Taylor Graves

Mr. Neuburger
9 December 2011
Holocaust Research Paper

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Holocaust Research Paper:
The Barbaric Beginning to Liberation
There have been numerous papers, books and movies made about the horriIic history that
lead up to and was the Holocaust. This paper will highlight key points to understanding what
events took place and the laws that were created to rid Europe oI Jews. It`s also to give a clearer
picture to what it was like Ior the Jews who lived in the camps and how they were rescued and
liberated.
There are ten diIIerent aspects oI the Holocaust Irom the barbaric beginnings to the
liberations that will be covered. The ten points will be on: Anti-Semitism, Nuremberg Laws,
Kristallnacht, Rounding up the Jews, Wannsee ConIerence, Selection, Extermination Methods,
The death camps, Liberation, and Iinally aIter Liberation.
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism by deIinition is the behavior discriminating against Jews. A German
journalist Wilhelm Marr originated this term although he labeled the discrimination behavior
towards the Jews, he certainly did not originate the actions oI Anti-Semitism. Through history
violence and spreading oI Ialse rumors against Jews were not only tolerated but encouraged by
governing authorities. Germany, Austria, and France were the last to join the Anti-Semitism
party in the last nineteenth century. Wide spread gossip lead to accepted truths about Jewish
practices, there were rumors that Jews would use the blood oI Christian children Ior ritual
purposes.
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The elders oI Zion, an Anti-Semitist group, generated and provided support oI Iraudulent
theories oI a Jewish conspiracy, which led to the begging oI Nationalism which is a key
component in political Anti-Semitism. Nationalists would Ialsely denounce Jews as disloyal
citizens. (www.ushmm.org, Hadassa et al. The Lie That Wouldn`t Die: The Protocols oI the
Elders oI Zion) Germanys most and distinguished and highly educated Iound Jewish BelieIs to
be preposterous and thus making it easy to adopt the notion that Jews were outsiders or 'non-
German. This theory was soon mistaken as a scientiIic Iact and gave birth to the Nazi party.
AdolI Hitler was given a political platIorm to spout anti-Jewish propaganda, Iactors that helped
his platIorm would include his book call Mein Kampf, which in English, and it translates to 'My
Struggle. The book sold and the minds oI the readers
were being made up that Germany needed to ride their
country oI all Jews.
Nuremburg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws were laws that leIt German
Jews destitute oI their citizenship rights. German Jews were to known as 'subjects and they
were Iorbidden to have any person with blond hair and blue eyes oI Germanic heritage work Ior
them. It was made unlawIul Ior them to Iraternize with any Aryans. These laws were the Iirst
two comprised as the Nuremberg Race Laws. A 'CertiIicate oI Fitness to Marry was required to
all who wished to get married, stating that the subjects were Iound disease Iree, only aIter a
medical examination had been perIormed. The laws were causing much debate over who was a
'Iull Jew so there was a blood line chart made up as a guideline to show how 'Jewish one
subject/ person was. According to the history place website, the Nazis issued these instructional
A German sign that reads 'Jews are not wanted
here.
http://bit.ly/njL6AL
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A Chart that illustrates how
'Jewish a Jew is.
charts. There were three diIIerent degrees in the Iart; a Iull Jew would have three Jewish
grandparents, then a Iirst degree Jew would have only two Jewish grandparents, and Iinally a
second degree Jew would only have one Jewish grandparent. The
Nuremburg Laws provided the Nazis with justiIiable legal means to
remove Jews Irom mainstream German Culture.
Kristallnacht - "The Night oI Broken Glass."
Following the Nuremburg laws in 1935, according to the source
Grobman and Landes, eds., Genocide, the Jewish people had been stricken
oI participation in the parliamentary elections. Hitler turned the public
against Jewish schools and Jewish owned shops causing a country wide
boycott. By the winter oI January 1939, Jews were required to have
identiIication cards on their person at all times. Jewish people with Poland citizenship who were
living in Germany were arrested and transported back to the boarder oI Poland. The Polish
government declined to accept the arrestees which lead to the opening and overcrowding oI
'relocation camps.
Among the deportees was Zindel Grynszpan, a shop owner in Hanover Germany, in one
night everything he had worked Ior all his liIe had been taken away and he and his Iamily were
tossed out oI the country. Zindel`s son Herschel was living in Paris at the time oI his Iamilies
capture. AIter hearing about this he went to the German embassy in Paris with the intention oI
assassinating the Ambassador oI France. The French Ambassador was not there so Herschel
settled Ior killing anyone. As it turned out his new victim was the third secretary to the French
Ambassador, named Ernst Vom Rath.
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!ewlsh Church llL on flre because of
Lhe krlsLallnachL pogrom
hLLp//blLly/d90lZ0
Goebbel viewed the attack by Herschel as a conspiratorial attack by an 'International Jewry
on the Reich. Goebbel, who at the time was Hitler`s chieI oI propaganda, Iollowing the
assassination, had the responsibility to evoke a pogrom against the Jews. This pogrom or ethnic
cleansing was later known as Kristallnacht which means 'the Night oI Broken Glass. Days later
groups oI angry Germans went through the streets looting and destroying everything in their
paths, including homes, businesses and burning
synagogues.
Numerous labor and concentration camps were
underway. Lebensraum or a doctrine emerged as Hitler`s
ideology and Iinally Kristallnacht made it unencumbered
at the Nazis would encounter little opposition Irom the
German churches. the upcoming laws were passed which
had a clear rapt, in Goeing`s words, Aryanizing the German economy. Following this,
several Iocuses were put into eIIect. Burleigh and Wippermann summarize this best in their
book, which states:
1. Jews were required to turn over all precious metals to the government.
2. Pensions Ior Jews dismissed Irom civil service jobs were arbitrarily reduced.
3. Jewish-owned bonds, stocks, jewelry and art works can be alienated only to the German
state.
4. Jews were physically segregated within German towns.
5. A ban on the Jewish ownership oI carrier pigeons.
6. The suspension oI Jewish driver's licenses.
7. The conIiscation oI Jewish-owned radios.
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Cermans forclng Lhe
evacuaLlon of !ews ouL of
Lhelr homes and lnLo Lhe
sLreeLs
hLLp//blLly/vglwv6
. A curIew to keep Jews oI the streets between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. in the summer and
:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. in the winter.
9. Laws protecting tenants were made non-applicable to Jewish tenants.
(cI., Burleigh and Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945. New
York: Cambridge, 1991:92-96) All in all, Kristallnacht was a Nazi event. It set in the
bigger Iramework oI Anti-Semitic carnage in European History but at the same stint, the
German and Nazi contexts are all astray.
Round Up oI Jews
The Nazis began to ransack the country in search oI all Jews and any Jewish suspects.
They conIiscated all valuables and then tossed the people out into the streets where they would
stand in lines to be shipped oII to labor/concentration camps. The
children who were three and older were separated Irom their
mothers and Iathers and locked up in school buildings. According
to http://www.guardian.co.uk on how the Jews in France were
rounded up, there were about 5,000 children trucked oII and
crowded into three school buildings many oI which couldn`t even
say their names Ior identiIication. The camps that the parents
were sent too who were already halI emaciated were lacking in
any and all sanitation Iacilities, medical supplies and kitchen
equipment. Children who were leIt behind were sometimes just
leIt on the streets as their parents were dragged away.
Sympathetic countrymen were Iorbidden Irom taking in any oI the displaced children with
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1he flfLeen ellLe Cermans maklng
up Lhe Wannsee Conference
hLLp//blLly/s0o[dl
threats oI imprisonment. Although the risk was great there were still many brave souls willing to
take the children in and hide them and or Ilee with them to unoccupied territories.
Wannsee ConIerence
FiIteen high ranking Nazi OIIicers came together Ior the Wannsee ConIerence to plan
what was known as the "Final Solution oI the Jewish Question". The IiIteen OIIicers include,
according to historyplace.com, 'SS General Reinhard Heydrich, cheiI oI the Reich Security
Main OIIice Heinrich Himmler, SS Major Heinrich
Muller, ChieI oI RSHA Department IV SS AdolI
Eichmann, SS Colonel Eberhard Schongarth, SS Major
RudolI Lange, SS Major General Otto HoIIman,
Ministerial Director Wilhelm Kritzinger, AlIred Meyer,
Georg Leibrandt, Wilhelm Stuckart, Erich Naumann, Jose
Buhler, and Gerhard, KlopIter. They were not there to
come up with a Iinal solution but to discuss and implement what had already been authorized by
Hitler. This 'solution was to physically annihilate all European Jews through methods oI mass
murder. None oI the IiIteen oIIicers were opposed to the Final Solution, and
they were all in some way aware oI how the Nazis were slaughtering the Jews in other regions oI
the Soviet Union.Hitler had authorized the Reich Railroads to transport German, Austrian, and
Czech Jews to locations in German-occupied Poland and the German-occupied Soviet Union,
where German authorities would kill the overwhelming majority oI them. It was projected that
11,000,000 Jews would be erased under the Final Solution provision. The Jews were also to be
separated by gender and able-bodies into labor columns and sent to build roads. OI those who
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1he !ews awalLlng Lhe Lraln Lo see
ur Mengele aL Lhe concenLraLlon
camp for selecLlon
hLLp//blLly/vglwv6
were Iound to be stronger and healthier and sent to work a large amount would parish by
exhaustion, work hazards and or malnourishment. Those who managed to survive even through
all oI these conditions would be considered to be the Iruit oI natural selection and the heart oI the
new Jewish revival and must be dispensed with accordingly. The elderly Jews were to be leIt in
what they called the ghetto camps Ior extermination till aIter the dispensing oI the Final Solution
to the Jews married to non-Jews and biracial Jews.
Selection
Dr. Mengele, a Nazi, would wait Ior the trains Iull oI Jews to roll into the camps and he
would have them all line up Ior hours as he would walk through and one by one choose those oI
which he thought were healthy enough to live and those
who were not chosen were sent to the incinerators. Men
and women were separated and then mothers and children
were separated and iI the parents tried to hold on or reach
out Ior their loved ones they were beaten to death on the
spot. There was no way oI knowing iI each other had
passed the inspections or not aIter separation. Dr.
Mengele would walk through the camps and pick those
out who may have just had blemishes on their skin and
decided they were deIective. Dr. Mengele was very picky, the survival rate was usually only a
couple hours or a Iew days Ior most, he was really only interested in saving twins. He would take
twins and do vicious and excruciating experiments on them and they always ended up dead at the
end oI or during his trials.
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Cerman Soldler shooLlng a
!ew

Extermination Methods
The Nazis and those they chose to help them, including
some Jews who thought that iI they were helping the Nazis they
would be spared, which was never the case, used many methods
Ior mass murder. They tried mass shootings by lining up groups
oI prisoners in Iront oI graves that were just dug up by the
prisoners themselves and shoot them so that they Iell into the
readymade graves. One oI the methods was carbon monoxide
poisoning, they would round up prisoners and shut them into a
sealed truck and run the exhaust into the truck until all were
dead. In Iive oI the six extermination camps gas chambers were
constructed with the single purpose oI killing Jews, gypsies and
other `undesirables`. In Auschwitz they constructed large industrial sized Iacilities Ior mass
killing, gas was used. Victims were Iorced into the rooms and sometimes told that they were
going to get a shower and Ireshen up as some oI them had just arrived and they would be gassed
and then cremated. Others knew what happened in these Iacilities and would be crowded in with
hundreds Ior extermination. All oI the diIIerent ways that were used were all highly eIIective in
ridding the Nazis oI thousands oI Jews at a time. There was a constant grey ash Irom all the Ilesh
and bone dust Irom the incinerators. From June 1941 to the end oI the war about 1.5 million Jews
were killed in the Soviet Union.
The death camps
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According to http://Irank.mtsu.edu, the Protective Custody law oI February 2, 1933
gave birth to most concentration camps. Most camps were classiIied on the intention or purpose.
At the concentration camps Jew would be toiled to death, or some would starve to death, or an
explosive epidemic occurred, contact with elements, or because they were executed Ior purported
crimes. Some oI these camps include Chelmno, Auschwitz, Belzek, Sobibor, Treblinka,
Majdanek, and StutthoI. Chelmno concentration camp was established on December 7, 1941 in
Poland on the Ner River. The intent Ior Chelmno was mass extermination Irom Western Polish
territories which in Iace had ben commandeered by the Third Reich. This concentration camp
was directed by HauptsturmIuhrerer Herbert Lange. Chelmno`s common mass extermination
method was gassing trucks, which incorporated a hose carrying carbon monoxide Iumes into the
Ian where the cramped Jews were, this process would take about IiIteen minutes to exterminate
all in the truck. BeIore being shut down Cholmno in April 1944, around 320,000 Jews were
executed.
Auschwitz was Iounded on September 1941 and it is the most prominent oI killing Jews
than any other concentration camp during the Holocaust. The objective to Auschwitz was and
wide and harsh extermination center and excruciating labor. Since Auschwitz was in the heart oI
various Polish cities, it was ideal to ship prisoners. On the inner workings oI the camp, there
were three camps, the Iirst was built, which was lead under Heinrich Himmler. Upon arrival the
Jews were greeted by a metal sign that reads 'Arbeit Macht Frei which deciphers to 'work will
make you Iree. The Iirst camp was home to the
commandant`s oIIice and living area, and the
administration building, inIirmary, guard station, gas
Slgn ouLslde AuschwlLz LhaL says
ArbelL MachL lrel" whlch means
work wlll make you free"
hLLp//blLly/audwL?
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chamber, kitchen and crematorium, medical experiments and the gallows. II a Jew was executed,
they would be lined up against the wall and wait to be shot; Irom there the body would be
located in gravel pits around the main camp. This was home to horrible JoseI Mengele, who did
the selection and the experiments. The next camp was known as Birkenau, it was one and halI
miles outside oI the original camp. RudolI Hoess was the commander and chieI oI Birkenau. His
drive was to eliminate the prisoners.
Auschwitz III could also be Iormally known as Monoschwitz, this camp drove to produce
synthetic Iuel and rubber. Those who passed the selection Ior work Iorce were sent to the
'quarantine, this is where Jews heads would be shaved and issued prison uniIorms and then sent
oII to work; they received identiIication number tattoos on the leIt arm. Auschwitz held poles,
Soviet prisoners oI war, gypsies, and homosexuals. Methods oI elimination prisoners would
include gas chambers, Zyklon-B, using these methods, Auschwitz killed around 1,200,000
prisoners.
Belzek started around March 17, 1942. This was a Iorce labor Iacility. The working
conditions were highly unethical, by the thousands people died Irom overwork, starvation,
disease, and execution. Belzek killed around 600,000 subjects. Sobibor concentration camp
started in March oI 1942. SS- ObersturmIuhrer, Richard Thomella was assigned to take over the
camp, shortly aIter he was replaced with ObersturmIuhrer Franz Stangl. Sobibor had Iive gas
chambers which kill 250,000. Sobibor may have been the smallest camp, but it greatly increased
popularity by a movie called 'Escape Irom Sobibor. All in all, only IiIty prisoners survived the
camp. Treblinka was one oI the most highly important extermination camps. It began July 23,
1942.
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When the Soviet army arrived in Warsaw, more than 700,000 Jewish men and women
and children had been executed Irom carbon monoxide inside oI 'bathhouses. The Iocus oI this
camp was to work, when you became too week to work they killed and replaced that Jew with
another younger Jew that could do the job. This included the removal dentures, gold teeth and
among other things Irom the corpses. Most importantly, on August 2, 1943 a rebellion had taken
place which lead to 200 inmates escaping, several guards were killed. This made the process Iast
Ior the removal or closure oI the camp.
Majdanek opened its doors on October 1941 and it was a home to Jewish inmates.
Majdanek was a prisoner-oI-war camp. In the camps new wooden barracks, they made the doors
air-tight steel doors which carbon monoxide was exploited. The prisoners-oI-war went through
the selection process. The subjects that were too old, young, weak were sent directly to the gas
chambers while the rest oI the Jews worked in agricultural and Iorestry work. The usage oI the
gas chambers and Zyklon B gas took the lives oI 1,30,000 Jews at Majdanek. StutthoI had its
grand opening in September 1939. The camps prisoners were overweighed by non-Jewish
people. This was a Iorced labor camp. The camp used Zyklon B gas which was inhaled by
65,000 subjects.
Liberation
When the Soviet troops were the Iirst to approach the Majdanek concentration camp, the
troops recorded seeing prisoners that had been suIIering Irom disease, and malnutrition. The
Germans attempted to hide the mass murders by
demolishing the camp. Most Jews had already been
killed by the time the Germans overran Belzec, Sobibor,
Chlldren walLlng Lo be llberaLed
hLLp//blLly/e77oC6
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and Treblinka. In January 1945, the Soviets have done their biggest turnover by overrunning
Auschwitz, soon aIter, the prisoners were to march westward which they would call 'death
marches. At Auschwitz they Iound and abundance oI mass murders. AIter Auschwitz, the
Soviet army had liberated StutthoI, Sachenhausen and Ravensbrueck. However, the US liberated
the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945, shortly aIter the US liberated Dora-
Mittelbau, Flossenburg, Dachau, and Mauthausen. According to www.ushmm.org or the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, ' the small percentage oI inmates who survived
resembled skeletons because oI the demands oI Iorced labor and the lack oI Iood, compounded
by months and years oI maltreatment, and so many were so weak that they could hardly move.
AIter Liberation
AIter experiencing at horriIic liIe experience, a lot oI Jews were terriIied to return to their
homes because oI Anti-Semitism that was still around and oI
the trauma they endured. Since the Iear oI Anti-Semitism, a
lot oI the Jews migrated Iarther westward in other European
lands. Some Jews were housed in reIugee centers and
displaced person programs. With the creation oI Israel in
May oI 194, many Jews Ilocked to the new territory. In the
US, President Harry Truman issued an expansion oI quota
restrictions on immigration to the US. According the
USHMM website more than 400,000 immigration visas Ior displaced persons were issued and
about 6,000 oI those people were Jews.
Conclusion
!ewlsh Chlldren leavlng Lhelr
barracks because of llberaLlon
hLLp//blLly/e77oC6
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In this paper, it may have answered questions one may have about the Holocaust
or made it clear and or easier to understand what was involved in the process oI the Holocaust. In
this paper, it went through key roles and stages oI the Holocaust which started with the Anti-
Semitism leading up to the Nuremberg Laws, and next was Kristallnacht, which lead up to the
Rounding up the Jews, Wannsee ConIerence, Selection, Extermination Methods, The death
camps, Liberation, and Iinally aIter Liberation.

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Works Cited

O Anti-Semitism:
Burleigh, Michael. %he Racial State. Germany 1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1991.
Wistrich, Robert S. Anti-Semitism. %he Longest Hatred. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.
*****

Ben-Itto, Hadassa. %he Lie %hat Wouldnt Die. %he Protocols of the Elders of Zion. London:
Vallentine Mitchell, 2005.
Levy, Richard S., editor. Anti-Semitism. A Historical Encyclopedia of Prefudice and
Persecution. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Parkes, James W. Anti-Semitism. London: Valentine, Mitchell, 1963.
Poliakov, Leon. %he History of Anti-Semitism. Philadelphia: University oI Pennsylvania Press,
2003.
Picture: http://bit.ly/njL6AL
O Nuremberg Laws: www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww
http://bit.ly/vglwV62time.htm#1935
O Kristallnacht: http://Irank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/knacht.html and the Source was
Groban and Landes, Eds., Genocide

O Rounding up the Jews: http://Irank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/knacht.html
Picture: http://bit.ly/vglwV6
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O Wannsee ConIerence:
HTTP://WWW.USHMM.ORG/WLC/EN/ARTICLE.PHP?MODULEID100054
77
Picture: http://bit.ly/s0ojdF
O Selection:
http://dtsdapache.hershey.k12.pa.us/wpmu/hseng9/2011/05/03/holocaust-
prisoner-selection/.
http://bit.ly/vglwV6
Extermination Methods: http://www.holocaust-
education.dk/holocaust/massedrapsmetoder.asp
O The death camps: http://Irank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holocamp.html
O Liberation: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId10005131
Picture: http://bit.ly/aUdwtY
O AIter Liberation: http://Icit.usI.edu/holocaust/timeline/rescue.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId10005129
Picture: http://bit.ly/scTMW





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