The Holocaust

1933

January 30 President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor (Prime Minster)

February 27 Reichstag destroyed by arson.

the Chancellorship was in the hands of Hitler and the Nazis, but the control of the legislature was not yet theirs. Socialist parties = major opposition. Hitler blamed the Communists for starting the fire (scapegoating) Most historians generally agree that it was a planned arson which Hitler used to blame the Communist Party to gain control of the parliament Burn Baby Burn

March 23 First concentration camp, Dachau, established Dachau’s main gate.

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Heinrich Himmler, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners” In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries passed through the gates, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. DACHAU

March 23 “Enabling Laws” passed by Reichstag suspending civil liberties.

Enabling Laws It was officially called the “Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.'‘ "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one.“ - Hitler told the Reichstag. Meant the end of democracy in Germany, established the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and marked the beginning of the attack on the Jews.

April 1 Nazis proclaim a boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses

April 7 Jews dismissed from civil service and denied admission to the bar (practicing law)

April 26 Formation of the Gestapo Was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel (SS) Heinrich Himmler, one Hitler’s closest followers is the head of the SS, Gestapo and overseer of the camps.

May 2 Dissolution of the trade unions.

May 10 Burning of books written by Jews and opponents to Nazism.

1934

August 2 Death of Hindenburg

1935

Summer Juden Verboten (no Jews) …..signs outside towns, restaurants and stores

September 15 Reichstag passes “Nuremberg Laws”

Nuremberg Laws Were racist and anti-Semitic laws passed in Nazi Germany. The laws also stated who was considered a Jew and who was not. The laws did not define a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews.

1937

July 16 Buchenwald concentration camp opens Gate with the words Jedem das Seine.... "everyone gets what he deserves".

1938

November 9 & 10 Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

Kristallnacht In a coordinated attack on Jewish people and their property, 91 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. More than 200 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked.

November 15 Jewish children are expelled from German schools.

December 13 Decree on “Aryanization” (compulsory expropriation of Jewish industries, businesses and shops) enacted

Businesses were transferred to non-Jewish owners and the proceeds taken by the state. Jewelry, stocks, property and other valuables had to be sold below market value. Jewish employees were fired, and self-employed people were prohibited from working in their respective professions. Aryanization

1939

September 1 Germany invades Poland. Beginning of World War II

September 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany.

October 12 First deportation of Jews from Austria and Moravia to Poland.

November 23 Wearing of Judenstern (Jewish six-pointed Star of David) is made compulsory.

1940

April 30 Ghetto at Lodz, Poland, is sealed off

November 15 Warsaw Ghetto is sealed off

1941

June 22 Germany attacks the Soviet Union.

Himmler sent four specially trained SS units called “Einsatzgruppen battalions” behind the advancing German army to terminate undesirables including Jews, Communists, etc. Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and shot. When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers. The Nazi command decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary. Einsatzgruppen

July 31 Heydrich is appointed by Goring to carry out the “Final Solution” (extermination of all Jews in Europe).

The ‘Final Solution’ How was the Final Solution going to be organised? Shooting was too inefficient and the bullets were needed for the war effort Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettos The Jews living in these Ghettos were to be used as a cheap source of labour. Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the hope of better conditions On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’ The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. Women, children, the old & the sick were to be sent for ‘special treatment.’ The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’

Tactics Deception Starvation Terror The Jews were told that they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their own train tickets. The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for any act of resistance New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to send to their friends. They were told to bring the tools of their trade and pots and pans. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a day A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight Hungry people are easier to control

Einsatzgruppen Why do you think the death camps were located here?

September 23: First experiments of gassing are made at Auschwitz.

Entrance to Auschwitz Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station. Why do think that is?

New Arrivals ‘Destruction Through Work’ ‘Showers’ Map of Auschwitz

Notice how the Death camp is set out like a factory complex The Nazis used industrial methods to murder the Jews and process their dead bodies Auschwitz from the air

The Gas Chambers The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B through small holes in the roof. These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses. The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber.

Dead bodies waiting to be processed

Processing the bodies Specially selected Jews known as the Sonderkommando were used to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who were being gassed. The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

Destruction Through Work This photo (the before pic) was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day.

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later.

October 14 Deportation of German Jews begins.

December 8 Chelmno extermination camp in Poland is opened.

Chelmno Used ‘gas vans’ rather than ‘gas chambers’. Took only 5-10 minutes till all of the people in the loading compartment had been suffocated. 4 vans were used, each holding between 100 to 150 people.

1942

June 1 Treblinka death camp opens.

July Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto are deported to Treblinka.

July 28 Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.

1943

May 16 Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto

June 11 Himmler orders liquidation of all Polish Jewish Ghettos

1944

May 15- June Jews are deported from Hungary to Auschwitz

July 24 Soviet troops liberate Majdanek death camp. First hard evidence of what the Germans were doing.

November 24 Himmler orders the destruction of Auschwitz crematoria as Nazis try to hide evidence of the death camps

1945

April 11 American troops liberate Buchenwald death camp

April 15 British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen death camp

Horrors Discovered

April 30 Hitler commits suicide

May 7 Germany surrenders unconditionally. End of the war in Europe.

November 22 Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal commences.

October 1, 1946 The Nuremberg Trials conclude on October 1, 1946, which happened to be the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), with a judgment in which twelve defendants were sentenced to death, three to life imprisonment, four for various prison terms and three acquitted.

Was the Final Solution successful? The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews Today there are only a few thousand Jews living in Poland. (3,000,000 at the start of WW II) The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews. Men like Schindler helped Jews escape the Final Solution. Not all Jews went quietly into the gas cambers. In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realised what was really happening.