Alija Kankam

Mr Bonney/ Mrs.Percival

20th century History/ English

​ ​Never Forget

In history there has been many massacres in the world that had left bad memories in

people's head but this one massacre has left a scare in history forever. The Holocaust was an

actual mass murder that had left a bad memory for the entire world forever. Hitler who was

high in power during this time of tragedy felt that he should wipe out the entire race for jews for

supposedly “ stabbing the Germans in the back.” I believe that the holocaust is unique amongst

all genocides , due to the level of planning and execution of that plan by the Nazis. The Germans

knew what they was doing to kill all the innocent people, the way it was planned had been very

persistent and accurate to what Hitler wanted. It would be a time that no one would forget as

long as they live and it's not just something that can be forgiven or erased from memory.

The Jews had been ordinary people that lived in the cities of Israel. They had been free

people that could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. They could become

doctors,own their own business and sell products on local street markets. As time continued to

go by society only worsened. ​Je​ ws just did not live in Israel a good amount of them had also

lived in parts of Germany around when World War II was happening. Nine million Jews had

been living in Germany as the war was going on, it was said that as the war was coming to an

end two out of three Jewish people would be found dead. That had made a big impact on the
European Jewish life for as long as they live. Around 1933, one of the most biggest Jewish

groups had been separated in Eastern Europe, Poland , Hungary, Soviet Union, and Romania.

The Jewish people had lived separate lives from other people in society. Most of the population

of Jews had been living in these little towns or villages that had been called “ Shtetls.” They all

spoke their own language which would be “Yiddish.” They went to watch Yiddish movies in the

theaters and read Yiddish books. A lot of Jews in the western area of Europe, Italy, France,

Netherlands and Belgium had started to adapt to the non Jewish culture and started to adopt the

culture where they had been living around. They had started wearing clothing and talking like

countrymen. As time went on they did not find any reasons to practice their traditional language.

They wanted better education and wanted to live in the cities just like any other ordinary person.

There had been a lot of rich families but there where more poor people than rich people. There

also had been a lot of kids that had decided to end their education early to get into crafts and

trades. Discrimination had been a big part of what had been going on with the Jewish people's

living conditions and it did not seem that they were not as accepted in some cities or states than

someone who is not Jewish. The life of a Jewish person in that time period had been one of the

most complex moments in history because they had been free people but at the same time they

were being pushed away from society slowly and they had no idea on what was coming their

way. “ The Holocaust was not only a jewish tragedy, but also a human tragedy” By Simon

Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor.

As time passed on there had been a political climate change that had started to form.

Hitler started to make plans on targeting the Jewish race. ​He wanted to make the Jewish people

feel like outcasts so bad that he sent troops to burn and destroy any shops or business that the
Jewish people owned. He did not want them to be content with their living style​. ​ ​ H
​ itler

announced that the European and Aryan race had been the most superior race out of all the races

for example the Jewish race would be labeled as “subhuman” if brought into the discussion

because they were not a part of the European or Aryan race. The Jews did not receive the same

treatment that the Aryan race received. The Jews got treated much different because they were

claimed to be descendants from the European race. Later on terrible things had started to occur

Hitler was taking Jews and putting them in camps but before doing so he had the Jews wear

yellow stars that would be attached to their clothing so that the Nazis could tell who was a Jew

and who was a German. There had been something called “ swastikas” that had been on

Germans so they could be recognized as part of the Nazi party. When the Jews would be taken

to the camps they would be given different colored triangles so the Nazis could tell what they

are. The criminals would have green, political prisoners would have red with black,

Homosexuals with pink, while Jehovah's Witnesses where marked with purple triangles. If the

Jews where to leave the camps it was mandatory to have the star of “David” on. Jews had got

denied from many laws like the “Nuremberg Laws.” The law had stopped German Jews from

marrying or having any type of sexual relation with a person that is German or related blood.

Also the Germans shut down the Jew’s shops and whoever owned the shops would have a certain

amount of time to leave if they did not they would have to face the consequences. This situation

in regard of the Germans treatment towards the Jews is clearly dehumanization. The reason

being that the whole Jewish population were losing their rights faster than they could count and

that was unfair they had been depriving the Jews of their freedom.
 Living conditions in the concentration camps had been tragic. Some camps would be too

full, bathrooms would not be functioning correctly and diseases started to spread quickly. “

Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke

beneath a silent blue sky”: By Elie Wiesel The poor living conditions in the camps caused a lot

of illnesses for the Jews that lived there. The Nazi did not care if the Jews ate or not they

planned on starving them on purpose so they could save themselves some money by only making

little purchases of food like bread, potatoes and fat. A lot of Jewish people would try to smuggle

some of their personal belongings in so they could trade with others for food. They would even

try to beg or steal if they had to just so they would not die of starvation. As time went on the

numbers started to build up of the amount of Jews that had passed away from not getting the

right treatment in the camps and tens of thousand Jewish people died from not having proper

heating in the camps. Many people decided to commit self harm onto themselves in order to

escape from what was happening because being at peace is better than struggling for survival. If

the Jewish people decided to have a get together as a big group it would be looked at as a threat

to the Nazis and who ever was part of the group would be dealt with immadelaty. This was an

act of dehumanization as well because it just shows that the Nazis had no hearts and they could

care less that they were keeping other humans in areas like wild animals and treating them like

they did not mean anything.

Hitler wanted to take the killings of the Jews in a higher more noticeable way. So around

1939 the Nazis started to experiment with poisons so they could create the ultimate killing idea.

To test out the poison they would get patients that had already been sick because they seemed

like they were going to die off anyways. Then it came down to the final situation that no one
wished happened the Nazis decided to make gas chambers to kill off the jews instead of shooting

them to death because it had been less costly to gas them than to shoot them. They all had been

so happy with the idea they had came up with they even said that this would lead up to their

“Final solution.” The killing in the chambers had started to occur in 1942. All victims would be

picked up and put into these cattle carts in very uncomfortable positions. After being placed into

the carts they would be taken to the extermination camps. “ It all happened so fast.The

ghetto.The deportation.The sealed cattle car.The fiery altar upon which the history of our people

and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed”: By Elie Wiesel. When arriving at the

camps the Nazi would tell them that they would need to take a shower all together for

disinfection purposes. So many people believed them and decided to take their clothes off so

they could “get them later” but not knowing that was their last time breathing fresh air. In order

to kill the Jews faster in the chamber there would have to be a overly amount of people in it so

there would be less breathing room so they would suffocate faster. The Jews bodies where then

dragged out of the chambers and thrown into pits where they would be burned and others had

been buried in mass graves. The womens hair would be cut off, any dental work would be

removed and jewelry would be confiscated before burying or burning. The burning of the bodies

took place between September and November in 1942.

This topic should be talked about and learned by every single student that goes to school

because it is a real eye opener on how the world can be a dark evil place that we do not even

consider it to be. This tragic historical event shows the real life nightmares that occur in this

world and not everything is happy and not everything is all smiles there are people that lose their

lives every single day. We as a human race have to stop taking life for granted and we have to
focus more on the facts surrounding the tragic events of the Holocaust because it really happened

to innocent people who lost their lives just for someone else's gain and cruel entertainment. In

conclusion the millions of individuals who had lost their lives for domonic purposes will never

be forgotten.

Sources :

http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/the-holocaust/

http://auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-extermination-procedure-in-the-gas-cha

mbers

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-life-in-europe-before-the-holocaust

http://virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=16568