The Holocaust - Historical Overview
[The Knesset - The Parliament of Israel]
To say that the Holocaust of European Jewry (1933-1945) is an unprecedented
episode in the history of the Jewish nation is not merely an understatement.
It is an inaccuracy of the greatest magnitude, for such an event is unmatched
in any recorded history. Millions of Jewish people suffered for twelve years
under the terror of Nazi rule, where anti-Jewish propaganda, segregation,
and then murder were the norm.
Though there are other cases in history of Genocide, the Holocaust
was characterized by its methodical, systematic, efficient, almost scientific
murder of any person with Jewish roots. Assimilation or conversion offered
no protection in this situation.
At the core of the Holocaust we find modern anti-Semitism, the current
version of Jew Hatred - that same phenomenon which appeared throughout the
centuries, perhaps finding its most blatant manifestation with the medieval
Church. The modern German anti-Semitism was based on racial ideology which
stated that the Jews were sub-human (untermensch) while the Aryan race was
ultimately superior. The Jew was systematically portrayed as a low-life,
as untouchable rot (faulniserscheinung) and as the main cause of Germany's
problems.
Germany had major problems resulting from World War I. The Weimar
Republic, which was established on the ruins of the defeated Germany, had
relinquished land on almost all fronts, had succumbed to military jurisdiction
under the Allies, and was forced to pay reparations beyond the prevalent
economic capabilities. The rocketing inflation and economic insecurity became
even worse with the advent of the Great Depression of 1929. By 1932, unemployment
in Germany peaked, and it was in this economic and political climate that
Adolf Hitler established the Nationalist-Socialist Party (with Mein Kampf
as its manifesto). With Hitler's rise to power in 1933 began the national
policy of organized persecution of the Jews.
The subsequent Holocaust of European Jewry can be divided into four
periods of time:
1. 1933-1939: The aim of the Nazis during this time was to "cleanse"
Germany of her Jewish population (Judenrein). By making the lives of the
Jewish citizenry intolerable, the Germans indirectly forced them to emigrate.
The Jewish citizens were excluded from public life, were fired from public
and professional positions, and were ostracized from the arts, humanities,
and sciences. The discrimination was anchored in German anti-Jewish legislation
such as the Nurnburg Laws of 1935. At the end of 1938, the government initiated
a pogrom against the Jewish inhabitants on a particular night which came
to be known as Kristallnacht. This act legitimized the spilling of Jewish
blood and the taking of Jewish property. The annexation of Austria in 1938
(Anschluss) subjected the Jewish population there to the same fate as that
in Germany.
2. 1939-1941: During this time, the Nazi policy took on a new dimension:
The option of emigration (which was anyway questionable because of the lack
of countries willing to accept Jewish refugees) was brought to a halt. The
Jew-hatred, which was an inseparable part of Nazi policy, because even
more extreme with the outbreak of World War II. As the Nazis conquered more
land in Europe, more Jewish populations fell under their control: Jews of
Poland, Ukraine, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, etc. The Jews were placed
in concentration camps and compelled to do forced labor. Ghettos were set
up in Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states in order to segregate the Jewish
population. In the camps and ghettos, great numbers of Jews perished because
of impossible living conditions, hard labor, starvation, or disease.
The political police force of the Hitler, the Gestapo, had been founded
two months after the Nazi rise to power. It became the most terrifying and
deadly weapon of the Nazi government, and was used for the destruction of
millions of Jews.
3. June 1941 - fall 1943: This was the time during which the Nazis
began carrying out the Final Solution to the Jewish problem. Systematic genocide
of the Jewish people became official Nazi policy as a result of the Wannsee
Conference (Jan. 1942). Special task forces, known as Einsatzgruppen, would
follow behind the German army and exterminate the Jewish population of newly
conquered areas. In this manner, entire Jewish communities were wiped
out. At this point, many concentration camps which had been set up shortly
after the Nazi rise to power, became death camps used for the mass-murder
of Jews in gas chambers. Some of the more well-known extermination
camps were Auschwitz, Chelmno, Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek,
and Belzec.
4. 1943 - May 1945: The beginning of 1943 was a turning point in the
war. This time saw the gradual collapse of the Third Reich until its ultimate
surrender on May 7th, 1945. Despite the weakened position, the Nazis continued
with their plan of destruction of the Jewish population in the ghettos and
camps still under their control. As the Soviet army proceeded westward, the
Nazis hastened the destruction of the Jews and then of their own facilities
in order to cover the tracks of their crimes. In the fall of 1944, the Nazis
began the evacuation of Auschwitz, and in January 1945, Himmler commanded
to evacuate (by foot) all camps toward which the Allied forces were advancing.
In this so-called "Death march", tens of thousands of more Jewish lives perished.
In the Holocaust, approximately 6 million Jewish men, women, and children
were murdered.
It is important to note that the success of the Nazi machine could
not have been so great were it not for the cooperation of the local populations
of the conquered territories such as Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states,
and even western countries such as France. On the other hand, there were
cases of governments and individuals who did their best at risk to their
own lives to save the Jews. One such example was the organized evacuation
from Denmark of the Jewish population to Sweden.
Following the war, many have asked why the Jews succumbed to the Nazis
like "sheep to the slaughter." One cannot ignore the many shows of
resistance among the Jews to their fate: The Jewish Partisans who fought
in the forests of Eastern Europe, the Jews who joined forces with the local
underground resistance, and the uprisings in ghettos and in concentration
camps.
There is no doubt that the Holocaust accelerated the establishment
of the State of Israel. As a result of the great catastrophe which occurred
to the Jewish people, many nations realized that establishing a state was
a necessary step for the protection of and the expiation for the Jewish people.
With the end of the war and unconditional surrender of Germany, international
military courts were set up for the quick trials andsentencing of the Nazis
for their war crimes against the Jewish people and against all humanity.
(One of the better known is the Nurnberg Trials.) In 1960, the Israeli Mossad
captured one of the greatest war criminals, Adolf Eichmann, in Argentina.
He was brought to Jerusalem where he was tried and sentenced to death.
In 1951, the Knesset declared that the 27th day of Nissan is to be Holocaust
Day, a day of commemoration of the Jews who perished and for those who showed
resistance and heroism. In 1959, the Knesset passed the law of HolocaustDay.
Every year, since 1989, the Knesset (in cooperation with "Yad Vashem")
performs the ceremony of "Everyone Has a Name" in which the names of all
of the holocaust victims are read out loud.
© Copyright 1998, The State of Israel. All Rights Reserved.
We welcome your Suggestions and Comments. Email: feedback@knesset.gov.il
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