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Holocaust

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The Truth about the Holocaust January 30,1933 through May 8,1945 was a tragic time for the Jews. This period of time is known as the Holocaust and it means, “sacrifice by fire.” The Holocaust consisted of the persecution and murder of over 5,860,000 Jews by the Nazis. Not only were the Jews killed during this time, but the Nazis also murdered gypsies, Serbs, polish intelligentsia, resistance fighters from all nations, German opponents of Nazism, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, habitual criminals, and beggars. Most were captured and sent to death camps also known as concentration camps. We need to understand why the Jews were singled out for mass genocide and why people today deny that the Holocaust ever happened. It is only with complete knowledge of the past can we prevent this from ever occurring in the future. The reason that the Jews were singled out during the Holocaust is based on the Nazis belief that the goal of the Jews was world domination and that this would obstruct Aryan dominance. Also, many Nazis believed that the Jews were the killers of Christ. They claimed that the Jews were the agents of the devil, and that they practiced witchcraft. The Germans defined who was Jewish by issuing the following definition on November 14, 1935: “anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who belonged to the Jewish community on September 15, 1935; someone who was married to a Jew on September 15, 1935 or after; and children that were offspring of a marriage or extramarital liaison with a Jew on or after September 15, 1935.” At first the Nazis didn’t have an operative plan to kill the Jews, but in the early spring of 1941 that all changed, and the systematic murder of the Jewish race began. Prior to 1941 Hitler made several references about killing Jews. The organizations that helped to save some of the Jews before World War II, were the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, HICEM, the Central British Fund for German Jewry, and the Reichsvertretung Der Deutschen Juden. Some non-Jewish groups that helped out as well were the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees and the American Friends Service Committee who helped transport Jews out of Germany. During the Holocaust Jewish women were tortured in many ways. They were subject to sexual victimization, including illegitimate pregnancy, childbirth, rape, abortion, the killing of their newborns, and the separation from their children. Jewish women were 50% of the Jewish population that the Nazis deported and killed. Many believe that the reason women were singled out was because they produced the Jewish population and that they would carry what would be the next generation of Jews. The execution of men and children was equally horrific during this very tragic historical period. In wartime normally women and children were spared as the men would step in for their families, but this never happened during the Holocaust because the women and children were always separated from the men in concentration camps. Throughout the tortured years of the Holocaust the concentration camps continued in their business of torture and murder. In other areas of Eastern Europe the existence of Jewish ghettos enabled the Nazis to continue the roundup and transport of Jews to the camps. The Diary of Anne Frank outlines the lives of those who lived in hiding, and enables us to feel the plight of a young girl named Anne. Literature and music from this era helps us to understand what the Jewish people live through and felt. When you listen to the song “Never Say” written by a young man that was inspired by the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, You can feel the determination of a race that refused to be destroyed. The final stanza emphasizes their strength and determination: “Not lead but blood, inscribed the song we sing It’s not the caroling of birds upon the wing But twas a people midst the crushing fires of hell That sing this song, and fought courageous till it fell (Princeton,1)”

This became the anthem of the Vilna Partisans during World War II. These Lyrics still

represent the will of modern day Judaism (Princeton, 1). The denial of the Holocaust has been in existence since the beginning of World War II. Some individuals claim that the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis never happened, that the number of Jewish deaths was greatly exaggerated, and that the Holocaust is a myth. These claims come from the Nazis, neo-nazis, and pseudo-historians. The Nazis had a secret program called Aktion 1005. This program involved digging up mass graves and burning the corpses so that the Nazis could hide all the evidence of what had occurred. Even during the Holocaust many Germans claim that these events were not happening and that the concentration camps didn't exist. Many pseudo-historians claim that only 350,000 to 500,000 Jews were killed and that even that wasn’t correct. They claim that only 200,000 were actually killed and the rest just ran away and changed their names and identities. These pseudo-historians believe that the Zionists created all the Holocaust stories. They also believe that the diaries, testimonies, and photographs are just more lies. Because of this false propaganda, many Holocaust museums exist to show the world what really occurred. Education of the Holocaust is a subject taught in many schools to help future generations to understand the facts behind the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a horrific period of time that I hope society will never forget. I have grown up in a Jewish family and my grandmother told me stories about my family in Europe. Some of my family perished in this horrible event, and some escaped. As I look at pictures of my grandfather’s parents who were victims of the Holocaust, I am outraged that there are that deny that this unspeakable event ever occurred. My cousin still bears the tattoo of the number given to her by the Nazis in Auschwitz. She never had it removed so that those who see it are reminded not to forget and will keep the slogan “never again” in their hearts.

Work Cited

1. Yad Vashem. “In what condition were the Jews in Germany and Poland after the liberation?” 11/13/2001. http://www.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/faqs/answers/faqs.html

2. Wiesenthal, Simon. “Simon Wiesenthal center multimedia learning center online” 11/11/2001. http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/resources/questions

3. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The Holocaust” 11/11/2001 http://wlc.ushmm.org/wlc/article.jsp?moduled-10005143

4. Cohen, Judy. “Holocaust Education-women of valor” 11/11/2001. http://www.interlog.com/~mighty/preface.htm

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