1. Hitler’s “Final Solution”
The Holocaust
Hitler’s “Final Solution”

2. Mein Kampf Hitler’s book provided view of future plans
Envisioned a Germany free of Jews
When in total control in Germany, he was able to implement his plans
Nazis promoted extreme nationalism
Ideas on racial purity promoted w/ propaganda
Non-German ethnic groups seen as threats to GER
Jews depicted as evil, money-grubbing
Not people - vermin, rats, or insects that should be exterminated

3. Anti-Semitic Propaganda

4. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935
Nazis systematically stripped Jews of rights and property
Between over 2000 anti-Jewish laws passed including Nuremberg Laws
Jews not citizens of Germany
Not allowed to go to college
Not allowed to work in the government
Not allowed to marry non-Jews
Had to wear a Star of David armband/patch

6. Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” November 9, 1938
Nazis destroy synagogues and businesses in Ger. & Aust.
91 killed & 30,000 jailed
Response to killing of Nazi official by a Jew

10. The Ghettos War put millions of Jews under Hitler’s control
Nazis set out to solve the Jewish “problem”
Jews were forced from their homes into ghettos
Conditions in these restricted areas were crowded and unsanitary
Most ghettos in occupied Eastern Europe
Warsaw Ghetto the largest
300K Warsaw Jews sent to concentration camps and killed

11. Deportation of Jews to Warsaw Ghetto
Forced Jewish Labor
Children scaled walls to steal food

12. The Warsaw Uprising April 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto uprising
German troops attacked the ghetto
60K Jews slaughtered
9 Nazis dead & 86 wounded

14. Warsaw Uprising

15. Wannsee Conference – Jan. 1942
Meeting at which the SS proposed a plan to transport all 11 million of Europe’s Jews to camps where they would be killed
Plan also called for killing Russian POW’s, Gypsies, and eventually 30 million European Slavs
SS would expand existing camps to handle the task

16. Concentration Camps
Nazis began setting up camps soon after they took power
First camps were detention and labor camps for political enemies
Soon after – others were sent
Communists, homosexuals, religious dissenters (Jehovah’s Witnesses), and Gypsies
Jews were sent in large numbers after Kristallnacht
Prisoners were often used as slave labor

17. The Final Solution Term meaning the extermination of Jews of Europe
Some camps designed exclusively as death camps
Among the camps:
Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno
In these camps, Nazi doctors performed medical experiments on prisoners
Josef Mengele – “Angel of Death”
Twins, Dwarfs, others subjected to testing

18. The Selection Process
On arrival, prisoners went through a selection process
Some marked for death in the showers:
The old or sick
Young children
Kinderlager – kids section of a death camp
Pregnant women
Some would be temporarily spared so they could work:
The healthy
Persons 16-45
People with special talents
Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work Makes One Free”

26. Wholesale Slaughter Final Solution began in summer & fall of 1941
Coincided w/ invasion of USSR
USSR had large Jewish population
Killing groups followed directly behind the attacking army
Jews told they would be resettled – were instead led to huge ditches where they were shot – up to 500 at a time
At first, graves were dug (usually by the Jews themselves) to bury bodies
Later, to hide evidence – crematoria were built

29. Warehouse in Auschwitz containing items confiscated from prisoners

35. Buchenwald

36. Twisted Priorities
Killing the Jews started to take priority over the war
Trains carried Jews to camps instead of transporting supplies
Soldiers needed elsewhere instead manned the camps and killing units
Extermination plans continued even as the Nazis were losing the war

37. Numerous methods of killing
Firing squads
Considered inefficient
Gassing trucks – people locked in a sealed truck & asphyxiated with carbon monoxide
Used until first death camp – Chelmno – began operating in late 1941
By 1942, camps used poison gas – Zyklon–B, a pesticide
Gas chambers designed to look like showers
Gas chambers in Auschwitz could kill 6,000/day
Crematoria (large ovens) burned the remains
Soon they couldn’t keep up with the high #’s of dead
Large open pits used to burn piles of bodies

39. Liberation of the Camps
By 1942 – no selection process
prisoners being killed immediately upon arriving at death camps
Camps liberated as Soviets & Allies pushed Nazis back to Germany
Germans tried to cover up evidence
Prisoners still alive had severe digestive problems – malnutrition
U.S. Army forced citizens of Weimar to witness Buchenwald camp
Many had denied the camp’s existence
Allies made Germans bury the dead
Made films of what they found – proof

41. Dachau

42. In all, about 12 million people were killed by the Nazis
The Human Cost
In all, about 12 million people were killed by the Nazis
6 million were Jews
More than 3 million Jews killed in camps
Others killed by firing squads or in the ghettos
Remaining 6 million from various other groups including Slavs, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Political Prisoners, the sick, etc.

43. Who is to blame? Nazi government / Hitler
Anti-Semitic history of Europe
Collaborationist governments
Allies?
How much did they know?

44. Nuremberg Trials (1946-49) Trials held to punish Nazis leaders
Had 3 goals
Establish formal record of what happened
Re-establish basic rules of international conduct
Punish Nazis guilty of war crimes
Why Nuremberg? - Site of massive Nazi rallies
Defense – accused claimed they followed orders

45. Results: 22 Nazi Leaders tried
12 - executed
3 - life terms
4 – lesser terms
3 - acquitted