(1939-1945) The Holocaust

What was the Holocaust? Defined as the mass slaughter of European civilians, especially Jews, by the Nazis during World War II What is Genocide? The systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group.

Anti-Semitism Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as an ethnic or racial group.

Master Race Used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of Non-Jewish Caucasians. Blonde hair Blue eyes Known as the Aryan race

Adolf Hitler Austrian-born Dictator of Germany Leader of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI Party) Ultimately wanted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi Germany Ordered the systematic murder of over 6 million Jews in what he deemed the “Final Solution”

The Beginning At first, Jews were denied basic civil rights such as property ownership, the opportunity to earn a living, medical treatment, etc. Jews were rounded up and told they were being relocated. They were then either: Taken to be shot Killed by van exhaust. The vans were equipped so that the exhaust was piped back into the van. These means of killing took much too long and were not efficient.

Transportation Systematic deportation Boxcar 100+ people in one car Doors were bolted shut No place to sit down Often people were forced to pay for their own transportation No food or water given

Ghettos Jews were confined in overcrowded ghettos, walled-off areas where Jews were forced to live before being transported to a concentration or extermination camp Conditions were very poor: Limited food No sanitation 12-30 people per tiny room Hundreds of thousands died due to starvation or disease

Concentration Camps Camps used for a range of purposes including: Force-Labor Camps Transit Camps, which served as temporary way stations Extermination Camps

Extermination Camps Established for the industrial-scale murder of predominantly Jewish people Nazis constructed gas chambers (rooms that filled with poisonous gas to kill those inside) to increase killing efficiency Besides gas chambers, camp guards killed prisoners via mass shootings, starvation, torture, etc. Victims’ corpses were buried in mass graves or cremated Prisoners were forced to help dispose of bodies and it was not unlikely that they would come across one of a family member Up to 6,000 Jewish people were gassed each day at each camp

Camp Doctors Nazi doctors tortured men, women, and children at death camps Performed experiments on victims Victims were: Put into pressure chambers Tested with drugs Castrated Frozen to death

Children More than 1.5 million children were murdered Many children were separated from their parents and sent to different camps Medical experiments were performed on children at the concentration camps such as: Blood transfusions from one to another Injections of lethal germs Sex change operations Removal of organs and limbs Many times, young children and the elderly were sent immediately to the gas chambers Older children performed slave labor

Auschwitz A network of concentration camps 48 camps in total, with three main (the largest)

Liberation of Camps Began in 1944 “Liberators confronted unspeakable conditions in the Nazi camps, where piles of corpses lay unburied.”