The Holocaust. Part I: The Beginning Stages Vocabulary Anti-Semitism - Prejudices toward Jews or...

The Holocaust

The Holocaust

Part I: The Beginning Stages

Vocabulary

• Anti-Semitism - Prejudices toward Jews or discrimination against them.

• Genocide -Planned, systematic destruction of a racial, cultural, or political group.

Pre-War

• Approximately 11 million Jewish people in Europe

• Poland and the Soviet Union had the largest Jewish populations

• Jewish were: farmers, factory workers, business people, doctors, teachers, craftsmen, etc.

Jewish community of Sighet, Romania in front of a wooden synagogue.

Germany blames Jews for Post WW1 problems

• Post WWI Blues– Many Germans upset over the loss (Hurt Pride)– Upset about Reparations – German Army is limited in size– Germany falls to extreme depression.

• Extremists blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI– Blamed the German Foreign Minister (a Jew) for his

role in reaching a settlement with the Allies.

Anti-Semitism• For 2,000 yrs Jews have suffered discrimination

and used as scapegoats.– people blamed Jews for the “Black Death” during

Middle Ages

• Hitler idolized Austrian mayor (Karl Lueger) who used anti-Semitism in his political campaign.

• Political leaders who used anti-Semitism as a tool - portray Jews as a race instead of a religion.

Totalitarian State• Totalitarianism is the total control of a country in

the government’s hands:

– It subjugates the individual’s rights.

– It demonstrates a policy of aggression.

– In a totalitarian state, paranoia and fear dominate.

– The government maintains total control over the culture.

– The government is capable of indiscriminate killing.

Why do you think Germany is a prime country for doing

something like the Holocaust?

Think of what you know about Germany and characteristics of a

Totalitarian State

Think - Pair - Share

Persecution• The “Jewish Question”

evolved in three steps: 1. Expulsion: Get

them out of Europe2. Containment:

Confine in one place —Ghettos

3. “Final Solution”: annihilation

• Other Groups Targeted:– Gypsies (Sinti and Roma)– Jehovah’s Witness– Handicapped Germans– Poles– Political Dissidents

Helene Gotthold, a Jehovah's Witness, was beheaded for her religious beliefs on December 8, 1944, in Berlin. She is pictured with her children in 1936.

Ghetto Differences

Children Dying of Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto

Part II: The Holocaust: The Final Solution

Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an

estimated 11 million persons.

Prelude to the Final Solution• In 1939, Germany

invaded Poland which had a much larger population of 3 million Jews.

• In 1941, Germany invaded Russia which had a population of 5 million Jews.

Final Solution• Himmler established specially trained SS units

called “Einsatzgruppen” to shoot Jews.

• Attempted to kill Jews by having them dig their own graves and then stand in front of grave and be shot.

• Inefficient– Too Long, Needed Bullets for war

• Wannsee Conference to determine a more effective way

Wannsee Conference• On January, 20, 1942, headed by

Himmler, head Nazis met in Berlin to coordinate the “FINAL SOLUTION”

• "...eliminated by natural causes," refers to death by a combination of hard labor and starvation.

• "treated accordingly“, "special treatment" and "special actions" refers to execution by SS firing squads or death by gassing

Final Solution

• Jews to be rounded up, go through process of selection

• Healthy Jews Labor camps – Death through over work and starvation

• Too Young, Too Old, Mothers of young, or unhealthy Death Camps

SS Tactics: Dehumanization• The SS guards who murdered the Jews were

brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda.

• The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions.

• Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda.

• The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims.

Entrance to Auschwitz

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

Living in the Camp

Working in the camp Camp inmates were required to dig the graves for dead bodies

Auschwitz from the airNotice how the Death camp is set up like a

factory complex

The Nazis used industrial methods to murder the Jews and

process their dead bodies

The Gas Chambers• The Nazis would force

large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof.

• These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses.

The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber

The outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the Ovens easily located near the Gas Chambers

The Ovens at Dachau

Dead bodies waiting to be processed

Shoes waiting to be processed by the sonderkommando

Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand

pairs.

Was the Final Solution successful?

• The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews

• Today there are only 2000 Jews living in Poland.

• The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews.

The Holocaust

To What Extent did the World Know?

Evil is when a few good men decide to do nothing.

U.S. and World Response• Evian Conference - summer of 1938 in Evian, France.

– 32 countries met to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees who were trying to leave Germany and Austria.

– Despite voicing feelings of sympathy, most countries made excuses for not accepting more refugees.

• Some US congressmen proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill – let 20,000 endangered Jewish refugee children into the country– bill was not supported in the Senate.

• Anti-Semitic attitudes played a role in the failure to help refugees.

• The SS St. Louis, carrying refugees with Cuban visas, were denied admittance both in Cuba and in Florida. After being turned back to Europe, most of the passengers perished in the Holocaust.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Troy Middleton, commanding general of the XVIII Corps, Third US Army, tour the newly liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 12, 1945.

Death Camp Video

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O5-4uCU3T4