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The Holocaust
1
One of the greatest evils of World War II did not take place on the battlefield
but in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The Holocaust is an example of
prejudice and discrimination taken to the extreme. Anti-Semitism, anger and
discrimination against Jews, and Aryan supremacy, superiority of non-Jewish
white Germans, were two elements of the Holocaust forced upon the Jews at the
hands of Adolf Hitler.
1. The ________________ is an example of prejudice and discrimination taken
to the extreme.
2. The Nazis believed in ________________ _________________, the
superiority of non-Jewish white Germans.
2
As Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power, they began to spread
their views about Aryan supremacy, or the superiority of the German race, to the
German people. Hitler believed that “true Germans” had blond hair and blue eyes
and were better than other Germans and other nationalities. He encouraged
Germans to stay “pure” by not marrying Jews or people of other races or
nationalities.
3. Describe Hitler’s idea of what a “true German” looked like.
3
Hitler had particularly strong feelings about the Jewish people. He believed
that the Jewish people were responsible for many of the evils in the world and
Germany. He soon began to pass laws that canceled the rights and freedoms of
Jews. This prejudice or cruel and unfair treatment of Jews is called anti-Semitism.
But Hitler did not stop there. His evil plan also included a systematic attempt to rid
Europe of all Jews.
4. Hitler held the _______________ responsible for many of the evils of the
world.
5. Hitler passed laws that denied the Jewish people their rights and freedoms.
This unfair or cruel treatment is called ________________________________.
6. His plan included a systematic attempt to rid ________________ of all
Jews.
4
The Nazis used many tactics to discriminate against the Jewish people in
Germany and in every country they controlled. Across Europe, Jews were bullied
with threats and attacked. Jewish property was damaged. A boycott of Jewish
businesses was supported. During this boycott, people were urged to stop buying
at stores owned by Jews or using a particular service provided by Jewish people as
a protest. Increasingly harsh racist laws were passed. With the passing of these
laws, Jews could no longer hold government jobs, were stripped of their
citizenship and the right to vote, could not attend German schools or universities,
were forbidden to marry non-Jews, and were not allowed to attend social events
like plays or movies.
5
Before long Jews were segregated from the rest of the German population
and forced to live in crowded, filthy ghettos. Tens of thousands would eventually
die from starvation and diseases like typhoid in the unsanitary conditions. Curfews
were also established and Jews could not leave their neighborhoods without police
permission.
6
By 1940 Hitler began transporting Jews from the ghettos and Germany’s
occupied lands to concentration camps. Concentration camps were prisons in
which “enemies of the German nation” were concentrated or put together. Clothes
and belongings taken, heads shaved, arms tattooed with identification numbers,
and “scientific ideas” were characteristics of these places. Before the end of the
war more than 100 such camps would be set up. Concentration camps were mostly
intended as places of imprisonment and forced labor for a variety of “enemies of
the state.” In the early years of the Holocaust, the Jews were mainly sent to
concentration camps, but from 1942 onward they were mostly deported to the
death camps. A death camp was a concentration camp that was built for the
purpose of killing prisoners delivered there. They were not intended as sites for
punishing criminal actions; rather, they were intended to achieve “final solution to
the Jewish question”—the extermination of all European Jews.
7. List four tactics the Nazis used to discriminate against the Jews in Germany.
 ____________________ of Jewish stores
 ____________________ and bullying
 ____________________, or separation, from the rest of the Germans
 Imprisonment and killing of Jews and others in _________________
and ________________ camps
8.
______________________ camps were prisons in which “enemies of the
German nation” were kept and forced to do hard labor.
9.
______________________ camps were intended to achieve Hitler’s “Final
Solution to the Jewish Question”—the _________________, or killing, of
all European Jews.
7
Over the next few years, as many as 12 million people would be murdered in
concentration camps. Although more than 6 million men, women, and
children were murdered in concentration camps, not all of those murdered
were Jews. Other groups like the handicapped, the ill, those who disagreed with
Hitler’s politics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and wandering Gypsies were also held and
murdered in Germany’s concentration camps.
10. Were Jews the only target during the Holocaust?
8
When Hitler and his forces realized that the end of the war was near, they
attempted to cover up the atrocities, or horrible acts, that were occurring inside the
concentration camps. Buildings, gas chambers, and crematories were destroyed.
Documents were burned, bodies were disposed of, and able-bodied prisoners were
evacuated to other sites. With the end of the war came the liberation of Jews and
others in concentration camps by the Allied forces. General Eisenhower later
remarked that if the American soldier did not know what he was fighting for, he
would now know what he was fighting against.
11. At the end of the war, those still held in concentration camps were freed by
___________________ forces.