Download Camps in the US and Europe Background

“Relocation” Camps in the US and Europe
Background:
The United States and Japan had been in discussions to prevent war for years
before the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Japan had attacked China in 1937 to get
resources such as oil and the U.S. had also been selling oil to Japan as well. FDR
had started building up the US Naval Force at Pearl Harbor early in 1941, in case
Japan decided to attack anyway…
Click the link for more information on the bombing at Pearl Harbor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLr3o037U_Q
After declaring war on Japan (as well as Germany and Italy), FDR will issue an
“Executive Order” (#9066), which will declare certain areas of America as “war
zones”.
People of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry will be placed in “relocation
centers” around the U.S. to be watched during World War II. Around 110,000
Japanese-Americans, 12,000 German-Americans, and 3,000 Italian-Americans will
be sent to California, Utah, Idaho, and Arizona and others…
Click the link to see video of Japanese internment:
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-americanrelocation/videos/japanese-internment-in-america
http://0.tqn.com/d/history1900s/1/0/D/6/EasternEurope3.JPG
Before World War II began in September of 1939, Germany began to target
groups they thought were not in keeping with the “master race” idea they
wanted to create. In November of 1938, the Nazis organized riots
(pogroms) that were to designed to destroy Jewish owned businesses,
homes and temples. This became known as “Kristallnacht” (or night of
broken glass). This would be followed up with the creation of “camps” for
holding people thought to be against the Nazis ideas.
Click here to see photos/hear video about night of broken glass:
https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/specialfocus/kristallnacht
The Nazis established concentration camps across Europe. At first, these
concentrations camps were meant to hold political prisoners. However, these
concentration camps expanded to hold large numbers of non-political
prisoners whom the Nazis forced to do hard labor. Many concentration camp
prisoners died from the horrible living conditions or from being literally
worked to death.
By 1941, the Nazis began building Chelmno, the first extermination camp
(also called death camp), in order to "exterminate" both Jews and Gypsies.
In 1942, three more death camps were built (Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec)
and used solely for mass murder. Around this time, killing centers were also
added at the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Life in the Camps
By January of 1945, Auschwitz (Poland) had 3 different “centers” that held
almost 58,000 people. The living conditions within the camp were terrible.
There were never enough blankets or coats to go around, so many of the
prisoners were often sick.
Prisoners worked 11 hours a day doing different jobs. The men and women
and children were separated from each other, rarely seeing one another.
People with harder work details received around 1700 calories a day. Ones
that weren’t fit or were asked to do less, received 1300 calories. Today, this
would equal eating 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice of toast, 1 cup of juice, 1
tortilla and 3 tomato slices…
In January of 1945, the healthiest prisoners of the camp (around 50,000
people) would be marched to Bergen-Belsen Camp in Germany. The British
would “liberate” (free) Bergen-Belsen in April of 1945. The 7,500 that
weren’t healthy enough were left behind at Auschwitz. The Russians would
“liberate” (free) the camp at the end of the month.
Click here for a clip from the movie “Devil’s Arithmetic”: (50:14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_owFCfwm2Jg
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/#.WDnK2rmQzIV