1. The Holocaust
Chapter 24 Section 3

2. Introduction
As part of their vision for Europe, the Nazis proposed a new racial order.
They proclaimed that the Germanic peoples, or Aryans, were a “master race.” (a misuse of the term Aryan, which actually refers to the Indo-European peoples who began to migrate into the Indian subcontinent around 1500 B.C.)
The Nazis claimed that all non-Aryan peoples, particularly Jewish people, were inferior.
This racist message would eventually lead to the Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of Jews and other groups judged inferior by the Nazis.

3. The Holocaust Begins
Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jews that had deep roots in European history.
Jews as scapegoats for
personal failures.
Germany’s defeat in World War I
Targeting Jews government policy
1935 Nuremberg Laws made it illegal to marry a Jew. Other laws limited the work of Jews.

4. 1935- Nuremberg Race Laws

5. “Night of Broken Glass”
On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan (pictured) a Jewish youth from Germany, shot a German diplomat living in Paris to avenge his father’s deportation to Poland.
November 9, 1938: In retaliation Nazi leaders in Germany launched a violent attack on the Jewish community on November 9, This attack was carried out by the SA (storm troopers) and SS, who attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. This night was called Kristallnacht.

6. Burning Synagogue on Kristallnacht

7. Did you know?
Kristallnacht was not just staged without planning, but served a specific purpose in Nazi policy toward the Jews. The SA was under strict orders to confiscate any firearms owned by Jews when ransacking Jewish homes and businesses. This would prevent any significant armed resistance to Nazi policies in the future.
This picture is typical of the smashed windows of Jewish businesses on Kristallnacht.

8. A Flood of Refugees
By the end of 1939, a number of German Jews had fled to other countries.
At first, Hitler favored emigration as a solution to what he called “the Jewish problem.”
After admitting tens of thousands of Jewish refugees, France, Britain, and the United States abruptly closed their doors to further immigration.
The St. Louis is turned away from the US.

10. Isolating the Jews
Hitler then ordered Jews in all countries under his control to be moved to designated cities called ghettos.
After 1941, all Jews in German controlled areas had to wear a yellow Star of David patch (pictured).

11. The “Final Solution”
Hitler’s plan called the “Final Solution” was a genocide plan to systematically kill an entire people.
Hitler wanted to purify the “Aryan” race.
He tried to eliminate other groups he viewed as “subhuman.”
Roma (gypsies), Poles, Russians
the insane
the disabled
the incurably ill

13. The Killings Begin
As the Nazis moved across Europe the SS killing squads rounded up men, women, children, and even babies and shot them in pits where they were buried.
Other Jews were rounded up and herded into concentration camps where they were slave labor.
Inmates would work seven days a week for the SS or for German businesses. Food consisted of thin soup, scraps of bread, and potato peelings. Most inmates lost 50 lbs quickly.

15. Phase 1 = Shooting
Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated
They were taken to the woods and were shot one by one
their bodies were buried in mass graves

16. Phase 2 = Gas Vans
Again, Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated in vans
The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van
700,000 Jews killed in Vans

17. Problems with Phases 1,2
The Nazis encountered several problems with the executions and gas vans
First, they were both taking to much time
Second, resources such as gas and munitions were becoming scarce
Third, soldiers involved were beginning to have psychological problems with what they were doing.

18. Phase 3 = The Camps
Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution
there were two different types of camps:
CONCENTRATION CAMPS
EXTERMINATION CAMPS
Jews from all over occupied Europe were to be brought here.

19. The Final Stage
In 1942 the Germans built huge exterminations camps equipped with gas chambers that could kill as many as 6,000 people in a day.
Committees of Nazi doctors separated the strong (mostly men) from the weak (women, children, and elderly). The weak went to their deaths in the gas chambers usually that day.
The victims were told to undress and head into the gas chambers under the guise they were taking showers. Cyanide gas from Zyklon B granules came through the fake showerheads.

20. CAMPS IN POLAND

21. CHELMNO Jews from the Lodz ghetto in Poland sent here
First death camp built = 1941
First to use Gas Vans on Jews

22. MAJDANEK Established in 1941 as a POW camp
started its part in the Final Solution in 1942
Jews, Poles and Soviet POW’s sent here
had two gas chambers to exterminate

23. AUSCHWITZ Started operations in January 1940 (Poland)
Himmler chose Auschwitz as the place for the Final Solution
had 4 gas chambers/crematories by 1943
mass killings with Zyklon B gas
commanded by Rudolph Hoess
recorded 12,000 kills in one day

24. Auschwitz Death Camp, Poland.

30. This wheeled table helped transport the bodies of the gassed victims to the ovens for cremation.

32. This mechanism rotated the table upon which the bodies of the gassed victims were transferred to the ovens for cremation.

33. There was once a building standing here, but this is the area where the Nazis themselves burned this building down to attempt to destroy evidence of the death camps.

41. These are burned down barracks where the Nazis again tried to destroy evidence of atrocities in the Auschwitz camp.

43. Zyklon B granules on display at Auschwitz
Empty Zyklon B canisters found by the Allies at Auschwitz at the end of World War II
Zyklon B granules on display at Auschwitz

44. Dr. Josef Mengele “ANGEL OF DEATH” Arrived in Auschwitz in May of 1943
SS Doctor who had power of life/death
performed medical experiments on Jewish children
“ANGEL OF DEATH”

45. MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS Sterilization of men and women
endurance of pain to high and low temperatures and pressure
experiments on twins to increase number of multiple births to Aryan women
injections of phenol to kill patients
Dr. Mengele attempted to sew children together to make Siamese twins

46. MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS EXTRACTED HUMAN ORGANS
EXPERIMENTS ON CHILDREN IN AUSCHWITZ

47. OPERATION REINHARD Largest single massacre of Holocaust
March 1942-November 1943
named after Reinhard Heydrich
carried out at three camps, run by the SS
every Jew that arrived at one of the camps would be dead in 2 hours.
Total of 1,700,000 Jews killed

48. BELZEC MARCH 1942 JEWS FROM LUBIN GHETTO- POLAND
OPERATIONS STOP DECEMBER 1942
CAMP WAS DISMANTLED AND PLOWED OVER AND PLANTED ON

49. SOBIBOR MAY 1942 3 GAS CHAMBERS ESCAPE OF 300 JEWS AND SOVIET POW’S
ONLY 50 LIVE
GAS CHAMBERS SHUT DOWN AFTER ESCAPE

50. TREBLINKA JEWS FROM WARSAW GHETTO 10 GAS CHAMBERS
LOCATED EAST OF WARSAW
BODIES WERE BURNED IN OPEN PITS
AUGUST 1943

51. Camp Totals

52. Percentage of Jews killed in each country
AUSTRIA 35%
POLAND 91%
USSR 36%
NORWAY 45%
BELGIUM 45%
LUXEMBOURG 55%
ESTONIA 44%
ROMANIA 84%
A Total of 6,000,000 Jews
HUNGARY 74%
YUGOSLAVIA 81%
BOHEMIA 60%
How did they manage to get together all these Jews to kills them?
How did they kill them when they had them?
To begin with there were concentration camps.
LATVIA 84%
NETHERLANDS 71%
LITHUANIA 85%
GERMANY 36%
FRANCE 22%
GREECE 87%

53. Jews Killed Under Nazi Rule*
Original Jewish Population
Jews Killed
Percent Surviving
Poland
3,300,000
2,800,000
15%
Soviet Union (area occupied by Germans)
2,100,000
1,500,000
29%
Hungary
404,000
200,000
49%
Romania
850,000
425,000
50%
Germany/Austria
270,000
210,000
22%
*Estimates Source: Hannah Vogt, The Burden of Guilt

54. STATISTICS BY COUNTRY
Jewish population before, Jewish population after Holocaust

55. The Survivors
About six million European Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
Less than four million European Jews survived.
Some Jews were helped by non-Jews who risked there lives, hid Jews in their homes, and helped them escape to neutral countries. One such family was the Ten Boom family of Harlem in the Netherlands. The book and film The Hiding Place tells this story.

56. “Until September 14, 1939 my life was typical of a young Jewish boy in that part of the world in that period of time.
I lived in a Jewish community surrounded by gentiles. Aside from my immediate family, I had many relatives and knew all the town people, both Jews and gentiles. Almost two weeks after the outbreak of the war and shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, my world exploded.
In the course of the next five and a half years I lost my entire family and almost everyone I ever knew. Death, violence and brutality became a daily occurrence in my life while I was still a young teenager.”
Leonard Lerer, 1991
THIS PICTURE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT SHOWS A FAMILY WHOSE LIVED THROUGH THIS AWFUL TIME.
WE WILL BE LOOKING AT A BOOK CALLED THE SOAPMAKER WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF A YOUNG POLISH BOY'S LIFE THROUGHOUT THE WAR.
AFTER ALL THAT HORRIFIC EVIDENCE OF WHAT HAPPENED THERE SHOULD ONLY BE ONE QUESTION ON YOUR MINDS. A QUESTION WHICH WE WILL TRY TO ANSWER OVER THE NEXT FEW LESSONS....
(MOUSE CLICK) WHY.