1. Understanding the Holocaust

2. Holocaust n. destruction by fire;
n. the attempted destruction of the Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

3. Our story begins with the end of World War I...

4. Germany, who was on the losing side, lay in ruins and in poverty.

5. Two political parties began to emerge...
Nazis
Communists
Govt. would provide food and jobs for everyone.
Germany could become a world power.
BUT
The war debt would not be paid.
Everything owned by govt.
Germans could remain independent
Germany would be a satellite of Russia.

6. But the United States saves the day...
Loans money to Germany.
Helps rebuild the country.
Both communism and Nazism fade for the time being.

7. The stock market crashes!
However,
in October of 1929,
something happens...
The stock market crashes!

8. The Great Depression

9. Results of the Great Depression:
America’s trade with other countries is affected.
America’s Depression leads to a European Depression.
America can no longer provide aid to Germany.
Germany is once again poor and vulnerable to political parties.

10. Once again the Nazis began to gain power under the leadership of a man by the name of...
Adolf Hitler

11. Hitler... was born to Klara and Alois Hitler in Austria in 1889 .
Studied to be an artist but failed.
wrote Mein Kampf while in prison serving time for a failed attempt at overtaking the government.

12. In the pages of Mein Kampf, Hitler tells of his dream of creating the perfect race:
Aryan: blond hair & blue eyes
No imperfections--get rid of:
Jews
blacks
Jehovah’s Witnesses
gypsies
handicapped
chronically ill
anti-Nazis

13. Anti-Semitism Was not new to the world
(hatred of the Jewish race)
Was not new to the world
Was promoted by Hitler and Nazis
Stereotyped Jews
Used Jews as scapegoats for the problems in the world

14. 1939
Hitler becomes dictator of Germany and begins to put his plan for a master race into action….

15. Step One:
Discrimination--the act of treating a group of people differently
All Jews had to register.
Star of David sewn to clothes
No bicycles or telephones
Restrictions on shopping and entertainment
Boycotting Jewish businesses
Taking over Jewish businesses

16. Step Two: Persecution--the act of doing harm to a group of people
Public humiliation

17. Anti-Jewish riots--Pogroms

18. Moved to ghettos

19. Shootings

20. Step Three:
Concentration camps--work camps where prisoners were detained and often killed

21. Step 4: Genocide: the killing off of a race of people Gas chambers
Crematory ovens
Too many bodies
Gas chambers
Cyanide gas