Steve VoytkoHistory 1110Throughout history, injustices on humanity have been visible. The Jewish Holocaust has to be one of the most prominent. In 1933, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler sanctioned anti-Jew campaigns that included the Nuremberg Laws, which defined the meaning of being Jewish based on ancestry.
Because of these laws, Jews were isolated from society. This was only a meager element of what European Jews had yet to endure. Jews were progressively forced out of the German Economy, and their assets were turned over to the German government and the public. With the degradation of the Jewish people came organized demonstrations by the Germans. Businesses were destroyed, synagogues demolished, and nearly a hundred Jews killed.
In many ways this was the start of Hitler and his Nazis Aryanization. In a meeting of Hitlers elite officials, the idea of complete annihilation of Jews in Europe was manufactured. In 1938 the Nazis plan for the Jewish people were outlined in The Final Solution. This was a plan that included deportation, exploitation, and eventually extermination of European Jews. Derivations from The Final Solution were concentration and death camps of Germany and Poland and other parts of Nazi controlled Europe.
In September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland. Jews that remained in German controlled territories were taken to ghettos and/or concentration camps that were set up to alienate Jews from the rest of the public. The quality of living included lack of food, sanitation, as well as malice from the Nazi guards. Jews were required to wear Yellow Stars of David on the sleeves of their clothes. A Jew could be killed with little consequence for not displaying this tattoo of damnation for all to see. Thousands of prisoners in concentration camps died simply of exposure to disease and starvation.
Josef Mengle, also known as The Angel of Death, performed callous experiments on twins, dwarves and other genetically diverse subjects in hopes of advancing and breeding the so-called Aryan Race of perfect Germans for Hitler. Those Jews, shunned less fortunate, usually women, children, and the elderly, were escorted to gas chambers, firing squads. Other able-bodied men were transformed into laborious workers. Over three million Jewish Europeans were sentenced to die in concentration and death camps. One of the more infamous of these was Auschwitz where it is said that over one million Jews alone died wrongfully. In 1945, World War II came to an end with the Axis powers surrendering before the Allied invasion of Europe.
When the Allies liberated the camps in Germany, Poland, and other areas that were Nazi controlled, what they found was piles of decaying bodies lying in pits and in sheds. For the vicious atrocities carried out by some of Hitlers preeminent officers, dozens were killed or imprisoned. A multi-national allied group of men held trials where the guilty were hung, imprisoned for life, and only three were acquitted for the crimes they were accused with. Over the next few years other trials were held and hundreds of Nazis were successfully convicted of crimes committed in wartime. The Holocaust was one of the most famous events in modern history.
Tadeusz Borowski wrote a book about his encounters and daily activities as a captive in a Nazi prison. He tells about the harshness experienced by him and his fellow Jews. His poetic style makes the book somewhat interesting and is informal for such a horrific instance that happened more than 50 years ago. On July 1, 1951 Borowski committed suicide at the age of 29 and not only did he take his life, but he took possibly one of Polands greatest poets. With as many differences our societies have today another holocaust will never be allowed by any country.
Besides its immorality the holocaust of then was so significant that another instance will not be able to advance to a point where millions of people are executed. The senseless slaughter of millions of innocent people at the hands of Nazi butchers was incited when a man by the name of Adolf Hitler came to rule over Germany. The Nazi wrought terrible death and destruction on Europe in the following years, beginning with Aryanizationand ending with The Final Solution in a maniacal plot to exterminate and purify the human race. This event and it contents should be remembered by all that are human. What had transpired sixty years ago should reflect on future instances where people dont get alone because of the differences they have with one another.
Let us leave this as a very tragic time in world history and remember those who were killed needlessly and make life better for those who survived The Living Death.Words/ Pages : 814 / 24
