The Holocaust was the systematic program carried out by the Nazi regime during World War II. Its aim was the elimination of the Jewish population in areas under Nazi control. Its result was the annihilation of approximately six million Jews.
Beginning in the 1930s, Jews under German control were required to register and be identified as Jews on their passports. Gradually, their property and jobs were taken away. Soon being employed in certain jobs, owning a business, having a bank account, and finally attending school were forbidden. In some places like Warsaw, Poland, they were crowded into walled-in ghettoes where they lived in deplorable conditions. As the aim of the Nazi regime to eliminate Jews escalated, very little action of any magnitude was attempted to stop the atrocities. As early as l938, the United States refused to change its stringent immigration policies that prevented thousands of Jews from fleeing to America. Though Hitler’s actions before the war were not hidden from the public, there were few cries of outrage and little action from the world. Isolated acts by individuals and, in some cases, nations (Sweden in particular) could not stem the tide. The Denmark Rescue Mission which transported thousands of Jews to neutral Sweden, Oskar Shindler who protected the Jews working in his factories, Jewish resistance fighters, a Swedish businessman who helped Jews escape from Hungary, and many other nameless people were not enough. The vast majority waited and hoped that things would get better. More detailed information may be obtained by researching The Holocaust.
