User:OnBeyondZebrax/sandbox/The Holocaust
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Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the genocides, turning the Third Reich into "a genocidal state".[1]
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The basic motivation [of the Holocaust] was purely ideological, rooted...in international Jewish conspiracy to control the world Bauer 2002, p. 48 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBauer2002 (help).</ref> }}
German historian Eberhard Jäckel wrote in 1986 that before the Holocaust, no leader had decided that a "... specific human group, including its aged, its women and its children and infants, would be killed as quickly as possible."[2] }}
The killings were systematically conducted in virtually all areas of German-occupied territory in what are now 35 separate European countries.[3] The use of camps equipped with gas chambers for the purpose of systematic mass extermination of peoples was a unique feature of the Holocaust and unprecedented in history. Never before had there existed places with the express purpose of killing people en masse.
A distinctive feature of Nazi genocide was the extensive use of human subjects in "medical" experiments.
A number of deadly pogroms by local populations occurred during the Second World War, some with Nazi encouragement, and some spontaneously. This included the Iaşi pogrom in Romania on 30 June 1941, in which as many as 14,000 Jews were killed by Romanian residents and police.
Starting in December 1939, the Nazis introduced new methods of mass murder by using gas.[4] First, experimental gas vans equipped with gas cylinders and a sealed trunk compartment, were used to kill mental care clients of sanatoria. These gas vans were developed and run under supervision of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office) and were used to kill about 500,000 people.[4]
During 1942, in addition to Auschwitz, five other camps were designated as extermination camps (Vernichtungslager) for the carrying out of the Reinhard plan.[5]
The most well known example of Jewish armed resistance was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of January 1943, when thousands of poorly armed Jewish fighters held the SS at bay for four week. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Jewish partisans (see the list at the top of this section) actively fought the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe.[6][7] French Jews were also highly active in the French Resistance, which conducted a guerilla campaign against the Nazis and Vichy French authorities-Birkenau – The Film about the Amazing Escape from Auschwitz—Now Available on DVD|publisher=En.auschwitz.org.pl|date=13 January 2009|accessdate=31 July 2010}}</ref>
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, Jewish inmates, escaped from Auschwitz in April 1944, eventually reaching Slovakia. The 32-page document they dictated to Jewish officials about the mass murder at Auschwitz became known as the Vrba-Wetzler report. Vrba had an eidetic memory and had worked on the Judenrampe, where Jews disembarked from the trains to be "selected" either for the gas chamber or slave labor. The level of detail with which he described the transports allowed Slovakian officials to compare his account with their own deportation records, and the corroboration convinced the Allies to take the report seriously.[8]
Two other Auschwitz inmates, Arnost Rosin and Czesław Mordowicz escaped on 27 May 1944, arriving in Slovakia on 6 June, the day of the Normandy landing (D-Day). Hearing about Normandy, they believed the war was over and got drunk to celebrate, using dollars they'd smuggled out of the camp. They were arrested for violating currency laws, and spent eight days in prison, before the Judenrat paid their fines. The additional information they offered the Judenrat was added to Vrba and Wetzler's report and became known as the Auschwitz Protocols. They reported that, between 15 and 27 May 1944, 100,000 Hungarian Jews had arrived at Birkenau, and had been killed at an unprecedented rate, with human fat being used to accelerate the burning.[9]
The BBC and The New York Times published material from the Vrba-Wetzler report on 15 June,[10] 20 June 3 July[11] and 6 July[12] 1944. The subsequent pressure from world leaders persuaded Miklós Horthy to bring the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz to a halt on 9 July, saving up to 200,000 Jews from the extermination camps.[9]
On 14 November 2001, in the 150th anniversary issue, The New York Times ran an article by former editor Max Frankel reporting that before and during World War II, the Times had maintained a strict policy in their news reporting and editorials to minimize reports on the Holocaust.[13] The Times accepted the detailed analysis and findings of journalism professor Laurel Leff, who had published an article the year before in the Harvard International Journal of the Press and Politics, that The New York Times had deliberately suppressed news of the Third Reich's persecution and murder of Jews.[14] Leff concluded that New York Times reporting and editorial policies made it virtually impossible for American Jews to impress Congress, church or government leaders with the importance of helping Europe's Jews.[15]