Daily Question: October 28th Define prejudice. Define intolerance. Can you give any examples of these from your life? What role did prejudice and intolerance play in Nazi Germany?

Key Quote “Terror is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.”

The Terror State Heinrich Himmler ran both the Gestapo and the SS. The SS - the Schutzstaffel (German:"Protective Squadron") Hitler’s Loyal Bodyguard, but later the executioners and runners of the camps.SchutzstaffelGerman The Gestapo – secret police - had an army of spies to inform on people.

How did the Terror State work? Gestapo Spies inform on you Woken up by the Gestapo at 1 AM and given 5 minutes to pack your bags. Arrested and thrown into a cell Days or maybe weeks later you are interrogated and forced to sign form D11 D11 form gives your consent to be put into a labor camp. Handed over to the SS who run the camps. Imprisoned for up to six months doing hard physical labor. When released you tell everybody what has happened to you Fear

Enemies of the Nazi State Jews Communists Social Democrats Trade Unions “Work Shy” (Lazy) Homosexuals Gypsies Germans who bought from Jews Pacifists Radical Christian Organization Anyone who criticized Hitler or the Nazi Party.

Aryan Race Hitler’s “perfect race.” People with full German blood, blonde hair and blue eyes.

Anti –Semitism Political, social and economic agitation against Jews. ‘Hatred of Jews’.

Nazi Propaganda

At one time or another Jews had been persecuted in almost every European country. The way they were treated in England in the thirteenth century is a typical example. In 1275 they were made to wear a yellow badge. In Jews were hanged in the Tower of London. Prejudice was still strong in the 20th century, especially in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe, where the Jewish population was very large. After WWI Jews were blamed for Germany’s defeat. Prejudice against Jews grew during the depression which followed. Jews became a SCAPEGOAT

Solutions to “The Jewish Question” – exactly what to do with Jews in Nazis territory.

Nuremburg Laws – ”Racist” laws written to control the German Jewish population. Limited the Civil Rights of Jews

Nuremburg Laws - Examples Defined who was “Jewish” by parentage or “blood.” Outlawed marriage between Jew and non-Jew Required Jews to Register with government. Required Jews to wear the Star of David. Limited property rights of Jews. Etc.

Kristallnacht – Nov “Night of Broken Glass” – Violence against Jewish businesses and synagogues. 1,000 synagogues burned 7,000 businesses looted

Formation of Ghettos Nazis organized Jews into crowded “Ghettos” Ghettos served as a waiting place for Jews while they were forced to work for the Nazis.

“Judenrat” Jewish Councils - appointed by the Nazis to govern Ghettos. Forced to make decisions that lead to the death of their own people.

Key Quote: Martin Niemollen, 1945 When the Nazis came for the Communists I was silent, I was not a Communist. When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I was silent, I was not a Social Democrat. When the Nazis came for the Jews I was silent, I was not a Jew. When the Nazis came for me there was nobody left to protest.

The “Final Solution” Wannssee Conference (1942) Extermination of the Jewish People – Genocide Holocaust – From Greek for “Completely Burnt” AKA: Shoah in Hebrew

Who carried out the “Final Soluition”? The SS - - the Schutzstaffel (German:"Protective Squadron") – initally Hitler’s Loyal Bodyguard, but eventually became the executioners and runners of the camps.SchutzstaffelGerman Einsatzgruppen (German: "intervention groups") - Death Squads set up by and within the SS to carry out extermination of Jews.German

Warning. The following images come directly from the Holocaust, are unedited, and may be disturbing.

Between 1939 and 1945 six million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of others, such as Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled and the mentally ill.

A Total of 6,000,000 Jews Percentage of Jews killed in each country

A MAP OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND DEATH CAMPS USED BY THE NAZIS.

16 of the 44 children taken from a French children’s home. They were sent to a concentration camp and later to Auschwitz. ONLY 1 SURVIVED A group of children at a concentration camp in Poland.

Jewish women, some holding infants, are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators.

A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution.

Portrait of two- year-old Mania Halef, a Jewish child who was among the 33,771 persons shot by the SS during the mass executions at Babi Yar, September, 1941.

Nazis sift through a huge pile of clothes left by victims of the massacre. Two year old Mani Halef’s clothes are somewhere amongst these.

After liberation, an Allied soldier displays a stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald. Bales of hair shaven from women at Auschwitz, used to make felt-yarn.

Later, they were exhumed and cremated to destroy evidence of the Holocaust. Initially Jews were buried.

A stockpile of Zyklon-B poison gas pellets found at Majdanek death camp. After death bodies were disposed of in large ovens.

Smoke rises as the bodies are burnt.

“Until September 14, 1939 my life was typical of a young Jewish boy in that part of the world in that period of time. I lived in a Jewish community surrounded by gentiles. Aside from my immediate family, I had many relatives and knew all the town people, both Jews and gentiles. Almost two weeks after the outbreak of the war and shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, my world exploded. In the course of the next five and a half years I lost my entire family and almost everyone I ever knew. Death, violence and brutality became a daily occurrence in my life while I was still a young teenager.” Leonard Lerer, 1991 WHY?