The Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Holocaust - Essay Example Though anti-Jewish laws have been adopted, Hungarian authorities opposed to the German demands for deporting the Jewish to the death camps. The situation changed in 1944, when the German army occupied Hungary. During the 42 days, starting from the beginning of May, more than 437 thousand of Hungarian Jews have been sent to Oswiecim - Birchenough. While the world community pretended, that nothing was happening, the Germans killed in gas chambers 12 thousand people every day. Only at the beginning of July 1944, the head of the Hungarian government, Miklosh Horti, signed the order to stop the deportation, or to slow it down, and about 200 thousand Jews from Budapest have finally avoided deportation. The neutral diplomats of Sweden, Switzerland and Vatican have given their assistance to the Hungarian Jews. However, already at the end of 1944 about 30 thousand Jews more died during the so called 'death marches' to the Austrian border. (Braham 1981, p24) Italy has also been a German ally; and as well as in Hungary, the anti-Jewish laws have been adopted there. ... ty, and only after the failure of the Mussolini's government in July, 1943, German troops were able to capture eight out of thirty five thousand of local Jews and to deport them to Oswiecim-Birchenough. All this took place with the support of Italian Nazis. (Berenbaum, 1998, p86) After the German occupation in April, 1944, Yugoslavia has been divided into several parts. The total number of Jews living in the country was 80 thousand, out of which about 16 thousand lived in Belgrade. The Germans used thousand of Jews as cheap labor force, having deprived them of their entire inventory beforehand. In August, 1941, the wave of mass arrests seized the country. The bigger portion of Serb Jews has been killed. In spring 1942, in the Semline concentration camp in Belgrade suburbs, people were killed by gas, using the specially equipped truck. Only several hundreds of Serb Jews remained alive by summer 1942. (Braham, 1994, p144) Croatian fascists have also become close allies of Germany. Croatian Jews were obliged to carry the 'David's Star' and their property has been confiscated. The regime was constantly destroying Serbs, Jews and Gypsies all across the country. Only in Yasenovo concentration camp, dozens thousands of Serbs and twenty out of thirty thousand Croatian Jews have been killed. By the end of October, 1941 almost all Jews of Croatia have been destroyed. About seven thousand of those who remained alive were sent to Oswiecim. During the whole period of war, about sixty thousand of Yugoslavian Jews have been killed. (Berenbaum, 1998, p91) Greece has been simultaneously occupied by the two armies - German and Italian. The Jews, who appeared to be in the Italian zone, have not been subjected to repressions until 1944. As for the German zone, the 50-thousand Jewish