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"Holocaust" is a Greek word meaning "sacrifice by fire."
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Prejudice or hatred against Jews Increases during times of crisis (Great Depression 1930’s) During hard times, people look to find scapegoats Jewish people, because they are an isolated minority, became popular targets The sign reads "Jews are not wanted here."
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1933-1945 Nazi Germany’s systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jews 6 million Jews murdered & 5 million non-Jews Gypsies Handicapped Poles Homosexuals Jehovah’s Witnesses Free Masons Soviet prisoners of war
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Hitler picked up his anti- Semitism while he was in Vienna He became friends with the mayor, Karl Lueger, who was an anti-Semite Anti-Semitic propaganda was rampant in Vienna at the time
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Hitler lived there 1907-1913 Most difficult years of his life Twice rejected from Vienna Academy of Fine Arts 2 nd rejection most traumatic experience in his life – his dreams were shattered
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In Anti-Semitism, Hitler found an explanation for his failures and sufferings – the Jews The Jews were the single cause of his unhappiness and humiliation – they were the source of all evil in the world Hitler found his purpose in life – cleansing the German race of the Jews
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525,000 (64 million Germans) Less than 1% of total population Jews, Gypsies and the handicapped were seen as a serious biological threat to the purity of the German Aryan race Jews blamed for Germany’s economic depression and its defeat in World War 1
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Nazi scientists promoted “selective breeding” to improve the human race 1933-1935 – laws passed to reduce the future number of genetically “inferior” people 320,000 – 350,000 mentally & physically handicapped sterilized Taking care of them was seen as a burden to Germany
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(left) Billboard showing the different stages of growth for members of the Nordic race (right) A racial hygienist with calipers measuring the forehead of a young man
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Social discrimination 1935 – Nuremberg laws made Jews 2 nd class citizens 1937-1939 – Jews banned from schools, restaurants, vacation spots and certain sections of German cities Law For The Protection of German Blood & Honor No sexual relations or marriage between Jews and persons of German blood and you were publicly humiliated if it was found out "Jews are not wanted here.”
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A woman who is concealing her face sits on a park bench marked "Only for Jews."
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German-Jewish couple with a “J” for Jude stamped on their passport An Austrian Nazi forces a young man to paint Jude on his father’s store
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Economic discrimination 1933 – Jews forced out of government, university, law, medical and school positions Jewish businesses boycotted Jewish businesses and property were seized or they were forced to sell at bargain prices “Don’t buy from Jews”
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(left) "Germans! Defend Yourselves! Do Not Buy From Jews!“ (right) Jewish businessmen forced to carry signs that say “Don’t buy from Jewish shops! Buy from German businesses”
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(left) Nazi Storm Troopers stand guard outside a Jewish-owned business. Graffiti painted on the window states: "You Jewish pig may your hands rot off!" (right) SA troops riding in a truck with the sign “Defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews”
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1938 - Night of the Broken Glass 7,000 Jewish businesses, 1,000 synagogues and homes were destroyed by Nazi thugs 91 Jews were murdered 30,000 Jewish men arrested and imprisoned Business owners were ordered by the Nazi government to pay for damages
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Pictures from Kristallnacht
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Mass emigration out of Germany United States, Palestine, other parts of Europe and South America Those left behind did not want to leave or could not obtain a visa, sponsors or $ for emigration U.S, Canada, Britain and France did not admit large number of Jewish refugees German Jews wait in an emigration office in Berlin. On the wall is a map of South America and a sign about emigration to Palestine.
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Jewish Emigration from Germany, 1933-1938 Year Number of Emigrants Total 1933 37,000 37,000 1934 23,000 60,000 1935 21,000 81,000 1936 25,000 106,000 1937 23,000 129,000 1938 (1st 6 mos.) 20,000 149,000
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1933-1945 U.S accepted +200,000 Britain 70,000 Brazil 27,000 Canada – less than 5,000
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June 1939 – Cuba & U.S refuse to accept more than 900 Jewish refugees All were aboard the ocean liner St. Louis It was forced to return to Europe
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September 1939 – Germany invades Poland Poland would be new living space for German families 50,000 Aryan-looking Polish children kidnapped and sent to Germany for adoption
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German forces occupy much of Europe Poland (3 million) Denmark Norway Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg France Yugoslavia Greece Soviet Union (5 million) German army’s success = inherit more Jews What do we do with them?
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Jews deported from all German occupied countries Sent to ghettoes Ghettos were city districts in which the Jewish population was forced to live in (often under miserable conditions) 800+ set up throughout eastern Europe Isolation from rest of population
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A foot bridge connecting two parts of the Warsaw ghetto (bottom) Jewish children with their small soup rations (left)
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Overcrowded Chronic shortage of food starvation Lack of medical supplies and adequate clothing to deal with extreme cold Plumbing broke down Human waste and garbage thrown in the streets epidemic outbreaks, high death rate amongst residents
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People weakened by cold and hunger easy victims for disease Thousands died from illness, starvation or cold Some killed themselves to escape the horror Every day, children became orphaned lived on the streets & begged for food, most froze to death in the winter
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Residents of the ghettos were a source of forced labor for the German war effort Barbed wire separating a ghetto from the rest of Krakow Poland
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(left) Jews buying and selling on the ghetto streets (right) Child vendors in the Polish streets. Children had to be resourceful to help their families survive.
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Small children in the Warsaw ghetto sometimes helped smuggle food to their families by crawling through narrow openings in the ghetto wall If caught, they would be severely punished Average of 5,000 – 6,000 dying each month
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100 or more people were packed into the boxcars Trips took a few hours to a few days Inside there were no seats or bathrooms The old, young and sick died along the way
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“We suffered from thirst and cold; at every stop we clamoured for water, or even a handful of snow, but we rarely heard; the soldiers of the escort drove off anybody who tried to approach the convoy. Two young mothers, nursing their children, groaned night and day, begging for water…the hours of darkness were nightmares without end.”
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January 20, 1942 90 minute meeting in the Wannsee district of Berlin 15 high ranking Nazi party leaders gather to coordinate how to carry out “the final solution to the Jewish question” “The final solution” was the code name for the deliberate, planned mass murder of all European Jews
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How was the Final Solution going to be organised? 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 Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes 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 The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’
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4 Mobile firing squads (each with 400-900 men) used extensively in the Soviet Union Einsatzgruppen followed advancing German army Made up of SS soldiers and criminals
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(left) Jewish civilians arrive in a ravine just before they are executed in the Soviet Union (right) A group of children just before their execution by the Einsatzgruppen
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(left) Members of a mobile killing squad before shooting a Jewish youth. The boy's murdered family lies in front of him. (right) Eisatzgruppen soldiers sift through the possessions of Jews who were just executed
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Mobile gas vans Airtight in the back Pumped carbon monoxide gas to suffocate human cargo in the sealed cabin at the back Resembled an ambulance or refrigerator truck The gassing took 15-30 minutes Van drove from the loading site to prepared graves Small vans held 80-100 people Larger vans held 130-150 people
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Concentration camps held Jews, Gypsies, political and religious opponents, homosexuals and other Germans considered “enemies of the state” Those in concentration camps performed labor They died by starvation, disease and maltreatment Death camps were extermination camps where people were murdered in assembly-line style
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(left) Prisoners dig ditches to install central heating pipes (right) Women used as forced labor
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6 death camps Close to railway lines Set up in semi-rural areas Supervised by SS troops
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Death camps located in Poland Belzec Sobibor Treblinka Majdanek Chelmno Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camps were located in Germany
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The Camps
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Arrival & Selection Men separated from women & children Quickly sorted visually by Nazi doctors Death – left (90%) / Right – life (10%) Young & healthy used as forced labor Remove a sense of identity Shaved off hair Socks for Navy, stuffing for pillows, waterproof ropes for Navy Registration number tattooed on left forearm Undress & hand over valuables
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“The shaving off of our hair was the most traumatic experience. It made me feel utterly vulnerable and reduced to a complete nobody. I had relinquished my clothes as well, and I stood there stark naked, bald, and with a number on my arm. In the space of a few minutes, I had been stripped of every vestige of human dignity and become indistinguishable from everyone around me.” - Anit Lasker-Wallfisch (Holocaust survivor)
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Children, pregnant women, elderly, handicapped and the sick sent to die Undress and enter shower rooms 200 capacity Shower room doors locked Carbon monoxide (1/2 hour) Zyklon B (insecticide) used to suffocate (10-15 minutes) Processed 3,800 at one time 1 day = 15,000 The Sonderkommando Remove bodies Gold teeth Ovens (20 minutes to burn 2-3 bodies, ashes) Identification disposed of – no trace left
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The Showers
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“It was early evening when the train stopped and the doors opened. As I came off the train, I saw on the left huge chimneys belching forth thick, black smoke. There was a strange smell, like burning the feathers off a chicken before it was cooked. I didn’t know that the smoke and the smell were not from chickens. I didn’t know, until I found out later on, that I was smelling our own flesh, our own families burning.” -Ernest Honig (Holocaust survivor)
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Auschwitz was the largest camp Consisted of a series of both concentration & death camps More than 1 million people died there Had 4 large gas chambers, each capable of holding 2,000 people at one time
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A sign over the entrance to the camp read “Arbeit Macht Frei” The storage warehouses located near the crematoriums were called “Canada” because the Poles believed it was a country of great riches
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Men wore ragged, stripped pants and jackets Women wore work dresses Issued ill-fitting work shoes, sometimes clogs No change of clothing
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Barracks had no insulation from heat or cold No bathroom, only a bucket Each barrack held 36 wooden bunk beds Inmates squeezed in 5-6 across the wooden plank Approx 500 lived in a barrack
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Forced to work 12 hours or more a day
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Constant hunger Food = watery soup made with rotten vegetables and little meat Few ounces of bread A bit of margarine, tea or bitter drink resembling coffee Diarrhea was common Those weakened by dehydration and hunger contracted contagious diseases 15 – 40 of every 100 people in the labor camps died
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At Auschwitz, children were often killed upon arrival Children born in the camp were generally killed on the spot Near the end of the war, in order to cut expenses and save gas, the SS guards were ordered to place living children directly into the ovens or throw them into open burning pits
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Cruel medical experiments done at the camps Men, women and children were used as subjects Inmates were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to various other traumas Experiments - find better medical treatments for German soldiers & airmen Many died during the experiments, others were killed after the research was over and their organs removed for further study
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Dr. Josef Mengele - Senior SS physician at Auschwitz One of many doctors who carried out “selections” of new arrivals Carried out cruel research on twins deported to the camp Disappeared after the war 1979 - Died in a swimming accident, his body was found in 1985 in Brazil
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1943 – Danish resistance rescued 7,200 of Denmark’s 8,000 Jews Smuggled via boats into neutral Sweden
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Protestant village in southern France that sheltered 5,000 Jews The town hid their Jews for 4 years The town educated the Jewish children Not one Jew that hid in the town was taken by the Nazis They were eventually taken to the Swiss border to safety
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1933 - Jewish population of Europe stood at over 9 million During the Holocaust, nearly two out of every three European Jews were murdered as part of the "Final Solution"
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As Allied troops made their way through Poland and discovered the horrors of the death camps, word spread quickly
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“War criminals” were rounded up Hitler commits suicide along with many of his henchmen
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11 months 1 st war crimes trial ever Lawyers & judges from Britain, France, Soviet Union and U.S Nazis were tried for crimes against peace (plan, prepare, starting a war) war crimes (murder, deportations) crimes against humanity (murder based on political, racial or religious grounds) All 21 Nazis plead not guilty Common defence – “just following orders” or “this court has no jurisdiction”
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Hermann Goring (2 nd in command) Rudolf Hess (3 rd in command) Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister) 13 - death by hanging 7 - life in prison or 10-20 years 3 – acquitted
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Adolf Eichmann Head of the Gestapo department dealing with Jewish affairs He organized the transportation of Jews to the death camps After the war, escaped to Latin America Captured in Argentina by Israeli Nazi-hunters Put on trial in Israel 1961 Convicted & executed 1962
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Nuremberg Trial pictures
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1. Poland88% 2. Soviet Union48% 3. Romania49% 4. Czechoslovakia83% 5. Germany83% 6. Hungary50% 7. Lithuania87% 8. France43% 9. Holland80% 10. Latvia89% 11. Yugoslavia87% 12. Greece80% 13. Austria67% 14. Belgium40% 15. Italy26%
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Holocaust museum Yad Vashem is located in Israel Preserves the memories of those who died and to honor the “righteous Gentiles” who helped save the lives of countless Jews 21,300 righteous Gentiles
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Other groups were also persecuted and killed, including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, the disabled, homosexual men and political and religious opponents. Total number of victims of Nazi genocide policies, including Poles, Romani, Soviet POW, and the handicapped is generally agreed to be between 9 and 11 million.
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Considering what you know about Germany during World War Two and the Holocaust itself... In what ways was the Holocaust a powerful tool for Hitler and the leaders of Nazi Germany? Why do you think the Holocaust is a significant event, even today?
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