The Broad Line Concept of Holocaust - Essay Example

Introduction: The Second World War brought numerous ideologies of destruction along with itself. It was driven by the ideals of ethnocentric and utter elimination of the other races. Holocaust was one similar concept that prevailed during that era. While the Second World War started off in 1939, the plans of Holocaust were in action days before it. The broad line concept of Holocaust was based on multiple grounds. It had its origins in the social factors, economic factors, political factors, historical factors. It largely pertained to the Germans, their views, mindsets and ideas related to the Jews of Europe. Germany had suffered serious defeat and humiliation in the First World War. Further, it had the allies in the form of Austria and Hungary. These two partners were Jewish majority nations. The Germans blamed its allies for the reasons of failure and blamed them directly for having brought the voodoo upon them as a result they decided to eliminate the Jews on account of their political historical bad experience with the Germans. Under the simple concept and understanding of the term Holocaust, it was a campaign manifested towards the elimination of the Jews based on their religious, social, ethnic and historical precedence and hatred towards them. It was formally initiated by the Nazi (National Socialist party of Germany) under the direct patronage of Adolf Hitler. Under this program, which was initiated and undertaken in a schematic and organized manner, the Jews were to be eliminated in a step wise process. This plan did continue for the larger part of the Second World War and by the time it could be stopped, as many as six million Jews had been killed through this genocide based campaign. The concept of Holocaust was also dubbed as the Final solution in which the Jews question with regard to their original fate, their impact on the society and overall solution towards extermination would be found as a result it was called the final solution which would be undertaken in number of steps. The first being isolation in the concentration centers and later on more horrific accounts of events would be taken for this purpose of executing the extermination plans and ideas. Under the final solution plan, the Jews where ever residing in the different parts of Europe and primarily in Austria and Germany would be brought together and would be prevented from intermingling with the other races individuals (Berger, 2002,p.88). Under this campaign a properly initiated campaign was initiated where the individuals based on their religious affiliation were segregated from the other people of the same community. Once that was done, other segregation based techniques were used to ensure that no individual remains in the common society. Isolation to concentration camps: Concentrations camps made up for the form of separate living places for Jews where they were confined. They could not leave the place and those places could not have the other communities’ individuals visiting them. In those concentration camps, the women, the children, and the old age people were separated and were treated as and forced to live in the most hostile conditions. These concentration camps besides lacking on the basic human rights protection and rights, also missed on the common resources availability to the Jews who were restricted to those areas (Saidel, 2006,p. 221). The earlier traces of concentration camps: The early traces of the Nazis supported camps came about as early as 1933-1934 (Nicholls, 2000,p. 140). This speaks of the overall mindset and ideology with which the Nazis had come to power. It was not so long after the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler formally took control and they initiated their plan of establishing concentration centers which would last for till the latter part of the Second World War. Initially the concentration centers were the hub to the outlaws, the rivals in the political programs, the handicapped and disabled and furthermore the homosexuals along with the Jews. Towards the second half of their governing days, these concentration centers became the major spot to the Jews concentration and containment centers where they were confined, treated like animals and in most of the cases eventually eliminated in the most inhumane methods that are visible in the modern times. Societal perspective of the concept of Holocaust: Under the social perspective and motives of Holocaust, the sole reason to which Jews were put to extermination was the belief that Jews were inferior and the Germans were superior to them. The Jews according to them had been a source of humiliation, disgrace, discontent and displeasure through the history. They had been solely reliant upon the superior race of Germans and were acting as a parasite towards the German nation and German society, as a result Adolf Hitler decided to eliminate every single individual from the surface of earth who had any direct or indirect affiliation with the social, historical or any other religious accounts. Formation of Ghettos: The Ghettos came about into force towards the practical phase of the Second World War. While Germany had major successes in the first part of the Second World War and it made inroads in the different neighboring countries such as Denmark, Austria, Hungary, France and Belgium, it started compiling the data and information about any set of Jews from different countries within the region and would be confined to the Ghettos. The Ghettos were concentration camps like model cities and towns in which the restriction was imposed upon Jews. They could not move outside it and they were only confined to it. They were ripped off, of their possessions, their earnings, and their property and were merely left at the mercy of the cruel handling of the Nazi forces that would treat them as virtual prisoners throughout the affair of war and existence of the Ghettos. There were further sub divisions within those Ghettos based on which the level of living standards were defined. But in each of these the living standards were substandard and the individuals were confined to mere few yards and few meters of space and in a virtual state of bondage (Sterling, 2005,p. 134). Extermination camps: While Ghettos still allowed some breathing air and living space, the extermination camps came about as the step headed towards the Final solution where the steps were taken with regard to the proper extermination. Under this different inhumane activities and operational tasks were engaged where Jews were being put in line towards execution. This execution and extermination came about in the rawest forms. This primarily included the gas chambers usage. In those gas chambers the individuals were eventually deprived of the air and gassed to death. The atrocities were not just limited to the usage of gas chambers or any other direct physical assault and violence; rather other tactics were also used. For particular action and tactic used in this regard was that of forcing the Jews within those concentration camps to malnutrition and starvation. This formally came about as the extreme step and it was enforced during the war days. Particularly in 1942 when a special session and conference was engaged in the name of Wannsee Conference where recommendations and solutions were sought with regard to the question of handling Jews and resolving this problem once for all. In order to speed up the overall process it was decided that the extermination processes would be speeded up and would make use of all the inhumane activities that the history saw unfold in the next two and a half to three years. The overall toll of casualties and Jews being murdered increased by multi fold after 1942 under a properly approved and manifested guideline strategy of concentration camps, ghettos and extermination processes. This resulted in one of the bitterest forms of death towards the prisoners. These prisoners started dying at the hands of hunger, disease and various other intolerable situations enforced upon them by the German Nazi party and German troops in particular. Special units and battalions were separated for this purpose during the war who would administer the functions, activities and operations within the concentration camps and extermination camps. Besides this, serious intelligence activities were engaged through which the different police forces and paramilitary personnel started finding the Jews who had taken shelter in the different parts of Europe, Germany and Austria in particular. Further, they would also trace out the individuals who had changed their identity in order to protect themselves from being identified as Jews. Death camps: The Death camps came about for number of reasons. The first and foremost was the final Solution and its final stage. Prior to this all the necessary and elementary ground work was being done for it. The next step came about in the form of death camps where the people previously contained in the concentration camps were shifted to the ghettos and death camps. This came about as a result of the policy and also the financial aspect. Since the activities in the war did not auger too well in the second half of the Second World War and these concentration camps were taking up for large amount of capital and resources in the form of food, material, shelter and other goods, it was decided that the better option would be to execute them in a speedy manner. This would not only bring about the speed to the overall activities of executing the plan that had long been planned since the starting days of the Nazi party when it came into power in 1933. The account of events as they unfolded: The concentration camps stories that unfolded from the people who survived and those who gave up against the atrocious activities of the Nazi parties revealed the real inside affair and stories of the overall war and its events. According to those events, the fellow Jews were forced into executing and killing people of their fraternity and groups. They had to earn a living through a forced labor. This labor also included burning the dead bodies of their fellows, forcing their own fellows into the gas chambers and executing them and assisting the executing squads in the overall process. Number of pictures and data leaked from those concentration camps and death camps reveal the accounts of how the people lived there, how they were isolated, how they were forced into oppressive labor and various other activities. Further, the trials in the form of Nuremberg in 1945 gave a more detailed insight into how these events were unfolded. The stories from concentration camps: The story of Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camp: Auschwitz Birkenau was one of those tens of concentrations camps that tell the horrifying stories of how the events unfolded and how the mass murder and genocide was undertaken. Number of individuals who survived the life threats and those who were in position of security handling have come up with startling revelations about how the overall events took place (Rudolf, 2005,p. 118). It is being believed and said that Auschwitz being the center to the overall atrocities were the hub of the overall amount of Jews that were killed in it. As a result, as many as one million Jews are believed to have been killed in Auschwitz Birkenau alone. This was out of the total of six million Jews that were assassinated in the overall affair of the Final solution and Holocaust under which Jews were directly being persecuted for the mere reason of being racially and socially inferior to the self believed and self opined Germans who according to them were Aryans by caste and had a stronger, richer and better past compared to the Jews who had brought about humiliation upon the Germans through the history and as a result they had to be eliminated for good. This was one of the largest camps and it was an interconnected with other remote camps ranging up to over 40 plus concentration camps. These camps had the Soviet soldiers, homosexuals and Jews in particular contained in them. Alice Herz Sommer was one of the very few lucky individuals who survived the overall phase of turbulence and organized massacre. She has explained and shared her account of events how things unfolded and how they were treated. Luckily for her, she managed staying away from her execution days on account of her ability to engage in a peaceful way with the operators through her skilled possessed in form of musical skills (Telegraph, 2015). Simon Wiesenthal was another individual who somehow through the luck and grace of the nature managed to find a way out and in survival to stay alive in the post concentration days (Skog, 2011,p. 33). Owing to the overall troubles and atrocities faced, he took up the challenge of bringing all those people to justice who had somehow managed to flee the Allied forces attacks towards the end of Second World War when Germany was finally being defeated and those concentration camps were left deserted. The bitter fact is the killing of children without any regard for humanity. Large account of events have unfolded where it is reveled that children were killed and put in the ghettos and gas chambers as well. One similar account of effort of an individual who made some real effort to protect and help the little children from changing their attention from the overall atrocities included the likes of Dina Babbitt. She was one of those lucky individuals who managed coming out alive out of the overall affair of barbarity. Lodz Ghetto: Lodz Ghetto was among the top runners in terms of its atrocities, capacity and the overall amount of damage that it incurred along with itself in the overall affair of human barbarity and genocide that unfolded in the Second World War. There are number of sparklingly horrifying stories of how the children survived the events in Ghettos and also many more accounts of how hundreds of children suffered the bitter fate having being put through the gas chambers, forced into starvation and much more similar accounts of barbarity. The total amount of Jews who were forced to stay in this amounted to over a hundred thousand Jews(Shapiro,1999.p.95). Towards the end of the war and in 1944 when the situation loomed all gloom and doom for the Germans, the supervisors of the concentration camps started to flee and left the camps to the Soviet forces and Allied forces. Till that the major chunk of damage was done and only mere few hundreds of the survivors could make it through the battled couple of years. The major parts of stories that the world came to know was through the stories being told by the survivors from these concentration camps. Based on this number of movies have been made and also films have been produced for the purpose of informing the world of one of the most heinous acts of crime that unfolded in the Second World War and how it shook the nerve of the humanity in that regard through the existence of modern warfare. References: Berger, R. J. (2002). Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach. Transaction Publishers Nicholls, D. (2000). Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO Rudolf, G. (2005). Lectures on the Holocaust: Controversial Issues Cross Examined. Aware Journalism Saidel, R. G. (2006). The Jewish Women of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. Terrace Books Shapiro, R. M. (1999). Holocaust Chronicles: Individualizing the Holocaust Through Diaries and Other Contemporaneous Personal Accounts. KTAV Publishing House, Inc Skog, J. (2011). The Legacy of the Holocaust. Capstone Sterling, E. (2005). Life In The Ghettos During The Holocaust. Syracuse University Press Telegraph. (2015, January 27). Holocaust memorial day: seven survivors stories, 70 years on. Retrieved from Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/11366278/Holocaust-memorial-day-survivors-stories-70-years-on.html Read More