1. By Tracey Burns

2. Holocaust… What does it mean? "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi’s. The Nazis believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were "life unworthy of life."

3. During the era of the Holocaust, the Nazis also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the handicapped, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

4. Allies – nations that joined the war again Nazi Germany Antisemitism – prejudice towards the Jews Auschwitz – largest Nazi concentration camp Axis – nations that joined forces with Germany Concentration camps – prison camps built to hold Jews, gypsies, and anyone racially undesirable Death marches – a forced march with brutal treatment by the SS Extermination camp – camps that were equipped with gassing facilities and crematoria for the mass murder of Jews. Final Solution – code words used by Nazi’s referring to the destruction of the Jewish people in Europe Genocide – liquidation of a people Gestapo – the secret State Police of the Third Reich Ghettos – sections of towns in which Jews were forced to live Hitler, Alolf – Leader of the Third Reich, Chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945 Kristallnacht – “Night of Broken Glass” Swastika – Nazi insignia Holocaust Vocabulary ** Students will be responsible for the vocabulary

5. Timeline of Important Events January 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany March 19331st concentration camp at Dachau established August 1936Olympics in Berlin – all Anti-Semitic signs removed July 1937Buchenwald camp established March 1938Austria annexed by Germany November 1938Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” 2 days later – government requires Jews to repay all damages March 1939Germany invades Czechoslovakia June 1939United States refuses Jewish refugees aboard S.S. St. Louis August 1939Soviet German Non-aggression Pact signed September 1939German army invades Poland – WWII begins Spring 1940Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and France May 1940Auschwitz camp opens

6. Timeline cont. March/April 1940Germany invades North Africa, Yugoslavia & Greece June 1941Germany invades Soviet Union October 1941Birkenau added to Auschwitz December 1941Japan attacks Pearl Harbor Germany declares war on U.S. Early 1942mass murder of Jews in gas chambers begins June 1942Treblinka death camp opens March 1944Germany invades Hungary June 1944Allied Powers invade Normandy July 1944Soviet army liberates death camp at Maidanek October 1944Rebellion at Auschwitz January 1945Soviets liberate Auschwitz, Buchanwald and Dachau April 1945Hitler commits suicide May 1945Germany surrenders November 1945war crimes at Nuremberg

7. Holocaust Pictures

8. http://baby.indstate.edu/gga/gga_cart/gecar127.htm

9. Bergen-Belsen Camp Located near Hannover, Germany. The original plan was for Bergen-Belsen to be a model “camp” where the Red Cross and other international aid organizations could examine the prisoners. That soon changed. It started in 1943 as a concentration camp. The people were brought in from other camps, such as Auschwitz, Piotrkow, and Neuengamme. Jewish women from Neusalz were brought there by train in 1945. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, died here. Corpses were burned in a crematoria oven. In total, one thousand and seven people were killed there. The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945 by the British forces After the liberation in April, about five thousand more people died from weakness and exhaustion. In September 1945, forty-eight members of the Bergen-Belsen staff were tried. In December, eleven of them were executed.

10. Liberation of the Camps As Allied troops moved across Europe, they began to encounter concentration camp prisoners. Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, Majdanek, in July 1944. In the summer of 1944, the Soviets also overran the sites of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka extermination camps. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest extermination and concentration camp, in January 1945. There was evidence of mass murder in Auschwitz. The Germans had destroyed most of the warehouses, but in the remaining ones the Soviets found personal belongings of the victims. They discovered hundreds of thousands of men's suits, more than 800,000 women's outfits, and more than 14,000 pounds of human hair. In the following months, the Soviets liberated additional camps in the Baltic states and in Poland

11. Nuremberg Trials The trials began on November 20, 1945. The trials were conducted by a military court in the US, England, SU, France, and at Nuremberg, Germany. Three out of the twenty-two were found “not guilty.” The trials ended after eleven months on October 1,1946.

12. References Ayer, Eleanor H. and Stephen D. Chicoine. Holocaust From the Ashes. Woodbridge: Blackbirch Press, Inc.,1986. Ayer, Eleanor H. Holocaust: Inferno. Woodbridge: Blackbirch Press, Inc., 1998 Botwinick, Rita Steinhart. A History of the Holocaust: From Ideology to Annihilation. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc., 2004,2001,1996 Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember: The History of The Holocaust. Canada: Little, Brown, and Company, 1994 Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blcampsbergen.htm “ About the Project.” Nuremberg Trials Project. 2003. http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/docs_swi.php?DI=1&text=overview http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/docs_swi.php?DI=1&text=overview Schlater,P.and M. Mora. “Overview of the Trials.” The Nuremberg Trials.December 4, 2000. http://www.fatherryan.org/holocaust/nuremburg/NurembergINDEX.htm. http://www.fatherryan.org/holocaust/nuremburg/NurembergINDEX.htm Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of Southern Florida. “Photos: The Nuremberg Trials.” A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust. 2005. http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/N1945.htm#14465. http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/N1945.htm#14465 Holocaust Memorial Museum.“Einsatzgruppen.” Holocaust Encyclopedia.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005130