Holocaust Nazi Ideals about Race –Race is the most important characteristic. It outweighs experience, education and nationality. –Some races are more valuable than others  Aryan  Non-Aryan whites (Except Japan)  Asian  African American – Jews were considered the source of evil in Hitler's world and considered them as parasites that fed off the German people.

Ghettos concentration camps and Death Camps Ghettos Throughout occupied Germany, remaining Jews were forced out of their homes and into ghettos. In Warsaw, Poland the Jewish Ghettos housed 500,000 in an area were 50,000 lived. Life was hard in the ghetto. People were deprived of all necessities, just the bare essentials for survival. Deaths, disease, murder, were rampant.

Ghettos concentration camps and Death Camps Because food was rationed, people would go for days without reporting a family members death so they could collect their food The Judenrat, a council of rabbis and civic leaders, were established to maintain the order, helped enforce Nazi laws in the ghetto Concentration camps/Labor Camp Early on in Hitler's first years of power, labor camps were established to house political threats and those unworthy to be part of Hitler's Germany. During the war they would house Soviet POW's where they would often be worked to death.

Ghettos concentration camps and Death Camps Concentration camps were derived from these work camps. Over a 100 concentration camps dotted Occupied Europe in which the death rates were very high Very similar to the ghettos, the concentration camps provided little food and executions were commonplace. Like the ghettos these to were a temporary solution to the Jewish problem.

Holocaust Cont Death Squads – Immediately after taking Poland Hitler put the Einstazgruppen to work. Their job was simple; kill all Jews and potential political enemies. – In 1941, after the invasion of the USSR, the mobile killing units carried out executions against Communist officials and Jews. – Believing that the Jews were the carriers of Communism had to be extinguished like a rat with the plague.

Ghettos concentration camps and Death Camps Death Camps and the final Solution SS commandant, Himmler, saw the firing squad style of execution was emotionally taxing on his men and woefully inefficient by his standards The Death camps had one purpose; mass exterminations.. Places like Auschwitz, Birkenau, Chelmo and others executed Jews, by the thousands daily. The method of choice was the gas chambers disguised as showers. Zyklon B, a pest control agent, was injected as an aerosol, killing in about 15 minutes.

Ghettos concentration camps and Death Camps To get rid of the bodies, huge crematoriums were built. Sometimes the sheer volume of bodies would clog the oven then the bodies would be burned in the open. Before this final stage, the bodies would be stripped of any valuables such as gold teeth and silver fillings. This final solution was devised by the German high command, which was not satisfied with the Einsatzgruppen's executions. In all over 6,000,000 of Europe's Jews were murdered during the Holocaust (another 2-4 million additional deaths from other groups not welcomed in Hitler’s Germany)