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Holocaust
Definition
• holocaust- (n. Greek holo, “whole”;
caustos. “burned”) A great or complete
devastation or destruction, especially by
fire
• Holocaust-The systematic mass slaughter
of European Jews in Nazi concentration
camps during World War II
Problems in Germany
• Treaty of Versailles
(1919) - signed after
WWI blamed
Germany for causing
the war and made
them pay heavy
reparations ($33
billion)
• Hyperinflation in
Germany (1923) - 4.2
trillion Reichmarks to
purchase one US
dollar
Rise of Hitler
• Mein Kampf (my struggle)
(1925) - details Hitler’s
radical ideas and
becomes ideological
base for the Nazi party
–
–
–
–
German Nationalism
Anti-Semitism
And anti-communism
Aryans are the superior
race
• 1933- Hitler and the Nazi
party come to power
Nuremburg Laws
• Strict guidelines for determining who was
Jewish
• Deprive Jews of basic civil rights
• Marriage between Jews and non-Jews
illegal
• Sept 1941- German Jews required to wear
a yellow star on their clothing
Kristallnacht (Nov. 9 1938) • night of broken glass
• Nazi’s destroyed 200
synagogues, 7,000 Jewish
businesses, hundreds of Jewish
homes
• First large round up of
Jewish men
Ghettos (created 1939)
• Used to consolidate the population of Jews in
Poland
• Separate walled-off areas of cities
– Only Jews were allowed in or out
• People died of disease and starvation
• Mass deportation of German Jews not until Sept
1941
• There were 356 ghettos created by the Nazi’s
– Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, and Lvov
• Einsatzgruppen (1941) - mobile killing squads in
Poland and Soviet Union
• Killed Jews and communists
• “Final Solution” Jan. 20 1942- plan outlined by
Reinhard Heydrich to exterminate entire Jewish
population in Europe by using extermination
camps (death camps)
• Camps built in Poland
• Inmates were stripped of possessions and
forced into gas chambers
– Zyklon B
Concentration camps
• Built throughout Europe
• Served as slave labor
• Worked in factories or
mines
• Long hours and poor
nutrition led to many
deaths
• Some served as
temporary holding until
they were sent to
extermination camps
• Hitler commits suicide on
April 30, 1945