The Holocaust Research Paper

The Holocaust was one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies that were made possible by anti-Semitism, the indifference of other nations, isolationism politics, and outright fear.

     Throughout history the Jewish people have been scapegoats; whenever something was not going right they were the ones to blame. From Biblical times through to the Shakespearean Era, all the way to the Middle East Crisis and the creation of Israel, the Jews have been persecuted and blamed for the problems of the world. The most horrifying account of Jewish persecution is the holocaust, which took place in Europe from 1933 to 1945 when Adolf Hitler tried to eliminate all the people that he thought were inferior to the Germans, namely the Jews, because he wanted a pure Aryan State.

The Holocaust was an terrible event that happened from 1933 to 1945. Approximately eleven million people were killed by the Nazis. A genocidal policy was passed by Adolf Hitler after he became the leader of Germany in 1933. His goal was to get rid of all the Jews in Europe and those who are considered in his "undesirable" list. As countries such as Italy, Japan, and Austria units with Germany and became the Axis Powers, they started invading and taking over other countries around them in Europe. I believe there are reasons that can explain why we still study about the Holocaust today.

     The world that people lived in during the Holocaust is described by the personal experiences of the oppressed throughout the story Jack and Rochelle, written by Jack and Rochelle Sutin, and the memoir by Alexander Donat titled The Holocaust Kingdom. The horrifying mindset of the oppressors, particularly the Nazi`s, is illustrated in both books. The vicious and relentless emotional, physical, and psychological abuse the Nazi`s targeted at their victims is depicted in detail. The unspeakable cruelty received by the Jews dramatically altered their state of mind and how they lived their lives. The emotions of despair, distress, depression, hopelessness, helplessness felt by the Jews

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

"Introduction to the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.

1919 in which he called for the removal of the Jews if he ever took

First, forced to leave your home and everything they worked for to move into a

Nearly six million Jews were killed and murdered in what was called the holocaust. In the years between 1933 and 1945, the Jews of Europe were marked for death. Inanition anti-Semitism was given legal sanction. It was directed by Adolf Hitler and managed by Heinne Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann. There were many other great crimes and murders, such as the killing of the Armenians by the Turks , but the holocaust stood out as the "only systematic and organized effort by a modern government to destroy a whole race of people." The Germans under Adolf Hitler believed that the Jews were the German troubles and were a threat to the German and Christian values.

My goal with my research is to look into the resistance of both the Jewish people and the others in European society who assisted in Jewish escapes. The perceived image of the Jews during the Holocaust is of “lambs to the slaughter.” The pictured painted of the rest of European society is one of either knowing accomplices or silent spectators. The Jewish people had many forms of resistance, some small and some large. While many of their neighbors were silent spectators, but many people were actively resisting the tyrannical Nazi government by assisting Jewish escapes. Each of these individuals risked their lives and the lives of their families and friends to aid these hunted individuals. They all deserve to have their stories heard and honored. In a time of complete chaos and destruction many people would not have the ability or fortitude to save the life of another person. The people that I will discuss in this paper were not only able to take that step, but put themselves and their families in real and eminent danger for the life, at times, of a complete stranger.

Many people know of the Holocaust and its outcome, but what of its resisters? Resistance in this time was risky because of the dangers of the Nazis finding, torturing, and killing the resisters. Despite these dangers, man people would still resist, armed, unarmed, and verbally. Many of the resisters were not caught because they were indirectly affecting the progress of the “Final Solution” as it was referred to. One such way was to convince others to resist and fight while you get others to aid in the fight. Another was displayed by Yvett Farnoux when “She was in charge of finding safe houses and food for resistance fighters, their families, and Jews in hiding” (Davison).

George Santayana was once quoted saying, “The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again.” The Holocaust was tragic moment in history. If we don’t learn from the history of the Holocaust we could repeat it and that would be another mistake. The Holocaust museum was created as a remembrance.

The Holocaust memorial was built by James Ingo Freed so we could remember the ones that passed away and the tragic event that occurred.It’s important so we the people in the society don’t let something like this happen again especially since there were about 13 million people that died during this event. It’s important that the people in the world don’t let anything like this happen again.

From the holocaust in Germany to the Rape of Nanking to countless other genocides and mass murders, humans seem to be more than willing to completely disregard the ideals they seek in a fair government and strip groups of humans of their most fundamental human right- the right to live. Although it is easy to attribute the organization of mass killing to a few evil or extraordinary individuals, these complex events need the support of entire nations of people. As history has shown, groups of people are willing and able to grow numb to mass murder and see this violation of basic human rights as normal and acceptable. In Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the population was normalized to the mass murder of Jews because of advances of medicine and biology. These advances manipulated the publics’ perceptions of Jews, assumptions about medicine, and values and eventually allowed everyday people to endorse this massive violation of human rights. These perceptions, assumptions, and values allowed the people of Germany to participate in a massive extermination of human rights without even realizing it.

The Holocaust is most well-known for the organized and inhumane extermination of more than six million Jews. The death total of the Jews is this most staggering; however, other groups such as Gypsies, Poles, Russians, political groups, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals were targeted as well (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Introduction to the Holocaust). The initial idea of persecuting select groups of people began with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. In January 1930, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany after winning over its people with powerful and moving speeches. From this point forward, it was a goal for both Hitler and his Nazi Party to rid the world of deemed “inferior” groups of people (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Timeline