Holocaust Essay Winner, Division II (10-12 grade)

But before this eruption of warfare came a day that is known as Kristallnacht. November 9th began as a normal day in Germany. Before it was over, however, Germans would have violated the peace of their nation by venting their hatred and disgust on a prosperous but different minority known as the Jews. By November 10, hundreds of synagogues had been destroyed or desecrated, and many shops and homes had been burned, destroyed, or looted.

Kristallnacht was the turning point in Hitler’s war against the Jews because it signifies the point when Germany’s growing abhorrence of German Jews transformed into active violence and murder en masse of the Jews. Also, Kristallnacht is comparable to modern events in nations where similar violence and blind hatred are frightfully evident.

“The Night of the Broken Glass,” which is what Kristallnacht means, was a premeditated event that vented hate that had been festering for years. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, anti-Semitism was drilled into the minds of German children and adults via textbooks, media venues and propaganda techniques. German children were taught that Jews were the “poisoned mushrooms” in the “forest of humanity,” and that Jews were the human form of Satan himself.

It is no wonder that this untainted propaganda deluded the minds of the German people to such an extent that they would turn on the defenseless Jews and, like cowards, boldly destroy those who would not respond in anger.

Kristallnacht marked the beginning of thousands of deportations that carted Jews off to gruesome death camps such as Buchenwald, Auschwitz, or Treblinka. Kristallnacht also began the blatant, open, and ruthless pogrom that swept Germany in an attempt to eradicate Jewry from existence.

Hitler and his fanatical followers made significant inroads into their gruesome ethnic cleansing, for six million Jews were senselessly murdered in the Holocaust. Because the Germans chose to follow their Fuhrer’s perverted spite, millions of people paid an enormous penalty.

It would seem that Kristallnacht and the Holocaust are so ghastly and repulsive that they would, in the very worst circumstances, take place only once for the world to learn from their horror; but sadly, many people today face the same discrimination and intolerance that occurred in the Holocaust.

The Iraq of the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, saw ostracism and cold-blooded murder of thousands of minorities as well. The Kurdish people, for instance, comprise nearly twenty-three percent of the Iraqi population, but beginning in 1988, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered his subordinates to begin destroying the Kurdish population.

Poisonous gas attacks began to descend on Kurdish villages, and thousands of these people were rounded up, taken from their villages, and never heard from again. The Kurds had committed no offense other than merely existing in Iraq, but they were systematically and ruthlessly eradicated over the next several years.

Germany and Iraq, however, are not the only nations that have suffered the consequences of intolerance and oppression of a minority like the Jews or Kurds.

As recently as 1992, a form of genocide comparable to Germany and Iraq’s holocausts is evident. The Balkan Peninsula, which includes countries like Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, has long been a cesspool of hatred and violence.

In July of 1991, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic led a joint invasion by guerillas from Serbia and the national Yugoslavian army under Milosevic’s control that stormed into the unstable country of Croatia, and later took over Bosnia, to “protect” the Serbian minority of these countries. Milosevic’s plan for protection, however, seemed to necessitate mass murder of Muslims for four entire years!

During this time, entire cities were razed while the inhabitants were herded into Nazi-style concentration camps or merely shot and buried in mass graves. Even Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, was the site of constant sniper attacks and Serbian aggression.

The Muslim minority of these countries was subjugated, oppressed, and systematically eliminated under the guidance of Slobodan Milosevic just as the Jews were trampled and terrorized under Adolf Hitler’s dictates.

At the end of the carnage, an estimated 200,000 Muslims had been brutally and senselessly murdered in Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing.”

In conclusion, it is clearly evident that Kristallnacht and the Holocaust of the Jews are parallel to several awful events in recent world history.

It is important to note, however, that genocide and holocausts such as that of the Jews, the Kurds, and Serbian and Bosnian Muslims are gruesomely similar. All were the brainchildren of despotic dictators, whether it was Hitler, Hussein, or Milosevic. All were directed against helpless minorities that may have been different, but were neither rebellious nor militant.

Each of these horrible events had an impact that is far greater than just mere numbers or endless statistics. These were real people! They deserved the freedom that we enjoy today, but the racism, prejudice, and hate of other people ripped these liberties away.

The comparisons between the Holocaust, Iraq, and the Balkans are too similar to dismiss. To brush off their consequences is to minimize liberty and freedom, and to open our future up to likely repeats of these horrible events of the past. Are these possibilities worth waiting for?

Comparisons between the Holocaust, Iraq, and the Balkans are too similar to dismiss.12 grade, Mukwonago Baptist Academy

The year is 1938. Europe is unknowingly enjoying the last peaceful year before the entire world would explode into the bloody and devastating six years of the Second World War.

But before this eruption of warfare came a day that is known as Kristallnacht. November 9th began as a normal day in Germany. Before it was over, however, Germans would have violated the peace of their nation by venting their hatred and disgust on a prosperous but different minority known as the Jews. By November 10, hundreds of synagogues had been destroyed or desecrated, and many shops and homes had been burned, destroyed, or looted.

Kristallnacht was the turning point in Hitler’s war against the Jews because it signifies the point when Germany’s growing abhorrence of German Jews transformed into active violence and murder en masse of the Jews. Also, Kristallnacht is comparable to modern events in nations where similar violence and blind hatred are frightfully evident.

“The Night of the Broken Glass,” which is what Kristallnacht means, was a premeditated event that vented hate that had been festering for years. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, anti-Semitism was drilled into the minds of German children and adults via textbooks, media venues and propaganda techniques. German children were taught that Jews were the “poisoned mushrooms” in the “forest of humanity,” and that Jews were the human form of Satan himself.

It is no wonder that this untainted propaganda deluded the minds of the German people to such an extent that they would turn on the defenseless Jews and, like cowards, boldly destroy those who would not respond in anger.

Kristallnacht marked the beginning of thousands of deportations that carted Jews off to gruesome death camps such as Buchenwald, Auschwitz, or Treblinka. Kristallnacht also began the blatant, open, and ruthless pogrom that swept Germany in an attempt to eradicate Jewry from existence.

Hitler and his fanatical followers made significant inroads into their gruesome ethnic cleansing, for six million Jews were senselessly murdered in the Holocaust. Because the Germans chose to follow their Fuhrer’s perverted spite, millions of people paid an enormous penalty.

It would seem that Kristallnacht and the Holocaust are so ghastly and repulsive that they would, in the very worst circumstances, take place only once for the world to learn from their horror; but sadly, many people today face the same discrimination and intolerance that occurred in the Holocaust.

The Iraq of the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, saw ostracism and cold-blooded murder of thousands of minorities as well. The Kurdish people, for instance, comprise nearly twenty-three percent of the Iraqi population, but beginning in 1988, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered his subordinates to begin destroying the Kurdish population.

Poisonous gas attacks began to descend on Kurdish villages, and thousands of these people were rounded up, taken from their villages, and never heard from again. The Kurds had committed no offense other than merely existing in Iraq, but they were systematically and ruthlessly eradicated over the next several years.

Germany and Iraq, however, are not the only nations that have suffered the consequences of intolerance and oppression of a minority like the Jews or Kurds.

As recently as 1992, a form of genocide comparable to Germany and Iraq’s holocausts is evident. The Balkan Peninsula, which includes countries like Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, has long been a cesspool of hatred and violence.

In July of 1991, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic led a joint invasion by guerillas from Serbia and the national Yugoslavian army under Milosevic’s control that stormed into the unstable country of Croatia, and later took over Bosnia, to “protect” the Serbian minority of these countries. Milosevic’s plan for protection, however, seemed to necessitate mass murder of Muslims for four entire years!

During this time, entire cities were razed while the inhabitants were herded into Nazi-style concentration camps or merely shot and buried in mass graves. Even Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, was the site of constant sniper attacks and Serbian aggression.

The Muslim minority of these countries was subjugated, oppressed, and systematically eliminated under the guidance of Slobodan Milosevic just as the Jews were trampled and terrorized under Adolf Hitler’s dictates.

At the end of the carnage, an estimated 200,000 Muslims had been brutally and senselessly murdered in Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing.”

In conclusion, it is clearly evident that Kristallnacht and the Holocaust of the Jews are parallel to several awful events in recent world history.

It is important to note, however, that genocide and holocausts such as that of the Jews, the Kurds, and Serbian and Bosnian Muslims are gruesomely similar. All were the brainchildren of despotic dictators, whether it was Hitler, Hussein, or Milosevic. All were directed against helpless minorities that may have been different, but were neither rebellious nor militant.

Each of these horrible events had an impact that is far greater than just mere numbers or endless statistics. These were real people! They deserved the freedom that we enjoy today, but the racism, prejudice, and hate of other people ripped these liberties away.

The comparisons between the Holocaust, Iraq, and the Balkans are too similar to dismiss. To brush off their consequences is to minimize liberty and freedom, and to open our future up to likely repeats of these horrible events of the past. Are these possibilities worth waiting for?

Comparisons between the Holocaust, Iraq, and the Balkans are too similar to dismiss.