The Holocaust

The Holocaust began during World War II between the years of 1939 and 1945. The Holocaust was the most complete extermination of Jews in Europe. Germany's Nazi party was headed by Aldolf Hitler and at the hand of him almost 5.9 million Jews. This event was the most tragic and most devastating in history. The Holocaust led to international laws against human right violations. During the Holocaust Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis. Many Germans who were mentally impaired or physically disabled of deformed seemed to be wanted to be exterminated just as much or even more along with the Jews. Homosexuals were harmed and sentenced to death Soviet Soldiers.

For many centuries before the Holocaust, anti-Semitism was extremely popular in Europe, especially against Jews. To anti-Semites, Jews are mythical and mysterious creatures that held are power and play a sinister role in world history. Many stereotypes have been formed against Jews such as the blood libel which also means the sacrificing Christian children blood for rituals. All these beliefs came with popular superstitions about the magical powers of human blood, sorcery, and perversity. As a result of the stereotypes and accusations, violence against Jews frequently erupted. Even the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches had teachings and beliefs against Jews. By the 19th century, Europe was looking at race more than anything and this determined a person's humanity on scale of "higher" or "lower". Crucial in the decree of the Holocaust was the definition of Jew. Any one with three or four Jewish grandparents was automatically a Jew. If there was only one then you were considered a half breed or Mischlinge.

In the spring of 1941, as preparations were under way for the invasion of the USSR, Hitler said that a war of destruction was about to start. He called for the annihilation of the Bolshevik leadership, then laying the foundation for the extermination of what Hitler considered to be the source of Bolshevism which was the Jewish USSR. Large numbers of Jews were immediately shot regardless of whether they held official Soviet positions. In August 1941 the killings were expanded to include Jewish women and children. Beginning in late September of 1941 German forces carried out large scale actions in which whole Jewish communities were wiped out. For instance, 33,000 Jews of Kiev, Ukraine, were killed on September 29th and 30th in Ravine outside of Kiev called Babi Yar.

In the autumn of 1941 a phase began. Until then the targets had been Soviet Jews, but now the killing was extended to Jews in parts of Serbia and Poland. For these killings the Germans also used gas compartment filled with victims to asphyxiate them. During the winter of 1941 to 1942 there was a pause in the shooting because, in part, the frozen ground prevented the digging of pits for buying the murdered Jews.

In the fall of 1941 the Nazis began deporting all the Jews of occupied Europe to the east in order to exterminate them. Concentration Camps of World War II during the 1930s and 1940s German Nazi leaders established numerous concentration camps where Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, communists, Slavs and other judged unwanted for Hitler's "perfect world". Germans and people in German-occupied countries who opposed the Nazi regime on grounds of ideas were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Among them were political opponents. Many prisoners were worked to death, shot, gassed, or given lethal injections. In the fall of 1939, the euthanasia program was started. In this program Nazi doctors killed over 70,000 mentally ill and physically