Hitler’s Rise to Power Adolf Hitler joined the DAP, DeutscheArbeiterpartei, which was later known as theNazi Party in September 1919. The partyopposed to the post-Great War democraticgovernment. He swiftly rose to a place ofprominence in the early years of the party.Being the best speaker in the party, hethreatened to leave the party and not return,if he was not made leader. He was aided bythose who shared his ideals for using violenceto achieve political objectives to recruit partymembers. His book Mein Kampf helpedintroduce himself to the wider world. Hitler was appointed chancellor inJanuary 1933. With Germans who opposedNazism failing to unite against it, Hitler soonmoved into complete control. Our Only Hope: Hitler
Hitler’s Education Campaign Hitler’s education campaign startedfrom a young age. It intended to makeschool children believe that Jews werebad and evil, and that they should bemistreated, so that they would grow uphating Jews. The Poisonous Mushroom was acollection of 17 short stories by theNazi writer Ernst Hiemer, withpictures by the Nazi artist Fips. Thepurpose of the stories was tobrainwash young German children todespise and hate the Jews. The storiesinfiltrated the thoughts and beliefs ofGerman children.
Hitler Youth Hitler Youth was a paramilitaryorganization made for German children fromthe age of 10-18. The members of the HitlerYouth were indoctrinated in anti-Semitism.On of the aims of Hitler youth was to createloyal soldiers who would fight faithfully for theThird Reich. Many activities closely resembled militarytraining, with weapons training, assault coursecircuits and basic tactics. Some cruelty by theolder boys toward the younger ones wastolerated and even encouraged, since it wasbelieved this would weed out the unfit andharden the rest.
Propaganda Before World War II, Nazi propaganda strategy,officially promulgated by the Ministry of PublicEnlightenment and Propaganda, stressed severalthemes. Their goals were to establish externalenemies (countries that allegedly inflicted the Treatyof Versailles on Germany) and internal enemies, suchas Jews, Romani, homosexuals, and Bolsheviks. German propaganda during the waremphasized the prowess of German arms and thehumanity German soldiers had shown to the peoplesof occupied territories. Pilots of the Allied bombingfleets were depicted as cowardly murderers. One ofthe primary sources for propaganda was a daily radiobroadcast that described the military situation on allfronts. Nazi victories lent themselves easily topropaganda broadcasts and were at this point difficultto mishandle. Satires on the defeated, accounts ofattacks, and praise for the fallen all were useful forNazis.The pervasive use of propaganda by the Nazis islargely responsible for the word "propaganda" itselfacquiring its present negative connotations Don’t Buy From The Jews
Map of Nazi Extermination, Concentration, Labor and Transit Camps
Concentration CampsThe first Nazi concentration camps set upin Germany were greatly expanded afterthe Reichsta fire of 1933, and wereintended to hold political prisoners andopponents of the regime.The number of camps quadrupled between1939 and 1942 to 300+, as slave-laborersfrom across Europe, Jews, politicalprisoners, criminals, homosexuals, gypsies,the mentally ill and others wereincarcerated, generally without judicialprocess.
Extermination Camps Extermination camps were camps built to systematicallykill millions of people by gassing and extreme work understarvation conditions. While there were victims from manygroups, Jews were the main targets.Operationally, there were three types of death camp:• (1) Aktion Reinhardt extermination camps: prisoners were promptly killed upon arrival. Initially, the camps used carbon monoxide gas chambers; at first, the corpses were buried, but then incinerated atop pyres. Later, gas chambers and crematoria were built in Treblinka and Belzec; Zyklon-B was used in Belzec.• (2) Concentration–extermination camps where some prisoners were selected for slave labor, instead of immediate death; they were kept alive as camp inmates, available to work wherever the Nazis required. These camps — including Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Jasenovac — later were retrofitted with Zyklon-B gas chambers and crematoria, remaining operational until wars end in 1945.• (3) Minor extermination camps, initially operated as prisons and transit camps, then as extermination camps late in the war, using portable gas-chambers and gas vans. Gas vans were initially developed at the Chelmno extermination camp, before being used elsewhere.In total, about 4 million Jews were killed in these exterminationcamps.
Resistance: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Germans ordered the Jewish “police” in the Warsaw ghetto to roundup people for deportation. Approximately 300,000 men, women, and childrenwere packed in cattle cars and transported to the Treblinka death campwhere they were murdered. This left a Jewish population of between 55,000and 60,000 in the ghetto. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops asthey tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation.Fighters used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into theghetto. After a few days, the troops retreated. This small victory inspired theghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.The ghetto fighters were warned of the timing of the final deportation andthe entire Jewish population went into hiding. On the morning of April 19,1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and policeentered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants.
Resistance: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising After the Germans were forced to withdraw from theghetto, they returned with more and more firepower. TheGerman commander, General Jürgen Stroop, ordered theghetto burned to the ground building by building afterseven days without quelling the uprising. Still, the Jews heldout against the overwhelming force for 27 days. On May 8,the headquarters bunker of the ZOB at 18 Mila Street wascaptured. Mordecai Anielewicz and a large number of hiscolleagues were killed in the fighting, but several dozenfighters escaped through the sewers. On May 16, Stroop announced the fighting was over.He said his forces had captured 56,065 Jews and announcedthat he was going to blow up the Great Synagogue onTlomack as a symbol of victory and of the fact that “theJewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exists.” Approximately 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews werekilled in the uprising, and another 7,000 Jews weredeported to Treblinka. The outcome was preordained, butthe dramatic act of resistance helped raise the morale ofJews everywhere, if only briefly. The valiant display of courage shown by the 750 Jewswho defended the rest of the camp cannot go unnoticed.They showedsuch courage against overwhelming odds.
Resistance: Youth Opposition in Nazi Germany The Jews were not theonly people who resistedthe Nazi rule. Severalresistance groups withinGermany itself formed,mainly made up of youngGermans. Groups such asSwing Youth and morenotably White Rose (Right).
Resistance: White Rose In the 1930s, teenagers Han and Sophie Scholl were like other Germans their age, andthey enthusiastically joined the Hitler Youth. Their father on the other hand, believed thatHitler was “God’s scourge on mankind”. Later, the Scholl siblings also came to therealization that “Hitler and the Nazis were enslaving and destroying the German people. One day in 1942, copies of a leaflet entitled “The White Rose” suddenly appeared atthe University of Munich. The leaflet contained an anonymous essay that said that the Nazisystem had slowly imprisoned the German people and was now destroying them. The Naziregime had turned evil. It was time, the essay said, for Germans to rise up and resist thetyranny of their own government. At the bottom of the essay, the following requestappeared: “Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.” Thisessay had been written by Hans and his friends. There were six different leaflets in total produced by the group. But they did not limitthemselves down to leaflets. Graffiti started to appear on walls condemning Hitler. On the February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie were caught leaving pamphlets at theUniversity of Munich and were arrested. A search disclosed evidence of one of their friends,Christoph Probsts participation, and he too was soon arrested. The three of them wereindicted for treason. They were sentenced to death, along with the rest of The White Rose. The courage displayed by The White Rose is surely commendable.
The End of the HolocaustIn the final months of the war, SS guards movedcamp inmates by train or on forced marches, oftencalled “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent theAllied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. AsAllied forces moved across Europe in a series ofoffensives against Germany, they began to encounterand liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well asprisoners en route by forced march from one campto another. The marches continued until May 7,1945, the day the German armed forces surrenderedunconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies,World War II officially ended in Europe on the nextday, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announcedtheir “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of thesurvivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP)camps administered by the Allied powers.
Not the First time… Or the LastThe Holocaust was a horrific moment inhuman history. 5-11 million Jews’ liveswere ended because of a single group ofpeople. Though it was the most renownexample, it was not the first or last timegenocide was committed.• Armenian Genocide: 600 000-1 800 000 deaths• Rwandan Genocide: 500 000-1 000 000 deaths• Cambodian Genocide: About 156 000 deaths
Conclusion“Those who cannot remember the past arecondemned to repeat it.” George SantayanaIt is essential man does not repeat its mistakesfrom the past. Things like the Holocaust is whystudying history is essential: so man does notmake such grave mistakes again.