The Holocaust (1941-45)

The Holocaust Of the 60 million World War II deaths, 11 million people died in German death camps including 3.5 million Russians, and 6 million Jews (2/3rds of all European Jews) The word Holocaust was given to the killing of the 6 million Jews because it was a war of extermination designed to wipe out an entire group of people. Hitler’s “Final Solution” Systematic genocide

Holocaust Chronology Jan 30, 1933 - Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany a nation with a Jewish population of 566,000. March 22, 1933 - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near Munich, to be followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany, Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany, and Ravensbrück for women. April 1, 1933 - Nazis stage boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. April 11, 1933 - Nazis issue a decree defining a non- Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non- Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith."

1933 NAZIS boycott Jewish businesses issue decree that defines non-Aryans Hermann Goering creates the GESTAPO, he was also Adolph Hitler’s Successor (#2) and Commander of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) first concentration camps are built Dachau - 3/22/33

Holocaust Chronology July 14, 1933 - Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany; Also, Nazis pass Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship. July 1933- Nazis pass law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects. Nov 24, 1933 - Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration camps. Sept 15, 1935 - Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews decreed. Nov 9-10 1938--Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9–10, 1938-Nazi Party members went around and attacked Jews and their businesses and their churches called Synagogues)

1934 Jews are not allowed to have national health insurance The SS (Schutz-staffel) is formed-Small, permanent “para-military” guard of the Nazi Party-Difrerent from regular German Military Hitler becomes Der Fuherer and receives a 90% approval rating from the people

Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 Deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry Aryans The Nuremberg Laws had the unexpected result of causing confusion and heated debate over who was a "full Jew." The Nazis settled on defining a "full Jew" as a person with three Jewish grandparents. Those with less were designated as Mischlinge. After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dozen supplemental Nazi decrees were issued that eventually outlawed the Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as human beings.

1936 SS Deathshead division is created to guard camps Heinreich Himmler is appointed Chief of the German Police & Head of the SS Olympic games in Berlin, Jews treated better - briefly.

Holocaust Chronology Cont. July 23, 1938 - Nazis order Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, to be shown on demand to any police officer. May 1939 - The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe. Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland (Jewish pop. 3.35 million, the largest in Europe). Oct 1939- Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany. March 7, 1941 - German Jews ordered into forced labor. Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek.

1939-KRISTALLNACHT Night of Broken Glass Jewish stores, shops and synagogues burned down Took place because a German official was killed in Paris by a Jew November 9, 1939

Holocaust Chronology Cont. Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there. April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.

POLAND 1939 Sept. 1, 1939 Nazis invade Poland 3.35 million Jews Hans Frank becomes governor of Poland Forced labor decree issued and all Jews must wear yellow stars

1940 German Jews are deported to Poland Ghettos of Lodz, Krakow and Warsaw are sealed off. Total of 600,000 Jews These ghettos will be liquidated starting in 1942 German soldiers rounding up Jews to be placed in ghettos

1941 Nazis invade the Soviet Union Jewish population of 3 million Hitler issues infamous “Commissar Order” SS Einsatzgruppen follow advance of German Army “Liquidate all Communist officials you encounter!

Wannsee Conference Heydrich was ordered by Hermann Goering to prepare a “final solution” to the Jewish question Heydrich organized a meeting with 15 top Nazi officials in Berlin = Jan. 20, 1942 Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons

Reinhard Heydrich Nicknamed “The Blond Beast” and “Hangman Heydrich” second in command of Gestapo and SS principle planner of the Final Solution Brigadier General in SS at the age of 30

FINAL SOLUTION “Now judgement has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when the knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth!” Nazi Newspaper there were 3 phases of the Nazi plan to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe

Phase 1 = Shooting Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated They were taken to the woods and were shot one by one their bodies were buried in mass graves

Phase 2 = Gas Vans Again, Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated in vans The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van 700,000 Jews killed in Vans

Problems with Phases 1,2 The Nazis encountered several problems with the executions and gas vans First, they were both taking to much time Second, resources such as gas and munitions were becoming scarce Third, soldiers involved were beginning to have psychological problems with what they were doing.

Phase 3 = The Camps Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution there were two different types of camps: CONCENTRATION CAMPS EXTERMINATION CAMPS Jews from all over occupied Europe were to be brought here.

CONCENTRATION 100 of these in Nazi-occupied Europe prisoners used for forced labor prisoners usually lasted less than 1/2 year communists, homosexuals, criminals, social- democrats, artists. First camp was opened in 1933, right after Nazis came to power

EXTERMINATION Started out as ordinary concentration camps later modified with gassing installations for use on humans, now “DEATH CAMPS” two sub-groups: 1) Majdanek and Auschwitz, Birkenau 2) Operation Reinhard camps and Chelmno “NAZIS GET CLOSE TO CREATING HELL ON EARTH!!!”

CHELMNO Jews from the Lodz ghetto in Poland sent here First death camp built = 1941 First to use Gas Vans on Jews

CAMPS IN POLAND

MAJDANEK Established in 1941 as a POW camp started its part in the Final Solution in 1942 Jews, Poles and Soviet POW’s sent here had two gas chambers to exterminate

AUSCHWITZ Started operations in January 1940 (Poland) Himmler chose Auschwitz as the place for the Final Solution had 4 gas chambers/crematories by 1943 mass killings with Zyklon B gas commanded by Rudolph Hoess recorded 12,000 kills in one day

THE SS AT AUSCHWITZ ORDERED TO TAKE ALL POSSESSIONS FROM JEWS TEETH WITH GOLD PILES OF GLASSES

ZYKLON-B GAS USED TO KILL VERMIN. IT WAS INEXPENSIVE COMPARED TO GAS. DROPPED FROM CEILINGS

Dr. Josef Mengele “ANGEL OF DEATH” Arrived in Auschwitz in May of 1943 SS Doctor who had power of life/death performed medical experiments on Jewish children “ANGEL OF DEATH”

OPERATION REINHARD Largest single massacre of Holocaust March 1942-November 1943 named after Reinhard Heydrich carried out at three camps, run by the SS every Jew that arrived at one of the camps would be dead in 2 hours. Total of 1,700,000 Jews killed

BELZEC MARCH 1942 JEWS FROM LUBIN GHETTO- POLAND OPERATIONS STOP DECEMBER 1942 CAMP WAS DISMANTLED AND PLOWED OVER AND PLANTED ON

TREBLINKA JEWS FROM WARSAW GHETTO 10 GAS CHAMBERS LOCATED EAST OF WARSAW BODIES WERE BURNED IN OPEN PITS AUGUST 1943

Camp Totals

STATISTICS BY COUNTRY Jewish population before, Jewish population after Holocaust

History of Jewish Ghettos

What were Jewish Ghettos? Because the Germans aimed to control a large Jewish population they forced Jews to live in marked-off sections of towns and cities the Nazis called "ghettos" or "Jewish residential quarters." Ghettos were small areas within a city that were sealed off with barbed-wire or high walls. Inhabitants were forbidden from leaving the compound No one can enter from the outside They had curfews and other restrictions for daily life Warsaw Ghetto Wall Modern Day

What was it like to be forced to move to the ghettos? All Jews were forced to leave their homes and required to live in ghettos Jews were given minutes to gather their belongings before being kicked out of their homes, often at gunpoint. The rest of their property was left to looters and thieves. German authorities set up warehouses for collecting the goods that had been confiscated from Jewish businesses and homes once the Jews were removed.

Jewish Ghettos What was the reason the Nazi’s gave for moving Jews into the ghetto? Danger that a typhus epidemic would spread through the city (Nazi claim) [Typhus is a bacterial disease spread by lice or fleas.] What was the real reason? Ghettos were a temporary way to keep track of the Jews until it proved possible to achieve the Nazi party’s stated goal of eliminating, or kill them all of them (THE TRUTH)

OCTOBER 12, 1940 WARSAW JEWS ORDERED INTO GHETTO All Jewish residents of Warsaw, the Polish capital, were ordered into the designated area, which was to be sealed off from the rest of the city in November 1940. Construction of a wall, more than 10 feet high and topped with barbed wire, began. The Germans guard the ghetto boundary closely to prevent movement between the ghetto and the rest of Warsaw. The Warsaw ghetto was the largest of the ghettos in both area and population. More than 350,000 Jews--about 30 percent of the city's population--are confined in about 2.4 percent of the city's total area.

Characteristics of Life in the Ghettos German-induced overcrowding and food shortages led to an extremely high mortality rate in the ghetto. The Germans set a food ration for Jews at just 181 calories a day. [that is equal to 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter or 15 saltine crackers] By August 1941, more than 5,000 people a month succumbed to starvation and disease. Jews lived in a state of chaos and immense anxiety in the ghettos People were sick and malnourished Lived in crowded conditions and had few resources 45,000 Jews died there in 1941 due to overcrowding, hard labor, lack of sanitation, starvation, and disease.

Where did Nazi’s establish Ghettos? 1000’s of Ghettos were established in 1939 in occupied eastern Europe Jews from northern and western Europe were transported to eastern European ghettos Ghettos were set up in cities and towns where Jews were already living in large concentrations. The Germans usually marked off the oldest, most run-down sections of cities for the ghettos.

Map: Ghettos in Occupied Poland There were 16 Ghettos in Occupied Poland

Abraham Lewent, Warsaw Ghetto Born: 1924, Warsaw, Poland Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto [Interview: 1989] Jews work on the construction of a wall around the Warsaw ghetto area. ---Instytut Pamieci Narodowej

What happened to the Ghettos? Jews who don’t die in the ghettos were transported to concentration camps to be murdered at the hands of Nazis Eventually all ghettos were emptied and destroyed

Suitcase Activity A soldier at gun point bursts into your home screaming obscenities and calling you names. He tells you the following, “You have 20 minutes to pack. It cannot weigh more than 20lbs. One bag per person.” You ask questions and try to argue, but he just yells and fires off a round into the air. You do not know where you are going or for how long. What do you pack and why? What is the most meaningful and prized possession that you own? Is this something you will bring You may draw or write out your response. Be prepared to discuss it with the class. Once you have completed your response, place your paper in the suitcase in the middle of the room.