Transcript The Holocaust

World War II
The Holocaust
and the Defeat
of Germany
The Holocaust
= Nazi systematic slaughter of
“impure undesirables” including
Jews
►1933 – 9 million Jews in Europe
►Jewish bankers – blamed for
European Depression
►
►The
Final Solution to the Jewish
Question = Annihilate the Jews
Steps of the Final Solution
►1.
Anti-Jewish legislation –
removed Jews from Germany
society
►2. Establish Concentration Camps
►3. Establishment of Ghettos in
Poland
►4. Mobile killing squads – SS and
SD
►5. Six Extermination Camps
Military Executions
Special death squads follow behind
the front – killing Jews, gypsies, and
communists in the area
Einsatzgruppen – mobile killing
units
 Used shootings and mobile gas units
 Killed over 1 million Jewish men,
women and children

►Jews
Ghettos
were forced to live in walled
off parts of cities in misery
►Densely populated areas
 Warsaw – 400,000 ppl in 1.3 sq. mi
►Wear
identifying arm patch
►Often work in forced labor
►Jews received little food or
supplies (253 calories/day)
Concentration Camps &
Genocide
►=
Genocide
The deliberate annihilation of
an entire people
►1941 Germans began constructing
concentration camps to perform
“the final solution”
►Move Jews from Ghettos to labor
camps and killing centers
throughout Europe
The Death Camps
►Chelmno,
Belzec, Sobibor,
Treblinka, Majdanek, and
Auschwitz-Birkenau
►Jewish men, women, & children
were transported to the camps in
sealed railroad cars
►Many immediately killed in gas
chambers
►Bodies cremated in ovens
The Death Camps
►Others
faced forced labor in the
camps
►Josef Mengele – infamous doctor at
Aushwitz – chose who lived
 “Angel of Death” – collected eyes
►Human experiments performed
 Freezing, drug testing, sterilization,
disease studies
The Death Camps
►Death
Marches – at end of war to
avoid allied liberation of Jews
►Around 6 million Jews died in the
camps – 2/3 of pop.
►6 million Poles, mentally disabled
people, and political & religious
prisoners also died
How Could The
Holocaust Happen?
►Nazi’s
took advantage of the long
history of anti-Semitism in Europe
►Nazi’s
flooded Europe with anti-Semitic
propaganda stirring up hatred
►This
hatred caused non-Jews to assist
the Nazi’s or look the other way
The Defeat of Germany
The Yalta Conference
Yalta
►The
Crimean Peninsula in the
Ukraine
►The Big 3 –
 Stalin – Soviet Union
 FDR – US
 Churchill – Great Britain
►Purpose - To plan for postwar
peace following the defeat of Hitler
Agreements Reached
1. Stalin pledged to declare war on
Japan three months after the
surrender of Germany
2. All agreed to divide Germany &
Berlin following the war
3. Outlined plans for a new
international peace organization
Roosevelt Win’s
►The
th
4
Term
war convinced FDR to run for
his 4th term
►Won easily with Harry Truman as
his running mate
The Allies Reach Berlin
The Race To Berlin
►March
►The
1945
Allies crossed the Rhine River
into the heart of Germany
►The Soviets occupied most of Eastern
Europe
►Gen. Eisenhower allows Russians to
take Berlin
►Hitler orders Berlin defended to last
man – fighting street to street
Berlin Falls
►April
30, 1945
 Hitler commits suicide in his bunker
under Berlin
►May
8, 1945
 V-E Day (Victory in Europe)