holocaust.

The aftermath of the Holocaust had a profound effect on society in both Europe and the rest of the world. The fate of displaced persons and Holocaust survivors was a major issue, one which eventually led to the establishment of Israel by Jewish survivors. Europe lost nearly twothirds of its Jews (about 6 million out of a pre-war total of about 9.4 million). Large areas of Eastern Europe that had previously been flourishing Jewish communities, such as: Warsaw, Lodz, Minsk, Kiev, and Odessa had disappeared. The pre-Nazi Jewish communities of Central Europe, such as: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest had been completely destroyed. On an individual level, survivors needed help to regain their health. Many also needed longer term help and some lost everything, including family. Many national governments, international bodies and world leaders have been condemned for their failure to take appropriate action to save the millions of European Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust. At the same time it is said that the Allies accepted as many German Jewish immigrants as the Nazis would allowIn three cases, entire countries resisted the deportation of their Jewish population during the Holocaust. In other countries, notable individuals or communities created resistance during the Holocaust. During the time when the Allies were fighting against Nazi Germany they did not do much to help or stop the holocaust. Denmark acted quickly to move its Jewish residents to safety in Sweden, as soon as Nazi forces seemed to be starting forced deportations of Jews. On February 25, 1941 Netherlands ordered a strike against the anti-Jewish measures and activities by the Nazis. By February 27, much of the strike had been suppressed by the German police. Although unsuccessful, it was still significant in that it was the first direct action against the Nazis' treatment of Jews. In July 1938 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt called together The vian Conference to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. For ten days, delegates from thirty-two

countries met at vian-les-Bains, France. Many countries were unwilling to accept Jewish refugees, and the problem was not solved. The International Committee of the Red Cross did relatively little to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Red Cross claimed that the neutrality of Switzerland, where the International Red Cross was based, would be jeopardized, if it would take a major stance against the Holocaust. The Red Cross also stated that aiding Jewish prisoners would harm its ability to help Allied prisoners of war (POW). Today, the Red Cross acknowledges its passivity during the Holocaust and has apologized for this. During World War II, Adolf Hitler led the Nazi party, which encouraged prejudice against Jews and other undesirables. The Nazis developed The Final Solution, a plan to get rid of all the Jews. They decided the most efficient way of doing this was to set up camps to exterminate them so they would not pass on their genes and disrupt the Nazis quest for the perfect race. The Nazis also set up ghettos, where Jews would live in the most horrible conditions. Jewish children soon could not go to schools with the other German children. Jewish businesses were forced to close, Jewish temples were burned and vandalized. Though the Nazis did not achieve their goal, they managed to kill millions of Jews and others in a display of cruel, sadistic, and inhumane acts.