The Holocaust By. Ethan S. Berry and Jenni Nadeau
The Holocaust began as soon as Hitler became chancellor of Germany which was six years before the start of World War II. From January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945. During the Holocaust Jewish people were heavily persecuted by the Nazis. It was relatively easy for the anti-semantic Fuhrer to use the Jewish people as the scapegoat for the loss of World War 1, and their economic crisis post-war. It was easy to blame the Jews for the economic crisis because most of their employment came from banks.
Jewish People during the Holocaust
During the Holocaust, the Jewish people were essentially excommunicated in Germany and Austria. At first they were ridiculed, and nobody associated with them, until eventually things escalated. First they were forced to wear a badge with the Star of David on it. The hatred peaked with the murder of a German official, authorities in Nazi Germany would go into Jewish Homes and take them by force. The Nazis would either kill them, or take them to concentration camps where they would be forced to do manual labor.
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) was a coordinated attack on the Jewish within the German Reich the night of November 9, 1938. "The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. " (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht.htm). This attack opened the perfect opportunity for Hitler to attack the Jews, using that attack as their justification. On that night mob violence broke out and the police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. The Nazis broke into and destroyed Jewish homes and killed, or injured the residents be that men, children, or women.
Hitler's Youth
Concentration Camps
Shortly after Hitler rose to power in January of 1933 Sturmabteilungen; commonly known as Storm Troopers. Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons, the elite guard of the Nazi party, the police, and local civilian authorities organized Detention camps for the unwanted jews. German authorities built camps all over germany for one purpose only and that was to store all the arrested subversives. These camps were primarily located in Oranienburg, north of Berlin; Esterwegen, near Hamburg; Dachau, northwest of Munich; and Lichtenburg, in Saxony. These camps eventually came to defy the standard living conditions of arrest and custody, and soon adopted names such as labor camps; prisoner of war camps; transit camps; extermination camps or death camps.