The Holocaust: An Overview

The Holocaust was a mass genocide event that happened shortly before and during WW2. Adolf Hilter was the main man in charge, and he was the one that began the holocaust. He became chancellor in 1933 which was the beginning of this horrible point in history. Although, he was not just discriminatory against Jews. Hitler’s ideology was more about controlling races and people, rather than it solely being a religious issue. This means people of color, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, and more, were the targets of his movement. He wanted to control not just Germany, but the world as a whole with his ideas of how people should be/live their lives. Hitler began with the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses and it only escalated from there.

There were more than just concentration camps. There were labor camps, transit camps, forced labor camps, and worst of all, killing centers. People in these places were treated without any humanity. They were tortured, killed, and starved beyond recognition. The treatment varied depending on the camp and the controlling officer. These camps lasted for years and years, yet locals claimed to know nothing about them. There has been a lot of controversy about this because the stench from these camps drifted into the nearby towns and there were never any questions raised. A lot of families of the SS officers had knowledge about these camps and nothing was ever done about it. 

Soon after the boycott of Jewish businesses, more actions took place. The rations were different the everyone elses and if you were Jewish, you had to wear a gold star on your jacket wherever you went. This made it so some privileges you had, you could no longer have anymore. Jewish children started being taken ou tof schools, and new curfews took place. After a while, it was no longer a secret. Nazis began transporting Jewish people to ghettos and soon after, concentration camps. The transport was box trains with each boxcar filled with hundreds of people. Many people died during the transportaion stage because it was so cramped and tight inside the boxcars, and they travled for such long periods of time, people began to suffocate and die. After days of long, grueling travel, they would arrive to the camps and were sorted. Children, seniors and people who seemed weak, or had disabilities, were sent to gas chambers to be killed. The rest of the people were processed and had their heads shaved, and were given numbered tattoos on their bodies. They were then sent to a labor camp where they worked for hours out of the day, being starved and tortured. 

This isn’t overview is just the beginning of the horrible events that occured before and during WW2. There is so much information people haven’t learned about, and there are even some people who still think the Holocaust never happened, but it is important to know and learn about these events.