Eight Stages Of The Holocaust

“Auschwitz was the largest and highly organized death camp in history. It was actually three camps: a concentration camp, a death camp, and a slave labor camp. It was 19 square miles, guarded by 6,000 men, and was located in the Polish town of Oswiecim. It was opened June 1940 and initially held 728 Polish prisoners. By 1945, more than 1.25 million people had been killed there and 100,000 worked as slave laborers” (Peter Chen). First off, genocide is a term used to describe horrendous massacres and those committing such crimes avoid using this term because of the gruesome connotations it holds. During this time, the Jews culture wasn’t appreciated for a long time and nobody really recognized it until one of the largest murders of a single
In addition, “it is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group” (Holocaust Museum Houston). Also, “it is a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the group themselves” (Holocaust Museum Houston). A textbook genocide such as the Holocaust is best described in the eight stages (Holocaust Museum Houston). In the beginning stages, it is mainly mentally killing the race, but in the later stages in escalates to actually murdering many people (Holocaust Museum Houston). This is what the term genocide actually
First is classification, “all cultures have categories to distinguish people into, ‘us and them’ by ethnicity, race, religion or nationality” (Stanton). Next is symbolization, “we name people ‘Jews’ or ‘Gypsies’, or distinguish them by colors or dress: and apply the symbols to members of groups” (Stanton). Another is dehumanization, “members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases.” They are told that they aren’t worthy of living or worse and treated like they don’t deserve the life that they have (Stanton). A large part of making the genocide work is organization, special army units or militias are often trained and armed, also plans are made for genocidal killing (Stanton). They try to polarize the races, “prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups” (Stanton). Along with that, “assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them” (Stanton). For a genocide to work out it takes a lot of preparation, “they {unworthy race} are often sent into ghettos, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved” (Stanton). One of the last steps is extermination, this begins and quickly becomes what is known as mass murder and really signifies a genocide (Stanton). The last step is denial, “the perpetrators of genocide dig mass