1. The Holocaust
January 25, 2017

2. Holocaust: Nazi attempt to kill all Jews
Includes all Jews & “undesirables”
Gay; twin; gypsy; disabled (mental/ physical); criminal; dated/ married Jewish
Speak out against Hitler
Genocide: Mass elimination of entire group of people
WHY???
Racist Nazi Ideas
Aryan myth - superior to all/ keep pure
Blame Jews for EVERYTHING
World War I loss; Depression
Holocaust begins as soon as Hitler takes power (1933)
Hitler urged Germans to boycott Jewish owned businesses
1933: Dachau built (work camp)

3. No gov’t jobs or jobs in banking, stock exchange, law, journalism, or medicine
Nuremburg Laws
Deny citizenship to Jews
Ban marriage between Jews & non-Jews
Segregated Jews at every level
5. Propaganda
Newspapers attack on Jews
Children taught in schools that Jews “polluting” Germany
Comic books
Between
130,000 Jews flee Germany & Austria (artists, doctors, scientists)
Why didn’t others leave too???
Great Depression: Not welcome in other countries
Immigration limits

4. Holocaust Continued… January 26, 2017

5. Concentration Camps
Tattoo numbers on arm/vertical striped clothes
Torture/ kill with no fear of reprimand
Starve/ disease
Medical experiments
No anesthesia
Wannsee Conference
New design for camps to kill more
Auschwitz (Poland)
Gas: carbon monoxide or insecticide, OR
Mass execution with guns
Take what want & burn in crematory
Human fat - soap
Hair - wigs, slippers, mattresses, etc.
Cash, gold fillings, wedding rings, etc.
How many died???
MILLIONS
Bodies in ashes/ records burned

6. Could the Holocaust have been prevented?
1. Immigration policies strict
Great Depression
Worry about selves
2. Apathy: don’t care
North America: Europe is far away
Can’t relate
3. Underestimate Hitler
Big fear was Soviet Union/ communism
s: news does NOT travel fast
No TV/ internet in homes

7. Holocaust Continued… January 27, 2017

8. No specific details known about Holocaust during WWII
Specifics not known until allies liberated camps after WWII
Allies heard some stories about camps
Stalin: no concern
Churchill & FDR: sympathy but thought focus should be on defeating Hitler
If war ends, they can get the people out of the camps
No pressure on countries to NOT send Jews
Don’t know magnitude
Internment camps in U.S. for Japanese

9. ENORMITY of Holocaust became real when camps liberated (freed)
Piles of bodies
Warehouses full of hair, jewelry, shoes, etc.
Ashes
Lieutenant Winters (Band of Brothers)
“The memory of starved, slaved men, who dropped their eyes and heads when we looked at them through the chain link fence, in the same manner that a beaten, mistreated dog would cringe, leaves feelings that cannot be described and will never be forgotten. The impact of seeing those people behind that fence left me saying, ‘Now I know why I’m here.’”