Holocaust Life As A Jew

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Jonathan Livingstone

History 10-5

Mrs. Smallwood

Holocaust: Life as a Jew

The Holocaust was a tragic time for many people in the world. Of all the people that were affected by this horrid moment, the Jews were especially persecuted. This persecution did not only affect them during the years of the war. But, it affected them for many years after the war. It was not always like this though. Before this crisis, the Jews were able to live all over Europe in peace.

Before the war ever occurred it was possible to find a Jew anywhere in Europe. In 1933 there were about 9.5 million Jews living in Europe. This made up 1.7% of the European population. In the entire world there were 15.3 million Jews. They were pretty well dispersed across Europe, and the largest group of Jews was found in Germany. It contained over 550,000 Jews. Although Jewish communities were spread all throughout the world, they impacted their surrounding communities in several ways. Some of the ways they impacted the culture are the following: in the types of jobs, religion, and in the way people interacted with each other. These cultures had been set in place for thousands of years, and most vanished when the Holocaust began.

Before the war the Jews lived in small towns together called shtetls. The language that the Jews spoke was called Yiddish. This was a mix of Hebrew and German. Most of the older Jews were not big in interacting with other cultures. They would only attend things that were in Yiddish, and they did not like dressing the way the new cultures were. The younger kids, especially in big towns, were adapting with the rest of society in many areas. Yiddish culture and religion were not a big apart of these young Jews. Unlike the older ones, they had more of a formal education. Of these younger Jewish families many were poor; there were however, some that were rich. Farmers, tailors, seamstresses, factory workers, accountants, doctors, and small-business owners were few of the many jobs that they had. Of the poorer families their kids dropped out of school and began working to help pay bills. Few kids were able to move on to universities and pursue greater careers. The Jews were just like any other European citizen until the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, and changed the Jewish life forever.

When the Nazis officially came into power Jews all over Europe began immigrating to any country that would take them in. The most common places for Jews to immigrate were Palestine, United States, and England. Palestine had taken in over 360,000 Jews, and they were getting overcrowded. Because of this, the United States began opening their doors to the Jewish refugees. President Roosevelt permitted 27,300 Jews to come to America, but they could not allow any more into America because of a limit of people. So, there were many refugees that were not able to leave Europe. Japan and China also helped out many Jews escape the persecution in Europe. They helped over 24,000 Jews escape.

Even though there were many Jews that escaped, there were still around six million Jews that died. Before the war ever started, there were about 1.6 million Jewish children. After the war only 11% were still alive. The only reason this many survived was because their parents hid them. Hiding a child was not as difficult as it was to hide an older Jew. This was because children did not need to carry a form of identification, and they could easily blend in with non-Jewish kids who became orphans of the war. There was a group of people called "Righteous Gentiles" who were non-Jews that would help hide Jews. They were driven by their good morals, and they risked all that they owned to help protect Jewish children. Some safe havens that the children were sent to were convents, boarding schools, and orphanages. When these kids left their families they had to change their names, so they would be unrecognizable. Also, some needed to convert to Christianity. When these kids were sent off they were told to never speak of their past life to make sure no one thought they were Jewish. Even though this helped many children stay alive, a problem that occurred was after the war they had no way of finding their own families.

Sadly many Jews were not able to make it out of Europe and they were caught by the Germans. Many were put into concentration camps, and there were many others that were just executed. Not all were sent to a concentration camp. Some were able to still live in their cities in ghettos. Ghettos were sectioned off parts of a city that Jews were allowed to live in. The conditions of these ghettos were horrific. They were unsanitary, cramped, and they barely had any food. The largest ghetto in all of Europe was the Warsaw ghetto. In the Warsaw ghetto there were 400,000 people crammed into under three square miles. To make sure no one could get out they built nineteen foot walls around it to separate it from the city; they also made every Jew wear a Star of David patch so they would be recognized. Many people tried to escape this awful place, but with no supplies they were easily caught and killed. As if this was not enough, curfews and guard towers were set up; so it would be impossible for any Jew to escape. Because of the crammed living quarters disease easily traveled in the ghettos, and killed many. There were many Jews that just killed themselves so they would not have to suffer the horrific pain of living in ghettos.

The Holocaust had been an awful period, but not every Jew was killed. When the war was finally over there were thousands of people who were homeless and were seeking a new life. This period of time was called "Displaced Persons." Of these thousands of people there were several Jews who had been able to survive the awful lifestyle of ghettos and concentration camps. When these Jews went back to their old homes they came to realize everything they had had been given away. Their land, jobs, and anything they had previously owned all belonged to someone else now. After this devastating realization a group called the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration had been formed to help people find new places to live. This organization had many flaws so another organization called the International Refugee Organization was formed. When the IRO first started there were over 1,200,000 people that needed helping. It was a very hard task because when they tried to return Jews back to their old homes mobs rose up and would kill them. Also, many countries would still not allow the Jewish survivors to enter their country. So, many Jews wanted to immigrate to Palestine; but Britain would not allow more than 100,000 Jews to go. This all changed when Israel declared Independence on May, 1948. Israel and the United States allowed the most Jewish immigrants out of all the other nations.

The Jews and the Germans had not always been rivals. There had been a day when they all lived in peace. But, when Hitler came into power the Jewish way of life disappeared, and they were put through awful circumstances. Many tried to flee and hide, but it was no use. Millions of Jews died because of the Holocaust, and the ones that survived had everything taken away from them. Even after the war was over Jewish people were still persecuted.

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