Transcript The Holocaust and World War II

The Holocaust
Historical Context
The Lead-Up to
World War II
 Germany defeated in WWI.
 Versailles treaty punished Germany for its
aggressions.
 The result: Demilitarization. (Japan and Italy
not included = not happy.)
 German economy collapses. Mass inflation.
Morale low.
Stacks of German Marks, which were practically
worthless due to hyper inflation
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
 Appointed Chancellor Jan. 30, 1933.
 Extremely charismatic.
◦ Articulated vision of a “better” Germany.
 Allied himself w/ Nazi (National Socialist) goals.
 Reichstag decree suspended basic civil rights of
German citizens (after Reichstag fire, heavy
suspicions of traitors).
 Became totalitarian police state.
 Persecution of minority groups intensifies.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party,
“Lebensraum”
 Used propaganda to spread goals of regime.
 Nazi party ideology guided by racist belief that Germans
were biologically “superior”.
 Main ideas came from American “eugenics”
movement.
 “Racially pure” German women were told to breed.
 Promoted “Lebensraum”—vision of vast new empire in
Eastern Europe.
(Introduction to the Holocaust)
The Eternal Jew: Propaganda portrayed
Jews as undesirable, evil, suspicious.
German children read an anti-Jewish propaganda book titled DER GIFTPILZ
( "The Poisonous Mushroom"). The girl on the left holds a companion
volume, the translated title of which is "Trust No Fox." Germany, ca. 1938.
Nuremburg Laws
• Anti-Jewish legislation.
• As early as 1920
• intended to separate Jews from the “Aryan”
population.
• From 1933-1940, over 400 decrees and
regulations restricted Jews from normalized
public life in Germany.
• Removed Jews from state government.
• Placed severe limitations on doctors, lawyers,
notaries, tax consultants and the like.
Sign excluding Jews from public places.
Nuremberg Laws, Cont’d.
• 1935: Jews prevented from Reich
citizenship.
• Prevented from having sexual relations w/
Germans.
• No right to vote; could not hold public
office.
• Led to a new wave of Anti-Semitism.
(ANTI-JEWISH LEGISLATION IN PREWAR GERMANY)
“Pogrom”
 Means “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently”.
 Anti-Semitism throughout Europe and Russia
had occurred for centuries.
◦ Raped, murdered Jewish victims.
◦ Destroyed property.
 Tens of thousands killed between 1918-1920.
 Even though Hitler denounced “disorder”
against population, acts still continued.
Kristallnacht
• “The Night of Broken Glass”
▫ Intensification of Anti-Semitic anger.
• Embassy official (Earnest Vom Rath)
assassinated by 17 year old Polish Jew on Nov. 7,
1938.
• November 9 and 10, 1938.
• A wave violent anti-Jewish pogroms.
• Refers to shards of broken glass from Jewish
businesses, synagogues, and homes destroyed.
• 267 synagogues; 7,500 businesses; 91 deaths.
• Cemeteries desecrated.
“Night of Broken Glass”, Cont’d.
• Joseph Goebbels Propaganda
Minister; SA and Hitler Youth,
instigated pogrom: "the Führer has
decided that … demonstrations
should not be prepared or organized
by the Party, but insofar as they erupt
spontaneously, they are not to be
hampered.“
Jewish Synagogue
“Night of Broken Glass”, Cont’d.
• Basically claimed as “retaliation” for
assassination.
• Jews blamed for pogroms.
• No insurance settlements were given.
• Owners made to pay for their own repairs.
(KRISTALLNACHT: A NATIONWIDE POGROM, NOVEMBER 9-10, 1938)
A Synagogue Destroyed, November 1938
World War II, Cont’d.
• 1939: Germany invades Poland.
• Britain and France declare war in response.
• Germany invades Norway and Denmark; neutral
countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands.
WW II, Cont’d.
• Invades France, Italy, Britain.
• Britain repels attack (1940).
• Germans conquer Baltic region (Greece)
1941.
• Germany breaks Soviet non-aggression pact.
• December 7, 1941 – Japan bombs Pearl
Harbor –US immediately declares war on
Japan.
• Germany and Italy declare war on US.
Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941
WW II Cont’d.
• Allied and Axis powers are at war.
• Next 3 years: systematic bombing by Allies
of German industrial plants.
• Germany invades N. Africa.
• D-Day: Massive military operation. (June
6, 1944)
▫ 150,000 soldiers land in France.
(World War II In Europe)
U.S. troops wade ashore at Normandy on D-Day, the beginning of
the Allied invasion of France to establish a second front against
German forces in Europe. Normandy, France, June 6, 1944.
The Holocaust: A Definition
• “holocaust”:
• A word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire”
• The Holocaust:
• the “systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of approximately six
million Jews by the Nazi regime and its
collaborators.”
(INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLOCAUST)
Targeted Groups
Groups seen as threat to German
community.
◦ Jews
◦ Roma (Gypsies)
◦ The disabled
◦ Some of the Slavic people (Poles,
Russians)
Targeted Groups, Cont’d.
 Some
groups persecuted on
behavioral, ideological, or political
grounds:
 Communists, Socialists, Jehova’s
Witnesses, homosexuals.
The Ghettos
• Date as far back as 1516 in Venice, Italy.
• Enclosed municipal districts in which Jews were
forced to live, separating them from non-Jewish
population.
• Miserable conditions: lack of food, medicine,
sanitary conditions.
• 1,000 ghettos in Germany alone.
• Placed in ghettos while Nazi party officials
decided a “solution” to the “Jewish problem”.
Sign in Riga ghetto, Latvia warns
inhabitants that they will be shot if they
attempt to cross the fence.
Warsaw Ghetto and Uprising
• 400,000 Jews lived in 1.3 square miles.
• Warsaw, Poland.
• Required to wear Jewish “badge”: Star of David
(part of Nuremburg decrees).
• Forced labor.
• Jewish police were forced to abide by German
authority orders –would be killed if not.
• Officials did not hesitate to murder any
perceived “threat”.
(Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)
Hungarian Jews with yellow stars, at the time of the
liberation of the Budapest ghetto. Hungary, January 1945.
Warsaw Ghetto, Cont’d.
•
•
•
•
July 22nd, November 12, 1942.
300,000 deported or murdered.
Only 35,000 granted permission to stay.
Resistance efforts: smuggling medicine, food,
weapons and intelligence across walls.
• Two armed resistance groups in ghetto worked
together to stop the destruction of the ghetto.
(750 fighters in total.)
German soldiers burn residential buildings to the ground, one by one,
during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943
.
Warsaw Ghetto and Uprising, Cont’d.
January 18, 1943.
Consequence: Halted deportations.
Few remained after. Most sent to
killing centers such as Treblinka.
Deportation from Warsaw in Cattle Trains
Deportation from Lodz Ghetto to Chelmno
Extermination Camp
Extermination Camps
Final measure taken to rid Germany of its
Jewish population.
Called the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish
Question”
Established killing centers:
◦ Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka
(Ghettos)
Nazi Extermination Camps in Europe
View of Gurs Camp from Water Tower
View of Auschwitz Camp
Extermination Camps, Cont’d.
• Auschwitz-Birkenau = Main killing center.
▫ Approximately 1,000,000 Jewish dead
• Asphyxiation w/ gas or by shooting
• Jewish population prior to war: 9,000,000.
▫ After war – loss of 3,000,000.
(Killing Centers)
Former prisoners of Wöbbelin, a subcamp of
Neuengamme, are taken to a hospital for medical
attention. Germany, May 4, 1945.
Suitcases that belonged to people deported to the Auschwitz camp.
This photograph was taken after Soviet forces liberated the camp.
Auschwitz, Poland, after January 1945.
One of many piles of ashes and bones found by U.S.
Dr. Fritz Klein, a former camp doctor who conducted
medical experiments on prisoners, stands among corpses
in a mass grave. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15,
1945.
Death Marches
 Rapid Soviet and Allied advance forces Nazis to
order evacuation of camps to interior of Reich.
 SS guards begin “death marches” to eliminate
remaining Jews and move further away from the
front.
 Mostly done by foot; some train, boat.
 Strict orders to kill prisoners who could not walk or
travel.
 3 purposes
◦ Prevent prisoners from telling stories of what occurred
in camps.
◦ Thought they needed prisoners to maintain
manufacturing of armaments.
◦ SS leaders believed they could use prisoners as
“hostages” to guarantee survival of Nazi regime.
(Death Marches)
Prisoners on a Death March from Dachau
End of the War
1945:
 Allies liberate concentration camps.
May 7, 1945:
 German forces surrender unconditionally.
Survivors moved to displaced persons
camps throughout Europe.
Nazi officials prosecuted in Nuremburg
Trials.
Hitler commits suicide. (April 30, 1945)
The defendants rise as the judges enter the courtroom at
the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at
Nuremberg.
Work Cited
“Holocaust Encyclopedia”. Various Articles.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 25
Nov. 2011. Web. 6 Jan. 2011. USHMM.org.