1. The Holocaust

2. “This was but a prelude, where books are burnt, in the end, human beings will be burnt.” Heine

3. Etymology
from the Greek ὁλόκαυστος [holókaustos]: hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt”

5. Definition of the Holocaust
Refers to the systematic murder of almost 6 million Jews by the Nazis.
Also included the murder of Gypsies, Homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, The Disabled, and other people.

6. Why did it happen? Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice in Europe.
Jews were blamed for the betrayal and the death of Christ.
Blamed for the Bubonic Plague and other bad things.
This prejudice lead to the:
Forcing Jews to live in ghettos.
Forcing Jews to wear a yellow star for identification.
Violence being committed against Jews.

7. Why did it happen? The situation in Germany during the 1930s.
Great Depression leads to rise of Hitler.
Hitler and the Nazis EXTREMELY anti-Jewish.
Blame Jews for Germany’s lose in World War I and for the Great Depression. “Scapegoat.”
Laws passed in Germany to strip Jewish people of their Civil Rights (Nuremberg Laws).
Forced Jews into ghettos and wear the yellow Star of David.
Laws passed to strip disabled people of their rights. Forced sterilizations. Murder of sick children.
Where did these ideas come from?

8. “I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience, morality... we will train young people before whom the whole world will tremble. I want young people capable of violence, imperious, relentless, and cruel.”
/ Adolf Hitler /

9. Why did it happen? World War II Role of ordinary men and women.
Leads to German conquest of large parts of Eastern Europe with large numbers of Jews.
Germans in control. With the help of locals, put the" Final Solution” put into effect. Jewish men used as slave labor at first in camps.
As the allies approached, the Nazis put the gas chambers and final solution in full swing.
Role of ordinary men and women.

10. “We came to the question: what to do with the women and children
“We came to the question: what to do with the women and children? I decided to find a clear solution here as well. I did not consider myself justified to exterminate the men - that is, to kill them or have them killed - and allow the avengers of our sons and grandsons in the form of their children to grow up. The difficult decision had to be taken to make this people disappear from the earth.”
/Heinrich Himmler, October 1943/

11. Stages of the Holocaust
Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near Munich to hold political enemies of Hitler
Nazis stage boycott of Jewish businesses. Isolates Jews economically & socially
Nazis issue a decree defining who is Aryan and non-Aryan
"anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith.“
1933- Nazis pass law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects.
Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration camps.
Nuremberg Race Laws: strip Jews of their citizenship & bans marriage to non-Jews. All Jews are forced to wear a yellow Star of David badge

12. November 1938 – Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) Jewish businesses and synagogues are destroyed. Jews killed, beaten and arrested
May The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe.
Beginning in September 1939 – Jews are victimized as the Nazis march across Europe
1939 – Jewish Ghettos established in occupied Eastern Europe. Jews are forced to leave their homes and live in ghettos.
Oct Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
March Jews ordered into forced labor concentration camps

13. January 1942 – Wannsee Conference
Meeting of 15 top Nazi officials to find the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”
The group decided on extermination of the entire Jewish population of Europe
Death Camps built to eliminate the “undesirable” populations
Zyklon B, a pesticide, used in gas chambers, as well as crematoriums
Ghettos were eliminated, all inhabitants sent to death camps
Tattoos used as identification for prisoners

14. Medical Experiments of Dr. Mengele
Auschwitz in charge of selection of prisoners
Ran cruel medical experiments to solve his own sick medical questions
Areas of fascination: twins, gypsies, dwarves, & infants
Many experiments focused on solving issues faced by soldiers at the front
Other doctors at other camps also experimented w/ prisoners

15. Experiment Types Altitude tests Freezing tests
Sulfanilamide (deliberate cuts)
Twins
Food Poison/ Poison bullets TB
Transplants
Sterilization
Seawater
Disease Resistance

16. Where are the Camps?

18. In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me - and by that time no one was left to speak up.

19. 11 million people died in German death camps
6 million Jews (2/3rds of all European Jews)
5 million of other groups including: gypsies, Slavs (3.5 million Russians), Communists, Political Prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, the insane, & the physically and mentally handicapped

20. The white figures represent Aryans; the black figures represent Jews; and the shaded figures represent Mischlinge (mixed blood).

22. Men and women had to share bunks that were less than 5 feet wide.

24. open pits were used to burn the bodies, as the number of dead exceeded the capacity of the crematories.
Fat from the burning bodies was saved and used for fuel.

25. Move to the left, move to the right…seems simple, but the wrong direction sent you to death in the gas chambers.

26. Liberation
When Allied soldiers reached the camps, nothing could prepare them for what they were about to see.
Prepare yourself, here is what they
witnessed.

27. Allied leaders asked for the liberators to record what they saw.
Churchill wanted this done, because he felt one day people would try to say that it never happened.
Iran - Denies the Holocaust

38. Life in a Concentration Camp
A prisoner in Dachau is forced to stand without moving for endless hours as a punishment. He is wearing a triangle patch identification on his chest.

39. Many still died after liberation, as their bodies simply could not process food.

40. This What You Have Done!
German civilians were forced to go to the camps and see what they participated in.

42. Survivors in Mauthausen open one of the crematoria ovens for American troops who are inspecting the camp.

43. A warehouse full of shoes and clothing confiscated from the prisoners and deportees gassed upon their arrival. The Nazis shipped these goods to Germany.

44. Never Again
“To forget what happened would be like letting it happen again.”—Elle Wiesel