The Holocaust ( )  Of the 60 million WWII deaths, 11 million people died in German death camps including 3.5 million Russians, and 6 million Jews (2/3rds of all European Jews  Designed to wipe out an entire group  Hitler’s “Final Solution”  Systematic genocide

Anti-Semitism  Nazi’s propose new racial order  Aryans—master race of Germanic peoples  All non-Aryans were inferior; especially Jews  Holocaust—mass slaughter of Jews and other groups  Kristallnacht—start of the Holocaust; “Night of Broken Glass”

1935 Nuremburg Laws  Stripped Jews of their German citizenship  Stripped of jobs and property  Banned marriage between Jews and non- Jews  Had to wear the Star of David  Yellow badge

Attempts to Flee  Many tried to flee to Palestine or the US.  Ships left Germany for Cuba—not allowed to unload  Denied access to U.S.  Forced to return to Germany  Half died in camps

Ghettos  Hitler will move Jews into Ghettos— segregated Jewish areas  Ghetto—Polish word for neighborhood  Ghettos were then sealed off  Some Jews will form resistance groups  Jews will struggle to keep traditions

Jewish children in Lodz Ghetto on their way toward transports to Chelmno Death Camp

Hitler’s “Final Solution”  Genocide—deliberate and systematic killing of a group of people  Final Solution—kill all Jews in Europe  Death camps (gas chambers) & labor camps  Also sent gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, physically & mentally handicapped  Medical experimentation (Josef Mengele)

One of the most famous photos taken during the Holocaust shows Jewish families arrested by Nazis during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, and sent to be gassed at Treblinka extermination camp.

A view of Majdanek, which served as a concentration camp and also as a killing center for Jews.

Life in a Concentration Camp  A prisoner in Dachau is forced to stand without moving for endless hours as a punishment. He is wearing a triangle patch identification on his chest.  A chart of prisoner triangle identification markings used in Nazi concentration camps which allowed the guards to easily see which type of prisoner any individual was.

Survivors in Mauthausen open one of the crematoria ovens for American troops who are inspecting the camp.

A warehouse full of shoes and clothing confiscated from the prisoners and deportees gassed upon their arrival. The Nazis shipped these goods to Germany.

Young survivors behind a barbed wire fence in Buchenwald.

Between 1939 and 1945 six million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of others, such as Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled and the mentally ill.

16 of the 44 children taken from a French children’s home. They were sent to a concentration camp and later to Auschwitz. ONLY 1 SURVIVED A group of children at a concentration camp in Poland.

Part of a stockpile of Zyklon-B poison gas pellets found at Majdanek death camp. Before poison gas was used, Jews were gassed in mobile gas vans. Carbon monoxide gas from the engine’s exhaust was fed into the sealed rear compartment. Victims were dead by the time they reached the burial site.

Nazis sift through a huge pile of clothes left by victims of the massacre. Two year old Mani Halef’s clothes are somewhere amongst these.

After liberation, an Allied soldier displays a stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald. Bales of hair shaven from women at Auschwitz, used to make felt-yarn.

“Until September 14, 1939 my life was typical of a young Jewish boy in that part of the world in that period of time. I lived in a Jewish community surrounded by gentiles. Aside from my immediate family, I had many relatives and knew all the town people, both Jews and gentiles. Almost two weeks after the outbreak of the war and shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, my world exploded. In the course of the next five and a half years I lost my entire family and almost everyone I ever knew. Death, violence and brutality became a daily occurrence in my life while I was still a young teenager.” Leonard Lerer, 1991