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Rebecca Logan

Mr. Neuburger

Composition 102-110

March 7, 2011

Annotated Bibliography

Holocaust

1. Daniel Blackmon¶s Contemporary History Class, ³The IB Holocaust Project.´ Enabling Act.
International Baccalaureate Program, Coral Gables Senior High School, Web. 1997.

In 1920 the Social Democratic Party had the highest of seats ranking 102 in the Weimar
Republic. It wasn¶t until July of 1932 that the Nazi party gained 230 seats to the SDP¶s 133 seats.
Then in 1933 a bill was proposed during the general election. This bill was known as the
Enabling Act and would give Hitler dictatorial powers. He only needed two-thirds majority of
the Reichstag session to vote in his favor. After convincing the president of the Weimar Republic
to ³sign a decree that authorized the Minister of the Interior and the In 1920 the Social
Democratic Party had the highest of seats ranking 102 in the Weimar Republic. It wasn¶t until
July of 1932 that the Nazi party gained 230 seats to the SDP¶s 133 seats. Then in 1933 a bill was
proposed during the general election. This bill was known as the Enabling Act and would give
Hitler dictatorial powers. He only needed two-thirds majority of the Reichstag session to vote in
his favor. After convincing the president of the Weimar Republic to ³sign a decree that
authorized the Minister of the Interior police to prohibit public meeting and publications that
could endanger public security´ this bill was passed by the German Reichstag. Yet this session
was also diminished of all Communist and the Socialist deputies due to arrests or fleeing of the
country. Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of the Weimar Republic and Hitler¶s government
was now able to issue decrees independently from the Reichstag and presidency under the
Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

I found this website helpful by means of understanding just how Hitler was able to gain his
dictatorship.

2. Home page. ³A Teacher¶s Guide to the Holocaust.´ Camps: Killing methods.

College of Education, University of South Florida, Web. 1997-2009.

The Nazi¶s came up with some of the most dreadful ways to mass murder the Jews, gypsies, or
the ³undesirable´ groups. There idea to convey in the Final Solution was to be carried out in the
fastest way possible. At first they were simply testing out different methods to mass murder.

During these mass shootings they would capture Jews and then force them to dig out their own
graves. If that was not done then there were large mass graves already dug. They would line up
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the Jews so that when shot they would fall into the grave. After the mass shootings came to be
more of an uneasy and harder process came about gassing trucks.

In this method they were able to force fill Jews into a sealed up truck, lead exhaust gas into the
truck, and then dump them like trash in the grave pits once they had suffocated to death. This
also helped the killers of any mental anguish they may feel for the murdering. The idea of
gassing trucks brought about the idea for constructing a large facility of mass destruction.

The most common method used for the mass murdering of the Jews in the extermination camps
were through the use of gas chambers. This was the most effective way they discovered to
exterminate Jews and the Nazis would pack them into the gas chamber and then close the doors.
The camp personnel would then either use exhaust gas or poison gas in the form of Zyclon B or
A, and lead it into the chamber.

This site found gave me a better insight on the timeline of differences in assassination and
extermination of the Jews brought upon by the Nazis.

3. Home page. ³The Holocaust\Shoah Page.´ a
emb
g Laws: K
istallnacht

Victims of the Holocaust, Web. 21 February 1996

In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws became adopted at the annual Congress at Nuremburg. There were
two measures under these laws that were rapidly improvised. These were a series of laws that
allowed the violence of the Nazi anti-Semitism and made anti-Semitism legal. The laws
emphasized that that there could be no interracial marriages and euthanasia came about as goal to
make the purest people. This law known as the Law for Protection of German Blood and German
Honor protected the true German population from the taint of non-Aryan races. The second law,
The Reich Citizenship Law, stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a new
distinction between ³Reich citizens´ and ³nationals.´ Numerous laws were passed and were
restricting any type of Jewish economic action and job-related opportunities. The Jews were
initially deprived of any rights they had as a citizen, and everyone in Germany was required to
carry identification cards but the government added a red ³J´ to be stamped on the Jews¶. This
made it much easier for the police to distinguish Jews from the rest of the citizens. Then on
October 28th there were 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship that were deported to the Polish
border. They were denied entering the country and were sent to relocation camps on the Polish
frontier.
Grynszpan¶s attack was interpreted by Goebbels, Hitler¶s Chief of Propaganda, to be a
conspiracy attack. The assassination gave Goebbels the justification to launch a program against
German Jews for he believed it was a conspiracy of ³International Jewry´ against the Reich and
was representatively against Hitler himself. This program he launches becomes known as ³the
Night of Broken Glass´ and named Kristallnacht. This is also known to be the beginnings of the
Holocaust.

These website pages allowed me to understand the break down of the Nuremburg Laws and the
night of the Kristallnacht, which is said to be the start of the Holocaust.
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4. Trueman, Chris. ³History Learning Site.´ ï
eaty of Ve
sailles
World History on the web, Web. 2000.

The peace settlement known as the Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany to settle the war
but the chaos of the country became ingrained in a Civil War. Although Germany agreed to sign
they had initially been given the two options to either sign or be invaded by the Allies. Seeing
how Germany was incapable to start a war again this treaty was more or less forced upon them as
they had no choice. Germany was blamed entirely for the war and financially held responsible
while the citizens felt as if they were being punished for the wrong of the German government.
Now that the Treaty of Versailles had been signed in 1922 it left Germany in a critically poor
state.

This website gave good background in all that entailed within the signing of the treaty as well as
terms of and reactions to.

5. Home page. ³The History Place.´ Wansee Confe
ence

Web. 4 July 1996

Soon to follow the Nazi government began to round up Jews all over and send them to ghettos
along rail lines, to be deported, to be persecuted in concentration camps, and finally,
extermination. Their method varied from different areas and for example, Poland formed ghettos
that could be walled in and the Jews were forced to sew a yellow star on their clothes for
identification. Other places like Russia would put up notices for all Jews to be required to gather
at a listed location so that they are deported by train. Jews in German occupied countries were
sent to concentration camps. The Nazi regime had undeniably become the most organized and
vicious campaign of mass extermination ever to be recognized. The concentration camps were
made to be their definitive establishment to send Jews for years to come.
The obvious goal for the Wansee Conference was to rid the Jews of all German living spaces but
in a legal manner through the ³Final Solution.´ The quick and accelerated enforcement of
emigration was soon realized to have drawbacks and financial difficulties. There was a demand
for higher sums of money to be given to the government official in various foreign countries.
These various governments demanded payment at the time of Jews arrival and for the lack of
shipping space. There was also an increase in the restriction of entry permits, thus making
difficulties for emigration. Yet despite all of the difficulties there were an estimated 537,000
Jews that were sent out of the country.

This website gave me a lot of good insight on the rounding up of the Jews and what all took
place at the Wansee Conference.

6. Peter Vogelsang & Brian B.M. Larsen. ³The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies.´ Holoca st Ed cation: Camps. Web. 2002

Ultimately there was not much of a selection process for all Jews were eventually exterminated.
Families were torn apart and children were taken from their mother¶s arms. It was very sad and
sadistic in its entirety of treating the non-Aryan race.
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There were six extermination camps and Chelmno was the first of the camps that began as a part
to the Final Solution. Its first and only purpose was to exterminate and kill the people. Chelmno
used gassing trucks and estimated a killing of 152,000 Jews.

Following the establishment of Chelmno came about three more extermination camps. These
camps were set up for the 3 million Jews that occupied Poland and operated under the code-name
Operation Reinhard. The three camps were Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor.

Belzec was established in May of 1942 and was used as an extermination camp till August of
1943. The gas chambers there used exhaust gas to commit the mass murdering of the 600,000
Jews that fell victim to the ruthless competence of the camps demeanor.

At Sobibor¶s camp there were 250,000 prisoners that lost their lives in Sobibor¶s gas chambers.
These chambers, like Belzec, used the same method with the exhaust gas to carry out its industry
in the unruly mass murdering. Sobibor began its business of killing Jews in May 1942 and it
sustained killing Jews until a rebellion among the prisoners put a stop to the actions of the camp.

The extermination camp Treblinka had the same uprising of mad prisoners that destroyed many
of its facilities. That rebellion took place August 1943 and the camp was responsible for the
deaths of 900,000 Jews. Just like Chelmno and Sobibor, it too used the exhaust gas in its gas
chambers. It was run from July 1942 until November 1943.

Operation Reinhard was said to of killed an estimated 1.75 million Jews and several thousand
gypsies. There were very limited people that survived from the camps. The enormous
mainstream of people forced in were killed immediately upon arrival for the most part, and very
few escaped during the uprisings that took place.

This entire site gave great detail of how the Nazi¶s carried out the Final Solution, which involved
the selection process, camps, and their killing methods.

7. Home page. ³American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.´ Libe
ation: a
emb
g Laws

Web. 2002

There were two measures under these laws that were rapidly improvised. These were a series of
laws that allowed the violence of the Nazi anti-Semitism and made anti-Semitism legal. The laws
emphasized that that there could be no interracial marriages and euthanasia came about as goal to
make the purest people. This law is known as the Law for Protection of German Blood and
German Honor. The second law, The Reich Citizenship Law, stripped Jews of their German
citizenship. Numerous laws were passed and were restricting any type of Jewish economic action
and job-related opportunities. The Jews were initially deprived of any rights they had as a
citizen, and everyone in Germany was required to carry identification cards but the government
added a red ³J´ to be stamped on the Jews¶. This made it much easier for the police to distinguish
Jews from the rest of the citizens. Then on October 28th there were 17,000 Jews of Polish
citizenship that were deported to the Polish border. They were denied entering the country and
were sent to relocation camps on the Polish frontier.
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In the aftermath of the liberation during 1945 came help from the Allied troops. Upon their
arrival the Allies saw the terrible sights of the extermination camps and the piles of dead bodies,
bones, and ashes. Any survivors still at the camps were barely alive from the brutal conditions of
hunger and disease. There were many thousands that died in the first months after being
liberated.

Gradually all the camps became liberated once the Allies began to advance towards the German
army. Maidanek was liberated by Soviet forces in July 1944 and Auschwitz in January 1945.
Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British army in April of 1945 and Dachau was taken over by
the Americans in April of 1945.

These web pages allowed me to understand the Nuremburg laws better and I found good detailed
information on the liberation of the Jews.