The Holocaust WWII

Before World War II Before WWII began, there were 600,000 Germans who were Jewish Jewish people had lived in Europe for over 2,000 years before the Holocaust (including 1,600 years in Germany) Jewish Germans were well-integrated into German culture, even more so than in other parts of Europe

Why did the Germans do this? Anti-Semitism is prejudice, discrimination or persecution against Jews. The Nazis used anti-Semitism for their own purposes and unjustly blamed the Jews for causing many of Germany’s problems-unemployment, the Depression, and even Germany’s defeat in WWII

Why did the Germans do this? Hitler hoped to create a common enemy for other Germans. This hatred would draw them closer together and make them more loyal and obedient. Any person or group that opposed the Nazis-such as Communists, political opponents, and cultural groups-were also victims of the Nazis For the Nazis, the process of forging the “national community” meant the elimination of groups they considered to be “outsiders”

A Timeline of the Events… When Hitler was elected to power in 1933, he started immediately to persecute German Jews 1933-Jewish-owned business were boycotted; books written by Jewish authors were condemned and burned in public 1935-Nuremberg laws-Jews forbidden to marry other Germans and their German citizenship was revoked (a Jew was anyone who had one Jewish grandparent)

November 9, 1939-Kristallnacht (“the Night of the broken glass”) Jewish businesses were smashed and synagogues were burned Jews were forced to wear yellow Star of David to identify them as Jews Jewish children were not able to attend school Jews were not allowed to have pets, radios, or drivers licenses

A Timeline of Events… By 1939 the remaining German Jews (80,000) were forced into ghettos (designated areas in the city where Jews were compelled to live) The Nazis wanted physical control of the Jews to make it easier to humiliate, torture, and murder them

A Timeline of Events… Later, Hitler began the creation of concentration camps Initially these were designed to incarcerate political prisoners (enemies of the regime), criminals, and security risks Jews were herded from the ghettos onto freight cars, which took them to concentration camps where Jews were forced into slave labour

A Timeline of events… While conditions in these camps were horrible and the death rates were high, there is no evidence that they were used for extermination purposes By the 1930s there were hundreds of camps scattered throughout Nazi territory

A Timeline of Events… As Hitler’s armies invaded other countries, the removal of Jews became a problem Nearly 2 million Jews were rounded up, stripped of their clothing and valuables, and then shot. This method considered too slow. January 30, 1939-Hitler announced to the Reichstag that the result of the anticipated war would be the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”-this would be his “final solution”

A Timeline of Events… The “final solution” was to establish a number of extermination camps where the Jews could be killed en masse, known as genocide By the end of 1941, 1 million Jews had been massacred

A Timeline of Events… The murders of Jews began, first in mobile vans, using carbon monoxide gas, then in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland, which was built near the Warsaw ghetto By 1942, Treblinka, also in Poland, and a number of other camps surrounded by barbed wire, electrified fences, and watchtowers, had been turned into death camps

A Timeline of Events… Many Jews died en route because of a lack of food, water, and air on trains Those who were not killed as soon as they arrived were used as slave labour until they were too weak to work Then they, too, were exterminated

Did they rebel? Why or why not? Several significant factors worked against the possibility of organized resistance: The first was disbelief-few victims actually comprehended their fate

Did they rebel? Why or why not? The second was the relative lack of aid by either the local population, who were also brutalized by the occupation, or by the Allies Third was the cohesion of the family and the group in the ghettos and the camps. Resistance or flight meant leaving one’s parents or comrades Finally, punishment was swift and severe. In Dolhynov, two Jews escaped from the prison and hid in the ghetto where they could not be found. In retaliation, 1,540 Jews were killed

What did Canada do? In 1938, thirty-two nations, including Canada, attended the Evian Conference to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, but refused further Jewish immigration. In 1939, a shipload of German Jewish refugees aboard the S.S. St. Louis were refused sanctuary in Canada and forced to return to Europe. The S.S. St. Louis carried 937 Jewish men, women, and children who were desperately trying to escape Nazi persecution

What did Canada do? The ship was eventually able to dock in Antwerp, Belgium and the refugees were able to flee to Belgium, France, Holland, and Britain During the Holocaust, Canada admitted only about 5,000 Jews — one of the worst records of any of the refugee receiving countries.

In Conclusion… Altogether, 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis Millions of other people were executed in the same manner because of their beliefs, race, and sexual orientation When the Allies liberated the occupied areas, they were shocked at what they found in concentration camps Many who survived died of malnutrition, disease, and the horrors suffered during their ordeal

“Work Makes You Free”

Auschwitz, Poland

Gas Chamber

Crematorium

So What? Why is it important to remember and discuss events such as the Holocaust?

Videos and Maps http://archive.org/details/DeathMills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OFvjgePfkI http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/maps/