HISTORY: What was the Holocaust?

 Hitler introduced laws that limited the freedoms of Jews they were banned from going to public places like cinemas and shops and from traveling on public transport when out in public jews were ordered to wear a yellow star a Jewish religious symbol so that they could be easily told apart from non-jews.

The Nazis told Germans that those wearing the star were enemies of the people by 1938 hitler had developed a more extreme policy and the nazis planned a night of violence against jews called kristallnacht attacks were made on shops and properties owned by jewish people synagogues were burnt down and some jewish people were murdered during world war 2 nazi germany invaded and conquered much of europe which gave hitler the chance to impose his racist plans on european jews hitler ordered a rounding up of jews as well as other groups he hated including gay people roma gypsies and people with disabilities they were arrested sent from their homes and imprisoned in concentration camps where they were forced into slave labour in inhuman conditions the deaths of millions were caused by starvation and disease.

 The nazis designed everything so that concentration camps would be places of immense suffering inmates were faced with horrendous overcrowding and were made to share tiered wooden bunk beds up to 12 of them were crammed into each bunk with hundreds of people in each room conditions were so dirty that infestations of rats were the norm washing and toilet facilities were limited or non-existent so in these overcrowded squalid conditions disease spread easily amongst the prisoners hunger was an even greater problem the nazis fed inmates barely enough food to keep them alive meals would be a piece of bread or perhaps a watery soup made from vegetable peelings those fit enough to survive these conditions were forced into hard manual labour those not fit enough to work would be killed millions died because of the brutality of life in concentration camps but the nazis built other camps known as extermination or death camps in these they deliberately murdered millions of people.