Research Paper Holocaust Overview

David Willett

English Comp 102 102 Mr. Neuburger 2 April 2012

Willett 2 The word holocaust comes from a Greek word meaning sacrifice by fire. The Holocaust took place for around two and a half years but the events that led up to the Holocaust took place over a long period of time. The Nazi partys rise to power is the most crucial part of the Holocaust. It allowed the systematic murder of over twelve million people in Europe. The series of events that led up to the Holocaust are very important for people to understand so one can prevent these events from happening again. Nazi rise to power Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in a town called Braunau Am Inn in Austria (Rise to Power). Hitler moved to Vienna to attend a performing arts school, it was then when he came into contact with anti-Semitic and racist views. During World War I, Hitler joined the army as a messenger boy. Hitlers acts of bravery during the war earned him a Corporal ranking and an Iron Cross First Class medal which was recommended by a Jewish officer (Rise to Power). After the Germans surrendered in World War I, Hitler was shocked. He remained in the German Army after the war and was very involved with politics. He was ordered to spy on the small German Workers Party (Rise to Power). He went to the meeting and became the star speaker very
Hitler and his supporters Source: http://binged.it/IFwqHw

rapidly (Rise to Power). Hitler was a very strong public speaker. In 1920, the party renamed itself to the National Socialist German Workers Party or NSDAP for short (Rise to Power). People often referred to it as the Nazi party and thats what it became known as. After two years as the star speaker, the party set up the Schutzstaffel (SS) to protect Hitler.

Willett 3 In 1923, Hitler organized an event called the Beer Hall Putsch in order to overthrow the Government. It failed miserably and Hitler and some of his followers were found guilty for high treason. Hitler used the trial as propaganda and talked for hours about the Weimer Government (Rise of the Nazi Party). By the end of the court hearing, some of the judges supported Hitler and were sympathetic (Rise of the Nazi Party). The judges were so sympathetic that they only gave him a five year sentence with parole, Hitler only served one of those years (Rise of the Nazi Party). While Hitler was in prison he wrote his book called Mein Kampf or My Struggle. By 1932 the unemployment rate reached its highest number at 6 million (Rise to Power). The Brownshirts were continuing their growth and their numbers reached over 400,000 supporters (Rise to Power). Hitler then ran for president but was defeated by Hindenburg (Rise to Power). In the election of 1932 in July, Hitler would finally win by getting 37% of the votes. Use of propaganda. One of the most important tools that made the Nazis win this election is propaganda. Hitler said, "Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea (Nazi Propaganda). The New World Encyclopedia defines the word propaganda as a specific type of message presentation directly aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people rather than providing objective information. An appeal to one's
One of Hitlers Posters Source: http://bit.ly/IdTjkg

emotions is an obvious propaganda method, but there are varied other more subtle and insidious forms (New World Encyclopedia). Anti-Semitism

Willett 4 The word anti-Semitism comes from a German journalist named Wilhelm Marr. He originated the term in 1879. The word means the hatred or prejudice of Jews (Anti-Semitism). Most of Hitlers propaganda had anti-Semitic themes to them. His book Mein Kampf mentioned the extermination of all Jews in Germany. With the Nazi rise to power in 1932, the party was calling for economic boycotts against Jewish communities, book burnings, and enacted laws against the Jewish race and religion (Anti-Semitism). In 1935, the Nazi government
One of Hitlers anti Semitic propaganda posters Source: http://bit.ly/HOXeUg

enacted the Nuremburg laws. These laws called for the separation of Aryans and Non Aryans which was

basically setting up a racist government (Anti-Semitism). Nuremberg Laws In 1935, the Nazis held their annual parties rally in Nuremburg. Nazis announced their new laws, which made their ideas a reality. These laws took away most rights of the Jews in Germany. Jews could not marry or have sexual relations with non-Jews and took away their citizenship (Nuremberg Race Laws). These laws did not define a Jew by their current religion or beliefs but by anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community (Nuremberg Race Laws). Many Jews who werent apart of the Jewish community for years found themselves under this category because of their past family (Nuremburg Race Laws). Jews also had a red J stamped on their identities for the police to easily identify Jews and non-Jews (Nuremburg Race Laws).

Willett 5 As the 1936 Olympics approached, Hitler and his regime began taking down these anti Semitic posters and signs on public places saying, Jews unwelcomed (Nuremburg Race Laws). Hitler did not want Germany to be publically criticized by tourist from around the world that came to watch the Olympic games in Nuremburg. He was also scared of the games being moved to another country, which would have an effect on Germanys revenue from the games. Kristallnacht On the night of November 9, 1938 the Nazi Reich planned an attack of all the Jewish communities around Germany. This organized attack was called Kristallnacht or the night of broken glass. The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff (Kristallnacht). After this incident the Jewish community suffered. Their synagogues and local family restaurants burned with no help of the local fire departments. The fire departments were only there to make sure no German owned buildings burned down if the fire spread from building to building. Around 25,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to Nazi concentration camps and were beaten and treated poorly. The remains of the synagogues and buildings was ordered
A Jewish synagogue burning The Nuremburg Annual Party Rally Source: http://bit.ly/1ByPsp

by Nazi leaders to be cleaned up by the Jews and turned

Source: http://bit.ly/ZSWpa

into parking lots. As for the Jewish families that lost everything in the fires, they got bonds for the damage but the bonds did not amount to much.

Willett 6 After Kristallnacht, Nazi officials ordered the Jews to be shipped out of the country or to be placed in local ghettos (Kristallnacht). Rounding up the Jews In 1939 a census took place in Germany. This census was not an ordinary censes though, it contained normal census information including age, sex, residence, profession, religion, and marital status but it was the first time census takers had to include their grandparents race (Locating the Victims). The census cards were then put through a Hollerith machine. This machine was used for processing census data. This data then helped the Nazi official by the name of Adolf Eichmann create the Jewish Registry (Locating the Victims). As soon as the Nazis knew whom and where the Jews were, they began forcing them to wear the Star of David visible on their clothes at all times and have the star visible on their homes. The Nazis then began deporting the Jews to private enclosed communities called ghettos. The ghettos were under very poor conditions and a lot of the Jews either died of starvation or disease. Overcrowding in apartments was very common, there could be many families living in one room at a time (Life in the Ghettos). Plumbing broke down many times and it was not uncommon to see human waste being thrown out with the trash (Life in the Ghettos). The Nazis rationalized the food on purpose to condone starvation. Many diseases were constantly being spread throughout the camps. Thousands of Jews died in the ghettos, some Jews even killed themselves to put themselves out of misery (Life in the Ghettos). The Germans established over 1,000 ghettos (Ghettos).
Children eating in the Warsaw, Poland Ghetto Source: http://bit.ly/aCXPoy

Willett 7 The Final Solution On January 20, 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazi Party met to discuss The final solution to the Jewish question (The Wannsee Conference). The Final Solution was the term the Nazis covered up their crimes with. What it actually meant was the annihilation of the Jews (Final Solution: Overview). At the Wannsee conference, the major party leaders and some other members of the German government met to discuss Hitlers scheme for mass murder. Most of the men at the conference did not know about it though. They only knew about a act which was known as the final solution. This was Hitlers code name for the extermination of Jews and other races throughout Europe (The Wannsee Conference). The men did not discuss
SS General Reinhard Heydrich before the Wannsee Conference, He led the conference. Source: http://bit.ly/p98PVM

what should be done just whether Hitlers plan should be undertaken. Hitlers plan was passed and the extermination of Jews started.

Extermination Methods As the Final Solution was put into effect, the Nazis were coming up with new ways to systematically murder the Jews. The Nazis set up special extermination camps that were used to exterminate the Jews and sometimes do experimental research on certain types of people. One of the first camps that were built, Chelmno, was put on Polish soil (The Implementation of the Final Solution). The murders first began on December 8, 1941 and continued until January of 1945 (The Implementation of the Final Solution). One of the first ways of exterminating the Jews was a gas van. The Nazis would strip the Jews of their belongings and clothes and drive them to a burial site somewhere out in the woods. The Nazis would connect the exhaust pipe to the inside

Willett 8 of the van and the carbon monoxide from the exhaust would kill them all (The Implementation of the Final Solution). This was cheap, easy and everyone died. Soon after the Wannsee Conference the Nazis began building other camps that had permanent gas chambers (The Implementation of the Final Solution). These gas chambers released carbon monoxide and suffocated the victims immediately (The Implementation of the Final Solution). The bodies were then put into a large pit and burned so the Nazis could hide evidence from the remains (The Implementation of the Final Solution). The Death Camps After the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the Nazis set up three extermination camps in cities close to the railroad lines for an easy way of transportation of the victims (The Implementation of the Final Solution). These three extermination camps were called: Belzec, Sobibar, and Treblinka. They were all built for the systematic murder of the Jews across Poland and Germany as part of the final solution (The Implementation of the Final Solution). These camps had no selection process (The Implementation of the Final Solution). The victims were deported from their ghettos and straight to their designated extermination camps. Many of the victims did not know where they were going; they just thought they were being moved to another country or ghetto. As soon as they got off the train they were stripped from their belongings and sent straight to the gas chambers and killed (The Implementation of the Final Solution).
A gas chamber used to exterminate Jews Source: http://bit.ly/IVDMIO

Willett 9 Approximately 1,700,000 Jews, mostly from Poland, were murdered in these three extermination camps (The Implementation of the Final Solution). Majdanek was established in 1941 to prison soviet prisoners of war but a gas chamber was not added until 1942 (The Implementation of the Final Solution). Majdanek was operated until the Soviets liberated the camp in 1944. The camp killed of 78,000 victims (The Implementation of the Final Solution). In April 1940, Auschwitz was established by Heinrich Himmler in a town called Ocewiecim, Poland (The Death Camps). Auschwitz had three parts. The first Auschwitz held the prisoners, the second Auschwitz had a gas chamber and a crematoria and the third Auschwitz was used for forced labor (The Death Camps). The camps were guarded by an electrically charged barbed wire fence and SS guards with machine guns (The Death Camps). The prisoners had to
Auschwitz Main Entry Source: http://bit.ly/HLuOg1

get their heads shaved and a tattoo of their registration number on their arm. Most of the victims were sent to do

forced labor at Auschwitz I and III but their life expectancy was around one or two months (The Death Camps). Auschwitz accounted for about a sixth of all deaths throughout the final solution (The Death Camps). Liberation of the Camps When the Nazis found out the allies were moving closer to the camps, the Nazis took the prisoners on long hikes called death walks. Many victims died on these walks from starvation and disease. When allied troops entered the camps to liberate, they found piles of bones and corpses along with survivors (The Aftermath of the Holocaust). Most of the SS officers fled the

Willett 10 camps before the Allies could get there. For those of them that did not flee the camps, they were prosecuted for murder or war crimes. Some of the officers we still have not found. The Survivors of these camps were not open to a lot of immigration choices. They were also scared to travel back to their homes in Germany and Poland because of what happened and they did not know if it was completely safe to live in their old homes (The Aftermath of the Holocaust).
Liberation of Auschwitz Source: http://bit.ly/HBiw7e

The allies set up displaced persons camps. The conditions were not the best but at least they were not suffering anymore. The state of Israel opened in 1948 and many of the displaced persons travel to Israel to start their new lives (The Aftermath of the Holocaust). In 1945 Harry S. Truman made the borders of the United States more loose so Jewish immigrants could come to the United States (The Aftermath of the Holocaust). Over 41,000 new immigrants traveled to the United States under this order, and approximately 28,000 were Jews (The Aftermath of the Holocaust). Now one should know what the word holocaust means and how the Nazi party rose to power. The Holocaust is a very sad period of time in the worlds history, and one must never forget how it first happened. The series of events that led up to the Holocaust is very important for people to understand so we can prevent these events from happening again.

Willett 11 Works Cited "Holocaust History." "Final Solution": Overview. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Holocaust History." Introduction to the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Holocaust History." The Aftermath of the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Holocaust History." What Is Genocide? United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party." Florida Center for Instructional Technology. Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "New World Encyclopedia." - New World Encyclopedia. 4 Apr. 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: November 9/10 1938 - Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass." The History Place. The History Place, 1999. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students." Locating the Victims. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. "The Holocaust." The Death Camps. Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

David, You have done a pretty decent job with your paper. The most glaring problem is the constant repetition of your parenthical citations. Getting past that though, I enjoyed reading your paper.

Willett 12 Score Points Available

40 20 40 35 25 15 25 Total = 200

Content paper demonstrates understanding and confidence about topic Sources uses only primary and secondary sources In-Text Citations integrates sources within text with effective use of signal words and phrases Formatting properly uses MLA formatting Works Cited works cited page has the required number of sources and is properly formatted Pictures uses pictures to enhance the text with effective captions and source information Writing Mechanics Paper is free from errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

35 20 25 30 20 15 16
Total Score

161