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Luke Sears
Mrs. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-044
1/12/2015
My Holocaust Education/Opinions
I have not had an extensive formal education on the holocaust. In high school a lot of
teachers like to touch on it as very important. As a person I do not have any real opinions on
the holocaust as a good or bad event. While taken at face value a lot of people like to brand
people and/or events in the past as evil. These events have just as much effect, if not more effect
on our culture today as any other. This greatly effected my holocaust educations as I did not
have any real drive to further my own education on the mater. I have a strong belief that the past
is in the past. The cause and effect of past events should be kept in mind, but not over analyzed.
When a situation like the holocaust is focused on to the extent it has been in the American school
system, it begins to infringe upon other, potentially more important subjects. The huge focus on
the holocaust has in fact out stripped more modern examples with worse death tolls. An example
of one such act of genocide is the situation on Africa that does not get mentioned in American
school systems because of the political and social control they are devised to exert over the
students. That said, I have a basic knowledge of the events leading up to and during the
holocaust. The holocaust was a continuation of world war 1 after which the German economy
was wrecked by post war reparations. The German currency was rapidly failing and the
government with it. Hitler rose out of this as leader of the Nazi party gaining power through
oration and popular support. Hitler would tell the people of a pipe dream and give them a scape

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goat (initially the Jews and latter all non-Aryans). As the Nazi regime grew in power it began to
illegally (though that is not to say wrongly) manufacture weapons and armor. Initially this was
done through tractor factories which were actually producing tanks, and other such sleight of
hand. Later as the Nazi party became more confrontational and activist it did so more openly.
This was allowed by the post WWI supervision by way of a series of concessions that stemmed
from the desire to avoid another war so soon after the ending of the recent Great War. This
lead to a classic road to hell as it was what allowed the German military to grow into a force
that could contest it's neighbors. Soon after this period Germany began it's period of rapid
expansion and internment of non-Aryans into concentration camps. A little while after spreading
to the French coast (at this point controlling almost all of Europe) a mixture of German and
Japanese attacks on American soil (in the political form of the word) led America into the war.
Prior to this point America had been strictly neutral, to the point of refusing refugees. Though it
is worth note that America did not restrict it's self from selling weapons to the warring armies.
After America joined the war with the only fresh military force on the planet at the time the tide
changed from one of German expansion to one of German contraction. America had more men in
better condition forcing the German forces back towards Berlin as the Russians did the same
from the west. After the American and Russian forces met in Berlin they split peace-keeping
duties over Germany and erected the infamous Berlin Wall. After this point there was a slow
return of Germany to popular grace and eventually the tearing down of said Berlin wall.