Activator: K-W-L ChartINSTRUCTIONS: Create a K-W-L Chart on the topic of the Holocaust on your own piece of paper. Next, fill in the “What I Know” and “What I Want to Know” columns. Be prepared to share with the class.

The Holocaust

The HolocaustThe Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

Holocaust: Defined▪ The word “Holocaust”

comes from the Greek word “holokauston,” which means a destruction caused by fire or a burned sacrifice.

▪ Historically, the term “Holocaust” refers to a specific event in the twentieth century, which was a government-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933-1945.

How it Started

▪ After World War I ended in 1918, Germany was severely punished for its aggression during the war.▪ Germany fought on the side of the Central

Powers and lost to the Allies.

▪ The Treaty of Versailles so severely punished Germany, that the country couldn’t recover financially after the war.

▪ Military and political leaders of Germany blamed Germany’s struggles on liberal politicians, Communists, and Jews.

How it Started, cont.▪ The National Socialist

German Workers (NAZI) Party adopted a conservative ideology. Hitler joined in 1919, and was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

▪ Eventually, the Nazis merged Fascism with anti-Semitism.

▪ Fascists believed that only the strongest race would survive, giving the Nazis the idea of supremacy over the Jewish.

▪ Anti-Semitism is prejudice, hostility and discrimination against the Jews.

The Targets of the Nazis▪ Some people were undesirable by Nazi

standards, whether it be because of their genetic or cultural origins, health conditions, political or religious views, or lifestyle choices.

▪ Those who met Nazi standards were known as Aryans. They were said to have “pure” German blood.

▪ Below are some examples of those the Nazis targeted:▪ Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs.

▪ People with physical or mental disabilities

▪ Jehovah's Witnesses

▪ Homosexuals

▪ Communists, Socialists, and other political enemies

A Four Phase Operation▪ Phase 1 (1933-1939):▪ Regulation and Isolation

of German Jews

▪ Phase 2 (1939-1941):▪ Totalitarian regulation of

Polish Jews

▪ Phase 3 (1941-1943)▪ Direct killing by

Einsatzgruppen in USSR

▪ Phase 4 (1941-1945):▪ Bureaucratic killing

across occupied Europe

Phase 1 in 1933▪ February 1933▪ The Sturmabteilung

(SA)/Schutzstaffel (SS) police began to enforce the Nazi laws.

▪ March 1933▪ Concentration camps begin

opening throughout Germany. ▪ The Enabling Act is passed,

giving Hitler absolute power. ▪ April 1933▪ Nazis begin to boycott Jewish

businesses.▪ Non-Aryans are prohibited

from holding positions as teachers, government officials, etc.

▪ The number of Jewish students permitted to attend German public schools is limited.

▪ The secret state police (Gestapo) was created.

▪ May 1933▪ Mass amounts of “non-

German” books are burned. ▪ July 1933▪ Political parties are outlawed.

▪ September 1933▪ Jews are prohibited from land

ownership.▪ October 1933▪ Editorial Law passed which

enabled the Nazis to censor the press and publications.

Phase 1 in 1934 and 1935

▪ June 30, 1934-July 2, 1934▪ “Night of the Long

Knives”—series of political assassinations were carried out in order to eliminate those against the Nazi party.

▪ August 1934▪ Hitler becomes

Führer of Germany, basically making him a dictator.

▪ 1935

▪ The Nuremberg Laws

▪ The Reich Citizenship Law▪ Only Germans or those

with “German” blood (“Aryans”) could be citizens of the Reich.

▪ The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor▪ Ex: Prohibited marriages

and extramarital affairs between Jews and “Aryans”

Phase 1 from 1937-1939

▪ November 1937▪ A travelling

exhibition called External Jew Exhibit promoted stereotypes of Jews and Nazi perceptions of their danger to the world. 

▪ Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” occurs. These were deadly attacks by the SA on Jews, including their homes, businesses, etc.

▪ December 1938▪ All Jewish owned

businesses are taken over.

▪ March 1939▪ Nazis invade

Czechoslovakia.

▪ September 1939▪ Nazis invade Poland.▪ England and France

declare war on Germany.

▪ Soviet troops invade eastern Poland.

Phase 2

▪ September 21, 1939▪ Heinrich Heydrich, the

leader of the Gestapo and SS, orders “Ghettoization” of Polish Jews.

▪ Ghettos were sections of a city where Jews were forced to live, separate from all others.

▪ Throughout 1939, Polish Jews are subjected to the same systematic treatment that German Jews had previously.

Phase 3▪ June - December 1941▪ Germans invade USSR.

▪ July 2, 1941▪ Heydrich issues guidelines on executions

by Einsatzgruppen in USSR.

▪ Einsatzgruppen were squadrons responsible for mass killings of Jews, typically by shooting.

▪ September 3, 1941▪ Zyklon-B, a type of cyanide gas, is used

as agent of mass killing for the first time. It is used on Soviet prisoners of war.

▪ December 8, 1941▪ Chelmno Death Camp opened with the

sole purpose of exterminating Jews.

Phase 4

▪ January 1942▪ Killing of Jews at

Auschwitz Birkenau using Zyklon-B.

▪ March 1942▪ Belzec Death Camp

becomes operational.

▪ March 24, 1942▪ Slovak Jews to

Auschwitz.

▪ March 27, 1942▪ French Jews to

Auschwitz.

Concentration Camps

▪ A concentration camp is a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. 

▪ Well-known concentration camps▪ Auschwitz▪ The most infamous of all concentration camps.

▪ Buchenwald▪ Second largest concentration camp; mostly a work camp.

▪ Dachau▪ First concentration camp built, but the smallest; originally

built to house political prisoners.

Concentration Camp Liberation

▪ Beginning in early 1945, as they marched through German territories, the Allied troops liberated the Jews who were still alive in the concentration camps.

▪ The Soviet and American forces who encountered these camps were appalled at what they found—millions dead and thousands starving.

Summarizer: K-W-L ChartINSTRUCTIONS: Finish your K-W-L Chart on the topic of the Holocaust by filling in the “What I Learned” column.

The Holocaust