The holocaust! (1)

The Holocaust

The Holocaust, where millions of Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II, is one of the most devastating yet important events of the 20th century. The personal toll that it took on individuals and families was tragic, and is hard to even imagine only one generation later. While it started with the discrimination of Jews and their businesses, it progressed to atrocities such as forcing them into ghettos and ultimately concentration camps where many were killed.

In the 1930’s the Nazis made laws forbidding Jews to own businesses and trade. In the book “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry, the two little girls, Annemarie and Kirsti discover that the Jewish owned button shop was closed, and there was a swastika on the door. The discrimination came to a head during “Kristallnacht”, which was a two night wave of violence against Jews in Germany and its territories in 1938. This term “Night of Crystal” represented the broken glass from the windows of the homes, churches, and synagogues of the Jewish people. In the following days, the Nazis would arrest and imprison Jews for no reason other than being Jewish. As a result, less than 20% of Jews had jobs by 1940, creating massive unemployment.

Initially, Jewish people were rounded up and sent to ghettos.

These ghettos were meant to separate Jews from the rest of society. The conditions were horrendous, and many of the people died from starvation and disease. Others were killed by

the Germans or sent to concentration camps. People were forced to wear armbands and badges indicating that they were Jews. An example of one of these ghettos is the Warsaw ghetto in Poland. In this ghetto, there were 400,000 people were crowded into an area of only 1.3 square miles. Usually, the ghettos were temporary, with some people in them for days, others months, and some years.

Perhaps the worst atrocities happened in concentration camps created by the Nazis before and during World War II. Jewish families were separated from each other, and sent to these camps. Most concentration camps were enclosed by barbed wire, and consisted of many buildings where people were crowded into bunk beds for sleeping. They were forced to work for 12 hours a day doing hard physical work and often punished. Those who were too old or sick to do the work were killed by shootings, gassings, or injections. By the end of World War II, there were 22 main concentration camps, but there were about 1200 additional smaller ones. Worst of all, there were extermination camps which were created strictly for the mass murder of Jews. 3 million Jews were killed in these camps alone.

text box between 1933 and 1945, over 11 million men women and children were murdered in the holocaust.