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Holocaust: The Unforgettable Horror of History

 

Introduction: 

The word 'Holocaust' means 'completely burned by fire.' This word, Holocaust, is basically used to describe any disaster that causes a tragic loss of life, even if it is not related to fire. Therefore, it is often used to mean 'a genocide.' Although the word was not very common until the 14th century, the genocide of European Jews during World War II is known as a dark event in history. The Nazi forces led by Hitler carried out this horrific and inhuman genocide. This hellish torture and genocide was organized at various levels. A Jewish genocide expert identified Germany as a 'genocide state' because every branch of the German bureaucracy at that time was involved in genocide.

Table of contents:

• What is the Holocaust?
• Origin of the Holocaust
• What was the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”?
• The horror of the Holocaust
• What is GATTOS, and why did German authorities create it?
• Einsatzgruppen and their allied mobile killers:
• Extermination camp
• How did the Holocaust end?
• How did some Jews survive the Holocaust?
• The living witnesses

 

• What is the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million Jews and millions more by Nazi Germany and its allies under Hitler during World War II from 1941 to 1945. The Germans called it the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Survivors in the years following independence often referred to this massacre of Jews as Harbans. The word Holocaust comes from the Greek holocaust, a translation of the Hebrew phrase ʿolah, meaning a burnt sacrifice dedicated entirely to God. The term was chosen because in the final manifestation of the Nazi killing program—the extermination camps—the bodies of the victims were fully consumed in crematoriums and open fires. The infamous genocide also targeted other groups, including the Romani people, the disabled, Polish and Soviet civilians, and political dissidents. The Holocaust is one of the most horrific examples of human cruelty in history, including mass executions, concentration camps, and ghettos. It ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
 

• Origin of the Holocaust:

Before the Nazis came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler had already expressed his anti-Semitic views, outlining in 'Mein Kampf' (1925–1927) that the Jews were an evil race out to dominate the world. The Nazis combined religious, political, and racial anti-Semitism, portraying Jews as "subhuman" and a threat to Germany. Hitler's goals included territorial expansion and racial domination, viewing Jews as a "cancer" in German society.

After coming to power in 1933, Hitler initiated discriminatory measures against Jews, starting with boycotts and restrictions on civil rights, culminating in the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which defined Jews on the basis of race rather than religion. This legal framework isolated Jews and stripped them of their rights.

As persecution intensified, many Jews sought refuge abroad, but most countries were unwilling to accept them. In 1938, the Evian Conference, convened by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, failed to make significant progress in finding a solution for Jewish refugees. The stage was set for the horrors that would follow during the Holocaust.
 

• What was the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”?

On the night of November 9, 1938, a coordinated wave of anti-Semitic violence, known as Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), erupted across Nazi Germany and Austria. Over 48 hours, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned. More than 7,500 Jewish businesses were vandalized. About 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The police did not intervene, and firefighters ensured that the fires did not spread to non-Jewish property. After the massacre, Jews were fined one billion Reichsmarks for damage, were made responsible for the cleanup, and faced additional restrictions, including being banned from theaters, trains, and schools. The Nazis continued their campaign to confiscate their property through "Aryanization." This event marked a significant turning point as the Jews realized that their future in Germany was becoming increasingly bleak.

• The horror of the Holocaust:

The Holocaust, carried out by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1941 to 1945, was one of the most horrific genocides in history. 6 million Jews were systematically murdered, along with millions more considered undesirable by the Nazis, including Romani people, people with disabilities, Slavs, political dissidents, and LGBTQ+ individuals. The genocide was fueled by extreme anti-Semitism and the Nazis' belief in racial superiority, which aimed to create a "racially pure" society by eliminating Jews and others they considered a threat. The methods of killing were brutal and varied, including mass shootings by mobile units (Einsatzgruppen) and the establishment of extermination camps such as Auschwitz, where victims were gassed, starved, or killed. Ghettos were established where Jews endured overcrowding, disease, and starvation. Nazi doctors conducted horrific medical experiments, and cultural and social destruction followed as the Nazis banned Jewish religious practices and destroyed the Jewish community. The Holocaust left deep psychological scars, with survivors losing families and homes. It ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and the revelation of the atrocities shocked the world. The Holocaust serves as a powerful reminder of the dangers of uncontrolled hatred and prejudice. As a result, the world adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, pledging "never again" to ensure that such horrors never happen again. Education about the Holocaust is crucial in this effort.
 

• What is GATTOS, and why did German authorities create it?

As Nazi Germany expanded its territory, the "Jewish question" grew more urgent. Germany's annexation of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and its invasion of Poland in 1939, brought millions more Jews under German control. Initially, the Nazis considered sending Jews to Madagascar, but the plan was abandoned due to logistical challenges and the failure to defeat Britain.

In September 1939, Reinhard Heydrich ordered the establishment of Judenräte (Jewish Councils), which were responsible for implementing Nazi orders. The largest of the ghettos, in Warsaw, held more than 200,000 people per square mile, with devastating conditions of overcrowding, disease, and starvation.

The Nazis viewed the ghettos as temporary holding areas, but for the Jews, they were a grim reality to endure. Despite extreme hardship, they maintained clandestine schools, religious life, and even used humor and song as acts of defiance. It was only later in the war, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, that the Nazis began the systematic mass murder of Jews, marking the start of the "Final Solution."
 

• Einsatzgruppen and their allied mobile killers:

The Einsatzgruppen were Nazi mobile killing units that followed the Wehrmacht (German army) into Soviet territories during World War II. Their mission was to murder Jews, Soviet officials, and Roma, often with the help of local collaborators. The units rounded up victims, typically in family groups, and executed them in mass shootings, often in isolated locations like ravines or forests.

Notable massacres include the Babi Yar massacre near Kyiv, where 33,771 Jews were killed in two days in 1941, and the killings at Rumbula near Riga, where 25,000-28,000 Jews were murdered. In total, Einsatzgruppen are believed to have killed over 1.4 million people, mostly Jews, by shooting.

In some areas, local populations, motivated by anti-Semitism or a desire to erase their past Soviet collaboration, participated in the killings. One example is the massacre in Jedwabne, Poland, where Polish residents murdered their Jewish neighbors.

Historians debate the motivations of the Einsatzgruppen members. Some argue, like Christopher Browning, that they were ordinary men who acted out of peer pressure and conformity. Others, like Daniel Goldhagen, argue that they shared the Nazis’ genocidal ideology. Regardless, nearly all of the men chose to participate in the killings when given the option to refuse.
 

• Extermination camp:

In early 1942, the Nazis established killing centers in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec, to carry out the “Final Solution.” Victims were transported by train, often in overcrowded cattle cars, to these extermination camps, where they were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon B or carbon monoxide. Auschwitz, the largest and most notorious camp, was a complex that included a prison camp, a labor camp, and an extermination camp. Inmates faced Selektion, where those deemed unfit for labor were sent to the gas chambers.

The killing centers were highly efficient, with camps like Treblinka killing up to 925,000 Jews, and Sobibor and Belzec also murdering hundreds of thousands. These camps operated for a limited time, closing after completing their mission of mass murder.

The Holocaust's impact varied across regions. In Hungary, after the Nazi invasion in 1944, over 437,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz in just 55 days. In countries like Romania and Bulgaria, local populations and governments played roles in the persecution, with some later offering limited protection for Jews. However, in Denmark, most Jews were saved through rescue efforts that took them to Sweden.

In France, Jews under Fascist Italian occupation were treated better than those in Vichy France, where collaborationist authorities aided the Nazis. Despite widespread persecution, there were many instances of rescue. Individuals like Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, and groups like the Zegota in Poland risked their lives to save Jews.

Some Germans, including Oskar Schindler, helped protect Jews from deportation. Schindler famously saved over 1,000 Jewish workers from extermination. These rescuers, often motivated by a sense of shared humanity, are honored today for their courage.
 

• How did the Holocaust end?

From late 1944 to 1945, as the Nazi forces were collapsing, the season of killing Jewish prisoners was in full swing. Although Nazi Germany was facing defeat, the horrific atrocities of the "Final Solution" continued to the very end. In 1943, they destroyed the signs of the massacres at Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, and Sobibor during Operation Reinhard. In October 1944, on Himmler's orders, the signs of the killings at Auschwitz were dissolved and the gas chambers were blown up.

Unable to accept the liberation of the concentration camp prisoners by the advancing Allied troops, the Nazis began "death marches." Considered the most tragic part of World War II, these brutal death marches took place from the summer of 1944 until the last days of the German Reich. The prisoners were forced to walk vast distances in freezing weather to their destination camps with inadequate food and clothing. Many of them were killed by SS supervisors along the way. Some of them were evacuated by rail in overcrowded wagons without food or water.

On November 8, 1944, another death march began from Budapest towards the Austrian border with 76,000 Jews. Thousands of prisoners died from gunshot wounds or illness on this long march. Others were sent by the SS to various concentration camps. On January 18, 1945, a death march began from Auschwitz with 66,000 prisoners, where they were transported by truck to other camps, mostly Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Mauthausen. About 15,000 died on this march. These extremely brutal death marches were also launched by Stutthof, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, and their subsidiary camps. It was estimated that by mid-March more than 700,000 people, including 200,000 women, were still imprisoned. In April and May, about 15,000 exhausted prisoners were driven to the ghetto at Terezín. This was a small part of the number deported on the death marches, however. In a death march from Rehmsdorf on April 13, 1945, only 500 of the 4,340 prisoners reached their destination.

On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. This horrific torture continued until the last moments of the Germans. At least a quarter million prisoners were killed or died in these unbearable situations of cold, hunger, and illness during this time period.

• How did some Jews survive the Holocaust?

People who survived the Nazi genocide and inhumane torture are known as Holocaust survivors. Not only prisoners, but also Jews who survived the war in German-occupied Europe, refugees in neutral or allied countries before or during the war, and non-Jews who faced collective persecution under the Nazis are also considered Holocaust survivors. The persecuted civilians who were still alive in the concentration camps were liberated at the end of the war, or those who had been hidden with the help of the non-Jews, or those who had fled beyond the control of the Nazis before the implication of the "final solution" are also defined as Holocaust survivors. 

At the beginning of World War II in September 1939, about nine and a half million Jews lived in European countries. About two-thirds of them, or 6 million, were killed during the Holocaust. About 3.5 million survived the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, of whom about 245,000 were still alive as of January 2024. Of these, about 300,000 Jews resisted the concentration camps and death marches. However, most of them were too weak or sick to be saved even with medical care after liberation. 

The Germans and their collaborators were unable to complete the deportation and genocide of some Jews before the arrival of the Allies. For example, in France and Italy about three-quarters of the pre-war Jewish population, in Belgium about half, and in the Netherlands about one-quarter of the pre-war Jewish population. In addition, most of the Jews in Bulgaria survived the war, as did about 60% in Romania, about 30% in Hungary, and two-thirds in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, about 80% of the Jewish population in Bohemia, Slovakia, and Yugoslavia died. In Poland, the Baltics, and Greece, about 90% of the Jews were killed.

Throughout Europe, hundreds of thousands of Jews also survived in hiding, or by using false documents as non-Jews, or with the help of non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews individually or in small groups. Millions of Jews also survived by hiding in the dense forests of Eastern Europe, and Jewish partisans actively resisted the Nazis, protected other escapees, and in some cases, worked with non-Jewish partisan groups to fight the German invaders.

The largest group of survivors consisted of Jews who were able to escape German-occupied Europe before or during the war. After the Nazis came to power, Jews began to flee Germany in 1933 and Austria from 1938, following the Anschluss. By the time the war began in Europe, an estimated 282,000 Jews had fled Germany and 117,000 from Austria.

Only 10% of Polish Jews survived the war. Between the outbreak of war in September 1939 and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the vast majority (about 300,000) fled to Soviet-occupied Poland and the interior of the Soviet Union. Soviet authorities deported several thousand of them to Soviet Central Asia, Siberia, and other remote areas of the country. Some of the deportees endured forced labor, extreme conditions, hunger, and disease. Nevertheless, most managed to survive in the harshest conditions.

After the German invasion, more than a million Soviet Jews fled eastward, some European Jews fled to neutral European countries. These included Switzerland, where about 30,000 were allowed in, but about 20,000 were turned back. On the other hand, Spain allowed 30,000 Jewish refugees, while Portugal, under German pressure, allowed fewer than 7,500 Jews to enter; Portugal, which allowed thousands of Jews to continue their journey from the port of Lisbon to the United States and South America; and Sweden, which allowed some Norwegian Jews in 1940 and, in October 1943, took in almost the entire Danish Jewish community, which had been rescued by the Danish resistance movement, which organized the escape of 7,000 Danish Jews and 700 of their non-Jewish relatives. From Denmark to Sweden in small boats. Between 1937 and 1944, about 18,000 Jews fled from Central and Eastern Europe to Palestine in 62 voyages organized by the Mossad L'Aliya Bet (Organization for Illegal Immigration), founded by the Jewish leadership in Palestine. These voyages were conducted in dangerous conditions during the war, with hundreds of lives lost at sea.

• The living witnesses:

After World War II, survivors used a variety of methods to reconnect with lost family members. Handwritten notes were posted at relief centers and displaced persons (DP) camps, and notices were published in newspapers and survivor organizations. Many turned to the Red Cross and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which established a central tracing bureau to help locate survivors. Early compilations with names such as 'Sharit Ha-Platah' (1946) and 'Register of Jewish Survivors' (1945) collected these records. Newspapers, such as 'Aufbau,' also published lists of survivors.

Jewish parents, often searching for children hidden during the war, faced a long struggle. Many found their children with rescuers, but some discovered that their children had been killed or were missing. Hidden children, who were sheltered by non-Jews, often did not remember their Jewish identity or their biological parents. In some cases, custody battles ensued, such as the Finley Affair, which ended in 1953.

With the rise of DNA testing in the 21st century, some survivors have been able to reconnect with relatives or reclaim their Jewish identity. Post-war violence against Jews, including the killings in 1946, led many survivors to flee Eastern Europe. Most sought refuge in DP camps, many of whom eventually immigrated to Israel after its establishment in 1948. By 1946, approximately 250,000 Jewish displaced persons were living in Germany, Austria, and Italy, with many emigrating when Israel became a state.

Conclusion:

The Holocaust was a horrific period during World War II in which sixty million Jews, along with millions of others, were systematically murdered by the Nazis. After the war, survivors faced enormous challenges in reconnecting with lost family members and rebuilding their lives. Many sought refuge in displaced persons camps, while others struggled to reclaim their identities, especially children who had been hidden during the war. Despite the trauma, the resilience of survivors and the founding of Israel marked a hopeful chapter in the future. The Holocaust remains a tragic reminder of the dangers of hatred, intolerance, and prejudice.