America's Response to the Holocaust: Examining the American Reaction and Response

1. Bellwork  • Turn in your homework to your class drawer • Grab the notes from the back • Answer the following question on the back of your notes: • What do you already know about the Holocaust? 

2. The Holocaust American Response

3. Today's Standard  • US. 70 – Examine the American reaction and response to the Holocaust 

4. Today's Objective  • Students will be able to explain America's response to the Holocaust in their own words

5. German Point of View  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elpoijlSa-Y • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsngjBbH68

6. The Truth • “The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators” (www.ushmm.org)  • Antisemitism – hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jewish people • Nazi mindset: Germans = superior, and  Jews = inferior • Hitler’s Final Solution (extermination of all Jews) and Aryan Race (pure German Race) • http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-camps/types-of-camps/#.WJDVV2QrJ1M

7. Jews Targeted  • Jews were not the only targets of the Holocaust (Gypsies, Polish people, Slavic people, Jehovah's Witnesses...) but they were the central target of the Nazis • Jews = scapegoat – someone Germany could blame all of their problems on • 1935 – Nuremberg Laws – stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property • Jews also had to wear a bright yellow Star of David  This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

8. Kristallnacht  • November 9-10, 1938 = Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) • Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish businesses, homes, synagogues in Germany and Austria • Approximately 100 Jews were killed and hundreds injured • About 30,000 Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues were burned • Nazis later blamed the Jews for this destruction 

9. Jewish Refugees • Nazis tried to speed Jewish emigration but encountered difficulty – Jews fleeing Germany had trouble finding nations that would accept them • France had 400,000 refugees, the British wouldn't admit more than 80,000, 30,000 were allowed in Palestine • The United States accepted 100,000 refugees – many Americans wanted the door closed to America – they were scared they would take jobs (Great Depression) and threaten economic recovery • Also – Anti-Semitism and fear of "enemy-agents"

10. The Plight of the St. Louis • German Ocean Liner – passed Miami in 1939 – 740 of the 943 passengers had US immigration papers, but the Coast Guard refused to allow any passengers to disembark in America • The ship was forced to return to Europe • More than half of those passengers were later victims of the Holocaust 

11. Forced Relocation • If the Nazis found people "unfit" to be a part of their "master race", they were killed by Nazi death squads as part of Hitler's "Final Solution"  • Jews were also forced to move into overcrowded ghettos – the Nazis sealed them off with barbed wire and stone walls • People living in ghettos were forced to work in factories  • Resistance movements were formed in some ghettos

12. Concentration Camps  • Jews in communities not reached by the killing squads were forced to leave their homes to board train cars or trucks headed to concentration camps (labor camps) - families were often separated in this process • Original purpose of concentration camps = imprison political opponents and protesters, but they were later turned over to the SS and expanded • Prisoners lived in overcrowded wooden barracks, had meager meals, were forced to work and were killed if they couldn't 

13. Arrival to Concentration Camps

14. Final Stage • 1942 – the overworking, starvation, beating, and killing that took place at the concentration camps did not fulfill the Nazi agenda fast enough – so the Nazis built six death camps in Poland • Auschwitz = the largest of the death camps – prisoners were sorted to see who was fit to work – those who were not deemed fit to work were sent to gas chambers (the guards told the Jewish people that they were showers) 

15. Bellwork  • Get out your notes from Friday (or grab some from the back if you weren't here) • Answer the following question on the back of your notes: • What is a Scapegoat? Why did the Germans choose the Jewish People as a scapegoat?

16. America's Response

17. August 1942 Incident • Dr. Gerhart Riegner (representative of World Jewish Congress in Geneva) learned what was going on from a German Source • He asked US representative to tell Rabbi Wise (American activist against Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews)  • Didn’t pass it along  • Wise found out anyway 

18. Continued 

19. Bermuda Conference  • US & GB • Meet to try to help the Jewish people in Nazi Germany  • April 1943 • They couldn’t decide on a plan...nothing came about 

20. Executive order 9417 - War Refugees Board • Report prepared by Treasury officials - about US not taking action in regards to Nazi treatment of Jews • Presented to Roosevelt by Sec of the Treasury; he also requested that he establish a rescue agency • January 22, 1944 - Executive Order 9417 = War Refugee Board (WRB) - help those affected by Nazis and Axis Powers

21. American Public  • US public were not fully aware of the extent of destruction caused by the Holocaust until the concentration camps were liberated • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHcJtU9dr6I • (Band of Brothers - liberation of concentration camps)

22. Nuremberg Trials  • 1945-1946 • Nuremberg, Germany • Thousands of German officials  • Convicted of “crimes against humanity” • Some officials were executed (12)

23. Exit Ticket  • Write a summary of what you learned today on the bottom of your notes

24. A Day in Auschwitz  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IezXBcNdJY