How the Holocaust Contributed to the Tragedy of War

Tragedy, defined as “a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster,” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tragedy) was prominent between 1939 and 1945. An alternate definition, “a disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life,” was also prominent during these 6 long years, due to the Holocaust’s estimated death toll being that of 9 to 11 million.

The Holocaust, (Holocaust derived from the Greek word “holos,” meaning completely, and “kaustos,” meaning burnt), refers to Germany’s NAZI (National Socialist political party) regimes deliberate extermination of 9 to 11 million Jews, Poles, Slavs, Soviet POW’s, Romans, physically disabled people, mentally ill people, gay men, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and political activists.

Germany’s NAZI regime came into power early 1933 and the persecution of the 525,000 Jews residing in Germany began immediately. In the latter portions of 1933, laws were passed that forbid Jews from being part of the Civil Service, laws that banned Jews from being physicians, lawyers, and musicians, laws that banned Jews from owning farms, or taking part in agriculture, and laws that caused Jews to be excluded from schools and universities, from belonging to the Journalist’s Association, and from being newspaper editors. In 1935, more laws, called the Nuremburg laws, were passed, that caused German Jews to be deprived of their citizenship and their civil rights.

Many say that the Holocaust begin in the latter portions of 1938, (November 9, to be exact), during “The night of Broken Glass” or “Kristallnacht.” During this night, Jews were attacked and Jewish property was vandalized across Germany, which resulted in the death of approximately 100 Jews and 30,000 Jews being sent to concentration camps, 7,000 Jewish shops and 1,668 synagogues damaged or destroyed.

A concentration camp is defined as “a camp where civilians, enemy aliens, political prisoners, and sometimes prisoners of war (POW’s) are detained and confined, typically under harsh conditions,” or “a place or situation characterized by extremely harsh conditions.” (http://www.answers.com/topic/concentration-camp) In 1933, as stated earlier, Germany’s NAZI regime came into power and the persecution of Jews residing in Germany began immediately, persecution which, on a small scale, involved holding, torturing, or killing in concentration camps, and by 1942, had escalated to a much larger scale, having an estimated 15,000 concentration camps in German occupied countries, and 6 death camps; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka.

Inside these camps, there were many ways to die; starvation, disease, suicide, to be exterminated/murdered, or to be exterminated through labour, meaning one would work themselves to death. Prior to being transported to these camps, Jews were kept in the Ghetto, defined as “a section of a city where the Nazis forced all Jews to live. A ghetto was often sealed off with walls, barbed wire and armed guards, preventing people from entering or leaving.” The largest was Warsaw, containing 380,000 people, and out of those, 43,000 died before ever leaving the ghetto.

At these 6 death camps; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka, (http://www.pbs.org/daringtoresist/tgglossary.html) the death toll was 4,400,000, most of these deaths occurred in the gas chambers. Sometimes as soon as the prisoners arrived, they were gone again, sent to the gas chambers, excluding some that were sent to perform labour, they were taken to a reception area where all possessions and clothing were seized, after this, they went to the gas chambers, being tricked into thinking they were showers, due to signs reading “bath” or “sauna”, and sometimes being given a small piece of soap and a towel to avoid suspicion.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the camp in which the largest number of prisoners were killed (1,400,000), held 800 people in bunker 1, and 1,200 in bunker 2, (up