World War Holocaust Essay Example for Free

World War Holocaust Essay The Holocaust or The Shoah, as referred to by the Jews, was a systematic state-led persecution and genocide of the Jews and other minority groups of Europe and North Africa. It was committed during World War II by the Nazis of Germany and their collaborators (Wikipedia, â€Å"Holocaust†). This was what the Nazis considered as Endlà ¶sung der Judenfrage   or The Final Solution of the Jewish Question. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, about 9 to 11 million people were exterminated during this entire period. Other minorities (ie. Poles, Serbs, homosexuals, persons with mental illness, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc†¦) who the Nazis saw as inferior or undesirable were also killed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is considered by many experts as the most organized and systematic mass-killing in the history of mankind. Jews were herded into death camps and were allowed to suffer many indignities including torture and cruel medical experiments. Jews would be killed by the hundreds through poison gas, freezing or shooting. The women and the children were not spared. They were treated no less cruelly than the male adults. They were also sent to labor camps to serve as slaves to the Nazis. All these inhuman acts are based on the Anti-Semitism philosophy of Adolf Hilter. He laid down the foundations of this movement in his 1925 autobiography entitled Mein Kampf or My Struggle. According to Hitler, the Aryan race is the superior race of the world. Nazism, which followed his ideas, portrayed their interpretation of an Aryan race as the only race capable of, or with an interest in, creating and maintaining culture and civilizations, while other races are merely capable of conversion, or destruction of culture (Wikipedia, â€Å"Aryan†). Because of this belief in Aryan supremacy, the Nazis began by oppressing the Jews and other minorities through discrimination. Jews were not allowed to have jobs or were not given service in hospitals or government offices. These acts would worsen and escalate into an uncontrollable frenzy and would culminate in the infamous Final Solution. Bibliography Holocaust. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 8 June 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust. Aryan. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 8 June 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan.