The Holocaust

This article is linked to the Prejudice And Persecution topic.

The Holocaust is the name for the slaughter of 6 million jews, disabled people, homosexuals, homeless people, communists, gypsies & mentally ill, during WW2.

Causes of the Holocaust
After WW1, Germany had to accept the Treaty of Versailles, meaning:


 * They had to accept blame for the warHolocaust_mass_grave_belsen.jpg

They lost 13% of territories

Their armed forces were drastically reduced.

They had to pay £6.6 million compensation.

Partly because of this, in 1923, Germany hit hyper-inflation, meaning basically a massive economic crisis in which the cost of everything is drastically increased. In fact, in 1918, the cost of a loaf of bread was 1 mark, (old german currency) and in 1923, it was 200,000,000,000 marks!!! People blamed the government for accepting the Treaty, and many turned to extremist parties, such as the Nazi Party, for answers. You can read in more detail how exactly the Nazi Party came to power here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party#Rise_to_power:_1925.E2.80.931933

If you so wish, but if not, let's just leave it that they made it, and with the power, Hitler pretty much got rid of the other parties, and got rid of parliament, so that he, and pretty much he alone, ruled the country.

What Happened in the Holocaust?
As said, 6 million people, mostly jews were slaughtered. The method, gas chambers. They were captured in their town, stuffed onto trains, and taken to concentration camps, having been told there were simply being moved.

The Nazis were racist, and they believed the German race was the "master race" (blonde hair & blue eyes). They believed jews were inferior, even though there were 1/2 million jews in Germany, making valuable contributions, and many fought in WW1, for Germany! Anyway, they were taken to conncentration camps, and were treated like scum.

At first, most were shot dead, but later on they realised this used a lot of bullets, and they were running out, so they created a more efficient method of gassing them. They were told they were just going to the showers, stripped of their clothes, and put into a room, and gas was released. 6 million died. In fact, if you were to take a flipbook with a different person killed in the holocaust on each page, and flipped through it, it would take 15 days to reach the end.

But why did the people of Germany stand by and let this happen? Surely some must have protested? And you'd be right, some did protest, and were consequently intimidated into submission, sent to concentration camps or killed. The SS ( Hitler's body guards) and the Gestapo (the secret police), crushed all opposition. Some still risked hiding Jews & saving them, some even survived, along with the Jews, for example Sir Nicholas Winton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton). Other Germans were too afraid to protest, and some must have even approved!

The other method of forced submission was propaganda. The Nazis controlled the information that the German people were allowed to see & hear, radio, newspapers, books, plays, and films were censored all other non-Nazi ideas were squeezed out of them. And they made Radios cheap so every home could have one, and they could brainwash millions more. Young people were forced to join youth movements, but the activities were fun & exciting so the children weren't aware they were being brainwashed to believe in Nazi ideas.