At the iron gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the most infamous extermination camps of Nazi Germany, the chilling phrase “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) still casts a haunting shadow. These deceptive words led into one of history’s darkest chapters.
Beyond that gate, more than a million lives were brutally ended. Auschwitz-Birkenau was just one part of the Third Reich’s Final Solution, the systemic annihilation of Jewish people and other groups that led to the Holocaust.
The Third Reich was an authoritarian regime that ruled Germany from 1933–1945. Led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, known as the Nazis, they plunged the world into a war that claimed 50 to 85 million lives: nearly 3% of the global population at the time.
Among those victims were 6 million Jewish men, women, and children, murdered in the genocide we now call the Holocaust. Millions more were persecuted, including:
This leaves us with a haunting question: How do hatred and propaganda become so powerful that mass murder becomes normalized?
This is the central question students confront in HIST6336: Third Reich and Holocaust, an online course offered by The University of Texas Permian Basin’s online Master of Arts in History program.
In 1918, Germany founded the Weimar Republic, an attempt at democracy that faced serious challenges. On June 28, 1919, European officials signed the Treaty of Versailles, which demanded massive reparations from Germany for its role in World War I. The treaty:
After the treaty, hyperinflation took hold in the Weimar Republic. A loaf of bread costing 250 marks in January of 1923 cost about 200 billion marks by November of that year. Widespread homelessness, poverty, and crushing unemployment devastated the nation, and these conditions created a breeding ground for extremism.
The Nazi Party’s rise didn’t happen overnight. In 1933, Hitler became chancellor of a coalition government where Nazis were first a minority. However, the Nazis—led by Hitler’s fiery oration—used intimidation, violence, and emergency decrees to seize total power.
Their message was carefully crafted through propaganda, manipulation, and a calculated exploitation of human fear. Jews and other minority groups were blamed as scapegoats, tapping into centuries-old prejudices already present across Europe, and fueling division.
Propaganda boiled down to a dangerous message: “You suffer because of them.”
Meanwhile, Nazi leaders promoted their supposed achievements: job creation, investments in infrastructure and arts, sports and youth programs. They also promoted the myth of German superiority and dehumanized anyone who didn’t fit their narrow definition of “German.”
In February 1933, a fire at the German parliament building (the Reichstag) gave Hitler the excuse he needed. He convinced Weimar Republic’s president, Paul von Hindenburg, to invoke emergency powers and later passed the Enabling Act, which gave him absolute control.
Soon after:
Neighbors and friends turned against each other. Families vanished. The SS (Hitler’s protection squads) and Gestapo (secret police) built a frightening surveillance state, while the SA (Stormtroopers) terrorized opponents.
Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sobibor. Dachau. Treblinka.
From 1933 to 1945, concentration and extermination camps spread across much of Nazi-occupied Europe: sites of mass murder, starvation, torture, and medical experiments.
Trains arrived daily. Families who had traveled without food, water, or bathrooms for days were forced out of the wagons and separated into “showers”—gas chambers that ended their lives. One survivor recalled arriving at Auschwitz: cold air biting her skin, the deafening silence broken by barking dogs and shouting guards. Her family was torn apart in seconds. Her mother’s last words urged her to stay strong—words she honored as the family’s sole survivor.
Despite this darkness, countless people refused to be silenced. People sparked camp uprisings like those at Treblinka, created hiding places, organized resistance groups, and kept diaries. Survivors lived to tell the truth. These acts remind us that when faced with unimaginable evil, the human spirit can endure.
After the horrors of World War II came the Cold War, and with it, the rise of the Berlin Wall—a 96-mile-long concrete barrier that stood until 1989. It was a reminder of how the destruction of Nazi Germany continued to shape decades of international relations, tension and human struggle.
As time goes on, fewer survivors remain, but their voices urge us to listen. History calls us not only to remember, but to act: to speak up, to ask tough questions, and to refuse to look away.
Third Reich and Holocaust, an online course offered by UT Permian Basin, is a deep dive into this period in history and its lasting impact. Students explore topics like:
Most importantly, the course asks timeless questions:
UTPB’s fully online Master of Arts in History is more than a study of the past. It’s a call to engage with it. This program challenges you to confront difficult truths, explore the forces that have shaped our world, and discover your voice as a thoughtful future leader.
By understanding history, we gain the tools to build a future rooted in compassion, justice, and critical thinking. As Holocaust survivor Otto Frank once said, “To build up a future, you have to know the past.”
Ready to deepen your understanding and make a difference? Your next chapter starts here. Start your journey at UTPB today.
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