270 likes | 382 Views
Chapter 18 : Section 3. The Holocaust. Anti-Semitism. Hatred of Jews It was easier for Hitler to blame others for the problems of Germany. The Jews MEIN KAMPF – filled with anti-semitism. From MEIN KAMPF.
E N D
Chapter 18 : Section 3 The Holocaust
Anti-Semitism • Hatred of Jews • It was easier for Hitler to blame others for the problems of Germany. • The Jews • MEIN KAMPF – filled with anti-semitism.
From MEIN KAMPF • “Let the desolation which Jewish hybridization daily visits on our nation be clearly seen, this blood-poisoning that can be removed from our body national.”
The Holocaust • Official Nazi policy. • 6 million European Jews killed. • 2/3 the total population. • 5-6 million others died in the concentration camps. • Gypsies, Gays, people that opposed Hitler and Nazism, mentally ill, homeless, Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Nazi Policies about Jews • Exclude and isolate Jews. • Laws to keep them from participating in political, social or economic life. • Urged people to boycott Jewish businesses. • Have no Jewish employees. • No marriage or mixing between Jews and Aryans.
What made a person a Jew in Hitler’s Germany? • A person who had three or four Jewish grandparents – DESPITE their current religion. • Any person with two Jewish grandparents that practiced the Jewish religion.
Identifying Jews • Forced to have “J” on all identity cards. • Wear yellow stars on all clothing. • Made Jews open to public attack and police harassment. • Kept Jews from going to Switzerland.
Hitler’s Police • Gestapo • Secret Police • Identify and pursue enemies of the Nazis • SS • Schutzstaffel • Private army of the Nazis • Guarded and collected information on prisoners
Kristallnacht • November 9, 1938 • “Night of Broken Glass” • Nazi destruction of Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues • Thousands arrested and shipped off to Concentration Camps
Jewish Refugees • Sought to get away from Hitler and the Nazis. • Escapes to other European countries. • Depression and anti-semitism prevented the US from taking in many.
Evian Conference:1938 • Meant to find solution for Jewish refugees. • Meant to stop Jewish refugees from going to Palestine. • Out of 32 nations attending ONLY the Dominican Republic agreed to take refugees.
From Murder to Genocide • As the Nazis moved into European countries the SS and Gestapo found many Jews. • 2 million in Poland • Many were refugees from Germany
The Warsaw Ghetto • 400,000 Jews confined to a few blocks. • Sealed off with brick and barbed wire. • Little food, overcrowded, no medical and no sanitation.
The Warsaw Ghetto • Thousands died every month. • But that was “too inefficient” for the Nazis
The Einsatzgruppen • Other ways to kill Jews. • Mobile execution squads. • Babi Yar – 33,000 Jews killed in 2 days. • STILL not efficient enough for the Nazis.
Wannsee Conference • “The Final Solution” for the Jews. • Special camps in Poland to commit GENOCIDE. • Deliberate destruction of an entire ethnic or cultural group.
The Death Camps • Poison gas to be used to kill. • Zyklon B most effective gas. • Built 6 camps for primary purpose of mass murder.
The Death Camps • Jews from Poland, Netherlands, Germany and other occupied lands were sent to the camps. • Transported in cattle cars. • 4 of 6 camps sent everyone directly to death.
Auschwitz: The worst • Prisoners herded off the transport and put into two lines. • Elderly, women with children, those who were sick or looked weak were taken to the “showers”
Auschwitz • Jewish prisoners who were “healthy” had the job of carrying out the bodies and putting them in the crematoria. • Sorted clothing, belongings, any gold fillings from bodies.
Auschwitz • Life expectancy for prisoners was months. • 12,000 victims could be gassed a day. • Some used for medical experiments. • 1.5 million died in Auschwitz. • 90% were Jews
Fighting Back • Some Jews joined Resistance networks and fought the Nazis. • Violent uprisings in some ghettos • Death camp Treblinka was so damaged in rioting, it closed. • All rebellions were crushed
Rescue and Liberation • The US had a good idea of what was happening at Death Camps in 1942 • Disbelief • No interest in the media or in Washington. • Problem wasn’t here.
Rescue and Liberation • 1944 FDR created the War Refugee Board to help Jews escape the Nazis • Funded Raoul Wallenberg to save thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Rescue and Liberation • April 1945 : Liberation of the camps. • US and Allied forces arrived.
Nuremberg Trials • After the war 24 Nazi defendants were put on trial for “crimes against humanity” for WWII atrocities. • 12 received death sentences.
Importance of the Nuremberg Trials • People couldn’t use the excuse they were “just following orders” as a defense for what they did. • Individuals are responsible for their own actions.