Transcript Document 7304449

The Holocaust
In this presentation, we will learn about
Hitler’s discrimination and mass killing
of non-Aryan people : the Holocaust
1939-1945
Introduction
 All the blames of WWI were put on Germans,
and they had an incredible amount of debts
and expenses of the war to pay.
 Under Weimar government, Germans went
through an inflation and an economic crisis.
 The Germans were angry at the outcomes of
the WWI and the burdens that were put on
them.
 The Germans were ready to accept and
follow anyone who would step up and take
the lead, and this became Hitler.
Hitler tap into hatred for Jews
 Nazis proclaimed that the Aryans, or
Germans are the “master race” and that Jews
and non-Aryans are inferior.
 Jews always targeted as a cause of failures
in the European history.
 The Nazis blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat
in the WWI and its economic problems after
the war.
 Knowing this, Hitler and Nazi tap into a
hatred for Jews and start the Holocaust.
The Holocaust Begins
 Campaign of anti-Semitism was started
by the Nazi propaganda, and the
persecution spread across Germany.
 1933- made persecution a government
policy; it became illegal for Jews to hold
offices
 1935- The Nuremberg law is passed
 Hitler orders all Jews to wear a yellow star
on the left side of their clothing.
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
Kristallnacht: “Night of Broken Glass”
 Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish youth from
Germany, shot an employee of the German
Embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938 as a
revenge for his father’s deportation to Poland.
 Nazi leaders hear the news and launched a
violent attack on the Jewish community,
murdering around 100 Jews.
 An American in Leipzig wrote, “Jewish shop
windows by the hundreds were
systematically…smashed.” For this reason,
the night of November 9 became known as
Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass.”
The Flood of Refugees
 Hitler forced Jewish people out of Germany.
 Some emigrated to USA, France, Britain, and South
America.
 However, most stayed in Germany, and others
moved to neighboring countries such as Poland,
Holland, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia.
 Hitler thought that ‘The Jewish Problem’ was solved.
 But soon, these countries refused to take more
refugees.
 Hitler’s foreign minister said “We all want to get rid of
our Jews. The difficulty is that no country wishes to
take them.”
Isolating the Jews
 Hitler realized that emigrating wasn’t enough to
remove all Jews from Germany.
 He decided to gather up all Jews and get them to
live in certain towns located in Poland.
 The living conditions of these places were horrible.
(Ghettos)
 Many people died of disease and hunger.
 The Jews kept their tradition by performing plays
and concerts, and also by educating children
Jewish tradition and religion.
Hitler's "Final Solution"
 Hitler grew impatient. He wanted all Jews to be
exterminated from the face of the earth.
 He came up with a massive genocide plan, also
known as the ‘Final Solution’.
 Not only the Jews were the target, but also
homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, the
disabled, mentally challenged, and the incurably ill.
 He also discriminated people of other races, thinking
that Aryans were the most developed and pure
ethnics of all.
 He believed in keeping the Aryan blood ‘pure’.
The Mass Killings Begin
 Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. His genocide plan
was not yet in practice.
 When he invaded Poland and other European
countries, he sent SS units (secret police) to kill all
Jews they could find.
 The Jews were shot in deserted areas, and were
buried under pits.
The Jewish people were
considered ‘subhuman’. Hitler
believed that they were to be
exterminated permanently.
Concentration camps
 Concentration camps and slave-labor prisons were
built around Germany and Poland.
 Hitler then ordered all Jews to be sent to those
places, and forced them to perform labor.
 He hoped that the horrible conditions would kill
many Jews.
 Hunger and disease caused many people to die.
 Number of concentration camps increased as more
Jews were caught.
People were given a scrap of
bread, thin soup, and potato
peelings for meals. Most
prisoners lost 50 pounds in one
month.
http://isurvived.org/Pictures_Isurvived/ConcentrationCamps_Map.gif
Dead bodies in pits outside the camps A Jewish person getting shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
mUYsq1a-97s
Recommended videos:
History Channel,
Auschwitz:Forgotten Evidence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=h8ulMv5nxV8
The Final Stage: Mass Extermination
 By 1942, the ‘Final Solution’ was practiced all around
Hitler’s territories.
 The Nazis built gas chambers in concentration
camps, along with specialized extermination camps
such as Chelmno (Poland).
 Showers in gas chambers produced toxic gas, which
killed people very quickly and painfully.
 Using this method, the Nazis killed 6000 people a
day.
 The Nazis discarded the dead bodies in pits, and
ovens designed for cremating bodies.
Ovens used for cremating
bodies
A gas chamber in
Auschwitz, Poland
Gates of Death
The Survivors & Helpers
 6million Jews were killed under Hitler’s order. (refer
to pg. 454 in your textbooks)
 Less than 4 million European Jews survived the
Holocaust.
 People who were against Hitler’s beliefs risked
themselves to help Jews hide from the Nazis.
 These people were Raoul Wallenberg, and Dietrich
Bonhoeffer. They helped many Jews escape to
neutral countries such as Switzerland and Sweden.