The Holocaust
The Holocaust was a period from January 30,1937, when Adolf Hitler first became chancellor of Germany, until May 8,1945, when the war in Europe was over. During these years, Jews in Europe were continuously persecuted. There were about six million people murdered. The Holocaust was not a quick act of mass murder. It was a slow process of five different phases that began with minor restrictions on Jews and slowly got worse over a period of about a decade to the point where the extermination of every Jew in Europe was the policy of the Nazis. The Holocaust, which the Germans called the "Final Solution", had to have an entire bureaucracy devoted to isolation, deportation, dehumanization, and murder of Jews. Many things led to the growth of persecution of the Jews, some of those things were the anti-Semitism in German society, and the Germans needed a scapegoat for their economic problems(Bard 11). The first phase of the Holocaust was isolation. This was when the all the laws were passed revoking the naturalization and taking away Jews citizenship that had migrated to Germany after 1918(Bard 12). The foreign press gave wide coverage to the Nazis and what they were doing. Many protest went on by Jewish and non-Je
wish people. These protest brought up the pretext for the boycott on Jewish businessmen. Jewish businesses started being harassed and so did Jewish employees(Friedlander 41,42). Most Jews lost their jobs and were unable to receive health insurance. Jewish businessmen were forced to sell their businesses below the value price. By the time of 1935 posters started to show up in shops, restaurants, and other public places that read "Jews not wanted". Nazis burned books written by Jews and all books that opposed the Nazis. Jewish people were not aloud to vote and were unable to hold public office. Jewish children were expelled from schools and were banned from cultural and sporting events. There were many limits put on what Jews could and could not do in public. Any Jewish civil service employees were dismissed. The worse attacks on the Jews were issued by Hitler's minister of propaganda and public information. Most all government contributed to the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazis. The Law for the Protection of the German Honor prohibited Jews and non-Jews to get married. There were many new laws that made it hard for the Jews to live. All these things were based on Hitler's anti-Semitic views and desire to ultimately rid Germany of Jews(Bard 12,13). Long before the Jews were sent to concentration camps they were forced to live in the ghettos. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were hearded into ghettos. Ghetto life was not so bad when you compare it to the concentration camps. In the ghettos Jews still had possessions, had a house to stay at, there was work (sometimes for pay), and they were not subject to the brutal camp life. Slave labor was provided by the ghettos. The ghettos gave labor for German offices, installations, and workshops. The ghettos did have a bad side too. Ghettos were over populated and you had to battle to stay alive. Most of the weaker people died (Bauer 60,61). Kristallnacht was the turning point in the German policy regarding the Jews and may be considered the actual beginning of the Holocaust(Friedlander 56). These events witnessed the government's legitimizing violence against the Jews(Fischel 24). Over the next two or three months things got worse. Jews had to turn all precious metals over to the government. Civil service job pensions were arbitrarily reduced. The German towns segregated Jews. Jews driver's licenses wer
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1592
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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