One of the greatest horrors of war was taking place during World War II. The mass genocide not only of the Jewish people but also of Russian prisoners of war, gypsies, Poles and Ukrainians (Wistrich, 2003, p. 3-4, a). The horror also involved the German people themselves. Those who were handicapped, mentally ill, homosexuals, some religious people, union members, and political rivals were all part of the Holocaust (Berenbaum, 2011, a). On March 20, 1933, Hitler opened the first concentration camp near Dachau in Germany (Landau, 1998, page 136, a). From there the German government began sending people to concentration camps to work and die. Who they sent, why they sent them, and what happened there is what will be examined so we know what the Holocaust was about. The answer we are looking for is what the German people knew about what was happening during the Holocaust and that nothing more was done to stop it. First, we will look at the German government that was behind the Holocaust. On January 30, nineteen thirty-three, Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor (Henig, 1985, page 3, a). Hitler controlled the government and the people in government did what he wanted. Hitler believed in the purity of the Aryan race and considered others, especially the Jewish people, inferior (Henig, 1985, p. 12, b). Hitler wanted to protect his people from everything he considered impure, he prohibited marriages and sexual relations with Jews, he also stated that only those of Aryan blood could be German citizens with full rights (Henig, 1985, p. 14, c). Even before Hitler became the leader of Germany, he expressed his hatred for the Jewish people... middle of paper... ProQuest Document ID: 1655731651. Retrieve from http://proquest.umi.com/ pqdweb?did=1655731651&Fmt =3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQDStackelburg, R. ( 1999, ak). Hitler's Germany: origins, interpretations, legacies, Routledge, retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10054907United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, (2011, ap). Auschwitz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieve from http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007718Wayman, Z. (2006, ae). Writing the Holocaust: Testimony, Representation, Oxford University Press. Retrieve from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10271537Wistrich, R. (2003). Hitler and the Holocaust: A Brief History, Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group, Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10041326