History Of The Holocaust
The term holocaust or Shoah in Hebrew is used to refer to the massacre of Jews during the reign of Adolf Hitler in Germany. During this time the Jews suffered brutal and inhumane treatment in the hands of the Nazis and were eventually killed. It is estimated that about six million Jews lost their lives. This was about two thirds of the European Jews population and a third of the world Jews population.
The Germans were humiliated by the Versailles Treaty after they lost in the European war. Their economy was also very unstable especially after the crash of the New York market in 1929. They blamed the Jews for all their woes and spread this propaganda through publications for example ‘Der Sturmer’, (the attacker). The Nazis believed the Jews were their misfortune. They managed to get conservative people to be on their side. When Hitler gained political power and control of Germany, he made policies that enabled gain control over the Jews. He obtained legal backing for his policies which enabled him to carry out his plan of eliminating the Jews which he called the Final Solution.
The Nazis believed that the Jews were an inferior race and that they were corrupting German’s pure culture. The started by restricting them with policies and terror. When the Jews became unable to migrate out of Europe due to immigration rules, the Nazis then moved to confine them in ghettos and concentration camps where they would eventually kill them brutally or let them die of starvation or diseases (Jewish Virtual Library, 2009).
The ghettos served as temporary holding areas for the Jews before they could be transported concentration camps and death camps (Grobman, 1990). The living conditions in the ghettos were horrible. Many Jews were squeezed into a small area. Space was inadequate and fresh air was unheard of. Due to the space, diseases spread easily and many epidemics broke out. There was no medication and many people died.
Food was hard to come by. And hunger was the order of the day. The Jews had to wait on the Nazis for food. They were given unhealthy food like fats, bread and potatoes. The food was also limited and the Jews received only enough to survive. People died of hunger and malnutrition. People were also not allowed to leave the ghetto and anyone found doing so was shot.
The ghettos were controlled by Jewish councils called Judenrate which were made of individuals chosen by Germans. The Judenrate were concerned with watching the health and sanitation of the people, and running the ghetto’s social facilities for example clinics and hospitals. They were also responsible for assigning work. It was mandatory to work in the ghettos and those who did not work were sent to concentration camps and death camps to be killed. Some people opted to bribing the Judenrate so that they could be given work. The people of the Judenrate also took advantage of this to enrich themselves. There were smugglers in the ghettos who earned their money from smuggling goods out of the ghetto. They used to bribe the police officers in order to accomplish this. Jews set up small industries in the ghettos which continued growing. Children also escaped from the ghettos through holes in the fences and sewers to beg for food and bring it back to their families.
The Nazis devised ways of emptying the ghettos off the Jews and taking them into concentration camps. They would ask the Judenrat for a certain number of people and threaten to kill many people or all the people living in the ghetto if this number was not handed to them. They would also deceive the people for instance by selecting a certain group of people and telling them they are needed somewhere. The people who went never came and they were never heard from. Slowly by slowly, they emptied the ghettos of all the Jews.
The Jews were afraid to resist the brutal treatment from the Nazis. They knew too well that if they resisted, the Nazis would respond with violence. This meant that very many people would lose their lives. Other Jews had found ways of surviving in the ghettos and they believed that resisting would make things harder for them. However, there was the majority whose daily struggle was to get food for survival. Thoughts of resisting were far from their minds and their only wish was to get food to last them another day. Emmanuel Ringelblum noted that there were these people for example in the Warsaw ghetto, who had been starving for a long time and all they could think about, was bread. They had lost interest in every other thing and could not resist. Resistance was also barred by Jewish police who were used to silence their fellow Jews even in the face of the brutal and inhumane treatment.
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