1. How did the Holocaust happen?

The Nazi Party was a mass movement that ruled Germany through total totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945. It was led by Adolf Hitler who believed in racial “purity” and in the superiority of the Aryan race. These beliefs were spread rapidly through propaganda in publicly displayed posters, on the radio and in movies. They targeted people for various discriminatory practices due to their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs or sexual orientations. These groups included the Jews, Slavs, Romani, homosexuals and people with disabilities. It began with legalized social discrimination, involuntary hospitalization and forced sterilization. It eventually led to the establishment of concentration camps where people were confined and kept under harsh conditions. The prisoners were often tortured and conducted experiment upon to see the effects of hypothermia and certain chemicals.

2. How did an individual’s geographic location, group or WW2 events impact one’s experience?

During World War II a wide range of factors affected an individual’s experience. As laws, regulations were passed and countries were invaded, certain groups of people were targeted depending on their ethical background or geographic location. During the late 1930’s Germany began the oppression of the Jewish population by expelling all Jewish children from public schools and closing all Jewish owned businesses. They also persecuted homosexuals, often sending them to prison or concentration camps. As the war began to further advance the death tolls closely corresponded to the ongoing events. For example, the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union resulted in 6 million civilian deaths, comprising of 3 million Jews. Later, during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany in 1941 approximately 25% of the population was killed, with a total of 2,290,000 casualties.