Ch.28 The Second World War
The Three-War War
- The war between Japan and the Allies in the east had its own name: the War of the Pacific. When Allied soldiers went to China to help the Chinese fight back against Japanese invasion, the War of the Pacific mingled with the Sino-Japanese War. And now that the Allies and the Axis powers were fighting in both Europe and in the East, the three wars had all blended together. The Sino-Japanese War, the War of the Pacific, and World War II had become one huge, world-swallowing disaster.
The Holocaust
- German attacks against Jews had begun even before Austria was claimed. In 1935, German laws were changed so that no Jew could be a German citizen, marry a German, or vote.
- In 1936, the Olympics were held in Berlin. No Jews from Germany were allowed to compete.
- All over Germany, German mobs broke the windows of houses and shops owned by Jews. Many of them were burned. This night, November 9th, 1938, became known as Kristallnacht, or ˝Night of the Broken Glass.˝
- In every territory that the Germans claimed, Jews were forced to wear yellow, six-pointed stars on their clothing so that everyone would know they were Jews. This six-pointed Star was called a ˝Star of David,˝ after the great Hebrew king in the Bible.
- In 1942, Hitler‘s advisors agreed with him that Germany needed to find a “final solution” for the “problem” of the Jews in Europe. The concentration camps were turned into death camps. Jews were killed in hundreds of camps all through Germany and German-held territory. The most horrible, and most well known, of these death camps were at Dachau and Auschwitz.
- By 1945, six million Jews had been put to death by Hitler. This systematic killing of an entire nation is called genocide. The six million Jews weren‘t Hitler‘s only victims. Other ˝inferior˝ people like Catholics, handicapped people, gypsies, and many Russians, Poles, and Serbs wore also killed in the death camps.
- Hitler‘s “final solution” became known as the Holocaust. “Holocaust” is a Greek word for a sacrifice that is completely burned up by fire.
- The Holocaust was a horrible shame to the German people, but the shame was shared by many other people who knew that Jews were being put to death-and yet made no protest.
