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The
Holocaust
Prior to World War II, Europe’s Jews had
been persecuted for centuries.
Anti-Semitism is the
word used to
describe
discrimination or
hostility (often
violent hostility)
directed at Jews.
When Hitler became Germany’s leader in
1933, he made anti-Semitism the official
policy of the nation.
No other persecution of Jews in
modern history equals the extend
and brutality of the Holocaust.
In all, some six million Jews, about
two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population,
lost their lives.
Nuremberg Laws - stripped
Jews of their German citizenship
and outlawed intermarriage.
Nazi
Policies
Anti-Semitic
Propaganda
Hitler’s SS, the Nazi party’s
private army identified and
pursued enemies of the Nazi
regime.
One duty of the SS was guarding
the concentration camps,
places where political prisoners
are confined, usually under
harsh conditions.
Dachau Concentration Camp
“Work Makes
You Free”
In addition to Communists, the
Nazi camps soon held many
other “undesirables”… mainly
Jews, but also homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies
and the homeless.
Dachau Concentration Camp
Despite the ever-increasing
restrictions on their lives, many
Jews believed they could endure
persecution until Hitler lost power.
Kristallnacht changed this.
From 1933 - 1939, about 130,000
Jews, fled Germany. However, few
countries welcomed Jewish refugees.
Evian Conference - 32
nations refused to open their
doors to more immigrants.
St. Louis - carried 930 Jewish refugees
in 1939. US officials refused to waive
immigration restrictions.
As German armies overran most of
Europe, more and more Jews,
including many who had fled
Germany, came under their control.
In Poland, 2 million Jews came under
German control. The Nazis forced many
Jews to live in ghettos.
Each month,
thousands died in the
ghettos, but the Nazis
looked for a more
efficient way of
killing Jews.
Einsatzgruppen,
mobile killing squads
Babi Yar Massacre
33,000 killed in 2 days
January, 1942
Wannsee Conference
Came up with the
Final Solution
to the Jewish
question.
The Death Camps
The Nazis chose
poison gas as the
most effective way
to kill people.
The Death Camps
Unlike concentration camps which also
functioned as prisons and centers of forced labor,
death camps existed primarily for mass murder.
Jews in Poland,
the Netherlands,
Germany, and
other lands were
crowded into
cattle cars and
transported to the
camps. Most
were told they
were going to the
“east” to work.
At four of the six death camps, nearly
all were murdered soon after they
arrived. However, at the two largest
camps, Auschwitz and Majdanek,
prisoners went through selections.
Those who weren’t immediately
selected, worked in the camps.
Some died from torture, starvation,
or medical experiments.
Rescue and Liberation
Finally, in 1944, FDR
created the War Refugee
Board
to try to help people
threatened by the Nazis.
These programs did save
about 200,000 lives.
Raoul Wallenberg rescued
thousands of Hungarian
Jews by issuing special
Swedish passports.
Rescue and Liberation
As Allied armies advanced in late 1944,
the Nazis abandoned camps and either
killed or marched prisoners to camps
closer to Germany.
Rescue and Liberation
In 1945, American troops witnessed the horrors of
the Holocaust when they came upon Mauthausen
camp in Austria.
Nuremberg Trials
Nazi leaders were tried in Nuremberg in 1945.
Twenty-four Nazi were tried. Twelve received the
death sentence.