US History, May 20

1. US History, May 20 • Entry Task: What is a question that you have about the HOLOCAUST? Write it down on the notecard. • Announcements: • Did you turn in your writing prompt about D-Day? • Did you turn in your “article” about The Battle of the Bulge?

3. Yalta Conference in February 1945 To recognize the independence & sovereignty of nations in Eastern Europe • The “Big 3” met at Yalta from February 4-11, 1945 to discuss post-war Europe given the eminent defeat of Germany: • Stalin refused to give up Eastern Europe but he did agree to free elections and “self-determination” • Stalin agreed to send Soviet troops to the Pacific after the German surrender if the USSR could keep Manchuria

5. Soon after the Yalta Conference in Feb 1945, FDR died…and Harry Truman became president

7. April 25, 1945 – Elbe Day (1st contact)

8. Mussolini & His Mistress,Claretta Petacci Are Hung in Milan, 1945

10. April 30, 1945 - Hitler married Eva Braun and they swallowed cyanide and Hitler shot himself with a pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer's orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops.

11. In late April 1945, the Allies broke through the Eastern & Western Fronts forcing both Italy & Germany to surrender

12. Dick Winters and Easy Company at Hitler’s residence, the Eagle’s Nest

13. Allied soldiers mock Hitler atop his balcony at the Reich Chancellery

15. Germany and Eastern Europe – Mass rape (mostly) by Soviets • Possibly up to 2 million women; in many cases victims of repeated rapes • Stalin reportedly stated that he should "understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle." (about rape in Yugoslavia) • Stalin also reportedly said: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative.“ (after hearing about treatment of German people)

16. WW2 Timeline (Allies, Axis, USSR)

18. Holocaust (hol·o·caust): n - 1. Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire 2. Greek word that means burnt whole or consumed by fire

19. The Holocaust • The Nazis killed over 6 million Jews during World War II, which became known as the Holocaust. Made up 2/3 of Europe’s Jews • The Nazis also killed approximately 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, and other groups as well during the Holocaust.

20. September 11, 2001 2,999 People died on September 11th Just to compare: 3,000x365 – 5 years = Jewish Holocaust deaths

21. Liberation of the Camps • Allied troops entered Nazi-occupied territories and stumbled upon concentration and death camps – 1st was Majdanek in Poland – then Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka killing centers • Auschwitz was liberated in Aug 1945 • US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenburg, Dachau, and Mauthausen; British and Canadians in the North • General Eisenhower insisted on photographing and documenting the horror for future generations to learn from and not repeat. • Eisenhower also forced villagers neighboring the death camps to view what had occurred in their own backyards.

22. 1944-45: Liberation of the Camps

23. Soon after liberation, a Soviet physician examines Auschwitz camp survivors. Poland, February 18, 1945.

24. Mistreated, starved prisoners in the Ebensee concentration camp, Austria.

25. Emaciated survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp soon after the liberation of the camp. Germany, after April 11, 1945.

26. Warning: Disturbing Images (next)

27. SS officer Eichelsdoerfer, the commandant of the Kaufering IV concentration camp, stands among the corpses of prisoners killed in his camp.

28. Piles of corpses, soon after the liberation of the Mauthausen camp. Austria, after May 5, 1945

32. Mauthausen survivors cheer the soldiers of the Eleventh Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army one day after their actual liberation.

33. As we entered the camp, the living skeletons still able to walk crowded around us and, though we wanted to drive farther into the place, the milling, pressing crowd would not let us. It is not an exaggeration to say that almost every inmate was insane with hunger. Just the sight of an American brought cheers, groans and shrieks. People crowded around to touch an American, to touch the jeep, to kiss our arms--perhaps just to make sure that it was true. The people who couldn't walk crawled out toward our jeep. Those who couldn't even crawl propped themselves up on an elbow, and somehow, through all their pain and suffering, revealed through their eyes the gratitude, the joy they felt at the arrival of Americans. --Captain J.D. Pletcher, 71st Division Headquarters

34. Liberation at Auschwitz I

35. The same day, I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never been able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain however, that I have never at any time experienced an equal sense of shock.I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that "the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda". Some members of the visiting party were unable to go through with the ordeal. I not only did so but as soon as I returned to Patton's headquarters that evening I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and the British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt. Eisenhower

37. Warning: Disturbing Images (next slide)

38. German citizens forced by the US Army to visit Buchenwald – April 15-16, 1945

39. No precautions were taken to protect them from the typhus epidemic

40. A German girl is overcome as she walks past the exhumed bodies of some of the 800 slave workers murdered by the SS guards near Namering, Germany, and laid here so that townspeople may view the work of their Nazi leaders.

41. The practice of bringing German civilians from nearby towns to the concentration camps after they were liberated was started by General Walton Walker who ordered the Mayor of the town of Ohrdruf (sub camp of Buchenwald) and his wife to visit the Ohrdruf labor camp after it was discovered by American troops on April 4, 1945. After their visit, the Mayor and his wife returned home and killed themselves.

42. "Was können wir tun?" (What could we have done?) According to the Official Report, this statement would seem to represent the most popular attitude in the town of Dachau.

44. Anti-Semitism • Jews accounted for less than 1% of the German population when Hitler took over. • During the Weimar Republic before Hitler took power, of the 230 cabinet positions in Berlin, only 7 were held by Jews. Yet Jews were thought to possess all the power and wealth in Germany after WWI.

45. Definition of Jewish: • 1935 – Anyone with 3 Jewish grandparents, someone with 2 Jewish grandparents who belonged to Jewish community, was married to a Jew or Jewess, was the offspring of a marriage or extramarital liaison with a Jew

46. How did the Nazis know who was Jewish? • Census in 1933 had “race” as a category. • Their clothes, habits, and practices made them look different. • Synagogues and temples kept birth, marriage, and death records. • Neighbors and friends turned on them after the Nazis took over, so they could claim rewards. • I.D. cards labeled Jews with a “J” after the Nuremberg laws went into effect. • Jews were later required to sew yellow Stars of David to all outer clothing, so they could be easily identified on sight.

48. Also considered Untermenschen (sub-human): • Roma/Gypsies • Communists • Physically and mentally handicapped/Disabled • Terminally ill • Homosexuals • Poles, Slavs, and Serbs • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Political prisoners and political opponents • Resistance fighters • Blacks • Habitual criminals

49. Propaganda Examples • "The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it." Joseph Goebbels • "Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good.........the new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution." Joseph Goebbels Der Sturmer (The Attacker): published by Julius Streicher Political cartoons Posters on kiosks Exaggerated and distorted facts “The Eternal Jew” (Der Ewige Jude)- book with 256 pictures depicting Jews published in 1937

50. DerGiftpliz (The Poisonous Mushroom) Aimed at kids Used in schools Cartoons / drawings with captions such as: How To Tell A Jew How Jewish Traders Cheat How Jews Torment Animals Money Is The God of All Jews