Spellman 1

Jarel Spellman
Mrs. Simmons
College Research Technology
April 13, 2015
The Holocaust
The meaning of the word Holocaust, is originally from the Greek words holos
(whole) and kaustos (burned), historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an
altar. Since after World War II, the word has taken on a different
and horrific meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million
European Jews. The European Jews had to survive tremendous
hardships and racism before and during the times of World War II, not to mention, mass killings
and torment. The Jews were courageous and resourceful in the time of utmost desperation.
Before the war, Europes economic had suffered following World War I. However, the
willingness of the United States to aid the European economy with generous credits helped to
produce an ephemeral period of economic stability from 1924 to 1928. Jews were the minority in
Europe and many were discriminated against; much like African Americans in the 1960s in
America. Eastern European Jews lived a detached life as a minority within the culture of the
majority, speaking their own language (Yiddish), wearing hats or caps (men) and wigs or
kerchiefs (women), and practicing Judaism. Western European Jews, who lived in Germany,
France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium made up much less of the population and tended to
adopt the culture of their non-Jewish neighbors. Dissimilar from the Eastern European Jews,
Western Jews assimilated the traditions of their compatriots, neglecting religious practices and
traditions of the Yiddish culture. In contrast, Western European Jews had more formal education

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than Eastern European Jews and typically lived in towns and cities. Jews had several lifestyles
and occupations, including farmers, tailors, factory hands, accountants, doctors, teachers, and
small-business owners. Very few Jewish families were wealthy that advocated finishing school
at the university; many more were poor and substituted education with working.
In September 1791, the National Assembly of France granted rights of citizenship to Jews
who took a loyalty oath. Later, other countries granted citizenship to Jews: Greece (1830), Great
Britain (1858), Italy (1870), Germany (1871), and Norway (1891). Despite the law determining
the civil equality for Jews, anti-Semitism and social discrimination lingered in Europe long after.
Violence against Jews was widespread throughout central Poland between 1935 and
1937, eventually leading to Anti-Jewish pogroms in Czestochowa, Lublin, Bialystok, and
Grodno. Typically in a pogrom, members of the Storm Troopers stand in front of Jewish-owned
businesses throughout Germany to inform the public that the landowners of these establishments
are Jewish. Germans smeared the word Jude, or Jew, with a Star of David painted in yellow
and black across the doors accompanied by singing anti-Jewish slogans and party songs. In other
towns, violence and killings accompany the boycott until midnight. Boycotts structured at the
local level persist throughout much of the 1930s.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare
war on Hitler's Nazi state, which in effect started World War II. There were two major alliances
during World War II: the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied powers (U.S.,
Britain, France and USSR). Unlike the Allied powers, the Axis power failed to develop
institutions to coordinate foreign or military policy. However, the Axis partners had four
common interests: territorial expansion, foundation of empires based on military conquest, the
overthrow of the post-World War I international order, and the nullification of Soviet

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Communism. Germany, Italy and Japan finalized their alliance on September 27, 1940 when
they signed the Tripartite Pact. The involvement of many of the Allies in World War II was
inevitable; they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis. The United
States remained largely isolationist after the killing of countless United States troops during
World War I. It was not until December 7, 1941 when the Japanese Empire bombed an American
naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that the United States reconsidered involvement in World
War II. Immediately after the bombing, the United States and the world reacted hastily;
December 8, 1941, Congress voted that a state of war existed between the United States and
Japan, shortly after the United States join the Allied powers. December 11, 1941, Germany and
Italy declared war on the United States, and in January 1942, United States troops were fighting
on European soil.
Although, there was the military side of the war, the Jews were fighting another battle in
Europe, concentration camps. The establishment of concentration camps in Germany started
years before the war, built soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933. Before
the war, the name for concentration camps was detention camps, where Storm Troopers, the
police and local civilian authorities incarcerated real and perceived political opponents of Nazi
policy. After December 1934, the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadronsthe elite guard of the
Nazi party) established and managed the concentration camps while local civilian authorities
continued to supervise forced-labor camps and detention camps throughout Germany. In 1937,
there were four concentration camps: Dachau, near Munich; Sachsenhausen near Berlin;
Buchenwald near Weimar; and Lichtenburg near Merseburg in Saxony for female prisoners. As
the war drew closer, numbers of those labeled as political opponents and social deviants
increased and consequently more concentration camps were established. By the time the

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Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, there were six concentration camps in Greater
German Reich: Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbrg, Mauthausen, Austria and
Ravensbrck, the women's camp. Camps neighboring factories or sites utilized prisoners to
produce and extract raw materials and goods for the German Reich, sold through SS-owned
firms such as the German Earth and Stone Works.
The Nazis established killing centers, which unlike concentration camps were almost
exclusively established for mass murder. Through asphyxiation with poison gas or by shooting
German SS and police murdered nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing centers. The first killing
center, Chelmno, opened in December 1941. Gassing of Jews in mobile gas vans was the means
of killing there. In 1942, the Nazis constructed gas chambers in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka
killing centers. The gas chambers were rooms that filled with poison gas to kill those inside to
increase killing efficiency and to make the process more impersonal for the committers. In
Auschwitz-Birkenau, gas chambers killed up to 6,000 Jews there each day.
During this period, SS doctors and German scientists conducted repulsive and perverted
medical experiments on prisoners against their will and often with lethal results. Extreme and
fatal experiments were conducted on prisoners to research human limitations so the German
military could prosper. For instance, in Dachau, German scientists experimented on prisoners to
determine the length of time German air force personnel might survive under reduced air
pressure or in frozen water. In Sachsenhausen, prisoners were victims of lethal contagious
diseases due to experiments by SS doctors to discover vaccines. On a conquest to produce
Hilters Aryan race, the SS doctor Josef Mengele conducted experiments on twins in hopes of
increasing the German population by breeding families that would produce twins. These
experiments were criminal and murderous; motivated by the ideas of Hitlers racial fantasies.

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During this horrid period, death camps and experimentations killed nearly 11 million
people, including about one million Jewish children. Approximately half of the total number of
concentration camp deaths between 1933 and 1945 occurred during the last year of the war.
After the war, Europe was in ruins and their economy suffered. The countries in Europe
handled economic recovery in various ways. Britain, adopted the Beveridge Report, which
promoted developing the welfare services through hefty government investment. In France, Jean
Monnet, constructed a long-term economic recovery plan that would encourage the French
government to provide financing for a new transport system, modernized machines for basic
industries, construction of more houses and advancement in farming facilities. Government
assistance gave businesses incentive to strive for private investment and essentially generated
full employment within France. Europe recognized the economic benefits of global world trade
and reconsidered their tariffs on inter-European trade, began to co-operate economically, and
tried to lower their tariffs, which promoted intra-European trade and stimulated their economy.
The advancement in electrical and chemical engineering industries in Europe proved to be vital
to stimulating the economy. Europes economy prospered from the high demand of new products
such as washing machines, refrigerators, radios and television-sets. Europe made these products
in large quantities so they sold them at a low price.
Although, Europe made their own economic recovery plans, the most influential to
Europes economic recovery was the injection of foreign aid into the European economy.
Marshall proposed a financial recovery plan called the Marshall Plan that would serve as the
reconstruction of Europe through economic aid provided by the United States.
The United States and Europe agreed to the recovery plan on a co-operative basis. If
Europe wanted the help of the United States, they had to adopt an agreed system of tariffs and

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operate their industrial and agricultural production collectively. That way economic competition
would not hinder both of the countries from a speedy mutual economic recovery.
In conclusion, World War II was a disastrous time that demanded to European Jews to be
resourceful and courageous. The hardships of Europes economy after the war were a direct
reflection of how terrible the war was. Despite the horrendous conditions of Europe during
World War II, many European Jews found ways to survive and thrive throughout the war.

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