The Holocaust (Shoah)

1. The Holocaust(Shoah)

2. What are examples in History, in which people were discriminated against, hated because of their race, religion or political ties?

3. What is Genocide? • “The Systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group.”

4. The Who’s Who of the Nazi Party

5. Anti-Semitism • Jews have faced prejudice and discrimination for over 2,000 years. • Jews were scapegoats for many problems. (ex. Killing of Jesus Christ, the “Black Death”) • Political leaders who used anti-Semitism as a tool relied on the ideas of racial science to portray Jews as a race instead of a religion.

6. The Plan… The Nazi plan for dealing with the “Jewish Question” evolved in three steps: 1. Expulsion: Get them out of Germany 2. Containment: Put them all together in one place – namely ghettos 3. “Final Solution”: annihilation

7. Persecution Nazis targeted other individuals and groups in addition to the Jews: • Gypsies (Sinti and Roma) • Homosexual men • Jehovah’s Witness • Handicapped Germans • Poles • Political dissidents

8. Nazi Propaganda

9. The Effective Propagandist • "The effective propagandist must be a master of the art of speech, of writing, or journalism, of the poster and of the leaflet. He must have the gift to use the major methods of influencing public opinion such as the press, film and radio to serve his ideas and goals, above all in an age of advancing technology. . .   It may be good to have power based on weapons. It is better and longer lasting, however, to win and hold the heart of a nation." -- Joseph Goebbels 1934

10. Master Race • Used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of Non-Jewish Caucasians usually having Nordic features. • Blond hair and Blue eyes • Known as the Aryan Race Chart Showing the Races of Germany

11. Nuremberg Laws

12. The Eternal Jew • The film The Eternal Jew was created to justify the separation, exclusion, and ultimately the destruction, of the Jewish people. The narrator describes the Jews of Poland as filthy, sly and ugly and juxtaposes images of Jews with rats. The goal of propaganda is ultimately action. What does one do to rats? Exterminate them. This was the unstated message of the hate film.  Poster From the Nazi Anti-Semitic Hate Film, The Eternal Jew

13. Racial Superiority • Nazi pseudo-science proclaimed the "Aryan race" to be the superior, culture producing race. Of the Aryans, the fair Nordic type was considered best. German Propaganda Poster for the Hitler Youth Organization

14. German Youth • By 1939, about 90% of the "Aryan" children in Germany belonged to Nazi youth groups. A massive propaganda campaign was aimed at Germany's youth. The Nazis indoctrinated boys and girls in their duties to the state from a young age. They saw education as critical to the new Germany.

15. "Youth serves the Fuhrer. All ten-year-olds join the Hitler Youth." “All girls join us"

16. For young men, service to the totalitarian state meant fighting the Fuhrer's wars, but for women service meant producing racially pure children for the Reich.

17. U.S. and World Response • Evian Conference 1938 • SS St. Louis

18. The Final Solution • The Nazis aimed to control the Jewish population by forcing them to live in areas that were designated for Jews only, called ghettos.

19. Wannsee Conference (1942) • The Final Solution was outlined by Reinhard Heydrich who detailed the plan to establish death camps with gas chambers.

20. What tactics did the Nazis use to get the Jews to leave the Ghettos? Deception New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to send to their friends. Starvation The Jews were told that they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a day . Tactics In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their own train tickets. A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight Terror They were told to bring the tools of their trade and pots and pans. The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for any act of resistance Hungry people are easier to control

21. How did the Nazi decide who was Jewish? • At the Wannsee conference it was decided that if one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish. • However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German. • In 1940, all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J’ and had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat.

22. Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads made up of Nazi (SS) units and police. They killed Jews in mass shooting actions throughout eastern Poland and the western Soviet Union.

23. Why do you think that they located them here? Where were the Death Camps built? The work of the Einsatzgruppen

24. Tactics: What happened to new arrivals? All new arrivals went through a process known as ‘selection.’ At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station. Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent straight to the ‘showers’ which were really the gas chambers. The Jews were helped off the cattle trucks by Jews who were specially selected to help the Nazis Deception & Selection The able bodied were sent to work camp were they were killed through a process known as ‘destruction through work.’ At some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm down the new arrivals. At Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music.

25. Operation Reinhard

26. Entrance to Auschwitz Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

27. Auschwitz Orchestra

28. Auschwitz from the air Notice how the Death camp is set out like a factory complex The Nazis used industrial methods to murder the Jews and process their dead bodies

29. The Gas Chambers • The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof. • These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses. The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber

30. Notice the Ovens easy located near the Gas Chambers The outside of the Gas Chamber

31. Processing the bodies • Specially selected Jews known as the sonderkommando were used to to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed. • The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

32. Dead bodies waiting to be processed

33. Shoes waiting to be processed by the sonderkommando Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs.

34. Destruction Through Work This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day

35. Was the Final Solution successful? • The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in 1941 • Today there are only 2000 Jews living in Poland. • The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews. • Men like Schindler helped Jews escape the Final Solution. • Not all Jews went quietly into the gas cambers. • In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realised what was really happening.

36. Aftermath • The Nuremberg Trials brought some of those responsible for the atrocities of the war to justice. • There were 22 Nazi criminals tried by the Allies in the International Military Tribunal. • Twelve subsequent trials followed as well as national trials throughout formerly occupied Europe.

37. Der Sturmer • The most notorious of the Nazi anti-Semitic newspapers was Der Sturmer (The Attacker). It began in 1923 as a political paper, but as the Nazis gained in influence, the paper became more and more anti-Semitic. By the time Hitler took power in 1933, the paper was strongly anti-Semitic and was a very popular Nazi publication. Der Sturmer Ritual Murder Issue, May 1, 1934