Summary
The first concentration camp was opened by the Germans in 1933 and the camps liberated by the Allies in 1945 after the fall of Germany. During this time frame the German Armed Forces under the command of Adolph Hitler and high ranking German officers were responsible for the deaths of over 5.2 million Jews (this represents two/thirds of the European Jewish population and one/third of the world Jewish population). These numbers reflect the total number killed in concentration camps, ghettos, work camps and eventually those who died in the notorious death camps. In addition to this the Germans also are responsible for deaths of over 5 million non-Jews that were viewed as either a threat to the Nazi party and Adolph Hitler or in some other fashion were considered subversive and a threat to the Nazi party.
Adolph Hitler had devised a strategy of propaganda both to deceive the citizens of Germany and those he planned to exterminate. These plans included the purposeful containment of Jews in ghettos forcing them to live in extremely difficult conditions as the waited to be shipped to concentration camps with their main objectives the creation of extremely harsh living conditions, isolation from the outside world and the internment of Jews in vast prisons (the ghettos were just that enclosed neighborhoods that acted as prisons) under conditions of total helplessness. These goals would in turn, lead to the breakdown of their physical, mental and social structure, destroying their capability as a community to resist.
The Night of the Broken Glass or Kristallnacht occurred in November 1938. Adolph Hitler taking advantage of a young Jewish boys assasination of a German diplomat orchestrated a series of riots throughout Germany that destroyed many Jewish Synagogues and looted many of the Jewish businesses. Riding the wave of anti-Semitic emotion he was able to capitalize on this night of terror by passing many new laws that limited or stripped away the Jewish citizens rights. This began a prolonged propaganda campaign that targeted Jews in a way that made them both evil and the cause of many of German’s internal problems (unemployment, inflation etc) and began the drive to eliminating the Jewish population from Germany and is a direct cause of the Holocaust and the German citizens viewpoints of Jews.
Adolph Hitler approached this in a systematic fashion with a total lack of compassion or regard for those he slaughtered. First he deprived them of their rights as German citizens by revoking their privilege to vote, own property, businesses or any way of earning a living to support themselves. Once this was accomplished no move to stop him was initiated he removed the freedom of the Jews by containing them first in Ghettos while they awaited transportation to either a work camp or a death camp (often making them pay for the privilege of riding the train with what little resources they might have been able to keep), and finally when no other benefit could be obtained by keeping them alive he would have them put to death in accordance with the Final Solution plan he and top ranking officers of the Nazi party had devised.
Once the death camps had been liberated the Allies did what they could for the survivors providing medical attention, food, clothing and safety but many of these survivors still died. In an attempt to force the German population to face the horrendous actions taken by their countrymen German citizens were forced to tour the death camps where the dead bodies still remained bearing witness to the death and torture they had endured for no other reason then that of being a Jew
Adolph Hitler had devised a strategy of propaganda both to deceive the citizens of Germany and those he planned to exterminate. These plans included the purposeful containment of Jews in ghettos forcing them to live in extremely difficult conditions as the waited to be shipped to concentration camps with their main objectives the creation of extremely harsh living conditions, isolation from the outside world and the internment of Jews in vast prisons (the ghettos were just that enclosed neighborhoods that acted as prisons) under conditions of total helplessness. These goals would in turn, lead to the breakdown of their physical, mental and social structure, destroying their capability as a community to resist.
The Night of the Broken Glass or Kristallnacht occurred in November 1938. Adolph Hitler taking advantage of a young Jewish boys assasination of a German diplomat orchestrated a series of riots throughout Germany that destroyed many Jewish Synagogues and looted many of the Jewish businesses. Riding the wave of anti-Semitic emotion he was able to capitalize on this night of terror by passing many new laws that limited or stripped away the Jewish citizens rights. This began a prolonged propaganda campaign that targeted Jews in a way that made them both evil and the cause of many of German’s internal problems (unemployment, inflation etc) and began the drive to eliminating the Jewish population from Germany and is a direct cause of the Holocaust and the German citizens viewpoints of Jews.
Adolph Hitler approached this in a systematic fashion with a total lack of compassion or regard for those he slaughtered. First he deprived them of their rights as German citizens by revoking their privilege to vote, own property, businesses or any way of earning a living to support themselves. Once this was accomplished no move to stop him was initiated he removed the freedom of the Jews by containing them first in Ghettos while they awaited transportation to either a work camp or a death camp (often making them pay for the privilege of riding the train with what little resources they might have been able to keep), and finally when no other benefit could be obtained by keeping them alive he would have them put to death in accordance with the Final Solution plan he and top ranking officers of the Nazi party had devised.
Once the death camps had been liberated the Allies did what they could for the survivors providing medical attention, food, clothing and safety but many of these survivors still died. In an attempt to force the German population to face the horrendous actions taken by their countrymen German citizens were forced to tour the death camps where the dead bodies still remained bearing witness to the death and torture they had endured for no other reason then that of being a Jew