Standards and Objectives SSHS-S1C8-01-d Strand 1: American History Concept 8: Great Depression and World War II PO 2. Describe the impact of American involvement in World War II: Students will analyze how the Holocaust came to be by inspecting major events leading up to the Final Solution

The Persecution of the Jews The Holocaust The Persecution of the Jews

The Nuremberg Laws 1935 German citizenship was taken away from Jews Jews weren’t allowed to marry any non-Jews Not allowed to hold office or vote Jew with German sounding last names had to adopt “jewish” names Jewish passports were marked with a red ‘J’ Banned from practicing medicine or law or operating businesses

The Tipping Point Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jewish refugee in Paris shot and killed a German diplomat He was angry because his family and 14,000 other Polish Jews had been deported He was also upset about the way Jews were being treated Not good for all of the Jews in Germany -led to Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” Hitler ordered minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to use the assassination as an excuse to attack the jews so that it would look like a spontaneous reaction to the assassination 90 Jews were killed and 7,500 businesses were destroyed as well as hundreds of synagogues

Lawlessness Continued Police were not allowed to interfere as the Nazi storm troopers wrecked havoc After Kristallnacht the Gestapo arrested 30,000 Jewish men who were then sent to Concentration Camps The state confiscated insurance payments owed to Jewish owners of ruined businesses

Jewish Refugees Try to Flee Between 1933 and 1939 about 250,000 Jews escaped including Albert Einstein Hundreds of thousands of Jews tried to get visas to the U.S. but the majority were denied Jews were not allowed to take their money out of Germany so American saw them as “likely to become a public charge” so they were denied Most Americans didn’t want to raise immigration quotas because of high unemployment and anti- semitic attitudes Only 150,000 immigrants were allowed in annually and only so many from each country

The St. Louis Affair May 27, 1939, the SS St. Louis carrying 950 Jewish immigrants tried to gain access to the U.S. by first docking in cuba Their certificates were improperly issued by Cuba’s director of immigration giving them permission to land but they were denied The ship circled off the coast of Florida trying to get permission to dock in the U.S. they were again denied They had to sail back to Europe where many of the passengers ended up dying in Concentration Camps

The Final Solution January 20, 1942, Nazi Leaders met at the Wannsee Conference to figure out the “final solution to the Jewish question” Discussed shooting them and putting them in mass graves, or loading them into trucks and then pipe in the exhaust to kill them. these methods were deemed to slow though Decided to use Concentration Camps and Extermination camps

Non-Jews who were also sent to the camps Although Jewish people were the main targets of the Nazis, others were also sent to the camps Anyone seen as “inferior” including: the disabled, homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, Polish, and communists and socialists The elderly, infirm, and children were sent to extermination camps since they couldn’t work at concentration camps

Concentration Camps 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust Died from malnutrition, overwork, and in gas chambers When people died, their bodies were stripped and stacked ready to be burned in huge crematoriums

The Great Dictator 1940 Movie written, produced, directed, scored, and starring Charlie Chaplin Premise: Charlie Chaplin’s character was a Jewish barber who lived in a ghetto but had a striking resemblance to “Hynkel.” Through a case of mistaken identity, he ends up in front of the army to give a speech

Think about it What do you think was the reason Chaplin delivered this speech dressed as Hitler? What similarities can you find between immigration policies during WWII and policies today?