The Holocaust is the policy of the Nazis, their allies and collaborators in the persecution and mass extermination of Jews from 1933 to 1945. The Holocaust did not begin with the murder of Jews. Initially it was discrimination and anti-Semitic propaganda. However, the Holocaust showed the world a universal picture of the evolution of evil. Within a few years, the Nazis went from using “hate speech” to death camps — real “industrial plants” built to kill people.

The history of mankind, unfortunately, knows different examples of genocides. However, never, neither before nor after the Holocaust, has anyone set themselves the goal of destroying not just a people, but the very “biological basis of a people.” The Nazis sought to exterminate every single Jew: religion, political views, and loyalty to the authorities did not matter. It did not matter whether the person himself knew about his Jewish roots. The Nazi regime killed even those Jews who considered themselves German, Pole or Russian.

The Nazis were not interested in the opportunity to raise a Jewish baby in their own way — after all, “biologically” he would still remain a Jew. A Jew who joined the Ghetto police could not save himself — he also was to sentenced to death. Later, but still without alternative.

Never, either before or after the Holocaust, has any regime set itself the goal of extraterritorial genocide. The Nazis exterminated Jews not only in their own country, Germany, but also in every territory where the Wehrmacht and SS reached. The real boundaries of the Holocaust were determined only by the front line in Europe and
North Africa.

Never in the history of civilization has there been such an irrational crime. German Jews did not pose any threat to Germany; their extermination cannot be explained even by cynical logic. During World War II, the Third Reich spent enormous human, logistical and financial resources on creating in occupied lands a “death industry.” Even when the German army suffered defeats, the Nazis’ priority was killing Jews. The Nazis were willing to sacrifice the needs of the front in order to kill as many Jews as possible before the Allies liberated them.

The Holocaust is unique. But it’s lessons are universal. To remember and prevent.

Source: Human Rights - written by young jews from 40 countries with support of B'nai B'rith International Portugal and International Observatory of Human Rights