The Holocaust

Samantha Gillaspy

College English

Mr. Neuburger

February 19, 2009

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The Holocaust refers to the persecution and killing of Jews in Europe by the

Nazis. Along with the Jews, the Nazis killed groups such as gypsies, the mentally and

physically disabled, Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war,

and political dissidents. However, the Nazis mostly targeted the Jews. Hitler and his Nazi

soldiers killed approximately eleven million people, six million of those being Jews. The

Holocaust lasted from 1933 to 1945. During this period of time, the Jews faced intense

suffering at the hands of the Nazis. Many people have questions when the Holocaust is

mentioned. In order to fully grasp the concept of this terrible tragedy, one must know the

answers to these questions and how Adolf Hitler came to power.

Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl gave birth to Adolf Hitler on April 20, 1889, in an

Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn. According to David Meier, “It is also remotely

possible Adolf Hitler's grandfather was Jewish. Maria Schicklgruber was said to have

been employed as a cook in the household of a wealthy Jewish family named

Frankenberger. There is some speculation their 19 year old son got her pregnant and

regularly sent her money after the birth of Alois. Adolf Hitler would never know for sure

just who his grandfather was” (1). In May of 1895, Adolf entered the first grade at a

public school. His school was in the village of Fischlham, near Linz Austria. Also in

1895, Hitler had two life changing events happen to him. First, he no longer was able to

enjoy carefree, unrestrained days because he entered primary school, and second, his

father had retired from the civil services and barked out orders at home all the time. He

used to be able to give orders and have them obeyed because of his ranking he had in the

service, and he expected that at home. His father could also be very abusive, both

verbally and physically. The oldest boy, Alois Jr., got most of the abusive treatment. One
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day, finally fed up with it all, he decided to run away from home, leaving the abuse to

Adolf, next in line at only seven years old. Around this same time, the family had moved

off of the farm and to Lambach, Austria. For Hitler, he hoped this meant an end to chores

and a beginning to more play. Adolf started school at a Catholic Benedictine monastery in

his new town and did very well there. The monastery was decorated with carved stone

and many swastikas so Hitler saw these everyday. Hitler took part in the boys’ choir and

very much liked this point in his life. He idolized the priests and as a small child, often

wanted to become one. As Adolf grew a bit older, he started finding himself getting into

trouble. A priest caught him smoking a cigarette in the bathroom but went unpunished

after being forgiven. Hitler also enjoyed playing cowboys and Indians and loved to read

books by Karl May who wrote about men defeating their enemy by sheer power and

bravery. He read over seventy novels. According to David Meier, “He continued to read

them even as Führer. During the German attack on the Soviet Union he sometimes

referred to the Russians as Redskins and ordered his officers to carry May's books about

fighting Indians.” When asked, Hitler would describe himself as “an argumentative little

ring leader who liked to stay outside and hang around with 'husky' boys” (1). In 1898,

the family moved again, this time to the village of Leonding, close to Linz. New town

meant new school for Adolf, but he still continued to do well. Hitler began to take an

interest in art, especially sketching buildings. He could just look at the building,

memorize it, and then sketch it down on paper. According to David Meier, “One day,

young Hitler went rummaging through his father's book collection and came across

several of a military nature, including a picture book on the War of 1870-1871 between

the Germans and the French. By Hitler's own account, this book became an obsession. He
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read it over and over; becoming convinced it had been a glorious event.” In Mein Kampf,

Hitler states, “It was not long before the great historic struggle had become my greatest

spiritual experience. From then on, I became more and more enthusiastic about

everything that was in any way connected with war or, for that matter, with soldering"

(1).

When Hitler turned 11 years old, his younger brother Edmund died from the

measles. Now, the war loving Hitler had to face actual death for the first time and he

became clearly shaken. Hitler started to have big dreams of becoming an artist but his

strict father made him go to a technical high school. Because of Adolf’s farming

background, the rich city kids looked down on him. This caused Adolf to become

extremely lonely and very unhappy which resulted in him being held back his first year.

However, at the age of 13, his father passed away suddenly, leaving him in charge of the

Hitler household.

After World War I, Hitler became apart of the German Workers Party and

eventually was chosen as the leader of this party. According to Meier, “He saw this party

as a vehicle to reach his political ends. His blossoming hatred of the Jews became part of

the organization's political platform. Hitler built up the party, converting it from a de

facto discussion group to an actual political party. Advertising for the party's meetings

appeared in anti-Semitic newspapers. The turning point of Hitler's mesmerizing oratorical

career occurred at one such meeting held on October 16, 1919. Hitler's emotional

delivery of an impromptu speech captivated his audience. Through word of mouth,

donations poured into the party's coffers, and subsequent mass meetings attracted

hundreds of Germans eager to hear the young, forceful and hypnotic leader” (3). This
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helped springboard him into the Presidential race against Paul von Hindenburg in 1932.

Although he lost this election, President Hindenburg named Hitler the German

chancellor. Hitler used this power greatly to his advantage.

According to Jacob Hornberger, while Hitler ate a meal, he received an

emergency phone call from Hermann Goering telling him the Reichstag building had

been set on fire and Communist terrorists had started it. “So how was Goering so certain

that the fire had been set by communist terrorists? Arrested on the spot was a Dutch

communist named Marinus van der Lubbe. Most historians now believe that van der

Lubbe was actually duped by the Nazis into setting the fire and probably was even

assisted by them, without his realizing it.” Hitler did this for a specific reason.

Furthermore, Hornberger states, “The day after the fire, Hitler persuaded President

Hindenburg to issue a decree entitled, “For the Protection of the People and the State.”

Justified as a “defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the

state,” the decree suspended the constitutional guarantees pertaining to civil liberties” (2).

Hitler’s power had reached extreme heights. However, this power was a small amount

compared to what he was about to receive. When Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler

became dictator of Germany. This started a world of terror for the Jews and completed

Hitler’s rise of power.

One may ask how the Jews were killed during the Holocaust. The Jewish Virtual

Library states, “In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and began the "Final

Solution." Four mobile killing groups were formed called Einsatzgruppen A, B, C and D.

Each group contained several commando units. The Einsatzgruppen gathered Jews town

by town, marched them to huge pits dug earlier, stripped them, lined them up, and shot
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them with automatic weapons. The dead and dying would fall into the pits to be buried in

mass graves. In the infamous Babi Yar massacre, near Kiev, 30,000-35,000 Jews were

killed in two days. In addition to their operations in the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen

conducted mass murder in eastern Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. It is estimated

that by the end of 1942, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered more than 1.3 million Jews”

(1). The Jewish Virtual Library also states that, “While the Nazis murdered other national

and ethnic groups, such as a number of Soviet prisoners of war, Polish intellectuals, and

gypsies, only the Jews were marked for systematic and total annihilation. Jews were

singled out for "Special Treatment" (Sonderbehandlung), which meant that Jewish men,

women and children were to be methodically killed with poisonous gas. In the exacting

records kept at the Auschwitz death camp, the cause of death of Jews who had been

gassed was indicated by "SB," the first letters of the two words that form the German

term for "Special Treatment." In addition, by the spring of 1942, the Nazis had

established six killing centers (death camps) in Poland: Chelmno (Kulmhof), Belzec,

Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek and Auschwitz, all located near railway lines so that Jews

could be easily transported daily. A vast system of camps (called Lagersystem) supported

the death camps. The purpose of these camps varied: some were slave labor camps, some

transit camps, others concentration camps and their subcamps, and still others the

notorious death camps. Some camps combined all of these functions or a few of them. All

the camps were intolerably brutal. The major concentration camps were Ravensbruck,

Neuengamme, Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald,

Theresienstadt, Flossenburg, Natzweiler-Struthof, Dachau, Mauthausen, Stutthof, and

Dora/Nordhausn” (1).
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One may ask why the Holocaust even took place. People say the Holocaust took

place to rid all the world of the Jews. Adolf Hitler believed the Jews caused Germany’s

defeat in World War I, so he needed to do something about them. Hitler set out to kill

anything that was not a part of the Arian race. Many questions about the Holocaust have

not been answered and will never be able to have answers. However, some have been

answered and these help to comprehend the tragedy of the Holocaust.

"History of the Holocaust-An Introduction." The Jewish Virtual Librbay. 2008. The

Amerian-Israeli Coorperative Enterprise. 27 Aug. 2008

<http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holocaust/history.html>.

"The Holocaust: Unbelievable Tragedy." 2002. World War II: Battles With No

Boundaries. 27 Aug. 2008

<http://library.thinkquest.org/cr0215466/the_holocaust.htm>.

Hornberger, Jacob G. "How Hitler Became a Dictator." LewRockwell.com. 2006. Future

of Freedom Foundation. 27 Aug. 2008

<http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger100.html>.

"Jewish Resistance to the Nazi Genocide." Jewish Virtual Library. 2008. The American-

Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 27 Aug. 2008

<http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holocaust/grobres.html>.

Meier, David A. "Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power." 2000. 27 Aug. 2008

<http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/holocaust/hitler.html>.