What Was the Holocaust? | 5-Minute Videos

the Holocaust is widely regarded as the greatest evil ever carried out by any government in history given the magnitude of this crime it's disturbing that so many people especially those under 40 know little or nothing about it according to a recent study young people have a worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge so here are some facts that everyone should know the Holocaust was a relatively recent event it took place between 1939 when Germany invaded Poland sparking world War II in 1945 when Germany surrendered during those years the Nazi regime headed by Adolf Hitler set out to murder every Jew in the world starting with every Jew in Europe one of the things that made Nazi anti-Semitism different from other forms of ethnic hatred was that Hitler Drew no distinctions among Jews he regarded every Jew as an enemy worthy of death Jewish children no less than Jewish adults the SS the Nazis Elite troops would line up Jewish children next to parents and Grand parents and have firing squads shoot them all when the Nazis decided that murdering Jews by gunfire was too slow they opened death camps in which they installed gas Chambers the Nazi SS would force hundreds of Jews into these Chambers and pipe in poisonous gas after about 15 minutes of hell all the people inside would be dead suffocated the Nazis then forced other Jews to extract the bodies from the gas Chambers and as a final indignity examined the dead Jews mouths to pull out gold teeth they would examine hands as well when Rings were too tight they would simply cut off fingers they would also cut off the victim's hair which German businesses use for Mattress stuffing nothing was wasted what explains the Nazis murderous obsession with the Jews after all the Jews were a very small portion of Germany's population as well as the world's population in 1938 just prior to World War II there were about 17 million Jews less than 1% of the world's population of 2 billion the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews 2third of Europe's Jews and one-third of all the Jews in the world why the most commonly offered explanation is racism the Nazis were racists and hated Jews and all other non- Arians was Hitler a racist yes did he speak in derogatory terms of people other than Aryans yes is that why he murdered the Jews no it's EAS proven that racism alone wasn't the primary reason for Nazi Jew hatred throughout World War II the Nazis Allied themselves with the non Arian Japanese the Nazis also Allied themselves with the non- Arian Arabs whose anti-Semitism made them natural allies of the Nazis and while the Nazis certainly denigrated black people they made no effort to persecute let alone exterminate them so though Nazi anti-Semitism was racist it wasn't solely or even primarily the product of racism there was something much deeper behind this hatred what infuriated Hitler and the Nazis about the Jews was their influence moral intellectual and economic if Aryans were the superior race how could Jews be so influential Hitler believed that the greatest battle on Earth was between the Aryan and the Jew therefore Aryans could Prevail only if the Jews were destroyed the Nazis blamed the Jews for creating everything they hated communism and capitalism Judaism and Christianity which he regarded as a Jewish creation Jesus was a Jew the apostles were Jews and 2third of the Christian Bible is the Jews Bible Hitler yearned for Germany to return to its pre-christian pagan Roots tragically however while Hitler hated Christianity most of Germany's Christians didn't hate Hitler Nazi Jew hatred was so allc consuming that killing Jews was ultimately more important to Hitler than winning the war even while the Nazis were losing the critical Battle of Stalingrad trains that could have been used to Aid German troops were diverted to transport Jews to the death camps for Hitler and the Nazis it wasn't enough to murder the Jews of Europe they also had to be tortured and humiliated Jews were beaten and starved to death burned and frozen to death made the subject of hideous medical experiments with no anesthesia and nearly all the 6 million were stripped naked prior to being killed a number like 6 million is an abstraction it last flesh and blood it's therefore impossible to fully grasp the horror of what the Nazis did so it might help to think of it as poitz are prize-winning journalist Judith Miller has we must remind ourselves that the Holocaust was not 6 million it was 1 + one plus one to this day if you ask any student or Professor on a college campus who was the most evil person to ever live they'd almost certainly say Adolf Hitler and what was Hitler's most evil act the murder of 6 million Jews the Holocaust of course no one today would want to associate themselves with that evil would they I'm Emily Austin for Prager University thank you for watching this video to keep Prager you videos free please consider making a tax deductible donation