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Jordan Foust
ENG 102, 22148
Dr. Cara Coppola
24 March 2016
The Holocaust, Post-Internet Revolution
Two of the biggest events in history took place in the matter of less than one hundred
years, those two events being the Holocaust and the introduction of the Internet. Social media
and the Internet have become a very big part of the world, especially in the United States of
America. Both of these technological advances have made young teens unproductive and
dumbed them down quite a bit since any amount of information is at the tip of a finger today; but
also helped aid the expansion of knowledge over time. . One of the bigger and better aspects of
the topics, however, include the ability to find information and videos from anywhere in the
world. Internet access and social media applications have changed the world for the better when
used correctly and not used in excess, but still, one amazing thing is that the Internet even exists
at all. A series of ones and zeros surround us to help deliver news from all around the world,
multiple times a day. The biggest amazement of it all, however, is that the outcome of the
holocaust could have been changed if only the Internet and social media had been present at the
same time, but the idea was only sixteen years too late.
Unable to believe their eyes, horrified Soviet soldiers looked around the barbed-wire
enclosed camp called Auschwitz, which they had just freed from Nazi German control Even
more disturbing, piles of naked, dead bodies covered the ground outside, (Bodden 5). Over six
million Jews and five million other ethnic groups were rounded up into camps and houses like
cattle before being sent to the slaughter house. The massive number of lives lost was overseen by

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the Nazi soldiers that went through with Adolf Hitlers merciless killing spree of inferior races
from 1934 to 1945. Fast forward sixteen years from the end of Hitlers reign and cross over into
California in the United States, the initial ideas for the Internet came from Leonard Kleinrock.
Kleinrock wrote a paper about Information Flow in Large Communication Nets, that proposed
the idea of the Internet in May of 1961. Eight years after Kleinrocks paper was written, the basic
components and technology for the Internet was introduced to the general public, as well as used
for the first transmission ever in the late months of 1969. From 1969 to present day in 2016,
technology and the Internet has not failed the rest of the world by continually providing for the
people who have the access to the broad amount of information online. What had started from
Interface Messaging Processor (IMP) has quickly evolved and advanced into the various
amounts of websites, applications, and pages that is accessable within a matter of seconds.
The infamous Holocaust of Germany under the control of Adolf Hitler all began when the
world suffered a massive blow from economic struggles. As Hitler grew in the eyes of political
power during this depressing time in history for most of the world, so did his ideology of a
pure German nation. When Hitler was appointed chancellor by the German President Paul von
Hindenburg, his hunger for power and control grew even more. By 1934, Hitler had already
began to set his plans into motion. As time wound on, Hitler had gained full control over the
German army that he helped build up and brain wash (along with most of the pure German
population) into thinking that those of Jewish decent were the source of all of Germanys
problems. While Hitler began to seize control over a new found empire of Judaic haters, the
German army scavenged throughout the homes of millions in search for Jews and anyone else
Hitler had declared to be defects.

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Many Jewish people that were captured were sent to either concentration camps,
extermination camps, or forced to dig their own mass graves where they would then kneel in
front of the freshly dug hole, and were shot. One of the most well-known extermination camp of
them all, as well as the largest, was Auschwitz-Birkenau (better known as Auschwitz). Auschwitz
also doubled as a labor camp for the victims that were taken to meet their fate there either from
extermination or freedom several years later.
Once the new-found inmates were at the camps, just a few examples of the treatment they
received included shaving the hair on their heads, forced tattooing, and ill-fitting clothing
because inside the concentration camps, the people taken captive were treated as if they were less
than the ground they walked on; but the right side of the ground was always better. That being
said, if prisoners were in a left line once inside the camp, those people standing to their right
would be the last people they got to see. The left line headed into the gas chambers and the right
line had to help clean up the mess after those to the left died, suffocating from lack of oxygen
inside the dark chambers that spewed cyanide instead of the precious water they were promised
when entering the showering chambers.
The Net tends to put diverse options in front of us whether we want it to or not, are the
words from David Weinberger, a man who edits the Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization.
Coming from the footage that was available online about the Arab Spring revolution that took
over Facebook and other social media applications in 2011, many people would come to terms
and say that Weinbergers words are correct. While social media can be used in various ways and
for various reasons, when used in the correct manner, whatever is going on across the world can
have a very powerful effect the same way that the viral videos of police brutality did in Middle
Eastern countries.

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So what could have possibly happened if the Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the
holocaust had access to mobile phones, the Internet, and various social media applications while
inside of the concentration camps? Keep in mind that during World War II (WWII) the
concentration camps in Nazi Germany were hidden in plain sight, but no one knew that any of
these horrific deaths and torture methods were going on. Since many families were taken into
concentration camps together and broken apart while inside the confines of the camps, there was
no need to send letters, and even if letters and cries for help were able to get outside of the walls,
there was no guarantee that help would ever arrive for those people. Another point, is that those
who qualified to be considered a pure German (blue eyes, blond hair) believed that Jewish and
other defects that Hitler declared enemies of Germany were the reason for the problems they
faced.
Just like how Hitler had gained power, many other countries in modern day society have
been placed under the hardship of dictatorship in which many of the citizens are treated almost as
cruelly as the peoples in the Nazi concentration camps. Such examples of these countries include
the underdeveloped and behind-the-ages countries that were involved in the Arab Spring
Revolution in 2011. While the meat of the revolution happened in 2011, it actually began during
December of 2010, first starting in smaller countries that were found to be poorer and poverty
ridden than the rest. Eventually, bigger countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Libya
united within the confines of their country boundaries and against the censorship regulations to
try and overthrow the government that had keep the countries in cages like pigs in a pen.
One theory, trying to connect the Internet to those people caught inside of the Nazi
concentration camps and stripped of all humanly rights, would include a probability that the
same sort of domino effect would take place like it had during the Arab Spring incident of 2011.

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During these outbreaks of revolt and revolution between warring and poor Middle Eastern
countries, many dictators had fallen victim to minor hardships compared to those whom had
been living under the powers that controlled the countries. After multiple rallies had been filmed
and posted online, many of which contained footage of hundreds of civilians injured and even
killed during police shooting in order to try and subdue and control these outbreaks, something
had to give. What gave in most conditions just so happened to be the political power that had
driven the tyrant-ran countries into the ground.
Going along with the backstory of the Arab Spring Revolution, once concentration camps
started being exposed for the damage and the absolutely horrible treatment that innocent people
were enduring (even from an outside perspective), there could have been a boost in morale of the
prisoners. From then on, the increasing anger and built up emotions coming from the prisoners
would have had to come to a head at one point, thus leading into a massive outbreak of riots and
the victims fighting back. From that point, if access to social media was available for them, the
other victims inside of various other concentration camps would follow in the other footsteps of
those who had been successful in beating the Nazi soldiers from inside of their own camp that
held them captive.
Another theory would include the same basic components as the last one. In this theory
however, instead of the victims inside of the camp going against the people who had bigger and
better weapons against them, the videos that would spread from person to person and account to
account, would have eventually found a way to enter news broadcasting systems across the
country of Germany to even those from different countries. From here, a different aspect of
WWII would come into play that not only would the Allied forces be fighting against Hitler and

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the German army for their own reasons, they would fight for the people stuck inside of the
concentration camps that Hitler had set up; in a perfect world of course.
Last theory, but not least, is that if all else seemed to have failed and there were no other
options but to result to complete violence towards the Nazi soldiers, even with the aid of social
media and the Internet. Eventually, the Third Reich would have to cave in under the pressure
from outside forces and forces coming from the prisoners they were trying so hard to contain and
eliminate.
In hindsight of how much technology, social media, and the Internet has advanced in the
past nearly sixty years alone, if only these advancements were available back then to the people
who were found dead and barely alive inside of concentration camps such as Auschwitz; many
different aspects like how long the holocaust went on, how many deaths there were, and how
long Hitlers reign was in power could have been changed, prevented, or shortened. Technology
now can be taken for granted and can be used for very lousy things, such as seeking the
glorification of ourselves from others or complete strangers over the cyberspace. However, when
the advances of technology today are taken and used to the best of the abilities of the people who
have it in their control, correct use of the applications can lead to great and wonderful things,
such as the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011.
One piece of information to always keep in mind when dealing with the Internet and the
social media applications available, is to use it correctly and use it to your best advantage when
able to. If it is used incorrectly, overused, abused, and mistreated, quite honestly those who use it
in that fashion can be found in the same position as the poor victims of the Holocaust, without
any real help or hope for survival, but in todays terms, standing in the same gas chambers that

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the victims were standing in. Use the Internet and the assets available wisely, some day it could
possibly save a life.

Works Cited
Bodden, Valerie. The Holocaust. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 2008. Print.

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"Internet." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Mar. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet>.

Nardo, Don. Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. San Diego, CA: Reference Point, 2014. Print.

Sheehan, Sean. Auschwitz. Mankato, MN: Arcturus Pub., 2010. Print.

Weinberger, David. "Chapter 2: Does the Internet Promote Free Speech?" The Internet.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage Learning, 2008. N. pag. Print.

"Who Invented the Internet?" Computer Hope. Computer Hope, 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001016.htm>.