Facts about the Holocaust ~ The About

The Holocaust began with Hitler's rise to power in January of 1933 and ended on VE Day (May 8, 1945). During this time, more than 6 million Jews and millions of other groups that caught the negative attention of Nazi Germany. While all the murders were devastating to native populations, none were so devastating than that of the Jews. During this period, 5,000 Jewish communities were wiped out and the total that died represented 1/3 of all Jewish people alive at that time.

Due to a series of events, Hitler assumed dictatorial powers in March 23, 1933 when the Enabling Act was passed. With total power available to him, he quickly developed a sophisticated police and military force and used them to squelch anyone who criticized his authority. From this authority stemmed the first concentation camp, Dachau, just outside of Munich which started as a political prison camp but evolved over time into a full scale Nazi concentration camp to exterminate Jews and others.

By the end of 1934, Hiter's campaign against the Jews was in full force. The Nazis weere claiming them to be mongrels who were corrupting the pure German race and persecutions of the Jewish grew in strength. Those who could, fled Germany to other European countries which gave them safety for a while.

The next major event that led towards the widescale destruction of the Jews was the Meeting in July of 1938 where representatives of 32 countries met in the French town of Evian to discuss the refugee problems created by the Nazis - but since no conclusive action was taken, Hitler took that as defacto notice that no one would act against him while he worked to purge the Jews from his territories.