Livgren 1

The Cost of Hate

by

Paul Livgren

Comp 102-104

Mr. Neuburger

April 6, 2011
 Livgren 2

The holocaust was one of the most terrible events in all of history. These terrible events

took place less than a century ago, and survivors currently alive to tell their firsthand accounts

are becoming fewer every day. Some radical people attempt to deny that these events even took

place. Fortunately there is undeniable proof to the contrary. I believe the common saying that

says those who forget history are doomed to repeat it is absolutely true. For this reason the

insurmountable tragedy of the Holocaust must never be forgotten. Preserving the memory of

these events will hopefully remind the world of the consequences of hate so that we will never

again be subjected to horror on this level.

Nazis come to power

Hitler is often portrayed as the face of the Nazi regime. The holocaust was not carried out

by him alone, but he was certainly the benefactor and mastermind behind it all. Without Hitler

what we know as the Holocaust may have never happened.

Hitler’s was born in rural Austria where his father worked as a customs official for the

Austrian civil service. The dysfunctional behavior of his family

was as major influence in forming his short temper and vicious

disposition (Meier 2) Hitler’s father was physically abusive if

young Adolf didn’t do well, and I believe this is what led him to

keep changing his career aspirations.

Through all of his school he aimed to do many different

Hitler posing for a photograph
things. At one time he wanted to be an artist, and another time a http://tinyurl.com/3lzwjx5

devout monk. One can only imagine how the world would be
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different if Hitler had been a monk instead of genocidal maniac. Hitler became very close to

fulfilling his dream of becoming an artist. He even moved to Vienna to become an art student,

but they rejected his application. ("Adolf Hitler"5) It seemed like no matter what he did it always

ended in failure.

Hitler’s struggle to find meaning and relevance continued on until World War I. He was

small in stature and before the war was described as "Unfit for combatant and auxiliary duty -

too weak. Unable to bear arms." (Meier 2) This was true, but during the war the German army

was taking all the help they could get. For the first time in his life he excelled at what he was

doing.

What he lacked in physical ability he made up in courage. He was known for carrying

messages across the front lines. This was one of the most dangerous jobs on the battle field and it

earned him a lot of respect from the other soldiers. Germany eventually lost the war, but Adolf

won five medals for his courage and made himself known to the German people. ("Adolf

Hitler"15) Pre-war Hitler would have never had a chance of controlling Germany, except now he

was a mystifying war hero.

Nazis views on Jews – anti-Semitism

World War I left Europe devastated. When Germany had surrendered the Treaty of

Versailles was reinstated. This crippled the German economy by forcing them to repay the

damages the war had caused. At this time socialism was creeping into the downtrodden

Germany. Hitler hated socialism, but not because he didn’t believe it would work as an economic

system. Socialism had the notion that everyone was equal, and to Nationalists like Hitler this

idea was utterly appalling.

 Livgren 4

To make matters worse Hitler and other Nationalists viewed this movement toward

socialism and blamed it primarily on the Jews. Actions like these largely influenced the radical

views of anti-Semitism and fueled the bitterness of Hitler. The war left the whole world

economically exhausted, but this blame game only made things worse for the Germans (Adolf

Hitler Life, Childhood, Timeline 5). Hitler still had high hopes for Germany’s potential, but he

deeply believed the Jews and people like them were standing in the way of success. (Meier 2)

Hitler became very active in his hateful ideology, and made various attempts to

overthrow the government. One of these events was a

violent political rally that placed him in a jail cell.

Hitler wasted no time and spent his days in prison

writing his book, which one author described as being

“a mixture of autobiography, political ideas and an

Hitlers Autobiography Mien Kampt
explanation of the techniques of propaganda.” (Adolf http://tinyurl.com/3mzowo7

Hitler 3) This book outlined his hatred for Jewish

people and how he thought they were genetically inferior. One quote from the book says " ...the

personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew." After

his book there was no mystery about what Hitler thought about the Jews, he considered them

better off dead.

To a degree the book is viewed as a propaganda piece. One that could be quickly rejected

as a detestable and racist. On the other hand, to an emotional and destabilized Germany the book

had a much different effect. There was an extremely positive reaction and the book climbed in

popularity. It had gotten so well-liked that by the time World War II began it had sold at least

five million copies. (Meier 3)

 Livgren 5

Following his book Hitler's reputation was higher than ever before. His chances of

assuming leadership in Germany were increasingly plausible. The Nazi party, which Hitler

represented, was also gaining status as viable leadership. Hitler ran for election in 1932 and lost

to another prominent hero from World War One named Paul von Hindenburg. The irony is that

Hitler was openly calling for the end of democracy.

Unrest in Germany between the Communist party and the Nazis caused fear of a

nationwide violent revolution. Many people were still pushing for Hitler to become chancellor,

and to stop a revolution Paul von Hindenburg voluntarily stepped down allowing Hitler to take

control. ("Adolf Hitler." Spartacus Educational 6) Hitler was now the supreme ruler of Germany

and he started his tyrannical rein by sending anyone who didn't agree with his new position to

concentration camps. A fate that would soon be not only for political dissenters, but anyone

Hitler chose.

Nuremberg Laws
Almost immediately after becoming the sole leader of Germany Hitler began the radical

transformation of laws. One by one the Jews were being stripped of their rights. Jews were not

allowed to vote and Hitler openly called for the boycott of their stores. Eventually Hitler took the

next step in the renovation of the country and implemented the Nuremberg Laws. These laws

stripped the Jews of their citizenship and essentially made them slaves in Hitler's new system.

The first of these laws was called The Law for the Protection of German Blood and

German Honor. (World War II in Europe Timeline 2) This law prohibited the marriage of Jews

and people of the Aryan race, and even if they wanted to get married they had to undergo
 Livgren 6

embarrassing medical examinations. This section of the law illuminated the desire of the Nazis to

racially purify themselves from the Jews whom they considered genetically inferior.

One major problem was determining who was completely Jewish. The Nazis had to come

up with a system to verify who was entirely Jewish and

who was mixed with Germans and other races.

(Kristallnacht 1)This was extremely important because

depending on how much Jewish heritage you had

directly correlated to how human you were. In the end

Chart of Jewish
the Jews were completely stripped of their natural rights
Herigatehttp://tinyurl.com/3vmshdg
and were viewed as little more than animals.

Kristallnacht

Up until this point the oppression against the

Jews had been carried out incrementally and without

being openly violent. This all changed with

Kristallnacht, which when translated means "the

night of broken glass." (Kristallnacht 5) It is called

this because on that night hordes of Nazis roamed Night of broken glass http://tinyurl.com/3kqyrz3

through Jewish Neighborhoods breaking windows

out of houses, synagogues, and business. This

violence left 91 Jews dead and countless others wounded. (Snyder 201) Those who didn't die

were immediately sent to concentration camps on the boarder of Poland.

 Livgren 7

Even though the Nazis were obviously behind the actions at Kristallnacht they used

propaganda to make it seem like the Jews were to blame. This took the anti-Semitic laws to the

next level and is widely considered the beginning of what we now know as the Holocaust.

Rounding up Jews - Ghettos

After the events of Kristallnacht unfolded Jews were being congregated in to either

camps or ghettos. Ghettos were sections of cities that had been closed off in order to block of

Jews from the rest of the population. Many of the ghettos were temporary and really only used to

contain the Jews until they figured out what they were going to do with them. (Corni 3)

They most famous and largest ghetto was the Warsaw Ghetto. In this ghetto at least

400,000 Jews were compressed into an area no larger than

1.3 miles. These ghettos were in such terrible condition

that they were barely livable.(Corni 3)

The Nazis kept it locked down very tightly and

blocked and attempts at uprising. Rochelle Blackman, a

The Warsaw Ghetto in Poland
http://tinyurl.com/3p84ezq survivor of the Holocaust, in her personal testimony

described this by saying "we heard screaming and yelling

and crying during the night, but we weren't allowed to look out of the window, because those

who looked out were shot." The Jews had no alternative other than accept their position in the

ghetto. Any action the Nazis didn't approve of was punishable by death.
 Livgren 8

Wannsee Conference - The Final Solution

In order to figure out what they were going to do

with the Jews the leaders of the Nazi party gathered in

Wannasee. Through their discussion they managed to

formulate a plan that would deal with the problem of the

Jews once and for all: the final solution. Emigration and
Villa of the Wannsee Conference
forcing the Jews into ghettos was no longer enough. http://tinyurl.com/3l4ux53

They decided that more extreme methods had to be used.

(Lehrer 174)

They decided that the only way to get rid of the Jews was to literally exterminate them.

This idea didn't originate at the conference. In fact, this had been on all of their minds for a long

time, but the conference was mostly intended for them to get together and agree that the

extermination had to happen. (Lehrer 163) There was no longer any time for discussion. The

Nazis had devised their evil plan and now all they had to do was put into action.

Selection - Selektion

There were two main kinds of concentration camps. There were camps almost completely

devoted to mass killings, but there were also hundreds of forced labor camps. The Nazis most

assuredly wanted all of the Jews dead. On the other hand they were participating in a massive

war all throughout Europe. Because of this they selected many of the Jews in to work in labor

camps to fuel their war efforts.

 Livgren 9

The Jews were shipped from all over Europe to concentration camps, usually in confined,

filthy conditions for days . After they arrive they were immediately subjected to the selection of

the Nazis. When they were processed they were funneled in a large line into two separate lines.

If there was any sign of being unhealthy they were chosen to be killed almost immediately, and

that was the fate of many. They selected the most healthy looking people to be sent to the labor

camps.

These camps were only slightly safer than the others. Many of the people in the camps

died from the combination of backbreaking labor and very little food. There was also no

guarantee of your position in those camps; that is to say they could decide to send you to a death

camp whenever they wanted.

There were few exceptions to either being

selected to work or be killed. Joseph Mengele was

a Nazi scientist that took advantage of this selection

process and was particularly interested in twins.

Mengele believed that the Jews were genetically

inferior and through his experimentation he desired

The Selection process
http://tinyurl.com/3ssbc2e
to gain more scientific knowledge. Comparable to

the labor camps, the gruesome experiments were

extremely dangerous and often ended in death.

Extermination methods
 Livgren 10

There were many different ways the Nazis killed the Jews. Soon after the final solution

was first instated the most common way was mobile killing units called Einsatzgruppen. Unlike

the other methods this one was simple and effective. They drove around the countryside with

gathering up men, women, and children and transported them to a nearby site. They were

stripped of all their cloths and stood in front of the trench where they would immediately fall in

after they were shot. (Einsatzgruppen 5)

The mobility of this method was what made it

so efficient, but having to shoot people in such a

brutally designed way eventually had psychological

effects on the Nazi troops. They abandoned the

shooting method for something equally lethal, except

the troops didn't have to watch. The Nazis modified

1Mass shootings and grave
http://tinyurl.com/3d53a6q
vans and cargo vehicles to accommodate gas

chambers so all they had to do was put the Jews in the

back and pump it full of poisonous gas. (Einsatzgruppen 6) The method of gas vans was so

successful that it become the outline of a plan to make this the primary method of extermination

at all the major death camp facilities.

Other methods of killing continued to happen, but the majority of them were a result of

the massive gas chambers. These chambers were disguised as showers so unaware Jews would

enter already nude because they thought they were there to get cleaned up. Shower heads were

modified to put out carbon monoxide from an internal combustion engine that could kill up to

four hundred people at one time. These engines were very easy to use because they were a lot

like car engines. (Mazal 1)

 Livgren 11

The five death camps

Overall there were hundreds of concentration camps,

but a select few stood out as places that specialized in mass

killings. Auschwitz and Majdanek were hybrid camps that

had both extermination and labor, but Treblinka, Sobibor,

and Belzec were entirely designated for executing Jews.

The location of these camps was mostly in towns or cities The Entrance to Auschwitz
http://tinyurl.com/3ol89yw

where there were large intersections of railroads. (Austin 2)

This made the transportation of prisoners to the sites

particularly easy.

All of these camps were fully operational with the massive gas chambers and

crematoriums, but Auschwitz was by far the largest and did the most killing. Every single day

about twenty thousand people would be killed. These numbers added up, and over the lifetime of

its operation Auschwitz managed to kill anywhere between one and a half to two million people.

(Austin 3) This location remains today as a relic in memory of the terrible events that unfolded

there.

The Jews were the primary target of the Nazis, but there were also a few other prominent

groups that they targeted in the extermination. These included People of Polish ancestry,

homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, people with disabilities (even children), and repeat criminal

offenders. (Mosaic of Victims: In Depth 12) These groups, along with the Jews, were killed for

nothing but being who they were.

 Livgren 12

Liberation

In 1943 World War II was coming to a close and

the Allied Forces were advancing near concentration

camps. When they finally discovered the camps what

they found was something even people seasoned to war

could never prepare for. The Germans had attempted to

Liberation of Jewish Children destroy any evidence of what had happened at the camps.
http://tinyurl.com/435c523

However, the gas chambers were still there, which was

overwhelming evidence. Unfortunately the majority of

the damage had already been done when the camps were liberated. There was still thousands of

sick and starving prisoners still trying to survive in the abandoned camps. (Liberation of Nazi

Camps 1)

Many of these Prisoners had just recently been evacuated from their original camps and

forced to move inward to Germany. The Nazis did this so the Jews wouldn't fall into enemy

hands and tell them what happened. Also the Nazis would have them nearby if they needed them

for work or as hostages for bargaining tools. (Liberation of Nazi Camps 2)

Most of the evacuations occurred by train, but those not lucky enough to hitch a ride had

to walk in what they called the "the death marches." It was called this because the people that

were marched were already on the verge of death from the conditions of the concentration

camps. They were in no condition to walk such distances and if at any time someone were to

slow down during the march they would be killed on the spot. (Death Marches 6)
 Livgren 13

After Liberation - Until 1948 when Israel is formed

After the liberation of the camps there was a crisis concerning where the surviving Jewish

people would go. Even after the war Anti-Semitism in Europe continued to thrive, even if the

Jews wanted to go back to where the originally lived many of the places no longer existed.

(Postwar Refugee… 2) Many Jews had to settle for relocation camps that were eerily similar to

where they had been living, except they had food and water.

Numerous Jews attempted to immigrate to Palestine, but at the time it was illegal so they

were shipped back to Germany. However, much to

the dismay of the Palestinians, the United Nations

passed a resolution that divided Israel into two

separate states. (Postwar Refugee… 10) Soon

afterwards the Nation of Israel was formed. David

Ben-Gurion stated "The Nazi Holocaust, which

2

engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the

urgency of the reestablishment of the Jewish State, which would solve the problem of Jewish

homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the

family of nations." The formation of Israel was very controversial, but many people saw few

other options.

The people that witnessed the events of the Holocaust may not be around much longer,

but because of their testimonies these events will never be forgotten. Consequences of radical

philosophy can never be more clear than they are when studying the Holocaust. The Holocaust is

perhaps the most expensive lesson mankind has ever had to learn. In fact, so expensive that
 Livgren 14

hopefully we never have to see something on this scale ever again. By enlightening people to the

facts of these events I believe this is a very achievable goal.

Works Cited

1945, January. "Death Marches." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 27 Feb.

2011.

"Adolf Hitler." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

"Adolf Hitler Biography - Adolf Hitler Life, Childhood, Timeline." Famous People - Famous

People in History, Famous People List & Biography. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

Austin, Ben. 'The Camps." Middle Tennessee State University. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

Blackman, Rochelle. "Personal Histories." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 04

Apr. 2011.

Corni, Gustavo. Hitler's Ghettos: Voices from a Beleaguered Society 1939-1944. London:

Arnold, 2002.

"Einsatzgruppen (Mobile Killing Units)." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web.

27 Feb. 2011.

"KRISTALLNACHT." Middle Tennessee State University. 25 Feb. 2011

Lehrer, Stephen. Wannsee House and the Holocaust, page 174

"Liberation of Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

Mazal, Harry. "Methods of Murder." The Holocaust History Project Homepage. Web. 01 Apr.

2011.

Meier, David A. "Hitler's Rise to Power." DSU Computer Services. 2000. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

"Mosaic of Victims: In Depth." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.
 Livgren 15

"Postwar Refugee Crisis and the Establishment of the State of Israel." United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum. Web. 04 Apr. 2011.

Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York: Paragon House, 1989

"World War II in Europe Timeline: September 15, 1935 - The Nuremberg Race Laws." The

History Place. Web. 25 Feb. 2011