1. Do Now: Who was responsible for the Holocaust?

2. vocabulary: some can be nouns or verbs  Aryan: used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of non- Jewish Caucasians usually having Nordic features such as blue eyes and blonde hair.  Nazi: a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party that controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler.  Pogrom: an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically : such a massacre of Jews  Collaborator: To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one's country or to participate in wrongdoing.

3. Vocabulary: some can be nouns or verbs  Perpetrator: someone who has committed a crime or a violent or harmful act.  Bystander: a person who is standing near but not taking part in what is happening but does nothing to help  Upstander: Someone who defends or stands up for a cause, individual or belief

4. vocabulary  Kristallnacht: "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pograms which took place on November 9-10, 1938 throughout Germany, annexed Austria, & in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia by recently occupied by German troops.

5. Hitler’s Inner Circle Objective: TWW understand that Adolf Hitler wasn’t solely responsible for the atrocities of the Holocaust by investigating his inner circle of collaborators

6. Rudolf Hess WWI infantry soldier & pilot Joined Nazi Party 1923, is arrested & imprisoned with Hitler where he assists in editing Mein Kampf Once out of jail he becomes Hitler’s personal aid until 1933 when Hitler rises to power & appoints Hess deputy leader of the Nazi party.

7. Rudolf Hess  He later served as a cabinet minister, and signed all laws passed by the Nazi regime. ’41 he tries to convince British leaders that peace was possible with Germany. Hess was arrested England. Hess was held in England until the end of the war.

8. Rudolf Hess  Nuremberg Trial ‘46 he was acquitted of crimes against humanity and war crimes, but was found guilty of crimes against peace & was sentenced to life imprisonment. Hess was jailed alone in the Spandau Prison in West Berlin, under the joint authority of the United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union, and France. He committed suicide in 1987.

9. Martin Bormann  chief of staff for Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, in ’33. Bormann as a close assistant to Hitler. Following Hess' flight to Great Britain, Bormann became head of the Party Chancellery ’41 & in ‘43, Secretary to the Fuehrer. He contributed to many domestic policies, including the murder of the Jews, the "euthanasia" effort, the plunder of artwork, & the expansion of forced- labor programs. He also signed a series of orders of deportation of Jews to the east.

10. Martin Bormann  Bormann died in an effort to flee Berlin in the last days of World War II, but many thought he escaped. He was tried in absentia at Nuremberg & sentenced to death. West German authorities officially declared him dead in ‘73 after his remains were discovered and positively identified.

11. Adolf Eichmann  SS officer who played a major role in the annihilation of European Jewry was head of the Jewish section in the Gestapo  Berlin in January ’42 participated in the initial discussions concerning the “Final Solution.” On Heydrich's orders, Eichmann organized the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the murders

12. Adolf Eichmann  Once the "Final Solution" was launched, Eichmann's office issued the orders regarding when and where deportations were to occur. He and his staff also designed the regiment for rounding up Jews and confiscating their property. Eichmann himself paid several visits to extermination camps to monitor their efficiency and progress, and was directly responsible for the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

13. Adolf Eichmann  After the war, Eichmann escaped to Argentina. He lived there undetected until ’60 when the Israeli Security Service captured him. He was tried in Jerusalem in ’61 Eichmann was found guilty & sentenced to death. He was hanged on June,1.1962

14. Joseph Mengele  German doctor and SS Officer who served as chief physician at Auschwitz (Largest concentration camp 3 camps in Auschwitz) from ’43—44. Mengele was in charge of the camp's selection process, choosing who would live and who would die. He sent about 400,000 people to their deaths in the gas chambers.

15. Joseph Mengele  He was also responsible for horrific pseudo-scientific medical experiments performed on camp prisoners, whose purpose it was to prove the superiority of the Aryan race. Mengele used human beings as guinea pigs, to study their resistance and reaction to heat, cold, sterilization and pain. He was particularly interested in babies, young twins and dwarfs.

16. Joseph Mengele  He joined the Nazis in ’37 & the SS in ’38 Mengele served in the Waffen-SS medical corps. by May ‘43he was stationed at Auschwitz where he worked until the camp's evacuation in January. He moved to Mauthausen, after which he disappeared to Brazil aided by a Catholic Priest who had baptized him given Mengele a new name & birth certificate.

17. Hermann Goering  WWI fighter pilot joined Nazi party ’22 after befriending Hitler  commander of the Storm Troopers (SA), the party's private army & founder of the Nazi Gestapo, and Commander of the German Air Force.

18. Hermann Goering  ‘ 36 Goering was put in charge of Hitler's 4 Year Plan, an economic program to revitalize the German army and economy within 4 years in anticipation of war. Goering was given extensive powers within the economic sphere; one of his responsibilities was the confiscation of Jewish property.

19. Hermann Goering  ‘41 Goering set the stage for the “Final Solution" when he gave orders to make preparations to resolve the "Jewish question" in Europe.  Self declared Fuehrer after Hitler’s suicide. Goering was convicted as a war criminal at the Nuremberg Trials & was sentenced to death, but poisoned himself in his cell hours before his execution.

20. Heinrich Himmler  Leader of the SS and Chief of German Police, an architect of the “Final Solution”, and one of Hitler’s main advisors. Next to Hitler, Himmler emerged as the most powerful man in Nazi Germany.  At 17 Himmler joined the army, but never saw action in WWI went to college & studied economics, he worked as a salesman and a chicken farmer & also became involved with the newly formed Nazi Party.

21. Heinrich Himmler  appointed police president in Munich and head of the political police throughout Bavaria. This gave him the authority to enlarge SS membership, organize the Security Service (SD)  ’33 Himmler established Dachau, the 1st concentration camp. Within a few years Himmler was made commander of the entire police force throughout the Reich; he was given the titles Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police. In 1938Himmler orchestrated the Kristallnacht pogrom of November.9--10

22. Heinrich Himmler  After the Germans surrendered, Himmler tried to escape Germany, but was caught by British soldiers. He committed suicide in ’45 before he could be brought to trial as a war criminal.

23. Joseph Goebbels  Nazi Minister of Propaganda.  Due to his clubfoot, Goebbels was unable to serve in WWI. Instead he earned a doctorate in literature and philosophy, & joins the Nazis in ’24 works as editor of the party journal. He gains a reputation as a dynamic speaker and propagandist.

24. Joseph Goebbels  His goal was to "Nazify" the art & culture of Germany. He ordered all "un- German" books burnt on May,10.1933 He used radio & propaganda films to win over supporters. In November of ‘38 it was Goebbels' idea to exploit the murder of a German diplomat in France, by a Jewish youth (Herschel Grynszpan), in order to stage a violent pogrom against the Jews of Germany. He gave this violent outburst its name Kristallnacht. (Night of Broken Glass)

25. Joseph Goebbels  Goebbels was true believer & fan of Adolf Hitler but Hitler did not always return the admiration. As the war was about to end, Hitler named Goebbels his successor but Goebbels refused. The day after Hitler’s suicide in his bunker, Goebbels and his wife followed suit, after ordering the execution of their 6 children.

26. Reinhard Heydrich  Nazi SS leader who was a key player in the planning and execution of the “Final Solution”. Heydrich served as head of the Nazi Security Police (SIPO), the Security Service (SD), and the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA).  Dishonorably discharged from German Navy w/Aryan looks

27. Reinhard Heydrich  Heydrich reigned over the blackmail & information- getting that helped Himmler gain control over the Gestapo. In ‘36 Heydrich became executive director of the Gestapo, while retaining control of the SD. These two posts gave him unlimited power to send "enemies of the Reich" such as Jews to concentration camps.

28. Reinhard Heydrich  May‘42, as he traveled, unguarded, to the airport to visit Hitler, 2 Czech parachute agents rolled a hand grenade under Heydrich's vehicle. Though not killed by the blast itself, grenade splinters in his leg and lower back led to an infection that killed him on June 4, 1942.

29. Albert Speer  Hitler’s architect and German Minister of Armaments from ’42-45.  Joined Nazi Party in ’31 by ‘34 Speer became Hitler's personal architect. He was charged with creating architectural plans for Berlin & building a permanent structure for party events by ’37 he was named inspector general of construction in Berlin. In this position, he gained access to the apartments vacated by Berlin's Jews.

30. Albert Speer  ‘43 made Minister of Armaments and War Production. In both these posts, he utilized forced laborers and confiscated Jewish property to achieve his goals. He raised armaments production to an extraordinary level, even as Allied air attacks were increasing.  By the end of the war, Speer and Hitler had fallen out. He even claimed that he planned to assassinate Hitler, but there’s little proof.

31. Albert Speer  After the war, Speer was put on trial at Nuremberg & charged with war crimes & for using forced laborers & concentration camp prisoners in his work. Unlike most other war crimes defendants, Speer admitted responsibility for the actions of the Nazis, even those he claimed he was not aware of. Claiming that he knew nothing about the mass exterminations in Eastern Europe, he expressed regret for his crimes & was found guilty& sentenced to 20 years in prison--- presumably, a light sentence due to his admission of guilt & regret. After his release, Speer published a remorseful memoir. Died ‘81 in London.

32. Joachim Von Ribbentrop  Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany from ’38 –’ 45. A liquor exporter who paid for permission to add the noble "von" to his name, Ribbentrop joined the Nazis ‘32.  Negotiated Germany’s alliance with Italy and Japan in ‘36 (aka Axis ) From ‘36 to 38 Ribbentrop served as Germany's ambassador to England.

33. Joachim Von Ribbentrop  just days before the German army invaded Poland kicking off World War II, Ribbentrop reached the peak of his career with the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. As Hitler was no longer interested in diplomacy. Ribbentrop's attempt to convince Hitler not to betray the Nazi-Soviet Pact fell on deaf ears, and less than 2 years German troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.

34. Joachim Von Ribbentrop  Unlike many other Nazis, Ribbentrop was not an extreme antisemite, and did not completely understand how serious Hitler was about solving the "Jewish question" in Europe until ‘43. To impress Hitler, Ribbentrop embarked upon a campaign to pressure Germany's allies others to allow the deportation of their local Jews.  After the war, Ribbentrop was convicted at the Nuremberg trial and sentenced to death. He was hanged in ‘46.

35. Wilhelm Keitel  Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command & responsible for crimes committed by the armed forces while waging war & authorized the support & participation of German troops in these crimes, including the murder of the European Jews. Keitel was found guilty on all four counts (conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, & crimes against humanity) & sentenced to death. He was hanged in ‘46.