1. World War II: POWs and The Holocaust

2. Anti-Semitism Hitler begins efforts to drive Jews out of Germany
Hate of Jews
**blamed for losing WWI (Germany)
**economic struggle (Europe)

3. Jews in Nazi Germany Wore a Star of David No citizenship
Limit civil rights

4. The Kristallnact (Night of Broken Glass) November 9, 1938
Riots aimed at German Jewish
Jews murdered
30,000 taken to concentration camps
267 synagogues burned down
7,000 Jewish stores attacked

5. Flight of the Jews Try to escape but… **many countries block entry
**put up quotas

6. The Final Solution (1939-1945) Genocide of Jews
the systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group
**labor camps
**extermination camps

7. Affected Groups Non-Germans: Jews, Slavs, Poles Communists
Undesirables:
homosexuals
handicapped
political dissidents
Group
# killed
Jews
6 million
Soviet POWS
2-3 million
Poles
1-2 million
Romani
225k – 1million
Disabled
250,000
Free Masons
80,000
Homosexuals
5 to 15,000
Jehovah’s
5,000

8. Concentration Camps
Hunger
Stripped of goods
Medical experiments

9. Extermination Policy (1942)
Death camps
Executions
(hanging, firing squad, gas chamber)
10 million killed

10. The Nuremberg War Trials (1945-1949)
Nazi leaders
**held liable for actions during war
**300+ sentenced and put to death for war crimes

11. The Birth of Israel (May 14, 1945)
Jews given homeland
Product of the League of Nations Mandate System
**Allied guilt over Holocaust
**taken from Arab region: Palestine

12. The Bataan Death March The Philippines (April 1942)
Japanese War Crime
**forced march of USA POWs (Prisoners of War)
**POWs – beaten, summarily executed, given little to no food or water

13. Trials of Japanese (post WW2)
Many Japanese jailed or given death penalty for crimes committed against POWs / population of conquered territories

14. GENEVA CONVENTION
Military who are captured or who surrender shall not be killed
They will be treated humanely.
Attempted to ensure the humane treatment of POWs by making rules for all nations to follow.