1. History of the Holocaust

2. Holocaust Defined
The Holocaust refers to the period from January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, to May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe ended.
Germany’s deliberate and
systematic attempt to
annihilate the entire Jewish
population, a plan Hitler called
the “Final Solution.”

3. Pre-Holocaust Germany
Following WWI, Germany was left weakened, both politically and financially.
Germany’s territory
was diminished, they
were forced to pay
reparations for the damages
of the war. Their national
pride and economy were in
fast decline

4. Anti-Semitism in Germany
Hitler used popular anti-Semitic stereotypes to play on people’s existing paranoia and fear of German Jews.
He used the Jews as a scapegoat to all of Germany’s problems, as the enemy the entire country could rally against.

5. Propaganda

6. Further Attacks Against Jews
The daily Nazi newspaper during Hitler’s reign, “The Attacker,” printed at the bottom of every front page “The Jews Are Our Misfortune!”
Hitler continued to preach the superiority of the “Aryan” race and the need to cleanse their country of “impurities.”

7. Legislation: The Nuremberg Laws
Passed in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws dictated that no Jew could marry a German and that Jews were stripped of their German citizenship.
Jews had their passports
stamped with a “J” and
were forced to wear a
yellow Star of David to
identify them.

8. The First Signs of Violence
While many Jews tried to flee the country, others were deported to prison camps.
Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) occurred in 1938 when a Jewish boy killed a German official when his parents were forced into deportation.
As a result, Germans destroyed Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Many Jews were beaten and killed and some 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

10. Jewish Ghettos
When Germany invaded Poland, Germans rounded up Poland’s nearly 3 million Jews and forced them
to live in isolation,
in fenced-in,
impoverished
ghettos.

11. Deportation
The Jews were then systematically rounded up and shipped in box cars to the death camps,
like Dachau.
There was no
food, water,
bathroom, or
window

12. In the Camps
Upon arrival, the Jews were separated into those healthy enough for labor and those who were to be
exterminated.
The sick and weak
were gassed and
their bodies
burned.

13. German Labor
The Germans needed a great amount of labor to keep their camps running and help their war effort.
The Jews were literally worked to death, in order to help support the German army.

14. The End of the War
In 1944 and 1945, the camps were liberated as the Allied forces swept across Europe, defeating and pushing back the German army.
While many were
saved from death,
between five and
seven million died
in the camps.