The Holocaust

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The Holocaust

• Chapter 32, Section 3

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Introduction

• As part of their vision for Europe, the Nazis
  proposed a new racial order.
• They proclaimed that the Germanic peoples, or
  Aryans, were a master race. (a misuse of the
  term Aryan, which actually refers to the
  Indo-European peoples who began to migrate into
  the Indian subcontinent around 1500 B.C.)
• The Nazis claimed that all non-Aryan peoples,
  particularly Jewish people, were inferior.
• This racist message would eventually lead to the
  Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of Jews
  and other groups judged inferior by the Nazis.

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The Holocaust Begins

• Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jews
  that had deep roots in European history.
• Jews as scapegoats for
• personal failures.
• Germanys defeat in World War I
• Targeting Jews government policy
• 1935 Nuremberg Laws made it illegal to marry a
  Jew. Other laws limited the work of Jews.

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Night of Broken Glass

• On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan
  (pictured) a Jewish youth from Germany, shot a
  German diplomat living in Paris to avenge his
  fathers deportation to Poland.
• November 9, 1938 In retaliation Nazi leaders in
  Germany launched a violent attack on the Jewish
  community on November 9, 1938. This attack was
  carried out by the SA (storm troopers) and SS,
  who attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and
  synagogues. This night was called Kristallnacht.

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Burning Synagogue on Kristallnacht
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Did you know?

• Kristallnacht was not just staged without
  planning, but served a specific purpose in Nazi
  policy toward the Jews. The SA was under strict
  orders to confiscate any firearms owned by Jews
  when ransacking Jewish homes and businesses. This
  would prevent any significant armed resistance
  to Nazi policies in the future.

This picture is typical of the smashed windows of
Jewish businesses on Kristallnacht.
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A Flood of Refugees

• By the end of 1939, a number of German Jews had
  fled to other countries.
• At first, Hitler favored emigration as a solution
  to what he called the Jewish problem.
• After admitting tens of thousands of Jewish
  refugees, France, Britain, and the United States
  abruptly closed their doors to further
  immigration.

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Isolating the Jews

• Hitler then ordered Jews in all countries under
  his control to be moved to designated cities
  called ghettos.
• After 1941, all Jews in German controlled areas
  had to wear a yellow Star of David patch
  (pictured).

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The Final Solution

• Hitlers plan called the Final Solution was a
  genocide plan to systematically kill an entire
  people.
• Hitler wanted to purify the Aryan race.
• He tried to eliminate other groups he viewed as
  subhuman.
• Roma (gypsies), Poles, Russians
• the insane
• the disabled
• the incurably ill

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The Killings Begin

• As the Nazis moved across Europe the SS killing
  squads rounded up men, women, children, and even
  babies and shot them in pits where they were
  buried.
• Other Jews were rounded up and herded into
  concentration camps where they were slave labor.
• Inmates would work seven days a week for the SS
  or for German businesses. Food consisted of thin
  soup, scraps of bread, and potato peelings. Most
  inmates lost 50 lbs quickly.

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The Final Stage

• In 1942 the Germans built huge exterminations
  camps equipped with gas chambers that could kill
  as many as 6,000 people in a day.
• Committees of Nazi doctors separated the strong
  (mostly men) from the weak (women, children, and
  elderly). The weak went to their deaths in the
  gas chambers usually that day.
• The victims were told to undress and head into
  the gas chambers under the guise they were taking
  showers. Cyanide gas from Zyklon B granules came
  through the fake showerheads.

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Empty Zyklon B canisters found by the Allies at
Auschwitz at the end of World War II
Zyklon B granules on display at Auschwitz
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Auschwitz Death Camp, Poland

• Except for the picture on this slide, all other
  Auschwitz pictures are by Elisabeth Yankey taken
  in 2001.

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This wheeled table helped transport the bodies of
the gassed victims to the ovens for cremation.
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This mechanism rotated the table upon which the
bodies of the gassed victims were transferred to
the ovens for cremation.
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There was once a building standing here, but this
is the area where the Nazis themselves burned
this building down to attempt to destroy evidence
of the death camps.
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inmate barracks
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These are burned down barracks where the Nazis
again tried to destroy evidence of atrocities in
the Auschwitz camp.
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Jews Killed Under Nazi Rule
Original Jewish Population Jews Killed Percent Surviving
Poland 3,300,000 2,800,000 15
Soviet Union (area occupied by Germans) 2,100,000 1,500,000 29
Hungary 404,000 200,000 49
Romania 850,000 425,000 50
Germany/Austria 270,000 210,000 22
Estimates Source Hannah Vogt, The Burden of
Guilt
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The Survivors

• About six million European Jews were killed
  during the Holocaust.
• Less than four million European Jews survived.
• Some Jews were helped by non-Jews who risked
  there lives, hid Jews in their homes, and helped
  them escape to neutral countries. One such family
  was the Ten Boom family of Harlem in the
  Netherlands. The book and film The Hiding Place
  tells this story.

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• Apokaluptetai gar orgh