Understanding The

Holocaust

8th grade English

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

A stereotypeis an

unjustified

and over-

generalization

about a group

of people.

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

In the 1930’s in Germany, the Nazis used stereotypes of Jews to turn other Germans against them.

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

To come to power, the Nazis used Jews as

scapegoats, blaming Germany’s problems on

Jews everywhere including: the devastating

economic conditions and losing WWI.

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

Prejudice is

a strong, and

often hateful,

feeling against

a particular

group that is

difficult to

change.

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

Discrimination

is acting out

against that

group based

on one’s

prejudice.

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

Under the Nazis, the

goal of the German

government was to

kill all the Jewish

people, and others

considered unworthy,

in Europe

systematically.(according to a fixed plan

or system; methodically)

Understanding the Holocaust Important Holocaust Terms

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:

1. The German people used the Jewish people as

________(1)________ by blaming the Jews for their

problems.

2. Many Germans felt _________(2)__________ against the

Jewish people and The Nazis used this to gain power.

3. The Holocaust occurred ________(3)_____________,

meaning that it was accomplished in steps.

4. A _______(4)_____________ regarding a group of

people is an unjust overgeneralization against a group.

5. The major difference between prejudice and discrimination

is that _________(5)__________ requires action.

A. discrimination B. stereotype C. scapegoat D. prejudice E. Systematically

Timeline

• Hitler’s Rule: 1933-1945

• World War II 1939 - 1945

What allowed Nazi control?• After its defeat in World War I, Germany was humiliated

by the Versailles Treaty, which reduced its prewar territory,

drastically reduced its armed forces, demanded the

recognition of its guilt for the war, and stipulated it pay

reparations to the allied powers. With the German Empire

destroyed, a new parliamentary government called the

Weimar Republic was formed. The republic suffered from

economic instability, which grew worse during the

worldwide depression after the New York stock market

crash in 1929. Massive inflation followed by very high

unemployment heightened existing class and political

differences and began to undermine the government.

Background continued…

• On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the

National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party,

was named chancellor of Germany after the Nazi

party won a significant percentage of the vote in the

elections of 1932. The Nazi Party had taken advantage

of the political unrest in Germany to gain an electoral

foothold. The Nazis incited clashes with the

communists and conducted a vicious propaganda

campaign against its political opponents and the Jews

whom the Nazis blamed for Germany's ills.

Hitler: Anti-Semitism

• By the end of 1934 Hitler was in absolute control of

Germany, and his campaign against the Jews was in full

swing. The Nazis claimed the Jews corrupted pure German

culture with their "foreign" and "mongrel" influence. They

portrayed the Jews as evil and cowardly, and Germans as

hardworking, courageous, and honest. The Jews, the Nazis

claimed, who were heavily represented in finance,

commerce, the press, literature, theater, and the arts, had

weakened Germany's economy and culture. The massive

government-supported propaganda machine created a racial

anti-Semitism (hostility or prejudice against Jews)

The Holocaust

was the

systematic

approach for

killing off the

“unworthy

people,” which is

literally translated

as death by fire.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

The First Stage

(Persecution) of the

Holocaust, during the

early 1930s, required all

Jews to register with the

government and, later, to

wear the Star of David.

Also, all Germans were

to boycott any Jewish

business.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

Nuremburg Laws

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

The Second Stage

(Expropriation) took

place during the late

1930s as Jews were

required to give up

their belongings and

freedoms such as: jobs,

businesses, wealth,

schooling, cameras,

phones, and pets.

It is very important to understand that none of these stages were absolute--people could decide whether or not to enforce the laws and whether or not to comply with them; but people who were caught, were generally killed or imprisoned.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

Famous Quote from Martin

Niemöller

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin was an outspoken opponent of Hitler and the Nazi Regime. How can we apply this to our life?

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

Kristallnacht: the official beginning of the Holocaust

BEFORE KRISTALLNACHT

AFTER KRISTALLNACHT

Kristallnacht• “Nazis smash, loot, and burn Jewish shops and temples,”

screamed the headline on the front page of The New York Timeson November 11, 1938.

• Kristallnacht-“Night of Broken Glass” took place on November 9 and 10, 1938 in Austria and Germany.

The night was filled with a “mass frenzy of destruction,” wrote one historian. The destruction of Jewish-owned property may have seemed like random acts of vandalism. It wasn’t.

During Kristallnacht, synagogues were set on fire or destroyed completely. Mobs attacked Jewish shops and homes, smashing windows and looting contents. Jews were taunted, beaten, humiliated in the streets and in their homes. Many Jewish people died.

Kristallnacht was used as an excuse to round up Jews who have been singled out for arrest earlier. More than 30,000 were taken to concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. The arrest lists had been drawn up in advance. The camps had been made larger in preparation.

Burning synagogue in Rostock the

morning after Kristallnacht

Residents of the mid-size city of

Rostock watch the burning

Augustenstrasse synagogue the morning

after Kristallnacht, November 1938.

Friedrich Best, a non-Jewish teenager

who lived near the synagogue, took the

photograph. As he ate his breakfast, he

saw from the kitchen window that a

crowd was gathering. Suddenly, flames

leaped from the roof of the synagogue.

Best ran and got his camera. He

snapped two photographs, which he

later developed and showed to his

parents. Fearing that he would be

arrested if the police found out that he

had recorded the event, his parents

insisted that he destroy both prints and

negatives. Best secretly saved the

negatives and sold them to the city

archive in 1958 after a call for Nazi-era

artifacts was published in the Rostock

newspaper.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

The Third Stage of

the Holocaust,

known as the

Deportation/

Concentration Stage,

moved Jews into

Ghettos (small areas

where Jews were

isolated), and later, to

concentration camps.

Life in the

Jewish ghettos

meant, for

many, a slow

death because

of starvation

and disease.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

The Lvov ghetto was established in late 1941

with 106,000 people; however, by May of 1942,

only 84,000 residents were left.•

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

A sign posted outside a ghetto warns that people attempting to cross

the fence or to contact inhabitants of the ghetto will be shot.

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

March, 1943: Guards oversee a column of Jews with

bundles walking down a main street in Krakow during

the final liquidation of the ghetto

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

The Fourth Stage of the

Holocaust is called “The

Final Solution” and

included the mass murder

of any person deemed unfit

including: anybody who

speaks out, Communists,

Democracy, Gypsies,

Homosexuals, Blacks,

Jehovah’s witnesses, those

with mental and/or

physical disabilities and

Jews.

Prisoner Badges

These pictures were

taken of death

marches.

Picture of Dachau concentration camp, one of the early camps to be created.

Picture of a

stable-like

barracks in a

concentration

camp.

"We…shall be compelled to destroy a third of the population in

the adjacent lands. We can achieve this by systematic

undernourishment which in the end gives a better result than

machine guns do. Physically breaking them will be more

effective especially among the young.”—German Officer Gerd Von Rundstedt, 1942

Understanding the Holocaust Four Stages of The Holocaust

Pictures of

Auschwitz.

After taking over one of the concentration camps in Poland,

these Soviet soldiers are overwhelmed by the number of shoes

they find.

Quote from “Walking with Living Feet”: Here each shoe is different, a different size and shape: a high heel, a sandal, a baby’s shoe so tiny that its owner couldn’t have been old enough to walk, and shoes like mine. Each pair of those shoes walked a path all its own, guided its owner through his or her life and to all of their deaths. Thousands and thousands of shoes, each pair different, each pair silently screaming someone’s murdered dreams.

Picture taken of corpses of Auschwitz prisoners in block

11, discovered by Soviet war crimes investigators.

Allied

soldiers

react to a

scene of

death after

liberating

a camp.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust/videos/concentration-

camp-liberation

What event triggered the beginning

of World War II?

• Poland was invaded by Germany during 1939.

– Why did Germany choose Poland as its first target?

• Poland had the largest population of Jews.

• The Jewish population of Poland just before the start of

the second world war was about 3.3 million.

How long did it take Germany to

take over the rest of Europe?

• Less than two years…

by 1941, Germany

controlled most of

Europe, including

France, and Germany

had begun to invade

North Africa and Great

Britain.

• By 1942, Germany even

controlled part of Africa.

What really happened to Hitler?

• http://www.history.c

om/topics/world-

war-ii/adolf-

hitler/videos/death-

of-hitler

A Holocaust Survivor’s Story

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-

hng2FyQs0