1. An Interactive Guide to The Holocaust
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2. The Holocaust Click on one of the following to learn more.
What is the Holocaust?
Why is the Holocaust Unique?
What is Genocide?
The Six Stages of the Holocaust
Scavenger Hunt
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3. The Six Stages of the Holocaust
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4. Mobile Killing Units
1. Definition
2. Expropriation
5. Deportation
3. Concentration
6. Killing Centers

4. The Holocaust
A specific genocidal event in the twentieth century history; the state sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and Jews were the primary victims-- 6 million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.
Interactive Map of The Holocaust

5. Genocide
The intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Etymology of Genocide

6. Etymology of Genocide
Raphael Lemkin Coined the word Genocide from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing) in 1944
He was a Polish-Jewish Lawyer
He lost over 50 family members in the holocaust
In 1948 United Nations recognized Genocide as a crime
The U.S. did not adopt Genocide as a crime until 1988
Lemkin died in 1959; sadly only 5 people attended his funeral

7. Why is the Holocaust Unique?
Propaganda- a specific type of message presentation (newspapers, cartoons, children’s books, etc.) directly aimed at influencing the opinions of people, rather than impartially providing information.
Legal- Laws such as the Nuremberg Laws were implemented to secure the governing party’s (Nazis) legal rights to alienate and desecrate a part of its population (see The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor and The Reich Citizenship Law)
Technology- The invention of trains allowed for the transportation of victims while killers remained stationary; IBM’s technological advances made it possible for Nazis to keep detailed records

8. Stage 1: Definition
How does one define being Jewish? Through Culture? Race? Religion? The challenge confronting the Nazis in 1933 was to define a religious group already assimilated into German society. The Interior Ministry of the Nazi government was responsible for “solving” this problem.
In 1933 The Interior Ministry divided the German population into two categories of race
Aryan: People with no Jewish ancestors
Non-Aryan: People with Jewish ancestors
Regulation of September 15, 1935
Any person who descended form two Jewish grandparents, practiced the Jewish religion or was married to a Jewish person on September 15, 1935, and all persons descended from three or four Jewish grandparents.
Nazi Racism Anti-Semitism

9. Anti-Semitism A specific hatred or prejudice against Jews
Began as early as 2000 years ago when the Romans drove them from their land now called, Israel
Jews do not share the Christian belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and many Christians considered this refusal to accept Jesus' divinity as arrogant
For centuries the Church taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death, not recognizing, as most historians do today, that Jesus was executed by the Roman government because officials viewed him as a political threat to their rule
Racial Anti-Semitism

10. Racial Anti-Semitism
In the 1800’s Jews became almost equal citizens under the law as ideas of political equality and freedom spread in western Europe
New forms of anti-Semitism emerged: European leaders who wanted to establish colonies in Africa and Asia argued that whites were superior to other races and therefore had to spread and take over the "weaker" and "less civilized" races.
Writers applied this argument to Jews
By defining Jews as a race of people called Semites who shared common blood and physical features meant that Jews remained Jews by race even if they converted to Christianity
Politicians began using the idea of racial superiority in their campaigns as a way to get votes (Karl Lueger)
Conspiracy theories about Jewish plots in which Jews were somehow acting in concert to dominate the world became a popular form of anti-Semitic expression and propaganda.

11. Karl Lueger ( )
Mayor of Vienna, Austria, at the end of the century through the use of anti-Semitism --
Appealed to voters by blaming Jews for bad economic times.
A hero to a young Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria in 1889
Hitler's ideas, including his views of Jews, were shaped during the years he lived in Vienna, where he studied Lueger's tactics and the anti-Semitic newspapers and pamphlets that multiplied during Lueger's long rule

12. Stage 2: Expropriation
To take (property) from its owner ideally for public use.
(To the right) The abandoned property of Jews who have been deported from the Zychlin ghetto is piled in an open field.
Expropriation Continued Kristallnacht

13. Expropriation Continued
Civil Rights
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933, required most Jews holding civil service jobs to retire.
The Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935, declared Jews were no longer German citizens.
Education
A regulation in April 1933, expelled all Jewish professors from German universities.
A regulation in November, 1938, expelled Jews from German schools and declared they must attend Jewish schools.

14. Expropriation Continued
Occupations
A regulation in the summer of 1933 stated that all Jewish artists and writers were prohibited from practicing their professions and all books published by or about Jews were burned.
A regulation in July of 1938 stated that the medical licenses of Jewish doctors had been canceled and they could only treat Jewish patients as non-licensed doctors.
Private Property
The Regulation for the Elimination of the Jews from the Economic Life of Germany of November 12, 1938, stated that Jews could not own retail stores and must pay 1.25 million Reichmarks for damages caused on Kristallnacht (Crystal Night).
A regulation in February, 1939, stated that all Jews must surrender all their gold, platinum, silver objects, precious stones, and pearls to the German government.

15. Kristallnacht 1,000 Jews Killed
“Night of Broken Glass”
November 9 & 10, 1938
During the night, rampaging mobs freely attacked Jews in the street, in their homes, and at their places of work and worship.
1,000 Jews Killed
30,000 Jewish males sent to concentration camps
1,000+ synagogues burned or destroyed
800 Jewish businesses destroyed
More on Kristallnacht Photo Gallery

16. Stage 3: Concentration A close gathering of people or things
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis began concentrating Jews into areas known as Ghettos.
The following stages occurred in Poland and Nazi Germany:
Severance of social contacts between Jews and “Aryan” citizens
Housing Restrictions
Movement regulation
Identification Measures
Yellow Stars were used to identify Jews; often placed on the sleeve
The initiation of Jewish administrative machinery- the Jewish councils or Judenrat
The Warsaw Ghetto Types of Resistance in the Ghettos

17. Badges of the Concentration Camps
Red
Communists, Social Democrats, anarchists, and other "enemies of the state"
Green
German criminals
Blue
foreign forced laborers
Brown
Gypsies
Pink
homosexuals
Purple
Jehovah's Witnesses
Black
Asocial, a catch-all term for vagrants, bums, prostitutes, hobos, alcoholics who were living on the streets, anyone who didn't have a permanent address, or "work-shy," (those who were arrested because they refused to work)

18. Judenrat
The local Jewish populace was required to form Jewish Councils as a liaison (a go between) between the Jews and the Nazis
Responsibilities
organizing the orderly deportation to the death camps
detailing the number and occupations of the Jews in the ghettos,
distributing food and medical supplies,
communicating the orders of the ghetto Nazi masters.
The Nazis enforced orders with threats of terror (beatings and executions)
In the ghetto:
Took on the functions of local government, providing police and fire protection, postal services, sanitation, transportation, food and fuel distribution, and housing

19. Types of Resistance in the Ghetto
Resistance is not always armed and violent
Poetry
Plays
Going to school
Diaries
Getting married

20. The Warsaw Ghetto
City of Warsaw
“Aryan” Warsaw
Ghetto of Warsaw
Population
1,365,000
920,000
445,000
Area (sq. miles)
54.6
53.3
1.3
Rooms
284,912
223,617
61,295
Persons Per Room
4.8
4.1
7.2
Beginning in 1941 starvation was the official policy in the Warsaw ghetto and the results were drastic. In 1940, 90 Jews died of starvation while in 1941 over 11,000 died of starvation. The overall death rate in Warsaw from was over 83,000 people.

21. Stage 4: Mobile Killing Units
The idea of mobile killers attacking stationary victims was primarily created by the chief of the Security Police and founder of the RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich.
Four Einsatzgruppen groups were set up, with a total of 3,000 men.
The Einsatzgruppen were to follow behind the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and kill Jews.
The majority of the Einsatzgruppen were professional men: physician, professional opera singer, many lawyers.
Einsatzgruppen Continued Einsatzgruppen Online

22. Einsatzgruppen Continued
The killing operation was standardized throughout every city in the USSR (present day Soviet Union) in the following manner:
Jews were rounded up to a central location such as a school or town square.
They were marched outside city limits and were forced to hand over all valuables and often clothing.
They were then shot without regard for age or gender, either individually or in mass execution style.
Einsatzgruppen Efficiency What happened to the Einsatzgruppen?

23. Einsatzgruppen Efficiency
Number of Jews killed
Date
Einsatzgruppen A
125,000
October 15, 1941
Einsatzgruppen B
45,000
November 14, 1941
Einsatzgruppen C
75,000
November 3, 1941
Einsatzgruppen D
55,000
December 12, 1941
Total # Jews Killed = 1.5 million

24. What happened to the Einsatzgruppen?
Hitler’s plan for secrecy in carrying out these killings wasn’t possible as many non-Jews witnessed the disappearance and killing of Jewish citizens.
The mobile killing units were too “slow” and “inefficient”
The morale of some of the killers in Einsatzgruppen units was being affected as evidenced by the following testimony of Hermann Graebe, November 10, 1945.

25. Stage 5: Deportation
When the Mobile Killing Units failed, the Nazi’s began deporting their victims
As part of the "Final Solution," Jews were "deported" or transported by trains in cattle cars or by trucks to one of the six camps, all located in occupied Poland: Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek-Lublin.
In order to maintain order, the Nazi’s never used such harsh words as “murder” or “kill.” Rather they relied on Euphemisms, the use of a less direct word or phrase that is less offensive.

26. Euphemisms Euphemism Actual Definition Final Solution (Endlösung)
Extermination
Special Treatment (Sonderbehandlung)
Killing by gas
Bath Houses (Badeanstalten)
Crematoria
Protective custody (Schutzhaft)
Unlimited incarceration without trial
Jewish residence district (Jüdischer Wohnbezirk)
Ghetto
labor, preferential, or POW camps
Death camps
Jewish settlement region (Jüdisches Siedlungsgebiet)
Killing centers of Poland

27. Stage 6: Killing Centers
After the victims loaded the deportation trains, they were brought to killing centers
The camps marked a shift from mobile killers and stationary victims towards a more efficient killing system of stationary killers and mobile victims
Fewer than 150 workers were needed at Treblinka to kill an estimated 750,000 Jews.
Auschwitz could “process” up to 10,000 people in one day.
The Killing Process Killing Centers Data

28. The Killing Process
Deception was key for getting victims to follow orders.
At Auschwitz a selection process was implemented and carried out by SS doctors.
Left = Death; Right = Work
Children, elderly, and sick were sent to the left.
Killing Centers Data

29. Killing Centers Data CAMP VICTIMS SURVIVORS Chelmno 360,000 3 Belzec
600,000 2
Sobibor
250,000 64
Treblinka
800,000
Under 40
Maidanek
500,000
Under 60
Auschwitz
1,500,000-2,000,000
Several thousand, because it was both a concentration camp and death camp

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31. Activities Ordered List: Six Stages of The Holocaust
The Holocaust Scavenger Hunt
Quiz
Scavenger Hunt

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33. Works Cited