1. Ch 14 sec 2
The Holocaust

2. I. Nazi Anti-Semitism
Jews had long been a target of persecution all throughout Europe. There was nothing very new about the German anti-Semitism, the major difference was the effort that the Nazis put into their persecution.
The Nazis also moved it from a religious difference into a racial difference. They were not Aryan, therefore were not equal to true Germans.

3. I. Nazi Anti-Semitism
Nazi law stated that if your grandparent was Jewish, that made you Jewish, even if you did not practice the religion.
Hitler begins the persecution soon after he is appointed chancellor. Over the following years more laws are added, including the Nuremburg laws that took away citizenship from Jews.

4. I. Nazi Anti-Semitism
While some people were appalled at what the Nazis were doing, many followed along with the policies. They attacked the Jews and discriminated against them.
In 1938 Kristallnacht was a series of anti-Semitic riots that broke out all over Germany. Synagogues were burnt, stores looted, Jews were beaten and some were killed.

5. I. Nazi Anti-Semitism
After the riots ended, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps, and the Jews were held responsible for the damage and fined 1 billion marks.
This convinced many of the Jews to leave the country, however laws made it difficult for them to leave, and other countries were unwilling to allow them to enter.

6. II. Toward the Final Solution
At the start of World War 2, there were 9 million Jews living all throughout Europe. But as Hitler expanded his control, they all came under Nazi control.
The SS was charged with taking care of the “Jewish problem”, which was either to incarcerate or eliminate the Jews.

7. II. Toward the Final Solution
Concentration camps were set up before the war started for political prisoners and other undesirable groups.
When the war breaks out, more camps are created to house the Jews from areas that were conquered.

8. II. Toward the Final Solution
Some people tried to hide the Jews from the Nazis and risked their own lives to do so.
The conditions in the camps were terrible. It was days of intense labor, with barely any food to eat. The intent was to kill the workers, and there were many other ways to die.

9. II. Toward the Final Solution
The Nazis also put the Jews into ghettos in cities. They were separated from the rest of the city, and had little supplies and less room.
The largest and worst ghetto was in Warsaw. 500,000 people were crammed into an area that had previously housed 10,000. There was no food, no room, and thousands died from starvation and disease.

10. II. Toward the Final Solution
Once the Nazis sent a group to the concentration camp at Treblinka, the rest of the Jews in Warsaw fought against the Nazis. The rebellion lasted for a month, but was crushed and most were eventually killed.
The plan to execute the Jews started with squads called Einsatzgruppen that would follow the army to round up Jews in conquered lands and kill them.

11. II. Toward the Final Solution
The Nazi leadership realized that the task was difficult for the soldiers to complete, and it was not efficient enough for their plans.
They created a plan called the Final Solution that called for 6 new camps to be built that would be able to kill on a massive scale. Men, women, and children would all fall victim to the plan.

12. III. The American Response
When the war began, people in America may have sympathized with the Jews in Europe, but there was no desire to allow them to flee to the U.S.
The first reports of the concentration camps and the Final Solution were met with skepticism, officials thought it was wartime exaggeration.

13. III. The American Response
It wasn’t until 1944 that concern for refugees from the war became official policy. The War Refugee Board was created to help victims of the Nazis.
As the armies began to push the Germans back, they started to find the death camps. The Soviets reached Auschwitz in early 1945 and gave proof of the Final Solution to the world.

14. III. The American Response
American troops also found camps and the conditions were the same. People emaciated, bodies of the dead piled up, disease everywhere.
Even after liberation, thousands continued to die from malnutrition and disease.

15. III. The American Response
After the war, the leaders of the Nazis were put on trial for crimes against humanity. The trial was held at Nuremburg, and 22 Nazi leaders were put on trial.
12 were sentenced to death, and the others served long prison terms. People continue to hunt down Nazis today to bring them to trial for the Holocaust.

16. In your notebooks
Should people continue to hunt down Nazis today and put them on trial for war crimes? Give reasons for your answer, half page at least.