Transcript The Holocaust

Bashana Haba’ah
Next year, when peace will come, we shall
return to the simple pleasures
of life so long denied us.
You will see, you will see, O how good it
will be, next year!
The Holocaust
Questions to consider...
What is a holocaust?
Was this the only
holocaust in history?
If not, why is it
called
The Holocaust?
When did it start?
Could it have been
prevented?
Could this happen
again?
A holocaust is the
murder of a group of
people based on race
or ethnicity.
There have been many
holocausts throughout
history. There are
holocausts occurring
around the world today.
Since 1984, more than 750,000
Tutsis and moderate Hutus were
killed in the genocide in Rwanda.
It is referred to as The
Holocaust because of the
systematic methods the
Germans used, and the
extent of their reach.
The Holocaust was the
Nazis’ attempt to
eliminate all Jews and
undesirables in Europe.
Between 1933 - 1945 the
Nazis managed to kill
2/3s of the Jews in
Europe, for a total of
6,000,000 men, women,
and children.
The Nazis managed to
murder an additional
6,000,000 people that
they deemed
undesirable.
When did it start?
• Anti-Semitism, or the hatred of
Jews began many centuries ago
• They were forced out of the Holy
Land by invading Moslems
When did it start?
• They dispersed and
settled throughout
Europe
• Because of the differences in their
language and beliefs, they were often
considered outsiders in their new
countries
Anti-Semitism in Europe
• Russian Cossacks attacked Jewish
villages at will. The scene above is a
painting of one ‘pogrom’ in 1905.
An Appeal to Nationalism
• Hitler’s rise to power was in part
due to his ability to stir up
resentment toward certain groups
3
An Appeal to Nationalism
• These groups included Jews,
homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally
impaired, communists and
anarchists
The Holocaust began slowly
• In 1933, Hitler ordered a one day
strike of businesses owned by Jews
From 1933 to 1938, Jews were
encouraged to leave the
country
• Many countries refused to admit
Jews
• The USA refused to raise the quota
set in 1924
• May 13, 1939, the St. Louis set sail
from Hamburg, Germany to
Havana, Cuba
• While enroute, their Cuban visas
were cancelled
• After being denied entry, they
traveled toward the USA
• Coast Guard ships escorted the ship out of
US waters and prevented anyone from
jumping ship
• After returning to Europe, they were
divided among France, Holland, the U.K.,
and Belgium
• Of the 907 on board the ship, only 240
survived the Holocaust
Efforts to escape continued throughout the
Nazi’s reign of terror, but few met with success
Denied refuge in
Palestine and Turkey,
the ship was sent into
the Mediterranean,
where it mysteriously
exploded.
There was 1 survivor.
Struma with 769 passengers, including
103 young children
An Appeal to Nationalism
• By 1933, Hitler had his first
concentration camp, Dachau,
built to house political dissenters
• Originally intended as a labor
camp, it would become a death
camp in 1942
Dachau
Dachau
Dachau
Translation:
“Work will set you free.”
1935
• Jews were forbidden to marry
non-Jews.
• Jews were no longer German
citizens and could not fly the
German flag.
1938
• The Gestapo, part of the SS,
could arrest Jews for any reason
• The systematic identification of
all Jews living in Germany began
Hermann Goring, creator of the Gestapo
Nazi
Propaganda
Minister Josef
Goebbels
delivered a
virulent antiSemitic speech
that sparked the
Kristallnacht
riots.
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass)
Nov. 9, 1938
Nazis plundered 200
synagogues, looted 7,500
Jewish shops and rounded up
30,000 male Jews for the
concentration camps.
1939 - 1945
With the start of World
War II, the number of
Jews under Hitler’s
control increased from
the 500,000 in Germany
to 9,000,000 in Europe.
People sent to the ghettos and
camps were tattooed with
identification numbers
Romania
The Polish Ghettos
• By 1940, the Germans had forced
millions of Jews in Poland to enter
‘ghettos’.
• They were forbidden from leaving
there without permission
• Food was strictly rationed
• Fuel and medicine were virtually
non-existent
The Warsaw Ghetto
• The largest of these ghettos was
in Warsaw, the capital of Poland
• It held 400,000 people at it height
• People died of starvation,
disease, exposure, or were
executed
The Warsaw Ghetto
• In 1943 the Germans attempted to
liquidate the remaining people from
the ghetto
• The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was
the result
• Although they held off the Germans
for several weeks, they were
eventually sent to Auschwitz
The Warsaw Ghetto
German death squads,
Einsatzgruppen roamed the Soviet
Union during Operation Barbarossa
• The Germans stripped their victims
• They paraded them naked through the
streets to humiliate them
• Death squads were inefficient
• The Nazis were concerned
about the cost of executions in
both time and bullets
• The ghettos were a strain on
the Nazi’s resources
A Final Solution
was needed
The Final Solution
• Systematically roundup all Jews
and other undesirables and send
them to a central location
• Those that were fit to work
would be put to work in the
factories
Many of these people would be
worked to death.
The Final Solution
Those that were not fit to
work would
immediately be
executed
Over 1.5 million Jews, Poles,
Gypsies, and others died at the
Auschwitz complex
Auschwitz
• Originally a prison
camp, 400,000
POWs arrived
between 1939 –
1945
• 50% of them died
there
Auschwitz
“Selektion”
• Those fit to work would live for a time
• Those unfit would die that day
‘Selektion’
• Those capable of
working are in the
line at the right
• Those not chosen
are in the line on
the left and the far
left
Two brothers on their way
to the gas chamber
‘Selektion’
Those that were not fit
to work included the
elderly, children under
14, and mothers with
small children
The victims were stripped of all
of their belongings, including
artificial limbs, gold fillings,
shoes, and eyeglasses
They were escorted to the gas
chambers, which were disguised as
showers.
Pile of
bodies
outside of
the
showers
The bodies were taken to the
crematorium; the ashes were then
used for fertilizer or buried.
• Dr. Josef Mengele
took part in the
Selektion
• He chose people to
use for his cruel and
barbaric experiments
• His genetic testing
contributed nothing
to science and was
unspeakably cruel
Children that survived Mengele’s
experiments
Hundreds of concentration camps were
located throughout Europe:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bergen-Belsen
Buchenwald
Mauthausen
Sobibor
Theresienstadt
Treblinka
Resistance
Fighters
Gestapo torture
chamber
The only true assistance that victims received
was from partisan, or underground, fighters.
They risked torture and death if caught.
• The Americans had heard
rumors of so-called deathcamps
• Nothing could prepare them
for the reality of the camps
Liberation
As the Allied Forces
neared, SS guards tried to
finish the job by executing
as many people as
possible. Sadly, many
victims were murdered just
as help was arriving.
Survivors of the Holocaust
• The horrible conditions they lived in
affected the mental health of the victims
• They often experienced several phases of
psychological response
• Survivors had difficulty integrating back
into society after the war
“Thou shall not be a victim.
Thou shall not be an oppressor.
But most of all, thou shall not be a
bystander.”
Quote from Yehuda Bauer, Jewish
Historian
Many German civilians claimed to
be unaware of the camps
Nuremberg Trials
• Hitler and many of his top
officials committed suicide
before the Allies reached them
• Several Nazis escaped under
assumed names
• 24 of the remaining officials were
tried in November, 1945
Goring, Hess, von Ribbentrop,
and Keitel
• 12 of the 24 tried were executed
• The remaining men received
sentences ranging from a few years
to life in prison
• “I was following orders” was not a
legitimate defense
• Nazi war criminals are still
prosecuted in Israel today
• Most of those remaining are in their
late 80s or older
• The Simon Weisenthal Foundation
is a center for information and the
capture of former Nazis
Holocaust Revisionists
• People that claim
that The Holocaust
never happened, or
was greatly
exaggerated
• You can learn about
these groups at
www.revisionists.com
To learn more about the
truth of The Holocaust, visit
the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in
Washington, DC
www.ushmm.org
Bashana Haba’ah
Next year, when peace will come, we shall
return to the simple pleasures
of life so long denied us.
You will see, you will see, O how good it
will be, next year!
The End