The Holocaust is one of the most known mass murders of the human race. Before the Holocaust, mass murder had never been given a name. Hitler and his Nazi army led to the destruction of the many races in most areas of Europe. Hitler believed that if were not born German and if were born as a German but look like another race, were a disgrace to the race. If a person was born a German, a person also had to prove he was completely German by showing records of family members and their marriages. Some of the many groups included gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, and the most hated of all: Jews.
Along with these groups, the sick Germans were removed from the German society as well, because they hurt Hitler’s vision of an invincible race. Hitler did not care about unless you were part of his perfect society. He ended up starving and killing most of those whom he did not like. Due to Hitler’s actions causing the Holocaust, a new concept arose throughout the world that had never been thought upon before: Genocide. The Holocaust officially begins on January 30th, 1933, at Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. With this occurring, the safety of all Jews and other persecuted races would be in danger.
There were many reasons that could have triggered Hitler’s hatred for Jews. “Many historians point to Hitler’s years in Vienna as having shaped him. Between 1908 and 1913 the young Hitler unsuccessfully tried to set himself up as an artist there. The city had a large Jewish community just before the First World War (1914-1918) – nearly 9% of the two million residents were Jewish – but the social climate was openly anti-semitic. With an outspoken anti-Jewish mayor (Karl Lueger) and many anti-Jewish newspapers and magazines, there was no restriction on ntisemitism, and Hitler was strongly influenced by this. (The Story of Anne Frank: Hitler’s Antisemitism. 1).
This is yet one of the many reasons that Hitler could have held hatred for Jews. He grew up in a society where people openly hated and made fun of Jews, so it most likely gave him the idea to try to disrupt them in life as he grew up, one such example is the Holocaust. Also, with his anger from losing World War I, he may have felt that he had to vent his anger on someone and seeing as he grew up in an anti-Jewish community, he already has someone to harm with his wrath. March 20, 1933: SS opens the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. (The Holocaust and World War II: Timeline. 1).
This date marked the true beginning of the Holocaust because the very first concentration camp was created, which would then be used to imprison and kill Jews. With the boycotts of Jewish-owned stores and businesses, the Holocaust was only beginning. “During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private ives. ” (Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany. 1).
There were man restrictions to the Jewish way of life due to Hitler’s thought that Jews had no place in Germany. He believed that only Aryans and Germans had a place in Germany, they were part of his “master race”. Kristallnacht is also another occurrence of boycott-like destruction. The Jews had become Germany’s scapegoat for all of its problems. Before World War II began, there was a large population of Jews in Europe. The areas of the most concentration being Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Romania. Germany also had a large amount of Jewish citizens, accumulating over 500,000 Jews over the years.
Now with all of the commotion beginning in Germany, more than half of the Jewish population left and moved to another country, leaving roughly 200,000 more Jews in Germany (German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. 1). The war has now been raging on for only a month and with that being played out, Hitler created a new “ghetto” where he played many people. The main reason for this “ghetto” was to kill Jews, but there were also other people put there including the sick, black, ypsies, and homosexuals.
They were left there to essentially starve. Einsatzgruppen were squads composed primarily of German SS and police personnel. Under the command of the German Security Police and Security Service officers, the Einsatzgruppen had among their tasks the murder of those perceived to be racial or political enemies found behind German combat lines in the occupied Soviet Union. These victims included Jews, Gypsies–” (Einsatzgruppen (Mobile Killing Units). ) Hitler commanded his military and police forces to search out Jews and Gypsies and kill them. This method brought about an even more surreal view of his ideas and thoughts.
This manner of homicide is what showed Hitler’s true feelings. Later in 1941, Hitler again mobilizes the Einsatzgruppen to kill more than 34,000 people. A month later, Germany began to move thousands of Jewish people to the Chelmno killing center from Lodz. Roughly 160,000 Jews lived in the Lodz ghetto. A special forces group for Germany moved the deportees in gas vans, killing nearly 65,000 people. When they did not meet the quota of how many were to be killed, they began shooting men, women, children, and the old. Over the next couple of months, Nazi Germany would move over 800,000 Jews to centers to be killed.
Three years later within a span of seven days, there were two death marches with over 50,000 Jews each that were killed. With all of these killings arousing from Nazi Germany, there is no way that people could not think badly of them. Hitler had been trying to make a human race extinct. He put Jews in slave camps, concentration camps, and death centers. One might say that it was not Hitler’s actions through the Holocaust that brought up the new meaning of Genocide, but it is. There is no ther possible example that could take the spotlight from the Holocaust.
Yes, there are many occurrences that may have helped lead up to this point of Genocide, but no one genocide- like event has gone ahead of the Holocaust. The Holocaust has the highest estimated death toll out of any genocide that has occurred today. The Holocaust has nearly 3. 5 million more deaths than the second highest genocide in history today, Generalplan Ost, with a total of 17 million to 13. 7 million. With all this evidence, there is no other possible explanation of why “Genocide” came into meaning. As stated before, the action of Hitler during the Holocaust created a new word called “Genocide.
Now with the beginning of WWII not far away, many Jews were leaving the country. They were being persecuted and attacked and with the beginning of the war, they were killed. Many were sent to concentration camps or camps for slave work. People, mainly Jews, were also sought out and murdered so that there would be less of the “outsides” of Hitler’s “master race. ” With all of these murders being committed, many people believed this to be the worst murder in our history. I believe with all of these proofs, Hitler has created “Genocide. “
