1. The War at Home and the Holocaust in Europe
Unit 6, Section 3
The War at Home and the Holocaust in Europe

2. America Mobilizes
After Pearl Harbor, Americans quickly mobilized for war
5 million volunteers, Selective Service Act drafts another 10 million into service
Women serve in Women’s Auxiliary Corps (non-combat roles)
African Americans served in segregated units
Tuskegee Airmen most famous

3. Tuskegee Airmen in Italy, 1945
trailer

4. Minorities Serve the Nation
300,000 Mexican Americans
1,000,000 African Americans
50,000 Asian Americans
25,000 Native Americans Windtalkers
Fought in World War II.

5. Industry and Paying for the War
American industry grows to unprecedented level to support war effort – “production miracle”
War Production Board – organized industrial production for the war
Rationing became a way of life for the nation
Office of Price Administration – regulated prices and inflation
War bonds issued
Personal income tax rates increased

6. Labor Pitches In 6 million women enter the workforce
Replacing men in industrial jobs; producing products needed for war effort
Rosie the Riveter as symbol
Opportunities afforded to African Americans, but still faced discrimination

7. Mobilizing Scientists
OSRD is created to get scientists involved in war effort
Secret development of Atomic Bomb – the Manhattan Project
Carried out in labs across the country
Led by J. Robert Oppenheimer

8. Discrimination at Home
Japanese Internment –
Seen as a threat, Japanese Americans interned in camps-Smithsonian clip
Korematsu v. United States upholds decision
African-Americans
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)founded in 1942
Latinos
Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles reflect racial tensions in city

9. Persecution of Jews in Europe
While American mobilizes, Jewish people were being murdered in Europe
Long standing Anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe; Hitler scapegoats Jews for German problems
Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, outlines his plans
Nuremberg Laws of 1935 take away Jewish civil rights, forced to wear yellow star
1938, Kristallnacht, Nazis destroy Jewish property, thousands are arrested
Jewish refugees try to flee, but Anti-Semitism across the world (including U.S.) makes it difficult

10. Final Solution Nazi policy of genocide against the Jewish people
Jews relocated to ghettos, sent to Concentration Camps across Europe where they were enslaved or murdered outright
Notorious camps at Aushchwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau

11. The Final Stage Mass Exterminations
In 1941, six death camps were built in Poland
These death camps had gas chambers that could kill 12,000 people a day.
Most Jews were sent to concentration camps where they suffered hunger, illness, overwork, torture & death

12. To accomplish the Final Solution, the Nazis arrested people they identified as “enemies of the state” condemning this people to slavery & death.
In addition to Jews, the Nazis rounded up political opponents (Communists, Socialists, and Liberals), Gypsies, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals ,the disabled & the terminally ill.

13. The Holocaust
Over 6 million Jews and other “non-desirables” are killed by the Nazis
Some camps were liberated by American or Russian troops as war progressed
Survivors often lost entire families
Some Jews were hidden by sympathetic peoples in Europe
Artifact study

14. Aftermath Questions about how much German people knew about Holocaust
Questions about how much Allies knew about what was happening in Europe

15. Some Jews however, were saved
Survivors
Some Jews however, were saved
Ordinary people sometimes risked their own lives to save Jews
Some Jews even survived the concentration camps, Elie Wiesel who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 is a survivor of Auschwitz. Passed away in 2016.
Revisits Auschwitz