20 years of the Holocaust
By: Ashwin K., Saketh G., Maurya A.
World War 1
World War 1 resulted in the life of 9 million soldiers. Civilian casualties caused by the war numbered close to 10 million. At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would state their opinions to prevent another deadly war from occurring. The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve this objective. Filled with war sorrow, heavy reparations, and denied entrance into the League of Nations, Germany complained it had signed the treaty under false conditions. As the years passed, hatred of the treaty and its authors would be counted to an arguable extent among the causes of the Second World War. The two nations most affected by the war were Germany and France.
By the end of 1918, the alliance of the Central Powers was unraveling in its war effort against the better supplied and coordinated Allied powers. Using all of their military weapons and the surrender of its weaker allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, Germany was forced to seek an accord with the Allies in early November 1918. This pushed Germany's discontent off the limit. The Allied Powers tried to resist the Axis Powers by fighting back. Eventually, they lost due to their lack of supplies and strategies. As a society, we can learn not to fight a war this big again, as it will result into a mass number of innocent deaths.
Germany Signs Versailles Treaty 6/28/1919
Nazi Party Established 2/24/1920
At that time, Nazi influence was especially strong among nationalist organizations in Bavaria. As an immediate result of this, Hitler headed a failed attempt to bring the Weimar government down by means of an armed coup in Munich, on November 9, 1923. The party was outlawed for a short time and Hitler spent nine months in prison. Shortly after his release, the Nazi Party was re-established and spread from Bavaria to western and northern Germany. In elections to the Reichstag in 1924, the Nazis won only 3 percent of the vote. Their dramatic ascent began in the 1930s, the party's parliamentary strength rising from 18.3 percent in 1930, to 37.3 percent in 1932, and 43.9 percent in elections held on March 5, 1933. Party membership climbed from 6,000 in 1922 to 8.5 million in 1945.
The Nazi Party was controlled by a centralized structure based on the Fuehrerprinzip. Organizationally, the party was run by eighteen party officials at the rank of regional leader territorially and was managed by 32 Gauleiters. The party's institutions included the SA, the SS, and the Hitler Youth. These organizations were the major cause of the killings of minority groups. Many anti-Nazi people that were in the government did not want the Nazis participating in the German government. The Nazi Party also had many failed attempts in their ambitious goals. As a society today, we can learn that racial prejudice is detrimental for the growth of a government.
Hitler becomes Chancellor 1/30/1933
Dachau camp established 3/22/1933
The first Jewish people that were deported were one of the political opponents of the Nazi regime. However, Jews were treated more harshly than other prisoners. Slowly, the Sinti and Roma peoples were imprisoned there, along with the Nazi's political opponents, and more than 10,000 Jews from all over Germany were interned there after the Kristallnacht pogrom. From 1937 until 1941, those who could prove that they were about to leave Germany were released. When the genocide of Jews began, the Jewish prisoners were deported from Dachau and other camps in the Reich to the extermination camps in East Germany. The camps mainly affected groups that were wrong in Hitler's eyes. Many Jews tried to instigate major insurrection in the camp, but failed due to the Nazis' mass power. As a society, we know that everyone should be treated equally and that no one should be singled out.
German-Polish non-aggression pact
Hindenburg dies 8/2/1934
Fun Facts
1. Approximately 220,000-500,000 Romanies were killed during the Holocaust.
2. Unlike other genocides in which victims are often able to escape death by converting to another religion, those of Jewish descent could be spared only if their grandparents had converted to Christianity before January 18, 1871 (the founding of the German Empire).
3. During the Holocaust, the most respected German corporations used slave labor, including BMW, Daimler-Benz (Mercedes-Benz), Messerschmitt, and Krupp. Though they were not forced to use slaves, they nevertheless used them as “good business practice.” Additionally, I.G. Farben, a German chemical industry conglomerate, invested more than 700 million Reich marks (German dollars) to build a huge petrochemical plant at Auschwitz III, which was staffed by human slave.
4. The Nazis would process Holocaust victims’ hair into felt and thread. Hair was also used to make socks for submarine crews, ignition mechanisms in bombs, ropes and cords for ships, and stuffing for mattresses. Camp commanders were required to submit monthly reports on the amount of hair collected.
5. British troops liberating Bergen-Belsen found that the Nazis had experimented using human skin for lampshades.
6. Six million is the minimum number of Jews killed by the Nazis. Thousands of infants and babies were killed before their births could be recorded.
Bibliography
“World War I ends.” 2013. The History Channel website. Nov 1 2013, 3:00 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/world-war-i-comes-to-an-end.
"The Holocaust." Timeline. Yad Vashem, 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.
Gates, Zach. "The Great Dictator - Speech." YouTube. YouTube, 12 Oct. 2006. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
Gates, Zach. "Why Did Hitler Become Chancellor?" YouTube. YouTube, 01 Apr. 2008. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
"90 Important Facts About . . . Var Addthis_config = {"services_compact":"email,fark,digg,delicious,linkedin", "services_expanded":"email,fark,digg,delicious,linkedin"};." 90 Important Facts about the Holocaust. Random Facts, 17 July 2011. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.