Role of the United States in Ww2 and the Holocaust
ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN WW2 AND THE HOLOCAUST
World War II (WW2) was a military conflict that began in 1939. It came to be the worst war in human history based of the loss of lives and material destroyed. Though it began as a European conflict between Germans and the French coalition, it spread to include other nations of the world like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (US). Boundaries and lines between combatants and non-combatants blurred with wars being waged on entire enemy territories and their populates’. Nations fought against each other with Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, being on the forefront. Germany’s aggression continued to rise but the US was impaired against acting against any aggression by the passing of a neutrality law. This law prevented them from offering assistance to any country involved in foreign conflict.
The worst act against human kind and the most memorable one was the holocaust in Germany. The German Nazi party ordered the killing of over 5.7 million Jews during WW2. 1.5 million of them were children. Before the holocaust, there was already hatred toward the Jewish population in Europe. Many Germans put blame on Jews for their defeat in WW1 and, Hitler blamed Jews for his country’s short-comings. He referred to them as a plague that needed to be eradicated and believed that they were pulling down the modern society (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). Also, he strongly opposed the Bolshevik leadership that most of the Jews of USSR practiced. Jews were forced to move and live in concentration camps and Jewish reservations. Also, they were forced to carry out German orders, labor without pay and wear yellow stars on their clothing to distinguish them. They did all this while living in atrocious conditions. They had very little to eat, lived in dirty areas and they did not have access to medical supplies.
Soon afterwards, Hitler decided to exterminate what he thought of
World War II (WW2) was a military conflict that began in 1939. It came to be the worst war in human history based of the loss of lives and material destroyed. Though it began as a European conflict between Germans and the French coalition, it spread to include other nations of the world like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (US). Boundaries and lines between combatants and non-combatants blurred with wars being waged on entire enemy territories and their populates’. Nations fought against each other with Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, being on the forefront. Germany’s aggression continued to rise but the US was impaired against acting against any aggression by the passing of a neutrality law. This law prevented them from offering assistance to any country involved in foreign conflict.
The worst act against human kind and the most memorable one was the holocaust in Germany. The German Nazi party ordered the killing of over 5.7 million Jews during WW2. 1.5 million of them were children. Before the holocaust, there was already hatred toward the Jewish population in Europe. Many Germans put blame on Jews for their defeat in WW1 and, Hitler blamed Jews for his country’s short-comings. He referred to them as a plague that needed to be eradicated and believed that they were pulling down the modern society (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). Also, he strongly opposed the Bolshevik leadership that most of the Jews of USSR practiced. Jews were forced to move and live in concentration camps and Jewish reservations. Also, they were forced to carry out German orders, labor without pay and wear yellow stars on their clothing to distinguish them. They did all this while living in atrocious conditions. They had very little to eat, lived in dirty areas and they did not have access to medical supplies.
Soon afterwards, Hitler decided to exterminate what he thought of
Bibliography: Williams, Sandra, S. “The Impact of Holocaust on Survivors and their Children.” http://www.sandrawilliams.org/HOLOCAUST/holocaust.html, 1993. Holocaust Encyclopedia. “The United States and the Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182, 2011 Lapon, Lenny. “Mass Murderers in White Coats (From Harvard to Buchenwald: A Chronology of Psychiatry and Eugenics” http://www.operationmorningstar.org/mass_murderers_in_white_coats1.htm, 2011. Messall, Rebecca. “The Long Road of Eugenics: From Rockefeller to Roe v. Wade” October 11, 2005 http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/MessallEugenics.php Feingold, Henry. Bearing witness how America and its Jews responded to the Holocaust. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse UP, 1995. http://jessicadillon.wordpress.com/about/world-war-ii-how-much-did-americans-know-about-the-holocaust-as-it-was-happening/ Bankier, David. "Holocaust." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.