|
World War II/Holocaust
Between 1933-44,
the Nazi regime of Germany oppressed and captured millions
of Jews from Germany, Poland, Austria, and some surrounding
countries. At the beginning of the Nazi regime in 1933,
the Nazi party forbade Jews any rights in the state, including
the right to be German citizens. Each year, Jewish citizens
of Germany and its neighboring countries found more and
more of their rights diminishing. By 1935, they were completely
segregated from society and were even denied the right to
enter most areas.
In 1938, the Gestapo began
to round up Jews for deportation and capture. Hundreds of
thousands of Jews were killed in the process. Those who
survived capture were placed into camps: concentration camps,
forced labor camps, death camps, transit camps, and prisoner-of-war
camps.
Concentration camps were used
as holding tanks for Jews in mass numbers. Dachau, the first
concentration camp, opened near Munich in 1933. The homeless,
alcoholic and unemployed were the first to experience life
in the concentration camps in 1933. In 1938, the German
government began to order the first massive round of deportation
of Jews to concentration camps, which existed not only in
Germany, but in Poland, Austria and the smaller countries
annexed to Germany. Concentration camp victims often died
of starvation or disease, as little food and no medical
help was available.
Having begun the separation
of Jews from German society, Hitler declared the eventual
extermination of the Jewish race in 1940. Aktion Reinhard,
an operation designed to exterminate the Jews inside Poland,
began in 1942. For the complete obliteration of the Jews,
the Nazis used the extermination camps, or death camps as
they are often called.
Living conditions in all of
the camps was horrific, but death camps were especially
inhumane, since they were designed specifically for mass
extermination. Six death camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibór, Lublin (also called Majdanek),
and Chelmno. The first, Chelmno, opened in 1941. The others
initiated operations in 1942. All of the death camps were
located in Poland. At Auschwitz, by far the worst of the
death camps, Jews were not only gassed in massive numbers,
they were also the subjects of sterilization experiments.
In October 1942, Hitler ordered all German concentration
camp prisoners to be moved to Auschwitz. Prisoners in Poland's
concentration camps were simply shot and killed.
The number of people gassed
at each of the death camps individually was in the hundreds
of thousands. While 5 of the camps stopped operating by
1943, Auschwitz continued until 1944--with a death toll
of about 1 million Jews and 1 million non-Jews. While gassings
had ended, prisoners remained at Auschwitz. Soviet troops
finally liberated Auschwitz in 1945. After Auschwitz ceased
operation and the Nuremberg war crime trials had begun in
1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of the Auschwitz
crematorium in an attempt to hide evidence of the death
camps' existence. However, he was captured in 1945 but committed
suicide before he could be sentenced, and Hitler himself
committed suicide on April 30, 1945.
The Grahams' Involvement
During their visit to Auschwitz,
Poland, Billy and Ruth Graham lay a wreath of red and white
carnations at the Wall of Death, where some 20,000 prisoners
had been shot to death. In his autobiography, Billy Graham
describes his emotions as he kneels by the wall, choked
by so much emotion he could barely speak. His visit there
inscribed for him the importance of Christians to work for
peace.
Holocaust
| Korean War | JFK's
Assassination | Vietnam War
| Civil Rights Movement
Watergate | Televangelist
Scandals | Oklahoma City Bombing
|
