The Holocaust Chapter 18, Section 3

Anti-Semitism prejudice against semites (jews) that grew in the 1800’s in Europe by WWI most laws agains Jewish people had been repealed the mass suffering of WWI, especially in Germany, lead many people to look for someone to blame and the Jewish people again became a target

Why? There are many theories as to why Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI pure racism (even from other countries toward Jews) many Jews were educated and successful and held money; all things Hitler wanted but did not have he had been rejected several times by Jewish professors at universities he believed that he could unite Germany in a hatred of Jews

Holocaust When Hitler came to power in 1933, he made anti-semitism an official policy of Germany the Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of European Jews around 6 million Jews, about 2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population, were killed 5-6 million others also died in Nazi captivity

Nazi Policies early policies aimed to exclude Jews from German life April, 1933: the Nazis announced a one day boycott of all Jewish owned businesses 1935: Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship and made marriage between Jews and non-Jews illegal Nazi controlled media used propaganda that painted Jews as enemies of Germany

More policies... in 1938, Jews were forced to surrender their businesses to Aryans (?) for a fraction of their value Jewish doctors and lawyers were forbidden to practice on non-Jews and Jewish students were expelled from public schools

Who is a Jew? a Jew was defined as anyone who had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents regardless of their current religion a person who had 2 Jewish grandparents and practiced Judaism was also a Jew

Identification at the request of Switzerland, the destination of many refugees, Germany marked Jewish passports with a red letter “J” the Nazis also gave Jewish people the same middle names on all documents; Sarah for women and Israel for men Eventually, Jews in Germany and all occupied nations were forced to wear the yellow star (?) that identified them automatically as Jewish

Jewish Passport

Star of David for Clothing

Schutzstaffel (SS) the Gestapo was Hitler’s police force that identified and persecuted enemies of the Nazi regime the SS was an elite guard that developed into the private army of the Nazi party and by 1939 the Gestapo became part of the SS the SS guarded the concentration camps and rounded up “undesirables” (Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies and the homeless)

Gestapo

SS Officers

Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938 Many Jewish people had still believed that it was easier to just stay and be persecuted than leaving and starting over Optimism ended when Nazis broke the windows of Jewish shops and destroyed all the synagogues Thousands of Jews were blamed for the destruction and were shipped off to concentration camps

Kristallnacht

A Synagogue after Kristallnacht

The Evian Conference from 1933 to 1937 about 130,000 Jews fled Germany (1 in 4) most refugees moved to neighboring european nations few countries welcomed Jewish refugees due to the depression in July of 1938, FDR called an international conference to address the growing number of refugees; the only nation that agreed to take them in was the Dominican Republic

Real Trouble... as Germany overran europe, more and more Jews (many who fled Germany) came under Nazi control The invasion of Poland in 1939 brought 2 million Jews under Nazi control This was a lot of people for the Nazis to manage so they had to come up with some solutions..

Ghettos the Nazis started to contain the Jews in fenced in areas that were patrolled by armed guards in the Warsaw Ghetto (Poland) more than 400,000 Jews (30% of the population) were forced to live in 3% of the space there was little food and no sanitation; people starved and diseases were widespread

Warsaw Ghetto

Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads who were ordered by Hitler to shoot all communists and Jews in German occupied territory they typically rounded up their victims and drove them into gullies or ditches and shot them in a ravine called Babi Yar outside Kiev, the Nazis killed more than 33,000 Jews in 2 days

Einsatzgruppen

Wannsee Conference Hitler found mass murder unsuitable for the occupied nations because it was not a war zone Nazi officials met in January of 1942 to come up with a “final solution” they came up with the plan of death camps and gas chambers to carry out genocide (?) on the Jews

Outside a Gas Chamber

Death Camps Zyklon B (a pesticide) was used in gas chambers and was deemed to be the most effective way to kill people death camps existed for murder, unlike labor/concentration camps There were 6 death camps with gas chambers in Poland and Auschwitz was the largest

Map of Nazi Camps

Auschwitz

Gate to Auschwitz

Transport Jews outside of Poland were herded into cattle cars and transported to the camps most women and children, the elderly and those who looked to weak for work were killed immediately Jewish prisoners took the bodies to huge ovens/crematoria to dispose of them

Jewish Children in Transport

Transport to Treblinka

Jewish Prisoner Tattoo

Work... those sent to work camps endured horrible conditions (lack of food, lack of shelter, diseases, harsh treatment and abuse) selections took place periodically to get rid of the weak and those who were unable to work

Efficiency at Auschwitz, the main death camp, 12,000 victims could be gassed and cremated in a single day as many as 1.5 million people were killed there and 90% of them were Jewish

Auschwitz Crematoria

Medical Experiments Dr. Mengele was in charge of medicine in the camps and he used the inmates (mostly Jews) to experiment on Although the experiments were often horrible and made no medical gains, many did contribute to the medical science we benefit from today

Examples of Nazi Medical Experiments injecting chemicals into patients eyes to make them blue twin studies (torturing one to see if the other felt it, injection of diseases, etc.) most treatments lasted about 4 weeks and then you were killed sterilization and castration experiments experiments on the mentally and physically disabled amputations and organ transplants

more science... vivisections on live patients injections of chemicals injections of diseases heavy drugs burning to see if they could fix it bone crushing high altitude and hypothermia experiments

Fighting Back in August 1943, rioting Jews damaged the Treblinka death camp so badly that it had to be closed many tried escape but were just caught and executed; there were many uprisings but they were just crushed by the Nazis it was hard to get word of the camps to the outside world

The Warsaw Uprising after several prisoners escaped Treblinka, and spoke about the fate of nearly 300,000 Jews from Warsaw in 1942, the 50,000 Jews still in Warsaw rose up before their final deportation for 27 days they fought the 2,000 Nazi soldiers (who eventually won) and during those 27 days there were no other transports

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Knowledge... the United States government knew about the mass murder of Jews by the Germans as early as 1942 the press showed little interest in reporting the story; why do you think this happened? Congress refused to raise immigration quotas and even existing quotas for Jews went unfilled

War Refugee Board FDR created it in January of 1944 to try to help people threatened by the Nazis despite its late start, it did help save 200,000 lives it basically gave funds to people who could help rescue Jews from occupied nations

End... as allied armies advanced in 1944, the camps outside of Germany were abandoned and the prisoners were moved to German soil thousands of Jews died on these “death marches” just before liberation U.S. troops first saw the camps in 1945 and were horrified

Prisoners at Liberation

German People Burying Dead Jews

German People Moment of Silence for dead Jews

Shock... as Allied forces came to camps in Germany, they were shocked in the town of Ludwigslust, the soldiers forced the townspeople to bury the bodies of 200 prisoners on the front lawn of the palace of the Archduke of Mecklenburg Other liberating forces required people to file past 4,000 corpses of inmates

Nuremberg Trials the Allies placed former Nazi leaders on trial and charged with crimes against humanity, peace and other war crimes a tribunal with members from the U.S., Britain, France and the USSR tried them in November of 1945 of the 24 defendants, 12 received the death penalty the tribunal rejected the argument that they were only following orders

Nuremberg Defendants