World War II: The Holocaust & Crimes Against Humanity

Gruesome Discoveries Dead Soviet and Polish POWs at Ohrdruf Camp

*The Death Toll of World War II Total deaths (both theaters) 57 million deaths by far the deadliest war in history Vast majority of deaths were civilians: 12 million soldiers 45 million civilians Holocaust – systematic extermination of six million Jews and six million other “untermenschen” in concentration camps

The Roots of the Holocaust

Eugenics & Nazi Racial Ideology Herrenvolk – “master race”/ “Aryans” Untermenschen – “sub-humans” – Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc. Eugenics – pseudo-scientific theory of heredity Social Darwinism

Ghettos 1933-1935 – Jews are publicly humiliated and stripped of their jobs 1935-1938 – Jews are stripped of citizenship and moved into urban ghettos *1938 – Kristallnacht – “the night of broken glass” signals the end of safety for Jews in Germany *1938 – Jews are forced to surrender all their property and begin to be sent to concentration camps

Public Humiliation

The Holocaust

Wannsee Conference Berlin, 1942 *Problem= Firing squads are psychologically taxing for German soldiers “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” Deportation from ghettos Extermination camps

Jewish Resistance: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto

Ghettos & Camps

Himmler’s Secret Speech to the SS “I want to make reference before you here, in complete frankness, to a really grave matter. Among ourselves, this once, it shall be uttered quite frankly; but in public we will never speak of it. I am speaking of the evacuation of the Jews, the annihilation of the Jewish people… We can say that we have carried out this heaviest of all our tasks in a spirit of love for our people. Our inward being, our soul, has not suffered for it.” Poland, Oct. 4, 1943

Railroad to Auschwitz

Arrival at Auschwitz

Auschwitz

Prisoners

Starvation

Mass Graves Left: SS Einsatzgruppen – early mobile killing units Right: Later, SS turned to concentration camps and mass extermination by gas (Bergen-Belsen mass grave)

Crematoria

Who Were the Victims?

Who Were the Victims? Jews enemies of the state Roma and Sinti (“gypsies”) the mentally and physically disabled homosexuals Soviet P.O.W.s Jehovah’s Witnesses some Catholics common criminals *Prisoners were identified by group with special badges *About 12 million people were killed in the Holocaust

Human Experimentation

*Germany Dr. Josef Mengele “Angel of Death” Medical officer at Auschwitz Determined fate of incoming prisoners Work assignments Gas chamber Experimentation Amputation Chemicals Vivisection Studies on twins Personally selected 400,000 prisoners to die in gas chambers in Auschwitz