Holocaust Overview

In 1933, the Jewish population in Europe was at just over nine million people. Most of them lived in countries that the Nazi Germany planned on occupying once World War II had begun. By the year of 1945 the soldiers of Germany killed just about two out of every three European Jews that were living in Europe. While it may have come off that the Jews were the only target for the Nazis, other races were also sought out by the Germans. This includes the death of 200,000 gypsies and three million soviet prisoners of war. They also targeted the non-Jewish Polish intelligentsia for killing and deported millions of polish and soviet citizens for “forced labor” into Germany or Poland where they ended up losing their lives, usually caused by the terrible working conditions that they were put into.

As the Nazi Regime was put into place, the national socialist government created concentration camps, places to take their opponents. Because of the large amount of Jews in this area, the Germans also came up with transit camps, ghettos, and forced-labor camps. At this same time, they also established many forced-labor camps where they would send non-Jews in who they intended to get rid of.

                  After the invasion of the Soviet Union, in June of 1941, many groups of battalions decided to move in behind the German lines to carry out a mass-murderer operation that would be against the Roma, Jews, and Soviet state and the people of the communist party. In result to this, the German forces and police units took the lives of more than a million Jewish families, men, and women.

                  It finally got to the point where the Germans were ready to get rid of the Jews so between 1941 and 1944, they decided to take action. They deported millions of the Jews from Germany and occupied territories their killing centers, also known as extermination camps. Here they would murder these innocent Jews using special devices known as gassing facilities.

                  During the last and final months of this war, the guards lead “death marches” and moved the camp inmates in an attempt to hold off the Allied forces from liberating big numbers of prisoners. As the allies moved around Europe in attempt to throw offensives against Germany, they began to liberate the prisoners from concentration camps. These marches continued until May 7, 1945- the day the German armed forces surrendered to the Allies.

                  This series of events left many Jewish citizens devastated and petrified. Between 1948 and 1951 almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel. Other Jewish survivors emigrated to the United States where they would try to recover from these horrifying experiences and gain a better life.