Download I. Nazi Persecution of the Jews The Holocaust resulted in the death

Persecution
Nazi Persecution of the Jews
The Holocaust resulted in the death of 6 million Jews and 4 million other “undesirables” such as political opponents,
Slavs, Gypsies, and people with physical and mental handicaps.
Nazi Ideology
Anti-Semitism (hostility towards Jews) had a long history in Europe before Hitler, resulting in discrimination (forbidden
to own land) and isolation in segregated communities (ghettos). When Hitler came to power, his anti-Semitism became
political policy.
The Nuremberg Laws
Beginning in September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their rights
1. took away citizenship
2. banned marriages of Jews and other Germans
3. defined Jews as anyone having a Jewish grandparent
4. prohibited holding public office or voting
5. forbade Jews from employing German female servants under age 35
6. mandated “Jewish” surnames
7. marked passports with a red J to denote Judaism
8. prohibited Jews from certain jobs – civil servants, journalists, farmers, teachers, actors, lawyers, doctors, business
owners
Many Jews chose to remain in Germany, reluctant to leave and start over elsewhere, also many believed their
conditions would improve over time.
1. Judging by the text, what do you think persecution means?
2. How many people were killed by Hitler?
3. Do you think the history of persecution towards Jews helped or hurt Hitler and why?
4. What was the effect of the Nuremberg Laws?
5. Which of the Nuremberg Laws do you find the most offensive and why?
A Jewish woman on a park bench labeled “For
Jews only.”
This chart explains the Nuremberg marriage laws
and illustrates how those with Jewish ancestry
were not allowed to others. (Verboten = forbidden)
Kristallnacht – “night of broken glass”
• On 7 November 1938 Jewish refugee Herschel Grynszpan shot and killed a
German diplomat in Paris in revenge for his father and 10.000 other Jews being
deported to Poland and the other acts of persecution
• An angry Hitler ordered his minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels to stage
attacks on Jews that would appear to be popular reaction to the murder
• On 9 November anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany and Austria
with mobs attacking Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, and the streets
were littered with broken glass
• 90 Jews were killed and hundreds injured
• The next day the Gestapo, Hitler’s secret police, arrested over 20,000 wealthy
Jews and only released them after they promised to surrender their possessions
to the state and emigrate
• The Jewish community was then financially targeted by having insurance
payments confiscated after the event and being ordered to pay the state for the
damages caused during the riots
1.
2.
3.
4.
What event triggered Kristallnacht?
What happened on Kristallnacht?
Who was targeted by the Gestapo and why?
How were the victims of Kristallnacht further insulted after the 9 November?
5. How would you feel if your place of
worship, business and home had been
targeted on Kristallnacht?
6. What would you do if you were being
targeted in your own home country like
this?
Jewish Refugees Try to Flee
Kristallnacht marked an escalation in both Nazi persecution and Jewish emigration (exiting). Between 1933-1939,
350.000 Jews emigrated from Germany while thousands more tried to leave. By 1938 the American consulate
had a backlog of more than 100,000 visa applications (document that allows you to emigrate to a country) and
3,000 Austrian Jews a day applied for a visa to the US following the Anschluss. Many countries, including the US
had strict, limited quotas on the number of Jews allowed to immigrate so many never made it out of Germany.
Jews had difficulty emigrating because:
1. Nazis would not allow Jews to take their wealth out of the country
2. many countries refused Jewish immigrants
3. high domestic unemployment rates made immigration unpopular
4. immigration quotas were fixed and there were no exceptions for refugees or victims of
persecution
Many ships left Germany crammed with Jews desperate to escape, however all persons with forged
or illegal visas were denied admission to countries of safety, including the US. The SS St Louis is an
example of a ship that was denied permission to land in Cuba with 930 Jews due to anti-Semitic
sentiment stirred up by Nazi propaganda. The ship also attempted to land in Florida and was denied.
Eventually the ship returned to Europe where the Jews disembarked in France, Holland, Belgium and
Great Britain. Within 2 years three of those countries were under Nazi control and the majority of
the refugees from the SS St Louis were killed in Nazi concentration camps.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What event caused Jews to try to emigrate from Austria?
Why was emigration difficult for the Jews?
Why were the people on the SS St Louis not allowed to land in Cuba or the US?
What happened to the majority of refugees from the SS St Louis?
Compare this to what is now happening with Syrian refugees.
SS St Louis
The Final Solution
At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 Nazi leaders met to determine the “final solution” to the
Jewish question. Previous methods of eliminating the Jews and other “undesirables” had included mass
shootings and burial, and killing with automobile exhaust fumes. At Wannsee the plan was made to
round up Jews and put them in concentration camps where healthy individuals would work as slave
labor until they died, and the elderly, ill, and children would be sent to extermination camps and
executed in gas chambers.
Concentration Camps
• The first concentration camp was established in 1933 to house political opponents –
Dachau, north of Munich
Extermination Camps
• After Wannsee the Nazis built extermination facilities in many concentration camps,
mostly in Poland
• At camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz Jews were the main victims with gas chamber
killing 2,000-12,000 a day
(Guards would tell the Jews to go into the shower chamber. Sometimes cold water would
come out of the shower heads, sometimes it would be gas.)
Within a few years the Jewish citizenry and culture had almost been erased from Europe
1.
2.
3.
4.
What was decided at the Wannsee Conference?
What methods did Hitler use to eliminate the Jewish population of Europe?
What is the difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp?
What might make you be sent to an extermination camp?
5. The sign above the entry gate reads “work
will make you free.” Why do you think the
Nazis put this at the entry to the camps?