World War II is an important event in history. Adolf Hitler, a ruthless dictator who rose to power, segregated and killed millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Hitler wanted absolute power over all of Europe, so he took advantage of the worldwide depression to gain political power and support, promising to make Germany great again. However, there were many that did not approve of his methods, and opposed his Nazi party and ideals. So, Hitler used two organizations, the SS and Gestapo, to silence his opponents and solidify his regime. These organizations were brutal, ruthless, and played a key role in Hitler’s rise to power. The SS started out small, but grew into a bigger organization that aided in the deaths of many Jews, while the Gestapo …show more content…
The Gestapo captured Jews and sent them to ghettos where they would later be sent to concentration camps while the SS worked in the camps, they were both well known for spreading fear and shared in the killing of millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other social classes. The SS were originally created as personal bodyguards for Nazi leaders such as Adolf Hitler, but soon began rising in power. As the SS starting rising in power, they soon commanded all concentration camps in Germany and in German-occupied territory, according to SS and the Camp System United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Gestapo took the role of capturing and sending Jews to ghettos where they would soon be sent off to concentration camps, facing hardships such as disease, starvation and overwork; thus leading to one of the few similarities of working with concentration camps. The work of the SS and gestapo rapidly spread fear throughout the people. According to History learning site it states that, “The Gestapo’s greatest weapon was the fear that it created,” thus giving the gestapo more power over the people; the SS were also known for spreading fear throughout the population. The third similarity includes the deaths of millions. The main targets of the gestapo and Nazi party were those who posed as a threat to the Nazi party. Within those target groups were “gay people, priests, gypsies, people with mental or physical disabilities, communists…” …show more content…
By early 1939, only about 16 percent of Jewish breadwinners had steady employment. Once general food rations began, Jews received more reduced rations than others. This further limited the time Jews had to buy food and supplies and restricted them from going to certain stores. As a result of the rations, Jewish homes often were left without the basic essentials of living (www.ushmm.org). In the camps, the prisoners had mealtimes which were the most important part of the day. In the morning, the prisoners got an imitation of coffee or herbal tea. For lunch, they ate watery soup and were lucky to get a potato peel or a turnip. For dinner, they received a piece of black bread that weighed 300 grams, a tiny piece of sausage or margarine, and marmalade or cheese. The bread was supposed to last the prisoners until the morning so they would try to hide it with they while they slept (17thdivision.tripod.com). The SS soldiers were paid anywhere from 2,160 reichsmarks (the old form of German currency), to 10,600 reichsmarks depending on their ranks (en.wikipedia.org). For their meals, they were given 700 to 750 grams of bread and 125 to175 grams of vegetables. Also, they received 15 grams of jam or honey, and 5 grams of
The Gestapo, Hitler’s secret Police, instilled a lot of fear into the German people's eyes. With their leader being one of Hitlers advisers, you can tell they were pretty important to Hitler. However, they weren't always lead by one of Hitler’s advisers. The Gestapo had many roles to Hitler's war plan. With this they had many duties to do and many different complicated ways they did their duties.
During the end of the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose into action. Hitler is commonly referenced and linked with World War II, and has become famous for his brutal dictatorship in Germany. Adolf Hitler began the persecution of Jews with the belief that they were insignificant to the human race. Along with Jews, he believed that handicapped, mentally ill, and elderly people did not deserve the right to live. This horrifying genocide killed over 2/3 of the Jewish population in Europe. 6,000,000 Jews were murdered in concentration camps and mistreated by the Nazis.
Another method of dehumanizing the Jews was to make sure they turned on one another. Once the Jews began turning on each other, it kept them in their place and allowed them to mistrust one another even though the Germans were the real culprits. Since goods were scarce, it did not take long for the ghettos to descend into chaos. Stealing became a common practice amongst those who could not afford to buy illegally on the black market. Another way to make sure Jews constantly mistrusted one another was to make sure Jews were the ones who kept the ghettos running. Within the ghettos, a Jewish police force called Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst was created to keep Jews from escaping the ghettos. They wore armbands with an identifying marker and a badge. They were not permitted to use guns but were allowed to carry batons. The Jewish police reported any mishaps to the German police who were assigned to check perimeters outside the ghettos. They were recruited from two groups: lawyers and criminals. The criminal group was larger and soon became the dominating force behind the police and life inside the ghettos. In the Warsaw ghetto, a special group called Group 13 was created for the purpose of combatting the black market that thrived during this time. The group was also known as the Jewish Gestapo and had orders to report back to the German Gestapo. While officially the group’s job was to fight off the black market, unofficially the group extorted and blackmailed Polish sympathizers. They also were very skilled in tracking down Jews who had managed to not be sent to the ghettos. The Jewish Police were also in charge of a prison that allowed them to continue their illegal operations
They were given a scapegoat and something to believe in during a time of pain. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, acquired his power through diplomacy and his words drove him to the top and brainwashed the German people into believing in a senseless war. Liesel, the protagonist of The Book Thief, has reoccurring night terrors that show the real meaning of pain because of the war. And Brigitte Eicke, a teenager in Germany during the war, shows how exactly it affected her life on a day-to-day basis and how much she was influenced by the Nazis. During World War II, death lingered in the air and the world was going through hard times, a country had been brainwashed to believe lies and the world had not seen the true horrors of war yet.
During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were murdered due to Hitler’s plan to rid Germany of “heterogeneous people” in Germany, as stated in the novel, Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche. Shortly following a period of suffering, Hitler began leading Germany in 1930 to start the period of his rule, the Third Reich. Over time, his power and support from the country increased until he had full control over his people. Starting from saying “Heil Hitler!” the people of the German empire were cleverly forced into following Hitler through terror and threat. He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty.
After The Great depression and World War I, Germany was left in a fragile state. The economy was ruined, many people were unemployed and all hope was lost. The Nazis believed it wasn’t their own fault for the mess, but those who were inferior to the German people. These Nazi beliefs lead to and resulted in cruelty and suffering for the Jewish people. The Nazis wanted to purify Germany and put an end to all the inferior races, including Jews because they considered them a race. They set up concentration camps, where Jews and other inferior races were put into hard labor and murdered. They did this because Nazis believed that they were the only ones that belonged in Germany because they were pure Germans. This is the beginning of World War 2. The Nazi beliefs that led to and resulted in the cruelty and suffering of the Jewish people
When Hitler and the Nazi Party first entered power, they proposed strict and unimaginably radical policies. Their goal as the dominant political power was to create a “pure” German society. The idea of a “pure” German society stemmed from the idea that certain racial groups and ethnicities were undesirable and inferior. With that in mind, they sought to completely eliminate, through annihilation tactics, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, biracial children, handicapped citizens, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and any other individual(s) who opposed their radical ideologies. However, the most questionable part of these tactics was how and why the Nazis chose them. Of the many ways dictators and corrupt governments had tortured their citizens in the past, why was Hitler determined that the Einsatzgruppen, ghettos, and concentration camps were going to be the methods of choice to mass murder the Jewish people. Robert Payne notes in his book The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler that Hitler was not satisfied with a gruesome murder of the Jewish race. He preferred them to die in agony and complete humiliation. Methods of mass murder such as killing squads (the Einsatzgruppen), ghettos, and concentration camps proved themselves as the perfect final solution. These tactics would exterminate Jews at an increasing rate while removing them of their respectable status.
Hitler and the Nazi Party's Total Control Over the Lives of German People from 1933-1945
The Nazis established over four hundred ghettos over the course of World War II. The ghettos were used the ghettos to control and segregate the Jews. Nazis viewed the Jews as an inferior race, and wanted to keep them from mixing with their race and degrading the superior race. The ghettos also made it more convenient for the Nazis to round up the Jews and kill them later.
After World War II the world began to here accounts of the atrocities and crimes committed by the Nazi’s to the Jews and other enemies of the Nazis. The international community wanted answers and called for the persecution of the criminals that participated in the murder of millions throughout Europe. The SS was responsible for playing a leading role in the Holocaust for the involvement in the death of millions of innocent lives. Throughout, Europe concentration camps were established to detain Jews, political prisoners, POW’s and enemies of the Third Reich. The largest camp during World War II was Auschwitz under the command of SS Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess; Auschwitz emerged as the site for the largest mass murder in the history of the world. (The, 2005)
The Nazis follow through with Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. Many of the soldiers who work at the death camps were not even members of the Nazi party originally. However, most follow orders obediently
The Nazi’s perpetrated many horrors during the Holocaust. They enacted many cruel laws. They brainwashed millions into foolishly following them and believing their every word using deceitful propaganda tactics. They forced many to suffer doing embarrassing jobs and to live in crowded ghettos. They created mobile killing squads to exterminate their enemies.
The Gestapo, established in 1933, controlled originally by Georing and later in November 1934, was controlled under Himmler. The Gestapo’s job was to investigate and suppress all anti-state activities, and had a reputation of being very brutal and ruthless. It was not secret and was much feared. Terror atomised the nation, people thought the Gestapo was everywhere but in fact they were a very small number. The Gestapo controlled concentration camps.
The Nazis would make them work and if they didn’t, they would be beat or killed. During the holocaust, many jews died each day cause by either getting beaten, illness or an unhealthy body or in bad condition. The Gestapo’s made jews sing songs while they work to entertain them. They also made them march in order to their stations. If someone messes up, they are beaten. In Auschwitz, there was about 1,100,000 deaths in the camp. In Buna, there was a maximum of 40,000 prisoners dead. In all of the jews, 6 million were dead after WWII. World War II was a very depressing moment due to so many jews death. Many kids lost their parents and many parents lost their kids. Most of the kills of jews were caused by soldiers and Gestapo’s. Gestapo’s had orders to follow and they did them with no hesitation in them. The Gestapo's were part of the final solution. The final solution was the Nazis last move against the jews which killed over 6 million jews between 1941 and 1945. The jews were killed off one by one either in rows, gas chambers or illness. The Nazis decided to do the final solution because they wanted to kill off all the jews to finish what Hitler wished
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party who made a commanding impact on World War II. Hitler became a man of great power over a short period of time. Although he was not elected to be chancellor of Germany until 1933, there were events that occurred before that led to his greatness. He was born in Austria however he was the absolute ruler of Germany. In view of that fact that Hitler became chancellor, Hitler believed that he could do anything, which caused the Enabling Act. “…The Enabling Act, which suspended the constitution for four years and allowed Nazi laws to take effect without parliamentary approval”(Hunt & Martin, 850). Hitler was able to bolt for freedom with anything he had a desire for. The way that he led his Nazi-Germans was contrasting because no other leader, dictator, or commander was ever able to do what Hitler was able to. “At the same time, the media allowed authoritarian rulers and would-be dictators such as Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler to shape uniform political thought and to control citizens’ behavior far beyond what previous rulers had been able to do” (Hunt & Martin, 829). Adolf Hitler has made a substantial effect on society during his time, and still has today.