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The Holocaust was the planned and state-supported execution of around six million Jews. The persecution was carried out by the Nazi administration and its supporters. The Nazis, came to rule in Germany in 1933; they deemed Jews as inferior to Germans and that they were contaminating the German community. The Nazi reign continued until 1945 when they were finally defeated.
As well as targeting Jews, the Nazis also singled out gypsies, homosexuals, those with disabilities and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In fact, any person who put up resistance to the Nazi’s was either sent to a labour camp or was killed.
Although the common name for Nazi camps is “concentration camps,” there were several types of camp. These included concentration camps, extermination camps, labour camps, prisoner-of-war camps and transit camps. Life for the Jews within the camps was awful. Prisoners were made to work hard with very little food. Furthermore, they had to sleep up to three people on one bare wooden bunk. There was also a great deal of torture and killing in the camps. At several concentration camps, Nazi physicians carried out medical experiments on the Jews without their consent. While the concentration camps were designed to make the prisoners work hard while starving them to death, extermination camps were designed to kill large numbers of people quickly and without fuss. It is difficult to comment on which of these camps would have been worse.
Although it is generally accepted that these atrocities took place, there are people who deny the Holocaust. Such people sometimes claim that the Nazi government had no official policy to eradicate the Jews. Others claim that the Nazis did not use extermination camps or gas chambers to carry out mass killings. Holocaust deniers do not tend to agree to the word “denial” as a definition of their point of view. Instead, they use the word “revisionism.” However, they cannot use this term in a historical sense as they largely ignore historical evidence in formulating their arguments.
Although Holocaust Denial is actually illegal in many countries, there are still people who take up the position. However, there is a vast wealth of historical evidence which confirms that the mass-murder of Jews did take place, in a premeditated fashion, by the Nazi rule.
Annotated Bibliography
Gilbert, M. (1989). The Holocaust. Harper Collins: New Ed edition.
This book provides a detailed account of the Jews’ experience of the Holocaust. It is told in the words of men and women who were actually there and lived through it. This is a disturbing book with some graphic descriptions of events. It is likely to prove useful in my research as it draws on real life experiences.
Longerich, P. (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. OUP
Oxford.
This book offers a broad history of the Nazi persecution and murder of European Jews. It particularly concentrates on the perpetrators and looks carefully at the decision making processes that took place. Longerich claims that anti-Semitism was not a simple consequence of the Nazis' political enlistment or an effort to deflect attention, but that the disappearance of Jews was planned as the initial step nearer a racially homogeneous society. As this book pays attention to the perpetrators, it will prove useful in my research process. It is relatively unbiased which is also an advantage.
Lipstadt, D. (1994). Denying the Holocaust: A Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.
Penguin.
In this book of Holocaust denial history, Deborah Lipstadt explains how this illogical idea has not only carried on gaining supporters but has also developed into an internationally structured movement. This source will be of large assistance to me when I come to write my section on Holocaust denial.
Shermer, M. (2009). Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why do
they Say it? University of California Press.
This book takes a brave and detailed look at the people who claim that the Holocaust never happened and investigates the impetuses driving such statements. Historians Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have absorbed themselves in the thoughts and culture of the deniers in an attempt to get to the bottom of their argument. This book will be useful in writing about Holocaust denial and, indeed, in the proof that it did happen.
Think Quest Library. The Holocaust: A Tragic Legacy. Retrieved from
http://library.thinkquest.org/12663/
This award winning website provides a solid grounding to the Holocaust as a whole. There is a detailed timeline which clearly sets out the chain of events leading up to and beyond the Holocaust. This website will be useful in providing an insight into the Holocaust, with pages that are easy to use. Finding information on this site will be quick and simple.
Auschwitz. The Holocaust: Crimes, Heroes and Villains. Retrieved from
http://www.auschwitz.dk/
Perhaps the most useful and unique thing about this website is its range of biographies of key players within the Holocaust. I will be able to cross reference the information here, especially with the book by Longerich, in building up a picture of the motivation behind the Nazi rule.
