The Holocaust

Persecution of the Jews was not something new; from the Middle Ages when many Clergy men blamed the Jews for killing Jesus  to the forced conversions, pogroms and blood libel throughout the centuries, Jews have suffered persecution because of their beliefs.  When the Nazis came to power, in Germany, in 1933 almost instantanious action was taken against the Jews.  It first started with scapegoating and name calling, blaming the Jews for Germany’s problems.  This was nothing new, the Jews, as a collective, had experienced this throughout the centuries. 

However, the Nazi action worsened. From march 1933 boycotts of Jewish businesses were commonplace across Germany.  Jews were humiliated and degraded by the new regime and it’s supporters.  By mid 1934, the Boycotts had suddenly stopped.  The Nazis begam to introduce restrictive laws that meant the freedoms enjoy under the Weimar Republic for Jews and Germans alike began to disappear.  Yet things would worsen.

In 1935 the Nazis introduced a series of laws, commonly known as the Nuremburg laws, that stripped all Jews of their German citizenship.  The Reich Citizenship Law clearly defined who was and was not a German citizen, whilst the Laws for the protection German blood and German Honor, forbid marriages and relationships between “Germans” and Jews.  These laws were later enforced against the black and Roma people of Germany.   The boycotts of Jewish businesses intensified. 

1936 came around and Berlin held the olympics.  With the world watching, actions against the Jews was hidden by a fascade of respectibility as an international community member.  However, life soon returned to normal after the games.  By the time 1938  had rolled around a nationwide pogrom was launched on the 9th and 10th of November.  Kristallnacht (The night of broken glass) was a nationwide attack by the German nation upon synaggues, Jewish businesses and Jewish homes.  From there life for the Jews never recovered. 

From November 1939, all Jews were forced to wear a Star of David. 

 By 1945, over 11 million people had been systematically and ruthlessly exterminated.  6 million of those were Jews, and 1.5 million children, as well as Roma, Gypsies, Slavs, Blacks and Homosexuals.    

 And the world said “NEVER AGAIN” – how wrong they were!