This page is dedicated to giving you a little background on the history and the ideology that prompted people to allow and even help the Holocaust occur. If you feel like you do not need this scroll to the bottom and continue to the story. If you need to brush up on your history then please keep reading.
The Holocaust occurred during World War Two and was a "systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored" killing of six million Jewish people and five million non-Jewish people that included Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally disabled, communists, and prisoners of war. The system was made up of: ghettos (where people were separated from the population within cities), transit camps (the camp that determined whether you would go to a concentration camp or a death camp), concentration camps (people were confined here, without trial and in horrible conditions), work camps (extermination by labor), and death camps (people were killed very quickly either through gas chambers or work). At first, camps that these people were sent to had the intention of killing those within the camp walls but it was a very slow and supply wasting process. The Nazis were experimenting with gas since 1941 when they used vans pumped with engine exhaust (gas vans) to kill people more efficiently. This method was soon used at the camps in stationary rooms and then shifted to using Zyklon B. This method was so efficient that at Auschwitz (most famous death camp) 6,000 Jews were killed every day. Not only were people killed in camps but they were also killed by the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing unit) through mass shootings and gas vans. Towards the end of the war, camp guards would force the prisoners to leave camps either by train or through walking. These walks are called "death marches" and they were to try and ensure the prisoners were not liberated by the Allies. These continued until the day the war ended on May 7, 1945 through an unconditional surrender to the Allies.
Now you may be wondering, how could people let this happen and even help it happen? This question can go back to the ideology at the time.
The Nazis had this idea of racial purity and that they were the superior people because of their connection to the Aryan race. This idea stems from Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, that only the most fit of the species survive and thrive. Hitler saw the Jews as the enemy of Germany because they do not have a country of their own and try to take over other nations in order to take over the world. There was propaganda out there to support this which showed Jewish people as those who are crooks and evil. The propaganda helped dehumanize these people which made it easier to justify killing them. They were seen as the reason why Germany was no longer great and by eliminating them, Gypsies, mentally disabled, homosexuals, etc. they can ensure the purity of the German people. Their ultimate goal was to establish a "master race". They were not the only ones that felt this way. Nations that joined them or were occupied by them helped the Nazis execute their plans and in the process helped kill millions of civilians.
All information from this background was found from the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum. If you would like to learn more, the website is: https://www.ushmm.org/ .