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Protect citizens from terrorist attacks

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Hitler, FDR, Trump standing next to each other holding one end of chains.

Other end of chains- Jews, Japanese, Muslims

Hitler hold chains w Jews
FDR hold chains w Japanese
Trump hold chains w Muslims

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Why didn't the US accept Jews during the Holocaust?

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Why didn't the US accept Jews during the Holocaust?

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-afraid that Nazis can smuggle spies

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1921: Emergency Quota Act and Failed Refugee Provision

After World War I, America became an isolationist nation. In December 1920, in the context of this isolationism, the international influenza pandemic, and a postwar economic recession, the US House of Representatives voted to end all immigration to the United States for one year. The vote was bipartisan and was not close (293-41). The Senate did not believe the emergency warranted this dramatic step but was willing to significantly restrict the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States.

Congress began negotiating a new immigration bill, which would set quotas for the first time on the number of immigrants from each country who could enter the United States. At the last minute, the Senate rejected the House's proposed amendment, which would have made a distinction between immigrants and refugees by exempting immigrants who could prove they were escaping political or racial persecution. Had this amendment been enacted, American response to the refugee crisis in the 1930s may have been quite different.

On May 19, 1921, President Warren Harding signed the Quota Act of 1921 (also known as the "Emergency Quota Act"). The 1921 quotas were enforced on Ellis Island, not at US consulates abroad. State Department officials could advise a potential immigrant on the probability that he/she would be allowed to enter due to health or economic status, but entry decisions were made upon disembarking in the United States. This led to so-called "midnight races," where passenger ships raced to reach the United States as soon as possible at the beginning of each month, when new portions of the quota were opened. Ships that arrived at 11 p.m. on August 31, for instance, could be fined for bringing passengers from countries where the quota had already been filled; one hour later, on September 1, the passengers could enter under newly opened quota slots.

1924: Johnson-Reed Act

On May 24, 1924, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act or the National Origins Act. The act was meant to solve the "midnight races" problem and establish a more permanent immigration law. It created new quotas, which heavily favored England and northern Europe and set much lower quotas for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who had made up the majority of more recent immigration. The new law reflected anti-Catholic, antisemitic sentiment in the country. The 1924 law capped quota immigration at 164,667 people per year. Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, needed for US labor, were "non-quota" arrivals, exempted from the quota system.

The Johnson-Reed Act also mandated that potential immigrants present their paperwork and receive US immigration visas at consulates abroad, prior to leaving for the United States. The State Department, therefore, became responsible for enforcing the quota law, and "midnight races" ended.

In 1929, immigration was further limited to a total of 153,879 and the new quotas were re-calculated using complicated math based on the existing "national origins" of the population as reflected in the 1920 census and the new immigration cap. As a result, the quota for the British Isles rose from 34,007 to 65,721, while the quota for Germany fell significantly, from 51,227 to 25,957. Other countries fared worse: Poland, with a prewar Jewish population of 3.5 million, had a quota of 6,524, and Romania, with a Jewish population of nearly a million, had a quota of 377.

1930s: Attempts to Change Immigration Law

In the late 1930s, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe were consistently referred to as "refugees." However, this term had no legal meaning under US law, save for theoretically exempting these immigrants from having to pass a literacy test.

Throughout the 1930s, most Americans opposed changing or adjusting the Johnson-Reed Act, fearing that immigrants, including those fleeing persecution, would compete for scarce jobs and burden public services in the midst of the Great Depression. (Later on, they would see them as a potential national security risk.) Consistent with overall anti-immigrant sentiments in the country, the State Department viewed the quotas as limits, rather than goals, and did not seek to fill the quotas. Between 1933 and 1941, for example, roughly 118,000 German quota slots that could have been used went unfilled.

After Germany's annexation of Austria and with the advice of the State Department, a group of Jewish congressmen met and decided not to introduce any new legislation to expand immigration to aid Jewish refugees. Public anti-immigration sentiment remained strong-in May 1938, only 23% of Americans were in favor of the immigration of German refugees-and these congressmen believed that legislation reducing immigration would prevail if the subject came up for debate. Several bills were introduced to aid refugees; many more were introduced to curb or end immigration. None passed.

The only significant attempt to pass a law to aid refugees came in 1939, when Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Republican Congresswoman Edith Rogers of Massachusetts introduced legislation in both houses of Congress that would allow 20,000 German refugee children under the age of 14 into the country over two years outside of the immigration quotas. The legislation never made it out of committee for a vote.

1939-1941: Non-Legislative State Department Restrictions

After World War II began in 1939, the State Department cautioned consular officials to exercise particular care in screening applicants: "In view of the international situation, it is essential that all aliens seeking admission into the United States, including both immigrants and nonimmigrants be examined with the greatest care." Visa applicants were required to submit moral a ffidavits, attesting to their identities and good conduct, from several responsible disinterested persons, in addition to financial affidavits.

Fears of infiltration and espionage led to additional restrictions on visa applicants. On June 5, 1941, diplomats abroad were cautioned that visas would soon be denied to applicants with close relatives remaining in German-occupied countries. American officials were concerned that unfriendly governments would use family members as hostages or bargaining chips to coerce immigrants to commit acts of sabotage or espionage.

On July 1, 1941, the same day that the new "relatives rule" went into effect, the State Department centralized all alien visa control in Washington. Visa applications were placed before an interdepartmental review committee consisting of representatives of the Visa Division, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, Military Intelligence Division of the War Department, and the Navy Department's Office of Naval Intelligence. At this time, documentary requirements were also increased: applicants now needed two financial affidavits instead of one.

US consulates in Nazi-occupied territory shut down in July 1941. (This happened just as the systematic, mass murder of the Jews began with the German invasion of the Soviet Union.) For most Jewish refugees, the new paperwork combined with the lack of access to American diplomats ended their hope of immigration to the United States.

1945: Truman Directive

Allied victory brought an end to Nazi terror in Europe in May 1945, and to the war in the Pacific in August. Six million European Jews had been murdered. Hundreds of thousands of liberated Jews, suffering from starvation and disease, emerged from concentration camps, hiding places, and places of temporary refuge to discover a world which still seemed to have no place for them. Visual evidence of the Holocaust, shown in popular magazines, newspapers and movie theater newsreels, did not change Americans' minds towards immigration or refugees. In a December 1945 Gallup poll, only 5% of Americans were willing to accept more European immigrants than the nation had prior to the war.

President Harry S. Truman favored a liberal immigration policy toward displaced persons (DPs). Faced with Congressional inaction, he issued a statement, known as the "Truman Directive," on December 22, 1945, announcing that DPs would be granted priority for US visas within the existing quota system. While overall immigration into the United States did not increase, between 35,000-40,000 DPs, most of whom were Jewish, entered the United States between December 22, 1945, and July 1, 1948, under provisions of the Truman Directive.

1946-1952: The International Refugee Organization (IRO)

The International Refugee Organization (IRO), a temporary specialized agency of the newly established United Nations, was created in December 1946 to replace the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGC), which had originally been created during the Evian Conference in 1938.

The IRO constitution stated that " refugees and displaced persons constitute an urgent problem which is international in scope and character" and while displaced persons should be returned home, refugees should be assisted by international action. Germany and Japan were to pay for the resettlement of displaced persons from the countries they formerly occupied. The IRO also operated the International Tracing Service whose purpose was to help survivors find their families and learn the fate of loved ones.

Although the IRO constitution was drawn up in December 1946, the organization did not begin work until 1948, when the nations paying the majority of the IRO's expenses had ratified the constitution. The United States, a signatory along with 54 other nations, supplied 40% of the IRO's administrative expenses and 46% of its operational expenses, and the IRO's Director-General was always an American citizen.

The IRO ceased operations on January 31, 1952, as most of its work had been taken over by other organizations, most significantly the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, an office created in 1951.

1948: Displaced Persons Act

Three years after the end of the war, there were still a substantial number of displaced persons in Europe. They included Jews who had survived the Holocaust and many others who were fleeing the Soviet control. By June 1948 Truman had pushed for some sort of legislation on behalf of displaced persons for at least eighteen months. In his 1947 State of the Union, Truman stated, "We are dealing with a human problem, a world tragedy." In his 1948 State of the Union, he argued for "suitable legislation at once so that this nation may do its share in caring for homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths. I believe the admission of these persons will add to the strength and energy of the nation." Still, Congress delayed action.

Congress finally passed a Displaced Persons Act only reluctantly, and without public hearings. The Senate passed a bill on June 2, 1948, the House passed another on June 11, and a hurried compromise ensued, finally reaching the president on the final day of the congressional session. Truman, disappointed by the limited reach of the act, said that he would have vetoed it had Congress been in session, but signed the act so there would be some legislation to aid displaced persons, rather than none.

The Act, which authorized 200,000 displaced persons to enter the United States, "mortgaged" the still-extant 1924 immigration quotas, allowing up to 50% of future quota spaces to be used on behalf of displaced persons, with few exceptions. Truman particularly criticized the fact that the bill restricted eligibility to people who had entered Germany, Austria, or Italy prior to December 22, 1945, effectively discriminating against Jewish displaced persons, many of whom had been in the Soviet zone of occupation and only traveled to western Europe later.

"The bill," Truman stated, "reflects a singular lack of confidence by the Congress in the capacity and willingness of the people of the United States to extend a welcoming hand to the prospective immigrants."

Public opinion was more in line with Congress than Truman: an April 1948 poll showed that 53% of Americans disapproved of the plan to allow 200,000 displaced persons to enter, compared with 40% who approved. Polling also showed that more Americans supported immigration limits on Jewish DPs than on Germans who had left their homes fleeing Soviet occupation.

In 1950, Congress amended the Displaced Persons Act, an amendment Truman signed "with very great pleasure." The Act authorized a total of 400,744 visas for displaced persons (of which 172,230 had been issued in the previous two years) and removed the geographical and chronological limits which had discriminated against Jewish DPs. Approximately 80,000 Jewish DPs entered the United States between 1948 and 1952 under the Displaced Persons Act.

1951: United Nations Refugee Convention

In 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which has been signed by 145 nations. The United States did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. This was the first time refugees gained distinct legal status under international law. Under this international treaty, a refugee was defined as "a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

The 1951 Convention defines the obligations of signatory nations to refugees, and vice versa. Refugees are granted the right to work, to housing, to education, to public assistance, to freedom of movement within the territory, and cannot be punished for illegal entry. Under Article 33, known as the "non-refoulement" provision, refugees cannot be returned against their will to a place in which they would be endangered. In exchange, refugees must abide by the laws and regulations of the country of asylum. Those who have committed crimes against peace, war crimes, or non-political crimes outside of their country of refuge, are not eligible for refugee status.

The Convention does not specify how signatories determine or assign refugee status. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees assists member nations in establishing and carrying out procedures to process claims and review decisions.

The 1951 Convention only applied to persons who became refugees "as a result of events occurring [in Europe] before 1 January 1951." These limits in time and geography were in place until 1967, when the Refugee Protocol expanded refugee protection to people fleeing persecution worldwide on a more permanent basis.

1952-1980: A Series of Efforts

The United States did not sign the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, instead passing its own set of laws which also aided specific groups of refugees for limited periods of time.

The 1953 Refugee Relief Act defined "refugee" (someone in a non-Communist country fleeing persecution), "escapee" (someone fleeing communism), and "expellee" (an ethnic German forced out of Eastern Europe). The act allowed approximately 190,000 refugees, escapees, and expellees to arrive in the United States before the legislation expired in 1956.

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (known as the Hart-Celler Act), which eliminated the "national origins" quotas that for 40 years had seriously limited the ability of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, to obtain US immigration visas. The new immigration law reserved 6% of each year's visas for people who were fleeing persecution in communist areas or the Middle East, or had escaped after a natural disaster. In this way, refugees and immigrants were still tied together in US immigration law.

A combination of presidential directives and congressional legislation aided other specific groups of refugees. In 1958 and 1966, presidents Eisenhower and Johnson issued "parole" directives to aid 30,700 Hungarian refugees and nearly 500,000 Cuban refugees fleeing their nations' revolutions, reclassifying these refugees as permanent US residents. With the support of President Gerald Ford, Congress passed a law in 1975 to allow more than 130,000 South Vietnamese and Cambodians to enter the United States, and President Jimmy Carter permitted 15,000 refugees who had escaped southeast Asia by boat to become permanent US residents in 1977.

1967: United Nations Refugee Protocol

The 1967 United Nations Refugee Protocol expanded the 1951 Refugee Convention, which had originally limited the definition of "refugee" to people who had been displaced in Europe prior to 1951. The new Protocol expanded the responsibilities to all refugees from any part of the world and at any time, but still allowed nations to define for themselves how they would assess refugee status.

The United States signed the United Nations Refugee Protocol on November 6, 1968.

1980: Refugee Act

In March 1980, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, expressing that it "is the historic policy of the United States to respond to the urgent needs of persons subject to persecution in their homelands." The Act laid out the procedures for the admission of refugees into the United States and how the US would fulfill its obligations as a signatory of the United Nations Refugee Protocol.

The Refugee Act of 1980 remains in effect. Between 1980 and 2018, more than 3,000,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States.

Conclusion

After World War II and the Holocaust, the United States and the international community recognized that refugees and displaced persons merited special consideration and should be dealt with separately from immigrants, who are moving to a new country to seek a better life. The United States did not immediately adopt a consistent refugee policy in the wake of World War II, instead patching together various immigration, refugee, and displaced persons legislation for temporary fixes to address specific crises.

The United Nations Refugee Protocol of 1967 established the current international norms for defining and dealing with refugees, and 146 countries, including the United States, have signed this protocol. Since 1980, the United States has had a defined procedure for carrying out the country's agreed-upon duties under the protocol.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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United States Immigration and Refugee Law, 1921-1980

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After World War I, America became an isolationist nation. In December 1920, in the context of this isolationism, the international influenza pandemic, and a postwar economic recession, the US House of Representatives voted to end all immigration to the United States for one year. The vote was bipartisan and was not close (293-41).

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-immigrants can't seek refuge to US and escape their country
-Jews couldn't find refuge to US and escape their country

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In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump on Friday issued a statement remembering the victims of the Holocaust and promising to "make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world."

But while the president may claim to remember the victims, the organized American Jewish community believes he has forgotten the lessons of the past.

Earlier this week, leaked drafts of President Trump's executive orders revealed plans to temporarily ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations and suspend all refugee admissions for 120 days. The order, as signed late Friday, also closed the door to Syrian refugees indefinitely, and more than halved the number of refugees the country will take in 2017. Christian and other refugees of minority religions will now be privileged over Muslims coming from Muslim majority nations.

A number of national Jewish groups and prominent individuals have drawn a direct line between the rejection of Jewish refugees during the reign of Nazi terror in Europe and the new refugee restrictions. For the descendants of the survivors and refugees who were given safe haven on American shores, the parallel is stark.

"This one hits Jews in the gut," says Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of T'ruah, a network of Rabbis that champions human rights.

"It is an insult to release this executive order on International Holocaust Remembrance Day when we realize that millions died because they couldn't find refuge in the United States or anywhere else," Rabbi Jacobs says, "and many of the reasons that were given for why the US couldn't let Jews in are very similar to reasons that are given for blocking refugees, especially Muslim refugees, now."

Protesters also gathered in multiple cities on Friday afternoon, with a strong showing from Jewish organizations, including the HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, and Bend the Arc in Manhattan. Organizers tweeted under the hashtag #NoBanNoWall. In New York, demonstrators formed a solidarity wall of people around Muslims praying the Friday "jummah" prayer.

David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said in a statement that Jews "are all related to those fortunate enough to have been admitted to this country ... and we believe that other deserving individuals merit the same opportunities to be considered for permanent entry."

The Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement explicitly underscoring that for Jews, "our history and heritage compel us to take a stand."

"History will look back on this order as a sad moment in American History - the time when the president turned his back on people fleeing for their lives," Greenblatt's statement read. "This will effectively shut America's doors to the most vulnerable people in the world who seek refuge from unspeakable pain and suffering."

Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, which has supported refugees since the early 20th century, told the Forward, "We find it particularly ironic that he's chosen the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day to wall out refugees and immigrants and to put a ban on refugees."

A petition signed by Jews who fled the former Soviet Union circulated this week:

We, the undersigned Soviet Jewish refugees, write to express our support for the United States' refugee resettlement program and our opposition to President Trump's draft Executive Orders that would close America's doors to vulnerable refugees desperately seeking our protection. The United States must not turn our backs on the human beings who are fleeing violence and persecution, just as we and our families did when we left the former Soviet Union, nor abandon our highest national values and the demands of basic decency.

Prominent Jews and intellectuals also issued statements.

In a Facebook post, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the executive order "cruel" and a "departure" from America's "core values." She spoke of her own family's history, and America's promise to refugees.

"We have a proud tradition of sheltering those fleeing violence and persecution, and have always been the world leader in refugee resettlement," she wrote. "As a refugee myself who fled the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, I personally benefited from this country's generosity and its tradition of openness."

Masha Gessen, a writer and refugee from the former Soviet Union, tweeted, "I came to this country as a refugee," and tagged several other prominent people who had also come to the US as refugees, including Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, writer Gary Shteyngart, and others.

"Anne Frank didn't," Gessen wrote. "Couldn't get a visa."

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Donald Trump signed a refugee ban on Holocaust Remembrance Day

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In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump on Friday issued a statement remembering the victims of the Holocaust and promising to "make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world." But while the president may claim to remember the victims, the organized American Jewish community believes he has forgotten the lessons of the past.

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-used as scapegoats for Germany's problems

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Anne Frank House Westermarkt 20 1016 DK Amsterdam

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- discrimination against group of people
- done for "national security"
- targeted due to past event (WWII, bombing, terrorist attacks)
- not allowed to stay where they wish
- done with no proof (no proof Jews will do harm, no proof Japanese Americans will go against US, no proof the banned countries will plan terrorist attack.

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The Trump administration has appealed a Maryland court's block of its revised travel ban, aiming to reinstate the temporary halt to immigrants and travellers from six majority-Muslim countries.

The justice department filed a notice of appeal with the district court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Friday, two days after that court and one in Hawaii ruled that the travel ban discriminated against Muslims.

The case now goes to a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia.

US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland on Thursday issued an emergency halt to the portion of President Donald Trump's March 6 executive order temporarily banning the entry of travellers from Iran, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.

He left in place the section of the order that barred the entry of refugees to the United States for four months.

Another federal judge in Hawaii struck down both sections of the ban in a broader court ruling that prevented Trump's order from moving forward.
EXPLAINED: How could Hawaii block Trump's travel ban?
In Washington state, where the ban is also being challenged, US District Court Judge James Robart put a stay on proceedings for as long as the Hawaii court's nationwide temporary restraining order remains in place, to "conserve resources" and to avoid duplicative rulings.

Detractors argue the ban discriminated against Muslims in violation of the US constitution's guarantee of religious freedom. Trump says the measure is necessary for national security to protect the country from "terrorist attacks".

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at a press briefing the government would "vigorously defend this executive order" and appeal the "flawed rulings".

He said the plan was to appeal at the 4th Circuit in Richmond first and then seek clarification of Hawaii's ruling before appealing to the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The 9th Circuit court last month upheld a decision by Judge Robart that halted an original, more sweeping travel ban signed by the President on January 27.
OPINION: The Muslim ban and the ethnic cleansing of America
The new executive order was revised with the intention of overcoming the legal concerns. It removed any references to religion and affected fewer individuals.

Trump has vowed to take the fight all the way to US Supreme Court.

The 4th Circuit is known as a more conservative court compared to the 9th Circuit, said Buzz Frahn, a lawyer who has been tracking the litigation nationwide.

"The government is probably thinking that the 4th Circuit ... would lend a friendlier ear to its arguments," he told the Reuters news agency.

Judges have said they are willing to look behind the text of the order, which does not mention Islam, to probe the motivation for enacting the ban, said Frahn. Trump during the campaign promised to ban Muslims from entering the US.

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Trump administration appeals block of travel ban

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The Trump administration has appealed a Maryland court's block of its revised travel ban, aiming to reinstate the temporary halt to immigrants and travellers from six majority-Muslim countries.

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On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring aliens from World War II-enemy countries-Italy, Germany and Japan-to register with the United States Department of Justice. Registered persons were then issued a Certificate of Identification for Aliens of Enemy Nationality. A follow-up to the Alien Registration Act of 1940, Proclamation No. 2537 facilitated the beginning of full-scale internment of Japanese Americans the following month.

While most Americans expected the U.S. to enter the war, presumably in Europe or the Philippines, the nation was shocked to hear of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the wake of the bombing, the West Coast appeared particularly vulnerable to another Japanese military offensive. A large population of Japanese Americans inhabited the western states and American military analysts feared some would conduct acts of sabotage on west-coast defense and agricultural industries.

Official relations between the governments of Japan and the United States had soured in the 1930s when Japan began its military conquest of Chinese territory. China, weakened by a civil war between nationalists and communists, represented an important strategic relationship for both the U.S. and Japan. Japan desperately needed China's raw materials in order to continue its program of modernization. The U.S. needed a democratic Chinese government to counter both Japanese military expansion in the Pacific and the spread of communism in Asia. Liberal Japanese resented American anti-Japanese policies, particularly in California, where exclusionary laws were passed to prevent Japanese Americans from competing with U.S. citizens in the agricultural industry. In spite of these tensions, a 1941 federal report requested by Roosevelt indicated that more than 90 percent of Japanese Americans were considered loyal citizens. Nevertheless, under increasing pressure from agricultural associations, military advisors and influential California politicians, Roosevelt agreed to begin the necessary steps for possible internment of the Japanese-American population.

Ostensibly issued in the interest of national security, Proclamation No. 2537 permitted the arrest, detention and internment of enemy aliens who violated restricted areas, such as ports, water treatment plants or even areas prone to brush fires, for the duration of the war. A month later, a reluctant but resigned Roosevelt signed the War Department's blanket Executive Order 9066, which authorized the physical removal of all Japanese Americans into internment camps.

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Roosevelt ushers in Japanese-American internment - Jan 14, 1942 - HISTORY.com

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On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring aliens from World War II-enemy countries-Italy, Germany and Japan-to register with the United States Department of Justice. Registered persons were then issued a Certificate of Identification for Aliens of Enemy Nationality.

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Introduction

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the Nazi era, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples ( Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and Black people. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

What Was the Holocaust?

In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By the end of the war in 1945, the Germans and their allies and collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the " Final Solution."

The Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race that posed the deadliest menace to the German . Soon after they came to power, the Nazis adopted measures to exclude Jews from German economic, social and cultural life and to pressure them to emigrate. World War II provided Nazi officials with the opportunity to pursue a comprehensive, "final solution to the Jewish question": the murder of all the Jews in Europe.

While Jews were the priority target of Nazi racism, other groups within Germany were persecuted for racial reasons, including Roma (then commonly called "Gypsies"), Afro-Germans, and people with mental or physical disabilities. By the end of the war, the Germans and their Axis partners murdered between 250,000 and 500,000 Roma. And between 1939 and 1945, they murdered at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly German and living in institutions, in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people seen as biologically inferior or dangerous. Approximately 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or brutal treatment. The Germans shot tens of thousands of non-Jewish members of the Polish intelligentsia, murdered the inhabitants of hundreds of villages in "pacification" raids in Poland and the Soviet Union, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians to perform forced labor under conditions that caused many to die.

From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and other Germans whose behavior did not conform to prescribed social norms (such as beggars, alcoholics, and prostitutes), incarcerating tens of thousands of them in prisons and concentration camps. German police officials similarly persecuted tens of thousands of Germans viewed as political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, Freemasons, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah's Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of maltreatment and murder.

Implementation of the "Final Solution"

World War II provided Nazi officials the opportunity to adopt more radical measures against the Jews under the pretext that they posed a threat to Germany. After occupying Poland, German authorities confined the Jewish population to ghettos, to which they also later deported thousands of Jews from the Third Reich. Hundreds of thousands of Jews died from the horrendous conditions in the ghettos in German-occupied Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, SS and police units perpetrated mass shootings of Jews and Roma, as well as Soviet Communist Party and state officials in eastern Europe. The German units involved in these massacres included Einsatzgruppen, Order Police battalions, and Waffen-SS units. As they moved through eastern Europe, these units relied on logistical support from the German military (the Wehrmacht). In addition to shootings, these units also used specially designed mobile gas vans as a means of killing. Mass shootings of Jews in eastern Europe continued throughout the war. Of the approximately 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, at least 1.5 million and possibly more than 2 million died in mass shootings or gas vans in Soviet territory.

In late 1941, Nazi officials opted to employ an additional method to kill Jews, one originally developed for the "Euthanasia" Program: stationary gas chambers. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi Germany and its allies deported Jews from areas under their control to killing centers. These killing centers, often called extermination camps in English, were located in German-occupied Poland. Poison gas was the primary means of murder at these camps. Nearly 2.7 million Jews were murdered at the five killing centers:

Some able-bodied Jewish deportees were temporarily spared to perform forced labor in ghettos, forced labor camps for Jews, or concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union. Most of these workers died from starvation and disease or were killed when they became too weak to work.

My mother ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me "Leibele, I'm not going to see you no more. Take care of your brother."
- Leo Schneiderman describing arrival at Auschwitz, selection, and separation from his family

The End of the Holocaust

In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called " death marches," in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

On May 7, 1945, German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. World War II officially ended in most parts of Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day). Because of the time difference, Soviet forces announced their "Victory Day" on May 9, 1945.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, an estimated 250,000 Jewish survivors found shelter in displaced persons camps run by the Allied powers and the United Nations Refugee and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Between 1948 and 1951, most Jewish displaced persons immigrated to Israel, the United States, and other nations outside Europe. The last camp for Jewish displaced persons closed in 1957.

The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated or completely destroyed Jewish communities across Europe.

Last Edited: Mar 2, 2021

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Introduction to the Holocaust: What was the Holocaust?

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The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

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1. Holocaust- Hitler blamed Jews for WW11 and targeted them. Force them to move. Not allowed to stay where they wanted.
2. FDR Japanese internment- after Japan bomb US, Japanese discriminated against. Forced to move, not allowed to stay where they wanted. "National security"
3. Muslim Ban- Trump wants to an immigration from certain countries bc fear of terrorism. For "national security." People not allowed to immigrate into US.