Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

Totalitarian State Total control of a country in the government’s hands Oppresses individual rights Demonstrates a policy of aggression

Totalitarian State Paranoia and fear dominate Government maintains total control over the culture Government is capable of indiscriminate killing

Post wwi germany Extremists blamed Jews for: Germany’s defeat in WWI Treaty of Versailles – blamed the German Foreign Minister (a Jew) for his role in reaching a settlement with the Allies Anti-Semitism = “the intense hatred for and discrimination against the Jewish people”

Nazi germany Hitler used anti-Semitism as a tool Relied on the ideas of “racial science” to portray Jews as a race instead of a religion

Nazi germany The Nuremberg Laws: Restricted basic rights of Jews Stripped Jews of their German citizenship Restricted basic rights of Jews

Nazi germany The Nazis used propaganda to promote their anti- Semitic ideas One such book was the children’s book, The Poisonous Mushroom. After presenting this slide, teacher will provide handout with timeline of events during the Totalitarian State.

Nazi germany The Nazi plan for dealing with the “Jewish Question” evolved in three steps: Expulsion: Get them out of Germany Containment: Put them all together in one place – namely ghettos “Final Solution”: Annihilation

Etymology of “Aryan” From Sanskrit word meaning “noble” Used in Nazi ideology to mean "member of a Caucasian Gentile race of Nordic type."- a means to weed out “inferior” religions, races & nationalities It DOES NOT mean “blonde hair, blue eyes”

Jewish Ghettos: The Nazis aimed to control the Jewish population by forcing them to live in areas that were designated for Jews only, called ghettos Many ghettos were closed by barbed wire or walls and were guarded by SS or local police.

Conditions of the Ghettos food was rationed; several families often shared a small space; disease spread rapidly; heating, ventilation, and sanitation were limited

The Final Solution: Death camps were the means the Nazis used to achieve the “final solution.” There were six death camps: Auschwitz- Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Belzec. Each used gas chambers to murder the Jews. At Auschwitz prisoners were told the gas chambers were “showers.”

Nazis targeted other individuals and groups in addition to the Jews: Gypsies Homosexual men Jehovah’s Witness Handicapped Germans Poles Political dissidents Teacher will now instruct and lead students in the “Other Victims” cooperative Learning Activity.

Resistance Despite the high risk, some individuals attempted to resist Nazism.

U.S. and World Response At the Evian Conference in France in 1938, 32 countries met to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees who were trying to leave Germany and Austria. Despite voicing feelings of sympathy, most countries made excuses for not accepting more refugees.

U.S. and World Response In the U.S., the Wagner-Rogers Bill proposed to let 20,000 endangered Jewish refugee children into the country, but the bill was not supported in the Senate.

U.S. and World Response The SS St. Louis, carrying refugees with Cuban visas, were denied admittance both in Cuba and in Florida. After being turned back to Europe, most of the passengers perished in the Holocaust.

Resistance Some famous acts of resistance include: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (as seen in the movie, “The Pianist”) The Sobibor Revolt Sonderkommando blowing up Crematorium IV at Birkenau Jewish partisans who escaped to fight in the forests (i.e. movie, “Defiance” based on the life of the Bielski brothers)

Country Jewish Population Number of Jews Percentage of September, 1939 Murdered Jews Murdered Poland 3,300,000 2,800,000 85.0 USSR 2,100.000 1,500,000 71.4 Romania 850,000 425,000 50.0 Hungary 404,000 200,000 49.5 Czechoslovakia 315,000 260,000 82.5 France 300,000 90,000 30.0 Germany 210,000 171,000 81.0 Lithuania 150,000 135,000 90.0 Holland 150,000 90,000 60.0 Latvia 95,000 85,000 89.5 Belgium 90,000 40,000 44.41 Greece 75,000 65,000 80.0 Yugoslavia 75,000 55,000 73.3 Austria 60,000 40,000 66.6 Italy 57,000 15,000 26.31 Bulgaria 50,000 7,000 14.0 Others 20,000 6,000 30.0 Totals 8,301,000 5,978,000 72.0 ____________________________________________________________________ Source: Cited in Landau, The Nazi Holocaust, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1994.These data originally appeared in Poliakov and Wulf (eds), Das Dritte Reichund die Juden: Documente und Aufsatze (Arani Verlag, GmbH, Berlin, 1955).