An Introduction to the Holocaust KWL Activity Write a short paragraph, answering the following questions: What do you know about the Holocaust? What do you want to know about the Holocaust?

Genocide What is it?

"a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." 1944, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, coined the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing to describe the Nazi program in Europe. -Raphael Lemkin, 1944

What does that mean? Killing members of the group Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group -United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Dec. 9. 1948

Anti-Semitism What is it?

Prejudice against, or hatred of, Jews. Religious Economic Scapegoat Pogroms Religious roots of anti-Semitism Christian church teaches Jewish responsibility for death of Jesus for centuries, reinforced by the teachings of Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s. Economic roots of anti-Semitism Early church doesn’t permit Christians to lend money for interest (usury); Jews become lenders to European Christianity. Social roots of anti-Semitism Jews blamed for Black Death (hygiene) Spanish Inquisition 1400’s Pogroms in Russia and Poland, late 1800’s.

The Holocaust 1933-1945 The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews, and five million others, by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. -United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Structure of the Holocaust Anti-Semitism Propaganda Legislation Concentration camps Pogroms Ghettos Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups) Extermination camps The Final Solution Propaganda is public information that is designed to control how people think, instead of inform them. It consists of selectively-chosen or incomplete information, distorted or exaggerated information, and lies. The Holocaust The Nazi party came to power in Germany in January 1933, claiming that Germans were "racially superior"* and that Jews, "inferiors,"* were a threat to Germany as well as responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I. In 1933, the Nazis under Adolf Hitler built concentration camps to imprison criminals, political prisoners, Jews, Gypsies, and anyone else considered an opponent. Before the war, SS and Gestapo forces created ghettos, to make it easier to deport the Jews later. 1933-1939 More than 400 laws and regulations governing lives of Jews were passed in six years. The first was the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933, that excluded Jews from state service. Other laws restricted Jews in the fields of medicine and the law, expelled Jews from the Army; barred Jews from all public schools and universities, movies, theaters, and sports facilities, required Jews to carry ID, wear Star of David armbands, and restricted their movements. The Nuremburg Laws revoked German citizenship and all civil rights from Jews, and forbade them to associate, marry, or have children with Germans. After the beginning of the war, the German Army would be followed by the Einsatzgruppen, mobile death squads, who would round up and execute all Jews, Gypsies, and Communists, and by the SS and Gestapo, who would deport the Jews to camps. Incremental introduction of discriminatory practices made genocide easier than one big effort. Jews were confined into walled into sections of cities called ghettos, where they were kept imprisoned for transportation to camps. Those healthy enough to work were kept alive, but most were exterminated, either by the Einsatzgruppen or in the camps.

Kristallnacht “The Night of Broken Glass” Pogroms were frequent attacks, usually by mobs, in which Jews were terrorized, Jewish homes and businesses destroyed, and Jews beaten or killed, with the approval of the government. The most infamous of these, November 9-10,1938, was called Kristallnacht “The Night of Broken Glass” 7500 stores looted; 200 synagogues burned; 3000 Jews arrested; 100 Jews killed. Jews forced to pay costs.

War and Holocaust Germany invades Poland, Sep1,1939; Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, Spring, 1940; Greece, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union, Spring and Summer, 1941. In every case, the SS and Gestapo followed the troops, and deported the Jewish population to extermination camps or killed them outright.

Group Activity What signs should people look for to prevent something like this from happening again? With your group members, make a checklist of at least five things that would indicate the beginnings of a campaign of genocide.

Finish the “KWL” chart! What did you learn? For further information, go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at: www.ushmm.org Thank you for having me here today!