1. The Holocaust

2. Anti -Semitism Aryan Race
This is the term given to political, social and economic agitation against Jews. In simple terms it means ‘Hatred of Jews’.
Aryan Race
This was the name of what Hitler believed was the perfect race. These were people with full German blood, blonde hair and blue eyes.

3. For hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews as the Christ -killers. At one time or another Jews had been driven out of almost every European country. The way they were treated in England in the thirteenth century is a typical example.
In 1275 they were made to wear a yellow badge.
In Jews were hanged in the Tower of London.
Jews were a SCAPEGOAT
This deep prejudice against Jews was still strong in the twentieth century, especially in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe, where the Jewish population was very large.
After the First World War hundreds of Jews were blamed for the defeat in the War. Prejudice against the Jews grew during the economic depression which followed. Many Germans were poor and unemployed and wanted someone to blame. They turned on the Jews, many of whom were rich and successful in business.

4. It is important to remember that it was not only the Jews who were to experience any form of prejudice within Germany
… Communists, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, disabled, and the homeless also were persecuted

5. … and the persecution of the Jews was not new.
The persecution of the Jews had happened throughout history. There had always been anti - Semitic feelings (against Jews)
It reappeared in Germany in 1933.
People who went out shopping were encouraged not to buy any goods from Jewish shops
People were “warned” about which shop belonged to the Jews

6. These laws were designed to
In 1935, the Nazi Party passed what was called the Nuremberg Laws: Jews were stripped of German citizenship, Kids excluded from public schools, forced sale of Jewish businesses
These laws were designed to
To stop Jews and Germans from marrying.
To stop Jews and Germans from having sexual relations
To make sure that German blood was not tainted by mixing with other races
Pictures would be produced warning people about what could happen. People were degraded

7. The Nazis placed a great emphasis upon encouraging the children to view what Hitler was doing as being right
Posters encouraged children into recognizing that Hitler was a saviour. Schools became places to pick on the Jews
Various efforts were made to ensure that the children were brought up to believe that the Jews were inferior and a danger to German people. The next page shows you

8. Two extracts from school books
Two extracts from school books. The one on the left shows you the dangers of Jews and Germans marrying
Children would be brought to the front of the class to see if they could be classified as Jews or not. If they were, then they would be humiliated

9. This book is designed to show what a normal German child looks like on the left. The pictures on the right show what Jewish children look like

10. In 1936, the Olympic Games came to Germany.
The Nazis decided that they had to hide to the rest of the world what had been happening to the Jewish population.
They still wanted the rest of the world to know what they thought of their leader

11. In 1938, the situation took a more serious turn for the worst
In 1938, the situation took a more serious turn for the worst. Called “Kristallnacht” or the Night of Broken Glass, the Nazis start to use violence against the Jews
Jewish shops, churches and other buildings were openly attacked. People became subjected to violence
It would lead to the start of more systematic violence...
By 1939, half of Germany’s 500,000 Jews had emigrated to escape Nazi persecution.

12. Prelude to the Final Solution
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland which had a much larger population of 3 million Jews.
In 1941, Germany invaded Russia which had a population of million Jews.

13. Their property confiscated
From 1939 onwards, Jews were rounded up. They were forced to move out of their homes. To start off with they were sent to areas in cities designed only for them. These were ghettos
Jewish people had:
Their property confiscated
They were forced to move to new areas
They had their citizenship taken
away

14. Change of Tactics
Heinrich Himmler sent four specially trained SS units (the Einsatzgruppen) into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews.
Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and shot.
When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers.

15. Change of Tactics

16. Jewish women, some holding infants, are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators.
MASS EXECUTION USING A FIRING SQUAD WAS COMMON.
THESE WOMEN HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO REMOVE EVERYTHING, CLOTHES, JEWELLERY, EVEN WEDDING RINGS AND ARE BEING FORCED TO LINE UP AND WAIT FOR THEIR TURN TO BE KILLED.
SOME TIME LATER...

17. A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution.
THEY HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO LIE, FACE DOWN ON THE GROUND AND HAVE BEEN SHOT.
THE GERMAN POLICEMAN IS SHOOTING INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE ESCAPED DEATH FROM THE INITIAL ROUND OF BULLETS.
THIS IS HORRIFIC BUT WE CANNOT SEE THE INDIVIDUAL FACES OF THOSE KILLED, WE DON'T REALLY KNOW WHO THEY ARE OR WHAT THEY REALLY LOOKED LIKE.
SO TAKE A LOOK AT THIS NEXT PICTURE...

18. The ‘Final Solution’
In January 1942, Himmler decided to change tactics once again and called a special conference at Wannsee.
At this conference it was decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary.

19. Wannsee Conference
Women, children, the old & the sick were to be sent for ‘special treatment.’
The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’
Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war effort
On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’
How was the Final Solution going to be organized?
Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes
The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.
The Jews living in these Ghettos were to be used as a cheap source of labour.
Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the hope of better conditions

20. How did the Nazi decide who was Jewish?
At the Wannsee conference it was decided that if one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish.
However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German.
In 1940, all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J’ and had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat.
Some historians believe that Hitler’s grandfather was Jewish. His Grandmother used to work for a rich Jewish landowner in Austria and it is believed that she had an affair whilst she worked as his house keeper. He later helped his son get a job as a civil servant. Some Psychologist but this down as being one of the possible reasons why Hitler hated Jews. However, it is interesting to note that the Jewish doctor who helped his mother whilst she was dying of cancer was dropped off at the Swiss boarder by the SS in 1940!

21. What tactics did the Nazis use to get the Jews to leave the Ghettos?
Deception
New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to send to their friends.
Starvation
The Jews were told that they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.
The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a day .
Tactics
In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their own train tickets.
A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight
Terror
They were told to bring the tools of their trade and pots and pans.
The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for any act of resistance
Hungry people are easier to control

22. Children Dying of Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto
Evil is when a few good men decide to do nothing.

23. Where were the Death Camps built?
The work of the Einsatzgruppen
Why do you think that they located them here?
Remember that the black dots represent the work of the Einsatzgruppen

24. Percentage of Jews killed in each country
AUSTRIA 35%
POLAND 91%
USSR 36%
NORWAY 45%
BELGIUM 45%
LUXEMBOURG 55%
ESTONIA 44%
ROMANIA 84%
A Total of 6,000,000 Jews
HUNGARY 74%
YUGOSLAVIA 81%
BOHEMIA 60%
How did they manage to get together all these Jews to kills them?
How did they kill them when they had them?
To begin with there were concentration camps.
LATVIA 84%
NETHERLANDS 71%
LITHUANIA 85%
GERMANY 36%
FRANCE 22%
GREECE 87%

25. A MAP OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND DEATH CAMPS USED BY THE NAZIS.
There were concentration camps and death camps. If you went to a death camp the chances of coming out alive were virtually nil.
Even at concentration camps though you were likely to die from the appalling conditions.
Or, if you were very young, old, or incapable of hard labour, it was likely you would be transferred to a death camp too.
Anne Frank died at Belsen from Typhoid.
Leonard Leher's mother and sisters were sent to Sobibor.
YOU MAY ASK "WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE WHO WERE SENT TO PLACES LIKE THIS?"
THEY WERE CHILDREN JUST LIKE YOU. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS THEIR RACE AND THE RELIGION THEY FOLLOWED.

26. SS Tactics: Dehumanization
The SS guards who murdered the Jews were brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda.
The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions.
Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda.
The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children.

27. Tactics: What happened to new arrivals?
All new arrivals went through a process known as ‘selection.’
At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station.
Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent straight to the ‘showers’ which were really the gas chambers.
The Jews were helped off the cattle trucks by Jews who were specially selected to help the Nazis
Deception & Selection
The able bodied were sent to work camp were they were killed through a process known as ‘destruction through work.’
At some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm down the new arrivals.
At Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music.

28. Entrance to Auschwitz
Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

29. Map of Auschwitz
New Arrivals
‘Showers’
‘Destruction Through Work’

30. Auschwitz from the air
Notice how the Death camp is set out like a factory complex
The Nazis used industrial methods to murder the Jews and process their dead bodies
It is important t emphasis that the Death Camps were basically factories

31. The Gas Chambers
The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof.
These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses.
The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber

32. 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
HOW DID THEY KILL THESE INNOCENT CHILDREN, ALONG WITH THEIR PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, FRIENDS ETC..
YOU WILL ALL HAVE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE WAY NAZiS GASSED THE JEWS.
A group of children at a concentration camp in Poland.

33. 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.
THIS IS THE GAS THAT WAS INTRODUCED IN 1942.
JEWS WERE SENT INTO SEALED SHOWER UNITS ON THE PRETENCE THAT THEY WERE GOING TO BE SHOWERED. PELLETS WERE THEN PLACED INTO THE SHOWER HEADS AND GAS CAME FROM THE SHOWERS INSTEAD OF WATER.
15 MINUTES LATER THE SHOWER ROOM WOULD BE EMPTIED, BODIES WERE ALWAYS IN A PYRAMID SHAPE, PEOPLE TRIED TO CLIMB ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER TO ESCAPE THE GAS.
BEFORE THIS TYPE OF KILLING METHOD WAS INTRODUCED THOUGH A MORE PRIMITIVE GASSING METHOD WAS USED....
I DON'T KNOW HOW, OR EVEN WHY THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN, BUT IT SHOWS SOME MEN AWAITING DEATH ON THEIR WAY TO THEIR BURIAL PLACE.
DID THEY ALWAYS BURY THE DEAD?

34. The outside of the Gas Chamber
Notice the Ovens easy located near the Gas Chambers

35. Smoke rises as the bodies are burnt.
NO.
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE MURDERED GREW ESPECIALLY HIGH, NAZIS BURNED THE BODIES.
SO WHAT OTHER METHODS WERE USED TO SYSTEMATICALLY MURDER THESE PEOPLE?

36. Processing the bodies
Specially selected Jews known as the sonderkommando were used to to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed.
The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

37. The Ovens at Dachau

38. Dead bodies waiting to be processed

39. Bales of hair shaven from women at Auschwitz, used to make felt-yarn.
THESE PICTURES SHOW WHAT THEY WANTED.
WERE THE NAZI'S NOT WORRIED ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS?
DID THEY NOT THINK ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IF ALLIED COUNTRIES DISCOVERED WHAT WAS HAPPENING?
After liberation, an Allied soldier displays a stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald.

40. Shoes waiting to be processed by the sonderkommando
Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs.

41. In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million
In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million. Nazis ordered the bodies of those buried to be dug up and burned to destroy all traces.
OBVIOUSLY TOWARDS THE END OF THE WAR THEY TRIED TO COVER THEIR TRACKS.
IT WAS NOT GUILT THOUGH AND THEY DID NOT DO THE WORK THEMSELVES. THEY MADE JEWS AND OTHER PRISONERS OF WAR DIG UP THE BODIES AND BURN THEM INSTEAD.
Soviet POWs at forced labor in 1943 exhuming bodies in the ravine at Babi Yar, where the Nazis had murdered over 33,000 Jews in September of 1941.

42. Was the Final Solution successful?
The Nazis aimed to kill all 9-11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in
Today there are only 2000 Jews living in Poland.
The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews.
Men like Schindler helped Jews escape the Final Solution.
Not all Jews went quietly into the gas cambers.
In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realized what was really happening.

43. “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
WHY?
THIS PICTURE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT SHOWS A FAMILY WHOSE LIVED THROUGH THIS AWFUL TIME.
WE WILL BE LOOKING AT A BOOK CALLED THE SOAPMAKER WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF A YOUNG POLISH BOY'S LIFE THROUGHOUT THE WAR.
AFTER ALL THAT HORRIFIC EVIDENCE OF WHAT HAPPENED THERE SHOULD ONLY BE ONE QUESTION ON YOUR MINDS. A QUESTION WHICH WE WILL TRY TO ANSWER OVER THE NEXT FEW LESSONS....
(MOUSE CLICK) WHY.

44. Evil is when a few good men decide to do nothing.
The End
Evil is when a few good men decide to do nothing.