1. The People Involved, A Background, and a Visual Understanding
Historical Breakdown: The Holocaust, also known as: “The Final Solution”
The People Involved, A Background, and a Visual Understanding

2. Massive genocide committed against primarily European Jews during the World War II era
Genocide = the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group
This genocide was state-sanctioned by the German Nazi state, led by Adolf Hitler
The Holocaust

3. Over six million European Jews were murdered, which was approximately two-thirds of the population
One million of this number were children
A total million were killed (the numbers are not fully known, records were destroyed)
Others attacked: gypsies, Soviet POWs/civilians, Polish, homosexuals, the disabled, and Jehovah's Witnesses
The End Result

4. Types of Persecution – Various Stages
Laws that removed Jews from civil society (Nuremberg Laws)
These laws allowed an official ideology of incorporating anti- Semitism as a form of scientific racism; this law was designed to determine who was non- Aryan. Stripped away basic rights.
Types of Persecution – Various Stages

5. Types of Persecution – Various Stages
Ghettos
A tight space that was used within cities to imprison Holocaust victims prior to transportation
Types of Persecution – Various Stages

6. Ghetto’s

7. Types of Persecution – Various Stages
Concentration camps
Slave labor camps designed to work a prisoner to death through exhaustion or disease
Types of Persecution – Various Stages

8. Types of Persecution – Various Stages
Einsatzgruppen formed (extension of S.S.)
A specialized unit that murdered Jews and political opponents (believed to have killed at least 1,000,000 people)
Types of Persecution – Various Stages

9. Types of Persecution – Various Stages
Extermination camps / gas chambers
Overcrowded ghettos would transport victims via freight train, where if they survived, they were systematically killed in the gas chambers
Types of Persecution – Various Stages

10. Nazi-State General Understandings
Every arm of Nazi Germany’s government was involved in the genocides
The civilian population of Germany were unaware of the gas chambers, but they knew of the ghettos and concentration camps
Holocaust victims most commonly believed they were to be resettled somewhere else, they had little to no idea about the death camps
This was the first time a mass murder of this size was taking place; it was difficult to accept such an idea.
Nazi-State General Understandings

11. : After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (subsequently, the rise of Nazi power), the attacks on Jews began.
Boycott of Jewish businesses
Discrimination of Jews (banning of marriage between Aryan and non-Aryan)
Goal became about preserving “German blood and honor” – many claimed that it was about prevention of hereditary illness
How did this start?

12. Medical Experiments Medical experiments
Designed to see if one could “purify” the blood line through science
Dr. Josef Mengele: most notorious physician, worked in Auschwitz
Placed subjects in pressure chambers
Tested drugs and other medications
Froze subjects
Attempted to change eye color by injecting chemicals into eye’s
Various amputations
Few survived surgeries, and when they
did – they were killed following the
surgery
Medical Experiments

13. Medical Experiments Dr. Mengele:
Preferred to work with Romani children
Asked children to call him “Onkel Mengele” (“Uncle”), he would bring them candy and toys
He personally escorted children to gas chambers
A Jewish inmate at Auschwitz reported as saying:
“I remember one set of twins in particular: Guido and Ina, aged about four. One day, Mengele took them away. When they returned, they were in a terrible state: they had been sewn together, back to back, like Siamese twins. Their wounds were infected and oozing pus. They screamed day and night. Then their parents – I remember the mother's name was Stella – managed to get some morphine and they killed the children in order to end their suffering.”
Medical Experiments

14. In total – there were nearly 60 concentration camps.
Data suggests over 4 million died in camps, however many suggest that records were destroyed (meaning: the true numbers will never truly be known)
Concentration Camps

15. Hostage camps: camps where hostages were held and killed as reprisals.
Labor camps: concentration camps where interned inmates had to do hard physical labor under inhumane conditions and cruel treatment. Some of these camps were sub-camps of bigger camps, or "operational camps", established for a temporary need.
POW camps: concentration camps where prisoners of war were held after capture. POWs were usually soon assigned to labor camps.
Camps for rehabilitation and re-education of Poles: camps where the intelligentsia of the ethnic Poles were held, and "re-educated" according to Nazi values as slaves.
Transit and collection camps: camps where inmates were collected and routed to main camps, or temporarily held (Durchgangslager or Dulag).
Types of Camps

16. The Extermination Camps
First in existence with expressed goal of murdering extensive amounts of people.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Belzec
Chelmno
Jasenovac
Majdanek
Maly Trostenets
Sobibor
Treblinka
The Extermination Camps

17. As the Allied forces closed in on Nazi forces, a desperate effort was made to conceal the death camps.
People were murdered faster, and disposed of in unknown ways
Gas chambers dismantled, crematoria dynamited
Mass graves dug up to cremate the bodies, while farmers planted crops over the site to hide evidence
Death marches were last attempt to hide evidence
Death Marches:

18. Prisoners were forced to walk tens of miles in snow to train stations
Prisoners were forced to walk tens of miles in snow to train stations. After walking to the train station, victims were transported for days at a time without food or adequate cover from the cold. After arrival at the new camp, they were made to march again.
Most victims were deathly ill, starved, and weak
An estimated 250,000 died during the marches
This was the INTENDED goal of the Nazi’s: they wanted the Jews to die a painful death, the gas chambers were too effective
Largest and best-known death march was January 1945
35 mile march, 15,000 died
Elie Weisel made this march, and survived – it is in his novel
Death Marches

19. Victims Victims Killed Jews 5.9 million Soviet POWs 2–3 million
Ethnic Poles
1.8–2 million
Romani
220,000–1,500,000
Disabled
200,000–250,000
Freemasons
80,000
Slovenes
20,000–25,000
Homosexuals
5,000–15,000
Jehovah‘s Witnesses
2,500–5,000
Victims

20. This is a BRIEF overview…
As we read Elie Wiesel’s account in Night, you will be faced with understanding much more…
Keep these notes handy. Wiesel uses Yiddish, Kabbalah, and German terms to create a more real storyline.
Prepare for a visual overview of the Holocaust, at least of the images that do still exist.
This is a BRIEF overview…

21. Elie Weisel: The Author
Survived Auschwitz
Circled is Elie, five days after liberation…
Elie Weisel: The Author

22. Elie Wiesel Romanian-born Jewish-American
Night is about his time in Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps
Lived in the city of Sighet, Romania
Inmate Tattoo ID: A-7713
Elie Wiesel

23. Upon arrival at the death camp…
Mother and sisters were separated… presumably, they died upon arrival in a gas chamber
Elie and his father remained together until the weeks leading up to Buchenwald’s liberation
Upon arrival at the death camp…

24. His novel is non-fiction…
Not embellished, is authentic.
#1 Best-Seller as recently as 2006
Translated into 30 languages
I’ll let Elie tell you his life story though with his novel… these are just some of the main points to take into consideration.
His novel is non-fiction…

25. The Holocaust in Pictures
Now that you have a start to the depth and horrors of the Holocaust, we are going to review some of the most iconic images of the Holocaust. Please remember that your sensitivity and maturity are required.
More importantly, as you walk away from this class today – take a moment to think of how
The Holocaust in Pictures

63. What major ideas would people be afraid we learned from the Holocaust?
Consider both positive and negative lessons.
After viewing the images, and hearing a brief history, what do you feel now?
What information was new or unexpected from this slide show?
Discussion…