The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Hitler came to power in the midst of the Great Depression, promising to end reparations, create jobs, and defy the hated Versailles treaty by rearming Germany. Hitler also played on anti-Semitism, which had existed for centuries in Europe. Hitler saw Jews as a separate, inferior race whom he blamed for Germany’s defeat in World War I. He launched a campaign against the Jews, which began with persecution and escalated to mass murder. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 removed citizenship from German Jews and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews.  Schools and the Hitler Youth Movement taught children that Jews were “polluting” German society and culture. Nazi-led mobs smashed windows, looted, and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and places of worship. (Night of Broken Glass) By 1934, Hitler had given Heinrich Himmler the power to take full control of the

concentration camps throughout Germany. The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews concentration camps throughout Germany. Jews, resistance fighters, Roma(gypsies), Slavs, mentally disabled, homosexuals, and criminals were sent to the camps. Nazi doctors conducted painful and deadly medical experiments on prisoners. (new drugs/ treatments)  Josef Mengele conducted experiments to see how different ethnic groups responded to contagious diseases such as malaria or yellow fever The Final Solution: Extermination of all Jews in Europe. Prisoners were stripped of their possessions and separated from their families. Then their bodies were burned in specially designed crematoriums.  Nazis had massacred more than six million Jews and almost as many other “undesirable” people were killed as well.

Then their bodies were burned in specially designed crematoriums. The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Then their bodies were burned in specially designed crematoriums.  Nazis had massacred more than six million Jews and almost as many other “undesirable” people were killed as well.

The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Analyze Information How did the Nazis’ anti-Semitic discrimination intensify throughout the 1930s?

The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Weeks after Hitler was appointed chancellor, the first concentration camps were opened. Originally, the labor camps were created as a place to detain real and perceived political opponents of Nazi policy.

The Nazi Campaign Against the Jews Analyze Maps Where were the death camps located? How did this location reflect the goals of the “Final Solution”?

Jewish groups organized an underground resistance movement. Jewish Resistance Jewish people resisted the Nazis even though they knew their efforts could not succeed. In the early 1940s, Jews in the ghettos of Eastern Europe at times took up arms. The largest uprising occurred in the Warsaw ghetto in occupied Poland. Nazis began sending Polish Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp and to slave labor camps. Jewish groups organized an underground resistance movement. Armed with smuggled weapons and homemade bombs, the Jews took over the ghetto and prepared to fight to the end, but were unsuccessful. (Partisans)  In addition to armed uprisings and fighting with guerrilla forces, a few Jews challenged Nazi death camps (Treblinka and Sobibor)

Jewish Resistance  In Denmark, Bulgaria, and Sweden, friends, neighbors, or even strangers protected Jews(Anne Frank) Many people collaborated, or cooperated, with the Nazis, actively taking part in killing Jews or informing on Jews in hiding In France, the Vichy government helped ship thousands of Jews to their deaths In America……

Jewish Resistance The Warsaw Uprising ended on October 2, 1944. The entire civilian population of the Warsaw ghetto was expelled; most were sent to labor and death camps.

The Allies Respond to the Holocaust Even before the war started, some people outside Germany expressed concern about the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Still, the response was limited. The United States and other countries could have accepted many more Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. 1938, delegates from 32 countries met in France to discuss the “refugee problem, but most countries made excuses for not accepting refugees.(jobs and anti-semitism) Americans worried that refugees would take jobs away from them and overburden social welfare programs. (Refused refugees from the St. Louis) Widespread racial prejudices among the Allies, including anti-Semitic attitudes, caused many to reject refugees. Allies knew that Jews were being taken to death camps in Poland, but often kept this information classified.

Nazis had massacred some six million Jews in the Holocaust The Allies Respond to the Holocaust War Refugee Board, a government agency that worked with the Red Cross to save thousands of Eastern European Jews. As Soviet and American troops began liberating the camps, the Allies became fully aware of the enormity of the Nazi genocide program  Nazis had massacred some six million Jews in the Holocaust Survivors of the Holocaust often had nowhere to go in Europe and faced discirimination On May 14, 1948, Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel in the former British Palestine

Mandate, Balfour Declaration. The Allies Respond to the Holocaust Mandate, Balfour Declaration. Nations signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which established genocide as a crime that could be prosecuted in international courts.

The Allies Respond to the Holocaust Roosevelt organized the Evian Conference to discuss the issue of Jewish refugees. However, neither the United States nor Britain took in a substantial number of Jews. The conference was seen as a failure.

The Allies Respond to the Holocaust Analyze Information Besides the Jewish population, what was the next-largest group of victims of Nazi persecution? Why do you think that group was targeted?