Jewish Ghettos
The Jewish ghettos were confined to cities and towns surrounded by brick walls and barbed wire. Armed guards were guarding all of the cruel ghettos. The two largest ghettos were in Warsaw and Lodz. In the Warsaw ghetto, conditions were so bad that between 1940 and 1942, over 100,000 people died in that one ghetto. The ghettos were undoubtedly cruel, and today, ghettos like these would be unaccepted by society.
Nazi Anti-Semitism
The Poisonous Mushroom, A book despising Jews
The Nazi party was anti-semitic toward Jews. This means that they persecuted them to no end. Anti-semitism had been inflicted toward Jews before, such as in the Middle Ages, but never had it been taken to the degree that the Nazis did. They blamed the Jews for all things that went wrong in Germany, such as losing World War I, and their bad economy was blamed on the Jews. Since the Nazi Party had done so many great things for Germany, it seemed logical to agree with them that Jews were evil. This led to the Holocaust and many more Jew related conflicts.
Concentration Camps
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Concentration camps were labor, prison, or extermination camps throughout Europe. Many people lost their lives in these camps. The first concentration camps were built right after Hitler came to power. These usually only held political opponents of Hitler, for the time being. In 1937, there were four concentration camps in Germany . These were Dachau, Saschenhausen, Butchenwald, and Litchenburg. Litchenburg was the only women's camp out of these. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and created three new concentration camps for a total of six, since Litchenburg was abandoned. The three new camps were called Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, and Ravensbrück, the new women's camp. Now, a large number of Jews were being sent to concentration camps. Auschwitz Concentration Camp was created from 1940 to 1942. Auschwitz concentration camp was actually made up of three smaller camps called Auschwitz I through III. Auschwitz I was the site of the first gas chamber. First, a small test one was built, but later, a larger permanent one was built. Also, medical research was conducted on infants, twins, and dwarfs. One of the notorious scientists there was Dr. Joseph Mengele. At Auschwitz II, there was another gassing chamber. In 1944, some prisoners that were going to be sent to the gassing chamber to be killed rebelled and blew up the gassing chamber with explosives that were smuggled in by some Jewish women. All prisoners that were going to be killed were killed by guards after the explosion. The Nazis ordered the women's deaths and in 1945, the women were publicly hanged. Auschwitz was captured by Soviet forces in 1945. Almost 1.1 million deaths occurred at the Auschwitz camp.
the Final solution
Hitler planned to launch the Final Solution in multiple stages. First, he would establish an anti-Jewish government to create racism against the Jews. Next he would have economic boycotts and violence against Jews such as Kristallnacht. Then he would eventually kill them or drive the rest of the Jews out of the country. The police began massive killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities. By autumn 1941, the SS and police introduced mobile gas vans. In the autumn of 1941, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler assigned German General Odilo Globocnik with the creation of systematical murder of the Jewish. The codename was operation Reinhard. As part of Operation Reinhard, Nazi leaders established three killing centers in Poland -- Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka -- with the sole purpose of the mass murder of Jews.
Kristallnacht
The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. It literally means night of the crystal or night of the broken glass. They called it this because a lot of Jewish shops had their windows broken. This was mainly instigated by the Nazi-Germans and the SA (Sturmabteilungen: literally meant Assault Detachments, but more commonly known as Storm Troopers). Many Jewish people were arrested and taken to Nazi concentration camps. This was started because the killing of a German diplomat in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, by Herschel Grynszpan.
Nuremburg Trials
The Nuremburg trials took place in Nuremburg Germany, in the Palace of Justice, and the trials started on November 20, 1945. During the trials, 22 of the top German leaders were tried by the International Military Tribunal, which was made up of judges from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Some of the judges included Robert Jackson (US), Francois de Menthon (France), Roman A. Rudenko (Soviet Union), and Sir Hartley Shawcross (Great Britain). Most of the German leaders admitted they had done the crime, but they claimed they were just following orders from other leaders. The people who directly killed Jews received the worst penalties, but the people who used them for labor received little to no punishment. Some of the most important German leaders were not in attendance because they had committed suicide at the end of the war. The trials ended on October 1, 1946, with death sentences for twelve of the defendants (Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, SeyssInquart, and Bormann). Three of the others were sentenced to life imprisonment (Hess, economics minister Walther Funk, and Raeder). Doenitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath received 10 to 20 years in prison. The others were let free.
Marcel Drimer
Marcel Drimer is a Holocaust survivor. When asked "Why do you want to educate children and adults about the Holocaust?" He says, "I talk about my life and surviving the Holocaust because there are people who claim the Holocaust never happened. My experiences bear witness that it did happen. I talk about the evils of anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and bullying leading to the Holocaust and other genocides. Changing these behaviors will hopefully prevent future Holocausts."