What Was The Holocaust?
Most people are still afraid of mentioning the dark and bleak part of history known as the Holocaust. So What Was The Holocaust? The Holocaust is a part of history where genocide of approximately six million European Jews and others happened. This event was during the World War II, it was through a systematic attack and murder done by the Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Throughout the Nazi occupied territory, more that millions of Jews were led to the death and about two thirds of the Jewish population perished including one million Jewish children. Over 2 million of Jewish women and 3 million Jewish men were led to camps and tortured by the Nazi army. Aside from the Jewish people, millions more were killed because of their beliefs of their heritage. Some of which included Romani or Gypsies, Soviet POW or Prisoners Of War, Polish civilians, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, people with various diseases and disabilities as well as political or religious perspectives. Those who are persecuted would either be in either the Non-German or German ethnicity. Applying all of the numbers and adding all of the people behind the holocaust, the estimated number of casualties would be around 11 million to about a shockingly large number of about 17 million people.
Some of the casualties of the Holocaust were because of persecution and of genocide which were carried out through various stages. Various legislative groups in Germany planned the systematic removal of several individuals in various locations, which is covered under the Nuremberg law. Those who would be removed from the surplus population are often picked out through religious or cultural background. Upon the systematic removal of such individuals, they would then be brought to several concentration camps which were established in order to cover inmates. However, most of the inmates that are placed in concentration camps are used as slave labor until they would die due to over work, due to continuous labor or due to diseases. Upon the cover of the Third Reich which conquered several territories, the modus operandi of the German army was to assassinate several Jews and Political opponents through a form of mass shootings. Those who are charged would be placed to overcrowded ghettos before being transported to extermination camps through freight trains. Those who would survive the transport would then face the gas chambers.
Other researchers have pointed out that the National Socialist groups which were killing the Jews were an effort in order to pacify the country through the use of every point of state and political power. The slaughter and genocide which were apparent during those times were systematically controlled killings in several areas of Nazi occupied territories which would then separate the 35 European countries. During 1939, the number of Jews killed would now be around 7 million and about 5 million Jews were added on the list after a couple of years. Three million who occupied Poland and over one million in the Soviet Union also met their fate during the war. Most countries which were devastated were France, Belgium, The Netherlands and even far away countries such as Greece and Yugoslavia. The original plan of the German army was to increase their territorial domain and clear out other countries such as the Neutral States of Europe. The Neutral states included Turkey, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and even Ireland.
Those who would be weeded out from the population in other countries would also be brought to concentration camps. The method of choosing those who would fit the criterion would be those who are under various religious groups or those who are under an opposing political body. All people who have recent Jewish ancestry would also be exterminated in lands which are of German occupancy.
Websites For Learning All About Holocaust
- AMCHA
- A Belgian Family's Story
- Cybrary of the Holocaust
- Divided Lives
- Gedenkstaetten fuer NS-Opfer in Deutschland
- The Holocaust Chronicle
- Holocaust Essays By Louis Bulow
- Holocaust Memorial Center
- The Holocaust World Resource Center
- JSource on the Holocaust
- Nizkor
- Online History Project
- The Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Voices of the Holocaust
- The word Holocaust