Why did the Holocaust happen and how was it carried out?

Discrimination against the Jews had always been in the 25 point programme of the Nazi party, and when they came to power, they sought to act on it. In 1933, the first concentration camps were established to stop political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other a-socials such as drunks and criminals. The Nazi propaganda machine also sought to spread prejudice about the Jews. It spread into every aspect of everyday life. In the school curriculum for example, in biology, German students were taught about how the Aryan race was biologically superior to the Jewish race, and in history, they learnt about how the Jews had caused Germany’s defeat in the First World War. From 1933 to 1939, more than 400 decrees were passed against Jews to make them inferior citizens as they were restricted in all aspects of their public and private lives. After the outbreak of war in 1939, the Nazi attitude towards the Jews became more desperate. Jews were moved into Ghettos in occupied territories and forced to wear stars of David so they could be identified. During the invasion of the Soviet Union, a special military force, named the Einsatzgruppen followed the advancing soldiers, murdering Jews on the way. It got to a point however, where the soldiers were threatening mutiny because of the hideous job they were to perform and it was also costly for the government. A conference was called at Wannsee, a Berlin Suburb, in 1942. Here, the final solution was agreed upon. Death camps would be established across occupied territories and a system of mass killings by gas would be acted out. How corr