The Holocaust

The Holocaust

Melissa Vargas
Mr. Smith
AP US History
1 April 2014 Imagine one day coming home to your parents packing all your bags, telling you that it’s time to go, but you have no clue where you are going. With no idea where you are going you freak out, and are scared to death of what is to come for you and your family. This wasn’t uncommon for the Jewish people of Europe from the early 1930’s to the mid 1940’s. Hitler had another plan for all the Jews, one which he called the “Final Solution” 1 (Rogasky 9). The Holocaust was one of the 19th centurie’s greatest tragedies where Jews were treated with cruel and unjust punishment due to anti-Semitism, other countries isolation policies, and plain fear of the Nazis. Many people know the story of Anne Frank and that is just one girl of millions affected by the cause. This all started with one belief and idea, the idea that Jews were Christ killers. This was never even stated to be true, it was thought due to the fact that Jews didn’t follow the normal religion of the time which was Roman Catholicism. Due to the fact that almost everyone in Europe declared this idea of Jews being “Christ Killers” to be true many horrible attacks on the Jews started to occur. The homes of Jews were constantly being attacked and either destroyed or robbed of all items the Jews could have found of value. Not only that, but also the cemetaries of Jews were also desecrated. 2 Keep in mind the fact that the Jews in all reality had really done nothing to all those treating them with this disrespect. To top it all off the sacred synagogues, their place of worship, were also burned down (Rogasky 9). This cruel treatment of the jews was only the start, Laws were then made that stated what Jews could and could not do. This is comparable to the time in American history where blacks were segregated and thought of almost as monsters. The Nazi took it so far that they even decided to make anti-jewish books The Handbook of Antisemintism. This was only the beginning of the duties of the Anti Socialist German Worker’s party. 3 With the start of the tremendous dictatorship brought the boycott of all Jewish business. This was unfair, the Nazis were leading the Jewish people to the bottom of the chain. The Nazi also created the Nuremberg Laws. 4 They went so far as to create concentration camps where Jews were treated in inhuman ways. They even used humans to be tested on for certain painful experiments (Bachrach). The Jews were then under complete German control. This, again, as stated was only the beginning to the inhuman and cruel treating of the Jewish. This is cruel because Jews were treated like they were not even human, like they were from another planet and we didn’t really know anything about them. No group of people should ever be treated with this amount of racism. With this amount of control, a person like Hitler shouldn’t be alive. No country was willing to get involved in this terrible tragedy. Although other countries were aware of the wrong doing of Hitler, no one did anything and stayed true to the isolationism. Due to the fact that most countries did absolutely nothing to help, European Jews began to emigrate out of Europe and out to other locations, like Palestine, the United States, and England. The rapid fleeing of Jews caused overpopulation in some areas which eventually meant that other countries had to open their doors to Jewish refugees (Bachrach). This was the start to America getting involved, at first it was just to help the Jewish a bit by giving them somewhere to live. Eventually Japan as well started to help out with aiding the Jews in their attempt to have a safe fleeing of Europe. At most, countries didn’t get involved until they were forced. Everyone was well aware of what was going on yet still refused to do anything about it. This is where the cruelness came into play. Imagine this being someone from your family, it’s like a child falling right in front of your face and you not helping. This comes down to the morals of others as well. The amount of isolationism definitely played a role in the overthrow Hitler was able to take in the era of the Holocaust. Outright fear of Hitler was another big problem that the Jews faced as well. No one had the courage to stand up for themselves. It was either you stand up for yourself and basically get sentenced to death or you just don’t say anything at all. With Hitler’s policies someone who stood up for themselves, their families, or even the Jews were thought to be corrupt in their mind. They were either to be sentenced to immediate death or sent right to concentration camps (Bachrach). At the concentration camps people were treated in inhuman ways and were basically worked to death, with small amount of food and water to give to them. They were given the bare minimum to be able to live. This was cruel, if these people were to have been in America it would have directly violated the first ammendments rights. Imagine all of the sudden having all those rights just disappear from one day to the next. No one would be happy with that, and it was not right that it ever happened to any race or group of people in the history of time. Throughout the time of the Holocaust, Jews had it the worst due to the fact that other countries delayed the aide needed and plain fear of their dictator Hitler. This was one of the most tragic times. Some people may say that the Holocaust never actually happened and there are multiple theories out there about it, but there is a lot of evidence proving the existence of the Holocaust and until it can be 100% proven that it did not occur, we will still go on believing that it did. The Holocaust had one of the most devastating effects on the world as a whole.

Works Cited
Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember. New York: Weinberg, 1994. Print.
Bloom, Harold. A Scholarly look at the diary of Anne Frank. Philidelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. Print.
Frank, Otto H, and Mirjam Pressler. The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank. United States of America: Doubleday, 1991. Print.
Rogasky, Barbara. Smoke and Ashes: the story of the Holocaust. United States of America: Rogasky, 1988.

Cited: Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember. New York: Weinberg, 1994. Print. Bloom, Harold. A Scholarly look at the diary of Anne Frank. Philidelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. Print. Frank, Otto H, and Mirjam Pressler. The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank. United States of America: Doubleday, 1991. Print. Rogasky, Barbara. Smoke and Ashes: the story of the Holocaust. United States of America: Rogasky, 1988.