Many lives changed when the Nazis came to power in Germany. Books encouraged children to play with guns and enjoy fighting. Even their songs were about bloodshed, violence, and anti-Semitism. Adolf Hitler was the Nazi leader. He believed that the Jewish people were the main cause for all the problems that Germany had. He also believed that there should only be one party in Germany (the Nazi party) and that all the other parties should be banned.

The Nazi party was actually called the German Workers Party until March of 1920 when they joined with another party and became the National Socialist German Workers Party. By 1923 the political situation in Germany was getting bad. It took four billion gold marks to equal one United States dollar. So on November 7, 1923, Hitler and other leaders of the Nazi party met to plot an armed revolt. They planned to overthrow the republic using the three most powerful men in the Bavarian government: Otto von Lossow, Gustav Ritter von Kahr, and Hans von Seisser. Unfortunately for them their plan failed and Hitler was arrested and put in prison for five years. This was later called the Beer Hall Putsch.

Four years later on August 9, 1927, the first Nazi rally was held in Nuremberg. By this time there were 72,000 Nazi members. On January 6, 1929, Heinrich Himmler became head of the SS. One year later on September 2, 1930, Hitler took leadership of the SA and gained 18% of the vote in the Reichstag elections. In 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

When Hitler came to power, things started going bad for the Jews. On April 1, 1933, there was a boycott on all of the Jewish owned businesses. Six days later the first anti-Jewish laws were passed. Later that month the Gestapo was established. But on August 2, 1934, President Hindenburg died and Hitler became president. Since he had both the positions of chancellor and president he called himself the Fuhrer.

In March of 1938 Heinrich Himmler established Mauthausen concentration camp. Then on November 9^th the Nazis destroyed many Jewish synagogues and businesses. This was known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. The Nazis made the Jews pay one billion gold marks for the damages that the Nazis did.

On July 21, 1939, Adolf Eichmann became head of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration. Eichmann had been one of Hitlers long time friends and shared Hitler’s opinion about the Jews. Because of this one of his first new rules for the Jews was that they couldn’t go out after eight in the winter and nine in the summer.

In October of 1939 the Nazis started killing the sick and disabled in so called ‘mercy killings’. Then on February 12, 1940, the Nazis started the first deportation of Jews into Poland. On March 1, 1941, Heinrich Himmler made his first visit to Auschwitz and orders Hess to make an expansion at Birkenau. Six days later the German Jews were forced into forced labor. In the summer Himmler went to Hess and told him, “The Fuhrer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, Have to carry this out… I have chosen Auschwitz for this purpose.”

In August of 1941 Jews were forced into Transistria and by December 70,000 had died. In that year Zyklon-B started being used. In September 23,000 were Killed at Kamenets-Podolsk and 34,000 were murdered by the SS Einsatzgruppen near Kiev. In December Chelmno became operational and Germany declared war on the United States.

But 1945 was the turning point for the Jews and all of the rest of Europe. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz and freed 66,000. The allies liberated Buchenwald and the British took over Bergen-Belsen and freed 40,000 Jews. On April 30^th Hitler committed suicide and on May 5^th Mauthhausen was liberated. On May 7^th Germany surrendered and on the 23^rd Himmler committed suicide. On March 11, 1946 Hess was arrested. He later testified and was hung at Auschwitz. On September 15, 1947, twenty-one former SS leaders were sent on trial. Fourteen were sentenced to death but only four were actually killed. Fourteen years later in 1961 Adolf Eichmann was arrested and sentenced to death.

Ethan Brown 7^th Grade Social Studies Rossville Jr. High Holocaust Project Spring 2003

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