Jewish Holocaust: A Forgettable, Unforgettable Era

According to historians, at least 6 million Jews were systemically annihilated by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. A total of 5 million people of other ethnic groups, such as Gypsies, Slavs and Poles, also perished in the Holocaust. By Nazi standards, these groups were considered to be undesirable and “inferior.”

Euthanasia was the Nazis’ vision of a biologically “pure” population to create an “Aryan master race”. Besides the annihilation of the above ethnic races, this vision also forced the sterilization of all persons who suffered from so-called hereditary diseases, including mental illness, learning disabilities, blindness and deafness, according to Dr. Patricia Heberer, a historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Of the 11 million people who died in World War II, statistics show that about 275,000 Germans — children and adults — were murdered because of their disabilities, either by lethal injection, starvation, or in gassing installations designed to look like shower stalls.

Books written by and about Holocaust survivors and sociological studies about the Holocaust continue to educate the public about the atrocities committed, why they happened, and why this massive genocide should never happen again.

by OS2 Wendy Kahn

Journal Staff Writer

Found at: http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/journal/9_13/features/28266-1.html