To the Viewers

1. This blog is meant to be examined through the lens of racism, prejudice,fear, and/or a combination of them. One idea has the ability to become a catastrophic event.
2. Please start with the oldest post (The Idea) first and work to the newest post (Justice?). It will make more sense that way
3. Click on the pictures or where it says "Click here for more" to explore websites that will give you more in depth background and knowledge about the event in the blog.
4. When you finish, what other events in human history can you think of where a combination of racism, prejudice, and fear have played a role?

Justice?

After Germany surrendered, the truth about the Concentration Camps became public. The Allied Forces had found camps throughout Germany and the countries it had occupied during the war. Somebody had to be held responsible for the atrocities that had been committed at these camps, and they were. Many high ranking German military officials were arrested and put on trial at Nuremberg. They were found guilty of crimes against humanity, most were executed while a few were sentenced to life in prison.

Discovery of the Camps

Near the very end of the war, Germany's military was forced to use all its available resources to defend itself. As the war came closer to an end, German forces retreated inward and left the Concentration Camps abandoned, except for the prisoners. The prisoners were left to die in the camps, no food or fresh water was left behind for most of them, and they were too weak to escape them anyways. When the Allied Forces discovered the camps, which had been abandoned for days or sometimes weeks, what they saw was unfathomable.

Life in the Camps

Life in the German Concentration Camps was a death sentence for almost all that entered them as prisoners. Once entering the camps, most were executed shortly after their arrival. The fortunate ones, who were mostly young men, were forced to work at the camps until they themselves died. Life in these camps is unimaginable to anyone who did not experience it, those few who did live through it are willing to share their stories with us so something like this may not happen again.

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The Camps

How was Hitler and his followers in the Nazi Party going to accomplish the "Final Solution"? What were they going to do with the millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other "inferior" groups of people that they rounded up within Germany and German occupied countries? They created labor camps or Concentration Camps, but to the people that they were sending to the camps, they became known as death camps. Millions were murdered within these camps because of who they were, that was their only crime.

The Beginning

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, unfortunately was only the beginning of a very long nightmare for Jewish people in Germany and later on German occupied countries. During Kristallnacht, thousands of Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes were destroyed. Thousands of Jews were rounded up and never seen from again on this first night. The nightmare of the Final Solution had begun.

The Idea

Racism, prejudice, and fear have all played major parts during some of the darkest times of human history. The Holocaust was one of the darkest moments in human history. Hitler's idea of the "master race", a race of people from Nordic ancestry, helped him and his followers in the Nazi Party to believe that many other groups of people were inferior. This idea led to Hitler's "Final Solution" and to the death of millions Jewish people.