1933-1945

What is the Holocaust?

• Holocaust - The destruction of some 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their followers in Europe between the years 1933-1945. – Other individuals and groups were persecuted

and suffered grievously during this period, but only the Jews were marked for complete and utter extinction.

What is Genocide?

• The Systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group.

• Some Past and Current Genocides:– The Holocaust– Soviet Ukraine– Cambodia– Rwanda– Yugoslavia– Darfur

Pyramid of Hate

• This pyramid shows how hate can escalate into something more than just discrimination but into extermination.

Elements Leading to the Holocaust

• Totalitarianism combined with Nationalism

• History of Anti-Semitism

• Defeat in World War I

• Hitler’s belief in the Master Race

Totalitarianism

• Centralized control by an autocratic authority and the political concept that the citizens should be totally subjected to an absolute state authority

Nationalism

• Loyalty and devotion to a nation; and a sense of national consciousness exalting ones nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.

Anti-Semitism

• Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.

Master Race

• Used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of Non-Jewish Caucasians usually having Nordic features. – Blond hair and Blue

eyes– Known as the Aryan

Race

Chart Showing the Races of Germany

Nuremberg Laws• Germany - 1935

• Defined who was a Jew

• Deprived Jews of political rights

Kristallnacht

• 1938 - Germany

• “Night of the Broken Glass”

• Organized violence against Jews throughout Germany and Austria

The fire department only made sure the fire did not spread to the building next to the synagogue

View of the interior of the Essenweinstrasse synagogue in Nuremberg following its destruction during Kristallnacht.

Ghettos

• 1939-45 - German occupied territories

• Small areas of a city where Jews were isolated

Einsatzgruppen

• 1941 - Poland and Russia

• Mobile Killing Squads

Final Solution

• Ghettos• Camps• Transportation• Gas Chambers• Crematories

Transportation

• Systematic Deportation• Boxcar

– 100+ people in one car– Doors were bolted shut– No place to sit down– Often people were

forced to pay for their transportation

– No food or water given.

Deportations

• 1939-1945 - Throughout Europe

• Movement of Jews to ghettos and then to camps

Jews board a deportation train at the railroad station in Würzburg.

Hundreds of Jews wait to board deportation trains at the railroad station in Würzburg. Their luggage and bed rolls are piled in the center of the platform.

Concentration Camps

• Types of Camps– Concentration/Labor– Extermination/Death

• Major Camps– Dauchau-Buchenwald– Auschwitz– Treblinkia– Bikenau

Camps

• 1939-1945 - Throughout Europe

• Different types: labor camps, concentration camps, and death camps

“Work makes one free”

Gas Chambers

• Many victims did not know of their death– Gas Chambers were

referred to as Baths/Showers

• Zyklon B – was used as a poison

• Millions of people came to their deaths.

Crematoriums

• Prisoners were forced to staff the crematoriums.

• Their job was to remove all valuables from the victims.