Holocaust Notes

1. Holocaust Notes Core Concepts

2. The Power of Words… “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims 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.” “The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.” What do all these quotes have in common?

3. All Quotes of Adolf Hitler…

4. Defining the Holocaust HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah) which originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire the annihilation of the Jews and other groups of people of Europe under the Nazi regime during World War II GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group

5. Swastika: A Symbol of Good or Evil? • ancient Indian symbol (Sanskrit) over 3,000 years old meaning well being, life and good luck, prosperity • the swastika is a sacred religious symbol for Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists • In 1920, Adolf Hitler adopted the swastika for the Nazi flag to represent the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man • Because of the Nazis' flag, the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, anti-Semitism, violence, death, and murder.

6. Anti-Semitism • Jews have faced prejudice and discrimination for over 2,000 years. • Jews were scapegoats for many problems. For example, people blamed Jews for the “Black Death” that killed thousands in Europe during the Middle Ages. • 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

7. Anti-Semitism • Nazi teachers began to apply the “principles” of racial science by measuring skull size and nose length and recording students’ eye color and hair to determine whether students belonged the “Aryan race.”

8. Weimar Republic • After Germany lost World War I, a new government formed and became the Weimar Republic. • Many Germans were upset not only that they had lost the war but also that they had to repay (make reparations) to all of the countries that they had “damaged” in the war.

9. Weimar Republic • The total bill that the Germans had to “pay” was equivalent to nearly $70 billion. • The German army was limited in size. • Extremists blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI and blamed the German Foreign Minister (a Jew) for his role in reaching a settlement with the Allies.

10. Weimar Republic • The German mark became worth less than the paper it was printed on—hyperinflation occurred. • Nearly 6 million Germans were unemployed. A ten million mark Reichsbanknote [paper currency] that was issued by the German national bank during the height of the inflation in 1923.

11. Totalitarian State • total control of a country in the government’s hands • subjugates individual rights. • demonstrates a policy of aggression.

12. Four Planned Stages • Strip the Jews of rights. • Force them into isolation. • Transfer them to concentration/death camps. • The Final Solution.

13. Stage 1: Stripping of Rights 1935: Nuremberg Laws stated that all JEWS were : • stripped of German citizenship • fired from jobs & businesses boycotted • banned from German schools and universities • Marriages between Jews and Aryans forbidden • Forced to carry ID cards • Passports stamped with a “J” • forced to wear the arm band of the Yellow “Star of David” • Jewish synagogues destroyed • forced to pay reparations and a special income tax

14. Jews, like all other German citizens, were required to carry identity cards, but their cards were stamped with a red “J.” This allowed police to easily identify them.

15. Jews were forced to wear a yellow star on their sleeves’ so that they could be easily identified.

16. Persecution • Kristallnacht was the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9-10, 1938 • Germans attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses

17. Stage 2: Segregation GHETTOS • Jews were isolated. • Ghettos were filthy, with poor sanitation and extreme overcrowding • Disease was rampant and food was in such short supply that many slowly starved to death

18. Stage 3: Concentration Camps • Slave labor “annihilation by work” • Prisoners faced undernourishment and starvation • Prisoners transported in cattle freight cars • Camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation

19. Reinhard Heydrich • Nicknamed “The Blond Beast” and “Hangman Heydrich” • second in command of Gestapo and SS • principle planner of the Final Solution • Brigadier General in SS at the age of 30

20. Stage 4: Extermination • Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) • DEATH FACTORIES: Nazi extermination camps fulfilled the singular function of mass murder • Euthanasia program: Nazi policy to eliminate “life unworthy of life” (mentally or physically challenged) to promote Aryan “racial integrity”

21. Death Camps • There were six death camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Belzec.

22. EINSATZ AREA OF OPERATIONS

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 • Up to 8000 people killed per day

24. Gas Chambers & Crematoriums • Prisoners moved bodies to massive graves.

25. ZYKLON-B GAS PELLETS USED TO KILL VERMIN. IT WAS INEXPENSIVE COMPARED TO GAS. DROPPED FROM CEILINGS. KILLED IN LESS THAN 15 MINUTES.

26. THE SS AT AUSCHWITZ ORDERED TO TAKE ALL POSSESSIONS FROM JEWS TEETH WITH GOLD PILES OF GLASSES

29. Nazis confiscated property of prisoners in storerooms nicknamed “Kanada” because the sheer amount of loot stored there was associated with the riches of Canada

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

31. 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

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

33. U.S. and World Response • The Evian Conference took place in the summer of 1938 in Evian, France. • 32 countries met to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees who were trying to leave Germany and Austria. • Despite voicing feelings of sympathy, most countries made excuses for not accepting more refugees.

34. U.S. and World Response • Some American congressmen proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill, which offered to let 20,000 endangered Jewish refugee children into the country, but the bill was not supported in the Senate. • Anti-Semitic attitudes played a role in the failure to help refugees.

35. U.S. and World Response The SS St. Louis, carrying refugees with Cuban visas,were denied admittance both in Cuba and in Florida. After being turned back to Europe, most of the passengers perished in the Holocaust.

36. Resistance • The White Rose movement was founded in June 1942 by Hans Scholl, 24-year-old medical student, his 22-year-old sister Sophie, and 24-year-old ChristophProbst. • The White Rose stood for purity and innocence in the face of evil. • In February 1943, Hans and Sophie were caught distributing leaflets and were arrested. • They were executed with Christoph 4 days later.

37. Resistance Other famous acts of resistance include: • the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Uprising) • Sobibor escape (Escape from Sobibor) • Sonderkommando blowing up Crematorium IV at Birkenau (The Grey Zone) • Jewish partisans who escaped to fight in the forests.

38. Rescue • Less than one percent of the non-Jewish European population helped any Jew in some form of rescue. • In Denmark 7,220 of the 8,000 Jews were saved by ferrying them to neutral Sweden. • The Danes proved that widespread support for Jews could save lives.

39. Rescue • Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate camp prisoners on July 23, 1944, at Maidanek in Poland. • British, Canadian, American, and French troops also liberated camp prisoners. • Troops were shocked at what they saw.

40. Aftermath • Most prisoners were emaciated to the point of being skeletal. • Many camps had dead bodies lying in piles “like cordwood.” • Many prisoners died even after liberation.

41. Aftermath • Many of the camp prisoners had nowhere to go, so they became “displaced persons” (DPs). • These survivors stayed in DP camps in Germany, which were organized and run by the Allies. • Initially, the conditions were often very poor in the DP camps.

42. Aftermath • Jewish displaced persons, eager to leave Europe, pushed for the founding of a Jewish state in British-controlled Palestine. • U.S. President Harry Truman issued an executive order allowing Jewish refugees to enter the United States without normal immigration restrictions.

43. Aftermath Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg worked in Hungary to protect thousands of Jews by distributing protective Swedish (a neutral country) passports.

44. 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.

45. Aftermath • The International Military Tribunal took place in Nuremberg, Germany in 1945 and 1946. • 12 prominent Nazis were sentenced to death. • Most claimed that they were only following orders, which was judged to be an invalid defense.

46. Aftermath Why study the Holocaust? Former prisoners of the "little camp" in Buchenwald stare out from the wooden bunks in which they slept three to a "bed." Elie Wiesel is pictured in the second row of bunks, seventh from the left, next to the vertical beam.

47. Camp Totals

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