In the events leading up to, during, and following the Holocaust there are no easy answers, and the questions are often times even more difficult. Each individual event was a part of a complex and irrational chain of development. In that sense, it is very difficult to point one event or year of the Holocaust and determine that it was a critical turning point in the development of the Nazi policies towards the Jews. It is difficult to say what would have happened had one of these events been thrown off course, and what the impact was of events historians never found out about. That being said, based on information that exists today an argument can be made that 1941 represents the most critical year in the development of Nazi policies towards the Jews. The culmination of that year is represented in the Wannsee conference, which was arguably the most significant marker of a shift of policies towards the Jews, “In particular, one of its aims was to work out a viable definition of who was to be treated as a Jew.” (Gerlach, 761). This was the year where the murder “gathered pace” (Matthaus, 219), the policies shifted from anti-Jewish to murderous and these sentiments are officially declared at the Wannsee Conference in January, 1942. Already at the very beginning of the year, between January and March of 1941, there is lots of evidence that Nazi policy towards the Jews was changing. For one example, the SS and Einsatzgruppen began special training to learn to murder and are
One event that encouraged Anti-Semitism and increased tensions leading up to Kristallnacht and beyond was the announcement of the Nuremberg Laws in September of 1935. This set of laws created by the Nazi party made sharp distinctions between the rights and privileges of Germans and Jews (Sigward 291). This redefined citizenship in the Third Reich and laid the groundwork for a racial state. For example, the Reich of Citizenship Law stripped Jews of their citizenship, claiming they didn’t have “German blood” (Sigward 291). Those of Jewish descent were denied the right to vote and the ability to obtain a valid passport or visa to leave the country. This law completely dehumanized Jews living in Germany and made them stateless, which caused those of the Aryan race or pure German descent to feel superior. In the Nuremburg Laws, Article 5 of the First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law defined a Jew as a descendant of three or more Jewish grandparents or two Jewish parents (Sigward 293). These laws lead to the Jews being persecuted for who they were, rather than the faith they believed during previous years. As a result of these laws being carried out, German nationalism and Anti-Semitism across the Reich increased drastically .
Between the years of 1939 and 1945 many of the people in Germany let out their inner beast. Some likely never knew this inner brutality existed within them and others had kept it hidden deep inside intentionally. Irma Grese used the Holocaust to express her inner most anger and hate. She abused, killed, and controlled the people in the camps she worked at, all with the blessings of the German Nazis she worked for. A Holocaust survivor, Olga Lyngel, later described Grese as a “twenty-two year old girl…completely without pity.” This description of Irma Grese only gives a glimpse into her true essence. She consisted of a nature so completely devoid of compassion and empathy it barely resembled anything close to normal human behavior.
How were the Jews dehumanized by the Nazis? The Nazis dehumanized the Jews through depriving them of basic human needs, individuality, and by treating them like animals. Elie Wiesel, surviver of the Holocaust, explains dehumanization in his autobiography Night. Night takes its reader through an amazing realization of how the people changed from civilized humans to vicious and animal-like. Each event that happens to Elie and the Jews, strips away pieces of their humanity. The Nazis dehumanize the Jews by robing them of their beloved possessions.
From 1941 to 1945, Jews were systematically murdered in one of the deadliest genocides in history, which was part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and killings of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the Nazi regime. Every arm of Germany 's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics and the carrying out of the genocide. Other victims of Nazi crimes included Romanians, Ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet POWs, communists, homosexuals, Jehovah 's Witnesses and the mentally and physically disabled. A network of about 42,500 facilities in Germany and German-occupied territories were used to concentrate victims for slave labor, mass murder, and other human rights abuses. Over 200,000 people are estimated to have been Holocaust perpetrators. Beginning in 1941, Jews from all over the continent, as well as hundreds of thousands of European Gypsies, were transported to the Polish ghettoes. Every person designated as a Jew in German territory was marked with a yellow star making them open targets. Thousands were soon being deported to the Polish ghettoes and German-occupied cities in the USSR. Since June 1941, experiments with mass killing methods had been ongoing at the concentration camp of Auschwitz and many more. That August, 500 officials gassed 500 Soviet POWs to death with the pesticide Zyklon-B. The SS soon placed a huge order for the gas with a German pest-control firm, an ominous indicator of the coming Holocaust. Beginning in late 1941, the Germans
Since the start of the Nazi occupation in Europe, Jewish communities and individuals were struggling with survival, and fought for their existence. Many Jews tried to evade or overcome the degrading Nazi decrees, that stripped them of civil and human rights, triggered isolation and denied them a livelihood. The Nazis simply wanted to create a condition in which no human being, particularly Jewish, can live or even exist. For a long time, the Jews’ view on the sanctity of life, a duty to protect one’s life, encouraged them to endure the period of intense pain and suffering. From past experience, the Jews thought that the terrible events of the Nazis would pass, the same as the pogroms. Over a period of centuries, from the Crusades to the
How and why did the Nazi treatment of Jews change between the years 1933 and 1945?
As tensions mounted up until the point of World War II and the war stormed through Europe, another battle silently raged. Not only did Hitler and the Nazi party wage war on countries throughout Europe, they also assaulted and purged entire innocent groups. The Holocaust began in 1933 and reached its height in WW II, while coming to an end with the war in 1945. Hitler used the Holocaust as a mechanism to rid his "racially superior" German state of any "inferior" groups (especially Jews) that would be of some threat or sign of inferiority to Germany. As a result of the Holocaust, millions of men, women, and children of various national, ethnic, and social
The rise of Hitler and the Nazis soon grew out of control around the 1940s, around when the war started. The text states, “Germany had been struggling since 1918, when it was defeated in World War I. The German people felt humiliated, tired, and bitter. Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to power by tapping into these feelings.” the text also states later that,”Hitler declared that Germans were superior to everyone else. He also offered a scapegoat for all of Germany's problems: Jewish people.” This shows that the Nazis were easily able to take control of Germany and persecute Jews for their beliefs.(6)
A horrid event known as The Holocaust took place in 20th century Germany. It all began when Adolph Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933. Soon after, Hitler gained a numerous amount of followers and rapidly developed his Nazi Germany. Led by visions of racial purity and spatial expansion, the Nazis mainly targeted Jews. In addition, Nazis also targeted Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and disabled people along with anyone who resisted them. This tragic event lasted a total of 12 years.
The Nazi slaughter of European Jews during World War II, commonly referred to as the Holocaust, occupies a special place in our history. The genocide of innocent people by one of the world's most advanced nations is opposite of what we think about the human race, the human reason, and progress. It raises doubts about our ability to live together on the same planet with people of other cultures and persuasions.
There are many important dates throughout the history of the Holocaust, spanning the time line of January 30,1933 through May 8,1945.This report covers some of the tragic events, from the beginning
This essay is going to discuss the ways in which the Nazi’s persecuted the Jews between the years of 1933 to 1938. Through the rise of Nazism, Nazi beliefs and propaganda, Nuremberg laws and the Kristallnacht in which will be explained in detail, I will provide a knowledge based analysis of pre-war life and the initial lead up to the war.
and getting rid of the Jews was that they were able to steal from the
German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 marked a new level of brutality in warfare.
It was a forlorn year every ones conspicuous loathe to the Nazi was visibly seen .What they were doing was tyranny ,they were ripping jews from their home indignantly and zeal.jews had to be very gingerly when out and about.It vey appalled when people just st there and watch this tradgic cause happen.It made me feel very remorse when I heard about the stories. It troubled me so bad that I was inartIculate.When the Nazi got done ripping away jews from their home they animated and smile in a ostentatIously way.They should be embashed and disgruntled with themselves.But all it takes is some fortify to stand up to thIs nonsense and do what Is