The Holocaust - A Whole Burnt Offering

Before I start rambling on about my opinion in this case of World War Two, I would like to state the fact that I went on a field trip before writing this essay. We were told to just write two paragraphs about what we learned and how we felt but I just could not stop writing! We went to The Jewish Community Center in Wilksbarre, Pa. There was a video we watched first that almost made me cry. It was very sad and depressing. Then we had a Holocaust sirvivor talk to us about his experiences. Here is my story:


All it took was one man. Imagine if right now it only took one man to start a war and not a whole country itself. Adolf Hitler was this one man. Through the German sufferings of World War One, Adolf Hitler came to power by promising the German people their land back with many other offerings. With this little taste of power Hitler used it to expand his control over the German nation.


Adolf Hitler knew the German people hated other countries for the loss of land and supplies after they were defeated during the first World War, as well as he did. Using this hatred for other people, Hitler finally found someone to blame for Germany's losses. Technically speaking, Hitler did not find someone; he found one race of people. These innocent people were called the Jews as well as the handicapped, old men and women, and gypsies.


After getting full power in Germany, Hitler started to try and get land back that was payments for the destruction during the World War One. He recovered much of the land that was lost after the war. Hitler would not stop at the land that was lost after the war, he kept trying to expand Germany's borders so eventually he would come to concur the entire Eastern Hemisphere and work towards gaining the Western Hemisphere as well.


This however never happened. Almost all of the Jews and "undesirables" were sectioned off from all of the people Adolf considered "normal". Placed into "Ghettos" first and then deported, life for the "undesirables" and Jews was horrible. They had new laws put into place such as; All Jews had to be indoors by eight o'clock and Jews could only shop between three and five o'clock in the afternoon. All these laws were only set for the Jews and "undesirables" that didn't escaped Germany and surrounding countries in time to advert this prosecution.


When the Jewish and "undesirables" were deported to concentration camps they were told to bring only what they could carry. Most of what they brought would not even make it with them into the camps. They were loaded in at about ninety to one hundred people per boxcar like animals were herded into a box. Once they got to the concentration camps, they were told to move to either the left or right. One of the lines, the left or right, were going to the chambers right away. They would be put into a room and a gas called Zyklon B, was poured into the chambers. It usually took around three to fifteen minutes for everyone to perish due to this gas in the gas chambers.

Over six million innocent Jews were killed and about five to six million others were also killed during the Holocaust. Out of about eleven to twelve million people who perished, about one and a half million of them were children under the age of eighteen.


In my opinion knowing all of this information and knowing I can't do anything about it truly upsets me. I would like to know why if the government of America kind of new what was going on, why didn't we step in and do anything? If we would have stepped in and did something we could have made a definite impact on the number of innocent lives that were lost. Due to America not doing anything about the situation, I think that America should always remember what happened and hang their heads in shame knowing that what we did was the biggest mistake in all of American History. I did not realize how badly that this subject would affect me because it never really did just reading books about what happened. Finally seeing actually photos and hearing people talk about their experiences, really hit home for me. I will always remember what happened and no matter what will never be as ignorant to say that the Holocaust never happened.