Wester 1 Krissi Wester Mr.

Neuberger ENG 102-104 11 November 2011 Holocaust: Sadistic Tragedy The Holocaust, as it became known, in my opinion, can only be accurately described as a sadistic, mad-mans attempt to completely annihilate an entire religion as well as anyone who did not fit a general description of Aryan, based on a psychotic belief in a supreme breed of human. More amazing is that fact that by using World War II as cover, he was able to exterminate so many Jews, Gypsies and Slavs, as America and Western European countries stood by seemingly oblivious with closed borders focusing on the depression, war, and how to contain communism within Eastern Europe. The Rise of the Nazi Party and Anti-Semitism Adolf Hitler was born in lower Austria and could be described as a self centered, ill adapted sociopath. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, he went from being an unhappy child of an overbearing father and doting mother, to being a vagrant young adult pursuing a career in Art, and resting as the Supreme Commander and Fuhrer of the Nazi Party. Hitler began his ascent to power by first becoming an anti-Semite through the influence by Karl Lueger and other racial theorists to become a true hater of Jews (Jewish Virtual Library, Adolf Hitler). He considered the Jew to be the scourge of the German people, on which he blamed every wrong in society at that time. He believed that anyone who was not of the Aryan description was racially inferior. Ironically, Aryans are supposed to be blond haired and have blue eyes and this description did not describe Hitlers brunette, not so blue-eyed appearance.

Wester 2 Per the Jewish Virtual Library, Hitler began his military career by joining the infantry as a young man and received the Iron Cross for bravery, but never reached a higher ranking than Lance Corporal. After being wounded twice, and gassed he was left to recuperate as World War I came to an end. This only signaled Hitler to begin his self serving, self proclaimed war on Jews and his attempt to attain world domination. Having been wounded he would never be able to return to the front lines so instead was reassigned to other duties. Also according to the Jewish Virtual Library, during an investigation of the German Workers Party, Hitler instead joined the party, which in turn became the National Socialist German Workers Party. The swastika soon became the partys symbol and Heil was a greeting the party also took on (Jewish Virtual Library, Adolf Hitler) Today the Heil is widely recognized and often mocked in satirical comedy. Hitler soon rose to become the Fuhrer, which is simply interpreted in English as the leader, of the Nazi party, spewing his antiHeil Hitler
http://bit.ly/61k4e

Semitic propaganda. To be called the Fuhrer does sound more intimidating than just the leader. According to the Jewish Virtual

Library, in 1923, Hitler along with other members of the party, plotted to overthrow the Bavarian government in an almost courageous attempt toward fulfillment of his delusions of grandeur. Furthermore, the only thing his ill conceived plot, which became known as the Beer Hall Putsch, managed to get him was a five year prison sentence, nine months of which he served During his incarceration he dictated Mein Kampf, which was full of his propaganda and rhetoric which he would continue to spew throughout his murderous political career (Jewish Virtual Library, Adolf Hitler) While Hitler was incarcerated the Nazi movement was not prominent and basically fell off until his release and desire to reignite the fire under the Nazi Party. His anti-Semitism,

Wester 3 theory of social Darwinism and his pursuit of the superior race were presented to the publishing world and by 1939 had sold over five million copies, been translated into eleven different languages, and became as close to a Bible as the new Nazi Party would come to have (Jewish Virtual Library, Adolf Hitler). The Nazi Party was able to gain control of the Reichstag in the election of 1932. Hitlers power continued to rise and the party continued to gain loyal followers. Hitler was appointed to Reich Chancellor by German President Paul Von Hindenberg after having been defeated by him in the Presidential election. This acceptance into the Reich was all that Hitler needed to launch his plan to gain control. He began using terror tactics against any who he deemed a threat to the Nazi belief. When Von Hindenberg died, it was only almost natural for Hitler to become his successor. The Neuremberg Race Laws It became relatively easy for Hitler to begin locking Jews and other dissidents away in ghettos and concentration camps due to the institution of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935. These laws were basically racially driven laws that said that if you were not of Aryan decent, you were not considered a citizen of the Reich, and in accordance with Nazi idealism, you were really less than human and had absolutely no rights. Aryans were not allowed to marry Jews, Gypsies, blacks or anyone who might corrupt the superior lineage of the Aryan race (USHM, Nuremberg Race Laws). The Nuremberg Race Laws were as follows: The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, The Reich Citizenship Law, and The Law for the Protection of

Instructional chart for determining Jews. http://bit.ly/1slphC

Wester 4 Genetic Health of the German People. The latter required all persons who wished to marry to submit to a medical examination, after which a Certificate of Fitness to Marry would be issued if they were found to be disease free. This certificate was required to obtain a marriage license (WWII in Europe, Timeline). Jewish were defined as anyone having had at least three or four Jewish Grandparents (USHMM, Nuremberg Race Laws). Furthermore those that were considered to be Jewish were rounded up systematically throughout the reign of Adolf Hitler, regardless of what religion, if any, was actually practiced or observed in the home. They were imprisoned in what were called the ghettos or in concentration camps to be starved and more or less tortured. If they survived the starvation, they were exterminated and disposed of, as though they were no more than mere cockroaches. The beginning of the intended end of the Jews began with Kristallnacht, Kristallnacht Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, was a night of terror in which thousands of Jewish businesses were ransacked and destroyed by German SA. The SA was Sturmabteilungen: literally Assault Detachments, but commonly known as Storm Stoopers (USHMM, Kristallnacht).

Among those that were guilty of the terrorist acts committed, was the Hitler Youth Group. These youth groups were school age children who had professed their loyalty to the Reich and Hitler. These youth wore uniforms every day and were given
A Jewish store front after Kristallnacht http://bit.ly/toj2OT

Wester 5 preferential treatment in German schools prior to Hitler having ordered the schools in Germany to be segregated. According to one survivor of the Holocaust Edith Brandt, her father decided it was safer for a Jew to work for an Aryan, than to own a Jewish factory (Brandt). Apparently he made this comment just prior to his selling of his paper factory and going to work for an Aryan so that their family could live a more comfortable life in West Berlin for just a little while longer. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum the Reich denied true involvement in the events of November ninth and the early morning hours of the tenth, which were explained as spontaneous outbursts of public sentiment in response to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, a German Embassy Official.. It was this night that began the imprisonment of tens of thousands of Jews throughout Germany, Poland, Austria and also recently occupied Czechoslovakia (USHMM, Kristallnacht). And besides personal property damages, Synagogues were burned and windows were broken out of businesses with some of the greatest destruction in Berlin and Vienna, which had some of the largest concentrations of Jews, as well as Jewish businesses at that time. Jews were humiliated, tortured, and many were taken away to labor camps or forced into ghettos, while their properties were seized by the SA and Hitler youth. According to The Holocaust/Shoah page , a well known sociologist during this time, Max Weber, developed a theory regarding the driving force underlying the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, called rationalism, which he described as the quest for and the implementation of the most rational means for goal achievement. A contemporary sociologist expanded on that theory with regard to the Holocaust, indicating that the Holocaust displays all the characteristics of rationality: efficiency, predictability, calculability, control and the ultimate dehumanization of its victims by treating them as a unit of mass production (Austin). The Ghettos

Wester 6 Early on in this systematic elimination of the Jewish problem, Western European Nazis did not put the Jews into ghettos, this was something that was happening only in Eastern Europe according to the article The Outbreak of World War II and Anti-Jewish Policy (About the Holocaust). At first the Jews were told to leave Germany and occupied territories, but there were not really any open borders to cross. Some were able to get out of Europe. If they could afford the immigration process and had the right connections to get out. The conditions in the ghettos were less than humane. The people were crowded in to small living quarters, food was rationed and the ghettos were often enclosed with fences with barbed wire, as well as armed Nazi soldiers that would take the life of those who were caught trying to escape, or smuggling in food or other contraband. For residents of the ghetto death became a common sight within the confines of their existence. Films found during the liberation that were introduced by Yael Hersonski as a documentary called A Film Unfinished, were Nazi propaganda films created within the Warsaw ghetto that showed the extremities of the suffering and sadness of the Jewish plight within the ghetto (Hersonski) While perhaps meant to support Hitlers portrayal, to the rest of the world, how upper class Jews were almost nonchalant about the hunger and disease that was running rampant about them yet they were still enjoying the luxuries of their upper class lifestyle, nothing could have been further from the truth. The looks on the faces and the emptiness of their eyes in the films are all the evidence needed to see that unhappiness and despair were all that could be truly felt within the Warsaw ghetto. These propaganda films may have been meant to be distributed to the other European countries as well as America to lead them to believe that all was well in Germany and those areas that Germany had begun to conquer in Western Europe, but unfortunately there may never be an answer to exactly for what Hitler was intending and collecting these disturbing images. He took that information to his grave.

Wester 7 And it seems that those who actually filmed the footage were not even able, or maybe its due to fear of prosecution, to give reasons other than there were there to film what they were told to film. Beyond that they claimed ignorance. The Wannsee Conference The Wannsee Conference was where the final solution to the Jewish question was established. This was where it was made no less than clear that the Jews were to be eradicated from society. Truly, the meeting was not where the actual decision was made, but it was where it was made known to many heads of the SS and the various Reich ministries. It was put together in order to come to a final resolution of what exactly to do to free all of Europe of the Jewish Problem (House of Wannsee). The camps were already in preparation to begin the end of the Jews. While nothing was outright stated that the Jews would be exterminated it was clear to all that this what was to be done and therefore the Final Solution had begun. However, the extermination had already begun almost a year prior to the Wannsee Conference being held. After Hitler had taken over parts of the Soviet Union he began the deportation of European Jews from the Reich. Some were sent to work in labor camps but others were brutally murdered or sent to death camps to be murdered. The Camps Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, more than half were systematically exterminated in the highly rationalized gas chamber/crematorium system of the Nazi death Camps between 1942 and 1945. (Austin) One thing that probably could not be more widely known is the existence of the Nazi concentration camps and death camps that were created during the reign of Hitler. That is probably mostly true for people in their forties or older today, younger age groups maybe not so

Wester 8 much. Hitler began creating the camps shortly after gaining power, and for all intensive purposes one could conclude that they were created for the systematic extermination of humans and the later disposal of the bodies by cremation. There are those that say there should be a distinction acknowledged between the concentration camps and the death camps, so let us elaborate further. Concentration camps were labor camps designed to incarcerate enemies of the Reich, while death camps were specifically designed to exterminate said prisoners (Austin). Although it is hard to discern a difference, since in the concentration camps the laborers were often starved to death or died of disease due to filth and inhumane living conditions, while in the death camps they were simply put out of their misery by the thousands. In Hitlers world the elimination of the problems that were caused by Jews would be achieved by
Emaciated corpses within death camp http://bit.ly/uH4UwN

the elimination of all Jews, and anyone who defied the Reich. These camps were the perfect way to achieve his

dream of elimination. And across the occupied territories, there were mass shootings, gassing trucks and other methods of extermination before the introduction of Zyklon-B in the gas chambers of the death camps. Zyklon-B by definition is a cyanide based insecticide, that when breathed by humans has been proven to be nothing less than deadly. Upon arrival at a camp it would be determined if the individual would be used for hard manual labor or go directly to one of the gas chambers for extermination. Those that were used for hard labor were taken to various camps throughout German occupied territories. The United States and Western Europe were too busy with Hitlers invasion of Western Europe, and the onset of World War II to be concerned with what he was ordering to be done in those countries

Wester 9 in which he had already gained control. During World War II, the United States had a freeze on immigration, and many other countries had similar moratoriums on immigration as well. Even when the Jews were trying to escape in order to avoid incarceration and eventual extermination, they had nowhere to go to because of these moratoriums. The extent of the horrors contained within the confines of the concentration camps was not fully known until the end of World War II when the camps were liberated by American and European militaries. When the camps finally were liberated several sources indicated that the Nazi had been harvesting things such as hair, gold fillings, and any other item of any value that those going to execution may have had in their possession. As well as the gas chambers in the death camps, there were also mobile gassing trucks in which it was death by carbon monoxide poisoning by funneling the vehicles own fumes into an airtight compartment within the vehicle. Simply load the passengers, and drive to the disposal spot, and they were already deceased on arrival. There were also mass shootings across the areas of occupied Soviet Union where the victims would sometimes be forced to dig their own mass graves, line up along the edge and await their shooting (Methods of Mass Murder). Stating them as victims is because not only were there Jews, there
Mass grave http://bit.ly/tUCjIn

were the many other peoples that were slaughtered during this

time that are sometimes almost never mentioned with regard to the Holocaust. Most focus only on the Jews having been killed, but many other less than Aryan people such as Slavs, blacks and homosexuals, were forced to dig their own graves and watch as those next to them were ruthlessly disposed of as though less than human, only to know that they were next (Methods of

Wester 10 Mass Murder). These other victims should not be forgotten as they account for almost half of the total that were slaughtered by the Nazi regime. Liberation of the Camps According to Theodore J. OKeefe in an article for The Institute for Historical Review, there was no forensic evidence gathered at the camps to support the claim of lethal gassing, and that this reported method of mass murder among the Jews was propaganda by America and the media to deflate the character of Germany and the Nazi Party, and to instill feelings of collective guilt and political impotence (OKeefe). That, however, does not excuse, nor explain the massive number of people whose lives were lost in the camps, regardless of what method of killing was used. The lives of women and children that were taken, simply because of religion, guilt by relation, or the wrong color hair and eyes, were in what way to be excused or overlooked. This was total discrimination and persecution in many horrific ways. Who cares if they were gassed, starved, or died of whatever disease we could blame, the fact is humans were rounded up like insects, crowded into inhumane living conditions, and only to be exterminated in one way or another. According to BBC-Historys Liberation of the Concentration camps by Dr. Stephen A. Hart, when the various liberating troops gained access to different camps, each camp held its own horrors. In liberation of the Belsen concentration camp, the living could barely be discerned from the already dead because of their emaciated appearance and those that had survived thus far were still not safe from death. Many survivors soon deceased as well. Dr Hart states: British troops recalled that the combination of sickly-sweet stench of rotting human flesh, and the nauseous reek of human excrement was so overwhelming

Wester 11 that it could be detected up to three miles beyond the camp walls. (Hart, Liberation) Besides the films of the truth, of what was happening in Nazi occupied territories, only the survivors can tell what they experienced to be the truth of how their families were murdered, or taken away by Nazi Storm Troopers. How Jewish children lived in fear for what they may accidentally say in school or on the street, that might cause a visit by the SS Storm Troopers in the middle of the night to whisk their family away, never to be seen, nor heard from again. As we all know, the truth is subjective, in that each persons reality is not necessarily that of the next individual, but so many survivor stories tell the same truth time and time agian. Hitler was stashing films of the death and poverty of the ghetto, as well as filming the removal of bodies, and those bodies being tossed in to mass graves without regard for the human condition, as though they were some type of insect that had invaded ones home, only to be eradicated and tossed aside with the trash. Hitlers suicide can only lead one to believe that he surely did not want to be captured and held accountable for the atrocities that were committed during his war for world domination. Allied troops assisted the remaining living prisoners that were in the various concentration camps throughout the German occupied territories and tried to save as many lives as was possible in the wake of the war, but typhus, dysentery, and tuberculosis were rampant in the camps. Many camps had been cut off from incoming supplies for quite some time during the latter stages of the war. Postwar Germany and Formation of Israel There are varying versions of why Israel was formed and the variance is in who is telling the story. Most political versions of the formation of Israel boil down to simple mathematics of

Wester 12 the situation and the need for a home for the Jews. According to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there were hundreds of thousands of Jews that were displaced during the time of the Reich. Many of these Jews were reluctant to go back to Eastern Europe due to already heightened discrimination and anti-Semitic policies in place and fear that they too would be exterminated if they were to return to those previously occupied territories. And as previously mentioned immigration to most Western European countries and the United States were limited at best during this time, once again it was a dilemma as to what to do with the displaced Jews. Thousands were placed in camps for displaced persons in various allied territories. Many survivors of the holocaust fled Poland because of continued killings and attempted to relocate to Palestine. Great Britain was mandated by the League of Nations to administer the affairs of Palestine. The Zionists were busy attempting to liberate Israel as an established independent state and a safe haven of the Jew. Furthermore, Great Britain at first attempted to stop the immigration of Jews to Palestine due to the British moratorium on immigration and strong objections by the Arab community. When Great Britain began using detention camps in an attempt to detain refugees for attempting illegal immigration, the world opinion of Great Britain was greatly scrutinized and suffered a tremendous blow. Therefore, U.S. President Harry Truman was able to pressure Great Britain into first allowing 100,000 Jews into Palestine. This did not make the Arabs happy at all, so there was dissidence among the Palestinians. Once again the Jews were a problem which was submitted to the United Nations for mediation on how to proceed with the Palestinian situation. In November 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The Zionists accepted this decision and were quick to move on the independence of Israel; the Arabs however, did not

Wester 13 approve (USHMM, Postwar Refugee). Even today, dissidence among Palestinians is a regular headline in the news media. In conclusion, it seems that the reason the Nazis were able to do so much damage in so little time was by using the war as a cover for the indescribable suffering that Jews, Slavs, blacks and Gypsies during the early 1040s. With the fear of Communism spreading to areas outside of Eastern Europe, the Eastern European countries and the United States were pre-occupied with the preservation of their independence and freedom to truly observe what was going on right under their nose, with blatant disregard. It is this that makes a point that those countries were guilty by ignorance of what was truly quite obvious. And the U.S. had done something almost as heinous when the hydrogen bomb was introduced to end the war, had they not? They simply took tens of thousands of lives in the name of Democracy .

Wester 14

Brandt, Edith, Gertler, Juduth. "Survivor Testimonies." USC Shoa Foundation Institute. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/user/USCShoahFoundation#p/c/1DEE787E7468D11C/19/FO e6CAbITtM>.

"Postwar Refugee Crisis and the Establishment of the State of Israel." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005459>. About the Holocaust. (2011). In Yad Vashem the Holocaust Heroes and Martyrs Remembrance Authority . Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/02/expansion.asp

World War II in Europe. (2011). In The History Place- The Past Into the Future. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/nurem-lasw.htm

Methods of Mass Murder. (n.d.). In The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.holocaust-education.dk/holocaust/massedrapsmetoder.asp

House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site. N.p., May 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ghwk.de/engl/wannsee_conference.htm>.

Wester 15 Austin, Ben. The HolocaustShoah Page. Ed. Ben Austin. N.p., 21 Feb. 1996. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://frank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holocamp.html>.

Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html>.

Hart, Stephen A. "Liberation of the Concentration Camps." BBC History. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/liberation_camps_01.shtml>.

O'Keefe, Theodore J. "The Liberation of the Camps: Facts vs. Lies." Institute for Historical Review. Institute for HIstorical Review, Aug. 1995. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/libcamps.shtml>.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Postwar Refugee Crisis and the Establishment of Israel. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed on 17 November 2011 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005459

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Kristallnacht,: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9-10, 1938 Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed on 17 November 2011 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007096 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Nuremberg Race Laws Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed on 17 November 2011

Wester 16 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007695