The Holocaust in Europe What events led to the Final Solution?

Step One: Nuremberg Laws 1935: two sets of laws passed in Germany defining race & citizenship 1) Protection of German Blood & Honor – 1935 Racial categories: German, Jew, & Mischling (no inter-marrying)

2) Reich Citizenship Law Must be German to be citizen, only citizens have full rights

Step Two: Kristallnacht 1938: a 17-year old Jewish man shoots a German diplomat Businesses & homes are smashed & burned by SS, thousands of Jews are arrested by Gestapo, Jews will try to leave Germany

Step Three: Relocation to the Ghettos FDR: “feel sorry for Jews, but can’t do much for them” 740 Jews with US immigration papers board the St. Louis, headed to Miami, US doesn’t allow them into country St. Louis passengers must return to Europe, 50% killed in Holocaust Nazis realized Jews can’t leave Germany, they began to deport Jews into segregated ghettos, mostly in Poland

Video Questions:The Pianist 1.What was happening to Jews in 1940 and did they think it was permanent? 2.Describe how Nazi soldiers would humiliate Jews.

Step Four: The Final Solution Jews not dying quickly in ghettos, Nazis develop genocide plan called “the Final Solution” Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Slavs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals & Communists also will be eliminated in the Holocaust SS killing squads shot people & bury the bodies in mass graves When killing squads aren’t quick enough, Nazis turn to poison gas 1942: People are shipped to death camps, mostly in Poland, camps had gas chambers that could kill up to 6K a day