Since the dawn of history, we have seen the cruelty of our race against our kind. However, some incidents remain etched in history because of the gruesomeness and horrific inhumane events that took place. This is true for the horrific tragedy known as the Holocaust.
This such incident occurred in recent history during 1939-1945 when millions of Jews were murdered because of their religious beliefs. The beginning of the end of humanity began crumbling during World War II, as the world discovered the horrifying details about the concentration camps where Nazis kept Jewish prisoners.
What is the Holocaust?
Millions of people were murdered to satisfy the insanity of one man – Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s Nazi party killed relentlessly, focusing on this specific religious group. The Nazis and Hitler saw the Aryan race as the most important race.
The Germans and Hitler called the Holocaust “the final solution to the Jewish question.” Interestingly, Germany did have an issue of anti-Semitism. Hitler and the Nazis further fueled the issue, and from then on it became an organized process.
Hitler thought the Jews to be racial polluters and cancerous for the German society. He thus believed it was his mission to rid society of them at all costs. Even if it meant murdering people in the millions and taking control of more parts of the world.
According to Hitler and his Nazis, all others who were not Nazis were inferior to Aryans, including the Jews. Hence they wrongfully believed they did not have the right to exist. In fact, their anti-Semitism affected all their policies and actions.
Being from the most important race, they also thought that their country, Germany, was better than any other in the world. They believed that in being superior, they had the right to dominate the rest of the world and decide who should live.
On November 9, 1938, Hitler succeeded in making his vision become a reality. Carefully orchestrated anti-Jewish violence “erupted” throughout the Reich. Within the next two days, Nazis attacked, burned, or ransacked more than 1,000 synagogues.
A Tragic Benchmark
The Holocaust became a tragic benchmark as during this time Nazis arrested and transported more than 30,000 Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 to concentration camps. The insanity did not end with the millions of murders and incarcerations of Jews in concentration camps. The horrific events within the camps would go on to permanently scar those who did survive both physically and emotionally.
Apart from the Jews, other groups the Nazis targeted during the Holocaust included the Slavic people, the disabled, gypsies, dark people including Roma and Sinti, gay, and black people. Moreover, they would also target political opponents and those who raised their voices against Hitler and Nazis.
The Holocaust caused six million Jews to lose their lives at the hands of the Nazi regime, its allies, and collaborators. This persecution took place in order to fulfil Hitler’s fantasy of grandeur. However, the horrors Hitler unleashed during his reign shook the foundations of humanity. All of society can still feel the aftermaths of the Holocaust even decades after Hitler took his own life in a small, sad bunker as the allies moved in.
