1. Part 2 Key Questions 1.How is the decision made and implemented to commit a European- wide genocide? 2.What were the major effects of WWII on American society including minorities and women?

2. A. Early Jewish Persecution 1935 Nuremburg laws in Germany stripped German Jews of citizenship and rights 1938 Kristellnacht Nazis unleashed wave of violence against Jews attacking them in their homes, synagogues and businesses Tens of thousands of European Jews fled for countries that would admit them III. The Jewish Genocide

3. Among them distinguished musicians, architects, writers, scholars who enriched the cultural life of their adopted nation Refugee physicists like Enrique Ferme contributed to developing the atomic bomb for the U.S. Discriminatory Immigration laws in place at time Congress refused to change the quotas for Jews FDR would not exert pressure on lawmakers to do so Majority of Americans opposed letting in more Jews (isolationist, anti-immigrant, anti-semitic sentiments) B. America and the Jewish refugees

4. Jewish refugees on board MS St Louis in 1939 while docked in Havana, Cuba Stopped by US Authorities and forced to return to Europe Video: Jewish Refugees – The Roosevelts

5. C. The Jewish Genocide Onset of the war accelerates the process of elimination – Deportation of “undesirables” into concentration camps – In Eastern Europe (esp. Poland), forced relocation of Jews into Ghettoes Mandatory wearing of clothing to identify them as Jews Forced labor Not allowed to leave Hunger, fatigue, disease kill thousands of Jews by month

6. Other Victims of the Holocaust Political opponents – Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, and trade union leaders Roma (Gypsies) – On racial grounds - Accused of being work- shy/asocial, 1 st victims of gas chambers Poles/Slavic peoples (considered racially inferior) Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, mentally + physically disabled Video: The Path to Nazi Genocide

7. Radicalization after USSR invasion German movement East places much larger Jewish population under Nazi control Einsatzgruppen follow troops and exterminate all racial and political enemies – 1 million people gunned down 1941-1943 Method eventually considered too inefficient and wearing on assassins

8. First Extermination Camps Fall 1941 Built in East (e.g. Belzec, Poland) December 1 st gassings occur in Chelmno, Poland in trucks Turning Point of conscious policy of total extermination

9. CAMPS IN EUROPE 1933 - 1945

10. Mass Extermination The Final Solution – Genocide on European scale as of 1941 – Made official at Wannsee Conference Jan 20, 1942 – SS Reinhard Heydrich defines administrative and practical methods to exterminate all Jews in Europe – Physically capable Jews used in the German war effort, all others eliminated – Gypsies sent to death camps from 1943

11. Planned and methodical organization 2 sorts of camps, overseen by the SS – Concentration Camps Work camps created after 1933, e.g. Dachau, stone quarry: Mauthausen (Austria), chemical plant: Auschwitz Conditions variable: death more or less frequent from overwork, abuse, starvation Detainees diverse, resistance members progressively sent, some camps only female Systematic treatment of humiliation to make prisoners feel a loss of humanity

12. Death Camps In Poland – Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chalmno, Majdanek, Sobibor & Treblinka Death organized in an industrial fashion Populations throughout Europe transported like animals in wagon cars – Apt workers separated from the weak who are killed in gas chambers – Bodies burned or buried in communal graves – Detainees used as guinea pigs for medical experiments under authority of doctors like Josef Mengele in Auschwitz

13. Outcome 10 million people killed from Nazi extermination policy Jewish victims the most numerous: – 5.1 – 5.8 million deaths – Half the Jewish population in 1939 – Gypsies suffer 240,000 deaths (1/3 population) Regions Unevenly affected – Extermination more systematic in the East – The Polish Jewish population decreased by 89% between 1939 and 1945

14. Local Reactions to Nazi Extermination Policy Occupied territories of Nazi Germany reacted differently – Local governments and civilian populations cooperated differently depending on the country Resistance of Danish & Swedish authorities and populations saved Jewish population of the country French collaboration (state and people) led to extermination of 28% of Jewish population Opposition of Finnish and Bulgarian governments (Nazi allies) led to end of deporting their Jewish citizens to extermination camps Jewish populations resisted policies in some areas – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Video: To Live and Die with Honor Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (4’45) Video: Holocaust Survivor Barbara Steiner

15. CountryNumber of Deaths % of Jewish population exterminated Germany120,00050% Austria50,00083% Belgium24,00027% Estonia2,00044% France75,00028% Greece60,00081% Hungary180,00045% Italy9,00018% Latvia70,00074% Lithuania130,00090% Norway1,00050% The Netherlands100,00071% Poland3,000,00089.5% Romania270,00036% Czechoslovakia260,00082.5% USSR700,00023% Yugoslavia60,00080%

16. Survivors of the Concentration Camp of Dachau celebrate their release

17. HOMEWORK Reading Material Mastering Modern World History Part I. War and International Relations Chapter 6 The Second World War, 1939-1945 Genocide (pp. 111-117)