The Holocaust 11 million people were exterminated 6 million jews 5 million others 1933-1945

The Holocaust HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah) which originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group

The Holocaust Causes The Power of Words The Stages of Isolation The Bystander versus the Collaborator Anti-Semitism

For hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews as the Christ -killers. At one time or another Jews had been driven out of 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 1287 269 Jews were hanged in the Tower of London. Jews were a SCAPEGOAT This deep prejudice against Jews was still strong in the twentieth century, especially in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe, where the Jewish population was very large. After the First World War hundreds of Jews were blamed for the defeat in the War. Prejudice against the Jews grew during the economic depression which followed. Many Germans were poor and unemployed and wanted someone to blame. They turned on the Jews, many of whom were rich and successful in business.

The Power of Words… Hitler’s The Holocaust The Power of Words… Hitler’s “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one” “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think” The victor will never be asked if he told the truth” The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew”

European Jewish Population in 1933 was 9,508,340 The Holocaust European Jewish Population in 1933 was 9,508,340 Estimated Jewish Survivors of Holocaust: 3,546,211

Percentage of Jews killed in each country AUSTRIA 35% POLAND 91% USSR 36% NORWAY 45% BELGIUM 45% LUXEMBOURG 55% ESTONIA 44% ROMANIA 84% A Total of 6,000,000 Jews HUNGARY 74% YUGOSLAVIA 81% BOHEMIA 60% How did they manage to get together all these Jews to kills them? How did they kill them when they had them? To begin with there were concentration camps. LATVIA 84% NETHERLANDS 71% LITHUANIA 85% GERMANY 36% FRANCE 22% GREECE 87%

The Holocaust The 5 Stages of Isolation Stripping of Rights Segregation Concentration Extermination Aftermath

Stage 1: Stripping of Rights 1935: Nuremberg Laws stated that all JEWS were : stripped of German citizenship fired from jobs & businesses boycotted banned from German schools and universities Marriages between Jews and Aryans forbidden Forced to carry ID cards Passports stamped with a “J” forced to wear the arm band of the Yellow “Star of David” Jewish synagogues destroyed forced to pay reparations and a special income tax Reparations of 1 billion Reichmarks after Kristallnacht

Stage 1: Stripping of Rights 1938: Kristallnacht – Night of Broken Glass Nazi’s attacked the Jewish communities The looted and destroyed 1000 synagogues They destroyed over 7000 businesses (They smashed windows, ruined Jewish hospitals, schools, cemeteries, and homes. In all 96 Jews were killed and 20,000 were arrested. Reparations of 1 billion Reichmarks after Kristallnacht 10

Stage 2: Segregation GHETTOS Jews were forced to live in designated areas called “ghettos” to isolate them from the rest of society Nazis established 356 ghettos in Poland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary during WWII Ghettos were filthy, with poor sanitation and extreme overcrowding Disease was rampant and food was in such short supply that many slowly starved to death Warsaw, the largest ghetto, held 500,000 people and was 3.5 square miles in size

Stage 3: Concentration Camps essential to Nazi’s systematic oppression and eventual mass murder of enemies of Nazi Germany (Jews, Communists, homosexuals, opponents) Slave labour “annihilation by work” Prisoners faced undernourishment and starvation Prisoners transported in cattle freight cars Camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation

Life in the Camps possessions were confiscated heads were shaved arms tattooed Prison uniforms Men, women and children were separated Survival based on trade skills / physical strength Unsanitary, disease ridden and lice infested barracks inhumane medical experiments

Stage 4: Extermination Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) had began killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities in the 1930s DEATH FACTORIES: Nazi extermination camps fulfilled the singular function of mass murder Euthanasia program: Nazi policy to eliminate “life unworthy of life” (mentally or physically challenged) to promote Aryan “racial integrity”

“FINAL SOLUTION” Wannsee Conference (Berlin -1942 ) established the “complete solution of the Jewish question” called for the complete and mass annihilation and extermination of the Jews as well as other groups Zyklon B gas became the agent in the mass extermination

Part of a stockpile of Zyklon-B poison gas pellets found at Majdanek death camp. Before poison gas was used , Jews were gassed in mobile gas vans. Carbon monoxide gas from the engine’s exhaust was fed into the sealed rear compartment. Victims were dead by the time they reached the burial site. THIS IS THE GAS THAT WAS INTRODUCED IN 1942. JEWS WERE SENT INTO SEALED SHOWER UNITS ON THE PRETENCE THAT THEY WERE GOING TO BE SHOWERED. PELLETS WERE THEN PLACED INTO THE SHOWER HEADS AND GAS CAME FROM THE SHOWERS INSTEAD OF WATER. 15 MINUTES LATER THE SHOWER ROOM WOULD BE EMPTIED, BODIES WERE ALWAYS IN A PYRAMID SHAPE, PEOPLE TRIED TO CLIMB ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER TO ESCAPE THE GAS. BEFORE THIS TYPE OF KILLING METHOD WAS INTRODUCED THOUGH A MORE PRIMITIVE GASSING METHOD WAS USED.... I DON'T KNOW HOW, OR EVEN WHY THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN, BUT IT SHOWS SOME MEN AWAITING DEATH ON THEIR WAY TO THEIR BURIAL PLACE. DID THEY ALWAYS BURY THE DEAD?

Smoke rises as the bodies are burnt. NO. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE MURDERED GREW ESPECIALLY HIGH, NAZIS BURNED THE BODIES. SO WHAT OTHER METHODS WERE USED TO SYSTEMATICALLY MURDER THESE PEOPLE?

Jewish women, some holding infants, are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators. MASS EXECUTION USING A FIRING SQUAD WAS COMMON. THESE WOMEN HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO REMOVE EVERYTHING, CLOTHES, JEWELLERY, EVEN WEDDING RINGS AND ARE BEING FORCED TO LINE UP AND WAIT FOR THEIR TURN TO BE KILLED. SOME TIME LATER...

Gas Chambers & Crematoriums Prisoners were sent to gas chambers disguised as showers Zyklon B gas used to gas people in 3 – 15 minutes Up to 8000 people were gassed per day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp with 4 operating gas chambers Gold fillings from victims teeth were melted down to make gold bards Prisoners moved dead bodies to massive crematoriums

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. THIS PICTURE TELLS US A LOT. HER PARENTS ARE OBVIOUSLY WEALTHY ENOUGH TO HAVE HAD A PORTRAIT DONE, SO IT SHOWS US THAT THE STATUS OF THE JEWS DID NOT MATTER TO THE NAZIS. IT WAS NOT JUST THE POOR WHICH WERE KILLED. THEY WERE KILLED REGARDLESS OF WEALTH OR STATUS, THEIR DEATH WAS DETERMINED BY RELIGION AND RACE.

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. GIVES SOME IDEA OF THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE. BUT WHY DID THE NAZI WANT THEM TO REMOVE THEIR CLOTHES? WHAT DID THEY WANT WITH THEIR JEWELLERY, CLOTHES, EVEN HAIR?

In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million. Nazis ordered the bodies of those buried to be dug up and burned to destroy all traces. OBVIOUSLY TOWARDS THE END OF THE WAR THEY TRIED TO COVER THEIR TRACKS. IT WAS NOT GUILT THOUGH AND THEY DID NOT DO THE WORK THEMSELVES. THEY MADE JEWS AND OTHER PRISONERS OF WAR DIG UP THE BODIES AND BURN THEM INSTEAD. Soviet POWs at forced labor in 1943 exhuming bodies in the ravine at Babi Yar, where the Nazis had murdered over 33,000 Jews in September of 1941.

Nearing the End of the War By 1945, the Nazis’ began to destroy crematoriums and camps as Allied troops closed in Death Marches (Todesmarsche): Between 1944-1945, Nazis ordered marches over long distances. Approximately 250 000 – 375 000 prisoners perished in Death Marches On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz (largest camp) and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying.

Nazis confiscated property of prisoners in storerooms nicknamed “Kanada” because the sheer amount of loot stored there was associated with the riches of Canada

This is what the Allies found upon liberating Auschwitz death camp

Swastika: A Symbol of Good or Evil? the swastika is an ancient Indian symbol (Sanskrit) that is over 3,000 years old meaning well being, life and good luck, prosperity the swastika is sacred religious symbol for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists Common symbol in ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, India, China, Central and South America (Maya) In 1920, Adolf Hitler decided that the Nazi Party needed its own insignia and flag and chose the swastika to represent the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man Because of the Nazis' flag, the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, anti-Semitism, violence, death, and murder.

Holocaust Art

Stage 5: Aftermath The camps were liberated only to find sick and dying people 250000 people were liberated from the camps Jews were left with nothing; poor and homeless The indictments were for: Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace War crimes Crimes against humanity Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace