Holocaust was a period during World War II (1939-1945) when Nazi Germany tried to destroy all the Jews. Adolf Hitler, Chancellor (Chief) of Germany, was the leader of the Nazis. The Nazis slaughtered more than 6 million Jewish men, women, and children. The Holocaust was the worst attempt in history to get rid of a certain race of people. When it finally ended, the Jews were given a safe place to live.

Hitler believed that the Germans were a ‘superior’ race and that Jews, homosexuals and Slavs were inferior. He wanted them all dead, so he tried to make everyone hate anyone of that race and promised to get rid of all them. Other Germans followed Hitler because they were angry at other countries for taking away their money, land, and weapons at the end of World War I.

Ghettos were a specific place the Jews had to live in the beginning of the Holocaust. These were towns the Jews went to when they were being punished. The Nazi ghettos were different. This was the first place you were put when you were about to be killed. Some ghettos were enclosed, others weren’t. Larger cities had ghettos that were closed with brick, stone walls, wooden fences, or barbed wire. Jews were not allowed to leave the ghettos. All the ghettos did not have good living conditions. Most people were put in ghettos near their homes, and some parents continued to educate their children while in the ghettos. Later on, the ghettos were used as a drop off point before the Jews were sent to a concentration camp.

Concentration camps were places that were considered death camps. These camps had equipment for gassing people. Anybody that Hitler did not approve of, and wanted to get rid of, would be put in a room and killed by some kind of poison. Most of the victims came here from nearby ghettos. They included women, children, and older men that could not work. The men that could do work were used in shops or plants, but were eventually killed. Victims were sent to these camps mostly by trains, and the police had to pay for the one-way tickets. If there were 1000 or more victims, the fare was ½ the price. Sometimes the sick and older people would die during the ride.

Some victims were put in vans and killed by letting the van run with gas leaking into the van, and the carbon monoxide would kill them. Some victims were shot. The largest death camp, Auschwitz, used quick-working hydrogen cyanide for the gassings. Jewish and non-Jewish both worked here. Some of the prisoners were used for medical experiments or sterilizations. Others died from starvation, disease, or shooting. The bodies of the gassed were burnt so that there was no trace left.

When World War II ended, millions of Jews, homosexuals, and others had died in the Holocaust. The biggest killings occurred in the summer and fall of 1942. Very few people lived to tell the real story, so there weren’t many Nazis punished for all the crimes that were committed. The ones that were caught were put in prison or given the death sentence. The survivors of the Holocaust needed a safe place to live. The United States and Britain were the 2 countries in a position to resolve this issue. Britain had control of Palestine and on November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly divided Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. This gave the Jewish survivors a safe place to live.

Berenbaum, Michael. "Holocaust." World Book 2001.

Microsoft Corporation. "Holocaust." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia ’99.