The Holocaust

        When some refers to the holocaust, they are talking about the mass genocide of Jewish people in Europe by the Nazi regime.  The holocaust started in the sense of genocide began in 1941.  But before that, they put Jews in these Ghettos, which wear basically these small “towns” that in most cases would be surrounded by barbed wire and constantly under super vision of the Nazi’s. The Jewish people in these ghettos, were treated like dirt.  They would instantly kill any Jewish person that tried to oppose them.  But eventually Reinhard Heyrich  (Man appointed by Hitler to eliminate all the Jews in Europe.) realized that it was taking too long, so instead they sent all the Jewish people to these death camps that were located in Poland.  These death camps were horrible; they would kill all of the weak (such as pregnant woman, the elderly, and kids.) then they would put all of the men to work. They would work them to death.  Two out of every three Jewish people living in Europe were killed.  But the Jewish people weren’t the only people targeted there were also other political opponents, members of resistance groups, homosexuals, dissenting Christians, Gypsies, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients.            
               How did all of this start? There are a lot of beliefs to why Hitler decided to target the Jewish people, the most popular one is that Hitler was rejected twice to Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts as well as many other problems in his life. But the excuse he used was that he was getting back at the Jewish people because of the assassination of a German official.  Before the Holocaust began all Jewish people were forced out of Germany, and had no were to go.  One Jewish kid, who was still a teenager, was fed up with the Nazi regime so he decided to killed a Nazi official.  Which started the “Night of Broken Glass” In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by.  After that he used the teenager as an excuse to kill 6 million Jewish people.

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It was a beautiful summer day, the wind was blowing and the sun was shining.  The day was almost perfect; I was waiting outside my friend’s house leaning on his black metal fence that was rusting and in obvious need of repairing.  I was staring at the road ahead of me, it was cracked and the paint that separated the two lanes where barely visible.  There was an empty lot directly across the street from where I stood.  It was nothing but a big patch of land that was filled with dirt and a few weeds. I remember thinking to myself how awesome the day was going to be, I was planning to play baseball all day and couldn’t wait to go to the park. As my friend came out of his house, there were shouts coming from down the street.  Before my friends mom pulled me inside I saw one man running, while five men were in close pursuit, their clothing was very baggy and it looked as though they were having trouble running because of their baggy pants.  We heard three very loud pops and even more shouts.  I peaked outside to see a man lying on the cracked street, blood covered his clothes.  Everything happened so fast the sound of sirens filled the air and suddenly the street that I was once standing right next to had become a crime scene.  Then suddenly the day that was supposed to be perfect had turned into a nightmare.  From that day on I could never look at the world the same, my childhood innocence had faded and now the world was suddenly a scary place.