The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis. The Nazis believed that Germans were racially superior and that Jews were a threat to them. In the aftermath of the Holocaust many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons camps administered by Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951 almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, and other Jews emigrated to the United States and other nations. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated many Jewish communities, and caused many families to split apart. Thousands did survive to share their stories, and one of those survivors is David Faber. The question is, What Political, Economical, and Social changes occurred to David Faber and the Jews due to Nazi power? David Faber and other Jews were affected by the Nazi power because, they took away Jews rights, they starved the Jews , and they split the Jews families apart.
The Nazis effected David Faber and other Jews Politically by taking away their basic rights. In the Kristallnacht order it states, “Business establishments and homes of Jews may be destroyed”(Doc 1). The Nazis were allowed to destroy the Jews property, and they could not do anything about it. The Jews did not have any rights to keep the Nazis out of their homes. In the Discriminatory Decrees against Jews, the Jews were not allowed to vote, to have any relationships with a German, were denied access to certain city areas, sidewalks, etc., and many more things (Doc 3). According to the Nuremberg Laws, the Jews really were not even considered humans. All of their rights were taken away from them and there was no way that they could get them back. They could not vote the nazis out of power because they were not allowed to vote. In the book, “Because of Romek”, David and his family had to register at the Gestapo (Romek 79). This put them under the control of Nazi power. Their identities were taken away from them and they had to listen to everything the Nazis said or they would be shot. David Faber and other Jews were affected Politically by the Nazis because they had all of their rights taken away from them and were not treated as humans.
The Nazis also affected the Jews and Faber economically by cutting off all food sources to Jews and pushed Germans to not buy from Jewish stores. “The German authorities did everything to seal off the ghetto hermetically and not to allow in a single gram of food”(Doc 2). This caused the Jews to become weak because they were not getting the nutrition they needed. The Jews had to smuggle food back to their homes without getting caught so they could keep their families alive. Nazis held a boycott of Jewish businesses by putting up signs saying “Germans defend yourselves! Do not buy from Jews”, and “Beware, do not shop in Jewish stores”(Doc 5). The boycott encouraged Germans not to shop at Jewish stores. It forced the Jews businesses to shut down because no one was shopping in their stores. Once the businesses shut down the Jewish people experienced heavy poverty. In the book,“Because of Romek”, it states “The world has turned so evil! Just this morning, all the shops put up signs: ‘Jews Forbidden”(Romek 44). David and his family were not able to buy food from stores anymore because the Nazis prohibited Jews from entering aby stores. This made finding food harder and harder. They had to try and find people that would trade them food for jewelry and other things. Jews were economically hurt by the Nazis and became poor and starved to death.
The Nazis affected Faber and other Jews socially by splitting jewish families apart. In the Warsaw Ghetto, “a wall was put up around the ghetto on all sides that did not leave a single millimeter of space”(Doc 2). Because of the wall the Jewish people were unable to leave and see other family members. They were completely cut off from other people that did not live in the ghetto. It gave them no hope of seeing people they loved ever again. From the testimony of SS-Unterscharfuhrer Wilhelm Bahr, it says about thirty to forty women were gassed in one gas chamber in about ten minutes(Doc 4). When women were gassed in the chambers it left children without mothers and left families devastated because they knew they were probably next. The Nazis gave the Jews no hope for living because they just got to watch groups going in and never coming out. The Jews were prepared to die. In “Because of Romek”, David’s father gets slaughtered by the Nazis and Romek was also killed by the Nazis(Romek 93,99). David was now separated from his father and his brother. He would never be able to talk to them ever again. The Nazis socially affected Faber and other Jews by killing family members and separating them for the rest of their lives. Nazi power affected the Jews in a very powerful way. They took the Jews rights away drastically and treated them like animals. They also starved the Jews, sometimes to death and cause them to fall into poverty. Nazis really hurt Jewish families by splitting them apart from killing them, isolating them, and many other ways. Nazi power devastated Jewish people and only left survivors like David Faber to tell their stories.