History of the Holocaust
Adolf Hitler’s hatred toward Jews began in 1889 when he served in the German army in World War 1. He did not believe that it was anyone else’s fault for losing the war except for the Jews. Not long after the war had ended in Europe, Hitler joined the group called National German Worker’s Party, also known as, Nazi. Hitler was infatuated with the thought of the German race being the pure and superior race. After he was released from prison, he knew that the country was at its weakest point. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hitler was proclaimed chancellor of Germany on January 20, 1933 and was now Germany’s superior ruler (The Holocaust, 2013). Hitler wanted the German people to fight for land so their people could settle on the new land, raise large families in order to fight the next war of expansion.
This is the entrance to Dachau concentration camp. This is what the people saw as they entered the camp. This photo was taken in June 2008.
The first official concentration to be opened was Dachau in March 1933. Many of the prisoners that first stayed at Dachau were communist, and were under the ruling of Heinrich Himmler. Heinrich Himmler was the head of the Nazi guard and made his way up to be the chief of German police (The Holocaust, 2013). Nazi officials selected 70,000 Jewish institutionalized, mentally unstable, and people with disabilities to be euthanized or put in a gas chamber. Although German leaders protested against this program due to their religious beliefs, this program still continued under secrecy. It is thought that this program was the leading factor to the Holocaust (The Holocaust, 2013). By 1941, there were not only concentration camps but Polish ghettoes.