Nazi Genocide: The Holocaust in Europe

1. Nazi Genocide: The Holocaust in Europe What events led to the Final Solution?

2. Relocation to the Ghettos • Prior to WWII, many Jews had already immigrated to Palestine • After Kristallnacht, many Jews in Germany realized the situation would only get worse if they stay • Since the future of Palestine was undecided, many Jews looked elsewhere • However, many countries began closing their doors to immigrants • Ships like the St. Louis were ordered to return to Europe • When the Nazis realized they couldn’t send Jews to other countries, they began to deport Jews into segregated ghettos, mostly in Poland • Jews would be identified and forced to wear a star

3. The Final Solution • Hitler became impatient as Jews weren’t dying in the ghettos • The Nazis developed a plan of genocide known as “the Final Solution” • Jews along with Gypsies, Poles, Slavs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Communists, and the insane were targeted as “subhumans” • SS killing squads would round up people to kill and then bury the bodies in mass graves • However, the killing squads were not quick enough for the Nazis • The Nazis would try poison gas, which they had experimented with before • Poland would become the new killing ground • Ghettos would be emptied and people would be shipped to work camps • By 1942, the work camps would become death camps • Camps had huge gas chambers that could kill up to 6,000 people a day • Auschwitz was the largest and most notorious of the camps Events that led to the Holocaust: Mien Kampf - Propaganda Against Jews - Nuremberg Laws – Kristallnacht – Deportation to Ghettos – The Final Solution