The Holocaust (1932-1945)

The Holocaust HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah) which

originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire

the annihilation of the Jews and other groups of people of Europe under the Nazi regime during World War II

GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group

The Jewish Problem

▶ April 1, 1933 Boycott of Jewish shops and

Business in Germany, lasts 24 hours

▶ September 1935- Race laws(Nuremburg Laws)

restricted future German citizenship, no

Gypsies or Jews. Limit Jewish Rights.

▶ Prohibited marriage to Jews

The Jewish Problem

Kristallnacht(1938)- “Night

of broken Glass” planned

attacks of violence against

the Jewish people of

Germany

Buildings, Stores, Houses

were destroyed, 30,000

Jews sent to concentration

camps.

The Jewish Problem

• Final Solution: Hitler wanted Jews

eliminated

– A lot of anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish)

sentiment in the Soviet Union and

across Europe

Jewish Ghettos Jews were arrested and sent to

Ghettos

Ghettos- parts of a city walled-

up where Jews were forced to

live

Some Ghettos were built for

10,000 people but held 10X to

20X that amount

Mobile Killing Squads to limit

numbers

Concentration Camps

Commonly between 80 and 100 people

were crammed into railcars of this type.

Deportation trains usually carried 1,000 to

2,000 people.

Most died on the journey and most

survivors were murdered upon arrival to

the death camps.

Concentration CampsPrisoners were awoken at 3 am

beds had to be made quickly or

faced with 25 lashes

Only one bathroom was

available for a group of four

hundred people

Breakfast was severed a 5 am-

given black coffee

Roll call at 6am

After roll call preformed daily jobs

building railway tracks

carrying stones and coal

sewer repair

Concentration Camps

Lunch was given at noon

meal consisted of cabbage soup

Resumed work at 1 to 6pm

At head count prisoners who did not

preform to their best ability were put

through the “punishment parade”

forced to strip publicly

lie on specially constructed benches

received 25 to 50 lashes

Classifications

Jewish-Yellow Star

Criminals-green inverted triangle

Political Criminals- Red Triangle

Roma(Gypsies)- Brown Triangle

Poles, outsiders- Black triangle

Homosexual-Pink Triangle

Jehovah’s Witness-Purple Triangle

Holocaust Timeline Apr 26, 1933 – The Gestapo is created by

Hermann Göring

Nov 9-10, 1938 – Kristallnacht – The

“Night of Broken Glass”

Jan 25, 1940 – Nazis choose town of

Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland for new

concentration camp

Countries with Most Holocaust Victims

Country Minimum Loss

Maximum

Loss

% of Jewish

Population lost in

that country

1 Poland 2,900,000 3,000,000 90%

2 Soviet Union 1,000,000 1,100,000 36%

3 Hungary 550,000 569,000 69%

4 Romania 271,000 287,000 47%

5 Lithuania 140,000 143,000 85%

6 Germany 134,500 141,500 25%

7 Netherlands 100,000 100,000 71%

8

Bohemia and

Moravia78,150 78,150 66%

9 France 77,320 77,320 22%

10 Latvia 70,000 71,500 78%

Source: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

Series1

Source: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans

Liberation of Buchenwald