Anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jewish people, has been here for over 2000 years...
The earliest recorded religious attack on Jewish people happened in Alexandria, Egypt in the year 38. Romans isolated Jews within the city, and eventually tortured and murdered them (The Holocaust Center).
The earliest recorded religious attack on Jewish people happened in Alexandria, Egypt in the year 38. Romans isolated Jews within the city, and eventually tortured and murdered them (The Holocaust Center).
Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Stage One: Classification
The first stage is classification; us vs. them. Hitler declared the Europeans, the Aryan race (and its five subtypes races, Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine, and East Baltic), as the superior race to all others, the master race. They were classified by their emotional traits and religious beliefs, and provided detailed information on their hair, eye, and skin colors, facial structure. Anyone that did not fall under the Aryan race were declared to be subhuman. Jews were distinguished from the Aryan race and identified as descendants from non-European races.
Stage Two: Symbolization
Symbolization was used to identify who is who. Swastikas were on every German soldiers' uniform and symbolized the Nazi party. In concentration camps, "[c]riminals were marked with green inverted triangles, political prisoners with red, 'asocials' (including Roma, nonconformists, vagrants, and other groups) with black or—in the case of Roma in some camps—brown triangles. Homosexuals were identified with pink triangles and Jehovah's Witnesses with purple ones. Non-German prisoners were identified by the first letter of the German name for their home country, which was sewn onto their badge. The two triangles forming the Jewish star badge would both be yellow unless the Jewish prisoner was included in one of the other prisoner categories. A Jewish political prisoner, for example, would be identified with a yellow triangle beneath a red triangle. Jews were required to wear the Star of David outside of concentration camps as well" (Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Stage Three: Dehumanization
Nazi's dehumanized the Jewish people through atrocities such as Nuremberg laws. "The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of 'German or related blood.' Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights" (Nuremberg Laws). The Nuremberg laws also defined anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents as Jewish, regardless of their religious beliefs. "Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). Jewish shops were boycotted, and there were enforced curfews for Jews. "They were removed from schools, banned from the professions, excluded from military service, and were even forbidden to share a park bench with a non-Jew" (The History Place).
Stage Four: Organization
The Nazis organized the genocide, particularly the Schutzstaffel (SS).
Stage Five: Polarization
Propaganda was created, and went as far as to portray Jews as plague-carrying rats. "Daily anti-Semitic slurs appeared in Nazi newspapers, on posters, the movies, radio, in speeches by Hitler and top Nazis, and in the classroom" (The History Place). Anti-Semitic propaganda became the norm in Nazi Germany. Argeuably the worst thing they did in this stage was what we call The 'Night of the Broken Glass'. "In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). The "Night of the Broken Glass" was set off by Germans' anger over the assasination of Ernst vom Rath, the third secretary of the German embassy. A 17-year-old Jewish refugee, Herschel Grynszpan, was the one who caused Ernst's death.
Stage Six: Preparation
In this stage the victims are separated and forced to wear identifying symbols. "They [were] segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved" (Genocide Watch). Jews were first sent to live in Ghettos. Other groups were separated from other Germans and sent to concentration camps (Pozernick). Ghettos often were overcrowded. Plumbing didn't work. Diseases were plentiful. "People were always hungry. Germans deliberately tried to starve residents by allowing them to purchase only a small amount of bread, potatoes, and fat. Some residents had some money or valuables they could trade for food smuggled into the ghetto; others were forced to beg or steal to survive" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). In winter not enough heating was provided and people were exposed to the cold and much more prone to catching disease. "[...] tens of thousands died in the ghettos from illness, starvation, or cold. Some individuals killed themselves to escape their hopeless lives" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). Any social gathering would be considered a threat in Ghettos. Ringleaders and particapents in social gatherings, if discovered, would be incarcerated or killed. Any form of consistante schooling or education was forbade by Germans.
In Warsaw, Poland there was a Ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943. To learn more, click the blue text.
In Warsaw, Poland there was a Ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943. To learn more, click the blue text.
The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live" (Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Stage Seven: Extermination
The Nazis first experimented with poison gas in 1939 in the killing of a great amount of mental patients ("euthanasia"). "A Nazi euphemism, "euthanasia" referred to the systematic killing of those Germans whom the Nazis deemed "unworthy of life" because of mental illness or physical disability" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). The use of gas chambers began after "[...] Einsatzgruppe members complained of battle fatigue and mental anguish caused by shooting large numbers of women and children" (Holocaust Memorial Museum). Gas chambers proved to be less costly than shooting people. The SS decided in 1941 that gassing Jews would be a much more efficient way to achieve the "Final Solution".
Systematic killing in gas chambers began in 1942. Victims would be crammed into cattle cars to be transported to extermination camps, where they would be told that they need to take "showers" to be disinfected. Guards working in the camps would get as many people as possible to fit into the gas chambers. Victims would take off their clothes and leave them behind, because they could "retrieve them later". "The tighter the gas chambers were packed, the faster the victims suffocated" (Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Six million Jews were killed out of a total of eleven million people.
Systematic killing in gas chambers began in 1942. Victims would be crammed into cattle cars to be transported to extermination camps, where they would be told that they need to take "showers" to be disinfected. Guards working in the camps would get as many people as possible to fit into the gas chambers. Victims would take off their clothes and leave them behind, because they could "retrieve them later". "The tighter the gas chambers were packed, the faster the victims suffocated" (Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Six million Jews were killed out of a total of eleven million people.
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
― Primo Levi
Stage Eight: Denial
Although the Holocaust is one of the most well documented events in history, people still deny the Holocaust ever happened; even today. Some people say that the facts are distorted by Jews to gain sympathy; that the diary of Anne Frank is forgery; that the deaths in concentration camps were caused by starvation or disease, but not policy; etc.
The Holocaust is something we should remember, and we can't remember if we don't believe it happened. If we deny it ever happening, we may make the same mistakes, whether the mistake is killing, or letting the killing happen.
Learn more about the denial of the Holocaust here.
The Holocaust is something we should remember, and we can't remember if we don't believe it happened. If we deny it ever happening, we may make the same mistakes, whether the mistake is killing, or letting the killing happen.
Learn more about the denial of the Holocaust here.
"Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
"Gassing Operations." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
"The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: The Nazi Holocaust 1938-45." The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: The Nazi Holocaust 1938-45. The History Place. Web. 15 May 2014.
"Holocaust Denial and Distortion." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 16 May 2014
"The "Night of Broken Glass"" United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 14 May 2014.
"The Nuremberg Race Laws." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 14 May 2014.
Pozernick, Saralyn. "8 Stages of Genocide: The Holocaust." Web. 15 May 2014. (Link)
"Gassing Operations." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
"The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: The Nazi Holocaust 1938-45." The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: The Nazi Holocaust 1938-45. The History Place. Web. 15 May 2014.
"Holocaust Denial and Distortion." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 16 May 2014
"The "Night of Broken Glass"" United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 14 May 2014.
"The Nuremberg Race Laws." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 14 May 2014.
Pozernick, Saralyn. "8 Stages of Genocide: The Holocaust." Web. 15 May 2014. (Link)