Holocaust 1933-1945

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Holocaust1933-1945
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Phase I 1933-1939

• 1933 - Hitler came to power and he had a plan
• Hitler wanted to create the perfect Aryan race
  blond hair, blue eyes, and of pure German blood.
  Nazis felt they were racially superior and they
  had to remove the inferior races.
• They saw Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped as a
  serious biological threat to the purity of the
  German (Aryan) Race or what they called the
  master race.
• Jews numbered around 500,000 in Germany which was
  less than 1 of the total population in 1933.
• Jews were the principal targets of Nazi hatred.
• Nazi propaganda unfairly blamed Jews for
  Germanys economic depression and the countrys
  defeat in WWI.

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Nuremberg Laws - 1935

• These laws stripped the Jews of their citizenship
  even though they retained limited rights.
• Anti-Jewish regulations segregated Jews further
  and made daily life very difficult for them.
• Jews could not
• -- attend public school
• -- go to theaters
• -- go to vacation resorts
• -- reside, or even walk, in certain sections of
  German cities
• Jewish businesses were also boycotted

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University of Vienna

• Nazis stand on the steps of a University of
  Vienna building protecting the school from
  Jews. Jews were eventually banned from positions
  of influence. Both Jewish professors and Jewish
  students were removed from universities in
  Nazi-occupied countries.

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Kristallnacht

• November 9 and 10, 1938 - night of broken glass
• Nazi-led attack on the Jews throughout Germany
  and Austria in revenge for the murder of a German
  diplomat by a Jewish refugee in Paris.
• The Nazis destroyed Jewish synagogues, businesses
  and Jewish homes.
• They arrested Jewish men and many were killed.
• First organized pogrom (riot) against the Jews
• Red Flag to the world that was missed.

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Boycott

• Jewish businesses were boycotted in order to
  drive them out of business. It only lasted a day
  and was largely ignored by German citizens. It
  did, however, lead to a limitation on the
  financial and cultural freedoms of the Jewish
  population.

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Kristallnacht

• The night of broken glass, named for the mass of
  broken glass due to the smashing of store front
  windows. This attack on all things Jewish took
  place throughout Germany and Austria.

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Sterilization

• Taking away the ability to reproduce.
• Nazis used this technique to improve the Aryan
  race they wanted to purify the race.
• 1933-1945 - Hitler wanted to reduce the number
  of inferiors through involuntary sterilization
  programs.
• Those with genetic disorders were judged inferior
  and subjected to the procedure.
• 400,000 Germans were sterilized.

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Groups Targeted by the Nazis

• The following groups were targeted by the Nazis
  because they did not fit the perfect Aryan
  standard or simply did not follow along
• Jews
• Gypsies
• political opponents
• traitors
• homosexuals
• Jehovahs Witnesses
• Communists
• undesirables or enemies of the state
• Between 1933 and 1939, about half the German
  Jewish population and more than two-thirds of
  Austrian Jews fled Nazi persecution emigrating to
  Palestine, the U.S., Latin America, China, and
  Western Europe (they would later be recaptured).
  Albert Einstein and Anne Frank were two Jews that
  fled.

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Star of David

• This Star of David badge was required to be worn
  by Jews in Germany.

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Phase II 1939-1945

• September 1, 1939 - Germany invaded Poland and
  WWII began
• Nazis began to destroy the Polish Army and
  eventually Polish culture they viewed Poles as
  subhuman.
• German soldiers carried out massacres against
  Polish leaders.
• To create new living space for the superior
  Germanic race, large segments of the Polish
  population were resettled and German families
  moved in. This is known as Lebensraum, or
  living space.
• Nazis kidnapped as many as 200,000 Polish
  children who had Aryan features they were
  then given to German families to learn Nazi ways.
• Because they did not have German blood they were
  sent to camps and eventually killed by
  starvation, lethal injection, and disease.

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Heinrich Himmler

• Himmler wanted to create a Nazi utopia in the
  Polish and Russian countryside. This meant that
  with the new Lebensraum, Nazis could move in and
  create a strictly Nazi society.

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Euthanasia - 1939

• Hitler ordered the involuntary killing or death
  of those deemed incurable they were mostly
  the mentally and physically handicapped.
• Majority of those killed were children parents
  were told they died of natural causes.

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Einsatzgruppen

• Mobile killing units 4 units dispatched into
  the Soviet Union following behind the army.
• 1941 - Germany invaded the Soviet Union Jews,
  political leaders, communists, and many Gypsies
  were killed in mass executions (the overwhelming
  majority were Jews).
• Victims were shot by Nazi soldiers and even local
  police forces and buried in mass graves.
• Babi Yar - September 29 and 30, 1941
• 33,000 people were murdered in two days time.
  Most victims were Jews.

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• Hitler did not like this technique
• Thought it was too slow
• Many members of the SS complained of how
  difficult it was on them to continue the pace of
  killing in such a way. They had to look their
  victims in the eye.

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Einsatzgruppen

• This photo was taken at a mass killing. Notice
  the Jewish man kneeling before the mass grave
  while a member of Einsatzgruppe D has a pistol
  aimed at his head. All 28,000 Jews in Vinnitsa,
  Ukraine were murdered in this way.

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Ghettos

• These were sectioned off parts of cities to keep
  Jews away from other citizens.
• Walls were built to keep them hidden they
  were forced to live in crowded, abandoned homes -
  many families living together with no heat and
  plumbing.
• Their food intake was restricted anyone caught
  smuggling food into the ghetto ran the risk of
  being shot on the spot.
• Starvation and disease was a serious problem that
  claimed many lives (tens of thousands).
• Warsaw and Lodz in Poland were the largest of the
  ghettos.

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• Jews tried to keep their culture alive while
  living under such harsh conditions.
• Ghettos provided a forced labor pool for the
  Germans, and many forced laborers died from
  exhaustion or maltreatment.

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Warsaw Ghetto

• This is a photo taken of a child dying of
  starvation on the Warsaw Ghetto streets. This
  was a common occurrence.

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Warsaw Round up

• Jews in ghettos across Europe were rounded up
  and sent by train to one of six death camps
  located in Nazi-occupied Poland after 1942.

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Final Solution

• January 20, 1942
• Wannsee Conference outside Berlin where 15
  Nazis met Hitler did not attend.
• Committee came up with the final solution to the
  Jewish problem.
• It became state policy to kill all Jews in Europe

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Deportations

• Between 1942 and 1944, the Germans moved to
  eliminate the ghettos in occupied Poland and
  elsewhere, deporting occupants to extermination
  camps
• Trains
• Jews and other potential victims were transported
  to the killing centers on trains in cattle cars
  trips could last for days.

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Deportations

• This is a map of the path of major deportation
  routes in Nazi-occupied territories. The victims
  were rounded up from ghettos and work camps
  across Europe and sent by train to one of six
  death camps, signified by a white square.

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Trains

• Jews were put onto cattle cars. One hundred
  people would be put into a car designed to carry
  much fewer. Many did not survive the trip.

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Killing Centers

• Death camps were set up with capabilities to kill
  thousands of Jews by gassing them.
• Six of these camps were created either from the
  ground up or out of camps that already existed.
  They are
• Belzec Chelmno
• Sobibor Majdanek
• Treblinka Auschwitz
• These sites were chosen due to the proximity to
  rail lines. They were all located in
  Nazi-occupied Poland.

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Auschwitz-Birkenau

• This is the infamous entrance to the largest of
  the six death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• The largest number of European Jews was killed at
  this camp during its operation.

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Auschwitz

• To many Jews, Auschwitz was synonymous with
  death.
• This camp served as a concentration camp and
  slave labor camp it eventually became the
  killing center where the largest numbers of
  European Jews and Gypsies were killed.
• More than 1.25 million were killed at Auschwitz
  9 out of 10 were Jews
• Auschwitz has three main camps. It measured
  4,695 acres in size, which is approximately 12
  square miles.

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The Process Death Camps

• The methods of murder were the same in all the
  killing centers, which were operated by the SS.
• The victims arrived in railroad cattle cars,
  mostly from Polish ghettos and camps, but also
  from almost every other eastern and western
  European country.
• selection on arrival, men were separated from
  women and children.
• Healthy men were used as workers while most of
  the women, children, and elderly were sent to the
  gas chambers.
• Prisoners were forced to undress and hand over
  all valuables.

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Selection

• This is a group of Jews from the country of
  Hungary. They are going through selection. Men
  were separated from women and children. If you
  were not selected for work you would be sent to
  your death in the gas chamber.

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Dr. Joseph Mengele

• Mengele was responsible for the terrible
  experiments conducted on prisoners at Auschwitz.
  He was particularly interested in twins, or
  zwilinge. He wanted to be able to create the
  Aryan race as quickly as possible.

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Work Force

• Prisoners would be spared the chamber if they
  were needed for work. The jobs they did kept the
  camp in operation. Notice all of their heads are
  shaved. They did this to cut down on lice and to
  take away their identity.

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• They were driven naked into the gas chambers,
  which were disguised as shower rooms, and either
  carbon monoxide or Zyklon B was used to
  asphyxiate (suffocate) them.
• The minority selected for forced labor were,
  after initial quarantine, vulnerable to
  malnutrition, exposure, disease, medical
  experiments, and brutality many died as a
  result.
• After the gassing, the bodies were removed and
  sent to the crematoriums or ovens the bodies
  were burned to hide the evidence and cut down on
  disease.
• The Nazi motto dispose of the body, use the
  byproduct

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• Nazis used as much as possible off of the
  victims bodies
• hair prostheses (artificial limbs)
• gold teeth eye glasses
• Bodies were also burned in mass graves and Jews
  were forced to fill these pits with fellow
  prisoners bodies.

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Nuremberg Trials

• The Allies expressed outrage at the horrors of
  the Holocaust and vowed to punish those
  responsible.
• Took place in Nuremberg, Germany
• 21 leading Nazis on trial for war crimes or
  crimes against humanity
• 11 received the death sentence
• 500,000 lesser Nazis received jail time and fines
• Individuals are ultimately responsible for their
  own actions, even in times of war.
• 6 million Jews and 12 million overall were killed
  by the Nazis.

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The Defendants

• Here are some of the defendants at the Nuremberg
  Trials. Hermann Goring and Rudolf Hess are seen
  first row, far left. Goring eventually killed
  himself before the Allies could put him to death.
  Many of them still defended Hitler and their
  actions.

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Bearing Witness

• Gen. Eisenhower and other U.S. military witness
  the reality of what the Nazis had done. This is
  one of many examples of how the Nazis tried to
  get rid of the bodies. They were stacked and
  burned.

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Liberation

• Scenes like this were playing out across Europe
  as the Allies discovered camp after camp. Now
  the real tragedy begins. These liberated
  prisoners are learning that the world no longer
  wants them and their families are most likely
  gone.