World War II The Holocaust The Holocaust and the Defeat of Germany

The Holocaust ► = Nazi systematic slaughter of “impure undesirables” including Jews ► 1933 – 9 million Jews in Europe ► Jewish bankers – blamed for European Depression ► The Final Solution to the Jewish Question = Annihilate the Jews

Steps of the Final Solution ► ► 1. Anti-Jewish legislation – removed Jews from Germany society ► ► 2. Establish Concentration Camps ► ► 3. Establishment of Ghettos in Poland ► ► 4. Mobile killing squads – SS and SD ► ► 5. Six Extermination Camps

Military Executions  Special death squads follow behind the front – killing Jews, gypsies, and communists in the area  Einsatzgruppen – mobile killing units Einsatzgruppen  Used shootings and mobile gas units  Killed over 1 million Jewish men, women and children

Ghettos ► Jews were forced to live in walled off parts of cities in misery ► Densely populated areas  Warsaw – 400,000 ppl in 1.3 sq. mi ► Wear identifying arm patch ► Often work in forced labor ► Jews received little food or supplies (253 calories/day)

Concentration Camps & Genocide

Genocide ► = The deliberate annihilation of an entire people ► 1941 Germans began constructing concentration camps to perform “the final solution” ► Move Jews from Ghettos to labor camps and killing centers throughout Europe

The Death Camps ► Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau ► Jewish men, women, & children were transported to the camps in sealed railroad cars ► Many immediately killed in gas chambers ► Bodies cremated in ovens

The Death Camps ► Others faced forced labor in the camps ► Josef Mengele – infamous doctor at Aushwitz – chose who lived  “Angel of Death” – collected eyes ► Human experiments performed  Freezing, drug testing, sterilization, disease studies

The Death Camps ► Death Marches – at end of war to avoid allied liberation of Jews ► Around 6 million Jews died in the camps – 2/3 of pop. ► 6 million Poles, mentally disabled people, and political & religious prisoners also died

How Could The Holocaust Happen? ► Nazi’s took advantage of the long history of anti-Semitism in Europe ► Nazi’s flooded Europe with anti-Semitic propaganda stirring up hatred ► This hatred caused non-Jews to assist the Nazi’s or look the other way

The Defeat of Germany

The Yalta Conference

Yalta ► The Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine ► The Big 3 –  Stalin – Soviet Union  FDR – US  Churchill – Great Britain ► Purpose - To plan for postwar peace following the defeat of Hitler

Agreements Reached 1. Stalin pledged to declare war on Japan three months after the surrender of Germany 2. All agreed to divide Germany & Berlin following the war 3. Outlined plans for a new international peace organization

Roosevelt Win’s 4 th Term ► The war convinced FDR to run for his 4 th term ► Won easily with Harry Truman as his running mate

The Allies Reach Berlin

The Race To Berlin ► March 1945 ► The Allies crossed the Rhine River into the heart of Germany ► The Soviets occupied most of Eastern Europe ► Gen. Eisenhower allows Russians to take Berlin ► Hitler orders Berlin defended to last man – fighting street to street

Berlin Falls

► April 30, 1945  Hitler commits suicide in his bunker under Berlin ► May 8, 1945  V-E Day (Victory in Europe)