When studying historical literature during the Second World War, one can often come across such a word as the Holocaust. Where did this concept come from? What is a holocaust? We will try to find the answer to these and other questions.
What is a holocaust?
This word is of Greek origin and means “burnt offering”. This term is used to describe the events of 1933-45 related to the persecution and mass extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis. Documentary sources claim that more than six million people have died over this period.
Holocaust History
The policy of anti-Semitism was secretly carried out in Western European states until the fifteenth century. Then, as a result of economic, religious and other contradictions, the Jewish nation was driven out into Eastern Europe. However, the persecution of them did not stop here. And even the Christian church advocated the persecution of the Jews.
In the twentieth century, Germany takes on the role of initiator and organizer of an anti-Semitic policy. Since that time and for twelve years, the persecution of Jews has acquired the character of brutal mass persecution and merciless extermination. These measures were carried out in accordance with the policy of Nazi Nazism.
Back in 1924, Adolf Hitler wrote his famous book entitled “My Struggle”, in which he substantiates the “system” of extermination of the Jews. Two years after he came to power, he creates a series of anti-Jewish laws. These decrees significantly limited the activities of Jews in all spheres of life, depriving them of their citizenship and prohibiting marriage with Germans.
In 1938, on the orders of Adolf Hitler, a pogrom of the Jewish population was organized, which was popularly called “Crystal Night”. During its holding, more than thirty thousand people were sent to concentration camps.
This event marked the beginning of the brutal German genocide in many European countries.
Hitler's policy on Jews
To understand what the Holocaust is and to reliably assess its scope is possible by familiarizing yourself with the basic principles of Nazi ideology. Hitler believed that the German race needed the best living conditions. This is possible only by depriving Jews of their property and subjugating the territories of other peoples, which, due to uselessness, are subsequently subject to extermination. For these purposes, Hitler’s entourage, in the territories they seized, created special concentration camps for death. To destroy the Jewish people, the German Nazis used gas chambers and cars.
Holocaust victims
In Russia, more than two million Jews died as a result of mass executions. About five hundred thousand people died in labor camps and ghettos from malnutrition, illness, and abuse.
The fight against anti-Semitism
In 1942, the Jewish Committee issued an appeal urging Jews around the world to actively fight against German fascism. The call had an immediate effect. Former prisoners of German occupation created regular armies, partisan detachments, and resistance groups in concentration camps. Fighting on all fronts, the Jews waged an implacable struggle against the Nazis. Perhaps the most heroic and at the same time tragic event was the uprising that took place in the Warsaw ghetto in 1944, when more than ten thousand people were destroyed. For many of them, death in the struggle was a peculiar form of spiritual resistance and courage.
In 1945, after the end of World War II, the Nuremberg court, on the initiative of the world political elite, indicted the leaders of the Nazi occupiers for mass killings. Thus ended the period of mass persecution of Jews.
This is what the Holocaust is. For the entire Jewish population, this word will always respond with unbearable pain in the soul.