Nazi and USSR Holocaust

Nazi Holocaust

It was in the World War 2 that something so huge was tried by The Nazi Germany that it was just impossible to continue it. Genocide was attempted by Adolf Hitler and his comrades; they made systematic and deliberate attempts to kill all of the Jewish community. Jews were blamed by the Nazis for the misfortune that they faced in World War 1 because of which after the war Hitler made it his mission to kill all the Jews. This genocide started in 1939 and lased till 1945. Adolph Hitler was the one by whom this whole thing was introduced as he wanted to get rid of all the minority races from Germany (Bergen, 2009).

In the World War 2 there was a lot of suffering but what happened with the Jews can't be forgotten. The Jewish people had a set of laws for them which were known as Nuremburg Laws and all of the Jews have to follow it. Jews couldn't enlist themselves in the army, they couldn't work for the government and they had to wear the Star of David in the public so that they could be distinguished (Bergen, 2009).

A number of strategies were tired by Hitler and the Nazis to get rid of the Jews. They tried various phases before the final solution was found. Phase one took place in 1938 and started being called Kristallnacht which means the night of broken glass. Preparations were done in this night to expel the Jews all the way to Poland. This night was very horrible for the Jews as, the public of Germany was busy abolishing the Jewish property. Inductions were sent to all the police stations and headquarters of the state by Heydrich who was the man who organized the Holocaust. This event took place at the end of November 8 and by that time 267 synagogues were burned and 177 were completely destroyed, 7,500 businesses belonging to Jews were destroyed while the total number of Jewish deaths was 91. The public transport was banned for the Jews, they couldn't go to the hospitals or schools and were forced into ghettos as they prepared for the upcoming phase (Bergen, 2009).

A total of 25,000 Jewish men were sent to the concentration camps after Kristallnacht. These men were treated in a very brutal manner by S.S guards. The excuse given for the beginning of Holocaust was the assassination of a German official and after this incident the Jews were given worse treatment than animals. The Jews in Germany had been expelled to Poland by Heydrich and Hitler by 1939 (Bergen, 2009).

Ghettoization is the third phase in which 90% of the Jewish population was ghettoized into 3 Polish cities that were Ludge, Warsaw and Krakow. Jews had been given 3 days to reach these cities and if they don't get there in 3 days they had been told that they will be hunted and killed. The size of the ghettos was small, they had no food, heat, water or bathrooms and on top of this there wasn't enough space for so many people (Bergen, 2009).

The fourth phase was Einstazgruppen who all the victims of Holocaust were scared of. They were a mobile group of special kind that was used for the purpose of killing. There were different groups that the Einstazgruppen were divided into and they were killed in huge numbers were Russia was invaded. Orders were given to the leaders of Einstaz to tell what happened in the day. According to one of the report, "Execution of 30, 1940, 33,771 Jews was carried out on September 29 in Ukraine. According to the Operational Situation Report USSR No. 19-11.July.1941, "Approximately 7,800 Jews have been killed in Knasus and removal of the corpses has been carried out." There were large gravesites in which the dead bodies were placed throughout Poland. The report of these killings was sent to Hitler and Heydrich and it showed that the killings have been very traumatizing for the Einstaz men. After reading the report Heydrich himself went to an execution and upon witnessing it reached the conclusion that there is a need for some new method of killing (Bergen, 2009).

The "Final Solution" was announced by Heydrich at the Wansee Conference in Berlin in 1942. Death camps were given as the "Final Solution." There were thousands of Jews who died in a brutal manner at these death camps. There were a total of 6 death camps. 1 million people were killed in the death camp known as Treblinka while 1.3 million Jews perished at Auschwitz. It was in 1945 that the liberation of these camps was carried out by the American and British troops. The Nazi leaders who were running the camps were accused of Genocide. The Nazis tried to kill all of the Jews before the liberation but this couldn't be done as, they were a lot in number. The dead bodies were also piling up and the Nazis need mass graves and heavy machinery to bury all the dead bodies (Bergen, 2009).

It was not just the Jews who were targeted in the Holocaust. But the Homosexuals and Gypsies were killed as well and the reason given for their murders was the way that they lived their lives. Along with these people the Jehovah Witnesses were killed as well as, Hitler hated these people (Bergen, 2009).

A total of twelve million homosexuals, Jews and Gypsies got killed during all this time. By the time that Holocaust ended the percentage of Jewish population who were defeated by the Nazis was sixty seven. This event has become a part of our history as well as our future and can't be forgotten (Bergen, 2009).

USSR Holocaust

There is no doubt in the fact that the biggest enemy that the Jews had were the Nazis in Germany. It is very important to always remember the systematic and organized attempts made to destroy a nation and efforts should be made to avoid such things from happening again. However, the oppression of Jews continued even after the Holocaust. Soviet Union is one other totalitarian regime that tried to oppress, assimilate and hinder the Jews. Soviet Union played a very important part in abusing the rights of the nations that were present in Soviet Union. Jews were not the only ones suffering from the abuse of Soviet Union but Ukrainians, Latvians, Fino-Ungrian and Belarusians also faced oppression (Longerich, 2010).

There were a total of 12 million Jews in the world after World War II. 2 million Jews lived in Soviet Union while 3.2 million in Europe and the number of Jews living in Poland was only 225 thousand and majority from among these were Soviet Union's refugees who has come back. Deportation of the Polish Jews also took place because of which many Jews were sent to the Soviet camps. In theKatyn massacre, there were 700 Jewish officers belonging to the Polish army that were killed. There were only 1.6 million Jews who survived in the parts of Europe that were affected due to war (Longerich, 2010).

The probable place for Eastern European Jewish Diaspora's new cultural center was Soviet Union. The Baltic and Polish state could be replaced by it. The Jews had all the rights to have it since 500 thousand of these Jews had fought and took part in the Red Army and were given Medal and Orders for their performances as well. It was decided by Joseph Stalin, who was a Soviet leader, as well as his government that the Jewish factor should be used in his foreign policy. The U.S.S.R. Jewish Anti-Fascist committee was formed in 1942 (Longerich, 2010).

However, this scheme of Stalin's to make use of the Jews in his foreign policy failed because what Stalin wanted was that the new state of Israel should be under the influence of Soviet. He was angered by the support of America for right-wing Zionists. Therefore, a report was issued by the KGB according to which JAC is not in the favor of Soviet foreign policy within the Middle East and extends the Jewish nationalism. It was concluded by KGB that Zionists are now in control of the JAC. Although, it was still being hoped by Stalin that the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine could be influenced by him and JAC could be spared. Stalin's price was received by Mikhoels (Longerich, 2010).

However, it soon became evident that the Zionist movement can't be influenced by the Soviet Union. The novel State of Israel had been an American ally and a western democracy. The gamble played by Stalin had failed and Mikhoels was being blamed by Kremlin. The proposal of JAC regarding the union of Jewish republic in Crimea in order to separate from the U.S.S.R. In accordance with constitution alarmed KGB and the assassination of Mikhoels was ordered by the KGB. In 1948 he was killed by a poisonous injection. After his all the members of JAC were arrested by KGB, although the repression campaign was kept hidden from the public (Longerich, 2010).

15 members of the JAC on July 1952 were sentenced to death after a long interrogation process. The writer IzikFefer, deputy of Foreign minister Solomon Lozovsky were killed as well however, biologist Liza Stern was only deported (Longerich, 2010).

From 1951 to 1952 all across the Soviet Union Jewish artistic collectives were banned. The troupes, studies, theatres, and writer groups were banned. This resulted in a shift from the Jewish tradition and cultures to Russian traditions and cultures. The Jewish songs could only be sung in the closed restaurants or private apartments and Russian language replaced the Jewish language (Longerich, 2010).

In Soviet Union the new ideological takeover began with the Stalinist anti-Semitism. The imperialistic Russian nationalist government model was supposed to replace the ideas of the 19th century Marxist. The Jews were considered to be this model's enemies by Stalin and he felt that they should be dealt with in the start of these changing times. However, Stalin's death which took place on 5th of March 1953 put a stop to all of his plans and ideas (Longerich, 2010).

Today, the anti-Semitism isn't officially being followed by Russia. The religious and cultural life of Jews has returned. The cultural and national organizations of the Jews have started working again. The Jewish nationalities are no longer hidden by the famous singer, artists and cultural workers. But majority of the aspects of Russian Jewish culture have been forgotten since it is rarely that the Yiddish language is spoken today. A lot of hard work and efforts have been made to ensure that the younger generation is taught about the Jewish history (Longerich, 2010).

It is not completely that the Soviet anti-Semitism's remnants have disappeared. They are still present in the Russian society and the Latvian society gets affected by it as well. There are large numbers of anti-Semitic sites on the Russian internet and books on anti-Semitism are still published and exported. The Western anti-Semitism has largely been influenced by the Russian anti-Zionist ideology. Majority of the ideas of the local Latvian anti-Semites are taken from the Russian anti-Semite propaganda. The main reason behind this is to blame the Israel and U.S. For the troubles of the world and to hide the aggressive foreign policy of Russia. Russia can be considered as the creative center for a number of conspiracy theories against the west (Longerich, 2010).