Ch 19, Sec 3: The Holocaust

1. Ch 19, Sec 3: The Holocaust

2. Holocaust • Persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany under Hitler that killed 6 million Jews • 5 million others will killed including homosexuals, people with disabilities, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and enemies of the state

3. Nuremberg Laws • Laws for Jews that took away their rights in 1935 • Examples: • The right to citizenship • The right to be married to other Germans • Voting/Holding office • Could not be doctors, lawyers, or own a business • Result: High unemployment for Jews

4. Kristallnacht • “night of broken glass” on Nov 7, 1938 • Started when a Jewish refugee in France killed a German politician • Hitler ordered his troops to attack the Jews in Austria/Germany on Nov 9, 1938

5. Results of the Kristallnacht • 90 dead/100s injured • 7,500 businesses/180 synagogues were destroyed • 20,000 Jews were jailed • Forced to leave Germany if they wanted to be free • Forced to pay for all the damage • (Charged them 1 billion marks-1938 or $6.6 billion-2013)

6. Jewish Response • 350,000 people left Germany • Most famous: Einstein and Anne Frank • Many were ignored by other countries including the U.S. • Had to apply to immigrate to U.S. • Visas denied since the Jews had to leave their wealth behind • Immigration laws limited how many Jews could come over

7. Final Solution • Wannsee Conference: • 1942 meeting with high German officials • Rounding up, shooting, and gassing (in a truck) Jews were too slow • New idea: • Use concentration camps and extermination camps to get rid of the Jews

8. Concentration Camps • Work camps for the strong/young • Worked to death in factories • Ex: Buchenwald • Horrible living conditions 150-200 people packed into an area for 50 • Constant beatings with very little food • Made war supplies/mined for metals/coal • Cruel medical procedures performed on the Jews

9. Extermination Camps • Death camps for the elderly, sick, and young children • 6 camps-mostly in Poland • Ex: Auschwitz • Could hold 100,000 people at a time • Killed 2,000 people in one gas chamber at a time • Killed 12,000 people per day (1.3 million during the war)

10. What took place in the camps? • Jews forced to leave all belongings when entering the gates of the camps • Doctors would remove all gold teeth from the Jews • Soldiers would steal anything of value • Men and women/children would be separated from each other to go to different camps • Those to sick/old would be taken to death camps • Gassed in the showers with zyclon-b • Bodies were burned in the ovens and the remains were buried in mass graves

11. How could this happen? • 1. German people were desperate to blame somebody after WWI. • 2. Hitler had total control. • 3. German people were not represented in the government. • 4. Germans feared the police (Gestapo) • 5. A history of Anti-Jewish feelings dominated the culture.

12. Assignment • Take the role of a person living in Germany during Kristallnacht. Write a diary entry describing the events of that night. Include a description of events during the days following Kristallnacht as well. • Diary entry should be at least 10 sentences and use actual events. • Due tomorrow