With Polish Jewry under their control, the Germans began a series of cruel and sadistic measures against them.

by Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis and Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

Click to Enlarge

Cutting His Beard

Slovak Sympathizers Cutting Jew's Beard
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

One of the favorite "forms of amusement" for Nazi soldiers was to go up to the old Jewish men and cut off their sidelocks. A witness now living in Jerusalem said, "They cut his sidelocks and they stuck him on the ground and rode him like a donkey.

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Nazi Cutting Beard

Nazi Cutting Jew's Beard For Amusement
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

And afterwards, they put a bullet in his head."

 

Read a personal account.

The sheer quantity of Polish Jews was a problem for the Nazis. Previously, the Jews could leave, or the Germans threw them out of the country.

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Marching To Camps

German Jews Being Marched To A Concentration Camp
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

 

Indeed, Adolf Eichmann became famous by throwing the Jews out of Austria. With so many Jews in Poland, deportation became no longer practical. Now there were three million more under German control.

Click to Enlarge

Rounding Up Jews

Round-Up Of Jews In Baden-Baden
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

At this point, the Nazi approach started to shift: Rather than letting the Jews go, they began concentrating them into the infamous "ghettos." In Poland, they adopted a 4-point plan:

 

Roundup For Slave Labor

Jews Being Forced Into Slave Labor
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

    • Marking the Jews with yellow badges.
    • Forcing them into slave labor.
    • Looting their property.

    Read an eyewitness account.

    • Sealing them into the ghettos.

 

Published: Wednesday, December 31, 1969
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Visitor Comments: 21

(21) Herb Goldberger, January 26, 2011 12:41 AM

The guilt of the world

One cannot put the blame solely with Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. The leaders of the world at that time did so. By doing this, they absolved themselves of their failure to act properly. When Hitler was in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch, he wrote his Mein Kampf. In this book, he was quite explicit as to what his plans were for the Jews of the world. He explained that he was going to rid the world of this vermin. It was all there in black & white, only to be read, & taken seriously. As he got stronger, & stronger, the world, afraid to act against him allowed him to gain enough strength to put into action the heinous plan he revealed earlier. The world still did nothing to help save Jews of Europe. Did the U.S.A. accept more than the quota that they had set up ?How about England , France, & Great Britain ?Absolutely not. One merely has to read about the ship St.Lous that was returned to Europe with its cargo of Jews that were trying to escape this terror, only to be denied entry. Allied forces also had the opportunity to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. This would have disrupted the flow of Jews marked for extermination. This would have saved many lives, but the Allies did not see the necessity of doing this. I guess when you are victorious in winning a war, you do not have to justify your actions to anyone. In conclusion I of course agree that Hitler and the NAZI party were evil as evil could be, BUT they never could have gone as far as they did without having the entire world as their accomplices.

(20) , January 25, 2011 4:17 PM

The guilt of the world

One cannot put the blame solely with Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. The leaders of the world at that time did so. By doing this, they absolved themselves of their failure to act properly. When Hitler was in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch, he wrote his Mein Kampf. In this book, he was quite explicit as to what his plans were for the Jews of the world. He explained that he was going to rid the world of this vermin. It was all there in black & white, only to be read, & taken seriously. As he got stronger, & stronger, the world, afraid to act against him allowed him to gain enough strength to put into action the heinous plan he revealed earlier. The world still did nothing to help save Jews of Europe. Did the U.S.A. accept more than the quota that they had set up ?How about England , France, & Great Britain ?Absolutely not. One merely has to read about the ship St.Lous that was returned to Europe with its cargo of Jews that were trying to escape this terror, only to be denied entry. Allied forces also had the opportunity to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. This would have disrupted the flow of Jews marked for extermination. This would have saved many lives, but the Allies did not see the necessity of doing this. I guess when you are victorious in winning a war, you do not have to justify your actions to anyone. In conclusion I of course agree that Hitler and the NAZI party were evil as evil could be, BUT they never could have gone as far as they did without having the entire world as their accomplices.

(19) , January 11, 2011 9:24 PM

so sad

ive never see so much saddnes in y life, we should all go and help the need today

(18) maria, October 13, 2010 1:40 AM

i'm only 11 and i want find out 50% of the kids who died because of that i'm doing a project of theme

(17) Anonymous, October 7, 2010 2:17 PM

wow harshh:(

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About the Author

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis studied biology and geology at Northern Illinois University. In addition, he spent time as a deep-sea diver in the oil fields in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway and has circumnavigated the seas of the world in a sailboat. Rabbi Ellis received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah where he is a senior lecturer at the Discovery and Essentials programs.

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky received his BS from Cornell with a major in Communication Arts and a minor in Archeology, and did post-graduate work at UCLA in the field of Desert Plants and Natural History. Prior to moving to Israel, he worked in the field of Urban Ecology including several years as a landscape designer in Beverly Hills. Rabbi Silinsky received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He currently teaches at the Yeshivat Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.

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