"Holocaust: 1. The resulting great destruction is the vast loss of life, mostly from fires." The Holocaust could best be described as the widespread genocide of over eleven million Jews and other undesirables across Europe from 1933 to 1945. It all began when Adolf Hitler, the new German leader, enforced the Nuremberg Race Laws. These laws discriminated against Jews and other undesirables and segregated them from the rest of the population. When things got worse, Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing. The laws even deprived them of citizenship. The Night of Broken Glass, or Krystal Naught, is a great example of how dire the situation became for the Jews as their homes, businesses and churches were destroyed. The real genocide, or racial extermination, began when Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration or labor camps. It was in these camps that they were tortured, killed or worked as slaves. As World War II neared its end, Hitler implemented what he called the Final Solution, a last-ditch effort to eliminate Judism in Europe, in which he killed over six million. Anne Frank was a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who was forced into hiding in 1942. Her family and another family, the Van Daans, hid in the back of the office building of her father, Otto Frank, in what they called "the Secret Annex" for the next two years, until they were discovered by a Nazi. group called Gestapo and arrested. It was during her stay in the Annex that Anne wrote in a diary she called Kitty, recounting her experiences in the Annex, relating the war situation and its most memorable events, and sharing her personal feelings about the Secret Annex. situation. The diary became an outlet through… middle of paper… On days like D-Day, the US Army began making its way across Europe, liberating concentration camps left and right. President Franklin Delanore Rosevelt made the difficult decision to drop two nuclear bombs on Japan. this resulted in a most unimaginable loss. Ultimately, after losing over four and a half million lives, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. The Holocaust is one of the best-known events in history. The question is: why do we know about it? We choose to keep the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in our minds and those of our children to prevent it from happening again. The United Nations was founded to prevent another world war from breaking out. We study the Holocaust so we can identify the early stages of genocide and stop it before it begins. We have tried so hard to study history to prevent it from repeating itself.