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11 million people were exterminated. 6 million Jews 5 million non-Jews 1933 - 1945. They were shot,. starved,. gassed. and burned. Definitions. Genocide: The systematic annihilation of a political, racial, religious or cultural group
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They were shot, starved, gassed and burned
Definitions Genocide:The systematic annihilation of a political, racial, religious or cultural group Holocaust: Wide spread complete destruction; especially by fire. It’s used to describe the catastrophe that be fell the Jews in W.W.II . Sho’ah:A Hebrew word meaning mass slaughter. Use began once the term Holocaust began to be used more often outside of referencing the Jewish experience in W.W.II
How Can the Holocaust Happen? • The escalation of hate • The power of words and images • Steps to genocide
Escalation of Hate Institutionalized, government sponsored racism Genocide Discrimination Prejudice Stereotyping
The Power of Words… “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one” “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think” The victor will never be asked if he told the truth” “ I believe today I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am doing the Lord’s work” What do all these quotations have in common?
The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew”~Adolf Hitler Hitler’s minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, links love of Germany with hatred of the Jews
How did they know who was Jewish? • November 1935 German churches begin to collaborate with Nazis by supplying records indicating who is Christian • State of the art data processing was used to take a census in all German territory. Early on the Nazis included questions on religious heritage • The machine allowed Nazi officials to tabulate huge amounts of data very quickly German Hollenith Machine – a subsidiary of IBM
The Steps to Genocide Step 1 You can not live among us as Jews: Stripping of Rights Step 2 You can not live among us : Segregationand Concentration Step 3 You can not live: Extermination
Step 1: Stripping of Rights 1935: Nuremberg Laws – put restrictions on all aspects of Jewish life. Some of the 1400 laws: Ones you already know: • Outlined who was a Jew under the law • Stripped Jews of German citizenship • Marriages between Jews and Aryans forbidden Some other restrictions: • Jewish holidays are removed from the German calendar • Forced to carry ID cards & passports stamped with a “J” • Forced to wear the arm band of the Yellow “Star of David” • Fired from jobs & businesses boycotted • Banned from German schools and universities • What impact will this have on Jewish life?
Step 2: Segregation & Concentration GHETTOS- a confined area in a city or state in which Jews are forced to live • 356 ghettos are established in Eastern Europe during WWII Purpose • To separate, isolate and effectively control the Jewish population of Europe Conditions • filthy, with poor sanitation and extreme overcrowding • Disease was rampant and food was in such short supply that many slowly starved to death • Warsaw, the largest ghetto, held 500,000 people and was 3.5 square miles in size
Nazi ghettos were a preliminary step in the annihilation of the Jews.Ghettos became transition areas, used as collection points for deportation to concentration & death camps
Concentration Camps - Arrival • Camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation • Prisoners transported in cattle freight cars • All are given numbers- some have this tattooed on their wrist • All prisoners wore some kind of badge indicating their prisoner status
Concentration Camps - Life • heads were shaved • Prison uniforms worn • Men, women and children were separated • Limited food – about 200-300 calories a day • Up to 10 people per bed • Unsanitary, disease ridden and lice infested barracks • inhumane medical experiments performed
Why Have Camps? • Essential to Nazi’s systematic oppression and eventual mass murder of enemies of Nazi Germany • Slave labor moved them towards their ultimate goal- “annihilation by work” • What was taken from Jews was used to provide goods for the German People
Step 3: Extermination Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health • Idea was to improve the quality of the German race • Nazi policy to eliminate those “unworthy of life” (mentally or physically challenged) to promote Aryan “racial integrity” • Policy halted in 1941 due to outcry within Germany Einsatzgruppen • (mobile killing units) had began killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities in the 1930s. • Thought to have killed as many as 1 million people in six months • Vigorous participation of local police helped facilitate the killing
“THE FINAL SOLUTION” • DEATH FACTORIES: Nazi extermination camps fulfilled the singular function of mass murder • Wannsee Conference (Berlin -1942 ) established the “complete solution of the Jewish question” • Called for the complete and mass annihilation and extermination of the Jews as well as other groups • Zyklon B gas became the most commonly used agent in the mass extermination Reinhard Heydrich (right), who chaired the Wannsee conference, here with Heinrich Himmler.
Once selected, you began the process of extermination Your luggage would be left for collection later
Eyeglasses Confiscated property from prisoners was kept in storerooms nicknamed “Kanada”. The sheer amount of loot stored there was associated with the riches of Canada
Finally • Prisoners were sent to gas chambers disguised as showers • Zyklon B gas used to gas people in 3 – 15 minutes • Up to 8000 people were gassed per day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp with 4 operating gas chambers • Gold fillings from victims teeth were melted down to make gold bars • Prisoners moved dead bodies to massive crematoriums
Major Death Factories • Sobibor - 250 000 • Chlemno - 255 000 • Majdanek 360 000 • Belzec 601 500 • Treblinka 750 000 - 870 000 • Auschwitz-Birkenau 1 100 000 – 1 600 000
Nearing the End of the War • By 1945, the Nazis’ began to destroy crematoriums and camps as Allied troops closed in • Death Marches (Todesmarsche): Between 1944-1945, Nazis ordered marches over long distances. Approximately 250 000 – 375 000 prisoners perished in Death Marches • On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz (largest camp) and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying.
