Essay Example on The Holocaust was the systematic bureaucratic state sponsored Persecution

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The Holocaust was the systematic bureaucratic state sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators In 1933 the Jewish population in Eourope was over nine million most living in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II By 1945 the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the Final Solution the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe The opinion on Jews to non Jewish civilians ranged from indifference to complete hostility and as the danger and tension grew for European Jews so did the need for help People began to harbor Jews hiding them from German officials to avoid being taken away They risked their own lives to save what little of the population remained and for that reason we acknowledge and appreciate their efforts today There are countless people this essay could be on but one of the most interesting people was by far Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Elisabeth Wittelsback was born in Munich Bavaria Named after father s sister the Empress of Austria she was the fourth child of the ten born to Prince Maximilian of Bavaria and his wife Princess Ludovika in Possenhofen Castle To her friends and family Elisabeth was known as Sissi In August 1853 she went to Bad Ischl with her mother and older sister Helene to celebrate Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph’s 23rd birthday 



The event was also supposed to be the occasion to announce his engagement to Helene However Franz Joseph was so taken by the young and beautiful Elisabeth that he proposed to her instead Elisabeth was was Queen consort of the Belgians as the spouse of King Albert I the mother of King Leopold III of Belgium and of Queen Marie José of Italy and grandmother of kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium and Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte of Luxembourg On May 18 1965 Yad Vashem recognized Queen Mother Elisabeth of Belgium as Righteous Among the Nations In December 1909 Albert and Elisabeth became King and Queen of the Belgians following the death of Albert s uncle King Leopold II She took on a much public role that Queens in the past making it a point to get involved with as many charities and organizations as she could particularly those that valued the arts and social welfare Elisabeth often surrounded herself with famous authors and artists as well as leading scientists of the day Her friendly nature and true care and concern for others quickly endeared her to the people of Belgium When war broke out in 1914 Queen Elisabeth remained as charitable as she had been at first The Queen worked diligently with the nurses on the front and helped establish the Symphony Orchestra of the field army She also traveled to the UK often under the pretext of visiting her children who were studying there In fact she was often bringing important messages and information to the British government from her husband and his forces Following the war the family made a triumphant return to Brussels and set about to rebuild the nation On August 1 1942 Queen Mother Elisabeth of Belgium welcomed representatives of the Association des Juifs en Belgique Eugène Hellendael Lazare Liebmannand Salomon Van den Berg into her royal palace in Brussels Her palace was stationed next to the German headquarters The representatives told her about the atrocities that were being committed in Europe the imprisonment conditions in the Mechelen Malines transit camp and about the elderly people the children and babies who were being cut off from their families and sent to Germany 



The Queen Mother dutifully promised the men that she would try everything in her power to stop the arrests and to protect Belgian Jews from deportation to Poland Queen Mother Elisabeth went directly to the source Hitler in order to request that Jews not be deported In a telegram from Berlin that was sent July 4 1942 Elisabeth was promised that the Jews with valid Belgian citizenship would not be deported or separated from their families and that those who were under arrest in Mechelen Malines awaiting deportation could receive visitors On October 30 1942 the Germans had arrested the children in the Wezembeek orphanage but after constant prodding from Queen Mother Elisabeth the Germans released the children In May 1943 Queen Mother Elisabeth visited a hospital in Antwerp which apparently caused the Germans to keep over 80 Jewish elderly and sick people there In June 1943 the Queen Mother began to protest again regarding the Belgian Jews imprisoned in Mechelen Malines and about three hundred of them were released at that moment Even with all her interventions the Germans didn t keep majority of their promises and most of the Jewish with Belgian nationality were still eventually rounded up and arrested on September 3 1943 and sent to camps This event was originally coded as Operation Iltis


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