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Research Paper
Holocaust Overview
Abby Eubanks
ENG Comp 102-102
Mr. Neuburger
2 April 2012
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The rise of the Nazi power.
Source: http://bit.ly/9Re3Py
The Holocaust should not be forgotten for the fact that it has had huge impact on many
family histories in the world. The Holocaust was not just a one step process, but a series of steps
that brought about the destruction of over eleven million people. The torture that was done to
families over a time of thirty years should never be repeated. In order to prevent another
holocaust from occurring, one needs to understand the series of events that led up to and the
methodology used that allowed the Holocaust to occur.
The rise of the Nazi power
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, when World War I was
nearing an end the Germans started to try and find a type of government that would work for
them. That was when the Weimar Republic started taking off for democracy, but there were
certain groups that felt offended and the groups started to show that by political violence and
extreme movements toward the Weimar Republic.
These groups, later known as the National Socialist
Party (the Nazi Party), were the ones that did not
agree with them. In the middle of trying to find
democracy a Treaty of Versailles came through from
France. The Treaty took Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland from Germany had to traded
Alsace and Lorraine to France. When the Weimar Republic was begging to diminish Hitler was
voted into the leader of the Nazi party in the early 1920s. When Hitler became dictator in 1932
the Weimar Republic was then shut down all together. (The Rise of the Nazi Party)
Antisemitism
By this time the Nazi Party had about three thousand members and was starting to
demonstrate antisemitism. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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The Nazis destroying a gravestone of the Jewish.
Source: http://bit.ly/9YKvN2
The rally that led to the Nuremberg Laws.
Source: http://bit.ly/HQIq5b
(USHMM), antisemitism was starting to show up
everywhere. Anitsemitism is when the Nazi Party had
hatred against Jews and wanted everyone to know how
Jews had wronged society in some way. Adolf Hitler
decided that he wanted to eliminate all the Jews in
whatever way he could. Since the Nazi Party was in
control, this was going to get done under his command. The Jews are later forced to mark
themselves as a Jew when out in public to be recognized. Even after death the Nazi Party would
go around and mark the grave sites with the famous symbol. Another antisemitism action forced
Jews to sit separately at publicparks. The benches in the parks were painted with the words
Only for Jews according to the USHMM (Antisemetism: The Longest Hatred). Separation like
this should never be an issue in public. To point out a certain religion or race counts as any type
of antisemitism which is what the Nazi Party demonstrated.
Nuremberg Laws
According to the USHMMwhen Hitler was voted in as dictator in 1934 the Nuremberg
Laws started to surface. The Nuremberg Laws stated that a person was considered a Jew if he or
she had any grandparents. This is regardless to any individual that did not consider himself or
herself having a Jewish preference. The laws also stated that any German would not be able to
have any kind of relationship with any Jew or they would be considered a Jew themself and be
condemned the same way a Jew was. These Laws
made it impossilbe for people to socialize with
anybody for the fact that they thought they would get
repremanded for any action they took. But, in1935
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was when the Nuremberg Laws actually took effect. When the Olympics took place in Berlin the
Jews unwelcome signs were taken down so social media did not take an uproar about the
situations going on. When the Olympics were over the signs were put back up to let the Jews
know that the Laws were still being enforced. The Jews were even stripped of their buisnesses
and manager positions at work, so they were not in power of something. The businesses were
sold at fixed prices by the Nazis, so the Jews lost a lot of money in all this mess. In the
meantime, Jews also had to get new identity cards, because the new cards were marked with a
big red J indicating a Jew. If the first and middle name was not able to be German
recognizable then the names were changed. Common names included Sara or Israel. They were
names that every German could pronounce. The cards helped the officers identify the Jews faster
and were more efficient. (The Nuremberg Race Laws)
The night of crystal
In November of 1938 terror spread through Germany. The shattering of glass while it hit
the ground was known as the Night of Crystal or Kristallnacht. This night struck fear into Jews
across Germany. A lot of people ended up refering to it as Night of the Broken Glass according
to USHMM. Violence broke out in the middle of the night from the assumed Nazi Party. This
violence broke synagogue windows and Jewish owned
buisnesses and homes. When people got up the next
morning and realizing the mess of all Jewish possesions
and ownerships. This cost Jews millions of money that
they really didnt have. The owners of the stores were
responsible for cleaning up the mess that the Nazis
made. When you walked down the streets of Germany you could not step somewhere without a
The streets lined with broken glass fromKristallnacht.
Source: http://bit.ly/HDKZsx
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Open ghetto.
Source: http://bit.ly/HCLaJ1
piece of glass being under your foot. It is stated that the reason for Kristallnacht is because of the
assasination of Ernst vom Rath, a German embassy official stationed in Paris. On November
seventh he was shot by a Jew for the fact of his family being deported out of there home in
Germany. On November ninth is when he officially passed, which resulted in Kristallnacht itself.
(KristallKacht, A Nationwide Program)
The great ghettos
After Kristallnacht, Jews were becoming very worried about where the future was going
to take them. At the end of the 1930s there were certain districts that Jews had to live in. These
districts were called Ghettos. Ghettos were fenced in areas that had awful living conditions and
were unsanitary. These conditions were technically not livable, but Hitler and the Nazis did not
worry about the conditions because they wanted Jews to suffer. With the ghettos on Germany
occupied land, the Nazis were able to produce over a thousand of them according to USHMM.
The main reason for forming ghettos was to eliminate all European Jews. This was known as the
Final Solution. Jews were sent to the ghettos and the ghettos were systematically erased off the
map. Some of the Jews were sent off to do some manual labor for the Nazis and some were
shipped to concentration camps. There were three different kinds of ghettos though.
The first kind of ghetto is an open ghetto. These ghettos did not have any fences or walls,
so the jews were able to have room to at least roam
around. The restrictions were for entering and exiting
the camps. Stated in the USHMM open ghettos were
stationed in German occupied Poland and the Soviet
Union. There were also some located in Transnistria.
(Types of Ghettos)
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Destruction ghetto.
Source: http://bit.ly/HFHt68
Closed ghetto.
Source: http://bit.ly/IQVxXX
The second kind of ghetto is a closed ghetto.
These ghettos were more popular and wide spread.
These were located in German occupied Poland and
Soviet Union. Now these kinds of ghettos have walls
and are fenced in with barbed wire. This also made
the living conditions worse than the open ghettos.
The closed ghettos were more crowded and definitely
unsanitary. Huge problems started to occur and starvation became one of the main ones. Jews
were not fed properly and they just sat anywhere and starved before actually dying. They would
wither away until the Germans would come to collect bodies to take them to the grave holes.
Weather was a big issue as well, because when winter struck Jews would have no way to stay
warm. A thought, the Germans did not allow the Jews to have heating as a house hold amenities.
This caused a lot of diseases that would never be cured and cleaned. The diseases would be never
ending because the Germans would not want to control it. To them, controlling it would be like
saving the Jews and that was not the initial plan. As a result to the diseases the closed ghettos had
a very high death rate. (Types of Ghettos)
The third type of ghetto is a destruction
ghetto. This is the ghetto that Jews were scared of. No
Jew wanted to be sent to the destruction ghetto. This
ghetto normally lasted at the most six weeks. When
the ghetto was done the Jews were shipped off to
concentration camps, or put to death in a mass grave.
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The Jews taking control of the armedresistance.
Source: http://bit.ly/HHnLSf
This was a big part in the Final Solution. Now, these ghettos survived in German occupied
Poland and the Soviet Union, and some parts of Hungary. (Types of Ghettos)
Jew resistance
According to Yad Vashem online, rumors started spreading like wild fire. The rumors
consisted of how the mass murdering of Jews were going to take place. Some of the rumors were
unfathomable and were not believed in the beginning. The Jews had couriers outside of the
ghettos and camps to find this information out. When the Jews were scared enough the Jewish
rebellion started taking place. They knew if they worked together
that they could conquer something. The rebellion was carried out
in three steps. The first step was the uprising of armed forces in
the ghettos and camps. The second step was the escape of the
Jews from the ghettos and camps to the forests for welfare. The
last step was the hiding of individuals in random places for the
rescue of people. By the end of 1944 the Jews had created family
camps deep into the forests and were being protected by Jewish
fighters. Over ten thousand Jews were able to make it to the family camps and have a higher
chance of survival. (Combat and Resistance, Jewish Armed Resistance and Rebellion)
Selektion (Selection)
Before a Jew would get to go to a death camp, they had to pass through a selection. This
is a process that placed Jews where the Germans wanted them to go. This process included
splitting families up and sending them different ways. Along with splitting families up, this is
where you find out if you will go to forced manual labor or go to the death camps. Previous to
leaving on the freight trains, the Jews had to go through multiple steps to be cleared to board the
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The selection of Jews.Source: http://bit.ly/HGHfL5
train carts. These steps include being shaved, turning in
their possessions, turning in all jewelry, and get all gold
teeth pulled out. This handy work wasnt by the Germans
though; it was the forced labor of the Jews. The Jews
were responsible for seeing these steps get done. The
other kinds of forced labor included cleaning out the carts
of the trains and disposing of the bodies that did not make the trip. If you were forced to labor
then you would be sent to any camp to help do the dirty work. The women, on the other hand,
were sent out to help make the Germans uniforms. The women were always in a clothing shop to
make things. Although the women never got paid, it was also considered forced labor. If one was
sent to the death camp then you knew that it was the last of your days. Most people that were
sent were elderly and small children because they were the ones that could not work like the
Germans wanted them to.
The death camps
Along with ghettos forming in Germany owned lands, so did death camps. Death camps
are exactly what they sound like. They all consisted of three things: a living area, a reception
area, and the extermination area. The living area was for the workers, and the reception area was
where the Jews were shaved of all their belongings, and the extermination area was for the
murdering. Germans came up with death camps to get rid of the jews at a faster rate. This would
assure that the mass murder of the Jews would be so fast acting that there would not be any
evidence to show what Germans were doing. There were three major death camps that were
created under the Aktion Reinhard. This was a certain program in the Generalgouvernement.
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The layout of Belzec death camp.
Source: http://bit.ly/IdOQ0X
Sobibor death camp layout.
Source: http://bit.ly/IV03GI
Belzec This is where over six hundred thousand Jews were murdered. In the beginnig of
the camp opening, there were only three to four gas
chambers open.When the Jews were shipped in on
freight trains only a select few would be chosen to stay
alive and be used for manual labor. The laborers would
clean the trains and dispose of all the bodies into the
pits. Every time a train would ship the Jews in, the gas chambers would fire up. This camp only
lasted for nine months then was shut down to cover all the tracks of the murders.
Sobibor This is where about two hundred and fifty thousand murders took place. At this
camp another selection was taken place to find the strongest Jews to work in the camp. At one
point there were over one thousand Jews that were forced to work. Every two to three hours
around five hundred Jews were killed. This happened everyday until the railroad broke and had
to be fixed. This is when the Germans used the time to build three more gas chambers so more
people would be murdered at one time. When the camp reopened the Jews that arrived were
made to write letters to their family member letting them
know they made it to a labor camp, but after the letters
were shipped the Jews were murdered like everyone else.
When an uprising took place from the Jews about fifty of
them survived all together. Everyone else was killed for
the actions of them. As the camp was being discovered
in public, it was plowed down and made into a national memorial site. When the camp was
finally shut down, it had been open for a year and a half.
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Treblinka death camp layout.
Source: http://bit.ly/HJhANl
This is what a gas truck looked like.Source: http://bit.ly/IdPV9b
Treblinka While this camp was open for a
year and three months it killed around eight hundred
and seventy thousand people. This camp operated the
same way as the other ones. It was the last one to be
attempted . When learning the mistakes from the other
camps. Only three gas chmabers were first installed,
but later ten more joined in. This was to ensure faster murders. After the uprising from the Jews
again, the camp was plowed and crops were planted. The area was given to a Ukranian family.
At the end of 1943 all the death camps were closed down. (The Implementation of the Final
Solution, The Death Camps)
Extermination Methods
The extermination methods were part of the Final Solution. Once again, this was to
eliminate all European Jews. Many methods came about, but only three were sought out to be
tried. Any way possible to kill all the Jews was thought of. The Germans could not do much
because they wanted to hide the tracks of themselves so the media could not put all the blame on
them. The three methods used were; mass shooting, gas trucks, and gas chambers.
The mass shooting was the first sought out method. This method turned out to be
inefficient. The Germans did not like how the evidence could be traced back to them. This
method also proved to take too long and the Nazis wanted it done as soon as possible. It was also
hard for the Nazis to dispose of the bodies in a decent manor. In the end the Germans decided it
was not the best method for the final solution.
The second method that took place was gas
trucks. The gas trucks were set up by covering the
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This is a gas chamber used in the camps.
Source: http://bit.ly/mRPL5p
exhaust pipe and redirecting it to the inside of the truck. This was a better and faster way than
shooting people. After driving around for sometimes hours to assure the Jews were dead, the
bodies were dumped and the process started all over again. After a couple weeks of this, the
Germans were still not happy with how fast the eliminating was going. So they quickly thought
of another method which became the most efficient.
The method that proved to be the most effective turned out to be the one and only gas
chambers. The gas chambers are what the Germans used in the death camps. This seemed to be
the most effective and efficient. This was the cause of death for the majority of the Jews. The
Germans would set up chambers and make them look like shower room, so when the Jews
arrived at the camp it would look like a shower. The shower heads were connected to an engine
so the fumes would have direct contact with the room.
When the engine started it would shoot out the fumes
and kill the Jews in the chamber within half an hour. The
bodies were then taken to a crematoria and disposed of.
Later a better type of gas that was found to be efficient
was something called Zyklon B, hydrogen cyanide. A lot
of chambers were swtiched to this when discovered. When nearing an end of the Holocaust, the
gas chambers were quickly plowed down and made into untouched land to assure the evidence
was covered up.
Liberation
When the Holocaust was nearing the end of 1944 liberation, was due. The Nazis often let
the remaining survivors go on what was called Death Marches. This was when the survivors
were set free to run in the forests to get away. Little did they know that the germans were waiting
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The Jews rejoicing in the Liberation.
Source: http://bit.ly/flEIXy
for them and would shoot any person they stumbbled upon. This was to shut up any evidence
that would get out. Most people did not make it because of malnurishment. They just could not
go any further in the cold, harsh conditions. As the Allies
took back control of the German occupied lands, so many
things were found. When the allies found the remaining
Jews they tried to help as much as they could, but in most
cases it was too late. Most of the survivor Jews dies in
the later weeks of the liberation. The allies also found
almost all the mounds of corpses that had not yet been burried or burned. As the Allies found the
scared running Jews they had no place to put them, so camps later known as displaced persons
camps saved a lot of people. This is wher the Jews were able to find out who was left in their
families and communities. Most of them found that they were the only remaining ones. So they
had no choice but to live there and start their life all over again. When finally finshed the
Holocaust was the cause of over eleven million people in so many different ways. Either from
malnurishment, diseases, chambers, shootings, and in the end just giving up with nothing left to
live for. For the people still alive who lived through that have a lot of strength in them.
These series of events that took place allowed over eleven million to perish and displaced
many more. Families were broken apart and some even wiped off the face of the earth with no
trace left behind. In this reading hopefully, one understands the methodology used and never
allows for this to happen again.
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Works Cited
"Antisemitism." Yad Vashem. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
"Gas Chambers." Gas Chambers. Yad Vashem. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"Gas Vans." Gas Vans. Yad Vashem. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students." The Nuremberg Race Laws. United States
Holocaust Memorial Musem. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"Holocaust History." Ghettos. United States Holocaust Memorial Musem, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15
Apr. 2012.
"Holocaust History." Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9-10, 1938. United States
Holocaust Memorial Musem, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"Holocaust History." Types of Ghettos. United States Holocaust Memorial Musem, 6 Jan. 2011.
Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"The Holocaust."Jewish Armed Resistance and Rebellions. Yad Vashem, 2012. Web. 15 Apr.
2012.
"The Holocaust." The Death Camps. Yad Vashem, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party." Florida Center for Instructional Technology.
University of South Florida, 2005. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"Liberation." Yad Vashem. Shoah Resource Center. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
"The Rise of the Nazi Party." Yad Vashem. The Holocaust Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.
Abbie, Outside of the fact there are no parenthical citations and some of your facts
have been misinterpreted, I can still see some solid work here in your paper. It is
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extermely important to have those parenthical citations. They are the finishiong
touch to in text citations.
Points Available
Score
40Content paper demonstrates understanding
and confidence about topic 30
20Sources uses only primary and secondary
sources 20
40
In-Text Citations integrates sources within
text with effective use of signal words and
phrases 25
35 Formatting properly uses MLA formatting 28
25Works Cited works cited page has the
required number of sources and is properly
formatted25
15Pictures uses pictures to enhance the text
with effective captions and source information 15
25Writing Mechanics Paper is free from errors
in spelling, punctuation, etc. 18
Total = 200
Total Score
161