Transcript night - Moore Public Schools

The Holocaust
Background
WWII Background
Germany was crippled by the Great
Depression
They react with the rise of the Nazi party
Believed the Aryan race (Germans and
Northern Europeans) should rule the world
“Final Solution” – elimination of all Jews.
Estimated 6 million Jews are killed in
concentration camps.
Gradually stripped Jews of their rights:
Boycotted Jewish businesses
Vandalized Jewish businesses and homes
Forced to wear a yellow Star of David
 Eventually barred Jews from public facilities
 Transported to ghettos – “for their own safety”
 Sent to concentration camps
ghettos: The Nazis revived the medieval term ghetto to describe their device of
concentration and control, the compulsory "Jewish Quarter." Ghettos were
usually established in the poor sections of a city, where most of the Jews from
the city and surrounding areas were subsequently forced to reside. Often
surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were sealed. Established mostly
in eastern Europe (e.g., Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, or Minsk), the ghettos were
characterized by overcrowding, malnutrition, and heavy labor. All were
eventually dissolved, and the Jews murdered.
Concentration Camps Map
Auschwitz
Gates in 1941 leading to Auschwitz read “work liberates”
Auschwitz
• Largest of the concentration camps
• Divided into three main camps:
Auschwitz I—the original camp which served as
the administration center for the whole complex.
• Held roughly 70,000 Polish men and Soviet
Prisoners of War.
Auschwitz II - (Birkenau)—an extermination camp
• The site of the deaths of roughly 1 million Jews,
75,000 Poles, gay men and some 19,000 Romas
(also known as "Gypsies")
Auschwitz III (Monowitz)—served as a labor camp.
• The total number of deaths at the camps of
Auschwitz is estimated at around 1-1.5 million.
Selection for Death
Selection at the Birkenau ramp, 1944 — Birkenau main
entrance visible in the background.
Adolf Hitler
Portrait of Adolf Hitler.
One of a collection of
portraits included in a
1939 calendar of Nazi
officials. (1939)
Adolf Hitler
poses with a
group of SS
members soon
after his
appointment as
Chancellor.
(February 1933).
Nazi officials attend the opening ceremonies of the 1938 Party congress
in Nuremberg. Pictured from left to right are Joseph Goebbels, Robert
Ley, Heinrich Himmler, Victor Lutze, Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler and Julius
Streicher. (June 9, 1938)
Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler review SS troops
during Reich Party Day ceremonies. (September
1938).
SS officials view a large-scale model of the camp during an official tour
of Dachau. (January 20, 1941)
A photo identification
card, bearing the
official stamps of the
Krakow labor office
and the General
Government, Krakow
district, that was issued
to the Polish Jew, Cyrla
Rosenzweig. Cyrla
survived as one of the
Schindler Jews.
(March 5, 1941)
Polish laborers seal off the doors and windows of buildings
on the outer periphery of the Krakow Ghetto. (1940)
View of an entrance to the Krakow ghetto (Circa 1940)
Forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto, Jews move their
belongings in horse-drawn wagons. (1940)
A German policeman checks the identification papers of
Jews in the Krakow Ghetto (Circa 1941)
Jewish deportees from the Lodz ghetto arrive in
Chelmno after having been transferred from a
closed passenger train to a train of open cars at the
Kolo station. (1942)
Jews from the Krakow
Ghetto, who have been
rounded-up for
deportation, are
crowded onto the back
of a truck. (1942)
After a deportation action, a group of Jewish men
is assigned the task of clearing out the homes of the
deported. (Circa 1942)
A column of Jews march with bundles down a main street
in Krakow during the liquidation of the ghetto. SS guards
oversee the deportation action. (March 1943)
View of an empty (deportation) train in the Westerbork transit camp.
Between July, 1942 and April, 1945 nearly 100,000 Jews were deported to
the east from Westerbork.
Six thousand Mauthausen prisoners wait in the camp courtyard for
disinfection. After 24 hours, nearly 140 had died. (July 1941)
Mug shot of a prisoner in the Herzogenbusch "Vught“
concentration camp. (1943)
A fence around the barracks in the main camp of
Auschwitz (Auschwitz I). (After January 1945)
Washing and shaving newly arrived prisoners in the
Buchenwald concentration camp. (1940)
A crematoria oven where the corpses of prisoners were burned in
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. (April 28, 1945)
Gas Chambers
Crematorium
German soldiers
amuse
themselves
while they force
Jews to dig
ditches in an
empty lot in
Krakow. (1939 1940)
View of the execution wall next to Block 11 in the Auschwitz I camp
after liberation. (After January 1945)
Prisoners at forced labor on the Dove-Elbe project which allowed the
SS to ship materials produced in the Neuengamme concentration camp to
the Elbe river by barge. (1941 – 1942)
German soldiers of the
Waffen-SS and the
Reich Labor Service
look on as a member
prepares to shoot a
Ukrainian Jew kneeling
on the edge of a mass
grave filled with
corpses. (1942)
(Above) Left - An enormous pile of clothing taken from children who were
gassed at Auschwitz. Right - Bales of hair shaven from women at Auschwitz,
used to make felt-yarn. (Below) After liberation, an Allied soldier displays a
stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald.
A warehouse full of shoes and clothing confiscated from the prisoners and
deportees gassed upon their arrival. The Germans shipped these goods to
Germany.
Bales of the hair of female prisoners found in the
warehouses of Auschwitz at the liberation. (After January 1945)
A mass grave in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. (May 1, 1945)
Prisoners' bodies laid out in a mass grave. (Mauthausen)
(May 10-15, 1945)
Corpses of Auschwitz prisoners in block 11 of the main camp
(Auschwitz I), as discovered by Soviet war crimes
investigators.
Railway cars loaded
with the corpses of
prisoners who died on
route to Dachau from
other concentration
camps. (April 30, 1945)
American soldiers walk past rows of corpses removed from
the barracks to their left. (April 11-15, 1945 )
After Liberation
Survivors suffering from
malnutrition and a variety
of other diseases in a
section of the hospital
barracks. The inmates
in the upper bunks were
unable to go to the
latrine, making the
sanitation in this section
intolerable and
immediate evacuation
necessary. (April 16, 1945)
Three survivors, too weak to eat solid food, suck on sugar
cubes to give them strength. (May 8, 1945)
Romani children at Auschwitz who were victims of medical
experiments during the Holocaust
Interior of a barrack
After January 1945
Funeral of inmates who could not be saved or who were
killed by the SS before the liberation of Auschwitz. (1945)
American troops from the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion
of the 8th Corps, U.S. Third Army, are shown a stack of
corpses lying outside of the crematorium of Buchenwald.
(April 11, 1945)
German civilians, under the supervision of American soldiers, are forced
to see the results of crimes committed by the SS in Buchenwald.
(April 11, 1945 - May 1945)
During a compulsory tour of the Woebbelin concentration camp,
German civilians view corpses of prisoners in one of the barracks.
(May 6, 1945)
Jewish children, kept alive
in the Auschwitz II
(Birkenau)
concentration camp, pose
in concentration camp
uniforms between
two rows of barbed wire
fencing after liberation.
(After January 27, 1945)
Elie Weisel & His
Family
Night
By Elie Wiesel
Summary of the Book
The story of a young Jewish boy sent to a
concentration camp during the
Holocaust
Story of his struggle to survive, his struggle
to keep his family together, and his
struggle with God
Elie Wiesel:
An author, a scholar, and a Holocaust survivor
• Born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet,
Transylvania
• He was 15 years old when he and his
family were deported by the Gestapo to
Auschwitz and separated
• Spent a few years in a French orphanage
• Began to work for the French newspaper
L'arche
• Involved in journalism, Wiesel had never
shared his own personal experiences
during the war
 Acquainted with the distinguished French
Catholic writer and Nobel laureate Francois
Mauriac, who finally inspired Wiesel to break his
self-imposed vow of silence and write about
surviving the Nazi concentration camps
 900-page personal account, And the World
Remained Silent, in 1956
 Two years later, a compressed, 127-page French
version called La Nuit (Night) was published
 In 1960, the first English translation was published
 A new 2006 edition, translated by his wife, Marion
Wiesel, offers the most accurate English
translation of the work to date.
• Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of
Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to
ensuring that the world never forgets man's
capacity for inhumanity to man.
• Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Wiesel
has dedicated his life to speaking out against
hatred, bigotry and genocide
• In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Elie
Wiesel as Chairman of the President's Commission
on the Holocaust.
• In 1980, he became the Founding Chairman of
the United States Holocaust Memorial Council
and was instrumental in the creation of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum
He has received numerous awards including the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S.
Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of
Liberty Award and the rank of Grand-Croix in the
French Legion of Honor
In 1963, Wiesel became a U.S. citizen and he has
been the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the
Humanities at Boston University since 1976.
Wiesel and his wife have one son, Shlomo-Elisha,
named after his father
Sighet
Sighet Ghetto
Discussion Question
Do you agree with this statement? Why or why
not?
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's
indifference."
Chlomo Weisel
(Elie’s father)
Elie’s house
Family Portrait
Elie at
age 15
Elie
(Current Day)
Discussion Questions
1. Could something like this ever happen
again?
2. What would stop this from happening
again?
3. How is it more or less difficult to survive a
tragedy based on age?
4. What is the significance of sharing survival
stories?
Background to Night—Open Notes Quiz
1. Before WWII, Germany was crippled by what event?
2. What was the “final solution” a reference to?
3. Name 3 ways that Nazi’s gradually stripped Jews of their
rights.
4. True or False: Ghettos are where Jews were forced to
reside.
5. What did the sign above the entrance to Auschwitz say?
6. List and explain the three divisions of Auschwitz.
7. List three facts about Elie Wiesel’s life (other than that he
was a victim of the holocaust or sent to Auschwitz or
wrote Night)
8. When did Wiesel become a US citizen?
9. What is Wiesel’s son’s name?