The Wannsee Conference is an event that took place during World War II on January 20 1942 in a small Berlin suburb called Wannsee. This conference was set up by Reinhard Heydrich, the Chief of Security Police for the Nazi’s (otherwise known as the SS) and was attended by many high ranking officials in the Nazi regime. The conference was set up in order to discuss and implement ‘The Final Solution to the Jewish Question’ in regards to the Jewish population in Europe. The minutes of this conference were written down and are now known as the Wannsee Protocol. Even before the Wannsee Conference took place Jews were already being executed by the Einsatzgruppen, or otherwise known as the mobile killing units of the SS.
Anti- Semitism and the Persecution of the Jewish population of Europe became more common during the Nazi rise in power in the early 1900’s. In 1920 the Nazis published their party program, consisting of 25 points. For example point four reads “Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.” The Nazis goal was to create a master race throughout Europe called the “Aryan Race” or the Germanic race. To fulfil this plan of a “master race” the Nazis declared that they intended to segregate groups that the party viewed as a danger and inferior to society. These groups included European Jews, Gypsies, those who were handicapped (both mentally and physically) and those who were deaf and blind. The main target of the Nazi government was still Jews in Europe whom they viewed “not as a religious group, but as a poisonous "race," which "lived off" the other races and weakened them” . As a result many Europ...
... middle of paper ...
...onsible for the war crime of the Holocaust.
Even before the Wannsee Conference took place Jews in German occupied countries in Europe were already being murdered at the hands of Nazi members. The Wannsee Conference was used by the Nazi’s as a way to get everyone in the Nazi party and those German occupied countries on the same page so they could successfully implement their “final solution” and rid all of Europe of the “Jewish problem”. The Wannsee Protocol played a large role in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, as according to the History Channel “the minutes of this conference were kept with meticulous care, which later provided key evidence during the Nuremberg war crimes trials” It is not known how many more people died as a result of the Wannsee Conference alone, though we do known that the total number of people killed in the Holocaust was over six million.
The scene for the event was created by several factors that include political tension during the prewar years, the exiting of the Soviet Union, and the new management of the entering Nazi party. Non-Jewish citizens understood the system of these the new occupiers and that they would not be punished if they committed violent deeds against Jews and took their property. They saw this as their chance to get revenge on their Jewish neighbors, without getting in trouble for the crimes against them. Microassaults by Non-Jewish Polish citizens started on June 25, 1941. By July 10, 1941, the whole Jedwabne's Jewish population became the next victim. The Jewish residents were called to the town square and individual acts of humiliation and violence erupted. The single largest event of that day was the forcing of 1,600 Jews, men, women, and children, into a barn and setting it on fire which killed all 1,600 individuals. The events after July 10, which Gross describes, incorporates the disposal of the corpses, the disbursing of Jewish property, and the fate of families who were caught hiding Jews. In 1953, a trial was held against those who participated in the murdering of Jews during World War II. By using the evidence of survivor testimony and court documents during the 1953 trial, Gross discovered that German police were present during the massacre and that the Polish citizens did it. Specified by Gross, he brings the idea that
The phrase “Final Solution” referred to their plan to annihilate the Jewish population. This plan stated that all European Jews would be killed by shooting, gassing, or any way necessary (Final Solution). The article “The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution,” documented that on January 20, 1942, the Nazis and Germans met to tell the non-Nazi Leaders what the Final Solution was, and that they were responsible for helping to get the Jews transported to the camps. The Final Solution was not the beginning for the elimination. This was already being accomplished by mobile killing squads that would shoot any Jewish men, women, or children. Later, on July 22, 1942 the gassing chambers were finished in the extermination or death camps. Camouflaging the chambers as large showers, the Jews would think they were going to bathe, when they were actually being gassed to death
Many groups had great power and influence around the world during the Holocaust. How this influence was used or not used helped shape experiences, often horrific, for many European Jews. In Hungary, toward the end of the Holocaust not only did the international institutions become silent bystanders, but their very own neighbors turned their back on their fellow citizens knowing what atrocities awaited their arrival at Auschwitz. The brutality started close to home when fellow Hungarians, in a combined effort with the city government, railroad officials, and law-enforcement agencies coordinated a swift transport of 400,000 Jews to their almost certain death. “In March 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and in April, they forced the Jews into ghettos.
The extermination of Jewish people during World War II was a horrific and merciless event that was effectively stopped by the Allies. Once the Allies became aware of the Holocaust, they immediately took action to end it. There have been countless suggestions of what the Allies could have done to prevent the Holocaust, however those would not have been as effective as the solution the Allies had put in place. Despite arguments that the Allies did not make a strong attempt to saving the Jews, by putting all their resources into the complete defeat of Nazi Germany, they were essentially doing all they could.
The Holocaust was the systematic persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. Gypsies, people with mental and physical disabilities, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. However, did The Nazis party ever unravel the true intent behind Hitler’s desires to extinguish the inferior race? This question is one of the most difficult to answer. While Hitler made several references to killing Jews, both in his
In 1945 200,000 people were murdered. All of them were children and disabled. The kids that needed help were killed in the Euthanasia Program to save resources. The Euthanasia program was a program designed for the killing of the disabled and started with infants and children. The Euthanasia program was designed by a few people and these people decided how the disabled were selected and killed through the program. They started the program for a specific reason, to make their race superior and pure, this made the life of the discriminated very difficult, with a lot of restrictions on their rights. With all this going many people had different viewpoints on whether the program was right or not and could not find a way to
The Effectiveness of Nazis' Dealings With Their Opponents After Nazis had control of Germany, the last thing they wanted was an opposition of any sort, aiming to create a totalitarian state where there are no rival parties or political debates. The citizens of Germany were responsible to serve the state and obeying the leader. This orderly state was acheived by providing many positive aspects for people to focus on. This was aimed to keep people's mouths shut and psychologically persuade them to trust and believe in the Nazis.
The Nazi Party, controlled by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. In 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi government began to take over. Hitler became a very influential speaker and attracted new members to his party by blaming Jews for Germany’s problems and developed a concept of a “master race.” The Nazis believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jewish people were a threat to the German racial community and also targeted other groups because of their “perceived racial inferiority” such as Gypsies, disabled persons, Polish people and Russians as well as many others. In 1938, Jewish people were banned from public places in Germany and many were sent to concentration camps where they were either murdered or forced to work.
...ch Security Main Office, to draw up a complete plan for the “final solution of the Jewish question.” Heydrich then hosted a secret conference on January 20, 1942 to coordinate the plan. It was held in Berlin at a Wannsee villa used by the Reich Security Main Office as a guest house and conference center. The fifteen participants, high-ranking representatives of the SS, the NSDAP, and the government, approved a program of annihilation that was actually already well under way.13 The protocol was drawn up by Adolf Eichmann at the behest and under the control of his boss, Reinhard Heydrich, who instructed Eichmann to “cook” the protocol to reflect what he wanted to preserve as a record of the meeting. It was the testimony of Eichmann at his trial that exposed the truth in regards to the protocol of how it was written and the discussion held at the Wannsee meeting.
The Holocaust is one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill, gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be eliminated from the German population. He proceeded to reach his goal in a systematic scheme." (Bauer, 58) One of his main methods of exterminating these ‘undesirables' was through the use of concentration and death camps. In January of 1941, Adolf Hitler and his top officials decided to make their 'final solution' a reality. Their goal was to eliminate the Jews and the ‘unpure' from the entire population. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp that carried out Hitler's ‘final solution' in greater numbers than any other.
n January of 1933 the Nazi regime took control of Germany with the belief that Germans were “racially superior.” Throughout this time period called the Holocaust, which is a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire,” the Jewish people were deemed inferior, and were the main threat to the German racial community. Though the Holocaust was a systematic and bureaucratic war, racism is what fueled the persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime. Racism is defined as “a belief or doctrine that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” This framework of racism was what Hitler believed would “carve out a vast European empire.” (Perry,
In 1933, Adolf Hitler, a leader of the Nazi Party, rose to power in Germany. The Nazi Party abused their power in many different aspects, which creating issues beyond Germany’s borders. This abuse of power lead to the horrific event we know today as the Holocaust. The Holocaust caused over eleven million deaths, with approximately one million of them being children. The Nazis targeted certain groups of individuals including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, mentally or physically disabled, and anyone who did not agree with Nazi Party. The Nazi Party had excessive power, which was used to undermine the others below them. Out of all of the individuals who were targeted by the Nazis; the Jewish were the most discriminated against. Six million out of the eleven million executed were Jews. The journey of the Jews through a span of only fifteen years showed how one event in history could be so crucial. Jewish individuals’ lives took a toll for the worse as the Nazis rose to power.
Beginning in 1933, Hitler and his Nazi party targeted not only those of the Jewish religion but many other sets. Hitler was motivated by religion and nationalism to eradicate any threats to his state. It was Hitler’s ideology that his Aryan race was superior to any other. Hitler’s goal was to create a “master race” by eliminating the chance for “inferiors” to reproduce. Besides the Jews the other victims of the genocide include the Roma (Gypsies), African-Germans, the mentally disabled, handicapped, Poles, Slavs, Anti-Nazi political parties, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Homosexuals. In Hitler’s eyes all of these groups needed to be eliminated in order for his master race to be a success.
The treatment of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi’s can be described as actions that could only be done by a totalitarian state. Hitler believed in eugenics, the idea of improving a race by selective breeding. Nazi ideology of the Jewish race was severe anti-Semitism and pure hatred. The Nazi policy towards the Jews has been said to be the most brutal and horrific example of anti-Semitism in history.
Introduction: The Holocaust was an event that took place in Germany which means ‘sacrifice by fire’ in Greek; many murdered Jews were the consequences of this terrible action caused by Adolf Hitler. According to the website United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) it states that “The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.” This terrific slaughter was a racial and discriminatory oppression for the Nazis to the minorities. The Holocaust is an important and historical event taught in schools and known by many people. The word ‘holocaust’ is associated with massive deaths based on the background of Hitler’s actions during 1939-1945.