9.3 The Holocaust Identify the roots of Nazi persecution of the Jews. Describe how the Nazis carried out a program of genocide. Describe the various acts of Jewish resistance. Summarize the response of the Allies to the Holocaust.

First Objective Identify the roots of Nazi persecution of the Jews.

The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Nuremburg Laws of 1935 put Nazi racist ideology into practice. – Removed citizenship from German Jews. – Banned marriage between Jews and Non-Jews. – Removed from Jobs and homes.

Continued… Schools and the Hitler Youth Movement taught children that Jews were “polluting” German society and culture. November 1938, Kristallnacht = Night of Broken Glass

Nazi Concentration Camp Political opponents were sent first to concentration camps. Jews soon followed. 1934, Hitler gave Heinrich Himmler the power to take full control of concentration camps. After WW2 began, the Nazis built more camps for – Jews from Poland and Eastern Europe – Resistance fighters – Roma (Gypsies) – Slavs – Other racially undesirable elements

Continued… During war, Nazis used people in camps as forced laborers. They produced weapons and other war goods. Faced brutal mistreatment, hunger, disease, and execution. Hundreds of thousands were murdered.

Brutal Medical Experiments In some camps, Nazi doctors conducted painful and deadly medical experiments on prisoners. Tested dangerous new drugs and treatments and also ran experiments. Josef Mengele, a physician at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp conducted experiments to see how different ethnic groups responded to contagious diseases like yellow fever or malaria.

Hitler’s Final Solution As Nazis advanced into Eastern Europe they forced Jews in Poland and elsewhere to live in ghettos, or restricted areas where they were sealed off from the surrounding city.

Continued… Hitler’s “Final Solution” or campaign of genocide to exterminate all European Jews became known as the Holocaust. Mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) followed the German army and murdered over a million Jewish men, women and children in Eastern Europe.

Continued… Hitler had 6 death camps built in Poland. – As prisoners reached camps, they were stripped of clothes and valuables. – Heads were shaved. – Guards separated women from men, and children from parents. – Young, elderly and sick were murdered immediately. Were told they were going to be disinfected Gassed in shower-like rooms. Bodies burned in crematoriums.

Continued… Nazis worked younger, healthier prisoners to death or used them for inhumane experiments. By June 1945, Nazis killed more than 6,000,000 Jews. 6,000,000 “undesirable” people were killed as well.

Objective Review What are the roots of Nazi persecution of the Jews? Where did it all start? Describe how the Nazis carried out a program of genocide.

New Objective Describe the various acts of Jewish Resistance.

Jewish Resistance Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – July 1942, Nazis began sending Polish Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. – By Spring 1943, German plan to clear the Warsaw ghetto was evident, resistance groups planned a revolt. – Jews took over ghetto and prepared to fight to the end.

Continued… Within a month the resistance forces were crushed. The Ghetto was in ruins and thousands were killed in the fighting. Survivors were sent to death camps. Inspired uprisings elsewhere.

Continuing Resistance Few Jews escaped the ghettos. About 25,000 Jews many of them teenagers, joined resistance groups waging guerrilla warfare against the Nazis (partisans). Uprisings occurred at Treblinka and Sobibor. – October 1944, a group of Auschwitz Jews destroyed one of the gas chambers. – Some Jews resisted by hiding and preserved their Jewish culture as best they could.

Hiding Jews Friends, neighbors and even strangers protected Jews. Italians hid Jews in their villages. Denmark and Bulgaria saved almost all their Jewish population. – Danish resistance coordinated the flight of over 7,000 Jews to safety in nearby Sweden.

Anne Frank Famous for her tale of silent resistance during Holocaust. Anne and her family hid for two years in her dad’s office building in Amsterdam. 8 people worked together to secretly feed and care for the family.

Continued.. Most people closed their eyes to what was happening. Many cooperated with the Nazis, actively taking part in killing or informing on Jews in hiding. Strict immigration policies prevented many Jews from gaining refuge elsewhere.

The Allies Respond to the Holocaust U.S. press barely covered the story of the Holocaust. Congress didn’t increase the amount of Jewish immigrants it would accept into the country. They didn’t even meet the set quota, meaning they didn’t accept as many as they said they would.

The Question of Jewish Refugees Summer 1938, delegates from 32 countries met in France and expressed sympathy for the refugees but offered excuses as to why they wouldn’t accept more. Americans worried that refugees would take jobs away from them and overburden social welfare programs.

Continued… Racial prejudices = Allies = Kept Jews out. 1939, U.S. turned away a ship with Jewish passengers which was forced to return to Germany. Britain briefly lifted restrictions and accepted 10,000 Jewish children (parents were not allowed to come).

Allies Take Limited Action Allies were slow to respond to Jewish genocide. – 1942, death camps were kept classified by Allies. President Roosevelt began to respond to reports of Jewish genocide in – Established War Refugee Board (saved Jewish ppl.) – Issued thousands of Swedish Passports to Jews, saved them from being deported. – 200,000 Jews were saved

Liberation of the Concentration Camps Allies were not prepared to see – piles of dead bodies – warehouses full of human hair and jewelry – ashes from crematoriums – or half-dead survivors. Soviet forces were first to liberate a Nazi camp. – Nazis attempted to destroy evidence of mass murder by destroying camp. – More than 10,000 prisoners died weeks after being liberated due to malnutrition.

Impact of the Holocaust Nothing in history compares to the Holocaust. Nazis deliberately set out to destroy the Jews for their heritage. Record of that slaughter is a vivid reminder of the monstrous results of racism and intolerance.

Survivors Nowhere to go after being freed. – Homes, villages, and communities had been destroyed. – Many ended up in refugee camps, waiting to find homes. – Many countries still refused to accept them. As horrors of Holocaust were revealed, worldwide support for an independent Jewish homeland increased. – Many displaced survivors immigrated to Israel.