World War II

1. World War II The Holocaust

2. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust • After coming to power in 1933 Hitler implemented outlined the Nazi philosophy outlined in his book • No persecution of Jews in World History ever equaled the brutality or extent under the Nazi’s • A systematic murder of 6 million Jews and some 5 to 6 million other people

3. Persecution Begins • Anti-Semitism: hostilities towards Jews, existed since the mid 1800’s • After the Nazi’s took control of the govt. in 1933 it became policy • Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935: stripping Jews of German Citizenship

4. Symbols of Hatred • All Germans were required to carry identity cards • Germans were encouraged to stop patronizing Jewish establishments • With the SA, the SS, & the Gestapo the Nazi’s were able to pursue people who did not follow the new laws • Jews were forced to wear yellow stars of David so that they could be identified • Political enemies were thrown into concentration camps

5. Undesirables were sent to these camps Jews Homosexuals Homeless Jehovah’s Witnesses Gypsies People with physical & mental disabilities Kristallnacht: the night of broken glass. All the broken windows of Jewish shops Hitler orders an attack on the night of Nov. 9-10 in 1938 Nazi thugs destroyed stores, houses, and synagogues Persecution Continues

6. Refugees Seek Asylum • 1933-1937 130,000 Jews fled Germany • They fled to other European nations, to Palestine, Latin American, & the US • Immigration issues became problematic a conference was called • 29 nations refused to ease their immigration laws, only the Dominican Republic • However the Jews still in Europe were not safe, Hitler was still on the move

7. From Murder to Genocide • With the invasion of Poland 2 mill more Jews came under German control • 30% of population moved to Ghettos • Hunger, overcrowding, & lack of sanitation brought disease bringing a high death rate • The special forces called the • Einsatzgruppen: mobile killing • units were sometimes used to • clean out ghettos. • They killed the polish upper • class, priests, & influential Jews • Anyone who questioned Nazi • Authority.

8. The Final Solution • 1941 the Nazi’s started experimenting on Jews & Soviet prisoners of war to find an efficient way to kill • Zykolon B, a poisonous gas was to be used • In January 1943 govt. officials • met at the Wannsee Conference • outside of Berlin to discuss “ The • Final Solution” to the Jewish ?. • Their plan was to establish special • camps where genocide was to be • carried out.

9. The Death Camps • Dec. 1941 1st day of operation, 2,300 Jews were killed • 6 camps were eventually built • Death camps existed only for mass murder

10. Most Jews were crammed into a train with no knowledge of their destination After arrival prisoners were split into two lines Prisoners were forced to carry dead to the crematoria Those that escaped death were basically worked and starved to death “The Walking Dead” If disease did not kill you periodic selections would # killed in death camps was staggering Arrival At The Camps

11. Genocide & Numbers • 43, 000 prisoners perished at Buchenwald labor camp for 1937-1939 • Pales in comparison with the genocide committed in Auschwitz • More victims there than anywhere else • 1.5 million, 90% of them Jews

12. Warsaw Ghetto revolt against deportation to death camps 27 days held off German troops and tanks Escape & revolts in camps took place It was not until 1944 that the War Refugee Board was created It was an attempt to try to help the people threatened by the Nazi’s The WRB helped fund ways of escape Revolts, Rescue, & Liberation

13. Reaction to the Horror • As allied forced advanced Germans abandoned their camps. • May 1945 American troops for the first time saw the horror • Nuremberg Trials • 12 received death sentences Just following orders would no longer be an excuse.