The Holocaust: Tragedy and Persecution

1. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire."

2. - In the early years of the third Reich Hitler promised to "free" Germany from Jews. - But their was no clear-cut policy for getting rid of the German Jewish population.

3. Before the War (1933-1938) Steps taken by Nazis to free Germany 1. stripping Jews of their German citizenship 2. using harsh discrimination laws to pressure them to leave the country 3. finally expelling them from Germany

4. Jews in Pre-WWII Germany - only made up 1 percent of the German population - 66 million Germans and only 525,000 Jews 1933 - Boycott of Jewish Businesses 1935 - Nuremberg Laws 1935-1938 - Pressure forces Jews from Germany

5. Three Jewish businessmen are forced to march down a crowded Leipzig street while carrying signs reading: "Don't buy from Jews; Shop in German businesses!" Leipzig, Germany

6. Sign on truck carrying Storm Troopers urges "Germans! Defend yourselves. Don't buy from Jews." Berlin, Germany, April 1, 1933.

8. Legal Definition of Jew - any child born to a Jewish parent after 1935 - a person with three Jewish grandparents - a person married to a Jew and who had two Jewish grandparents

9. Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 • Deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. • The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans. • The Nuremberg Laws had the unexpected result of causing confusion and heated debate over who was a "full Jew." • The Nazis settled on defining a "full Jew" as a person with three Jewish grandparents. Those with less were designated as Mischlinge. • After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dozen supplemental Nazi decrees were issued that eventually outlawed the Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as human beings.

10. The white figures represent Aryans; the black figures represent Jews; and the shaded figures represent Mischlinge.

11. Economic Segregation German takeover of Jewish property 1938 - Nazi law required Jews to register all their belongings (eventually taken by Nazis) Oct. 1938 - Jews were stripped of their businesses, lost their livelihood.

14. Social Segregation - Jews became public outcasts - banned from all place of entertainment - beaches, theaters, park, public restrooms • Jews were forced to wear a yellow star (easy to identify)

16. Nazis invade Poland and begin WWII - Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe - 3.3 million Jews

18. 2nd SolutionSept. 1939 - June 22, 1941

19. Hitler ordered all Jews to be moved to Poland and held in Ghettos. Ghetto - separate section of a city where members of a minority group forced to live. Cattle Trains were used to transport Jews from all over Europe to Poland.

20. Cattle Cars - Jews were packed so tight, they had no room to sit or breath - unheated, windowless train cars - the only bathroom was a bucket or barrel - many died before even arriving at the Ghettos

23. The Nazi Ghettos - isolated Jewish communities - located in cities of Eastern Europe - a section of the city would be sealed off, no one could enter or leave - The largest Ghetto was Warsaw, Poland - 650,000 Jews living on a 1-mile stretch of land

26. Reasons Nazis set up Ghettos 1. To concentrate Jews in small areas 2. Stations for forced labor and eventually for death camps

30. Forced Slave Labor - Nazi decree in 1939 - All Jewish Men and Women between 14-65 years of age were to become slave laborers for the Third Reich • Jews worked in German industries (12 hr days)

39. The Final Solution(1941-1945)- no European Jew was to remain alive- genocide (elimination of an entire race of people)

40. Evolution of Methods used to eliminate the Jews 1. Firing squads - Jews were gathered together and shot - On Sept. 29/30, 1941 over 34,000 Jews were gunned down in a 36 hour period.

41. The ‘Final Solution’ • In January 1942, Himmler decided to change tactics once again and called a special conference at Wannsee. • At this conference it was decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary.

42. Wannsee Conference 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 as 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 Ghettoes 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

43. 2. Gas Vans - trucks specially built with a hose empting the exhaust fumes into the back of the truck. - Trucks could hold 90 people in the back and it took around 15 minutes for them to succumb the fumes. 3. Gas Chambers and Crematoriums

44. Groups targeted for extermination: 1. Jews 2. Gypsies “Contaminated” Germans: 3. Mentally ill 4. Physical Deformities 5. Criminals 6. Homosexual

46. The Death Camps - SS engineers designed death camps in Poland - A Death camp was NOT a concentration camp - Death camps had no facilities to house prisoners, just gas chambers - These camps were capable of doing murder in assembly-line fashion - Gassing was the main murder method in these camps

48. Auschwitz - the largest Nazi Death Camp - it had 4 giant-sized gas chambers designed to hold 2,000 people at once - This camp used a new type of gas known as Zyklon B - This chemical could kill 2,000 people in 5-6 minutes  - Auschwitz "processed" 12,000 Jews every day - They murdered, reduced to ashes, and shipped all their belongings (glasses, tools, clothing, jewelry, money, etc) to collection centers within 24-hrs.