Download Assignment #26 - Holocaust - New Lenox School District 122

Source:Reading&QuestionsadaptedfromGeorgeLee.WorldWarII/MarkTwainMedia,1995.
Nazi Madness
The “Final Solution” is a topic that is very difficult for
sane people today to understand, and some refuse to
believe it ever happened at all. However, the record is
complete and it cannot be denied: people lost their
property, livelihoods, dignity, and their lives because they
were born Jews. Hitler never made a secret of his dislike
for Jews; he held them responsible for the Treaty of
Versailles, the terrible economic conditions of Germany,
and almost every catastrophe that had hurt Germany. Yet
Jews made up less than 1 percent of the German
population. Shortly after Hitler came to power,
the Nazis enforced a boycott of Jewish shops, but the
boycott did not last long because most Germans did not support it. In
1933 a law was passed limiting the number of Jewish civil servants and
judges, and another law set a quota requiring that Jews could
number no more than 5 percent of the students at any school.
In 1935 new laws were passed to forbid marriage between Jews and citizens of German
blood; forbid Jews to fly the national flag; change the status of Jews from citizens to
subjects; prohibit Jews from using libraries and attending the theatre; and force Jewish
men to add “Israel” as a middle name and women to add “Sarah” to theirs. At this time
Jews were still protected somewhat by public opinion, and the Nazis struggled over the
exact definition of who was a Jew and as to how far back to trace Jewish ancestry. Some
Jews saw the writing on the wall and got out of Germany before the worst came, but many
thought it was a passing phase that would eventually go away.
Because the Olympics were to be held in Berlin in 1936, Hitler feared that his antiSemitic policies might cause the games to be moved elsewhere. Pressure on the Jews
seemed to ease until 1938 when a Jew was accused of murdering a German official. In a
radio announcement Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, told Germans to
demonstrate their outrage, and that night, mobs broke the windows at Jewish-owned
stores and synagogues. So much broken glass was left on the streets that this became
known a Kristallnacht. The attacks on property and individuals was so savage that no one
attempted to intervene or stop them.
The Jewish question was now at a critical point and Hitler was growing impatient with
delays of ridding Germany of its Jews. His policies were already working. From 1933 to
1937, 129,000 Jews had left the country, and in 1938, 40,000 more left. In 1939, it was
announced that Jews could no longer run businesses or be supervisors. Jews were being
forced out of Germany, but the remaining Jews could not afford to move and other
countries did not want them. Most of them were rounded up and put into camps along with
anyone else in Germany that was considered to be an undesirable member of society.
This included Jews, Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, and any other cultural, racial,
political, or religious groups that were deemed “subhuman” by the Nazis.
As the Nazis began their invasion of neighboring countries it created a new and bigger
problem for Hitler and his Third Reich. Conquered nations like Poland, France, Russia,
Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands were home to millions of Jews and other
“subhuman” populations. In 1941 Hitler proposed his “Final Solution” for the Jewish
problem. It was the job of the SS, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, to carry out
Hitler’s policies and plans for the extermination of millions of human beings.
Two terms are important in understanding
Hitler’s “Final Solution” for the Jewish problem.
Holocaust is defined as “a great or complete
devastation or destruction.” Genocide is
“deliberate extermination of a national, racial,
political, or cultural group.” Hitler wanted
Europe’s Jewish population entirely destroyed.
In September 1941 Hitler ordered that all the
remaining German Jews be shipped to ghettos
of Polish cities. That December the camp at
Chelmno opened to “clear” Jews from the
annexed area. They were killed as soon as they
arrived.
Some of the most cruel people in human history worked in the concentration camps. A
few became notorious. Adolf Eichmann was the SS Jewish expert. Even though he
claimed that he had nothing personal against Jews, he sent millions to their deaths. His
motto was “obey,” but Eichmann continued gassing Jews even after Himmler ordered him
to stop in 1944. Dr. Josef Mengele was called the “angel of death.” A man with the “face
of an angel,” he met the trains coming into Auschwitz. As people poured out of the cattle
cars, he decided with his thumb to the right or left who would be gassed and who would
live a little longer. He also used his position at the camp to conduct genetic research on
prisoners, taking a particular interest in studying twins. Mengele was responsible for the
deaths of 400,000 Jews.
Some of the larger prison camps will be remembered for centuries to come. DACHAU
was the first concentration camp (1933) for political prisoners, and its gates mocked the
new inmates with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Brings Freedom). BUCHENWALD
was located near Weimer and was used to provide labor for local arms factories. Deaths
averaged 6,000 a month, but survival chances were better than the other camps.
The large extermination camps were in Poland. The three largest were Auschwitz,
Maidanek, and Treblinka. AUSCHWITZ was the largest; at its peak it housed 100,000
prisoners with 12,000 killed per day. Its gas chambers could execute 2,000 at a time using
Zyclon B gas. The prisoners were told they were going to the shower and to remove all of
their clothes. Once packed inside, gas poured from the shower heads, and death followed
3 to 15 minutes later. TREBLINKA received 5,000 Jews a day from the Warsaw ghetto; all
were sent to “shower” after they arrived. In two months in 1942, 300,000 died there.
MAIDANEK had some work projects, but it was mainly a mass murder factory, about 1.5
million were gassed there.
The dead were robbed of anything of value, including their hair, gold teeth, watches,
and jewelry. The hair was used for lining army boots. Gold paid for expenses of the war
machine. Clothes were given to the poor. Camp officials also rented out the survivors to
German businessmen in return for bribes.
What was remarkable about the Holocaust is not that six million Jews died, but that
many survived. Only Holocaust survivors know how truly bad conditions were in these
camps. Allied soldiers who liberated the camps were shocked by the conditions. When
Eisenhower and Patton visited the camp at Ohrdruf, it was even worse than they had
imagined, and Patton became so ill that he vomited. Eisenhower ordered every soldier not
at the front lines to come to the camp, so that if they did not understand what they were
fighting for, at least they understood what they were fighting against.
Name ____________________
Challenges
1. What did Hitler and the Nazis blame the Jews for doing to Germany?
1. Why did the early boycott of Jewish shops fail?
2. The law stated that classrooms could have no more than 5 percent of the students be Jewish. If there
was a German classroom that had a total of 40 students tell me the highest number of students that could
be Jewish?
1. What laws were passed in 1935? (2 points)
1. Explain why you think the Nazis did not want to allow Jews to fly the national flag?
1. What event caused Hitler to ease up on his anti-Semitic policies for awhile?
1. Who was the Minister of Propaganda in Germany?
2. What do you think was his main job in Nazi Germany?
1. What happened on Kristallnacht? What does Kristallnacht mean in English? (You will need to look this up
in a book or on a computer)
1.
Between 1933 to 1938, over 169,000 Jews fled Germany. Why were many Jews forced to stay in
Germany?
1.
What other groups did the Nazis target besides the Jews?
1.
What organization was put in charge of the “Final Solution?” Who was in charge of it?
2.
What is the purpose of genocide?
1.
Where were the remaining German Jews initially shipped in the fall of 1941?
2.
What are ghettos? (Look this up in a book or on a computer – must be correct context)
1.
Explain why you believe Josef Mengele was called the “angel of death?”
1.
Why do you believe the words on the gates of the concentration camps, Arbeit Macht Frei”, were
mocking?
1.
What country were the large extermination camps located? What were the main three?
2.
What happened in the “showers?”
3.
Why did Eisenhower and other military leaders want Allied soldiers to visit the concentration camps?