What is the Holocaust?

The Holocaust is a name given to the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of millions of people by the Nazi regime before and during World War II. Many scholars refer strictly to the Nazi actions against Jewish peoples as the Holocaust. However, this limitation is misleading, as many peoples were affected: Jewish, African, Roma, Homosexual, Disabled, Catholic, Polish, and numerous other groups of varying beliefs, cultures, religions, and lifestyles. The Nazi regime [National Socialist Party of Germany under Adolf Hitler] came into existence in the 1920s (1), coming into power in 1933 (2). They were ousted from power in 1945, with the end of World War II in Europe; however, to this day, Nazis, Neo-Nazis, and Nazi-supporters still exist. While Nazism has many negative images and memories attached to it, the biggest negative is the racism display by the deliberate destruction of about six million Jewish people and an equal number of non-Jewish people (3). To this day, there are people who deny the occurrence of the Holocaust, while an ever dwindling number of survivors insist that the atrocities definitely existed, supported by photographic evidence as well as firsthand accounts by members of the Nazi party, including the Commandant [Rudolph Hoss] of Auschwitz, a Concentration Camp where millions of people were executed and cremated (4)(5).

One noted person who admitted to the Holocaust was Albert Speer [Inspector General of Building; Minister of Armaments and Munitions; Minister of Armaments and War Production]. In his memoirs he stated "It was part of his [Hitler's] dream to subjugate other nations. France, I had heard him say many times, was to be reduced to the state of a small nation. Belgium, Holland, even Burgundy, were to be incorporated into his Reich. The national life of the Poles and the Soviet Russians was to be extinguished; they were to be made into helot peoples. Nor, for one who wanted to listen, had Hitler ever concealed his intention to exterminate the Jewish people. In his speech of January 6, 1939, he openly stated as much (6)."

Other noted Nazi leaders were quoted by Speer as being aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In notating the Nuremburg Trail, which held the Nazi’s accountable for crimes against their victims, he recorded several reactions and quotes by his fellows. “Even Streicher [Gauleiter] in his final speech condemned Hitler’s “mass killings of Jews.” Funk [Minster of Economics] spoke of frightful crimes that filled him with profound shame. Schacht [Minister of Finance; State Secretary in Propaganda Ministry] declared that he stood “shaken to the depths of his soul by the unspeakable misery which he had tried to prevent.” Sauckal; [Gauleiter] was “shocked in his inmost soul by the crimes that had been revealed in the course of the trial.” Papen [Vice Chancellor] declared that “the power of evil had proved stronger than that of good.” Seyss-Inquart [Reich Commissar for the Netherlands; Foreign Minister] spoke of “fearful excesses.” To Fritzsche [Department Head in Ministry of Propaganda] “the murder of five million people” was “a gruesome warning for the future.” On the other hand they all denied their own share in these events (7).”

Sources:

(1) Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Holocaust A History. New York City: W W Norton & Company Inc, 2002. Page 63.

(2) Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Holocaust A History. New York City: W W Norton & Company Inc, 2002. Page 67.

(3) Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Holocaust A History. New York City: W W Norton & Company Inc, 2002. Page 354.

(4) Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Holocaust A History. New York City: W W Norton & Company Inc, 2002. Page 361.

(5) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992. Pages 39 and 336-377.

(6) Speer, Albert, and Eugene Davidson. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer. Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston. New York City: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1970. Page 523.

(7) Speer, Albert, and Eugene Davidson. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer. Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston. New York City: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1970. Pages 519-520.