1. The Holocaust

2. How it All Began…
The systematic murder of Europe’s Jews and others deemed unfit
The Great War, Treaty of Versailles, and Great Depression devastated Germany
Many blames the losses on Jews for “stabbing them in the back”
As resentment made radical political parties more popular.
Among them Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
Nazi’s had more than 100,000 members
In 1933, Hitler pressured the German president into appointing him chancellor.

3. Nazi Assault

4. TAKEOVER OF POWER, 1933
In March 1933, Adolf Hitler addressed the Reichstag
passed the “Enabling Act” giving Hitler the power to rule by emergency decree
Communists and Socialists arrested
Berlin, Germany, March 1933
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

5. FROM CITIZENS TO OUTCASTS
A national boycott of Jewish shops is called
Nuremberg laws stated Jews inferior blood (Gypsies too)
Forbidden to interact in many ways
Nazi’s outline Superior and inferior races
“Aryans” considered the best
Berlin, Germany, April 1, 1933
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

6. ENEMIES OF THE STATE
November 9–10, 1938, the Nazis unleash anti-Jewish violence
“Night of Broken Glass”
Within 48 hours,
synagogues were vandalized and burned
7,500 Jewish businesses attacked
96 Jews were killed
30,000 sent to concentration camps
Rostock, Germany, November 10, 1938
Archiv der Hansestadt Rostock, Germany

7. Other Enemies Roma (Gypsies)
persons with mental and physical disabilities
Poles
Homosexuals
Jehovah’s Wit-nesses
Soviets
political dissidents
Buchenwald, Germany, circa 1938–41
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Robert A. Schmuhl

8. SEARCH FOR REFUGE Many Jews attempted to flee
Difficult to receive permission to leave/countries to let them in
The US forbid most from coming
In May 1939 the passenger ship St. Louis—seen here before departing Hamburg—sailed from Germany to Cuba carrying 937 passengers, most of them Jews.

9. The Final Solution

10. LIFE IN THE GHETTO Ghettos were city districts, often enclosed
Used to segregate the Jewish population.
Population much higher than these areas could support
Survival was a daily challenge:
Food
Sanitation
Shelter
Clothing

11. MOBILE KILLING SQUADS
25% of Jews who perished were shot by SS mobile killing squads
These squads followed the German invasion of the USSR
In cities, gas vans used

12. DEPORTATIONS 1942-1944 Germans began liquidating Ghettos
Trains carried Jews to one of 6 killing centers
80 and 100 people were crammed into railcars
Many died during the journey, and most survivors were murdered upon arrival
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Polskie Koleje Panstwowe S.A., Poland

13. CONCENTRATION CAMP
the largest of the killing centers was Auschwitz-Birkenau
Most gassed with hours of arrival—and their bodies cremated
Nazis confiscated all the belongings

14. DEATH MARCHES
In late 1944, German evacuated concentration camp prisoners away from advancing Allied troops
Evacuated by train, ship, or on foot
Prisoners suffered and SS guards shot those who could no longer walk

15. End of Holocaust Allied forces discovered and liberated camps
Nazi leaders a tried for their crimes
Genocides like this still happen