Transcript Die Nazis und Anne Frank

Die Nazis und Anne Frank: Der Böse
trefft ein junges Mädchen
“The Nazis and Anne Frank: Evil meets a young girl”
Deutschland nach die erste Weltkrieg
(Germany after the First World War)
 Germany was defeated in 1918 by the principal allied
countries of the United States, the United Kingdom, and
France
 The Treaty of Versailles (which ended the war) ordered
Germany to give up historic German land and pay $63 billion
in damages (about $768 billion today; they finally paid this off
in 2010)
Deutschland nach die erste Weltkrieg
(Germany after the First World War)
 With so many dead and billions of deutsche Marks (German
money) to pay in damages, the War left German society
decimated
 Money was so worthless in the following years that a train
car of German money couldn’t buy a loaf of bread. People
were burning it for fuel.
Deutschland nach die erste Weltkrieg
(Germany after the First World War)
 Germany tried to reinvent itself by drafting a new
constitution and electing a new president, Paul von
Hindenburg
 No one was happy with the new government. Conflicts
between Communists, democrats, and those loyal to the old
king caused many problems in the new Germany.
Paul von Hindenburg
Ein neues Partei
(A New Party)
 In the 1920s, a new party emerged in German politics: die
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (“The
National Socialist German Workers’ Party). The name is so
long (even in German) that it was shorted simply to the
“Nazi” Party
 It was lead by Adolf Hitler
Die Nazis
(The Nazis)
 Believed in restoring Germany to its “rightful” place in the
world
 Blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Treaty of Versailles,
which they said had been written by Jews to humiliate
Germany (Jews were a historic scapegoat in European
history)
Die Nazis
(The Nazis)
 Many Germans, upset about living in poverty and the way
their country was headed, decided that the Nazis – with their
promises for a better future for Germany – were the answer.
Hitler and the Nazis were elected to the Reichstag (the
German government) on January 31, 1933
Deutschland unter der Nazis
(Germany under the Nazis)
 Immediately, the Nazis began a program to win the German
people completely over to their side.
 In 1934, the Nazis burned down the Reichstag building under
Hitler’s command, and then blamed the fire on Jews and
Communists out to destroy the new German government
 The Reichstag began passing laws to discriminate against Jews and
Communists
The Reichstag building on
fire
Deutschland unter der Nazis
(Germany under the Nazis)
 Hitler and the Nazis became obsessed with creating a perfect
German society lead by the perfect race: the Germans.
 To create a perfect society, all “imperfect” people had to be
disposed of; these groups included Jews, homosexuals, the
mentally handicapped, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and
anyone who disagreed with Hitler – who was now calling
himself “Der Führer” (“The Leader”)
Die Unerwünschten
(The Undesirables)
 In 1935, the Nazi government began a program to take
mentally handicapped children and adults and place them in
care facilities, where they could be cared for. This was a cover
for what they were really about to do: euthanize them.
 Propaganda movies and posters were made to convince
people that these undesirables must be taken out of society.
The name of this Nazi film about
mentally handicapped people means “Life
without Hope”
Die Unerwünschten
(The Undesirables)
This poster reads:
“60,000 Reichsmarks is
what this sick man costs the
people of society over the
course of his life. We need
NEW PEOPLE.”
Die Unerwünschten
(The Undesirables)
 Conservative estimates indicate that at least 5,000 mentally
handicapped children alone were euthanized. The number
was probably far higher. This does not count adults, and
certainly does not count the number of adults who were
castrated to keep them from reproducing and spreading their
“unfit” genes.
 Soon, Hitler’s attention turned from the mentally
handicapped to other “biological enemies;” namely, the Jews.
Die Juden auf Deutschland
(The Jews in Germany)
 Jews had been a big part of German society for hundreds of
years. However, in 1935, the Nazis stripped all Jews of their
German citizenship.
 In 1937, Hitler opened the first Arbeitslager (“Work camp” or
“concentration camp”) at Dachau to hold people who
disagreed with him or who he found deplorable. This was the
first in a long line of camps that would lead to the Holocaust.
Dachau from the air, 1938
Die »Kristallnacht«
(“The Night of Broken Glass”)
 The Nazis’ agenda for the Jews of Germany and Austria
(which Germany had just acquired) became clear on
November 9-10, 1938. This is now called die Kristallnacht –
the “Night of Broken Glass”
 Nazi thugs destroyed Jewish property and mercilessly beat
Jews throughout the country.
Die Deutschen besiegen Europa
(The Germans conquer Europe)
 In 1938-39,Germany began systematically annexing
countries or parts of countries that had high German
populations. They completely took over Austria, and then
were given a highly German section of Czechoslovakia to
avoid a war. Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia
shortly afterwards anyway.
German troops enter Vienna,
Austria, March 15, 1938
Der Krieg beginnt
(The War begins)
 On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days
later, the United Kingdom and France declared war on
Germany, thus starting the Second World War.
 During 1939-40, the Germans swept across Europe in the
famous Blitzkrieg (“Lightning War”), taking over Poland,
Holland, Belgium, France, and advancing far into the Soviet
Union.
Die »Endlösung«
(The “Final Solution”)
 With Germany in control of much of Europe, Hitler and his
staff turned their attention to ridding the continent of Jews
and other “biological enemies” once and for all. This was
codenamed “The Final Solution.”
 The solution involved rounding up all undesirables and
shipping them to concentration camps such as AuschwitzBirkenau, Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and
Mauthausen, where they would be exterminated.
Die »Endlösung«
(The “Final Solution”)
 Jews were systematically rounded up into ghettos where they
were forced to live in terrible conditions, often with four or
five families living in a single, small apartment. This was
designed to keep all Jews together so that they could be
transported more easily to camps.
Photo taken in the
ghetto in Warsaw,
Poland
Die Arbeitslagern
(The Concentration Camps)
 Jews were eventually corralled into concentration camps.
These camps had only one purpose: to exterminate Jews,
homosexuals, dissidents, and other people who were
deemed “imperfect.”
 Concentration camps were built in almost every Germancontrolled territory, especially those with high Jewish
populations (see next slide).
The sign above the gate of this
concentration camp reads “Arbeit
macht frei,” which means, “Work
will set you free.”
Arbeitslagern auf deutsche Länder
(Concentration camps in German territories)
Tod im Arbeitslagern
(Death in the concentration camps)
 When prisoners arrived at the camps, they were immediately
sorted into two groups: those fit to work, and those not fit. If
you were not fit to work, your life would end shortly after
your arrival. Most of these were babies, children under 3, the
elderly, and those who were infirm.
 The most efficient killing technique was the use of the gas
chamber.
Gas chamber at Auschwitz
Die Gaskammern
(The Gas Chambers)
A canister of Zyklon B, the poison used in the gas
chambers.
A crematorium at Auschwitz used to
burn the bodies.
Befreiung
(Liberation)
 By April of 1945, as Allied troops began to penetrate deep
into German territory, the camps were beginning to be
discovered. What Allied troops found there was atrocious.
Victims at Dachau, April
1945. Photo taken by the
American 101st Airborne.
Befreiung
(Liberation)
Box car filled
with bodies.
Photo taken at
Dachau by the
American 101st
Airborne, April
1945.
Befreiung
(Liberation)
Women’s
barracks at
Auschwitz. Taken
by Soviet troops,
April 1945.
Befreiung
(Liberation)
Survivors. Taken at
Wobbelin. Taken by the
American 82nd Airborne,
April 1945.
Die Ende des Krieges
(The End of the War)
 With Berlin surrounded, Adolf Hitler committed suicide on
April 30, 1945. Berlin was overrun by the Soviets two days
later.
 Nazi Germany surrended completely on May 9, 1945, thus
ending the war in Europe.
Soviet troops raise the Soviet flag
over the Reichstag, May 2, 1945.
Wer ist Anne Frank?
(Who is Anne Frank?)
 Born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
 Parents moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1933 – the
year Hitler was elected. They foresaw the problems he would
create for German-Jewish families like their own.
Wer ist Anne Frank?
(Who is Anne Frank?)
 When the Nazis overran Holland in 1940, they immediately
began persecuting Dutch Jews as well.
 In 1942, when it became clear that Dutch Jews like the
Franks were to be deported to concentration camps, the
family hid in an attic for safety. They hid for four years. This is
when Anne began writing her now famous diary.
Anne’s actual diary as
it appears today.
Wer ist Anne Frank?
(Who is Anne Frank?)
 In 1944, an anonymous collaborator tipped off local Nazi
authorities who stormed the secret attic the Franks lived in
and arrested them.
 The family was transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp in Germany, where Anne and her sister, Margot, died
in 1945. Anne died just three weeks before the camp was
liberated by American troops.
Und jetzt, wir treffen Anne…
(And now, we meet Anne…)