The Holocaust (Ch. 16, Sec. 3)

Why did Hitler blame the Jews for Germany’s problems?

• Hitler used his hatred of Jews to unite the German people by blaming the Jews for Germany’s problems

• Nuremburg Laws (1935) stripped the Jews of their rights to German citizenship (Yellow Star of David)

• Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) was a vicious attack on Jewish community by Nazi storm troopers

• The attack caused many Jews to flee Germany for other countries & safety (refugees)

• When other countries began to refuse the refugees, Hitler needed to find a solution to the Jewish problem

The Gate to Krakow Ghetto

The Umschlagplatz (relocation area)

How did Hitler isolate the Jews from society?

• Hitler then decided to isolate the remaining Jews into ghettos (designated cities)

• The ghettos were sealed off from the rest of society using barbed wire & stone walls

• The ghettos were extremely crowded & living conditions were horrible

• Sanitation was non-existent and food was scarce• The Nazis hoped disease & starvation would solve

the problem, but the Jews continued to survive

What was Hitler’s “Final Solution” for the “Jewish problem”?

• Hitler’s “Final Solution” (to protect the Aryan race) was outright genocide

• He sent out death squads to round up and kill Jews• Those not killed were sent to concentration camps and

lived in horrible conditions• Concentration camps became nothing more than

extermination camps• In Auschwitz, they gassed people in fake showers &

later began to use ovens to get rid of the evidence• Roughly 6 million Jews died in German death camps

Ovens Used to Cremate Bodies of Jewish Dead

Jewish Bodies Found at Extermination Camp by Allied Soldiers