Transcript Holocaustx

• The systematic mass
slaughter of European Jews
in Nazi concentration camps
before and during WWII
• Over 9 million Jews lived in
Europe prior to The
Holocaust
• Approximately 6 million
Jews were murdered by
the Nazi
 Anti-Semitism is
discrimination,
prejudice and hostility
towards Jews
 Anti –Semitism was not
a new phenomenon
 Jews were blamed for
the death of Christ
which led towards
hostility
• Jews were blamed
for causing the
“Black Death” by
poisoning the
drinking water
• Jews were rounded
up and burned in
bonfires
• Those Jews that did
not convert to
Christianity were
expelled from
England, France,
Spain and Portugal
WHY ANTI-SEMITISM AROSE IN GERMANY
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After WWI, Germany was
devastated and demoralized
The Treaty of Versailles
called for Germany to:
pay reparations for damages
admit they were the
aggressors in a war they lost
Dissolve their offensive
military
Give up land ownership
 People lost all faith in the
Weimer Republic (ruling
government)
 Throughout this difficult time,
the Jews in Germany were
still prospering
 Led to accusations that the
Jewish people were the
cause of Germany’s
problems
• Germany lost over 1 million square miles of land
• With the loss of land came the loss of valuable
natural resources
• Due to reparations and a highly reduced male work
force, inflation set in
• Inflation is a substantial rise in the general prices
related to an increase volume of money with a loss
of value (their money had little value and prices of
goods were inflated)
THE RISE OF HITLER AND
NAZISM
The German Workers’ Party
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Forerunner of the Nazi Party
Adolph Hitler joined this small political party in
1919
He rose to leadership through his emotional
and captivating speeches
He encouraged national pride, militarism,
racially pure Germany and a commitment to the
Volk (superiority of the German people and
their culture).
Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting antiSemitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe
for centuries
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Hitler changed the name of
the party to the National
Socialist German Workers’
Party or Nazi Party
Within a year Hitler became
its official leader, or Fuhrer
In 1923 Hitler’s attempt at
an armed overthrow of local
authorities fails miserably
Hitler and a codefendant preparing
for trial
Hitler and other Nazi leaders were jailed and
charged with treason
 During the trial Hitler gained public support for the
end of the Weimer government
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MEIN KAMPF
• Hitler receives a light sentence
and only serves one year of his
term
• While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein
Kampf (My struggle)
• Mein Kampf detailed his radical
ideas of German Nationalism, antiSemitism, and anti – Bolshevism
• Bolshevism was a Russian political
movement that called for all people
to be equal (Hitler believed this
was a Jewish ideal pushed on the
Russians)
• Mein Kampf became the
ideological basis for the Nazis
Nazism grows in power
 From 1925 to 1929, the Nazi Party
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grew from 27,000 to 108,000 members
The SA or Sturmabteilung (Storm
Troopers), were formed in order to
create terror amongst those who were
in disagreement with the Nazis
(usually through physical violence)
Made up of young men that were out
of work
The SS or Schutzstaffelor formed out
of the SA
The SS established control of the
police and security systems, forming
the basis of the Nazi police state and
the major instrument of racial terror in
the concentration camps
Hitler Becomes The Fuhrer of Germany
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The Great Depression coupled with
hyperinflation of post World War I
Germany left the German public
looking for answers
The SA or Brownshirts were involved
in daily street violence against non
Nazis
German President Hindenburg died in
1934
On August 19, about 95 percent of
registered voters in Germany went to
the polls and gave Hitler 38 million
votes of approval (90 percent of the
vote)
Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany
The Nazification of Germany
The Nuremburg Laws
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In 1935 Hitler introduced the
Nuremberg Laws
stripped Jews of their civil rights as
German citizens
Separated them from Germans
legally, socially, and politically
Defined as a separate race under
“The Law for the Protection of
German Blood and Honor”
The law forbade marriages or
sexual relations between Jews and
Germans
Stripped Jews of their German
citizenship
Jews could not vote or hold public office
If a Jew held public office, they were forced to retire
Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the
national colors. On the other hand they are permitted to display
the Jewish colors
Jews must have identification stating they were Jewish
The Nazis issued instructional charts to help distinguish Jews from Mischlinge (Germans of
mixed race) and Aryans
Effects of Nazism and the Nuremburg Laws
• Many shops and restaurants did not serve
the Jewish population
• Placards saying "Jews not admitted" and
"Jews enter this place at their own risk"
began to appear all over Germany
• Jews were banned from public parks,
swimming-pools and public transport
• Germans were also encouraged not to
use Jewish doctors and lawyers. Jewish
civil servants, teachers
• Pressure on people not to buy goods
produced by Jewish companies
Many Jewish people who
could no longer earn a living
left the country
 The number of Jews
emigrating (to move out of a
country) increased after the
passing of the Nuremberg
Laws
 Hitler wanted all Jews gone
 He stated that if the
Nuremburg Laws did not
solve the Jewish problem he
would come up with a final
solution
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Lebensraum
The main reason for the Nazi expansion into its
neighboring western countries was built upon the
principle of lebensraum (living space)
lebensraum carried with it the desire for the Nazis to
expand into other countries to provide living space for
the growing German race
In 1938 Germany united German speaking people by
taking over Austria and part of Czechoslovakia
During this time, the “inferior” races, such as the Jews
and Gypsies, who occupied the new Nazi territories,
were stripped of their possessions, jobs, and
“resettled” in ghettos or concentration camps
Hitler was violating
the provisions of
Treaty of Versailles
France and Britain
chose to do nothing in
order to avoid war
The Nazis would later
take over France,
Poland, Hungary and
others
• Kristallnacht “Night of the
Broken Glass”
• A German politician was shot
by a Jewish man
• Hitler and Propaganda
Minister Joseph Goebbels
devise a pogrom
(destruction) against Jews
• Nazi party officials and the SA
(Nazi Storm Troopers) initiate
a free for all against Jews in
Germany, Austria and
Czechoslovakia
• 1,000 synagogues were set on fire
• 7,000 Jewish homes and businesses
were looted
• 100 Jews were killed
• 30,000 were arrested and sent to
concentration camps
• Soon after, Jewish owned
businesses were transferred to
Aryans
• Jewish pupils were expelled from
school
• Jews were forced to pay for the
damages of Kristallnacht
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September 1, 1939 Germany
invades Poland
Two days later Britain and
France obliged by a treaty
with Poland declare war on
Germany
Hitler’s armies used the tactic
of Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
Use of an armored attack
accompanied by an air
assault
Within four weeks, Poland
collapsed
The Ghettos
 Confining Jews in ghettos was not Hitler's brainchild
 For centuries, Jews were often confined to live in
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designated areas called ghettos
Nazi ghettos differed in that they were a preliminary
step in the annihilation of the Jews
The ghettos became transition areas used as
collection points for deportation to death and
concentration camps
The Nazis established 356 ghettos in
Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltics, Czechoslovakia,
Romania and Hungary
Jews were forced to leave their homes and
possessions and move to the ghettos
In order to make it easier
for identification, Jews
had to wear yellow Stars
of David
Nazi authorities gave the
official reason that the
Jews had to be
segregated since they
were natural carriers of all
types of diseases
Most of the ghettos were
sealed off so no one
could go in or out and
therefore could not work
or get supplies
Life in the ghettos
Appalling, inhuman living conditions
 Filthy due to poor sanitation
 Extreme overcrowding forced families to
share living spaces
 Disease was rampant
 Staying warm was difficult during the winter
due to a lack of warm clothing and fuel
 Food was in such short supply that many
slowly starved to death
 Parents educated their children in secret
schools
 Many held religious services secretly
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The Camps
Transportation to the Camps
The Nazis used the
Ghettos as centers in
order to facilitate the
transportation of the
Jews to the camps
Nazis used cattle cars
to transport the Jews
to the camps
Conditions in these
cars were deplorable
TRANSPORTATION
• The transportation to the
camps was done secretly
under the ruse of
resettlement of the Jews
• The Nazis even charged
Jews for a one-way train
fare
• Often just prior to their
murder, the unknowing
victims were forced to
send reassuring post
cards back to the ghettos
• This deception led to
most of the Jews going
unwittingly to their
deaths with no
resistance
Rail lines often
directly
entered the camps
• The deportees were forced into rail
cars, most of which were
windowless, unheated cattle cars squeezed in so tightly that most
were forced to stand
• The doors were then sealed shut
from the outside
• Neither drinking water nor sanitary
facilities were available
• Each car held more than 120
people, and many froze or
suffocated to death or succumbed to
disease during the trip to the camps
• The dead were not removed from
the cars during the journey because
the Nazi bureaucracy insisted that
each body entering a car be
accounted for at the destination
Concentration Camps
The concentration
camps formed an
important part of the
Nazi regime’s
systematic
suppression of Jews,
gypsies, political
dissidents,
homosexuals and
other groups that were
viewed as socially and
racially “undesirable”
in the Nazi state.
• The concentration camps
were established with
different purposes
• For instance, there existed
forced labor camps,
reformatory camps, POW
camps and transit camps
• Their common
denominator was the fact
that the living conditions
were extremely horrible
and cruel for the inmates
• Little food and terrible
living conditions resulted
in the deaths of an
enormous amount of
prisoners
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In the beginning of the
systematic mass
murder of the Jews,
Nazis used mobile
killing squads called
Einsatzgruppen
They followed the
German troops into
the Soviet Union killing
Jewish citizens along
the way
In all, they murdered
1,500,000 Jews
The Nazis were looking
for a more effective
means of murder
 In September 1941, the
Nazis began using
gassing vans until the
completion of the first
death camp
 Groups of people were
locked in and
asphyxiated by carbon
monoxide
 Gas vans and later on
Death camps proved to
be a faster, less personal
method for killing Jews
 If you didn’t see them
dying, were you doing the
killing?
The Death Camps
• In January of 1942, officials
of the Nazi Government
presented the Final Solution
to the Jewish Problem
• This would be done through
the transport and
destruction of all 11 million
Jews of Europe
• Plans were to use the latest
technology in cost efficient
engineering and mass
production techniques for
the sole purpose of killing
off the undesirables
(particularly Jews )
Termination
Ultimately, the Nazis were
responsible for the deaths
of 2.7 million Jews in the
death camps
Many of the Jews died from
unsanitary conditions and a
lack of food and water
Others were sent to gas
chambers
Jews were handed bars of
soap and told to take
communal showers
Upon entering, doors were
sealed and deadly gas filled
the chamber
The Nazis were running out of space for all of
the murdered
They turned to crematoriums to dispose of the
bodies
German scientist performed
medical experiments on Jews
The experiments were meant
to help the Aryan Race
EXAMPLES:
 Freezing / Hypothermia
 Genetics
 Infectious Diseases
 Interrogation and Torture
 High Altitude
 Pharmacological
 Sterilization
experiment in order to see
 Surgery
the effects of food
 Traumatic Injuries
deprivation
Murder by the numbers
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
Jewish Deaths
400,000
200,000
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Non-Jewish Deaths
Throughout the Holocaust,
victims received help
from rescuers
Those who did this put
their own safety at risk
Better known rescuers
include Raoul Wallenberg
who led the effort to save
100,000 Hungarian Jews
and Oscar Schindler that
saved over 1,000 Polish
Jews
Over 13,000 people
risked their own lives to
help the Jews
As allied troops entered Nazi – occupied territories the
rescue of the Jews was at hand
Allied troops were shocked at what they found when they
came to the camps
• Large ditches filled with bodies
• Rooms filled with baby shoes
• Piles of bones
• Gas chambers with fingernail marks
• Living skeletons left for dead
U.S. General Eisenhower insisted on photographing the
horror so that future generations could not ignore history
Eisenhower also forced villagers neighboring the camps to
view what had occurred in their own backyards
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THE AFTERMATH
After the War
 When the war ended, most Jews did not want to return
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to their homelands
With help from the UN, Britain divided up their territory
of Palestine into a Arab state and Israel
Jews now have an official homeland
Surviving Nazis leaders faced their crimes against
humanity at the Nuremberg Trials in Nuremberg,
Germany
11 defendants were sentenced to death and 8 were
imprisoned for their crimes
In former Nazi occupied territories, Nazi officials were
sentenced to death or jailed
To this day surviving Nazis are still hunted down and
brought to justice