The Holocaust
The 'Final Solution'
What was the Holocaust?
What was the 'Final Solution?'
What events lead up to the Holocaust?
In January 1933, the Nazi party took power in Germany and Hitler became chancellor. He managed to maintain a posture of legality throughout the Nazification process. During the next six years, Adolf Hitler completely changed Germany into a police state. The Nazis "temporarily restricted" civil liberties for all citizens. The Reighstag building wents up in flames. The Nazis declared that this was the beginning of the Communist revolution. Within months of Hitler appointed as Chancellor, the Dachau concentration camp was created. Communists, Socialists and labour leaders were arrested by the Nazis.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and world war II began. The Nazis ordered Polish Jews into restricted ghettos and forced them into slave labour.
How were Jews easily placed into Gas Chambers?
A gas chamber is an airtight room that can be filled with poisonous gas to kill people or animals. The Jews were easily placed into gas chambers by the Sonderkommandos. Their job was to make sure the Jews were calm as they walk into the gas chambers. Then they would dispose their bodies by dumping them in mass burial pits or cremating them in ovens.
The way Nazis placed Jews into gas chambers was very manipulative. Jews were told that they were going in to have a shower so they would strip all their clothes off and go inside in big groups. When they were put into the gas chambers, the poisonous gas, called Zyklon B, would fill up the room and kill them.