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The Holocaust
Nuremberg Laws
• 1935 Nuremburg Laws strip Jews of civil rights– Jewish race is defined
through ancestry, not self-identity or religious practice
Nuremburg Laws
• Jews are banned from owning land, publishing newspapers, serving in the military, marrying non-Jews, teaching, and practicing medicine or law
Nuremburg Laws
• Nazis begin a boycott of Jewish businesses
• Businesses are marked with window signs, SS troops guard Jewish stores to discourage shoppers
Nuremburg Laws
• Jews are forced to register with the government & receive identity cards
• All Jewish passports are stamped with red “J”s
Nuremburg Laws
• German schools teach “Racial Hygiene” classes that spread myths about Jews
The Final Solution
• Nazis plan to separate and exterminate Jewish Europeans
• Nov. 23, 1939 Jews are ordered to identify themselves by wearing the yellow Star of David at all times
The Final Solution• Jews are stripped of
their homes and property and sent to live in ghettos in the major Polish cities – Ghettos are walled
off and Jews are permitted to leave only during prescribed times
The Final Solution
• The Germans struggle with a way to rid Germany of “impure” elements so that a master race of Aryans can be created
The Final Solution
• Killings start with mentally & physically handicapped patients in hospitals; forced sterilization and abortions are performed on those who aren’t killed
The Final Solution
• Others deemed impure to the Aryan master race include:– Homosexuals– Communists– Catholics– Jehovah's Witnesses– Gypsies– Polish & Soviet
POWs
Einsatzgruppen
• Units of 500-900 soldiers follow invading German troops and execute the Jewish population by gunfire – Approx. 1.5 million
Jews are executed– The slow pace and
mental toll on the soldiers requires a new method
Gas Vans
• 1941 the Germans switch to massive box trucks where re-circulated exhaust kills Jews locked in the cargo hold
• The trucks are wasteful and unreliable and are put out of use when Chelmno, the 1st death camp opens at the end of 1941
Concentration Camps
• Concentration camps provide a place to locate prisoners to be used as slave labor
• Factories are often built adjacent to the camps for prisoners to work in
Concentration Camps
• Healthy are sorted from unhealthy (sick, elderly, children, etc.) upon arrival– Property & clothes
are taken– Prisoners are shaved– Dentists extract
gold/silver fillings
Concentration Camps
• Healthy prisoners are housed in barracks and used for slave labor in nearby factories or on government projects
Death Camps
• Jan. 1942 Wannasee Conference sets a goal of killing all 11 million European Jews
• Will then move on to other groups (i.e. 30 million Slavs) to make a pure Aryan Germany
Death Camps
• Several death camps were constructed throughout eastern Europe, and industrialized models were used to quickly transport, destroy, and dispose of the Jewish population
Death Camps
• Those too unhealthy or unable to work (elderly, children) are sent to gas chambers disguised as “showers”
Death Camps
• The corpses are burnt in crematory built within the camps
• The ashes are used to make soap and other products for the camps or are dumped in pits and waterways
Total Costs• Holocaust Dead:
– Jews – 6,000,000– Soviet POWs – 3,000,000– Polish Catholics – 3,000,000– Serbians – 700,000– Gypsies – 250,000– German Political Prisoners –
80,000– German Handicapped –
70,000– Homosexuals – 12,000– Jehovah’s Witnesses –
2,500• Total – 13.1 Million