Remember The Holocaust?
1933-1945 over 6 million Jews dead, you better remember!
Stage 1 Classification
The Nazi's made sure to distinguish the Jews and Aryans from others. The Nazi's classified the superior race as people with blue eyes and blond hairs they called Aryans. The Nazi's also classified the Arabs and Jews as semitic people meaning people who didn't fit into Hitlers perfect philosphy.
Stage 2 Symbolization
With Symbolization the Nazi's had to distinguish the Jews from everyone else in some way.They accomplished this by having Jew's wear the star of David on their clothes. They even had homosexual Jews wear pink triangles. The Nazi's had their own superior symbol which was the Swastika
Stage 3 Dehumanization
The Nazi's wanted to deny the the humanity of the Jews as a whole and equate with them with vermin's or insects. They dehumanized them with the Nuremberg Laws that took away the Jews human rights. The Jews had a curfew to follow if not they would shot dead, it restricted the movement of Jews so they couldn't leave where they currently lived at, prevented Jews from marrying Christians. The Nazi's even put out board games where the goal of the game was to kill Jews, or books where Jews were poisonous, and even movie posters where Jews are demonic.
Stage 4 Organization
The Nazi's systematically planned a bunch of things that would help in their genocide and form special militias. The Nazi's organized concentration camps where they would the people were confined under harsh conditions. The Schuttzsstaffel organized this and they took action.
Stage 5 Polarization
In this stage Hitler wanted the Jews to feel intimidated and divide Jews from society. They had propaganda everywhere that proclaimed that Jews were evil, demonic, and part of the reason for the economic and social problems of the world. People preached that Jews must be excluded from society and school at churches or anywhere they could preach.
Stage 6 Preparation
In the preparation phase the 3rd Reich had their victims identified and separated with death lists drawn up. They sent millions of Jews to Warsaw ghettos to keep track of all the Jews and to also make sure they didn't leave. The ghetto secured all the Jews in single locations that trapped them in with huge walls, barbed wire, and Germans guarding making sure nobody could escape. The Jews received little food and water, lack of sanitation and overcrowding. These factors killed over thousands of Jews every month.
Stage 7 Extermination
Hitler thought his killing of the Jews wasn't quick or efficient enough. He developed extermination camps made for killing with gas chambers and ovens where they would gas the Jews in this shower like area. The ovens would cremate the Jew's in an little sliding door area where they would lay down flat on their back.
Stage 8 Denial
After all the Genocide and Mass Murder when the American's liberated the Jews the citizens claimed they didn't know anything about the Genocide. The citizens also denied involvement in the Genocide and, had no clue of the Nuremberg Laws. They would even deny their crimes and blame it on the victims. They also had mass graves and would find a way to cover up evidence. These people involved in it even denied it in court in the Nuremberg Trials by saying that only some parts of the 3rd Reich carried out these evil duties.
Auschwitz
The most infamously known death camp of Nazi Germany, Auschwitz. Between 1940 and 1945, 1.1 million Jews, Soviet prisoners, Poles, and other nationalities. Almost 1/6 of the estimated people that were killed in the holocaust. The sign at the entrance of Auschwitz, Arbeit Macht Frei translates to "Work sets you free". Which is ironic because when you were sent to Auschwitz, there was a good chance you weren't leaving. In 2009 the sign was stolen and has yet to be recovered.
The Horrors.
It;s sad to think, what is pictured here, happened to 6 million innocent people. Just being themselves. Genocides have happened, are happening, and will always happen. There's no way to stop it. But we can prevent it from getting to this. Putting a foot in the door and stopping it. Get more involved, learn more about it, be an accepting person to the people that are different then you. We're all created as one under God. It's time we accept it.
Oscar Schindler
Oscar Schindler, a very unlikely Holocaust hero. A Nazi SS Officer. The man who should be executing them. Was saving them. He spent millions of dollars bring SS officers to letting Jews live. He died poor, broke, no money. He spent everything he every had or owned on saving the lives of Jews.
Works Cited
Works Cited
"Auschwitz." Holocaust Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189>.
"Introduction the the Holocaust." Holocaust Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143>.
"The Oscar Schindler Story." The Holocaust, Crimes, Heroes and Villians. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016. <http://www.auschwitz.dk/>.