Introduction to the Holocaust and World War II

Introduction to the Holocaust and World War II

Definitions • Genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. • Holocaust: the genocide of European Jews, the disabled, Gypsies, criminals, homosexuals, and other groups by Nazis during World War II

Definitions Allied: countries that went against the Germany and the Axis powers (like Britain and the United States). Axis: countries that sided with Germany and Hitler.

During World War II, the Nazi party of Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, systematically killed more than 6 million people. What does systematically mean?

Timeline of Holocaust Events • 1918-1933 Rise of the Nazi Party • 1933-1939 Nazification and the Start of War • 1939-1941 The Ghettos • 1942-1944 The Camps • 1942-1944 Resistance • 1944-1945 Rescue and Liberation • 1945-2000 The Aftermath

The Rise of the Nazi Party • World War I ends in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. • Germany becomes humiliated with the ‘laws’ put upon the country by the Treaty of Versailles: • Nearly half of its conquered land was redistributed • German army could not have more than 100,000 men and NO tanks • Germany could not have an air force, and its navy was limited (couldn’t even have submarines!) • Germany even had to admit full responsibility for starting the war as well as pay reparations

The Rise Continued… • Nazi Party begins in 1919 as a gang of unemployed soldiers who blamed losing WWI on Jews and Communists. • Adolf Hitler joins the Nazis and rises to power because of his powerfully captivating speeches, and impressive leadership skills

Nazification and the Start of War • Hitler goes against the Treaty of Versailles and starts to re-arm its army. At the same time, he makes peace talks with neighboring countries as a front. • Hitler begins an aggressive search for more land to stretch his power (Britain, France, and Russia allow Germany to take Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia to avoid another war) • World War II officially begins September 1, 1939 when the Nazi party invades Poland

The Ghettos • Ghettos were poor sections of cities, surrounded by barbed wire and guards where Jewish residents were forced to move when Hitler came to power. • Ghettos were not a “Hitler-invention”. • Hitler’s ghettos were the first step along the way to the “Final Solution”

The Camps • The Nazi party used concentration, forced labor, extermination, transit, and prisoner of war camps throughout the war; all of which had horrible living conditions • Some of those imprisoned include: Jews, homosexuals, clergymen, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, criminals, POWs, and those opposed to Nazism

The Camps • There were 6 death or extermination camps in Poland (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Lublin, and Chelmno) • Terezin held mostly children • 15,000 children went through this camp; only 132 survived

Resistance and Liberation • Resistance took many forms (armed and unarmed) • Allied troops stumble upon the camps • General Eisenhower insisted on documenting what the troops found in order to inform future generations • Allied forces made neighboring people look at what they had lived next to for years

Aftermath • After the war ended, there were two major issues to be resolved • Punishment for the terrible deeds of party leaders • Re-locating the people who lost their homes during war • The United Nations assisted in finding homes for those displaced during the war • The Nuremberg Trials provided a place to try some of the most infamous members of the Nazi Party

References • www.google.com/images • http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/timeline.htm • http://www.ushmm.org

Introduction to the Holocaust and World War II