End of the War/ War Crimes “Whoever shall save a single life, saves an entire world”- The Talmud

End of the War By 1945, it had become obvious that the Allies would win. Allied troops had reached the Rhine River, the first atomic bomb had been tested and the Soviets had pushed the Nazis back almost to Germany. Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt (Big Three) met at the Yalta Conference to redesign the world post WWII. They came up with three important ideas: Freed Europe Clause: European countries should be allowed to decide who would rule them Divided Germany into four Allied controlled regions and forced Germany to pay reparations. Creation of the United Nations. This conference was preceded by the Tehran Conference (planned final strategy to defeat the Nazis) and shortly after, the Potsdam Conference was created (demilitarized Germany and divided it, prosecuted Nazi war criminals)

War Crimes: Holocaust Holocaust (1940-1945) Hitler had begun his anti Semitism campaign before he was even elected Chancellor. His book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), detailed what Hitler saw as abuses by the Jewish people. Hitler began a campaign of anti Semitic propaganda as early as 1933. Laws that limited Jewish businesses, movement and education were also passed in the early 1930s. Hitler had also begun a campaign of culture stealing in the mid 1930s. However, it was not until Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938 that all out violence was committed against the Jews. Many count Kristallnacht as the turning point at which the persecution of Jews went from social and political to physical. The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 marked the beginning of mass killings of Jews. However, these did not occur in camps. Mobile killing units were sent to villages through out Eastern Europe.

“Jews are our misfortune”

Mobile Killing Units

What makes you Jewish?

Kristallnacht and Jewish Expulsion One of the main purposes of Kristallnacht was the disarmament of Jews. It was at this point that many Jews were forced in to ghettos through out Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe. In 1940, Hitler began acting on his plan that he referred to as “the final solution”. Jews, Poles, Slavs, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, en masse, were shipped to death camps through out Eastern Europe. The main death camps were Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Dachau and Bergen Belsen

Medical Experiments Preformed By Mengele

Nuremburg Trials Part of the Potsdam Conferences agreements was a decision to prosecute Nazi war criminals. These trials occurred in Nuremburg, Germany Later, as Nazis were discovered, many of these trials were moved to Israel

Lessons of the Holocaust “Thou shalt not be a victim Thou shalt not be a perpetrator Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander” – Yehuda Bauer

What is Genocide? Does it still happen? 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide : "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."[1]

Recent Genocides Rawanda- 1994 Srebrenica- 1995 Cambodia 1975-1979 Darfur- 2007

Response What is the responsibility of other countries when faced with genocide? Are they obligated to help? Why or why not? Should the United States send troops to Darfur? Why?