The Holocaust

Timeline of the Holocaust:

•  January 1933 - Adolf Hitler rises to power.
• March 1933 through September 1935 - Jewish rights were slowly taken away, and the first concentration camps set up. The first sent away were the "undesirables", or the homeless, alcoholic, and unemployed.
• November 1938 - Kristallnacht
• November 1939 - Jews were first forced to wear yellow stars on their clothing for easy identification.
• Early 1940 - European Jews were first sent to concentration camps.
• May 1940 - Auschwitz opens.
• November 1940 - The Warsaw ghetto was closed off, with 400,000 people inside.
• 1941 through 1942 - The first death camps opened, and the mass-gassing of the Jews began.
•  October 1944 through January 1945 - The gas chambers at Auschwitz were used for the last time. Then, the evidence was destroyed and the camps closed. The survivors were taken on 'death marches.'
• April 1945 - Afraid of defeat, Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
• May 1945 - Germany surrenders and the war is over.

Explanation of Terms:

The Holocaust, or the mass killing of six million Jews throughout World War II, perhaps began because anti-semitism, or a suspicion, hatred, or discrimination against Jewish people. The Holocaust is now known as a genocide, defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an entire ethnic, racial, or religious group. The first major event of the Holocaust was Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass", taking place on November 9-10, 1938. The night consisted of organized destruction of Jewish homes, shops, and businesses, leaving broken glass everywhere. In addition to this, 30,000 Jews were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Those who were not taken were forced into ghettos, or a part of a city inhabited only by a certain group of people. After living in the ghettos, the Jews were deported, or forced to leave their homes, into concentration camps, where they were either killed, abused, or forced into hard labor.

3 Commandments that were broken during the Holocaust:

Commandment One: I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods besides me.

• The Holocaust broke this Commandment because Adolf Hitler put himself above God, and all of the Nazi soldiers worshiped him before God. They did whatever Hitler told them to because he was their leader, even if they knew what they were doing was wrong in every way. Therefore, both Adolf Hitler and the Nazis broke this commandment, in different ways.

Commandment Five: You shall not kill.

•  The Nazis killed six million innocent people, without even thinking twice. The only thing they thought about was how to kill more people, more 'efficiently.' They killed an entire race because they did whatever their "god", Hitler, told them to do.

Commandment Nine: Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

•  The Nazi's lied constantly to the Jews that they were capturing. They would not tell them were they were going after they forced them out of their homes, or told them that everything would be okay. When children asked if their parents would be okay when they were separated, the Nazi's would lie, or just laugh, and leave the children terrified. They were never truthful, whether they were lying or not saying anything at all.