The Holocaust

The Holocaust initially started in 1933 when the Nazi German party came to power. It was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution of roughly 6 million Jews by the Nazis. "Holocaust" comes from Greek origin, meaning "Sacrifice by Fire." 


Several events took place between 1933 and 1945. Some important events include:

• January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.
• March 22, 1933:  Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near Munich, to be followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany, Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany, and Ravensbrück for women.
• July 14, 1933:   Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany.
• August 2, 1934:  German President von Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Führer.
• September 15, 1935:   Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews decreed.
• November 9 & 10, 1938:  Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
• October 1939:  Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
• November 23, 1939: Yellow Stars ordered to be worn by Jews 10 years of age and older
• November 1940:  Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
• November 15, 1940:  The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.
• December 11, 1941:   Hitler declares war on the United States. President Roosevelt then asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
• February 2, 1943:   Germans surrender to Russian troops at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
• April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide 
• April 30, 1945:   Germans surrender to Russian troops at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.

For a full and detailed timeline: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html#1945

             The Holocaust was during a time period of Anti-Semitism.The word Anti-Semitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. Jews were deported, or forced to leave their hometowns, and placed into concentration camps. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy. In Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, concentration camps were an integral feature of the regime. Concentration camps are different from ghettos though. Ghettos isolated Jewish communities by separating them both from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities without harsh conditions. The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone.

           One of the first events involved in the Holocaust that began this massive genocide*** was Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence.In its aftermath, German officials announced that Kristallnacht had erupted as a spontaneous outburst of public sentiment in response to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, a German embassy official stationed in Paris. 

***Genocide is a term created during the Holocaust and declared an international crime. It is defined as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

For plenty of information on the Holocaust, visit http://www.ushmm.org/

As it is quite evident, the Holocaust violated and went against Catholic teaching, especially the 10 Commandments. In my opinion, the three most important Commandments broken were "Thou Shall Not Kill," "Thou Shall Not Steal" and "I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me."

• Thou Shall Not Kill- This one is quite obvious. The Nazi killings of the Jews' mind, body and spirit definitely goes against God's teachings. 
• Thou Shall Not Steal- Those involved in the Nazi party not only stole the personal belongings of the Jews, but their lives as well. 
• I am the LORD your God; you shall not have strange gods before me- Devoting their lives and time to Hitler, the Nazis easily put the destruction of Jews above God.