The Holocaust

Vocabulary Genocide: – extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. Persecution: – to exterminate people because of their religion, race, or beliefs Concentration Camps: – a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of a group of people (any of the camps established by the Nazis prior to and during WWII) Auschwitz: – Largest concentration/labor/death camp located in Poland

Vocabulary Star of David: – The Nazis used the Star of David to mark the Jews for persecution and extermination during World War II. – Holocaust: any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life; refers to the mass killing done by the Nazis during WWII

Vocabulary Ghettos: – Area in the city Jews were confined to (before camps); often surrounded by barbed wire or walls; poor living conditions Anti-Semitism: – Hatred of Jews

Why the Jews?: – Hitler blamed them for Germany’s economic downfall (depression) Jewish Question: – How should the Nazis eliminate the Jewish race?

Vocabulary Third Reich: – Term Hitler gave to his totalitarian government during the Nazi regime Inhuman: – lacking qualities of sympathy, pity, warmth, compassion, or the like; cruel; brutal; conditions not suited for humans Liquidation – destruction, elimination

Final Solution Questions Prior to death camps, how did Germany plan to “fix the Jewish problem”? What was the purpose of a death center?

Read the first paragraph at the top of p. 59 (starting with “It is almost impossible…”). Think about how the men are discussing the solution to the “Jewish problem.” What is this showing you about how these men think?

What was decided at the conference? (second paragraph p. 59) How was this plan seen as “Nazi efficient”?

The Final Solution: – “Nazi efficiency” (efficient and economical use of resources) – Jewish labor would be used to help Germany win the war; some would die during the process (in labor and death camps) and the rest would be killed after the war when they were no longer needed - Jews would be killed in gas chambers and their bodies would be burned in ovens; “mass killing”

Other Victims of the Holocaust (WHY them???)

Incurably Sick Keeping them alive was uneconomical They would consume from Germany but could not produce nothing (“useless eaters”)

Gypsies Nomadic gypsies were “unfit for society” They did not have steady homes or jobs; could not produce back into the German society as well as others

Homosexuals Useless because they could not increase the German birthrate

The Polish Leading Classes Subhumans: allowed to live, but only without power and only as a slave (included all Eastern Europeans) Nazis needed to remove the creative and educated because they could have influence over others thoughts and opinions

Soviet (Russian) POWs Eastern Europeans (subhumans) Communist (Communism was seen to be just as bad as Judaism) The Soviet Union was the enemy—so they needed to be eliminated

Jehovah’s Witnesses Refused to join the military or support the Nazi regime—wanted to remain neutral in the war