Holocaust

Why was it called the Holocaust???

The word Holocaust is a Greek word that basically means “sacrifice by fire”

What was it?- The Holocaust was the systematic (planned and organized) abuse and murder of Jewish people and other racial & cultural groups by Nazi Germany - led by Adolf Hitler.

- 6 million Jews were murdered.

What was it?

- In 1935, around 9 million Jews lived in Germany, and 10 years later there were only 3 million Jews living in Germany - this is a huge drop in numbers….

Background Info- Before WWII, Jewish people gave a lot to German culture. - Many Jewish men fought and served in WWI, and many of them thought of themselves as Germans first and Jews second. - Jewish people believed that Germany was their home...

But it all changed...- When Hitler took power he blamed Jews for Germany losing WWI and he blamed them for the bad economy.

- Hitler used Jews to take the blame for Germany’s problems.

The Holocaust Happened in a Couple of Steps...

Step 1 - Boycott of Jewish Businesses- 1933

-Jewish businesses were marked with stars (painted in the windows) so everyone would know it was a Jewish business

- Thousands of Jews were fired from their jobs and were banned from colleges.

Step 1- 1933 Hitler announced the boycott of all Jewish businesses- Jews were isolated socially and economically from German society

Step 2 - Classification

Nuremberg Laws 1935 - a series of anti-Jewish laws that determined German Citizenship

- German or Mixed Blood or Jewish- If you were mixed blood or Jewish

your citizenship was limited

Step 2

- Those who were classified as Jewish had to wear a yellow Star of David (a Jewish symbol)

Step 3 By 1939, Jewish people had lost their civil rights

- couldn’t own property- couldn’t vote- couldn’t practice law and Jewish doctors couldn’t work

on Aryans- had to carry I.D. papers- couldn’t go to or teach at German schools- couldn’t have government jobs

Step 4 - Segregation in 1939- Jewish people were forced to leave their homes and live in ghettos. Ghettos were small, isolated areas within a city that were separated and closed in with barbed wire and high fences.

- Jews were sent there with what they could carry, and they were often only given a few minutes to gather their things.

Jewish Ghettos VERY harsh conditions- Warsaw Ghetto in Poland was a famous and harsh ghetto

- Nearly 500,000 Jewish people came through Warsaw. 45,000 Jews died there because of overcrowding, harsh labor, starvation, disease, etc.

Ghettos Continued

- Jews who did not die in ghettos were sent to concentration camps and all ghettos were eventually destroyed

Step 5 - Deportations 1942-1945 - Nazis rounded up Jews from ghettos and sent them to death camps (concentration camps) where they waited to be put to death.

Step 5

As Hitler conquered more of Europe, new railroad lines were built to carry Jews to concentration camps

Auschwitz Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp - between 1942 and 1943 over 1 million Jewish people were killed there.

Step 6 - The Final Solution 1942-1945

Hitler said, “This war will not end how the Jew imagines...the outcome of this war will be the extermination of all Jewish people.”

Nazi officials move forward in making plans to exterminate Jewish people

The Final SolutionHitler’s plan, called the ‘Final Solution,’ was a genocide plan to kill an mass population of people.

He wanted to kill Jews and people he saw as ‘subhuman’ - disabled, incurably ill, gypsies, Poles, Russians, etc. etc.