The Holocaust Blog

8/7/2019 The Holocaust Blog

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The Holocaust


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Anti-Semitism

Jews are treated as scapegoats and are unfairlyblamed for Germanys problems(unemployment, the Depression, defeat in WWI)

This common hatred unites the majority ofGerman people and it seen as a strength, not aweakness

It is used to manipulate and control the German

people Any group who was opposed to this idea is

targeted and victimized


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The World According to Hitler:

What is a Jew? On November 14, 1935, the Nazis issued thefollowing definition ofa Jew:

Anyone with three Jewish grandparents;someone with two Jewish grandparents whobelonged to the Jewish community onSeptember 15, 1935, or joined thereafter;

was married to a Jew or Jewess on September15, 1935, or married one thereafter;

was the offspring ofa marriage or extramaritalliaison with a Jew on or after September 15,1935.


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Those who were not classified as Jews but who hadsome Jewish blood were categorized as Mischlinge(hybrids)and were divided into two groups:

Mischlinge of the first degree--those with two Jewishgrandparents;Mischlinge of the second degree--those with one Jewishgrandparent.

The Mischlinge were officially excluded from

membership in the Nazi Party and all Party organizations(e.g. SA, SS, etc.). Although they were drafted into theGermany Army, they could not attain the rank ofofficers.They were also barred from the civil service and fromcertain professions. (Individual Mischlinge were,

however, granted exemptions under certaincircumstances.) Nazi officials considered plans tosterilize Mischlinge, but this was never done. DuringWorld War II, first-degree Mischlinge, incarcerated inconcentration camps, were deported to death camps.


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The Treatment of the Jews from

1933-1939 1933 Jewish owned businesses are boycotted.Soldiers stood outside shops to intimidatecustomers.

- Books by Jewish authors are condemnedand burnt in public

1935 The Nuremberg Laws are introduced

- citizenship is revoked

- Jews could not vote or hold a governmentjob

- Jews could not marry other Germans


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1938 November 9 Kristallnacht

- Night of the Crystals

- shop windows aresmashed

- businesses andsynagogues are burned

- All Jews are forced to wear abadge of the Star ofDavid

- children are not allowed to go toschool, pets, drivers licenses andradios are also forbidden

- Many Jews tried to flee but otherEuropean countries were also anti-semitic and were soon to be takenover by Nazi Germany also


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The St. Louis

A boat that left Hamburg on May 13, 1939

937 people fled to Cuba

They had landing permits but once they arrived,

they were denied entry

They appealed to other countries like Canada,

U.S.A., Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama

and were denied entry also They returned to Europe (Belgium, France,

Holland, Britain accepted them)


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Ghettos

Ghettos were designatedareas ofcities whereJews were forced to live

They existed in all of the

European cities in thecountries that were takenover by the Nazis

However, as the war wenton, there were too manyJews to round up, it wasa long process so theysimply shot many of them


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The Final Solution

The term "Final Solution"(Endl"sung) refers toGermany's plan to murder allthe Jews ofEurope. The termwas used at the Wannsee

Conference (Berlin; January20,1942) where Germanofficials discussed itsimplementation.

The Nazis establishedextermination camps for killing

en masse

This was genocide using gaschambers


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Jews were sent there by train

and many died on the way

If they were not killedimmediately, they were used

as slave labour until they

could not work anymore, at

which time, they were killed

Most of the camps were in

Poland and the biggest one

was Auschwitz

6 million Jews are killed in

this genocide which isreferred to as the Shoah by

Jews and the Holocaust by

the rest of the world.


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The Others

5 million other people were killed duringthe Holocaust

Homosexuals, the mentally and physicallyhandicapped, the mentally ill, communists,clergy, those who spoke out against theNazis and Hitler, gypsies, intellectuals

Essentially, ifyou did not fit in with Hitlersplanfor a MasterAryan Race, you were indanger ofbeing killed


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When the Nazis came for the communists,I remained silent;I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,I remained silent;I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,I did not speak out;I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,I remained silent;I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,there was no one left to speak out.

Pastor Martin Niemoller


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Documents

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