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The years of 1941-1945 mark a very horrifying time period for Jews and many people around the world. This was the time period of a massive genocide that had taken place where a human right had been entirely violated. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi had exterminated 6 million Jews in the matter of just a few years (“The Holocaust: An Introductory History.” 2015).
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For Adolf Hitler, many things had triggered his hate toward the Jews from when he was a child to when he was an adult. All things that happened to him that he considered “bad” were automatically put on the Jews as if they did it. He was always against the Jews and this hate eventually lead to him thinking that he wanted them exterminated. As he became the chancellor of Germany in 1934, he had absolute control of all Germans and he corrupted the minds of many with propaganda to think Jews were horrible, evil and cowardly people (“The Holocaust: An Introductory History.” 2015). Shortly, the Nazi started to deport all Jews to concentration camps and this was the final solution. This was where they would either be burned in the crematorium or if they were healthy men, they would begin to do very harsh labour work. Mainly women, children and elderly were all killed first but the men were taken advantage of and then eventually, killed. Thousands of Jews were killed each day in the gas chambers and later taken to be burned.
Many tried to escape from the harsh concentration camps but it was very hard to do so because of the Nazi security. Some were still able to escape and one Jew out of the hundred who also had escaped named Rudolph Vrba was able to escape and tell this horrifying story to the world. Rudolph Vrba from Czechoslovakia was deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and began very harsh labour work (“Rudolf Vrba – I Escaped Auschwitz.” 2008). He had a goal in the beginning when he arrived to the camp to escape and he was able to do so with a friend he met named Alfred Wetzler. These two men had thought of a plan to escape Auschwitz so they could tell others and stop this dreadful act. They had to be very cautious when doing so and when they had succeeded escaping the camp, they met with people and made reports to send out to other countries. Some places where the reports were sent were influenced by anti-semitism and they decided not to do anything but later as more reports got around people were actually starting to entirely see what was happening and knew this had to be stopped (“American Response to the Holocaust.” 2009).
The liberation began with the allied troops moving throughout Europe and defeating the Nazi in 1944. The Soviet Army was first to reach Auschwitz and were also the first ones to see all the terror the camp held (“Liberation of Nazi Camps.” 2014). Thousands of corpses out in the field and the smell of the burning bodies was dreadful. All allied forces like US, Britain and Soviet Union began the liberation in different areas of Germany where the Concentration camps were held. When the forces had arrived, there were huge evidences that showed a mass genocide had occurred even though the Nazi tried to destroy many things like where bodies were being burnt and the clothes of all the Jews (“Liberation of Nazi Camps.” 2014).
The reason to why there was an international reaction to this ethnic cleansing was because of the Jews who were able to escape and tell their story. This was the reason why allies of the Nazi were able to know of what was happening and put a stop to this genocide. With the secret out, Nazi were punished for the crime they had done against humanity. Soon after this shocking event had ended, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created as an answer to the mass genocide that had taken place, The Holocaust. This was to ensure such an act to never happen again because of how wrong it was to humanity. All rights including everyone has the right to life, no one shall be held in slavery and no distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion are all rights based on The Holocaust and should not be disobeyed or repeated again (“The Universal Declarations of Human Rights.” 2015).
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