The Holocaust was a tragic event in history. Over 11 million lives were lost because of cruel racial prejudice. During world war two, the Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler, encouraged prejudice against Jews and other “undesirables” such as gypsies, homosexuals, mentally/physically disabled/, and all political opponents. Jewish children soon could not go to schools with the other German children. Jewish businesses were forced to close, Jewish temples were burned and vandalized.After two potential solutions to the "Jewish Problem" failed, the Nazis developed “The Final Solution”, a plan to get rid of all the Jews. The Nazis decided as the "Final Solution" that the most efficient way of doing this was to set up extermination (killing, but the word exterminating is used to imply that those "undesirables" were seen as animals, diseases or vermin which are indeed exterminated, and not murdered like in this case) camps so the "undesirables" would not pass on their genes and disrupt the Nazis’ quest for the perfect race - the "Aryans". The Nazis also set up ghettos, where Jews would live in the most horrible conditions. Though the Nazis did not achieve their goal, they managed to kill millions of Jews and others in a display of cruel, sadistic, inhumane acts.
The 8 Stages of Genocide
Classification - Jews in Germany had to identify that they were Jews in their passports.
Symbolization - Jews had to have golden "J"s stamped on their passports and have golden stars of David sown on to the outer layer of their clothes.
Dehumanization -
Organization - The social persecution of the discriminated group by government (that funds militias) and mobs. In the case of the Holocaust, Hitler trained youth from a very early age to support faschism and Nazism to become future Nazi officers.
Polarization - The separating of people. The separation of Jews from other Aryans into ghettos.
Preparation - Preparing for organized extermination. Death lists are made, all Jews are accounted for. Some Jews sent into labor camps, some sent to death camps.
Extermination - The killing of people thought of as bugs. Jews shot into graves that they dug for themselves. Jews killed in gas chambers that they thought were shower rooms.