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Name (Last, First)

Teacher Name (Ms. Gutierrez)

Class (World History)

Date (Feb 7, 2025)

The Holocaust

Introduction
Can you imagine what it would be like to be seen as an enemy in your own country and no longer

considered a citizen of the place you were born solely based on your religion or ethnic background? Or what it must

have been like to have been woken up late in the evening, by soldiers at gunpoint, yelling at you to pack up your

belongings. Worst, to have been separated from your parents and your siblings, never knowing what happened to

them. That is what happened to European Jews in Germany and other Nazi-occupied countries during World War

II, from around 1933-1945, during the period that has become known as the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, the

Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hilter, systematically targeted European Jews (and other “undesirables”) with the sole

purpose and goal to annihilate them from the continent. Jews were seen as inferior to the Aaryan race and were

used as scapegoats for all the problems that Germany experienced following the end of World War I. The targeted

treatment of Jews by the Nazis ultimately led to a genocide that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews, but other racial

and biological inferior groups such as the Roma (Gypsies), those with disabilities, and Slavic peoples were also

targeted during the Holocaust era (“Introduction to the Holocaust”). Along with other groups because of their

political, ideological, or behavioral backgrounds, which brings the count up to something closer to 11-12 million

who lost their lives during the Holocaust. How did something like this happen in Europe, in the 1940s, and what

has been done since then to ensure it does not happen again?

Section 1: Historical Background

from a democratic nation to a dictatorship led by Adolf Hitler, which ultimately led to the Holocaust? Under dier

economic conditions following World War I, Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power with the promise of ending

the economic turmoil in Germany and returning it to its former glory. Right away in 1933 once the Nazi Party came

to power, it began targeting German Jews. Antisemitic feelings were nothing new to Europe and became the base
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foundation of the Nazi ideology as it was outlined in Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf (“Introduction to the

Holocaust”). Antisemitism, the hatred of Jews, existed in Europe going as far back as the middle ages, and Nazi

antisemitism was primarily based in religious persecution under the idea that the Jews were responsible for the

death of Jesus. As it was outlined in Mein Kampf, Jews were seen as a separate inferior race and had to be separated

from the more superior race, the Aryans. Jews were also blamed for Germany’s economic problems and through

Nazi propaganda also blamed for losing World War I. Hitler called for the removal of all Jews from Europe.

Removal would escalate over the course of the Holocaust from forced migration, to discrimiatory laws,

construction of ghettos, and the eventual deportation to concentration and extermination camps. The Nazi Party first

used anti-semetic propaganda and led boycotts against Jewish owned businesses. Propaganda was also used to

create polarization in Germany against Jews, and bring more Germans to the side of the Nazis especially in the

wake of the Great Depression in the 1930s. By 1935, the situation in Germany began to escalade from mere

propaganda to passage of actual discriminatory laws, known as the Nuremberg Laws, against the Jews. Some of the

laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship, and defined Jews by blood (“Die Nurnberger Gesetze”). Other laws

prevented them from holding certain jobs and prevented marriage between Germans and Jews (“Introduction to the

Holocaust). One of the first violent escalations against the Jews came in 1938 during the event that became known

as Kristallnacht. During this event Nazis destroyed synagogues and vandalized the storefronts of Jewish owned

businesses in both Germany and Austria. It became known as “The Night of Broken Glass” because the streets were

littered with broken glass from the windows. This marked a shift because from this point on the main focus of Nazi

antisemitisim went from forcing Jews to leave Europe to the total annhiliation (death) of all European Jews; which

evetually led to the genocide of 6 million Jews and 5-6 million other ethnic/“undesireable” groups during the course

of the Holocaust (“Introduction to the Holocaust”). While the Holocaust is not the first genocide of the 20th

century, it is the main reason that the term gencoide was coined as a way to explain what took place in Europe over

the course of roughly a decade in the 1930s and 1940s. During that period, Jews (and others) were specifically

targeted, dehumanized, and sent to their deaths.

Section 2: Stages of Genocide

commonly know as The Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed. As a way to understand the process that

takes place during a genocide and to prevent genocides from occuring Gregory H. Stanton, a professor of Human
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Rights at the University of Mary Washington, Fredrickburg, Virgina, developed what now is commonly known as

the 8 Stages of Genocide, in 1996. The eight stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization,

organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. While the earlier stages do take place before the

latter ones, they do still continue to take place as the genocide is happening. The three stages that will be the focus

of this project are: dehumanization, organization, and extermination.

Beginning with dehumanization, by the time this stage begins to take place, events have begun to escalate

from classification and the use of symbols to distinguish separate groups, but it is also used as a tool to reinforce

classification and progress things forward toward organization. Dehumanization is when the targeted group is

denied what it means to be human, propaganda is commonly used as a method to generate hatred toward the

targeted group and to vilify them. The targeted group is usually referred to as animals, vermin, and insects as a way

to justify why it is “okay” to target and kill them. During the Holocaust Nazis used propaganda to depict Jews as

devils with horns and pointy tails, and also as rats; and the Hitler Youth were educated that Jews had tongues like

snakes (“Antisemitism Explained”). To generate hatred toward the Jews following World War I they were not only

blamed for the loss of the war but also for the spread of communism in Germany and the economic troubles that the

country was experiencing. Dehumanization creates rationale and a justification for the perpetrators to treat the

targeted group as less than human. That treatment usually then leads to the creation of a plan of how to eradicate

the targeted group from a region, a country, a continent, or the world.

Organization is a major escalation from the first few stages because this stage creates the intent to either

carry out the removal of the target group or the complete annihilation of the group, which includes death.

Organization is usually sponsored by the state (or government) and it is the creation of how the genocide or killings

will take place. Prior to 1942, Nazis had already been killing Jews and “undesirables” in small numbers, it was

taking too long and they needed a more efficient method to eliminate the Jews on a larger scale (Bergen 51-52). In

January of 1942, 15 top Third Riech leaders met at the Wannsee Conference and developed what became known as

“The Final Solution” to the “Jewish Problem” (The Holocaust 59-64). The plan was to round up all the Jews in

Europe, send them to work camps where conditions were horrendous and literally work them to death (“Wannsee

Conference''). Even though extermination camps were not originally part of the Final Solution, eventually those

camps would be constructed in Poland and extermination became a major part of the plan.
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While sending Jews to concentration camps did result in millions of deaths because of the horrendous

conditions, many were not dying right away. That changed with the construction of the extermination camps in

Poland. Extermination is the actual act of killing the targeted group. To speed up the process the Nazis constructed

gas chambers that killed hundreds at once. Usually the elderly, the very young, and women were immediately sent

to these chambers to “take a shower” upon arrival to the camp. From the chambers the bodies were moved to the

crematoriums to be burned as a method to get rid of the evidence of what the Nazis were doing (Gerlach 36-39). No

bodies, no evidence, which equals deniability. Construction of the extermination camps allowed the Nazis to kill on

a larger scale that had not been seen previous to 1942.

Through dehumanization, organization, and extermination (and along with the other 5 stages not mentioned

in this paper), unfortunately the Nazis were successful in carrying out a genocide against European Jews, but also

against other targeted ethnic and “undesireable” groups. With the formulation of the Final Solution and the

construction of both concentration and extermination camps, the Nazis killed 6 million Jews and 5-6 million others,

and carried out the second genocide of the 20th century.

Conclusion:
Unfortunately once World War II was over for those in the camps who were liberated, life was not easy for

them. There were still antisemtic feelings in Europe, many spent years and decades trying to rebuild their lives and

find out what happened to their family members; many never finding out. Many had no home to return to and were

forced to migrate to other countries. While the Holocaust was not the first genocide of the 20th century it did

change how the world dealt with an event that specifically targeted a group with the sole purpose of eliminating

them in whole or in part. With the creation of the United Nations, there was a Convention established in 1948, that

is responsible for handling incidents of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and currently strives to bring those

responsible to justice. Following World War II, the Nuremburg Trials were held to prosecute Germany Nazi leaders

for war crimes; with some receiving life prision sentences to death sentences. One of the major reasons to learn

about the Holocaust or any violation of human rights incident is because as a global community we need to

understand what led to it in the hopes that we can prevent it from happening in the future. Whole generations were

wiped out from the Holocaust, individuals that could have made a difference in their communities or around the

globe never got the chance to do so. In closing, learning about genocides and atrocities is both difficult and very
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eye opening. It allows those who have not had similar experiences gain an understanding of the hardships that

victims went through and the resilience they had coming out of the event. It also forces us to ask hard questions and

reflect on our own morals. The difficult aspect in learning about the events is seeing pictures, listening to survivor

interviews (or reading them), but also acknowledging the hard truth that as much as we do not want these things to

continue to happen, they still do. The toughest and shortest question being, why? Where are we falling short, on a

human and on a global scale?

“Antisemitism Explained.” Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial Plaza, 18 Jan. 2021, https://www.

philaholocaustmemorial.org/antisemitism-explained/.

Bergen, Doris L. “War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust,” War and Genocide: A Concise History

of the Holocaust, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Little-field, 2009, pp. 153–59.*

"Die Nürnberger Gesetze" [Nuremberg Race Laws]. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.

Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Gerlach,Christian. “Holocaust,” Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, vol. I, ed. Dinah L.

Shelton. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2005, pp. 453–60.

The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes, vol. 11 by Adolf Eichmann, ed. John Mendelsohn.

Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa pic

“Introduction to the Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum, 5 Nov. 2021, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to- the-holocaust.

“Wannsee Conference.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.

com/event/Wannsee-Conference.