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The Holocaust. 1933. January 30 President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor (Prime Minster). February 27 Reichstag destroyed by arson. Burn Baby Burn.
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January 30President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor (Prime Minster)
Burn Baby Burn • the Chancellorship was in the hands of Hitler and the Nazis, but the control of the legislature was not yet theirs. Socialist parties = major opposition. • Hitler blamed the Communists for starting the fire • (scapegoating) • Most historians generally agree that it was a planned arson which Hitler used to blame the Communist Party to gain control of the parliament
March 23First concentration camp, Dachau, established Dachau’s main gate.
DACHAU Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Heinrich Himmler, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners” In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries passed through the gates, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews.
March 23“Enabling Laws” passed by Reichstag suspending civil liberties.
Enabling Laws It was officially called the “Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.'‘ "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one.“ - Hitler told the Reichstag. Meant the end of democracy in Germany, established the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and marked the beginning of the attack on the Jews.
April 1Nazis proclaim a boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses
April 7Jews dismissed from civil service and denied admission to the bar (practicing law)
April 26Formation of the Gestapo Was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel (SS) Heinrich Himmler, one Hitler’s closest followers is the head of the SS, Gestapo and overseer of the camps.
May 10Burning of books written by Jews and opponents to Nazism.
SummerJuden Verboten (no Jews) …..signs outside towns, restaurants and stores
Nuremberg Laws Were racist and anti-Semitic laws passed in Nazi Germany. The laws also stated who was considered a Jew and who was not. The laws did not define a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews.
July 16Buchenwald concentration camp opens Gate with the words Jedem das Seine ...."everyone gets what he deserves".
Kristallnacht In a coordinated attack on Jewish people and their property, 91 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. More than 200 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked.
November 15Jewish children are expelled from German schools.
December 13Decree on “Aryanization” (compulsory expropriation of Jewish industries, businesses and shops) enacted
Aryanization Businesses were transferred to non-Jewish owners and the proceeds taken by the state. Jewelry, stocks, property and other valuables had to be sold below market value. Jewish employees were fired, and self-employed people were prohibited from working in their respective professions.
September 1Germany invades Poland. Beginning of World War II
October 12First deportation of Jews from Austria and Moravia to Poland.
November 23Wearing of Judenstern (Jewish six-pointed Star of David) is made compulsory.
Einsatzgruppen Himmler sent four specially trained SS units called “Einsatzgruppen battalions” behind the advancing German army to terminate undesirables including Jews, Communists, etc. Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and shot. When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers. The Nazi command decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary.
July 31Heydrich is appointed by Goring to carry out the “Final Solution” (extermination of all Jews in Europe).
The ‘Final Solution’ Women, children, the old & the sick were to be sent for ‘special treatment.’ The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’ Shooting was too inefficient and the bullets were needed for the war effort On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’ How was the Final Solution going to be organised? Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettos The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. The Jews living in these Ghettos were to be used as a cheap source of labour. Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the hope of better conditions
New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to send to their friends. Deception Starvation The Jews were told that they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. Tactics The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a day In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their own train tickets. Terror A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for any act of resistance They were told to bring the tools of their trade and pots and pans. Hungry people are easier to control
Einsatzgruppen Why do you think the death camps were located here?
September 23:First experiments of gassing are made at Auschwitz.
Entrance to Auschwitz Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station. Why do think that is?
Map of Auschwitz New Arrivals ‘Showers’ ‘Destruction Through Work’
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
The Gas Chambers • The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B 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.
