HOLOCAUST

Systematic attempt to rid Europe of Jews

Ideology

• All Jews were evil no matter their religion, occupation, or education.

• Defined a Jew as having at least one Jewish grandparent.

• Aryan Supremacy.

Nuremberg Laws

• Segregation of Jews from society.• Anti-Semitism- Prejudice against Jews.

Removal of Rights1. Took citizenship away from German Jews.2. Banned marriages between Jews and Germans.3. Prohibited a Jew from holding public office and

voting.4. Changed their names to “Jewish” names5. Banned from practicing law, medicine, and

operating businesses. – Boycott of Jewish stores.

KristallnachtNight of Broken Glass

- After the attack:- the streets were littered with broken glass- 90 Jews dead- 100s injured- 1,000s terrorized- Police were forbidden to interfere.- 7,500 business destroyed.- 180 synagogues destroyed.- Gestapo (secret police)

- Arrested 20,000 wealthy Jews

Life in the Concentration camps

The Final Solution/Genocide

- 15 Nazi leaders met to decide the Final Solution of the Jews.

- Other methods of Genocide proved to be too slow.

New Plan- Concentration Camps

- Healthy individuals could work as slaves until they dropped dead.

- Extermination Camps- Many elderly, the infirm, and young children

were sent here to be executed in massive gas chambers

- 1st camp established in 1933 to jail political opponents.- Rooms built to hold 50 but 150 were living

inside.- Extermination Facilities were built inside camps

to kill Jews efficiently.

Auschwitz

• Death Camp• 100,000 people in 300 barracks.• Gas chambers killed 2,000 at a

time• 12,000 a day.• 1.6 million estimated to have died.• 1.3 million were Jewish.

Liberation • Liberation of camps by Allies–Soviet Union liberated• Auschwitz; January 1945• Baltic and Polish camps.

–United States liberated• Buchenwald Camp in Germany April

1945– 20,000 prisoners were liberated.

–Britain liberated• Camps in Northern Germany.

Liberation