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1. Adolf Hitler appointed as Chancellor of Germany
On January 30th,1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. However, Hitler was not elected because of public support, but rather it was Franz von Papen who persuaded the German president, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, to appoint Hitler as chancellor in a coalition government. Franz von Papen only helped Hitler because he believed that Hitler could be controlled and restrained. -
2. Adolf Hitler appointed as Chancellor of Germany
However, Hitler skillfully used his position to achieve dictatorship; partly by constructing reports of a supposed Communist conspiracy against the state. In March of that same year, Hitler was granted dictatorial powers for four years by the Reichstag. Hitler’s plan, which involved much of the German population, was to make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
3. Adolf Hitler appointed as Chancellor of Germany
His force was composed entirely of Nazis, and he was dedicated to eliminating any opposition to his party that may arise. It was from here on that Nazi Germany began and started progressing a lot. At this point, there was no one there to stop Hitler. -
4. Adolf Hitler appointed as Chancellor of Germany
Just within two months after being appointed, Hitler had snatched almost all political power in Germany, disassembling the state, and terminating the Reichstag. This also marked the end of Weimar democracy and set Germany to absolute dictatorship. Hitler’s coming as chancellor marked a very crucial turning point for Germany and, eventually, for the world. It was the beginning of the Holocaust. -
1. Concentration Camps
Two months following Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, March 1933, the first German concentration camp, the Dachau concentration camp, was established by the Nazi government. The camp was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory (image above) near the northeastern part of the town of Dachau. After Dachau concentration camp, many other concentration camps were built later on. -
3. Concentration Camps
As early as 1934, prisoners of these camps were used as forced labourers for Schutzstaffel (SS) constructions projects. These projects include the construction and expansion of these concentration camps themselves. Living conditions were extremely harsh, though, Jewish prisoners received the most brutal treatment in these Nazi concentration camps. As more and more concentration camps become more established, other devices are too. -
2. Concentration Camps
At the beginning, these concentration camps were meant for political prisoners and people who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by military order. People were put into these camps often for the sake of identification with a particular ethnic or political group. However, with Hitler’s dictatorship, these concentration camps later became forced-labour camps of the Soviet Union. -
4. Concentration Camps
Gas chambers were adopted in concentration camps as a method of executing prisoners. Gas chambers were employed in the Auschwitz concentration camp for the purpose of killing Jews and other targeted groups. The chambers were disguised as bathhouses and prisoners were tricked to go inside thinking that they will be taking showers. Therefore the Nazi concentration camps were Hitler’s and the Nazi’s way of using then eliminating as many Jews as possible. -
1. Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht is often referred to as the “Night of Broken Glass”. The name refers to the violent anti-jewish pogroms that took place on November 9th and 10th, 1938. This wave of violence occurred throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in places of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia that were recently occupied by German troops at the time. -
2. Kristallnacht
The cause of this was Germans’ anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris by a Jewish teenager. Synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed. In just two days, more than 250 synagogues were burned, over 7000 Jewish businesses were plundered, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were destroyed (The “Night of Broken Glass). -
3. Kristallnacht
About 30 000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After the Kristallnacht, German and Austrian Jews were completely separated from the rest in Germany. This led to many Jewish adults committing suicide, and most families desperately tried to leave. The Kristallnacht marks the first time in which the Nazi regime confined Jews on a massive scale just on the fact that they were Jews. -
1. Ghettos
In 1939, the Nazis established more hundreds of ghettos for the purpose of controlling and segregating Jews from the non-Jewish population. The ghettos were made for the Nazis’ convenience of exterminating a large number of Jews. The ghettos were closed off by walls, barbed wire fences, or gates. Starvation, chronic food and, fuel shortage, along with severe winter weather led to many outbreaks of epidemic and to an enormously high death rate. -
2. Ghettos
Germans purposely tried to starve residents by allowing them to purchase only a small amount of food. During the winter, many apartments were not heated and many people did not have warm clothing, which led to many deaths. Orphaned children lived on the streets, begging others for food. In order to survive, many children helped smuggle food by crawling through narrow openings in the ghetto wall. Smugglers who were caught were severely punished. -
3. Ghettos
Jews in the ghettos were ordered by Germans to wear identifying badges. Jews were also required to do forced labour for the German Reich. Beginning in late 1941, with the “Final Solution” in mind, the Germans destroyed the ghettos. Ghetto residents were either shot or deported to forced-labour camps and concentration camps by the Germans. -
4. Ghettos
The mass deportations of Jews led to the uprising of the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto. About 750, mainly young Jews, thought that there was nothing to lose by resisting deportation. Using the small numbers of weapon they smuggled in, they fought with the German troops who tried to gather people for the next deportation. -
5. Ghettos
The resistance lasted for about a month before they were taken by the Nazis and shot or sent to death camps. The revolts in the Ghettos became a symbol for those who fought for the independence of Israel and it showed that even a small number of people, who are in complete isolation, and in a depressed physical and mental state, could overcome all obstacles (Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). -
1. The Aftermath
After being liberated from the concentration camps and the Nazis, in 1945, the survivors had to rebuild their lives from scratch. However, many Jewish survivors feared to return to their previous homes because of the antisemitism that still exists in some parts of Europe and the trauma they had endured. Even though the Jews are freed from the Nazis now, they were still beaten up and killed by pogroms. -
1. Death Marches
Near the end of WWII, when Germany’s military force was collapsing, the Allied armies closed in on the Nazi concentration camps. With the Soviets approaching from the east, and the British, French and American from the west, the Germans frantically began to move the prisoners out of the camps near the front and take them to use as forced labourers in camps inside Germany. The purpose of this was to get rid of any evidence of crimes against humanity committed within the camps. -
2. Death Marches
At the beginning, prisoners were taken by trains, but later, they had to march on feet. They were forced to march long distances in extremely cold weather, with little to no food, water or rest. The ones that got weak and had no more energy to carry on were either shot or pushed aside where they would freeze to death. During the march, several hundreds of prisoners were killed, and those who survived until the end were either shot or pushed into the shores. -
3. Death Marches
As allied forces advanced more into Germany, they liberated hundreds of thousands of concentration camp prisoners, these included prisoners that were marching on the forced evacuation. This led to the Germans surrendering in the west on May 7th and in the east on May 9, 1945 (Death Marches). Hence, May 8th, 1945, was proclaimed Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day). -
2. The Aftermath
They were sheltered in hundreds of refugee centers and displaced persons camps. There were also a number of Jewish agencies that worked to assist the Jewish displaced persons. With the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, Jewish displaced persons and refugees began moving into the new sovereign state. By 1953, about 170,000 Jewish displaced persons and refugees had immigrated to Israel (The aftermath of the Holocaust). -
3. The Aftermath
The Displaced Person Act, which provided approximately 400,000 United States visas for displaced persons, was passed by the US Congress in 1948 (The aftermath of the Holocaust). Other Jewish refugees in Europe also emigrated to other countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, Mexico, South America, and South Africa as either refugees or displaced persons (The aftermath of the Holocaust).
