The Holocaust Chapter 11 Lesson 3 Notes

Anti-Semitism The Holocaust: the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe during World War II. Hitler and the Nazis viewed Jews as an inferior race of people and blamed them for World War I and the economic devastation that followed. During the Holocaust, the Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jewish people. They also killed millions of other people, including those who opposed their rule. The Roma (formerly known as Gypsies), homosexual individuals, and Slavic peoples were all victims.

Nuremberg Laws 1935 Stripped German Jews of citizenship and prohibit Jews from marrying Germans; Prohibited Jews from voting or holding public office; Requires Jews with German names to adopt names considered Jewish; Officials begin marking Jewish passports with a red “J.” 1936 Jews are barred from working as civil servants, teachers, journalists, farmers, and actors. 1938 Jews are barred from practicing law and medicine or owning businesses. Jewish Resilience Despite such laws, many Jews remained in Germany, where they had made their home. They believed that, in time, conditions would improve.

Kristallnacht Assassination On November 7, 1938, a Jewish refugee, killed a German diplomat in Paris. Response Hitler staged retaliatory attacks against Jews that would seem like a reaction to news of the murder. Kristallnacht - Night of Broken Glass On November 9, violence broke out against Jewish peoples in Austria and Germany. More than 90 Jews were killed. Thousands of businesses and hundreds of synagogues were destroyed. Ongoing Persecution Germany’s secret police, called the Gestapo, arrested 30,000 Jewish men. They lost their property and insurance money owed to Jewish businesses went to the government instead.

Jewish Refugees Escape From 1933 to 1939, a quarter of a million Jews fled Nazi-controlled Germany. Among these were Anne Frank and her family, who fled to the Netherlands. She and her family were found after two years spent in hiding and sent to an extermination camp. United States Many Jews tried to immigrate to the United States. The Great Depression and anti-Semitic attitudes did not encourage U.S. government to change these laws.

Jewish Refugees International Response Officials from the United States and countries in Europe and Latin America met in 1938. Though they expressed regret that they could not take in more Jewish refugees, they did not change their laws. Turned Away Thousands of Jews fled on ships to the United States and countries in Latin America with forged and illegal visas. These countries refused to admit them, and they were returned to Germany and German-occupied lands.

The Final Solution Wannsee Conference In 1942 Nazi leaders met to devise a more efficient method of exterminating the Jewish population. They decided to capture Jews from German-controlled territory and transport them to camps. Healthy persons taken to concentration camps would work until they no longer could. Young children, elderly persons, the sick, and others who could not work were separated on arrival and taken to adjacent extermination camps where they were killed.

The Final Solution The Camps The Nazis operated hundreds of concentration and extermination camps throughout German-controlled lands. Each camp housed thousands of prisoners. Auschwitz could hold as many as 100,000. Its gas chambers could kill 2,000 people at a time. About 1.6 million people were executed at Auschwitz alone, including 300,000 non-Jewish individuals.