In at least 4 sentences, write about what you know of the Holocaust.

8 th S.S. 8 May 2012 Miss Perry

Introduction  As part of their vision for Europe, the Nazis proposed a new racial order. They proclaimed that the Germanic peoples, or Aryans, were a “master race.” The Nazis claimed that all non-Aryan peoples, particularly Jewish people, were inferior.  This racist message would eventually lead to the Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of Jews and other groups judged inferior by the Nazis.

The Holocaust Begins  Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jews that had deep roots in European history. Jews as scapegoats for ○ personal failures. ○ Germany’s defeat in World War I  Targeting Jews government policy 1935 Nuremberg Laws made it illegal to marry a Jew. Other laws limited the work of Jews.

Night of Broken Glass  Jewish stores, shops and synagogues burned down  Took place because a German official was killed in Paris by a Jew  November 9, 1939 KRISTALLNACHT

“You have no right to live among us as Jews”

Isolating the Jews  Hitler ordered Jews in all countries under his control to be moved to designated cities called ghettos.  After 1941, all Jews in German controlled areas had to wear a yellow Star of David patch (pictured).

Jewish Family being moved to the ghetto

“You have no right to live among us as Jews”

The Final Solution  Hitler’s plan called the “Final Solution” was a genocide plan to systematically kill an entire people.  Hitler wanted to purify the “Aryan” race.  He tried to eliminate other groups he viewed as “subhuman.” Roma (gypsies), Poles, Russians the insane the disabled the incurably ill

“You have no right to live among us as Jews”

The Killings Begin  As the Nazis moved across Europe the SS killing squads rounded up men, women, children, and even babies and shot them in pits where they were buried.  Other Jews were rounded up and herded into concentration camps where they were slave labor.  Inmates would work seven days a week for the SS or for German businesses. Food consisted of thin soup, scraps of bread, and potato peelings. Most inmates lost 50 lbs quickly.

Prisoners arriving at the camps

 There were two kinds of concentration camps: "extermination" and "labor" camps. There were ultimately seven extermination and 10,000 labor camps. This map only shows the major camps The extermination camps were designed for the sole purpose of killing people, mainly Jews.  The extermination camps (i.e., Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc.) were all located in Poland. None were located in Germany.  The Nazis needed a fast method for the mass killings of the Jews. These were the only camps with the gassing chambers. However, many of the camps such as the labor camps had crematoriums. Prisoners in a labor or work camp (Dachau, Buchenwald, etc.) were worked to death or used in medical experiments.

The Final Stage  In 1942 the Germans built huge exterminations camps equipped with gas chambers that could kill as many as 6,000 people in a day.  Committees of Nazi doctors separated the strong (mostly men) from the weak (women, children, and elderly). The weak went to their deaths in the gas chambers usually that day.  The victims were told to undress and head into the gas chambers under the guise they were taking showers. Cyanide gas from Zyklon B granules came through the fake showerheads.

Let’s go look at Aushwitz…

This wheeled table helped transport the bodies of the gassed victims to the ovens for cremation.

This mechanism rotated the table upon which the bodies of the gassed victims were transferred to the ovens for cremation.

There was once a building standing here, but this is the area where the Nazis themselves burned this building down to attempt to destroy evidence of the death camps.

inmate barracks

These are burned down barracks where the Nazis again tried to destroy evidence of atrocities in the Auschwitz camp.

Jews Killed Under Nazi Rule* Original Jewish Population Jews Killed Percent Surviving Poland3,300,0002,800,00015% Soviet Union (area occupied by Germans) 2,100,0001,500,00029% Hungary404,000200,00049% Romania850,000425,00050% Germany/Austria270,000210,00022% *EstimatesSource: Hannah Vogt, The Burden of Guilt

The Survivors  About six million European Jews were killed during the Holocaust.  Less than four million European Jews survived.  Some Jews were helped by non-Jews who risked there lives, hid Jews in their homes, and helped them escape to neutral countries. One such family was the Ten Boom family of Harlem in the Netherlands. The book and film The Hiding Place tells this story.