The Holocaust

• 1934-37: – Jews are no longer allowed National health insurance or

legal qualifications and are banned from teaching Germans, accounting, and dentistry.

– Hitler becomes Fuhrer: approval rating is 90%.– Jews are banned from serving in the military.– The German Gestapo is placed “above the law”.– Olympic Games take place in Berlin(Hitler is popular).

• 1938:– Kritstallnacht – Jews are issued identification cards.– Jewish doctors are no longer allowed to practice medicine.– Jewish people are forced to add Christian names to their

legal documents.– Nazis arrest Jews of Polish decent and deport them.

Timeline

• 1939:

– Nazis take all gold and silver from Jews.– Jews are given curfews and begin to be placed into ghettos.Unsanitary,

over– Jews are referred to as a “plague” in German newspapers.– Hitler makes proclamation about isolation of Jews.– Polish Jews are forced to wear yellow stars to identify themselves.

• 1940:

– Nazis build Auschwitz concentration camp.– German Jews are deported to Poland and France.

• 1941:

– First use of Zyklon-B gas in Auschwitz.• 1942:

– Jews from other countries begin being deported to Auschwitz.– New York Times reports that 100s of 1,000s of Jews have been gunned

down by Nazis. – Medical experiments begin at Auschwitz.– Britain recognizes Nazi goal to exterminate the Jewish people.

Timeline cont…

• 1943:– Nazis dig up bodies of over one million Jews that were killed and

burn the evidence.– First Jewish resistance at Concentration Camps-some actually

escape.– Gas chambers and crematories open at Auschwitz.– Dr. Mengele arrives at Auschwitz and begins performing

operations.• 1944:

– Roosevelt creates War Refugee Board and accuses Germany and Japan of “crimes against humanity”.

– Anne Frank and her family are arrested by Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz-where Anne dies.

– Nazis continue to gas Jews at Auschwitz and force others to run miles in winter weather.

• 1945:– Nazis conduct death marches of Concentration Camp inmates as

allies approach.– Russians Liberate Budapest, Warsaw, and Auschwitz.– Allies liberate Buchenwald and U.S. Army liberates Dachau.– Americans free 33,000 concentration camp inmates.– Germany signs unconditional surrender.

Timeline cont…

Jews Targeted• Anti-Semitism: hatred

of Jews– Christianity vs.

Judiasm

• Blamed for all of Germany’s problems– Economic and losing

WWI

• 1935, Nuremburg Laws: stripped Jews of citizenship, jobs and property

Kristallnacht

• “Night of broken glass.” – Nov. 9-10, 1938

• Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were destroyed across Germany

• Nazis blamed the Jews for the destruction.

Jewish Refugees

• Other European countries wouldn’t accept them.

• Britain would only take 80,000

• U.S. took 100,000– Refugees would

hinder Americans’ chances for a better life.

Hitler’s Final Solution• Heinrich Himmler: Head of the

Gestapo, Minister of the Interior

• Adolf Eichmann: Mastermind behind the deportation of European Jews to death camps

• Genocide: the deliberate and systematic killing of an entire population.

• Enemies of the state:

– Jews

– Gypsies

– Homosexuals

– Communists

– Catholics

– Mentally / physically disabled

Concentration Camps

• Jews were placed on RR cars and shipped off to camps in Poland, Germany and Austria.

• Families were separated

• Minimum food, 12 hour work days– Those who could not

keep up were shot.

The Final Stage

• Overwork, starvation, beatings, shootings = did not kill fast enough.– Solution: Gas

chambers– 12,000 died a day

The Final Solution• Crematoriums were

built to erase evidence.• Victims also subjected

to medical experiments: Dr. Josef Mengele– Diseases,sterilization

, freezing, altering eye color, sexual adaptations, shock treatment and amputations

Liberation• Nazis knew the Allies were

on their way to the camps– Continued to perform

mass killings• Allies liberated the first

camps July of 1944.– Soviets were the 1st to

get there– Let Jewish survivors

“have it out” w/Nazi guards

• Estimated 6 million Jews died

“We have all been lied to!”

• General Patton was the first Allied commander to force German citizens to visit the camps

• Horror / disbelief

The Rape of Nanking• Nanking = Capital of China• Chinese = Jews• 400,000 est. killed in 8 weeks• Methods:

– Be-heading competitions, Japanese ate Chinese flesh, burned alive, mass shootings

• 20,000 – 80,000 women raped– Girls as young as 8, women as

old as 80– Pregnant women were not safe– Incest

• Subjected to many horrors as in Europe.

Rape of Nanking

• No major trials for Japanese officials.

• Gen. MacArthur bargained w/silence in exchange for research on germ warfare and human biology.