The Holocaust

The Holocaust, which was a massacre of 6 million Jews from 1933 to 1945 (https://museeholocauste.ca/en/history-holocaust/), devastated and destroyed Jewish homes and lives. The Holocaust ended in 1945, and Israel was created in 1948. The Nazis, who Hilter led, and some of its allies killed the Jewish population in World War two. Before the Nazi’s rule, Adolf Hilter wrote “Rational antisemitism, however, must lead to systematic legal opposition.… Its final objective must unswervingly be the removal of the Jews altogether.”  (https://www.britannica.com/event/Holocaust). Antisemitism spread worldwide and led to the nazis’ authority and expansion. While targeting Jews, the Nazis also targeted Roma, sanity, homosexuals, Slavic people, and political opponents. The Nazis organized a program on November 9th known as the Kristallnacht, which led to 30,000 Jews immediately being sent to concentration camps. There were over 20,000 concentration camps where Jews were starved and tortured. The Nazis also used gas chambers which started the Einsatzgruppen. (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-israel-proclaimed)  In response to these actions, the Jews, who had survived, decided they needed to take action to acquire a safe homeland so that they wouldn’t be endangered anymore. The Jewish population wanted freedom, and they feared a relapse of the event, so they did everything they could to abstain from future horrors. The Jews, millions of years ago, were exiled from the land of Israel in the 1st and 2nd centuries, so they have ancient and personal ties back to their native land. (https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-creation-of-israel-in-1948-timeline-resulting-conflicts.html)Also, globally, and in the Western world, countries around the world felt a sense of urgency to help and knew that they had a moral responsibility to help the Jews. The United States president, Harris Truman, had sympathy for the Jewish population, and he recognized there was an issue with the Jews’ treatment.  (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/postwar-refugee-crisis-and-the-establishment-of-the-state-of-israel) The zionist (word Zion derives from the Hebrew bible as the name for Israel) movement, near the end of World War 1, the end of the 19th century, gained momentum in support of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. The main goal was to obtain political independence so that the Yishuv( in Palestine, where the Jewish community is) could look after their own business. Most people who supported the movement thought that the British mandate was an adequate framework for building Jewish homes. In 1939, Britain issued the attempt to enforce white paper, restrictions on Jewish immigration into Israel, and restraints on land ownership by Jews in the war. However, after the war, 600,000 Jews were already residing in Israel, and Political powers started to increase and promote the founding of a Jewish homeland, which made the Jewish leaders accept and sign the Partition Plan in 1948.(https://www.jstor.org/stable/25834471)

1. Simone Veil (French lawyer and politician, Auschwitz survivor): “I found myself thrown into a universe of death and suffering. I had crossed the threshold of humanity.”

1. Thomas Buergenthal (Law professor and Auschwitz survivor): “I am one of the few who survived. And it is my duty to bear witness to ensure that it never happens again.”