The Holocaust

The Holocaust

•The systemic murder of European Jews & Undesirables by Nazis

•About 6 million Jews were killed by the end of WWII

Undesirables5 to 6 million others were killed:

• Homeless

• Gypsies

• Homosexuals

• Physically / mentally handicapped

• Political dissenters

Mid 1800s

• Theories developed that Aryans were superior to Middle Eastern people

• While many rejected these views, some used them to justify persecution

Anti-Semitism•Is the prejudice, discrimination, and hatred of Jews as a national, ethnic, religious, or racial group

Nazi Policy• 1933: when Nazi party took

control of German’s government, anti-Semitism became the official policy of the nation

The Nazi Party in Power

• SA: in charge of silencing opposition and eliminating “enemies of the party”

The Nazi Party in Power• SS: elite guard that served as

the Nazi party’s private army

responsible for all matters of responsible for all matters of security and racial policy security and racial policy

within Germany.within Germany.In addition to controlling the In addition to controlling the

police, the SS developed, police, the SS developed, administered and controlled administered and controlled the Nazi concentration camp the Nazi concentration camp

systemsystem

The Nazi Party in Power • Gestapo: Secret state police that

identified & pursued those who did not follow the Nazi laws

Prior to the war, they Prior to the war, they wore plain clothes and wore plain clothes and were tasked with spying were tasked with spying and rooting out enemies and rooting out enemies

of the state!of the state!

The Nazis take Action

• Germans were encouraged to stop going to Jewish businesses

• Nazi propaganda works to create a negative image of the Jewish population

“Here my little one, you get

something very sweet, but as

reward you both must come with

me.”

“Whenever you see a crucifix,

think of the horrible

murder of Jesus by the

Jews.”

Nuremburg Laws• Passed 1935

• Strip Jewish Germans of their citizenship

Nuremburg Laws (cont.)

• Forbid marriage between Jews and non-Jews

• Jewish doctors banned from treating non-Jews

The white circles denote ‘German blood’, the black circles JewishThe white circles denote ‘German blood’, the black circles Jewish

Everyone categorized as fully Jewish was stripped of their German Everyone categorized as fully Jewish was stripped of their German citizenship, disenfranchised, and forbidden to marry or to have sexual citizenship, disenfranchised, and forbidden to marry or to have sexual

relations with Aryan Germans relations with Aryan Germans (gypsies and people of black ethnicity were treated by the same (gypsies and people of black ethnicity were treated by the same rules as Jews). rules as Jews).

Mischlings (part Jewish) were stripped of many of their rights and often Mischlings (part Jewish) were stripped of many of their rights and often denied job opportunities.denied job opportunities.

What the Nazis did:

• Required all Germans to carry an identity card

• Jews had a red letter “J”

• All given new middle names”• Sarah for women

• Israel for men

• In 1938, the Nazi attack on

the Jews changed and became more

violent

• Kristallnacht on 11th November

1938.

• By 1939, half of Germany’s

500,000 Jews had emigrated to

escape Nazi persecution.

KristallnachtKristallnacht

Kristallnacht (“Night of the Broken Glass”)

• November 9-10, 1939

Trying to Escape

• 1933-37: about 130,000 Jews fled Germany

• Encouraged by Nazis to leave because it helped to achieve their plan

• Originally went to other European countries

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.

Change of Tactics:

• Heinrich Himmler sent four specially trained SS units into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews.

• Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and shot.

• When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers.

Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen

The ‘Final Solution’

• In January 1942, Himmler decided to change tactics once again and called a special conference at Wannsee.

• Decided that the methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary.

Wannsee Conference

How was the Final Solution going to

be organised?

Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war

effort

Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes

The Jews living in these Ghettos were to

be used as a cheap source of labour.

Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many

die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the

hope of better conditions

On arrival the Jews would go through a

process called ‘selection.’

The remaining Jews were to be

shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the

East.

Women, children, the old & the sick were to

be sent for ‘special treatment.’

The young and fit would go through a process called

‘destruction through work.’

How did the Nazi decide who was Jewish?

• If one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish.

• If 3 of your grandparent’s were Jewish, you were Jewish

• It wasn’t about religion anymore, it was about race

• By 1940, all Jews had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat.

Where were the Death Camps Where were the Death Camps built?built?

Why do you think that they located them here?

The work of the Einsatzgruppen

What tactics did the Nazis use to get the

Jews to leave the Ghettos?

Tactics

Starvation

The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were

only fed a 1000 calories a day .

A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight

Terror

The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for

any act of resistance

Deception

The Jews were told that they were going

to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.

In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their

own train tickets.

They were told to bring the tools of their

trade and pots and pans.

Hungry people are easier to control

New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to

send to their friends.

Children Dying of Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto

Liquidating the Ghettoes• The Jews were transported in cattle

cars in terrible conditions to the camps.

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

Tactics: What happened to new arrivals?

Deception & Selection

At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station.

The Jews were helped off the cattle trucks by Jews who

were specially selected to help the

Nazis

At some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm

down the new arrivals.

At Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed

down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music.

All new arrivals went through a process

known as ‘selection.’

Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent

straight to the ‘showers’ which were

really the gas chambers.

The able bodied were sent to work camp

were they were killed through a process

known as ‘destruction through work.’

Entrance to Auschwitz

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

Auschwitz Orchestra

Map of Auschwitz

New Arrivals

‘Destruction Through Work’

‘Showers’

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 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 Gas Chambers

The outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the Ovens easy located near the Gas Chambers

Processing the bodies

• Specially selected Jews were used to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed.

• They were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

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.

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

Barrier at end of the line – still

remains

Shoemakers Shop

Medical Experiments - 1941• Medical experiments on prisoners • Involving viruses and contagious

diseases such as typhus • In 1944, began a series of

experiments that would "cure" homosexual inmates.

Those who escaped immediate death

• Men and women had their heads shaved

• Registration number tattooed on their arm

• Given only one set of clothes

• Held in crowded, unheated barracks

• Food was a thin, foul-tasting soup made of rotten vegetables

Was the Final Solution successful?

• The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in 1941

• Today there are only 2000 Jews living in Poland.

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

• Some Germans helped Jews escape.

• In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realised what was really happening.

The End

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

• Excerpts from an interview with Alexander Aronowicz (Sasha) Pechersky Leader of the Sobibor revoltSoviet Union, 1980

• In the beginning the communication was difficult, because the language problem.

• Soon we were able to understand each other without help. I informed her minutes before the escape of the plan. She has given me a shirt. She said, "it's a good luck shirt, put it on right now", and I did. It's now in the museum. I lost her in the turmoil of the revolt and never saw her again.

• Luka perished either in the break-out from the camp or in the forest, her fate has never been factually established, Pechersky tried to find her in the forest without success.

Sobibor survivors Toivi Blatt and Sasha

Pechersky (right)