Human Rights Violations: The Holocaust

Superior Essays
Human Rights Violations: The Holocaust and Russian Pogroms Against Jews

Throughout history, countless human rights violations have taken place. Millions of people have been victims of abuse and murder due to conditions they cannot control. Human rights violations have taken place in numerous regions and nations. Some of these infringements have included purges, forced famines, genocides, racial segregation, and concentration camps. Men, women, and children have all been victims of these horrible massacres. Governments have tried to find solutions to these issues, however, they have had varied results. These human rights violations have greatly impacted governments and societies all around the world. Two of the most notorious human
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Hitler was elected as German chancellor on January 30, 1933 (Holocaust Timeline: Rise of the Nazi Party). As soon as Hitler became a dictator, he began his extermination of anyone who was not an “ideal German”. His goal was to create an “Aryan race” (Class Notes). The Nazis enforced strict rules among the Jewish people. The rules were extreme human rights violations. For example, the Jewish people were forbidden basic rights that other citizens had, such as working certain jobs or owning certain things. Elie Wiesel recounts in his memoir, Night, that the Jewish people were “forbidden to own silver or gold jewelry.” In Eva Heyman’s journal she recalls, “they took all our appliances away from us: the sewing machine, the radio, the telephone, the vacuum cleaner, the electric fryer and my …show more content…
Most women and children were brutally murdered in smokestacks upon arrival at the facilities. “Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.” (Wiesel). The concentration camps were severe violations against human rights.
The Russian pogroms against the Jews are another example of tragic human right violations. A pogrom is defined as a “Russian word designating an attack, accompanied by destruction, looting of property, murder, and rape, perpetrated by one section of the population against another” (Modern Jewish History: Pogroms). In the Russian pogroms against the Jews, the Russians were guilty of the murder and torture of Jews. The pogroms began in 1881 when a Jewish group was accused of the assassination of Czar Alexander II. His murder led to the spread of pogroms among Russian towns. The Russians’ goal became to “remove Jews from their economic and public positions” (Modern History: Pogroms). Jews were robbed, abused, and killed (Modern Jewish History: Pogroms). Mass shootings were one of the most common forms of murder. The Jews were blamed for the torture they received; “officials were inculpating Jews themselves for the attacks.” (Klier). Over the next forty years, until the early 1920s, these violations of human rights continued. The last Russian pogrom was in

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