The Holocaust essay

The Holocaust is a terrible event, a genocide of more than 6 million Jews which took place during the World War II. It was a so-called “program of systematic extermination of Jewish men, women and children by Nazi Germany” all over the occupied territory. (Niewik, Donald L. 45)

Of course, nowadays the Holocaust is considered to be a historical fact. Studying the Holocaust is one of the most important issues which is included into the educational programs not only in the United Stated but also in other countries of the world. The most important lesson people can learn from studying the Holocaust lies in the fact that  racial discrimination and Nazism should be crushed by joined forces to avoid mass extermination of people. I think that nowadays racism still exists in our society, and our major goal is to prevent the possible development of this event in the early stages. Studying the Holocaust teaches us to be tolerant and to have respect for people of different nationalities.

According to the pseudo-scientific theory of racism, Nazism had its own version: the German nation was “a race of supermen” who had the main goal – to conquer Europe and later the whole world. Hitler was the leader of the Third Reich and National Socialist Party. (Cesarani 76)

GeneralPlan Ost was a special document which  showed the step-by-step acquisition of lands.  This document provided the expulsion of millions of people, generally Slav nations. According to it, 31 million people would have been deported in the course of 25 years. The first part of GeneralPlan Ost was called KleinePlanung, according to which the western areas of Poland were occupied by the Reich and hundreds of thousands of Poles were dying in camps while millions of Jews “herded in ghettos” were waiting for “the final solution”. (Gumkowski, Leszczynski 89)

On the 1-st of September, 1939 Nazis invaded Poland. Reinhard Heydrich whose nickname was “Blond Beast” was one of the commanders of Gestapo and SS. (Cesarani 45)

He is considered to be the principal planner of “the Final Solution”. On the 20-th of January, 1942 he organized a meeting of 15 Nazi officials which took place in Berlin. Nazis decided to exterminate the whole amount of Jewish population in Europe (about 11 million people). (Breitman 71)

Nazi newspaper wrote: “Now judgement has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when the knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth!” (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

There were 3 stages in the plan of Nazis concerning the extermination of Jewish population from Europe:

1. Shooting of the Jewish population. The Jews were rounded up by the Nazis troops and were taken to the woods where they were shot down one by one. Their bodies were thrown into the mass graves.
2. Killing the Jews in the gas vans. The Jews were taken into the vans which were equipped in such a way that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van. 700,000 of people were stifled by gas in the vans. (March of the Titans)
3. Killing the Jews in the camps. There were two types of camps where Nazis killed the Jewish population: concentration camps and extermination camps. The most terrible camps were Majdanek, Auschwitz (recorded 12,000 people were killed each day), Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.

A great deal of historical data can be investigated in order to study the Holocaust. Thousands of books and articles are devoted to this issue. I think that this historical event should be studied at schools and universities because the young people of all the countries in the world should know the horrors of war and to protect peace on the earth.