Wilcox 1

Jeffrey Wilcox

Mr. Neuburger

English 102-104

Feb. 25, 2011

Annotated Bibliography

The Holocaust

Bülow, Louis. "Auschwitz, Nazi Death Camp." The Holocaust, Crimes, Heroes and Villains.

Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

For many of the Prisoners of the Holocaust, the death camps such, as Auschwitz in Poland was a
living hell. Families torn apart, horrible living conditions, and the threat of not knowing if you
would live to see the next moment loomed over the heads of over millions of Jews, gypsies,
homosexuals, and other non-Aryans. The horrors that took place in these types of camps
included not only mass murder, but also tortures of both the mental and physical sort.

This site gives a realistic look at how horrible these places were. It gave me a lot of information.

Grobman, Gary M. "The "Final Solution"" Holocaust Cybrary Remembering the Stories of the

Survivors - Remember.org. 1990. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

The “Final Solution” was the order given to rid Germany of the Jews by extermination. Hitler as
well as many other leaders and politicians in Germany felt that anyone that was not of the
“Aryan” race/blood posed a threat to what was thought of as the perfect human. At first, it was
decided that anyone who was of these impure nationalities was to be moved out of the area. This
was decided in the Nuremburg Laws. However, Hitler felt that just by relocating these
individuals was not enough, and pushed to have them removed from the equation all together by
killing them all.

This source is a good source because it breaks each part of the “Final Solution” down for me to
better understand it.

The History Place. "Triumph of Hitler: The Nuremberg Laws." The History Place. 2001. Web.

26 Feb. 2011.

The Nuremburg Laws were a collection of laws that outlined for the common German how they
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were to live in regards to the Jews. There was to be no mixing of races between the Germans and
the Jews either by marriage or from sexual relations. Other laws that were outlined were that no
German woman under the age of 45 could work or hold any job for a Jew. These laws also told
Jews that they could not display the nation flag or colors, And that anyone who is caught
breaking any of these laws could be punished with either fines, imprisonment, or hard manual
labor.

This source has a great wealth of information concerning the Nuremburg Laws and how they
came to be.

The History Place. "World War II in Europe Timeline: November 9/10 1938 - Krystallnacht, the

Night of Broken Glass." The History Place. 1997. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

Krystallnacht (or The Night of Broken Glass) was on November 9, 1938. On this night, a large
attack was ordered on the Jews, destroying businesses, homes, synagogues, and even killing
many people. Some of the orders to the Gestapo included commands that would destroy anything
and everything possible that belonged to the Jews as long as it didn’t Harm anything that was
German. This night was the first big attack that was taken against the Jewish people in order to
remove them not only from Germany, but also from the world.

This source was great because it allows you to read for yourself the orders that were given to the
soldiers.

Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. "The H.E.A.R.T Holocaust Research Project

Table Of Contents." Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. 2006. Web. 26 Feb.

2011.

The Ghettos were formed as a temporary holding place for the Jews as well as other non-
Germans while Hitler and the other leaders of Germany decided what they would do with these
people. No matter your social status, if you were a Jew living in Germany at this time you were
moved to these ghettos outside the city and forced to live in horrible, run-down conditions along
with people of other statuses. Families who had been used to living in a house of their own now
shared a small house or apartment building with several families, sharing all they had. The
conditions of living lead to many diseases from the close quarter contact that people lived in. The
ones who lived in these ghettos stayed there without being able to leave, with an ever-watching
eye of the Germans all around them until the final decision could be made with how they were to
be dealt with.

This source gives not only a view of what the ghettos were like, but also a brief history of
ghettoes from the past.
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Larsen, Brian B. M., and Peter Vogelsang. "Methods of Mass Murder." The Danish Center for

Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 2002. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

There were several different methods in which the Germans would kill the Jews. In some cases
the Jews would have to dig a pit, which would become their grave, and then they were shot and
tossed into the pit. The Germans felt that this method took too long and also was a waste of
ammunition that could be used for fighting the war. So they tried other extermination methods
that would be faster as well as cause more casualties in a shorter time frame. Some of these
methods included gassing, burning, and starving people. All of these would be torturous ways to
die.

The pictures that come from this source are gut wrenching. They give a realistic image to the
terrible actions that took place during this time of the world.

Meier, David A. "Hitler's Rise to Power." DSU Computer Services. 2000. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

Adolf Hitler, one of the world’s most notorious national leaders was born on April 20, 1889 in
Braunau Am Inn of Austria. He grew up in a farming community, learning and performing
common everyday chores that were common to this way of life. He loved playing games with his
friends, especially war games. These games some might say would shape the type of man that
Hitler ended up becoming. Hitler’s military career started off as a soldier in the Bavarian army
where he was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery. He had been imprisoned for eight months
on a charge of treason against the German government. In August of 1934 Hitler was named the
new Führer after the death of the former Führer, Hindenburg. This was the step that Hitler
needed to bring his plans into motion to rid the world of the Jews, and create a pure blooded
race.

This source is great because it goes into great details of Hitler’s history as a boy, youth, and
throughout his military career.

N.S.W. Board of Jewish Education. "The Nazi Camp System" Jewish Board of Deputies. Web.

26 Feb. 2011.

The concentration camps of Nazi Germany were the places in which millions of Jews and other
non-Germans were killed for being different. They were a place of disease, torture, starvation,
and mass murder. The Germans Had 6 major camps in all: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobidor,
Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec and Majdanek. Apart from these major 6 camps there were also
numerous other smaller camps all throughout Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. In these
camps, people were corralled and treated like animals instead of humans. Everyday the people
living in these camps were faced with torturous whippings or beatings, electric shock, being
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stripped naked in the extreme temperatures, and hard manual labor. Most of the people who lived
in the camps prayed for release of the camps, either through liberation or from death. The camps
were literally a hell on Earth experience.

The stories told in this source gave me a deeper understanding of what people went through, and
has opened my eyes even more to the details that went on in these camps.

Scrapbook Pages. "The Liberation of Auschwitz - January 27, 1945." Scrapbookpages.com - a

Web Site for Tourists and Armchair Travelers. 2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

The liberation of the concentration camps in Poland, Russia, and Germany was a bittersweet for
the surviving captors of WWII. There was finally a sense of peace that came when the Allied
forces freed the prisoners from their Nazi captors. While at the same time for most of the newly
freed people, they were left alone to find their own way home without any help from the ones
who freed them. Many Jews that returned to their homes where they had lived before the
Germans took them and placed them into the ghettos or camps found them to be occupied by
other families. Other families decided to try and make it to America. When the liberation of the
camps took place many of the captives did not survive due to the harsh weather in the winter,
and lack of adequate clothing, food, and shelter. The liberation was only the beginning of another
hard road for the survivors of the Holocaust camps of the Nazis.

This source made me realize that the liberation was not the end of the story. And that even
though we (the Allied forces) freed them, we did not give them much aid in rebuilding teir
broken lives.

United States History. "The Holocaust." United States History. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

The Holocaust was a persecution and extermination of more then 5 million Jews that was
sponsored by the German government. The Jews were not the only race that was targeted but
they were the biggest group. Just less than one half the entire worlds population of Jews were
killed by the actions that took place in the holocaust. The Holocaust started as persecution of
Jewish people in Europe, they had many of their rights taken away, forced from their jobs and
homes, and treated like they were less than human. This was not enough for the leaders of
Germany, so they decided to get rid of the Jews altogether. They did this by placing them into
ghettos, and later into concentration/extermination camps where they would kill them in order to
rid the world of them. The hatred that fueled this movement came solely from the viewpoint that
the German people were a superior race to the Jews.

This source was a good overview of the holocaust from beginning to end, giving dates and
names of events and individuals without going into great detail.
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Personal Histories." United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

Most of the time when a student learns about the Holocaust he/she only learns about the big
picture. They are taught about the numbers of how many people were affected, with little focus
on individual stories. However, without looking at the personal accounts of survivors the student
might not bee able to learn about all the details. If it weren’t for the survivors telling their stories,
we would not know exactly what happened during this horrible time in the world’s history.

This source is great because it gives numerous stories from individual survivors from the many
different points during the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. "Jewish

Resistance." Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

The Allied forces were not the only ones fighting against the Germans during WWII. The
Jews also had a resistance against the Nazis. They were not large groups of soldiers, but in
fact they were just average everyday citizens standing up in some way against the
Germans. Some of the ways they would resist would be to have secret church groups,
schools for the children, and even armed resistance when it was needed. Some of the
groups that resisted did so in the ghettos and even some in the concentration camps as
well. Even though it seems like the Jewish resistance had little effect on the outcome of the
Holocaust, it was still a moral booster for the captives knowing that people are fighting
against such an evil.

I chose this source because I never realized that the Jews fought against the Germans in the
ways that this site describes.