Four Perfect Pebbles

Content Warning: The section of the guide contains discussions of discrimination, graphic violence, and death.

The word “Holocaust” refers to the mass destruction or killing of a group of people, and is used in reference to the genocide of at least six million Jews by the Nazis from 1933-1945. The Holocaust was perpetrated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, which rose to power through the 1920s and early 1930s in Germany following World War I. Germany was in a state of economic despair and extreme debt from the war, and Hitler’s party promised prosperity and growth. These promises were enticing to the German people, as was the opportunity to find someone or something to blame. Hitler’s ideology was fundamentally rooted in antisemitism, which he positioned as central to Germany’s supposed downfall. Hitler turned his narrative against groups that he felt were either holding Germany back or actively working against it,  with Jewish people singled out as the primary scapegoat for economic hardship and national humiliation following World War I. Roma people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities were also targeted, as they did not fit into the Nazi vision of a "racially pure" society. Additionally, communists and those believed to be supporters of the Soviet Union were persecuted, as the Nazis viewed Bolshevism as a Jewish-led conspiracy.

During the Holocaust, millions of people were murdered in concentration and extermination camps. Meanwhile, millions more died in battle and other war-related events. This made World War II the deadliest war in history, with estimates of total deaths ranging from fifty to eighty million. Countries from all over the world, including the United States and Canada, India, Russia, China, Ethiopia, Brazil, and many more banded together to defeat the Axis Powers, which included Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan.

The Holocaust was not an isolated event but the result of years of escalating persecution. As early as 1933, Hitler’s government enacted laws restricting Jewish rights, and in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws officially stripped Jews of their citizenship and barred them from intermarrying with non-Jews. By 1938, anti-Jewish violence escalated with Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, during which Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and synagogues were destroyed. These early policies set the stage for the mass deportations and executions that followed, demonstrating how unchecked prejudice can escalate into genocide.

The Nazis developed an extensive system of concentration camps across Europe, with some, like Bergen-Belsen, functioning primarily as holding or transit camps, while others were explicitly designed for extermination. Prisoners faced starvation, forced labor, and medical experimentation, with disease spreading rapidly due to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Even after liberation, survivors struggled with lasting trauma, illness, and displacement. Many, like Marion Blumenthal Lazan’s family, spent years in refugee camps before finding new homes. The Holocaust’s effects were not confined to those years but continued to shape global policies on human rights, refugee protections, and Holocaust education.