1. The Holocaust
February 20, 2013

2. Holocaust: Nazi attempt to kill all Jews
Includes all Jews & “undesirables”
Gay; twin; gypsy; disabled (mental/ physical); criminal; dated/ married Jewish
Speak out against Hitler
“Anti-Social”
Genocide: Mass elimination of entire group of people
WHY???
Racist Nazi Ideas
Aryan myth - superior to all
Blame Jews for EVERYTHING
World War I loss; Depression

3. Holocaust begins as soon as Hitler takes power (1933)
Hitler urged Germans to boycott Jewish owned businesses
No gov’t jobs or jobs in banking, stock exchange, law, journalism, or medicine
3. Nuremburg Laws
Deny citizenship to Jews
Ban marriage between Jews & non-Jews
Segregated Jews at every level
Propaganda
Newspapers attack on Jews
Children taught in schools that Jews “polluting” Germany
Comic books

4. Between
130,000 Jews flee Germany & Austria (artists, doctors, scientists)
Why didn’t others leave too???
Great Depression: Not welcome in other countries
Immigration limits
st concentration camp built
Dachau
Not designed to kill (work camp)
Concentration Camps
Tattoo numbers on arm/
Vertically striped clothes
Torture/ kill with no fear of reprimand
Starve/ disease
Medical experiments
No anesthesia
Kill/ deform

5. Holocaust Continued
February 21, 2013

6. Places conquered (Poland, Denmark, France)
Force Jewish population into ghettos
Construct concentration camps
Wannsee Conference
New design for camps
Plan to kill over 11 million Jews
Auschwitz
South Poland
Gas: carbon monoxide or insecticide, OR
Mass execution with guns
Take what want & burn in crematory
Human fat - soap
Hair - wigs, slippers, mattresses, etc.
Cash, gold fillings, wedding rings, etc.
How many died???
MILLIONS
No real number could be known
Records burned
Bodies in ashes

7. Could the Holocaust have been prevented?
1. Immigration policies strict
Great Depression
Worry about selves
2. Apathy: don’t care
North America: Europe is far away
Can’t relate
3. Underestimate Hitler
Big fear was Soviet Union/ communism
s: news does NOT travel fast
No TV/ internet in homes

8. No specific details known about Holocaust during WWII
Specifics not known until allies liberated camps after WWII
Allies heard some stories about camps
Stalin: no concern
Churchill & FDR: sympathy but thought focus should be on defeating Hitler
If war ends, they can get the people out of the camps
No pressure on countries to NOT send Jews
Don’t know magnitude
Internment camps in U.S. for Japanese

9. ENORMITY of Holocaust became real when camps liberated (freed)
Piles of bodies
Warehouses full of hair, jewelry, shoes, etc.
Ashes
Lieutenant Winters (Band of Brothers)
“The memory of starved, slaved men, who dropped their eyes and heads when we looked at them through the chain link fence, in the same manner that a beaten, mistreated dog would cringe, leaves feelings that cannot be described and will never be forgotten. The impact of seeing those people behind that fence left me saying, ‘Now I know why I’m here.’”