Why the Dutch Failed to Save Their Jews During World War II

Yet, the Nazi occupation created a reality where the Jews were cut off from society in their countries of residence, thus casting the initial acts of persecution upon the Jews. Following the occupation, the Jews of France, the Netherlands, and other countries were subjected to discriminatory legislation that revoked their citizenship and banished them from economic life. Consequently, the Jews had to reorganize themselves separately in order to function as a self-sufficient group. In the course of time, the Jews in these countries, like those in Germany itself, were forced to wear the yellow star or the equivalent of such. Ultimately, Nazi policy became more extreme and Jews of Central and Western Europe were deported to death camps in Eastern Europe.”

The lack of resistance and ignorance of the ordinary German population cost many million Jewish lives. The Nazi party’s desire for popularity and support meant that if there was a protest, actions would be taken to keep the public happy, or quiet, with minimal loss of reputation and status. In other words, it meant that the people could win. One successful attempt of protest proved that this theory would have worked. The Rosenstrasse Protest that occurred on the 27th of February 1943 led to the release of several hundred Jewish men from a Gestapo headquarters. This symbolic protest highlighted the fact that if the public were to protest, the execution of Jews could have been slowed or even halted. Despite this, the Rosenstrasse Protest remained the only large protest against the Holocaust throughout its entire duration. This means that the German population continued to ignore and become passive bystanders of the genocide happening around

January 30, 1933 started the calamity that would result in the mass murder of some six million Jews. It occurred in all countries that the Germans, also known as Nazis, occupied during World War 2, including Germany and Poland. Jews were sent to enclosed ghettos where they were given insufficient amounts of food and were in unsanitary conditions. By the time of 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution”, for their plan was to wipe out the Jewish people. Jews were sent to death camps of which they were put into gas chambers and killed. Many died from malnutrition. It was the time of genocide, of mass destruction. To the leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were considered a threat to German racial purity and community. They were an inferior

Resistance in the mist of WWII and the Holocaust occurred all across Europe and the occupied territories of Nazi Germany. The three groups I’m going to discuss are Zegota, White Rose, and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Each one of these came from three very different areas, but they each resisted Nazi ideology. Each group has their own reason for why they decided to take a stand, whether morally, politically, or religious reasons and while there are differences between the groups many of them have overlapping reasons for their desire to resist.

This investigation evaluates why common Germans took part in the Holocaust. In order to assess why common Germans took part in the Holocaust the investigation focuses on the participation and complacency of the German people during the Holocaust, specifically the extermination of the Jewish people, and the reasoning behind it. Different explanations for the German actions developed by a range of historians will be presented. The conventional reasons, like psychological and cultural, and the nonconventional reasons will be studied. There will be an in-depth look at the effect of Nazism and propaganda, human behavior, and anti-Semitism on the common Germans and the extent to which they led to the participation in the Holocaust. The scope will allow for analysis and conclusion to the most valid reason why common Germans took part in the Holocaust.

Summary: This article was an introduction to the Holocaust. The German Nazi’s thought that the Jews were a community. Not only the Jews were targeted, anyone with a racial inferiority was targeted. For example, although the Jews were the main threat the gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals and the disabled were also targeted. The Holocaust was a way to decrease the Jewish population; the final solution was to murder the Jews of Europe or anyone that was a threat to their German culture. Many died of incarceration and maltreatment. During the war they created ghettos, forced-labor camps between 1941 and 1944 the Nazi German Authorities would deport the Jews to extermination camps where they were murdered in gassing facilities. May 7, 1945 the German armed forces surrendered to the allies.

There was little, if any economic gain; in fact, one would think that the Holocaust brought economic loss to Germany because Jews owned a greater majority of the shops at the time. The Jews represented absolutely no threat to the German nation, nor to the Nazi party as a whole (Judy 1). The rational nature of its execution, its efficiency, calculability, predictability and control are even more inhumane in that every extermination system was planned to kill as many Jews as possible, as fast as possible. This methodical slaughter of 11 to 12 million human beings began in late 1938 and ended in 1945. Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, more than half were systematically exterminated in the inhumane death traps, such as furnaces and gas chambers, of the Nazi Death Camps between 1942 and 1945 (History 1).

In addition to the living conditions in the ghettos and camps, many differences in opinion led to hesitance to engage in resistance, particularly armed resistance. There was a great deal of collective responsibility involved with resistance- some believed that to act out was to endanger everyone in the group. Unfortunately, these worries were often founded in truth. In one instance, when a man protested the death of his brother by calling the SS member a murder, he was removed to prison, where he passed away; all of the other members of his group, who had witnessed the incident, were killed as well. By punishing the entire group for the rebellion of one, the SS helped to ensure that others would know the cost of resistance, and therefore be less inclined to resist themselves. Another instance of the idea of collective responsibility was seen in the Vilna ghetto- when fugitives escaped the ghetto, their families, as well all of the Jewish

A common misconception about the Holocaust is that the world was naïve of the atrocities happening under the Nazi’s rule. The horrors of the Holocaust were not left undocumented. Unfortunately, many saw these malicious acts as insignificant to the global population; people only start sympathizing when the hindrance affects them. Hitler, with the help of his many allies, achieved to murder millions of innocent men, women, and children. After spending this semester studying the Holocaust, I have realized that the Nazis’ greatest ally was neither an individual nor a country; Hitler’s greatest ally was indifference.

The extermination of Jewish people during World War II was a horrific and merciless event that was effectively stopped by the Allies. Once the Allies became aware of the Holocaust, they immediately took action to end it. There have been countless suggestions of what the Allies could have done to prevent the Holocaust, however those would not have been as effective as the solution the Allies had put in place. Despite arguments that the Allies did not make a strong attempt to saving the Jews, by putting all their resources into the complete defeat of Nazi Germany, they were essentially doing all they could.

During the Holocaust, German citizens residing near concentration camps were fully aware of the atrocities being committed so close to their homes. Though they hopefully realized that the mass slaughter of innocent Jews was horrific and inhumane, no one stood up for the Jews’ violated human rights or made an effort to save Jewish lives. King Jr. writes that if he had “lived in Germany at the time, [he] would have aided and comforted [his] Jewish brothers” (King Jr. 1350). By not siding against the Nazis, German citizens essentially showed that they supported the Final Solution. Had they taken direct action, even by simply petitioning to the government or by voicing their disagreement, countless Jewish lives could have been

The people scared to look behind them, in fear of what they may see, did exactly what the Nazi demanded. The poor mothers and children dressed in shorts and skirts almost frozen to death, just a jacket wasn’t enough to keep you warm in this weather. The soldiers just

World War II, all jews no matter the age all adolescents and adults were forced to go to concentration camps. All eight members of the secret annex were forced into hiding. The man behind it all, Adolf Hitler said that all jews in Germany, Europe,homosexuals and people with disabilities weren’t allowed to be free, he didn’t like them because they had defeated Germany back in World War I. That was the most disturbing thing out of it all.

The reactions of the French people varied between their work with the Germans and the heartache they felt towards the detained Jews. The French police who had been chosen to do the arrest work with the German authorities. There were only a few people who had chosen not to work with the authorities. They chose to help the captured

With all the power that the government had, it would have been very difficult to oppose. They saw what happened to the Jews when they got carted in through towns and the free citizens did not want to end up in the same position. They were afraid to fight back. During that time period, people who helped the Jews were seen as just as unwelcome and were prosecuted as a Jew would have been. The citizens remained complacent with Nazi orders as a way to protect themselves. They stayed out of the way so that they wouldn’t be next and because it did not affect them personally. These feelings were shown in the poem by Martin Niemöller,"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for