Transcript The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students.

Nazi Rule
 In the early 1930s, the worldwide economic depression had
hit Germany hard, and millions of people were out of work.
 Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during
World War I, caused the Germans to lack confidence in their
weak government (Weimar Republic).
 These circumstances provided the opportunity for the rise of
a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National
Socialist German Workers' Party.
The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people,
and members of the lower middle class.
The party's rise to power was rapid. Before the economic
depression struck the Nazis were practically unknown.
 In the 1932 elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes,
more than any other party.
In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the
German government, and many Germans believed that they had
found a savior for their nation.
Hitler moved quickly to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship
and to organize the police power necessary to enforce Nazi policies.
He convinced his Cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end
individual freedoms, such as freedom of press, speech, and assembly.
Citezens lost the right to privacy, which meant that officials could
read people's mail, listen in on telephone conversations, and search
private homes without a warrant.
Lured by the salary, a feeling of comradeship, and the remarkable
uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men joined the Nazi
Storm Troopers. Called the SA, these secondary policemen took to the
streets to beat up and kill those against of the Nazi command. Simple
fear of the SA pressured into silence other Germans who did not
support the Nazis.
SS Police State
Important information
• The SS or ( Schutzstaffel ) began as Adolf Hitler's Elite guard and
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Protective service.
On February 22, 1933 the SS also became the auxiliary policemen and
eventually would become concentration camp guards.
Within the following years Heinrich Himmler became the chief of the
SS and turned the nonparty police into the Secret State Police (
Geheime Staatspolizer ) or the Gestapo.
Months after the Gestapo were created Hitler ordered them to go
door to door looking for rivals such as politicians and anyone else
who opposed the Nazi rule.
Dr. Josef Mengele was also a member of the SS , was the man
responsible for devising the experimentation method used on the
Jews in WWII, and was known to his patients as the Angel of Death
and the Angel of Auschwitz.
Pictures
Nazi Propaganda and Censorship
Important information
 After succeeding to demolish democracy in Germany the Nazi regime
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began a massive campaign to game the loyalty of Germans in
Germany.
The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Joseph Goebbels, took
control of all forms of communication in Germany including:
newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, rallies, and many
others.
During the spring of 1933 students, professors, and librarians created
a long list of books that they saw unfit to be read by Germans.
On May 10, 1933 Nazis raided libraries and bookstores locating all
copies of these unfit books and burned them while having parades
and singing chants.
They burned more than a total of 25,000 books.
As a result new text books for schools were being written by the
Nazis and were taught from and read by the students, furthering the
Nazi hold in Germany.
Pictures
•Even before Hitler became the ruler of Germany, he
was spreading the ideology of a super race, or Aryans.
•Starting in 1933, forced sterilizations were allowed,
mostly on Gypsies and handicapped people.
•2/24/1920- German political party demands racial
purity.
•7/18/1925- Written while he was in prison, Hitler’s
Mein Kampf appears.
•A new tactic called “Blitzkrieg” was introduced during
WWII. It was basically the massing of planes, tanks,
and artillery. This tactic defeated many of Germany’s
targets.
•The Nazis attacked the Soviet Union and conquered
much of it, until the battle for Stalingrad.
The Murder of the Handicapped
 The handicapped were considered useless to society, a threat to Aryan genetic purity,
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and unworthy of life.
Hitler suggested that wartime “was the best time for the elimination of the incurably
ill.”
At the beginning of WWII the mentally and physically handicapped were targeted for
murder in what was referred to as the “T-4” program or “euthanasia.”
German doctors determined who would be killed and supervised the killings.
Adults and older children were killed in gas chambers. Young children and infants
were killed by deadly doses of drugs or starvation.
The bodies were burned in crematoria.
The picture is of the euthanasia killing
center in Hartheim, Austria.
The Murder of the Handicapped
 Despite public protests the killings continued in secret.
 About 200,000 were killed between 1940 and 1945.
 The T-4 program was the model for the killing of people in concentration camps
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and served as a training ground for SS members who manned the camps.
October 1939- Hitler authorizes the killing of the impaired.
August 3, 1941- Catholic Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen denounces
euthanasia.
August 24, 1941- Hitler officially orders end to “euthanasia” killings.
The picture is of Helene Melanie Lebel. Born on September 15, 1911 in Vienna,
Austria. She was killed as part of the T-4 program in 1940 because of her diagnosed
schizophrenia.
German Rule in Europe
Regions in Europe were being used selfishly for the German war efforts.
-Foodstuffs, raw materials, and war stocks were confiscated.
The German rule in Poland was very HARSH.
-Polish people were forced to a laborer.
-Teachers, priests, and cultural figures were targeted especially.
Germany, while being occupied in western Europe, milder polices were followed.
-Netherlands – ultimately slated to become a part of Germany.
-France – kept to dependent on Germany.)
In conclusion, because of the war time policies of Germany, resistance movements sprang up
throughout Europe.
- Members of armed, were called partisans( member of an armed force to fight against
secretly an occupying for).
- They sabotaged and demolished civilizations across Europe
Key Dates
May 16,1940
- Hans Frank – Nazi administrator of occupied Poland. He ordered the arrest of all
Polish leaders.
The Nazis seek to terrorize the Polish. Thousands from the population were arrested and killed.
June 10, 1942
-Reinhard Heydrich- Governor of Bohemia and Moravia. In the reaction to the killing
of governor. Germans decided to destroy the small village of Lidice, many residents were killed.
March 24, 1944
-SS – The elite guard of the Nazi state. They shot over 300 Italians, reactions toattack
on German soldiers.
June 10,1944
- Ordadour-sur-Glane – The entire population was massacred. More than 600 women,
men, and children were forced into a church, which was to be set ablaze.
Work Cited
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "HITLER COMES TO POWER." The Holocaust: A
Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington,
DC, 1.21.14. Web.
<http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007671>.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "THE NAZI TERROR BEGINS." The Holocaust: A
Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington,
DC, 1.21.14.
Web. http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007673.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "SS POLICE STATE." The Holocaust: A Learning
Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, 1.21.14.
Web. <http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007675>.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "NAZI PROPAGANDA AND CENSORSHIP." The
Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Washington, DC, 1.21.14.
Web. <http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007677>.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "NAZI RACISM." The Holocaust: A Learning Site
for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, 1.21.14.
Web. <http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007679>.
Work Cited
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE." The Holocaust: A
Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington,
DC, 1.21.14.
Web. <http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007681>.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "GERMAN RULE IN OCCUPIED EUROPE." The
Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Washington, DC, 1.21.14.
Web. http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007685.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "THE MURDER OF THE HANDICAPPED." The
Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Washington, DC, 1.21.14. Web.
<http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007683>.
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "THE MURDER OF THE HANDICAPPED — ID
CARD." The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students.n.p., 1.21.14.
Web. <http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_oi.php?ModuleId=10007683&Medi
aId=260>.