The Holocaust refers to the systematic murder of more than six million Jews and other “undesirables” orchestrated by Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in Europe during World War II. Most people are familiar with the names of the major concentration camps, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and Treblinka, for example. Few realize that these were not the only places where Jews and other prisoners were held by the Nazis, Each of the 23 main camps had sub camps, nearly 900 of them in total. These included camps with euphemistic names, such as “care facilities for foreign children,” where pregnant prisoners were sent for forced abortions.
During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial or social inferiority.” The Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people. Between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment. This type of hatred and intolerance is like a social cancer. While Stalin and his Russia people were victims of Hitler’s NAZI aggression, Stalin also killed more of his own people than Hitler did. Even America had a form of concentration camp when they rounded up Japanese Americans and forced them to live in Western camps. While Americans did not use these camps for mass murder it was still a sign than war causes widespread mistrust and social intolerance.
I think it was a horrible atrocity that should never have happened. I was ashamed of the U.S. when I heard early on that President Roosevelt knew what Hitler was about, during the Czech crisis, but decided it was not our problem. Americans wanted to have no political involvements in Europe so they tried to remain neutral. He did not even want to let the Jews who got out of Germany before it turned really bad come to America. It was not until Hitler started bombing on Britain that the U.S. got involved because we were allies and business partners. I will never understand how people could be so cruel that they rationalize hate. Every time I hear about all the injustices that Hitler did to these people, I get upset. I don’t understand why other countries let it happen. It breaks my heart to know that nobody was brave enough to stop Hitler’s rise to power. The world chose not to notice until it was too late. Everyone claimed to be sorry for what was happening to the Jews, yet nobody moved a finger to stop Hitler in the 1930s. We all are in a way guilty for all the death of thousands during the Holocaust.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/hitler.htm
