Extermination of the Jews

The Nazi Holocaust

Standard WHII.12b: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the worldwide impact of World War II by examining the Holocaust and other examples of genocide in the twentieth century.

Essential Understandings:Essential Understandings: There had been a climate of hatred against Jews in Europe and

Russia for centuries Various instances of genocide occurred throughout the twentieth

century

Essential Questions:Essential Questions: Why did the Holocaust occur? What are other examples of genocide in the twentieth century?

Elements Leading to the Holocaust: Totalitarianism combined with nationalism History of anti-Semitism Defeat in WWI and economic depression blamed on German Jews Hitler’s belief in the master race (Aryans) Final Solution: extermination camps, gas chambers

Terms to KnowTerms to Know______________________________:

The organized & purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group

________________________________:Prejudice against or hostility toward Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, and/or religion. In its extreme form, it defames Jews as an inferior group and denies their being part of

the nation[s] in which they reside.

_____________________________________:Systematic, government-sponsored, persecution and murder of

approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and it’s collaborators. Means “sacrifice by fire.”

Hitler’s Focus on Racial SuperiorityHitler’s Focus on Racial Superiority Mein Kampf (1925) = “_____________”

Considered the Bible of ________________ Presents Hitler’s major ideas

Anti-Semitism Anti-Communism Superiority of the Aryan race German nationalism The state’s superiority over the individual

Hitler described a _____________________ _______________________________ with:

Aryans (the culture-producing race) at the top Jews, Africans, Gypsies, the mentally and

physically disabled, etc. (the culture-destroying races) at the bottom

The importance of the book is that it calls for German ____________________________ of Europe

Hitler’s Goal: Remove Inferior TypesHitler’s Goal: Remove Inferior Types

Hitler's goal was to remove the __________________ types from Germany, making more ___________________ (living space) for the superior Aryans

Jews were the special object of his hatred

The War Against the JewsThe War Against the JewsWhen the Nazis began to wage war against the Jews, they

used speeches and ____________________________

From an anti-Semitic children's book. The sign reads "Jews are not wanted here."

The headlines say "Jews are our misfortune" and "How the Jew cheats." Germany, 1936.

__________________________________________________________________ OF DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS JEWSOF DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS JEWS

Hitler was ______________________ to be the Chancellor of Germany and then with the NAZI party, he seized total power in 1933 and ___________________ began a program against the Jews of Germany

In 1933 there were 566,000 Jews living in Germany

Each new year in Germany led to harsher policies directed towards the Jews

1933 NAZIS force people to ____________

Jewish businesses ________________ limited the # of

Jews who could attend ___________ schools

Hermann Goering created the _________________________ = the ____________________________ of Nazi Germany (the ______ (Schutzstaffel) = Hitler’s personal bodyguards) was formed the following year

Law allowing for forced ___________________________ of those found to have genetic defects (i.e., blindness, epilepsy)

First ___________________________________________________ built

Dachau near Munich Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany Ravensbruck for women

The "Sterilization Law" explained the importance of weeding out so-called genetic defects from the total German gene pool:

Since the National Revolution public opinion has become increasingly preoccupied with questions of demographic policy and the continuing decline in the birthrate. However, it is not only the decline in

population which is a cause for serious concern but equally the increasingly evident genetic composition of our people. Whereas the

hereditarily healthy families have for the most part adopted a policy of having only one or two children, countless numbers of inferiors and those suffering

from hereditary conditions are reproducing unrestrainedly while their sick and asocial offspring

burden the community.

1935: ________________ Race Laws

M arry o r h av e sexw ith A rya ns

h ire A rya n w o m ena s m a ids

h a ve r ig h ts o fc i t izen sh ip

Je ws a re no t a llow e d to :

___________________followed the limitations on the civil rights of Jewish citizens

Jewish children, who remained in public

schools, were constantly humiliated

in the classroom

Why did the Jews stay?Why did the Jews stay?

Many Jews __________ to other European nations or to the United States.

____________, however, stayed behind, convinced that as fully integrated German

citizens they were safe. In doing so, they failed to understand the

___________________ of their predicament.

1936 SS Deathshead division

is created to guard camps

Heinreich ___________ is appointed Chief of the German Police

1938 Nazi troops enter Austria

(_________________ = ____________________)

League of Nations considers helping Jews fleeing Hitler, but no country will take them

Why was Austria so important to Hitler?

1939 Reinhard ______________________ is

ordered to speed up ________________________ of Jews

Jews must hand over all gold & silver

Nazi troops seize Czechoslovakia & _______________________________

SPARK of WWII All Jews must wear _______________

________ as a method of identification

Nazis begin _____________________ on sick and disabled in Germany

“I ask nothing of Jews except that they should disappear”

The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the U.S. & other

countries & returns to Europe

Operation T4: EuthanasiaOperation T4: EuthanasiaThe Nazis advocated the

_________________ (killing) of those who would not improve the German race and had no use in society – those who Hitler

called the “__________________________________"

Ex. mentally ill, terminally ill, physically handicapped, mentally handicapped

They euphemistically called this “_________________________,“ which is the practice of intentionally ending a

life in order to relieve pain and suffering

Herschel Grynszpan: 17year-old Jew living in Paris, shot & killed a member of the German Embassy in retaliation for the poor treatment his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis: his family, along w/ thousands of other Jews, had been transported in boxcars & dumped at the Polish border

1939-Mob violence broke out as the German _____________ stood by & ______________

-Storm troopers & members of the SS beat & ______________________________________________ along with the mobs

-Nearly 1000 synagogues were __________________, Jewish homes & businesses were destroyed & thousands of Jews were rounded up during

In response, the German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, incited Germans to "rise in bloody ________________________ against the Jews

KRISTALLNACHT = “________________________________” (Nov. 9, 1939)

The burning of synagogues during Kristallnacht

1940 First ________________________

established in Poland Ghetto – walled off parts of the city

in which the people could be more easily controlled

German Jews were ____________________________ to Poland to live in ghettos

Ghettos will be liquidated starting in 1942; however, some Jews remained in ghettos until the end of WWII (1945)

Ghettos did not originate during this time period. The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice,

established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's

Jews to live. Various officials, ranging from local municipal authorities to the

Austrian Emperor Charles V, ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities in the 16th

and 17th centuries

Waiting for a drink of water in the Warsaw Ghetto, where water and food were in short supply.

Children climbing the walls to smuggle food into the Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: April - May 1943 One of the most famous photos taken during the Holocaust shows Jewish families arrested by Nazis during

the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, and sent to be gassed at Treblinka extermination camp.

1942: The “Final Solution” The “Final Solution”Wansee Conference - January 20, 1942: the “________________________________”

decision was made

Jews would be systematically evacuated from all over occupied Europe to camps in the east, where the entire Jewish population would be exterminated

• Three Phases:• Phase 1: _________________________________ – Jews were rounded up and told they

were to be relocated – they were taken to the woods and were shot one by one – their bodies were buried in mass graves

• Phase 2: _________________________________ – Again, Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated in vans – The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van

• Phase 3: _________________________________ – Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution by sending Jews to camps – the most effective method for mass extermination became gassing in specially constructed ______________________ (disguised as showers), from which the bodies were removed to adjacent crematoriums

• This plan of _________________________ was carried out with efficiency and the victims, whose will to resist had been sapped by prolonged starvation and disease, were often unaware until the last moment that they were going to be gassed

Einsatzgrubben executions in the Ukraine

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps ___________________:

The process of separating people who arrived at the camps

The strong & healthy were sent to work in the ________________________________________

The young, the old & the ill were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers of the ________________________________________

Inmates at Sachenhausen wearing identifying badges

AUSCHWITZ ___________________________________________ located in Poland Started operations in January 1940 Himmler chose Auschwitz as the place for the Final Solution Had 4 gas chambers/crematories by 1943 Mass killings with Zyklon B gas Recorded as many as 12,000 kills in one day

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

Auschwitz Belzec Chelmo

killed in camp

THE SS AT AUSCHWITZWERE ORDERED TO TAKE ALL POSSESSIONS FROM JEWS

TEETH WITH GOLD

PILES OF GLASSES

ZYKLON-BGAS USED TO KILL VERMIN. IT WAS INEXPENSIVE COMPARED TO GAS.

DROPPED FROM CEILINGS IN GAS CHAMBERS.

Prisoners at Dachau

Children victims of Nazi medical experiments

The final destination for those who could not work, the gas chamber. This is the gas chamber at Flossenburg.

Ovens in crematorium

Jewish ResistanceJewish Resistance Nazi-sponsored persecution and mass murder fueled

Jewish resistance to the Germans

Resistance took many forms: __________________ resistance (e.g., Warsaw ghetto uprising) __________________ resistance (e.g., production and spread

of underground newspapers; acts of sabotaging the German war effort – stealing documents, tampering with vital machinery, producing faulty munitions, setting fires in factories, etc.)

________________________ from the ghettos into the ________________________ (Bielski brothers)

__________________ & rescue (e.g., parachutists were dropped in German-occupied regions to give whatever help they could to Jews in hiding)

__________________________ resistance (e.g., attempts to preserve the history and communal life of the Jewish people)

RescuersRescuers Foreign governments had policies to stay neutral or to

restrict immigration

Some diplomats and foreign officials ____________________ their governments by issuing visas and other protective documentation that allowed refugees to _____________ German-occupied territories

Some rescuers established safe houses or hid Jews in their embassies or private residences

Consequences for rescuers who were caught: By their own government = transferred, fired, or stripped of their

ranks and pensions By the Nazis = imprisoned, deported to a concentration camp,

and sometimes murdered

Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely HeroOskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero

When asked why he had intervened on behalf of the Jews, Schindler replied (1964 interview):

“The persecution of Jews in the General Government in Polish territory gradually worsened in its cruelty.

In 1939 and 1940, they were forced to wear the Star of David and were herded together and confined in ghettos. In 1941 and 1942, this

unadulterated sadism was fully revealed. And then a thinking man, who had overcome his inner

cowardice, simply had to help. There was no other choice.”

LiberationLiberation

In the last days of WWII, even when the Nazis knew they weren’t going to win the war, they were still ________________________ to give up the plan to exterminate the Jews

They either ________________________ Jews in the camps as they abandoned them, _________________________ them into the interior of Germany, or cut off food and water in the camps leaving them to ______________

In 1945, the camps were liberated by Allied forces

Children at Auschwitz. The lucky ones were liberated in 1945.

Mass grave site at Bergen-Belsen. The British found many dead when they liberated the camp.