The Holocaust

Why?  Hitler considered Jews an “internal enemy” Felt they did not support Germany in WWI  Hitler wanted a “pure” Germany Belief in the superiority of the Aryan Race

Who  Who? Jews Slavs Roma Disabled and Mentally ill Homosexuals Freemasons and Jehovah’s Witnesses Political activists Christians

What?  Jews removed from society Lost jobs  Forbidden to own farms  Lawyers were disbarred  Newspaper editors Excluded from schools and universities Nuremberg Laws  Lost their citizenship  Lost all civil rights

Cont.  Kristallnacht – Night of broken glass Nov. 9, 1938 Jews attacked and property vandalized 100 killed, 30,000 sent to camps Shops and synagogues destroyed  Madagascar Plan Move all Jews to island of Madagascar  Was not carried out

Concentration Camps  Auschwitz Largest of the camps Located in Poland million deaths  Gas chambers  Starvation  Forced labor  Disease  Executions  Medical experiments

Medical Experiments  Used human subjects Pressure chambers – study effect of high and low air pressure on humans Drug testing Effects of freezing/cold temperatures Attempted to change children’s eye color by injecting chemicals into eyes Amputations Other surgeries – including at least 1 attempt to “create” Siamese twins

Total Deaths  6 million Jews  2-3 million Slavs  2 million Poles  100, ,000 Romas  100,000 Mentally ill  10,000 homosexuals, 1000s more were “rehabilitated”  Freemasons and Jehovah’s Witnesses 80, ,000  Political activists – unknown  5 million Christians  Total – million people

People Responsible  Hitler  Heinrich Himmler Oversaw camps and death squads Committed suicide after being arrested  Ernst Kaltenbrunner Highest ranking SS leader to face trial  Adolf Eichmann “the architect of the Holocaust” Was in charge of transportation of Jews Fled to Argentina after war – Israeli agents tracked him down and arrested him  Tried, convicted, and hanged for 15 criminal charges

Claims that it did not happen  Nazis had no official policy on exterminating Jews  Nazis did not use gas chambers  5-6 million deaths is “grossly” exaggerated  Survivor testimonies are filled with incosistencies  Nazi confessions extracted through torture  Documentary evidence is fabricated  Stories were a myth created by Allies to “de monize” Germans  Treatment of Jews no different than what Allies did to their enemies  “The Holocaust — the alleged extermination of some six million Jews (most of them by gassing) — is a hoax and should be recognized as such by Christians and all informed, honest and truthful men everywhere."

Proof it did happen  Written documents  Eyewitness testimony  Photographs  The camps themselves  Inferential evidence – if they were not killed, where did they go?  Holocaust denial is illegal in 13 countries

Auschwitz