2. What do you know about the Holocaust?

3. Defining the Holocaust
HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah) which originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire
the annihilation of the Jews and other groups of people of Europe under the Nazi regime during World War II
GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group

4. 11 million people were exterminated

5. 6 million Jews 5 million others 1933 - 1945

6. Cold Hard Facts Casualties of the Holocaust:
63% of Jewish population in Europe killed
91% of Jewish population in Poland killed
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, The Soviets found 836, 255 women’s dresses, 348, 000 men’s suits, 38, 000 pairs of men’s shoes and 14, 000 pounds of human hair. But only
7, 650 live prisoners

7. —BART STERN
So I was hiding out in the heap of dead bodies because in the last week when the crematoria didn’t function at all, the bodies were just building up higher and higher. So there I was at nighttime, in the daytime I was roaming around in the camp, and this is where I actually survived, January 27, I was one of the very first, Birkenau was one of the very first camps being liberated. This was my, my survival chance

8. Anti - Semitism
Was not new
Hitler blamed Jews for Germany losing WWI and for the depression
People started to believe
Easy to blame ‘someone’ for the problems
Canada was not exempt. We refused entrance to the Jewish people on the ship St. Louis. 1939

9. How did the Holocaust Happen?
Eight Stages of Genocide

10. 1. Classification Distinguishes an ‘us’ and a ‘them’.
Example: Jew, Hutu, Tutsi, Armenian, etc

11. 2. Symbolization
We distinguish people by dress or colours and apply them to groups

12. 3. Dehuminization
One group denies the humanity of another group. Members are equated with animals, vermin, or diseases.
Hate propaganda is print/ other media
Jews are our misfortune – from a Children’s book

13. 4. Organization
Special army units or militias are often trained and armed.
Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) had began killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities in the 1930s
Killed 1-2 Million
Himmler had 2 problems with this method
Plans are made for genocidal killings

14. 5. Polarization Assets are seized International travel is banned
Laws forbid intermarriage and social interaction

15. 1935 Stripping of Rights
1935: Nuremberg Laws stated that all JEWS were :
stripped of German citizenship
fired from jobs & businesses boycotted
banned from German schools and universities
Marriages between Jews and Aryans forbidden
Forced to carry ID cards
Passports stamped with a “J”
forced to wear the arm band of the Yellow “Star of David”
Jewish synagogues destroyed
forced to pay reparations and a special income tax
Reparations of 1 billion Reichmarks after Kristallnacht

17. 6. Preparation Victims are identified and separated out
Death lists are drawn up
Segregated into ghettos
Forced into concentration camps

18. Ghettos became staging grounds to send Jews to concentration camps

19. 7. Extermination
Wannsee Conference (Berlin ) established the “complete solution of the Jewish question”
called for the complete and mass annihilation and extermination of the Jews as well as other groups
Zyklon B gas became the agent in the mass extermination

20. essential to Nazi’s systematic oppression and eventual mass murder of enemies of Nazi Germany (Jews, Communists, homosexuals, opponents)
Slave labor “annihilation by work”
Prisoners faced undernourishment and starvation
Prisoners transported in cattle freight cars
Camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation

21. Life in the Camps possessions were confiscated heads were shaved
arms tattooed
Prison uniforms
Men, women and children were separated
Survival based on trade skills / physical strength
Unsanitary, disease ridden and lice infested barracks
inhumane medical experiments

22. Purple triangle include Jehovah Witnesses, Catholic Priests, etc
Black Triangle – included lesbians, prostitutes, those who violated the Aryan laws, mentally disabled

23. They were shot, starved, gassed and burned…

24. Gas Chambers & Crematoriums
Prisoners were sent to gas chambers disguised as showers
Zyklon B gas used to gas people in 3 – 15 minutes
Up to 8000 people were gassed per day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp with 4 operating gas chambers
Gold fillings from victims teeth were melted down to make gold bars
Prisoners moved dead bodies to massive crematoriums

26. 8. Denial
Deny crime
Cover up evidence – death marches – blowing up crematoriums – shooting inmates, etc
Modern Germany
It is illegal to deny the Holocaust in Germany
Swastika and SS Runes are outlawed.

29. Nearing the End of the War
By 1945, the Nazis’ began to destroy crematoriums and camps as Allied troops closed in
Death Marches (Todesmarsche): Between , Nazis ordered marches over long distances. Approximately – prisoners perished in Death Marches
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz (largest camp) and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying.

30. Liberation 1945
USHMM

31. Allies’ reaction to concentration camps
Video

32. Hitler was never elected in a free election
Nazi party only ever had 38% of the popular vote

33. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--  Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--  Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.