There’s not many ways that you can make sense of a tragedy like the Holocaust. Understanding the details of what happened, however, can make it much easier for everyone to remember this event and help keep something like it from happening in the future. During the Holocaust, more than 11 million men, women, and children were killed by the Nazi Party in Germany simply because they did not fit the criteria for being of the ‘Master Race’. Of those killed, more than 6 million were Jews, singled out because propaganda made them the reason why Germany wasn’t a strong world power.
The Holocaust went on for 12 years. It started with Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and was originally just about discrimination and hatred. However, as Hitler gained more control and influence in Germany and the Nazi Party became more organized, the discrimination turned to outright murder, which they called the “Final Solution” to the Jewish problem in Germany. This senseless killing was done all over German-occupied Europe during World War II. Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland was actually the event that started the Second World War in Europe.
After the Holocaust, many members of the Nazi Party fled to avoid punishment. Others committed suicide like their leader,
Adolf Hitler, had done. Very few, if any, members of the original Nazi Party are still alive today. Most were tried and punished for their crimes. A lot of the men were hanged or ended up killing themselves while awaiting execution. Some did manage to elude capture and were never held responsible, but at this point the only thing that can be done is to educate people about this horrific tragedy so that it doesn’t ever happen again.
The outcome of the Holocaust was more tragic than most people can even fathom. Of those killed, more than 1.5 million were children. In
Nazi Germany, children were ‘useless eaters’ if they were too young to work and were only carrying on the heritage that the Nazis were trying to eradicate. Therefore, they were often killed. There is no excuse for the death of over 11 million people out of sheer hatred and propaganda, but if the Holocaust teaches us anything, it is that one man can become a huge influence given the right tools and circumstances. It’s important to learn about and remember the Holocaust because of the impact it had on the world, but also to prevent history from being repeated.