The Holocaust and, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust and, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust • Term used to represent the genocide against the Jewish population in Nazi Germany • Approximately 6 million Jewish people were brutally and systematically murdered by the Nazi Regime • 11-17 million people were killed by the Nazi Regime throughout WWII

Dates/Events • 1933-1945 • Kristallnacht 1938 • Death Marches 1941-1945 • Extermination camps • Death Squads • Medical experiments

Kristallnacht • Night of glass or Crystal Night • Jews were attacked and Jewish property was vandalized • 91 Jews were killed • 30,000 were sent to concentration camps

Death Marches • Jews were ordered to march to their deaths. They were taken from concentration and murdered by Nazi soldiers. The murdered Jews were buried in mass graves. Mass graves were plots of land that were used to hold numerous bodies of dead people.

Extermination Camps • Places that were used to enslave and murder Jews • Used gas chambers to kill Jews • Crematories were used to burn Jews alive • Some were lined up and shot • Jews were starved

Auschwitz • Deadliest extermination camp • 1.4 million Jews were killed in this camp • Elie Wiesel was sent to this camp

Death Squads • Groups of Nazi soldiers that were instructed to kill Jews • Took businesses away from Jewish families and gave them to German families • Babi Yar: 33,771 Jews were killed at once

Medical Experiments • German Doctors used to run experiments on Jewish slaves • Drug testing • Eye experiments. Doctors would try to change the eye color of Jewish children by injecting chemicals into their eyes • Amputations • Any Jews that would survive the experiments were killed and then dissected afterwards

Elie Wiesel • Born September 30, 1928 • Won the Nobel Prize in 1986 • “Night” is about Wiesel’s experience in the extermination camps and Nazi Germany

The Holocaust and, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel