Holocaust (Shoal)
Julia Stephenson, Wendy Avila, Grace Rao, Sarah Ueno (2nd)
What is the Holocaust?
This was a genocide (mass killing of a particular ethnic group,) that mostly targeted Jews. This genocide was run by people of the Nazi party, under the power of Hitler and were responsible for killing approximately 6 million Jews.
Cause:
After WWI, Germany's economy suffered tremendously. During this time period the Jewish community started to achieve good lives for themselves, because they were becoming an important part of European economy, while the German's were not. This basically made the German's angry and jealous. Throughout history the hews had often been blames for perceived crimes, and in post WWI Germany blamed them as well.
Characteristics
- Jews weren’t the only people sent to concentration camps.
- Others sent to concentration camps: Christians standing up to Nazis, gypsies, homosexuals, and others seen as "mentally retarded."
- Not all concentration camps were death camps. Many were prisons and labor camps, although many people did die from exhaustion and starvation.
- Concentration camps were primarily used for detention and cheap labor.
- Other camps, like Auschwitz and Chelmno, were almost exclusively used as death factories.
- The German government is still holding trials against Nazi war criminals today.
Star of David
The star that anyone would have to wear as identification of being a Jew.
Warsaw Ghetto
A starving child laying in the street of a Jewish ghetto.
Map Visual
This shows the different locations of German labor camps and death camps where groups of Jews were sent after being arrested.
Why Should We Remember?
Significance
Following the Holocaust, many nations pledged to prevent and punish the crime of genocide that was heavily portrayed against the Jews during the Holocaust and international protection of human rights grew tremendously. Responding to genocide and injustices such as this became one of the world's biggest concerns as a direct response to the Holocaust. Protecting refugees and making sure something to this large of a scale never happens again is still being practiced today and was influenced heavily by the tragedy of the Holocaust that impacted people on a global scale.