What was the holocaust? |
|
The Holocaust was a horrifying and very unique event in 20th century history and one that many people can barely believe actually happened, such was the scale, deception and horror. The Holocaust evolved between 1933 and 1945 when World War came to an end. It began with discrimination of the Jews who were separated from their communities and persecuted; eventually they were treated as less than human and subsequently murdered.
During the World War II, the aim of Nazis was to murder the entire European Jewish population and thus destroying its culture. There were about 11 million Jews living in Europe in 1941; the Nazis had murdered six million of them by May 1945, among this terrifying number it is believed one and a half million of the victims were children. Whilst the Jews of Europe were the primary target of the Nazi regime, millions of other people were also enslaved, imprisoned and murdered. Those with mental or physical disabilities,trade unionists, homosexuals, political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet and Polish prisoners of war.
The Nazis did not act alone during the Holocaust, with assistance by people from within the countries they occupied across Europe also involved. Most countries stood by in silence while the Nazis and their accomplices carried out the mass murder of the Jewish people, almost certainly through fear as the penalty for public defiance or protest would result in death. Holocaust Books |