Transcript The Holocaust 2

The Holocaust
Front gate of Auschwitz
English 10; History 12
The Final Solution
• The Nazis, under cover of WWII, developed the
technology, bureaucracy, and psychology of hate
to efficiently murder millions
of Jews.
• The details of the "Final Solution"
were worked out at the Wannsee
Conference (January, 20, 1942 ).
Wannsee Conference
• All Jews in Germany and the
occupied countries were deported to sealed
ghettos as holding areas. Many were then
shipped in cattle cars to labor camps where they
lived under brutally inhuman conditions.
• Hundreds of thousands
were sent directly to the
gas chambers in death
camps.
• Much later, as the Allies
advanced on the camps,
death marches further
depleted the ranks of
potential camp survivors.
Prelude to the Final Solution
• When Hitler seized power in
1933 he used his new powers
under the ‘Enabling Law’ to
begin his attack on the Jews.
• In 1938, the Nazi attack on
the Jews changed and became
more violent with Himmler
launching Kristallnacht on
November 11, 1938.
• By 1939, half of Germany’s
500,000 Jews had emigrated
to escape Nazi persecution.
Kristallnacht
November 11, 1938
Prelude to the Final Solution
• In 1939, Germany
invaded Poland which
had a much larger
population of 3 million
Jews.
• In 1941, Germany
invaded Russia with a
population of 5 million
Jews.
Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen
• Himmler sent four specially
trained SS units called
Einsatzgruppen battalions into
German occupied territory and
shot at least one million Jews.
• Victims were taken to deserted
areas where they were made to
dig their own graves and then
shot.
• When the SS ran out of bullets
they sometimes killed their
victims using flame throwers.
Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen
The ‘Final Solution’
Himmler
• In January 1942, Heinrich
Himmler decided to change
tactics once again and called
a special conference at
Wannsee.
• At this conference it was
decided that the existing
methods were too inefficient
and that a new ‘Final
Solution’ was necessary.
Wannsee Conference
Women, children, the
old & the sick were to
be sent for ‘special
treatment.’
On arrival the Jews
would go through a
process called
‘selection.’
The remaining
Jews were to be
shipped to
‘resettlement
areas’ in the
East.
The young and fit would go
through a process called
‘destruction through work.’
How was the Final
Solution going to
be organised?
Conditions in the Ghettos were
designed to be so bad that many
would die, whilst the rest would
be willing to leave these areas in
the hope of better conditions
Shooting was too
inefficient as the bullets
were needed for the war
effort
Jews were to be
rounded up and put
into transit camps
called Ghettos
The Jews living in
these Ghettos were to
be used as a cheap
source of labour.
Who was
Jewish?
• At the Wannsee conference it was
decided that if one of a person’s
parents was Jewish, then they
were Jewish.
• However, if only one of their
grandparents had been Jewish
then they could be classified as
being German.
• In 1940, all Jews had to have
their passports stamped with the
letter ‘J’ and had to wear the
yellow Star of David on their
jacket or coat.
Where were the Death Camps built?
The work of the
Einsatzgruppen
Why do you think that they located them here?
What tactics did the Nazis use to get the
Jews to leave the Ghettos?
Deception
The Jews were told
that they were going
to ‘resettlement
areas’ in the East.
In some Ghettos
the Jews had to
purchase their
own train tickets.
They were told
to bring the
tools of their
trade and pots
and pans.
New arrivals at the
Death camps were
given postcards to
send to their friends.
Tactics
Starvation
The Jews in the
Warsaw Ghetto were
only fed 1000
calories a day.
Terror
A Human being needs
2400 calories a day to
maintain their weight
The SS publicly shot people
for smuggling food or for
any act of resistance
Hungry people are
easier to control
Children Dying of Starvation in
the Warsaw Ghetto
SS Tactics: Dehumanisation
• The SS guards who murdered the Jews were brainwashed
with Anti-Semitic propaganda.
• The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible
conditions.
• Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals,
which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda.
• The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them
to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children.
Tactics: What happened to new arrivals?
All new arrivals went
through a process
known as ‘selection.’
Mothers, young
children, the old &
sick were sent straight
to the ‘showers’ which
were really the gas
chambers.
The able bodied were
sent to work camp
where they were killed
through a process
known as ‘destruction
through work.’
At Auschwitz the trains
pulled into a mock up
of a normal station.
Deception
&
Selection
At Auschwitz the new
arrivals were calmed
down by a Jewish
orchestra playing
classical music.
The Jews were helped
off the cattle trucks
by Jews who were
specially selected to
help the Nazis
At some death camps
the Nazis would play
records of classical
music to help calm
down the new arrivals.
First View of Auschwitz
Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station
Auschwitz Orchestra
• Roll call at a death camp
Map of Auschwitz
New Arrivals
‘Showers’
‘Destruction
Through
Work’
Auschwitz from the Air
Notice how the
Death Camp is set
out like a factory
complex
The Nazis used
industrial methods to
murder the Jews and
process their dead
bodies
The First Gassings
• This was the first group of Jews
selected for gassing at Auschwitz.
The Gas Chambers
• The Nazis would force
large groups of prisoners
into small cement rooms
and drop canisters of
Zyklon B, or prussic acid,
in its crystal form through
small holes in the roof.
• These gas chambers were
sometimes disguised as
showers or bathing
houses.
The SS would attempt to pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber
Zyklon B
• Zyklon B was the poison dropped through the holes
indicated by the number 2 in the plan above. It was
in crystal form and became a gas on contact with air.
Outside the Gas Chamber
Notice the Ovens, conveniently located near the Gas Chambers
Processing the Bodies
• Specially selected Jews
known as sonderkommando
were used to to remove the
gold fillings and hair of
people who had been
gassed.
• The sonderkommando Jews
were also forced to feed the
dead bodies into the
crematorium.
• If the sonderkommandos
refused the job, they were
killed immediately
The Ovens at Dachau
Dead bodies waiting to be processed
Shoes waiting to be processed by the
Sonderkommando
Stored inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum, this pile of
shoes represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about
twenty five thousand pairs.
Destruction Through Work
This photo was taken by the Nazis to show how
they could quite literally work the fat off Jews
by feeding them 200 calories a day
Destruction Through Work
The same group of Jews, 6 weeks later
Children in the Death Camps
• As allied troops neared the death camps, the Nazis
tried to obliterate all traces of genocide. Here, they
are burning corpses.
Liberation of Auschwitz :
January 27, 1945
• As German forces retreated under the weight of Allied
attacks, and the Red Army neared Auschwitz, the SS
blew up the camp's crematoria and gas chambers,
burned their files, and marched the 66,000 able-bodied
prisoners in the camp westwards. When the Soviet
troops arrived they found only about 7,000 survivors,
mostly ill.
Camp “survivors”?
Was the Final Solution successful?
• The Nazis aimed to kill • Men like Oskar Schindler
11 million Jews at the
helped many Jews escape
Wannsee Conference in the Final Solution.
1941
• Not all Jews went quietly
• Today there are only
into the gas cambers.
2000 Jews living in
• In 1943 the Warsaw
Poland (originally 3
Ghetto, unlike many
million!)
others, revolted against
• The Nazis managed to
the Nazis when the Jews
kill at least 6 million
realised what was really
Jews.
happening.
The End
Evil occurs when a few good men
decide to do nothing.
Bibliography
• Adapted from a presentation by Mr. RJ
Huggins: www.SchoolHistory.co.uk
• http://www.auschwitz.dk/docs/new_page_1.
htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/games/nazi_g
enocide_timeline/noflash.shtml