The Holocaust?

Question

I am reading a book 'Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust'. It tells of the experiences of those who were incarcerated in various 'camps' during WW2 in mainly Poland and Germany. What I want to know is HOW was this ever allowed to happen? Did people not KNOW about it? What was the point and why? What had certain people done to be treated so inhumanely. It makes very disturbing reading.

Answer 1

Most of these are good answers. How can we make sure it will never happen again? I have a close friend who is German, married to an American Jew. She took him to see Schindler's List and he was too distressed to discuss it for days. He told me last Saturday evening he was never taught this in German public schools. He's about 40 years old. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." There are still deniers of the holocaust--as recently as an international conference in Iran this year. American David Duke was a prime participant. He ran for Congress from one of the Southern states, but fortunately was defeated. I will remind you anti-semitism is alive and well in the world, particularly in European nations like France. It is far less prevalent in the U.S., but has not disappeared.

Answer 2

This was one of the worst examples of racism where 6 million innocent people were brutalised and murdered. They had done nothing to justify being treated that way.

Another example is that of the Native Americans - 90 million of then were butchered including women, children and babies.

The hollocaust was allowed to happen because people outside the 3rd. Riche didn't know about it. I hope that mankind can learn from this and that it will never be repeated again.
An interesting fact was that Billy Graham's father was put in charge of a concentration camp and turned that camp around. He stopped all the inhumanity and made sure the men were fed. He made such a difference for the better that when the camp was liberated the prisoners hid him and saved his life.

Answer 3

It is a very disturbing topic and hard to comprehend. The Holocaust society have a great website that will explain how and why such atrocities were able to happen. Would take a long time to go into it here. Other great books are - The Holocaust a time for reflection and the sacrifice. Both can be bought on amazon.

Answer 4

All the questions you asked there would take hours to answer as it's all very complex! But to put it simply, no it wasn't known what was happening by the rest of the world, they knew they were locking Jews up but not the executions (or so all the governments said at the time). It was allowed to happen because Germany was very powerful at the time and as is obvious from how long the second world war lasted we couldn't just go and stop them, that was exactly what we were doing fighting them, trying to stop them! And the Jews have been one of the most hated peoples on the planet for centuries which goes back to them being 'responsible' for the death of Jesus (according to christians not me!), amongst other things to do with religion. And in Germany at the time most Germans despised Jews because they saw them as taking over their country, having all the best the jobs, best houses, most money etc. Yes I agree it is very disturbing, I visited the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C and what I saw in there will stay with me for the rest of my life, human nature is the most cruel kind there is.

Answer 5

As a historian and a human being I am glad that you find this disturbing, since it happened within living memory. EVERYONE should be disturbed.

When the Nazis under Hitler took over Germany and other parts of Europe, they embarked on "ethnic cleansing" to rid their society of people they considered inferior. This included Jews, Romany (gypsies) Slavs, homosexuals, mentally ill or retarded and those severely disabled. Later, it came to include just about anyone who raised dissent against the regime.

As to why it was allowed to happen is because of human nature. Although probably a lot of people didn't think it was the right thing to do, nobody objected openly, and by the time people realized how bad it was, it was too late.

There is a proverb that the only thing needed for evil to thrive is for good people to do nothing, and that is how the Holocaust began.

This is why it is so important for people to object to the wrong treatment of others. If you suspect your neighbour is beating his wife or someone is neglecting their children or if you see someone abusing a defenseless animal, you must call the authorities or try to intervene yourself. And if you think the authorities are wrong, you need to speak out.

Luckily, we all live in a society where one can speak out without being punished and that is why those nations who enjoy this right must insist that it becomes available to all wherever they live in the world.

There is a holocaust happening right now, in Darfur, in the Sudan, in Africa. The government, which is Islamic, is turning a blind eye to Islamist militias who are raping and killing Sudanese who are black and non-Islamic. Thousands have been killed and about two million forced to flee their homes. Thousands of women and young girls have been raped which makes them outcasts in their own families.

Please contact your elected representative, write to the United Nations, write to a newspaper - but please speak out against this horror, otherwise, in twenty years, historians will be writing about another holocaust and people like you will be asking "how could this happen."

Answer 6

Initially internment camps for dissedents ato which the jews were removed from ghettos they only became 'death camps' after the Nazis instituted the final solution. Did people know about them yes, they also know about the situation in Zimbabwe, the israeli ghettoisation of the Palestinialns, and numerous other current atrocities btu in each case most people don't act. Why? Well to mis quote a famous saying about the holocaust,
"When they came for the Jew I said nothing, I was not a Jew
When they came for the Gypsies I said nothing, I was not a Gypsy
"When they came for the Catholic I said nothing, I was not a Catholic.
When they came for me there was no one to shout on my behalf.
Sad fact ios the Stalin was right, One death is a tradgedy, One million a statistic

Answer 7

The western allies didn't know the extent of the barbarity until the camps were liberated. The average German didn't know, but had suspicions. The large scale and high volume extermination camps required the complicity of all walks of life, from the local Gestapo who rounded them up, to the trainmen that transported, to the contractor that build the crematoria...and everyone in-between. A common question is why did't we (the western democracies do anything to stop it). My answer is a question...."You mean winning the war and leaving Germany a pile of rubble wasn't enough?..."

Answer 8

this is what my dad told me cause i was very curious about how it ever happened he told me that america heard rumors about it so they came and checked it out they took the best looking ones and put on a morouge about how it wasnt bad at all and america was gulable so we just let it happen. if u see freedom writers this movie may help u figure out some stuff but the gist is that the nazis were just like a gang they killed other people relentlisy just because they are a certain way. so it disturbs me too that it stains the flag of the united states cause we could have stopped so many deaths if we had stepped in earlier. this is what i know hope this helps a little

Answer 9

Could also add that from a religious perspective the Jews in the past were seen as the 'Christ Killers' and this had been perpetrated by certain people down through the centuries. That is why Pope John Paul II publically apoligised at the wailing wall in Jerusalem.

Answer 10

The 'Camps' did not start off as death camps. They were more like unofficial prisons run by the S.A. (brownshirts). It was only later that the SS took over, after the S.A. were purged from the Nazi party. Once a decision was taken (at the infamous Wansee[?] conference) to exterminate the Jews of Europe, and others the SS had a ready set up system of camps to do their dirty work in.