Transcript Overview of Holocaust - Barren County Schools

Holocaust
Basic Definitions to know

Holocaust: attempted genocide resulting
in the murder of approximately 12 million
people
– 6 million Jews
Genocide: an attempt to eliminate an
entire group of people
 Anti-Semitism: hatred of or prejudice
against people of the Jewish faith

Background
Anti-Semitism has been very common in history
 In 1933, Nazis came to power in Germany

– Led by Adolf Hitler

Nazis began to reshape German society
– Use propaganda to brainwash society and increase
support for Nazi policies

Nazis also use force to keep power
– Gestapo: secret police
– SS: elite Nazi soldiers
The Persecution Begins

Early 1930’s: German politicians pass a
series of Anti-Jewish laws
– Examples:
 Jews were forbidden from owning radios or cars
 Jews had to abide by curfews
 Jewish children were banned from German schools
 Jews were banned from most jobs
 Jews were forced to register their property with
the government
1935

1935: Nuremberg Laws were passed; one of
the most famous law codes from Nazi Germany
– German Jews lose citizenship
– Jews and Germans forbidden from marrying each
other
Questions:
1. What impact would the loss of citizenship have on
the Jews of Germany?
1936

1936: Berlin, Germany hosted the summer
Olympics
–
Germans take down their Anti-Jewish propaganda
Questions:
1. Why would Germany remove the Anti-Jewish
propaganda during the Olympics?
2. How would this relaxation of Anti-Jewish policy
affect the outlook of the Jews living in Germany?
1938

November, 1938: Anti-Jewish policy in
Germany began to escalate with an event
known as Kristallnacht or the “Night of
Broken Glass”
– Thousands of Jewish shops and synagogues
were attacked and destroyed
– Jews were physically attacked, some killed
– Tens of thousands arrested and sent to
concentration camps
1939
WWII provided the opportunity for Germany’s
Anti-Jewish policy to escalate even more
 September 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland to
start World War II
 As the war expanded, Nazis would take control
of millions of Jews living in other countries

– Germans had to develop a plan for how to deal with
these “unwanted” individuals
Ghettos

Many large cities in Poland were segmented into
Ghettos where Jews would be fenced into small
areas
– Warsaw and Lodz had the largest ghettos

Very poor conditions:
– Lack of sanitation, typically no electricity or running
water
– Overcrowding, disease, starvation
Question:
1. What was the purpose of the Ghetto?
Einsatzgruppen

1941: WWII expanded with the German invasion of the Soviet Union
(Russia)
– Millions more Jews fall under German control


With ghettos already full, Germans developed a new strategy to
eliminate the Jewish communities
Einsatzgruppen: mobile killing squads were used to murder over 1
million Jews, Poles, and others
– Mass shootings and mass graves

Eventually, Germans would abandon the mobile killing squads.
Question: Why would the Germans eventually abandon the use of
Enisatzgruppen killing squads?
The Final Solution
Eventually, Nazis started to look for a
more “efficient” way of dealing with the
“undesirables” of Europe
 1942: Top Nazi officials developed the
Final Solution

Question:
What strategies/tactics were included in the
Final Solution?
Death Camps

Specialized facilities, known as Death Camps,
were constructed to carry out mass murder
– Auschwitz: most famous example

Methods used at Death Camps
– Prisoners went through selection to determine who
was strong enough to work and who should die
immediately
– A gas chamber would be used to murder large
numbers of people
 Zyklon B was the preferred gas
– Bodies were then taken to a crematoria to be burned
The End of WWII
By 1944-1945, it was clear that the Axis
Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) were
going to lose the war.
 Allies (U.S., Great Britain, Soviet Union)
began to liberate more and more territory,
getting closer and closer to Germany.

Death March

As the Allies started to close in on the
Germans, prisoners were often sent on a
long Death March
– Some would march for months at a time,
sometimes for hundreds of miles
Question: Why would the Germans send
prisoners on the Death March?
Other Victims
Poles
 Gypsies/Roma
 Jehovah’s Witnesses
 Homosexuals
 People with physical or mental disability or
handicap

– T4 Program was a “euthanasia” program
designed to carry out “mercy” killings of those
who were deemed to be unfit for life
Liberation
In the early months of 1945, Allied forces began
to liberate many of the Nazi concentration
camps.
 When the world learned of the atrocities
committed against Jews, and other groups,
people began to demand punishment for those
responsible.
 By that time, however, many top Nazis had
either fled the country or committed suicide

– Ex: Hitler committed suicide in April, 1945
Nuremberg Trials

Following the Holocaust, surviving Nazis
were put on trial for their involvement.
These trials were known as the
Nuremberg Trials
– Those who were found guilty of war crimes
and crimes against humanity were often
executed.
Word Bank for Crossword Puzzle
Allies
Axis Powers
Gestapo
Gas Chamber
Poland
Final Solution
Hitler
Ghetto
Genocide
Auschwitz
Zyklon B
Propaganda
Kristallnacht
Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Trials
Death March
Nazis
Holocaust
Einsatzgruppen
T4 Program