Holocaust Progression The 4 Stages Mr. Webster Social Studies

The Holocaust  Background  First Stage (Mein Kamph and Nuremburg laws)  Identification and Dehumanization  Second Stage (Kristallnacht)  Take over of businesses and new laws  Third Stage (Warsaw Ghetto)  Round up and separation from society/Ghettos  Fourth Stage (Auschwitz, Dachau,Treblinka)  Concentration Camps/Death Camps/Genocide

The Plan  Mein Kamph-the blame  Nuremberg Laws-separate from society and dehumanization of the Jewish community  Kristallnacht-the night of broken glass, take Jewish synagogues and businesses  Ghettos-round up Jews like animals, use as workers, further separation from society  Concentration camps  Death camps

The Destruction of the European Jews  Step by step process  Legalized stages  German legislature made them “laws”  Immoral?  At anytime people did not have to cooperate with the “laws”

Nazi Anti-Semitism Hitler rose to power by using Jewish people as scapegoat Longstanding tradition of blaming JewsLongstanding tradition of blaming Jews “Stab in the back” theory about Versailles Treaty“Stab in the back” theory about Versailles Treaty Pseudo-scientific view of genetics (Aryan super race)Pseudo-scientific view of genetics (Aryan super race) Nuremberg Laws (1930s)  Created a separate legal status for German Jews  Thousands of Jews left Germany during this time; others were trapped & could not emigrate

The 4 Stages  Definition  Expropriation  Concentration  Annihilation

First Stage: Definition Early 1930s  Mein Kamph and Nuremburg laws  Nazis defined Jews  Irrational pseudoscientific beliefs  Required Jews to register for identity cards  Wear visible symbols  Clothes, passports, businesses  Yellow star sewn onto clothing

Nuremburg Laws

Second Stage: Expropriation Late 1930s  Krystallnact- “The night of broken glass”  Property and livelihood of Jews taken away  Laws did not allow Jews from holding certain jobs, living in certain places, owning businesses, or having bank accounts  Jews easy to identify after the first stage

Kristallnacht

Third Stage: Concentration Early 1930s intensified after 1939  German Jews could not attend school  Travel restricted  Could not own  Phones  Cameras  Radios  Pets  Poland 1939 – moved from countryside to city (ghettos)  Slave labor  Limited food/shelter

The Final Solution Genocidal plan to eliminate Jewish “menace”  Development of the “ghetto” (confined area of a city) by walling section of city in and preventing free travel to and from (Warsaw Ghetto in Poland was largest…400,000 Jews confined)  The Concentration Camp  Brutal conditions took grizzly toll due to starvation, disease, medical experimentation, forced labor  Mobile “Killing Units”  Armed units of German soldiers who sought out and murdered thousands in mass executions; buried in mass graves (Babi Yar, 35,000 Jewish men, women, & children killed in USSR, near Kiev-1941)

Remembering Babi Yar

Fourth Stage: Annihilation From 1941, intensified after 1942  Organized and carried out large scale killings of Jews and others  Including those who spoke out against the Nazis, members of banned political parties, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, blacks, and those with disabilities  Shot, gassed by mobile units or sent to killing centers  Before killed – final expropriation-all personal property seized  Toys, clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, and women’s hair

The Death Camps The mass extermination of the Jews was too costly, time-consuming, and was leaving behind too much evidence …clearly, a new system was necessary- the death camp  Camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, & Sobibor were built with gas shower rooms and crematorium ovens to eliminate the thousands of corpses Other minority groups targeted for extermination:  Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally handicapped, and Russians Results: around 6 million Jews & 5 million other minority groups eliminated

The Death Camps

One American G.I.’s Thoughts Upon Discovering the Camps Firsthand… I thought I had seen everything. I was a hardened soldier. I had been in combat since October 1944, and I had seen death and destruction that was unparalleled in modern times. But this --- there are no words to describe this.” Captain Reid Draffen U.S. Army

The Holocaust

The Nuremberg Military Tribunal