The Holocaust
Hitler’s Rise to Power
• 1913- Joined Military• 1919- Germany was
having political problems
• 1919-Hitler joined German’s Worker’s Party
• 1919- German’s Workers Party changed their name to National Sczialistische Deutsche Arbeiterspartei (National Socialist German Workers Party)
• They used the acronym, NAZI• 1923-Germany was in an economic
depression• Hitler staged a NAZI take over• He was arrested for treason and sent to jail• There he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
• Mein Kampf outlined Hitler’s plan for Germany
• This book became known as the NAZI bible
• It outlined a plan for killing Jews
• Outlined a plan for taking over Europe
• No one believed it
• It was considered just a madman’s diary
• 1924- Hitler was released from prison
• He began strengthening his party
• January 1933- Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany
• People believed Hitler could lead the nation out of its grave political and economic crisis
• Hitler moved quickly to end German democracy• He suspended individual freedoms of press,
speech, and assembly.• He established the Gestapo (secret police), Storm
Troopers, and the Security police.• These groups arrested and murdered leaders of
opposition political parties
• March 23, 1933- Hitler is declared Dictator of Germany
• 1933- Racial Ideology is put into practice
• Pure Germans were seen as “racially superior”
• Jews are seen as an “inferior race”
• Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped were seen as a threat to the “master race”
Hate Propaganda
• Jews were the principal target of Nazi hatred
• They blamed Jews for the country’s economic depression
• They blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I.
• They blamed Jews for loss of jobs.
• They blamed Jews for weakening the Aryan race.
Nazi Propaganda: Mental Patients are “Idiots”
Nazi Propaganda: Racial Chart
Nazi Propaganda Slogans
• “Germany Awake, Jews Perish”
• “Don’t buy from Jews. Shop in German Stores!”
• “The Jews are our misfortune.”
• “Women and Girls, the Jews are your ruin.”
• “Jews enter this place at their own risk.”
Banning the Jews
• 1933
• April 1- Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
• April 7-Jews barred from holding Civil Service, university, and state positions
• May 10-Burned books written by Jews
Nuremberg Laws
• 1935• Jews banned from serving
in armed forces• Anti-Jewish racial laws
enacted• Jews no longer considered
German citizens• Jews could not marry
Aryans • Jews could not fly the
German flag
Nuremberg Laws• Germany officially defines
a “Jew” as anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewsih grandparents who identifies as a Jew
• Jews must wear a yellow star of David on all clothing
• 1936• Jewish doctors barred from
practicing medicine• July: First concentration
camp opens• October: Forms Axis power
with Mussolini of Italy
• 1937• Buchenwald concentration
camp opens• Austria joins the Nazi
regime• 1938- • Austria and Italy
incorporate all Nuremberg laws
• Mandatory registration of all Jewish property
• Jewish passports are marked with a “J” to restrict Jews from leaving
• November-Kristallnact (Night of Broken Glass)
• Synagogues and Jewish shops are destroyed
• Many Jewish males are sent to concentration camps
• Jews must hand over all stores to Arayans
• Jewish children are expelled from school
• Jews are fined for Kristallnact
1939• Hitler promises if war
erupts, it will mean the extermination of all European Jews
• Germans occupy Czechoslovakia
• Germany invades Poland• Great Britain and France
declare war on Germany• Ghettos are established in
Poland• Germany begins
deportation of German and Austrian Jews
1940• April 9-Germany invades and
occupies Denmark and Norway
• May 10-Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourgn and France
• May 20- Auschwitz concentration and death camp opens in Poland
• June 22- France surrenders
• Sept. 27- Germany, Italy, and Japan form Axis Powers
• Oct. 7- Romania is occupied
• November 16-Warsaw Ghetto is sealed
• Hungary joins Axis Powers
1941• April- Germany attacks
Yugoslavia and Greece
• June 22- Germany invades the Soviet Union
• July 31- Germany implements the “Final Solution”
• Birkenau death camp established
• December 7- Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
• United States declares war on Japan and Germany
(1889-1945)
Final Solution
• Jews receive deportation notice
• Notice tells Jews to report to train station on a certain date and time
• Jews are allowed to bring one suitcase of belongings
• At the train station, their suitcases are dumped in a pile
• 75 and over are forced into a boxcar with standing room only
• For days, prisoners travel with no water, food, or bathroom facilities
• The old and babies perish• When they arrive at the camp, they are divided
into two lines- men and women• They are forced to march a long distance to the
barracks• Those who chose to ride in trucks are never seen
again• This is the last time many people see their family
members
Prisoners were forced to undress and hand over all valuables
Clothes confiscated from victims
Gold Teeth of Prisoners
Glasses of Prisoners
Prisoners were taken to the showers/gas chambers
If prisoners survived the showers, hair was shaved and numbers
tatooed on arm.
Prisoners were sent to barracks.
Prisoners worked or were sent to the gas chambers and
crematoriums.
Women and children wait for their turn in the gas chamber
Roll Call
Medical Experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele
• Infected victims with diseases to study effects• Fluids from diseased animals were injected into
humans to observe the effect• Some victims were given only sea water to drink• Surgery was performed without anethestic• Sterilized over 1,000 women a day• Amputated parts of bodies• Submerged bodies in calcium chloride
Medical Experiments performed by Joseph Mengele
Many prisoners were forced to dig their own graves.
Heroes who helped
Oscar Schindler with Rescued Jews
1942
• Extermination begins with gas
• By the end of 1942, 600,000 Jews murdered
• Jews deported from Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway, and Poland
1943
• April 19: Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins as Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants
• All other ghettos are liquidated
• Danes rescue their own Jews
1944
• Germany occupies Hungary
• June 6- D-Day; Allied invasion at Normandy
• July 20- Group of German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler
• Death marches begin as allies close in on camps
1945
• Camps begin being liberated
• April 30- Hitler commits suicide
• May 8- Germany surrenders; V-E Day
• August 6- Bombing of Hiroshima
• August 9- Bombing of Nagasaki
• September 2- Japan surrenders
Jewish Survivors
Survivors of Camp
Liberation
Liberation
General Eisenhower of US touring Camps
Commandant Eichelsdoerfer
Death TrainAmerican soldiers of the U.S. 7th Army force boys, believed to be Hitler youth, to examine boxcars containing bodies of prisoners
starved to death by the SS. Photo credit: National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives
German Civilians View CorpsesGerman civilians under U.S. military escort are forced to see a wagon loaded with corpses in Buchenwald.
Photo credit: National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives
German Civilians Tour BuchenwaldCivilians from nearby Weimar are forced by American soldiers to see the remains of prisoners in the crematorium ovens of
Buchenwald during their tour of the concentration camp.
German Civilians Bury Corpses German civilians from the town of Nordhausen bury the corpses of prisoners found in the Nordhausen concentration camp in mass
graves. Photo credit: USHMM
War Criminals
War Trials
Never Forget !!!
German Death Factories
Death Camp Number of Victims
Auschwitz 2,000,000
Belzec 850,000
Sobibor 250,000
Treblinka 700,000
Chelmno 300,000