The Holocaust during World War 2 The Final Solution The Holocaust during World War 2

1. Definition Jews were forced to wear the Star of David. Jews were believed to be an international threat. Jews were impure and therefore there was no room for them in Hitler’s plan for the perfect and pure ‘master race’

Kristallnacht – “The Night of Broken Glass” November 9 1938 violent anti-Jewish riots/protests throughout Germany surrounding areas Started by Nazi officials Kristallnacht- shattered glass that lined German streets due to riots, windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish businesses Officials dressed in civilian clothes to make it appear that normal civilians started the riot ordered police to arrest as many Jews as local jails could hold ( preferably young, healthy men) Many synagogues burnt, local firefighters, received orders to intervene only to prevent flames from spreading to nearby buildings.

2. Stripping of Rights In 1938, Jews were evicted from Germany’s economic life. Jews were: - denied the right to own property. - Jewish doctors were denied the right to treat German patients. - Jewish lawyers were denied the right to practice law. - Jewish businessmen had to be registered. - denied German citizenship. - denied the right to vote. made to carry identification papers … and even more. Jewish children expelled from German school Jews lost their right to a driver’s license, and couldn’t own a car Restriction on public transport Jews couldn’t gain admittance to “German” theatres, cinemas or concert halls

3. Segregation Rural Jews were forced into ghettos in the large cities. The ghettos had a deadly intent – to confine Jews for eventual extermination. The ghettos in Lodz, Poland held 200 000 Jews including 5000 Gypsies by the end of 1941. People often died of disease and starvation in the ghettos. 15.1 persons per apartment and there were 6 – 7 persons per room.

4. Concentration/Labour Camps In 1933, the first concentration camp established at Dachau to house opponents of the Nazi Regime. These were labour camps. The numbers of Jewish prisoners dramatically increased after the Kristallnacht. People were sent there to work and do free slave labour.

5. Extermination/Death Camps Gas chambers were disguised as showers. By 1945 six million Jews were dead through mass executions, starvation and slave labour in concentration camps. Places of extermination were isolated in order to avoid that the civilian population would unnecessarily become witnesses of this spectacle. Between April 1942 and November 1944 2 million Jews were gassed.

Camp Atrocities: Death Marches Near the end of the war, when Germany's military force was collapsing, the Allied armies closed in on the Nazi concentration camps The Germans began frantically to move the prisoners out of the camps near the front and take them to be used as forced labourers in camps inside Germany. Prisoners were first taken by train and then by foot on "death marches," as they became known. Prisoners were forced to march long distances in bitter cold, with little or no food, water, or rest. Those who could not keep up were shot. Tattoos The numbered tattoos that have today become an identifying mark of Holocaust survivors originated in Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp in Europe. After their heads were shaved and their personal possessions removed, the prisoners were officially registered. Beginning in 1941, this registration consisted of a tattoo, located on the inner forearm. These tattoos were just one of the ways in which the Nazis dehumanized their prisoners. Despite the perception that all Holocaust prisoners were given tattoos, it was only the prisoners of Auschwitz after 1941 who were branded this way.

Camp Atrocities: Forced Labour The ability to work could save one's life, but most often only temporarily. Jews deemed unproductive by the Nazis were often the first to be shot or deported. They increasingly relied on forced labourers to boost war production. Prisoners in all the concentration camps were literally worked to death. Gassing When in October 1941 the mass-shooting of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen became problematic, the three experts of the killing operation came together and decided on the use of gas: Gassing usually involved 20–30 people at one time in hermetically shut chambers disguised as shower rooms. People were dead after 6–7 minutes. This system proved more efficient for the Nazis, and was also easier on the German soldiers who carried out the extermination, who were showing signs of depression with having to shoot Jews.

Camp Atrocities: Experimentation During the Holocaust, the Nazi Party a series of medical experiments were carried out to advance German medicine without the consent of the patients upon whom the experiments were conducted and with total disregard for the patients suffering, or even their survival. Some of these experiments had legitimate scientific purposes, though the methods that were used violated the medical ethics. Others were racial in nature, designed to advance Nazi racial theories. Most were simply bad science. Examples: Prisoners were put into pressure chambers to replicate what might happen at high altitudes. Some died; many suffered. Presumably, this was meant to ascertain at what altitude Air Force personnel could bail out of an airplane. Freezing experiments were conducted to find a treatment for hypothermia. Victims were put into tanks of ice water for an hour or more and various methods of warming up their bodies were tried. No painkillers were used. Others were placed in the snow for hours. Physicians also experimented with prisoners who were forced to drink sea water. In Ravensbruck new methods were explored to deal with fractures and war wounds. Prisoners' legs were broken or amputated; transplants were attempted.

6. Aftermath The camps were liberated but only the sick, weak and dying remained there. 250 000 people were liberated from the camps. Allies attempted to help by giving them lots of food, but in some cases this caused sickness or death because their bodies could not cope the food, after months of starvation. Jews were left with nothing, they were poor and homeless.