2. Extermination of the Jews The Nazi Holocaust

3. Standard WHII.12b: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the worldwide impact of World War II by examining the Holocaust and other examples of genocide in the twentieth century. Essential Understandings: There had been a climate of hatred against Jews in Europe and Russia for centuries Various instances of genocide occurred throughout the twentieth century Essential Questions: Essential Questions: Why did the Holocaust occur? What are other examples of genocide in the twentieth century? Elements Leading to the Holocaust: Totalitarianism combined with nationalism History of anti-Semitism Defeat in WWI and economic depression blamed on German Jews Hitler’s belief in the master race (Aryans) Final Solution: extermination camps, gas chambers

4. Terms to Know Genocide: The organized & purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group Anti-Semitism: Prejudice against or hostility toward Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, and/or religion. In its extreme form, it defames Jews as an inferior group and denies their being part of the nation[s] in which they reside. Holocaust: Systematic, government-sponsored, persecution and murder of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and it’s collaborators. Means “sacrifice by fire.”

5. Mein Kampf (1925) = “My Struggle”  Considered the Bible of Nazism  The importance of the book is that it calls for German domination of Europe  Presents Hitler’s major ideas Anti-Semitism Anti-Communism Superiority of the Aryan race German nationalism

6. Hitler’s Focus on Racial Superiority  Hitler described a racial hierarchy with: Aryans (the culture-producing race) at the top Jews, Africans, Gypsies, the mentally and physically disabled, etc. (the culture-destroying races) at the bottom  Hitler's goal: remove the inferior types from Germany, making more lebensraum (living space) for the superior Aryans  Jews were the special object of his hatred

7. The War Against the Jews When the Nazis began to wage war against the Jews, they used speeches and propaganda From an anti-Semitic children's book. The sign reads "Jews are not wanted here." The headlines say "Jews are our misfortune" and "How the Jew cheats." Germany, 1936.

8. 1935: Nuremberg Race Laws Sterilization & Euthanasia Sterilization – The Nazis made laws allowing for forced sterilization of those with genetic defects (i.e., blindness, epilepsy) Euthanasia – The Nazis also advocated for the removal (killing) of those who would not improve the German race and had no use in society – those who Hitler called the "useless eaters" (i.e., mentally ill, terminally ill, physically handicapped, mentally handicapped)

9. The Nazis had several methods of terror that they used to enforce their power: Gestapo = Nazi secret police  Mission: eliminate all opposition to Hitler and the Nazis  Tactics: terror, torture, murder SS = Hitler’s personal body guards  Headed by Heinrich Himmler  Mission: exterminate all Jews  Tactics: propaganda (the spreading of false information to purposely mislead people), terror, murder

10. 1940 First ghetto established in Poland  Ghetto – walled off parts of the city in which the people could be more easily controlled German Jews were deported to Poland to live in ghettos Children climbing the walls to smuggle food into the Warsaw Ghetto

11. Concentration Camps vs. Extermination Camps Selection: The process of separating people who arrived at the camps  The strong & healthy were sent to work in the concentration camps  The young, the old & the ill were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers of the extermination camps

12. The “Final Solution” 1942: The “Final Solution” Jews would be systematically evacuated from all over occupied Europe to camps in the east, where the entire Jewish population would be exterminated Three Phases: Phase 1: Shooting – Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated – they were taken to the woods and were shot one by one – their bodies were buried in mass graves Phase 2: Gas Vans – Again, Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated in vans – The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van Phase 3: Gas Chambers – Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution by sending Jews to camps – the most effective method for mass extermination became gassing in specially constructed gas chambers (disguised as showers), from which the bodies were removed to adjacent crematoriums This plan of genocide was carried out with efficiency and the victims, whose will to resist had been sapped by prolonged starvation and disease, were often unaware until the last moment that they were going to be gassed

13. The final destination for those who could not work, the gas chamber Ovens in crematorium

14. Children victims of Nazi medical experiments

15. Mass grave site at Bergen-Belsen. The British found many dead when they liberated the camp.

16. Auschwitz

17. GENOCIDE Genocide = The systematic & purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group

18. Other Examples of Genocide 1915-1923: Armenians by leaders of the Ottoman Empire 1937-1938: Chinese soldiers and citizens by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanking, China 1975-1979: Artists, technicians, former government officials, monks, minorities, and other educated individuals by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia 1994: Tutsi minority by the Hutu majority and the Interhamwe militia in Rwanda 2003-2011: Non-Arab Muslims by the Arab government- sponsored Janjaweed in Darfur, Sudan