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The Others Persecuted |
| "Kill without
pity or mercy all men women and children of polish decent or
language". This is a quote from Adolf Hitler which may give you
an idea of how gruesome about eleven million people where treated these
people died. Throughout the World this what has happened at that time
is called the Holocaust. Many people automatically link it to the slaughter
of the Jewish. But that is only half true while yes five million
Jews were put to death during the Holocaust a person who are "The
Others" as they are commonly referred to.
Now before I go on you may want to know Hitler planned to make a ultimate race called the "Aryan" and that's why he had these people killed. The Aryan race is based off the idea of Swiss men strong, blonde hair, blue eyes. Although Hitler himself fit his idea of imperfect. Well start off with the handicap. When it comes to the handicap it was decided to be a waste of time and money to support them. So in January of 1940 the entire Auschwitz killing enterprise began with the most helpless of all. The institutionalized handicap were slain like cattle. 'This group included people who showed signs of mental illness, retardation, physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and severe alcoholism' Also like the Jewish Gypsies were chosen for total annihilation because of their race. These people were called 'racially inferior and degenerate there for worthless." One half of a million Gypsies "almost the entire European population" were wiped out during the holocaust. Out of all the people homosexuals were problem treated the worst. Many males from all countries were singled out and persecuted, raped, tortured, and executed. A good example of
the hatred for these people, is that Hitler even sent his own men to
concentration camps if he thought they were homosexual.
On concentration camps they were made to wear pink triangles so
they could easily be found and be further humiliated. The people who
were firmest to their beliefs are Jehovah Witness. From the very beginning
Hitler was extremely threatened by them.
They refused to worship or believe in any other God besides
Jehovah. When they were asked
to pledge loyalty to the Nazi ideology they refused and were intern imprisoned
as “dangerous traitors” for not pledging loyalty to the
Third Reich. Many Africans were
brought into aid France during World War I.
After the war they had to take up residence in Europe.
A lot of them married white women.
Their children were called “Rhineland Bastard” and “Black
Disgrace”. These children were pulled out of school and if proven to be
of African descent, they were forced to be sterilized without parents
knowing. They were also sent
to concentration camps. There
were 300,000 – 400,000 people sterilized. Today almost half a century after the Holocaust, people still hardly know anything about “the others”. But I hope the people that read this will tell others about these people whose lives have been taken will be remembered.
Charlotte French 7th grade Rossville Grade School Spring 2001
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