Cathy Herndon

Professor Kerr

EN 101-23

11 September 2011

The Holocaust

            In January of 1933, the Nazi party took control of Germany; they believed that German’s were “racially superior” and that the Jews were inferior to them. They believed that the Jews were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community (Introduction). Holocaust is a Greek word meaning a sacrifice by fire (Introduction). The Holocaust which occurred in Europe during the Second World War was the result of one man's idea of a "perfect society", a persecution of specific peoples, and a mass genocide.

            The holocaust was the idea of one man, Adolf Hitler. Hitler had many followers who then began to have the same ideals as him. Hitler had similar beliefs of that of the German social Darwinists of the late ninetieth century (victims).  The Nazis and the Darwinists both had similar beliefs of evolution. The Nazis embraced the Darwinist take on their evolutionary theory regarding the “survival of the fittest” ( Victims). For the Nazi’s, survival; of a race depended on its ability to breed and multiply, its amount of land to support and feed the expanding population, and its concern in maintaining the purity of its gene pool, therefore presenting the unique “racial” characteristics with that of “nature” had equipped it for success in the struggle to survive. Since each “race” sought to expand, and since the space on the earth was precise, the struggle for survival resulted in violent conquests and military confrontations. Therefore, war was a part of nature, a part of the human condition. To define a race, the social Darwinists joined stereotypes, both positive and negative, of ethnic group appearance, behavior, and culture. For the Nazis, absorption of a member of one race into another was impossible because the original inherited traits could not change: they could only degenerate through so-called “race-mixing”(Victims).  Hitler believed that the Germans were a part of a more  superior group of race, that he called the “Aryan” race (victims). The Aryan race was a perfect society in Hitler’s eyes.  For Hitler and the Nazi’s the Jews were a priority enemy.  They had specific political ideals that Hitler was not appreicitave of. Hitler was ready to make the Aryan race the only race.

            Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about twenty thousand concentration camps,  to imprison the victims of the holocaust (Nazi camps). The first concentration camp opened on March 22, 1933. The camps first inmates were political prisoners (36 Questions). There were many different types of camps: forced-labor camps, temporary way station, and a death or extermination camps, which were built only for the sole purpose of murdering millions of people. There were six extermination camps: Aushwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, which were all located in poland (36 Questions). During the Holocaust the German authorities targeted many ethnic people because of their racial inferiority: Jews, Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, Poles, Russians as well as many others (introduction). Other groups were persecuted on political, social, and behavioral beliefs: communists, socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.  

             The holocaust was genocide. During the length of the holocaust over six million Jews dies, nearly two thirds of the Jewish population in Europe was executed  (Holocaust). Between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand gypsies were persecuted. More than two hundred thousand physically and psychologically disabled Germans were systematically killed as well( holocaust).The holocaust was the systematic, state sponsored execution and murder of over six million different groups of people by the Nazi regime. (introduction)

 "Introduction to the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 11 Sept. 2011.                 <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143>.

"Holocaust | What Is the Holocaust ?" Projet ALADIN | Accueil. Web. 11 Sept. 2011.                                               <http://www.projetaladin.org/holocaust/en/history-of-the-holocaust-shoah/holocaust-the-                 basics/what-is-the-holocaust.html>.

"Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 11 Sept. 2011.                                                  <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144>.

"Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 11                Sept. 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007457>.

"36 Questions about the Holocaust." Mueseum of Tolerance, Multimedea Learning Center.  TheSimonWiesenthal Center, 1997. Web. 11 Sept. 2011.            <http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394663>.