Introduction
Holocaust is the persecution and the extermination of the Jews who lived in Germany, in territories of its allies and the occupied territories during the Second World War; systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the 1933-1945 years.
Holocaust was one of the biggest tragedies of all times. Significant part of Jewish population was killed. Also, non-Jewish who tried to help to Jewish or who fight against Nazi regime became victims of Holocaust.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler became a Chancellor of Germany. He played the major role in establishing Nazi regime. Several months later, books of Jewish authors were burned and it became forbidden for Jews to participate in cultural life of Germany.
In 1935 Nuremberg Laws were adopted. Two pieces of legislation were providing deprivation of German citizenship of those who did not "have the German or related blood", attention was given to the Jews and Gypsies.
Events of November 9-10, 1938 entered into history as the "Crystal Night". It was the first act of physical violence against the Jewish population in Germany and Austria: thousands of synagogues were burned; stores and shops were destroy and robbed previously. Approximately 30 thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. Authorities have made every effort to present this event to the world as a "spontaneous explosion of public anger" and to show their innocence regarding the action of vandalism.
In 1940, one of the largest concentration camps in Auschwitz was built. Also, many other concentration camps ghettos - areas for living of Jews, existed on occupied by Germany territories. In the concentration camps there were special gas chambers. Using these chambers, Nazis exterminated the disabled, the elderly, children, women and other Jews who were unable to do hard physical work (Gilbert,1986).
Many people who were not directed to gas chambers in the concentration camps died because of cold, hunger and various diseases. Some prisoners of the concentration camps were unable to bear life in camps and committed suicide.
Reasons of Holocaust and Why It Continued for Many Years
Holocaust began with the idea about uniqueness and superiority of individuals who are of Aryans Race. Ideas of such scientists as Galton, Darwin and others became the base of Nazi ideology. Jewish were considered as individuals of the lowest level`s inferior race. It was believed due to Nazi`s propaganda that marriages of non-Jews and Jews lead to “destruction” of superior Aryans race.
Also, Nazi ideology was associated with Galton`s pseudo science named eugenics. Galton noticed that smart and skilful individuals were children of smart and skilful parents. That is why the scientist concluded that artificial selection of people for marriages by their intellectual abilities will “provide” the world with children-genius. On the other hand, it was believed that if a smart person marry a person with lower intellectual abilities it lead to the birth of less smarter children. The implementation of the idea of Galton failed, but many authors indicate that it became the part of Nazi`s ideology (Bergman, 1999).
Historians believe that as a result of deliberate policy, German were able for a quite long time not to pass information on their plans, consequently, Jews were ready to fulfill all requirements of the occupants and moved to ghettos because of hope that it would help them to survive. Also, it is believed that due to German deliberate policy Nazi were able to hide information from other countries about their rimes toward Jews.
Bauman has devoted his book to questions about what has made possible Holocaust, the mass genocide in the XX century. "It is not difficult for us to understand the Holocaust in its enormity. We cannot understand our Western civilization, which allowed the emergence of the Holocaust "- the author writes.
The Aftermath of Holocaust
Various researchers indicate that the number of victims of the Holocaust was about 6 million of people. However, this data is not accurate, since the German authorities after the war for a long period were hiding many archival documents trying to somehow save their "reputation" in the post-war years.
About the Holocaust was filmed many documentaries and feature films. At the moment, it is hardly to find a person who does not know about the Holocaust and the sad events associated with it.
Tourists from around the world have the opportunity to visit the largest concentration camp in Auschwitz, which is located on the territory of Poland. Tourists can see the crematorium, gas chambers, the bones of dead things, toys (which take a Jew out of the house, misunderstanding what to expect) in the "modern" Auschwitz.
However, in the post-wars years, there were also trials to deny the Holocaust as the historical event, as the deliberate policy of extermination of Jews. Government of many countries imposed a ban on Holocaust denial. However, there are several countries (for example, Russia) where approach named “revisionism of Holocaust” still exist.
Holocaust significantly influenced many investigations in psychology. For example, several authors tried to find answer to question why some of non-Jews saved thousands of Jews despite some risks for own safety. Besides studies of prosocial behavior and altruism, there were also studies of authoritarianism, conformism, psychology of mass, etc.
My personal opinion about Holocaust
I saw many movies about Holocaust such as “The Pianist”, “Shindler`s List” and other. Also, I read the book of famous psychotherapist Victor Frankl who spent several years in one of the concentration camps. In the book, Frankl describe his theory of logotherapy but he also described his experience of life in the concentration camp, of losing his family because of Holocaust, etc.
Frankl tried to give the answer to the question about how guards, warders could be so cruel with Jewish prisoners and concluded that most of warders were selected for camps not at random but by particular qualities such as sadistic inclinations, cruelty, aggressiveness, etc. (Frankl, 1985).
The topic of Holocaust always induces strong negative emotions and feelings in me because it is hard for me to understand how Nazi could be so cruel and heartless toward Jewish. I cannot understand how people could quietly observe what happened in Germany and in occupied territory. Of course, many people accepted Nazi regime as passive observers because of fear and conformism, etc. However, many people also were not just a passive observers but actively participated in Nazi`s crimes and accepted its ideology.
Of course, we can understand those people, residents of Germany or occupied territories who not try to fight against Nazi regime because of fear for own life and safety of their families. However, some historical examples demonstrated that non-Jewish people, authorities could prevent the extermination of thousands of Jews if they protested against Nazi. For example, the civilian population of Bulgaria, the authorities prevented the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps. In the capital of Bulgaria, demonstrations were organized in support of the Jews. Orthodox Church, intellectuals, political parties and the National Assembly deputies opposed the deportation of Jews and were successful in their oppositions (Weidenfeld &.Nicolson, 2001).
I was very surprised when read about approach of revisionism of Holocaust. It is hard to believe that there are people who dare to deny such tragic historical event, the death of millions of innocent people, etc.
Reference
Gilbert, M. (1986). The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
Frankl, V. E. (1985). Man's search for meaning. Simon and Schuster.
Weidenfeld &.Nicolson (2001). The fragility of goodness: Why Bulgaria's Jews survived the Holocaust
Bergman, J. (1999). Darwinism and the Nazi race Holocaust. Journal of Creation, 13(2), 101-111.
