The Holocaust
The Germans believed that they were racially superior and that the Jews were far beneath them. In 1933 the Jewish population was over 9 million Most of the European Jews lived in areas that Nazi Germany occupied or influenced during World War II. By 1945, Germans killed approximately 2/3 of the European Jews. as a part of the "Final Solution" to the Nazi policy to murder the European Jews. They used the term "Final Solution" as a way to refer to their pan of murdering the Jews.
"The Holocaust came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland." The word "holocaust" originates from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "sacrifice by fire". The Nazis also targeted Gypsies, Homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses, and the disabled for persecution. It was estimated that about 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. 6 million being Jews, and approximately 1.1 being children.
The Nazis then issued additional anti-Jews laws over the next several years like excluding Jews from specific places like parks, Making sure that they were fired from service jobs (government jobs), and preventing Jewish doctors from working on anyone other than the Jewish patients.
Somewhat "Fun" Facts
- Fraternizing between Jews and Germans was also forbidden.
- Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. It is estimated that 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz.
- While concentration camps were meant to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps) were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently.
- Prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress to take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed. (At Chelmno, the prisoners were herded into gas vans instead of gas chambers.)