What is a Holocaust? Where to look for its origins? A Brief History of the Holocaust In which country is the Holocaust located.

Holocaust is one of the worst events that took place in the 20th century, and one of the greatest crimes against humanity as such. In the period from 1933 to 1945, inhuman discrimination and extermination of Jews and not only was carried out.

Mass persecution, persecution, ghettos and concentration camps, and ultimately physical extermination along racial lines.

In 1941, there were about 11 million Jews living in Europe; by May 1945, the Nazis had destroyed six million of them. Approximately one and a half million of them are children. In the broadest sense of the word, the Holocaust is not limited to the extermination of the Jews. Also under the Nazi machine of destruction were:

• gypsies;
• people with physical and mental disabilities;
• sexual minorities.

Holocaust Slavs.

The Slavs were considered by the Nazis to be an "inferior race" who were to be enslaved and ultimately wiped off the face of the earth. According to the estimates of various historians, 3 million Ukrainians, 1.6 million Russians and 1.5 million Belarusians were destroyed at the hands of the Nazis due to racial hatred. In total, up to 20 million people living in the territory of the Soviet Union became victims of the Slavs.

• Meaning of the Holocaust
• Memory of the Holocaust

Everyone, regardless of age, gender and historical knowledge, has ever heard of violence and cruelty, massacres during the fascist rampages, but not everyone can define what the Holocaust is.

Meaning of the Holocaust

In dictionaries, you can find many interpretations and meanings, however, only two can be named the most correct and appropriate definitions, which are similar in meaning, but different in features.
In the very appearance of this word, fascist Germany gave the definition that the Holocaust is the numerous destruction and constant persecution of the Jewish peoples, both on the territory of Germany and all the occupied territories during the greatest war of the last century. Jews living in Europe received special attention. It represents the most horrifying and world-famous example of genocide, on a par with the reprisals of the Ottoman Empire.
If at the very beginning the Holocaust represented only the destruction of the Jewish peoples, then in the midst of the war, everyone who was not pleasing to the German government was burned - including prisoners of war of Soviet origin, Jews, gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, dying wounded and disabled.
The word comes from a consonant ancient Greek language, which translates as "burning everyone and everything." Before the mass genocides were committed, the word was interpreted in a slightly different sense - that was the name of the sacrifices, it was especially popular in paganism. Now most people associate this word with only Jewish destruction and in most cases it is written with a capital letter.

Signs of the Holocaust of Nazi Germany

For the most part, the Germans tried to exterminate all Jews, regardless of age and gender, as a result of which about sixty percent of all Jewish representatives were destroyed in Europe - this is almost a third of the entire Jewish population in the world. In Germany, this was called the "cleansing" of the world and was considered quite normal and worthy.
Other peoples did not stand aside either - almost a third of only the gypsy representatives were destroyed, the mass burning of the Poles, which amounted to almost ten percent of the total number, not counting the feuds of the Lithuanians and Ukrainians, who consider themselves faithful adherents of collaborationism.
Many of the Soviet prisoners who lived to see the end of the war spoke of numerous abuses and torture, but most still could not see the glow of victory - almost three million Soviet soldiers were destroyed by the Nazis in concentration camps. Those who could not move, follow orders and simply understand everything that was happening were also exterminated, along with whom nine thousand homosexual men were destroyed.
In order to carry out mass destruction, numerous methods were created, systems developed and honed in practice, and separate lists were made for future victims, the construction of so-called death camps.
The mass genocide continued until the very end - only with the transition of the military theater to the territory of Germany and the complete surrender of May, the extermination of all objectionable people stopped, and the saved people could go free.
Despite the burning, numerous medical experiments were carried out on the captured Nazi martyrs, which negatively affected human health, and most often even led to death.

The main plans and decisions of the Holocaust

In addition to the Holocaust, mass destruction refers to a term that came from Hebrew, which the Jews themselves characterize all the destruction and persecution of Jews, mass genocides and torture - shoah, which means a huge disaster or colossal catastrophe. Many say that this is a more appropriate term than the Holocaust, which, although more common, is not entirely suitable for the personification of the political achievements of the Nazis in relation to certain races.
During the entire war, the Nazis created almost seven thousand concentration camps, including various ghettos. However, these data were recalculated more than once - and already at the beginning of the twenty-first century they called another figure, commensurate with twenty thousand. Now this figure has doubled, which takes into account the camps only in the European territory. The total number of Jews destroyed by the genocide is considered to be six million Jews living in Europe. This was also documented at the well-known post-war Nuremberg trial. However, there is no exact number of people and all the names of the dead, and it is not known whether this information will exist at all.
The reason for the uncertainty is that at the end of the war, the Nazis tried to hide all traces of their bullying and violence, and indeed the existence of such camps. The only thing that showed the real truth was the existence of various documents about the destruction of the remains of people subject to genocide. Such an order came at a time when it became clear that the arrival of the Soviet armies and its numerous troops was inevitable. Only in Jerusalem can one find an incomplete list of victims, which included approximately four million victims.
Also, very often entire families were completely destroyed, after which there was not even one person left who could tell the names of the dead. Or people hoped for a miracle and waited for a meeting with relatives and friends, refusing to believe in their death. A huge number of destroyed citizens were also on the territory of the Soviet Union, however, foreign researchers called them in one word - "Soviet citizens" - and did not seek to clarify their race, considering it not so necessary.

The number of victims and victims of the Holocaust

One of the most famous books of the Holocaust, called an encyclopedia, roughly counted all the dead. It also contains full-scale statistics on those who died in the USSR with the help of genocide, as well as the Baltic countries. Polish Jews were the most numerous - their approximate number was about three million, followed by one million and two hundred thousand Soviet citizens of Jewish origin. Almost five hundred and forty thousand people died in Hungary, members of the Jewish class. Also, one hundred and forty thousand inhabitants of Lithuania and only seventy thousand inhabitants of Latvia, which is quite a lot for such small countries. Belarus was considered one of the regions of the Soviet Union most affected by the genocide - more than eight hundred thousand Jews were exterminated there. Germany was also subject to numerous horrors of the war, in which almost one hundred and forty thousand Jewish peoples and settlements suffered, Romania with almost three hundred thousand dead, Holland, in which one hundred thousand people suffered. French and Czech Jews died in almost equal numbers, which is approximately eighty thousand. Seventy thousand Jews died in Slovakia, only five thousand fewer died in Greece, and Yugoslavia, according to statistics, managed with minimal losses - sixty thousand Jews.

Major events related to the Holocaust

In total, the Nazi Holocaust included three phases. The first involved the forced expulsion of all representatives of the Jews from the territory of Germany and its regions, but the stage lasted only until the fortieth year. The next phase began precisely when all the Jews were concentrated in Poland and other countries, from this period the active practice of the ghetto began, which continued until the beginning of the forty-second year. Here begins the final phase, which meant the complete destruction of the Jewish people in accordance with the plan.

Torment of the Jewish people

With the outbreak of the war, the Nazis seized vast territories, including Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus. In the largest cities of these occupied territories, concentration camps and ghettos were created - temporary controlled places for the accumulation of Jewish peoples, sometimes they were created in small ones, small in area. The largest ghetto is considered to be the Warsaw ghetto, in which there were almost four hundred and eighty thousand people.

The history of the largest death camp - Auschwitz

One of the biggest concentration camps, or what people call death camps, was in Poland, called Auschwitz, which claimed the lives of about 1.1 million men, women, and children. Now it is considered a real symbol of genocide, the Holocaust, terror and violence from the Nazis united under the Third Reich.
The date of creation of the camp is the fortieth year. The initial goal is to control the numerous arrested Poles, as well as the fullness of all prison cells in the country.
Orders for extermination or torture came here depending on the written orders of the commander or head of the camp, as well as reports from special services.
In the forty-third year, particularly striking examples of illegal medical torture and experiments begin here, the organizers of these acts were the Reichsführer SS, the head doctor of the SS and police, and the director of the Institute for Research to Improve Military Science. Although many of the goals of the experiments were to find various methods to improve and bring about their own victory, most of the experiments ended in terrifying screams, torture, mass sterilization and often the murder of the test subject.
Based on partially preserved documents from the camps, it was established that among the 1.3 million deported people who were imprisoned, about two hundred and thirty-two thousand were children and adolescents under the age of eighteen. Of these, two hundred and sixteen thousand representatives of Jews, eleven thousand representatives of gypsies, about three thousand Poles and thousands of children, who were Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and other nationalities.

The use of mass shootings

If the Jews were destroyed in special camps and ghettos, which were located directly on the territory of residence or nearby, then everything was completely different on the occupation territory of the Soviet Union. Women, men and children were simply driven into ravines and shot everyone in a row, and not only Jews and Gypsies, but also leaders of underground organizations, participants and simply opponents were subjected to such murders.
Different sources identify different dates for the Holocaust in Russia, but there are three stages in total.
The first phase originates from the attack on June 22, 1941, and ends with the beginning of the winter of 42, some limit this time to the Wannsee Conference. During this short period of time, most of the Jews living in the eastern territory of the Soviet Union, in particular, in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine, as well as those who managed to undergo the occupation of the territory of the RSFSR.
The next stage, which began immediately after the end of the first, but most actively manifested from the beginning of spring and ended in the cold and bloody December of the 43rd, includes the liquidation of the remaining Jews located on the outskirts of the state.
Despite constant retreats during 1943 and 1944, the Germans managed to destroy the Jews they hated so much, continuing the rampage until the very retreat - the end of the summer of 1944.

Collaborators working with the Third Reich

Along with the ghettos and concentration camps, so-called collaborators appeared during the war - people who support the Third Reich and its methods in relation to both Jewish and "lower" peoples, and to people who are not pleasing. They were ardent supporters and followers of the Nazi regime and the Axis.
In its primary meaning, the word "collaborationism" meant the support of some French citizens. However, later other European countries began to fall under the influence and true essence of this word, which were inevitably absorbed by the fascist threat led by the Nazis.
In total, there are about two million such people, who cheerfully entered the ranks of the Wehrmacht soldiers and various divisions, regiments, legions, brigades and battalions.

Betrayals and numerous transitions "to the side" of the genocide

Ardent supporters of the German regime and collaborators, certain groups also met in the Soviet Union - and there were many reasons for this. Of course, the ranks of German soldiers were replenished by people who really believed Hitler and personified him as the world's savior, being upset by the numerous repressions and the severity of the Stalinist regime. However, some were part of special detachments as scouts, getting and transmitting all the information they received to partisans and scouts.
There were also situations in which there was a dilemma: either entering the service of the enemy or death from hunger and cold. Some had to put on a uniform and go to serve a foreign land, hoping in the depths of their souls at the first opportunity to escape with all the information into the hands of partisan detachments or into the ranks of the Red Army.
There are many scientists trying to figure out all the reasons for going over to the side of the enemy, but the exact opinion has not yet been revealed. Therefore, the data regarding Soviet citizens and military personnel moving to the German front and rear of the enemy vary greatly - someone indicates that there were more than a hundred thousand of them, and some prefer smaller numbers. However, the result is the same - there were such people, and because of them, most often, innocent people and children died.
Such people were caught even more violently than ordinary German soldiers, considering them traitors. The first trial in the case of collaborators who belonged to the citizenship of the Soviet Union took place in the summer of 1943.

The reaction of the Jewish population to the plans of the Third Reich

All the resistance, into which the indignations of the Jewish representatives smoothly flowed, was divided into two types: passive movement and active.
More common were passive movements, which included all kinds of help to others of their own kind, who were in a more difficult position. For this, special organizations of aid - humanitarian - were created. In addition, people tried to escape from their place of residence to another country, despite all the conveniences and comforts. Places were chosen where there was the least likelihood of an attack by the Nazis. Self-sacrifice also took place, in some countries all Jews were taken to the streets in front of the gallows and demanded a volunteer, making everyone else a condition of life. Some simply ended their lives by suicide so as not to fall into the hands of the Nazis. Some Jewish representatives joined partisan detachments and the army, or organized their own underground organizations.
Underground organizations, participation in the life of partisans and secret detachments, for the most part, refers to active resistance. Such detachments expressed themselves especially brightly in Belarus, in Ukraine and Lithuania there were much fewer partisans and underground fighters. Such organizations in many ways sought to help bring the Red Army closer and protect the innocent and defenseless people, including women and children.
Many organizations were created right in the ghettos and concentration camps, organizing planned escapes and uprisings. However, there are few such activities, because the conditions were unbearable, and you had to survive and fight for your life, not to mention trying to escape. The largest and longest Jewish uprising was the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto, which lasted about a month. The Nazis were forced to use heavy equipment and artillery to suppress.

The attitude of the Third Reich towards the followers of the Bible

In most cases, the Nazis and their followers were opponents of other religious movements, so all religious persons were subject to numerous persecutions and destruction.
The most famous religious figures, so hated by the Third Reich, were called Bible Students, after 1931 they were given another name - Jehovah's Witnesses.
The hatred for this movement began from the first war and is directly related to the goal and propaganda. Many followers urged people to stop all bloodshed, lay down their weapons and stop numerous strife and wars. However, not everyone believed in the holiness of goals - opinions hovered among the people about the involvement of Jewish representatives and the decision to carry out a revolution directly related to the Bolsheviks.
With the coming to power of Hitler, many members of the movement lost their jobs, and later they were forbidden to hold meetings. And in 1933, the movement was completely forbidden to associate its life with this organization and generally have something in common with it. The main building was sealed, and all property inside was liquidated. Despite numerous infringements and restrictions, for the first time in several years, the organization has almost doubled in size.
Many churches and related objects supported the decision of the new Reich Chancellor and tried to provide all possible assistance to the best of their ability. In May 1933, the organization was officially banned, and the activity was considered unacceptable and severely punished, the consequences turned out to be deplorable - many witnesses ended up in prison, and most ended up in the famous death camps.

Memory of the Holocaust

In most countries, in honor of the memory of the many dead, the word is capitalized, rarely mentioned, and if someone hears it, then the heart involuntarily shrinks in the chest and the body shudders from horror and the close breath of death. This feeling can be especially felt directly in the remains of the concentration camps, in which the atmosphere of violence and despondency still hovers, and historians eventually find more and more remains testifying to the atrocities of the Nazis in the distant forties.
Both before and now, people are not given the opportunity to forget about the bloodshed, justifying this by the need to educate the younger generation and so that history will never repeat itself.
June 27 - the day of the liberation of one of the most famous and largest concentration camps - Auschwitz - has become a worldwide date of remembrance for all the fallen and victims of the Holocaust. This memorial day is relatively young. It was only in 2005 that the United Nations thought about taking action, developing various programs on the topic of genocide and the Holocaust, designed to reflect, which suggests that you need to take care of yourself and loved ones, as well as world peace.
Many preserved buildings, in which numerous burnings and tortures of the Jewish people and other people objectionable to the Nazis were carried out, have become significant historical monuments and annually attract hundreds of tourists, and some are even included in the UNESCO heritage list.
Memorials were also created, both with names and without, museums in different parts of the world, capable of making a person think that life is easy enough, especially in comparison with the pain endured by all the prisoners of the ghetto and concentration camps.
There are also people who believe that the Holocaust is presented in a too cruel light, and in fact it was only the systematic fulfillment of the political goals of Nazi Germany. Historians call such people amateurs, and their views are contrary to science and unfounded. In accordance with the resolution of the United Nations, it fully condemns and criticizes any disagreement with the fact of the existence of the Holocaust. In some countries, such expression of one's thoughts is punishable by law.
Many peoples of the world are very sensitive to this topic - various events, conferences and competitions dedicated to the Holocaust are held annually. Many professional historians devote entire works and books to this problem, which many people later learn and read, joining the preservation of memory and respect for all those who died from all genocides and xenophobia, and also expressing a special antipathy towards anti-Semitism.
The Holocaust has found its place in art - there is an opinion that through culture, any topics are perceived much easier, faster and more clearly, including those that violate the moral foundations of society and make one involuntarily shudder.
All the disasters and horrors of Jewish persecution can be seen in the pictures, the echoes of screams and hysterical groans can be heard in the music, and all emotions can be felt through the book. However, despite the diversity of art forms, the Holocaust, like many other disasters associated with pain and bloodshed, is most widely perceived through cinema.
The very first Soviet film dedicated to Jewish persecution and extermination was created already in 1942 and consisted of small but united by a common theme excerpts. A full-fledged film was released after the end of the war, after which all reminders of the Holocaust were destroyed, and in the minds of Soviet citizens for many decades there was not a single memory and mention of this topic - one might say, it was kept under an unofficial ban. However, in other countries, many films were created, each time revealing new details and aspects of this phenomenon.
The most famous symbol of the Holocaust, included in the famous UNESCO “Memory of the World” list, is the diary of a Jewish girl who hid from the persecuting Nazis for a long time. This symbol bears such a name as “The Diary of Anne Frank”, which expresses everything that happened until 1944 - this year the girl’s family is discovered and sent to a concentration camp, where she, along with her sister and mother, die.

Studying the historical literature of the period of the Second World War, one can often come across such a word as "Holocaust". Where did this concept come from? What is a Holocaust? Let's try to find the answer to these and other questions.

What is a Holocaust?

This word is of Greek origin and means "burnt offering". This term is used to characterize the events associated with the persecution and mass destruction of the Jewish people by the Nazis. Documentary sources claim that more than six million people died during this period.

Holocaust. Story

The policy of anti-Semitism was tacitly carried out in the Western European states until the fifteenth century. Then, as a result of economic, religious and other contradictions, the Jewish nation was forced out to Eastern Europe. However, the persecution did not stop there. And even the Christian church advocated the persecution of the Jews.

In the twentieth century, the role of the initiator and organizer of the policy of anti-Semitism is assumed by Germany. From that time and for twelve years, the persecution of the Jews took on the character of cruel mass persecution and merciless extermination. These measures were carried out in accordance with the policy of Nazi Nazism.

Back in 1924, Adolf Hitler wrote his famous book called "My Struggle", in which he substantiates the "system" of the extermination of the Jews. Two years after he came to power, he creates a series of anti-Jewish laws. These decrees significantly limited the activities of the Jews in all spheres of life, depriving them of their citizenship and forbidding marriages with Germans.

In 1938, on the orders of Adolf Hitler, a pogrom of the Jewish population was organized, which was popularly called "Kristallnacht". During its implementation, more than thirty thousand people were sent to concentration camps.

This event was the beginning of the brutal German genocide carried out in many European countries.

about the Jews

It is possible to understand what the Holocaust is and to reliably assess its scale by familiarizing yourself with the basic principles of Nazi ideology. Hitler believed that the German race needed the best living conditions. This is only possible by depriving the Jews of their property and subjugating the territories of other nations, which, due to uselessness, are subsequently subject to extermination. For these purposes, the Nazi encirclement, in the territories they occupied, created special concentration chambers. For the destruction of the Jewish people, the German Nazis used gas chambers and cars.

Holocaust victims

On the territory of Russia, as a result of mass executions, more than two million Jews died. An estimated five hundred thousand people died in the labor camps and ghettos from malnutrition, disease, and mistreatment.

Fight against anti-Semitism

In 1942, the Jewish Committee issued an appeal in which it called on the Jews of the whole world to actively fight against German fascism. The call had an immediate effect. Former prisoners of the German occupiers created regular armies, partisan detachments, and resistance groups in concentration camps. Fighting on all fronts, the Jews waged an uncompromising struggle against the Nazis. Perhaps the most heroic and at the same time tragic event was the uprising that took place in the Warsaw ghetto in 1944, when more than ten thousand people were killed. For many of them, death in struggle was a kind of spiritual resistance and courage.

In 1945, after the Nuremberg Court, on the initiative of the elite, the leaders of the fascist occupiers were charged with massacres. Thus ended the period of mass persecution of the Jews.

That's what the Holocaust is. For the entire Jewish population, this word will always resonate with unbearable pain in the soul.

The Holocaust (dr. oλοκαύστος - "burnt offering") - the extermination of Jews during the Second World War. Synonyms "Catastrophe", "Catastrophe of European Jewry", "Shoah" (Hebrew).
Hitler was the initiator and ideologist of the Holocaust. The executors are the German fascists with the tacit indifferent consent, but often the governments of Europe.

Officially, the beginning of the "final solution of the Jewish question" was the verdict of a meeting of senior officials of the Third Reich in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on January 20, 1942:

« Jews will be transported to the East, divided into men and women, used in the construction of roads. A significant part of them will die as a result of natural decline, the rest will be subjected to "special processing»

However, by that time, the murder of Jews was already in full swing in the territories of Eastern Europe occupied by Germany.

• Babi Yar in Kiev, September 29-31, 1941, about 30,000 dead
  

  “Then the Jews were forced to undress and led through the passages in the embankment to the edge of the ravine, on the opposite side of which a machine gunner was sitting on a specially equipped wooden platform. Under the ruthless dagger fire of a machine gun, zealous Kyiv policemen drove the bewildered, naked, completely distraught people with sticks, whips, legs, not allowing them to come to their senses, to orient themselves. Heart-rending sobs, the cries of the policemen: “Hurry, quick!”, pleas for help, curses to the executioners, prayers drowned out by cheerful waltz melodies rushing from the loudspeakers, the roar of an engine circling over the yar of an airplane ... "(M.V. Koval "The tragedy of Babi Yar ...)"

• 11 km of the Simferopol-Feodosia highway, December 9-13, 1941, about 23,000
• Rovno, December 8, 1941, 15,000 people
• Gomel, November 3-4, 1941, about 30,000
  etc.

In other places, the Nazis herded Jews into fenced-off areas of cities, the so-called ghettos, forced them to work and killed them gradually. It was called shares. In the Khmelnyk ghetto of the Vinnytsia region, for example, there were six actions: August 15, 1941, January 9 and 16, March 3, June 12 and 26, 1942.

But executions, poisoning with exhaust gases in special cars, burning in synagogues did not allow the issue to be resolved quickly. Therefore, the destruction was put on an industrial footing.
In the death camps, gas chambers and crematoria were built, in which people were first killed with gas, then the corpses were burned. As a result, the destruction process was significantly accelerated and cheaper. It looked like this
Echelons with Jews arrived at the nearest railway station to the concentration camp. People were driven to the camp, young, strong and hardy were selected for work, the rest were forced to undress, driven into gas chambers and gassed.

« The crematorium was flooded with truck-mounted searchlights. Soldiers lined up in battle order, with them rifles, grenades, sheepdogs. One group of the doomed finally realized what would happen to them. Their pleas and sobs are heard. The two men go to the building where the victims are locked up. They walk in gas masks, with canisters in their hands. They put a deadly gas in the openings of the walls and close each with a heavy lid. Then they leave proud, satisfied, in a good mood. For several minutes, screams and groans are heard in the building, then special people open the doors, pull out the bodies with blue and black faces from the gas, cut their hair, pull gold teeth out of their mouths, remove gold earrings and rings, some are torn out along with the flesh. After that, the bodies are burned(from the diary of a prisoner of the Auschwitz camp S. Grabovsky)

And everything about everything took only a few hours.

On June 28, 1944, a record was set in Auschwitz. 24,000 Jews burned per day

Fascist death camps

• Auschwitz. During its existence from 1940 to 1945, from 1 to 1.5 million people died in it, of which from 1 to 1.3 million were Jews.
• Belzec
• Dachau
• Majdanek
• Sobibor
• Helmo
• Treblinka

The Holocaust destroyed the Yiddish people, the Jewish people of Europe

In world practice, there are few examples of events during which the destruction of people on the basis of their ethnicity was practiced and even welcomed at the state level. Two became the most striking and memorable for modern people: the Armenian genocide on the territory of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and the massacre of Jews during the Second World War. It is the second example that received the name Holocaust for its mass character and global character.

A lot of scientific works were devoted to the study of this phenomenon of world history after the end of the war. In them, pundits tried to find the roots of this process and sum up its results, at least roughly counting the number of people who were exterminated. The testimonies of German war criminals given to the investigators of the International Tribunal, as well as archival documents of Nazi Germany from the period 1933-1945, were taken as the basis. And although there is still no exact number of Jews who died in this campaign, most researchers divide its process into 3 stages.

1. 1933-1940- the solution of the Jewish question on the territory of Germany, as well as the areas occupied by it by that time through discrimination and eviction.
2. 1940-early 1942- a period of concentration of Jews in compact areas of residence (as a rule, in the form of a ghetto).
3. 1942-1945 - the mass liquidation of the ghetto by deporting Jews to death camps, where people were killed.

The longest and "loyal" to the Jews was the first stage, during which the Nazis tried not to destroy, but to squeeze out the Jews from Germany, and then from the countries it occupied. This happened through the adoption of laws that discriminated against them, and various anti-Jewish actions. There is an opinion that at the initial stage, the Nazi leadership itself did not yet know what to do with the 600,000 Jews who lived at that time in Germany, so they managed with purely administrative measures.

The second stage began to be carried out after the seizure of new territories by Germany: the states of Central and Western Europe, which had their own Jewish population. Massively began to form Jewish districts in large cities, referred to as "ghettos" with the organization of self-government systems in them - Judenrats and police units from among the Jews themselves. The Judenrats were supposed to be engaged in the life support of the ghetto, while fulfilling all the orders of the German occupation administrations. Police formations kept order, and were also sometimes involved in escort service.

The third stage was marked by the mass extermination of the Jews. By this time, a complex of camps had already been put into operation, the task of which was to receive the Jews brought on their territory, to kill them as quickly as possible and to dispose of the bodies of the killed people. As a rule, some of the imprisoned Jews were used as laborers, sorting the clothes of the dead, transporting their bodies to crematoria for disposal and a number of other functions. In addition, a number of people were used for medical experiments. However, for the majority of Jews, the end of the life path was this: death followed by burning in the nearest crematorium.

The mass extermination of Jews was put to an end by the offensive of the allied forces in 1944-1945, during which all concentration camps were liberated, and Nazi Germany ceased to exist. Thus, an end was put to the Holocaust, during which about 6 million European Jews were exterminated, and several hundred thousand more were forced to emigrate to other countries.

The chronology of the Holocaust has clear dates, representing a gradual pressure on the Jewish population. It began with the publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf in 1924. It was in it that the principles of the superiority of the German nation relative to other peoples were first formulated. In the future, the flywheel of repression spun more and more, in its essence somewhat reminiscent of a medieval garrote - an execution tool that slowly suffocated people. Here is such a chronology.

1. January 1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
2. May 1933- mass actions to burn the books of Jewish authors.
3. September of the same year Jews are banned from participating in cultural events.
4. May 1934- speech by Reinhard Heydrich, in which he called for making Germany unpromising for the Jews, forcing them to emigrate.
5. July 1934 Jews are prohibited from intermarrying with Germans.
6. January 1935- the entry into force of a document according to which grassroots structures were supposed to simplify the exit of Jews from the country, while at the same time making it as difficult as possible to enter it for the purpose of long-term or permanent residence.
7. September 1935- the adoption of the Nuremberg racial laws, according to which all Jews and people with mixed blood were to be fired from state and law enforcement agencies by December 1, providing for sanctions up to deprivation of citizenship for these people. In addition, the Aryans were forbidden under the threat of imprisonment to enter into relations with the Jews.
8. October 1938- the beginning of putting down the letter "J" in the passports, meaning "Jude" - a Jew.
9. November 1938- a wave of Jewish pogroms, called "", in response to the provocative murder in Paris by the Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan of the secretary of the German embassy, ​​Ernst von Rath. The authorities themselves pointedly distanced themselves from holding them, however, the security forces were unambiguously hinted not to interfere with the holding of actions, protecting only German citizens and their property. During the pogroms, dozens of Jews were killed and wounded, 20,000 people were sent to prison, and hundreds of synagogues and shops were destroyed.
10. September 1939- the appearance of an instruction on the organization of Jewish ghettos in the territory of occupied Poland and an instruction in the future for Jews to wear the sign "Star of David" on their sleeves.
11. May 1940- laying of the concentration camp "Auschwitz" near the Polish Auschwitz.

It should be clarified here that all the previous time the Nazi elite was looking for ways to quickly get rid of the excess number of Jews. The compulsion to emigrate to other countries did not give the desired effect, since even from Germany itself only about 2/3 of the Jews left. The victories in the battles of the Second World War added to Germany the territories in which their Jews lived. Simple executions in terms of finances and image were losing options, so a way was found to use poisonous gas in camps specially organized for this purpose. The laying of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp symbolized the technical readiness of the Nazis to carry out such work.

1. June 1941- the beginning of the war of Germany against the USSR, which was marked at its first stage by the seizure of significant territories.
2. July 1941- the signing of a document on the "final solution of the Jewish question", after which mass executions of Jews began in the occupied territories of the USSR with the involvement of special SS teams and local collaborators. The surviving Jews were concentrated in the ghetto.
3. March 1942- the beginning of the gas chambers of Auschwitz, followed by a series of ghetto closures, during which a series of uprisings of Jews took place, brutally suppressed by the invaders.
4. February 1944 - May 1945- the offensive of the allied forces from the west and east, accompanied by the gradual liberation of the territories occupied by the Nazis and the concentration camps located on them.
5. January 1945- liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
6. May 9, 1945- The capitulation of Germany and the end of the Holocaust.

The last stage of the Holocaust was marked by a monstrous extermination of Jews brought to the territory of death camps from all over Nazi-occupied Europe. Only the liberation of the territories occupied by the Nazis could stop this Moloch. It began with the counter-offensives of the Red Army, which at first slowly, and then with increasing speed began its advance to the west. By the summer of 1944, she reached the borders of the USSR and entered the territory of Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and then moved on, freeing the lands of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Norway.

In turn, from the west and south, the combined troops of the coalition of the United States, Great Britain and France began their offensive, squeezing out the invaders from Western Europe. In 1945, as Germany's forces were depleted, the offensive of the Allied forces accelerated significantly. This made it possible to liberate hundreds of large and small concentration camps, in which millions of prisoners worked and expected to die in unbearably difficult conditions, among which Jews made up a significant part. The Holocaust machine slowed down sharply and finally stopped in May after the surrender of Germany.

The surviving witnesses of this terrible period in the history of the Jewish people subsequently became the main witnesses in the trials of war criminals. Most of the German leaders and their subordinates, who carried out criminal orders to destroy people, were punished, and the search for the most odious of them continued over the next decades. As a rule, the Israeli special services were engaged in this, performing this work quite successfully.

In addition to the Germans themselves and the traitors who collaborated with them in the field of murder, there were people who, at the risk of their lives, helped the Jews survive in that terrible situation. The statistics of such people, known in Israel as the Righteous Among the Nations, is maintained by the Yad Vashem Museum. The latest figure announced by the museum is 23,226 people, but it is constantly updated with new heroes, the work to establish them is ongoing.