Holocaust Hitler’s Final Solution

German Pride Suffers Lost WWI Harsh terms of Treaty of Versailles Blamed Weimar Republic for economic problems Gave up territory rich in resources Limited military Economy in ruins

Adolf Hitler the Early Years Born in Austria 1889 Dropped out of high school to attend art school Mother died of cancer, father was abusive Enlisted in German Army and fought in WWI Joined National Socialist German Workers Party Anti Communist/Anti Semetic Jailed for trying to stage a Coup, wrote Mein Kampf or “My Struggle” Proclaiming Germans the master race

Nazi Ideology Hitler created the Gestapo and secret police called the SS to enforce Nazi Ideology Propaganda was used to spread idea of Aryan or German superiority Targeted the young through “Hitler’s Youth” programs Nazis controlled education and taught students what and how to think No civil liberties or freedom of speech

Jewish Isolated and attacked Anti Semitic propaganda Anti Jewish boycotts Nuremburg laws restricted Jewish professionals, right to property, citizenship, right to marry, couldn’t walk down certain streets, forced to wear star of David on clothes, identified as Jew with J on passport

Attacks on Jews escalate Kristallnacht: Night of broken glass Jews punished for death of a German ambassador Government supported attacks on Jews, their homes, businesses and synagogues Many Jews flee Germany after attacks

Jews forced into Ghettos and camps Ghettos: small areas sealed off with barbed wire or high walls Executions in ghettos at random Temporarily concentrated Jews until elimination Some Jews led resistance and tried to keep normalcy in Ghettos Warsaw resistance: Jews fought back against Nazis

Horrors of the Camps Detention labor camps for political enemies Slave labor used to support war effort Mass extermination/gas chambers/cremations/systematic Torture, starvation, disease Medical experiments Break up of families

Final solution Extermination of all Jewish people to restore German purity Systematically kill Jews, gypsies, disabled, homosexuals in mass murders Gas was primary means of execution Trains-boxcar deaths, treated worse than cattle to the slaughter

Liberation Hitler attempted to hide death camps British first to arrive at camps and attempt to help prisoners Germans tried in Nuremburg trials, some committed suicide, others put to death