The word Holocaust comes from the origin “Sacrifice by Fire”. Living up to the name, the Holocaust occurred because Germans believed they were racially superior to Jews and felt their race was a threat to the European society. Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, ordered that all Jews be killed. This began a mass genocide of six million Jews. The deceased were worked to death in labor camps or gassed, burned, or tortured in concentration camps. By the time the killings stopped in 1945, the Jewish population had dwindled to just three million survivors. One of those survivors was Arek Hersh, a Polish citizen. When Poland was attacked in 1939, Arek’s family left everything behind as they fled persecution. After spending nearly seven devastating …show more content…
He grew up living a normal childhood, going to the park in the summer, ice skating on the local river in the winter and singing in the choir. He went to a Jewish elementary school and a mixed religion secondary school. Although life was pretty idyllic for Arek, prejudice against Jews was growing. The Jews in Poland were already troubled with the religion difference, after 1938 when the Germans forced its Polish Jewish citizens across the border. A famous quote of Arek is "I was coming out from the school and a few Polish children shouted me "Go back to Palestine". My parents were born, my grandparents were born in Poland and I was born in Poland, a Polish subject, but according to them we weren't Polish. And that was a terrible situation.” This is explaining that even in his hometown in Poland he was not accepted by his Jewish …show more content…
They were forced to leave all their whole lives behind them and walk 40 miles to stay with relatives in Lodz. One year later they made the Jews wear the Star of David and were forced into ghettos, crammed and poor living conditions. Later on, his father and older brother were chosen to go to a different camp and escaped form leaving causing Arek to go instead. At eleven years old, Arek was taken to Otoschno, leaving his family behind, where he survived by stealing food while cleaning the camp commander’s office. In 1942, he was sent back to Lodz ghetto and upon his arrival many people asked about his relatives, not being able to tell the truth about all the pain, he told them everyone was working. In August, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto causing 400 people to assemble in a church. They were put in the left like for working people and the other side non-working; he was put on the right but ran to the working side causing him to survive. He later found out the non-working were sent to gas chambers. Arek and the other 150 survivors were taken to Lodz. The commander of the ghetto wanted for 10,000 children to be handed over. Arek knew he fell into that category so he managed to hide from the SS officers where as the other children were sent to gas chambers. In 1944, the Germans once again liquidated the ghetto because the Russian army was approaching. The remaining survivors
The holocaust was the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews under the Nazi regime in a genocide. The word ‘Holocaust’ originated from a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire”. The Nazis stood by the unwavering belief that the Germans were racially superior and the Jews are being deemed as being inferior. During the era of the Holocaust, German chancellor at the time, Adolf Hitler hated the Jews as they dominated Germany’s many of Germany’s departmental stores, from small shops to big retail stores. Hitler also had an unpleasant experience with a Jew when he was younger, thus contributing to his hatred to Jews. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other “sub-servient groups” like the Gypsies, the
His entire family was dead. The nazis had “liquidate” the warsaw ghetto in 1943, first burning down buildings, then taking the surviving 49,000 men, women, and children by train to death and forced labor camps. ( 10)
Day by day the Nazi’s would come and take people off the streets and they would disappear and never return. Adolf Hitler had been in power and declared that Europe would be Jew free. From this point on, Yanek and the rest of the Jewish population in Europe had been hiding, in fear of the Nazi’s.
The Holocaust was the murder and persecution of approximately 6 million Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis came to power in Germany in January of 1933. The Nazis thought that the “inferior” Jews were a threat to the “racially superior” German racial community. The death camps were operated from 1941 to 1945, and many people lost their lives or were forced to work in concentration camps during these years. The story leading up to the Holocaust, how the terrible event affected people’s lives, and how it came to and end are all topics that make this historic event worth learning about.
The Holocaust could be best described as the widespread genocide of over eleven million Jews and other undesirables throughout Europe from 1933 to 1945. It all began when Adolf Hitler, Germany's newest leader, enforced the Nuremburg Race Laws. These laws discriminated against Jews and other undesirables and segregated them from the rest of the population. As things grew worse, Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing. The laws even stripped them of their citizenship.
This statement depicts a glimpse of what the Jewish people had to endure during the holocaust. The holocaust was an extreme form of massacre. It is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The duration of the holocaust was from January 30th, 1933 to May 8th, 1945. The holocaust began in the year of 1933 when the Nazi party came to power, the leader Adolf Hitler believed that the Jewish people belonged to a 'low' and 'evil' race, and they were affecting the lives of the Germans pessimistically. Hitler's motto was to punish, alienate, and torture anyone who differed from him, with religion being a main factor. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for all the social and economic problems
Over 11 million men, women and their children were killed during the Holocaust, but, more than half of them were Jewish. Innocent human beings were abducted and put into concentration camps from 1933 to 1945, where they were tortured and forced to work long hours, each day, without food or water. Eventually, more than half of the Jews were killed and only a small amount of them survived. The Holocaust happened because of one man’s plan to rid the world of all Jews. He was determined to succeed. Adolf Hitler began a movement that resulted in the execution of six million Jews.
The most memorable genocide constructed abruptly by German Nazis left both Jewish and German-Jewish residents of Poland in a whirl of destruction. 1933 had been the year that changed the lives of billions, but one young lady by the name of Stefania (Fusia) Podgorska managed to save thirteen, including herself along with her young sister. Upon moving to Przemysl and working a steady job as a grocer, ghettos in Poland had begun to be invaded, and her mother and eldest brother were not too lucky. Podgorska’s family had been sent to Germany for forced labor, like the rest of the Jewish community in that vicinity. While still without question, going through a rough patch at the grocery store, oddly enough, she had also been relieved simply because
On 1st of September 1939, Arek's hometown fell under German occupation. At the age of eleven, he was taken to a small concentration camp called Otoschno which was controlled by the SS. During these 18 months, he managed to survive by stealing food whilst
The term holocaust is defined by Merriam-Websters Dictionary as "great destruction of life, esp. by fire" and the Holocaust as "the killing of millions of European Jews by the Nazis." This horrific crime is one of the most highly documented genocides of the 20th century. In an article for the Contemporary European History journal titled The Causes of the Holocaust, author Timothy Snyder writes, “. . . Hitler sealed a military alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1939. The German-Soviet invasion of Poland that quickly followed that September began a world war, destroyed the Polish state, and brought two million Jews under German power. For the first time, the special Einsatzgruppen were entrusted with mass murder. . .” When we put time
The word “Holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” which means whole and “kaustos” which means burns, was previously used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1933, this word has taken on a new, dreadful and awful meaning. The Holocaust was a genocide in which about 11 million people, including about 6 million Jews were brutally murdered by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. It was the systematic and state-sponsored mass murder to try to eliminate the Jewish race completely, known as Hitler’s “Final Solution.” The Holocaust lasted from January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945. It primarily took place in Germany, Ukraine, and Latvia yet its lasting impact affected the whole world. The Holocaust was so important because it forever
Holocaust is a Greek origin word meaning “sacrifice by fire.” “As Hitler was one of the main causes of the Holocaust, he stated, ‘we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews ” (Introduction to the Holocaust). In other words, the Nazi’s will not be stable until all of the Jews are exterminated. These words can be very fierce and may have disturbed many different people if someone comes from a Jewish background. The Jews did not deserve what Hitler and his team had done at the time but it was a very tragic time in history. When the holocaust was hitting its end, very little survivors were able to find a home or sort of shelter. The last camp ended in 1957 and the remaining Jews migrated to Europe and the United States of America
The Holocaust was an ultimate abomination of Nazi racism that occurred between 1938 and 1945. The word Holocaust derived from the Greek word holokauston, which stands for a burnt sacrifice that is offered whole to God. The word was chosen for this occurrence because of the amount of dead bodies that were cremated in open fires by Nazis. The Holocaust was known for the mass murders of European Jews that took place during the Second World War. European Jews were the fundamental victims during the Holocaust and seemed to be the most targeted. In 1933, approximately nine million Jews lived in Europe and settle in 21 different countries. It eventually would be seized by Germany during the Second World War. By 1945, around five or six million European Jews had been brutally murdered. A majority of them died in concentration camps that were build primarily for Jews. However, Jews were not the only victims that were persecuted by Hitler’s and his Nazi regime. A half million Gypsies, mentally or physically disabled persons, and Soviet prisoners from war were also discriminated victims to Hitler’s Nazi genocide. Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals were also persecuted in Europe.
Adolf Hitler, and his Nazi Party that followed him, began persecuting Jews in 1933. Adolf Hitler, the mastermind behind the Holocaust, was an anti-semitic man who believed in a superior Arian German race. Hitler's rise to power was just the beginning of a series of events that almost led to the complete annihilation of many countries' Jewish population. First, laws that limited the Jew's rights were applied. Next, their valuables were taken from their possession, and then the innocent people were forced into cramped ghettos lined with barbwire. According to Sally Marks, “the term holocaust is derived from the Greek language and literally means 'a sacrifice totally consumed by fire'.” (1) Living up to its definition, during the Holocaust many Jews were burned in the fiery mouths of the crematoriums. The impact of the segregational laws as well as being forced into ghettos were only the beginning of the inhumane crimes the Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the systematic murder between 1933 and 1945 of more than six million Jews. It occurred because of anti-Semitism, and its intention was to eliminate the “inferior race.” “Neighboring Poland - The First Target: ‘All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles’” (Himmler 1). This quote from Himmler states that all people of Polish descent should be obliterated, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Gypsies/Romas, mentally ill, physically disabled, and homosexuals. The Treaty of Versailles, Weimar Republic, and Hitler’s rise to power all contributed to the causes of the Holocaust.