The Holocaust

Vocabulary
Anti-Semitism - Prejudices toward
Jews or discrimination against them.
Genocide - Deliberate, systematic
destruction of a racial, cultural, or
political group.
Scapegoat - Person or group of
persons unfairly blamed for wrongs
done by others.

Pre-War
Approximately 11
million Jews in
Europe
Poland and the
Soviet Union had
the largest Jewish
populations
Jews very
assimilated:
farmers, factory
workers, business
people, doctors,
teachers, and

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

Germanys defeat in WWI
Blamed the German Foreign Minister (a
Jew) for his role in reaching a settlement

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 antiSemitism as a tool - portray Jews as a
race instead of a religion.

Totalitarian State
Totalitarianism is the total control of a
country in the governments hands:
It subjugates the individuals rights.
It demonstrates a policy of aggression.
In a totalitarian state, paranoia and fear
dominate.
The government maintains total control
over the culture.

The Holocaust was a

progression of
actions
leading to the
annihilation of
millions by:

1: Stripping of
Rights
2:
Segregation
3:
Concentration

The Stages of
Isolation

Persecution
April 1933
eliminated from civil service
social security eliminated
quotas in schools

September 15, 1935 - Nazis passed

Nuremberg Laws:
Stripped Jews of their German
citizenship.
Prohibited from marrying or having
sexual relations with persons of
German or related blood.

Stage
1:
Stripping
of
Rights
1935: Nuremberg Laws
stated that all JEWS
were :

stripped of German
citizenship
fired from jobs &
businesses boycotted
banned from German
schools and
universities
Marriages between
Jews and Aryans
forbidden
Forced to carry ID
cards
Passports stamped
with a J
forced to wear the arm
band of the Yellow
Star of David

Stage 2: Segregation
GHETTOS

Jews were forced to live

in designated areas
called ghettos to
isolate them from the
rest of society
Nazis established 356
ghettos in Poland, the
Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia, Romania,
and Hungary during WWII
Ghettos were filthy, with
poor sanitation and
extreme overcrowding
Disease was rampant and
food was in such short
supply that many slowly
starved to death

Stage 3: Concentration
Camps

essential to Nazis systematic oppression

and eventual mass murder of enemies of
Nazi Germany (Jews, Communists,
homosexuals, opponents)
Slave labor annihilation by work
Prisoners faced undernourishment and
starvation
Prisoners transported in cattle freight
cars

Life in the
Camps possessions

were
confiscated
heads were
shaved
arms tattooed
Prison uniforms
Men, women
and children
were separated
Survival based
on trade skills /
physical
strength
Unsanitary,
disease ridden
and lice
infested
barracks

Stage 4: Extermination
Einsatzgruppen
(mobile killing
units) had began
killing operations
aimed at entire
Jewish
communities in the
1930s
DEATH FACTORIES:
Nazi extermination
camps fulfilled the
singular function of
mass murder
Euthanasia
program: Nazi
policy to eliminate
life unworthy of

Persecution
The Jewish
Question evolved in
three steps:
1. Expulsion:
Get them out of
Europe
2.
Containment:
Confine in one place
Ghettos
3. Final
Solution:
annihilation
Other Groups
Targeted:

Gypsies (Sinti and

Roma)

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.

Kristallnacht
Night of the
Broken Glass
November 910,1938
Anti-Jewish
rampage in
Germany:
Burnings, arrests
and beatings

Nazis attacked
synagogues,

Anti-Semitism Propaganda
Nazi teachers began to apply the
principles of racial science by
measuring skull size and nose
length and recording students eye
color and hair to determine whether
students belonged to the Aryan
race.
The Nazis used propaganda to
promote their anti-Semitic ideas.
One such book was the childrens book,
The Poisonous Mushroom.

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

Einsatzgruppen

Wannsee Conference
On January, 20, 1942,
headed by Himmler, head
Nazis met in Berlin to
coordinate the FINAL
SOLUTION
Used secret language in
discussing plan
"...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

Where were the Death Camps

built?
The work of the
Einsatzgruppen

Why do you think that they located them here?

Children Dying of
Starvation in the Warsaw
Ghetto

SS Tactics:
Dehumanisation
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 usually children.

Entrance to Auschwitz

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

Auschwitz Orchestra

Auschwitz from the air

Notice how the Death
camp is set out 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

Processing the bodies

Specially selected
Jews known as the
sonderkommando
were used to to
remove the gold
fillings and hair of
people who had
been gassed.
The
Sonderkommando
Jews were also
forced to feed the

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.

Nazis confiscated property of

prisoners in storerooms nicknamed
Kanada because the sheer amount
of loot stored there was associated

Destruction Through Work

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you
could quite literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding
them 200 calories a day

Destruction Through Work

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later

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.