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The Holocaust
Chapter 32, Section 3
Introduction
 As part of their vision for Europe, the Nazis proposed a
new racial order.
 They proclaimed that the Germanic peoples, or Aryans, were
a “master race.” (a misuse of the term Aryan, which actually
refers to the Indo-European peoples who began to migrate into
the Indian subcontinent around 1500 B.C.)
 The Nazis claimed that all non-Aryan peoples, particularly
Jewish people, were inferior.
 This racist message would eventually lead to the
Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of Jews and
other groups judged inferior by the Nazis.
The Holocaust Begins
 Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jews
that had deep roots in European history.
 Jews as scapegoats for
 personal failures.
 Germany’s defeat in World War I
 Targeting Jews government policy
 1935 Nuremberg Laws made it illegal to marry a
Jew. Other laws limited the work of Jews.
“Night of Broken Glass”
 On November 7, 1938, Herschel
Grynszpan (pictured) a Jewish
youth from Germany, shot a
German diplomat living in Paris to
avenge his father’s deportation to
Poland.
 November 9, 1938: In retaliation
Nazi leaders in Germany launched
a violent attack on the Jewish
community. This attack was carried
out by the SA (storm troopers) and
SS, who attacked Jewish homes,
businesses, and synagogues. This
night was called Kristallnacht.
Burning Synagogue on
Kristallnacht
Did you know? 
This picture is typical of
the smashed windows of
Jewish businesses on
Kristallnacht.
Kristallnacht was not
just staged without
planning, but served a
specific purpose in
Nazi policy toward the
Jews. The SA was
under strict orders to
confiscate any
firearms owned by
Jews when ransacking
Jewish homes and
businesses. This would
prevent any significant
armed resistance to
Nazi policies in the
future.
A Flood of Refugees
 By the end of 1939, a number of German Jews
had fled to other countries.
 At first, Hitler favored emigration as a solution
to what he called “the Jewish problem.”
 After admitting tens of thousands of Jewish
refugees, France, Britain, and the United
States abruptly closed their doors to further
immigration.
Isolating the Jews
 Hitler then ordered Jews
in all countries under his
control to be moved to
designated cities called
ghettos.
 After 1941, all Jews in
German controlled areas
had to wear a yellow
Star of David patch
(pictured).
The “Final Solution”
 Hitler’s plan called the “Final Solution” was a
genocide plan to systematically kill an entire
people.
 Hitler wanted to purify the “Aryan” race.
 He tried to eliminate other groups he viewed as
“subhuman.”
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Roma (gypsies), Poles, Russians
the insane
the disabled
the incurably ill
War Against the Disabled:
Nazi Propaganda



The title: "Costs for the
genetically ill — social
consequences."
The left frame notes that an
institution that houses 130
feeble-minded costs about
104,000 Reichsmarks a year.
The right frame notes that that is
enough to build 17 houses for
healthy working class families.
 The text in red at the bottom: “The genetically ill are
a burden for the people.”
War Against the Disabled:
Action T4
 Action T4 was Nazi
Germany’s euthanasia
program in which physicians
killed people they deemed
incurably sick or “life unworthy
of life.”
 Records during the official run
of the program from 1939 to
1942 show more than 70,000
children and adults killed.
 The Nuremburg Trials
uncovered evidence that the
program continued
unofficially, and that an
estimated 275,000 were killed
Viktor Brack was the
organizer of Action T4. He
was tried in the Nuremburg
Trials and executed by
hanging in 1948.
War Against the Disabled:
Action T4
Dr. Karl Brandt: Tried and
Executed at Nuremburg for
criminal experiments on human
beings as a part of Action T4
SS officer Philipp Bouhler
headed Action T4 to euthanize
the disabled. When captured by
the American military, he and
his wife committed suicide
before he could be tried.
War Against the Disabled:
Pope Benedict XVI’s cousin
War Against the Disabled:
Pope Benedict XVI’s cousin
War Against the Disabled:
Pope Benedict XVI’s cousin
SOURCE: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2008/apr/08041107
The Killings Begin
 As the Nazis moved across Europe the SS
killing squads rounded up men, women,
children, and even babies and shot them in pits
where they were buried.
 Other Jews were rounded up and herded into
concentration camps where they were slave
labor.
 Inmates would work seven days a week for the
SS or for German businesses. Food consisted
of thin soup, scraps of bread, and potato
peelings. Most inmates lost 50 lbs quickly.
The Final Stage
 In 1942 the Germans built huge exterminations
camps equipped with gas chambers that could
kill as many as 6,000 people in a day.
 Committees of Nazi doctors separated the
strong (mostly men) from the weak (women,
children, and elderly). The weak went to their
deaths in the gas chambers usually that day.
 The victims were told to undress and head into
the gas chambers under the guise they were
taking showers. Cyanide gas from Zyklon B
granules came through the fake showerheads.
Empty Zyklon B canisters found by the
Zyklon B granules on display at Allies at Auschwitz at the end of World
Auschwitz
War II
Camp Markings
Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the
system of identification in Nazi camps. They were used in
the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the
reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of
fabric and were sewn on jackets and trousers of the prisoners. These
mandatory badges of shame had specific meanings indicated by their
colour and shape.
Political
Enemies
Professional
Criminals
Foreign
Forced
Laborers
Jehovah’s
Witnesses
Sex
Offenders
and homosexuals
“Asocials”
Roma
(Gypsies)
Special Markings
Race defiler
Pole
Female Race defiler
Czech
Enemy POW
Escape Suspect
Special Inmate
(brown armband)
A poster in
German
explaining the
marking
system
Dutch Jews wearing the yellow star with an “N”
superimposed over it meaning they were from
the Netherlands.
Auschwitz Death Camp, Poland
 Except for the picture on this slide, all other Auschwitz
pictures are by Elisabeth Yankey taken in 2001.
This wheeled table helped transport the bodies of the
gassed victims to the ovens for cremation.
This mechanism rotated the table upon which the
bodies of the gassed victims were transferred to
the ovens for cremation.
There was once a building standing here, but this is the
area where the Nazis themselves burned this building down
to attempt to destroy evidence of the death camps.
inmate barracks
These are burned down barracks where the
Nazis again tried to destroy evidence of
atrocities in the Auschwitz camp.
Jews Killed Under Nazi Rule*
Original Jewish
Population
Poland
Jews Killed
Percent
Surviving
3,300,000 2,800,000
15%
Soviet Union (area 2,100,000 1,500,000
29%
occupied by Germans)
Hungary
404,000
200,000
49%
Romania
850,000
425,000
50%
Germany/Austria
270,000
210,000
22%
*Estimates
Source: Hannah Vogt, The Burden of Guilt
The Survivors
 About six million European Jews were
killed during the Holocaust.
 Less than four million European Jews
survived.
 Some Jews were helped by non-Jews
who risked there lives, hid Jews in their
homes, and helped them escape to
neutral countries.
“Righteous Among the Nations”
 The Righteous Among the Nations
is a list used by the State of Israel to
describe non-Jews who risked their
lives during the Holocaust to save
Jews from extermination by the
Nazis.
 Those recognized for this receive
medal and certificate from Israel, and
have received honorary citizenship in
the State of Israel.
 The total of the Righteous Among
the Nations recognized by Yad
Vashem, Jerusalem, as of January 1,
2012 is 24,356 from 47 countries.
Miep and Jan Gies
 Miep Gies (pictured),
and her husband Jan,
hid Anne Frank and her
family. She discovered
Anne Frank’s diary and
returned it to Anne
Frank’s father who
published it after the
war. Miep Gies recently
passed away in January
2010.
Corrie Ten Boom and her
family
 The Ten Boom family of
Harlem in the Netherlands
built a false room in
Corrie’s room in order to
hide Dutch Jews during
the Holocaust. The book
and film The Hiding Place
tells this story. You may
have read this in some
freshman English classes.
Outside the
Ten Boom
watch shop
Ten Boom Museum Photos
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
View
from
inside
the
secret
room.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
The hiding place is
accessible through a
sliding door located
in the bottom of the
linen closet inside
Corrie Ten Boom's
room.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
View of the
ceiling to
see how
narrow the
room is.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
View
from
inside the
secret
room
looking
toward
the secret
entrance.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
Photo credit: Jerusalem Prayer Team via Flickr
Charles Coward (U.K.)
 Known as the "Count of Auschwitz", was a British
soldier captured during World War II who rescued
Jews from Auschwitz.
 He was transferred to a labor camp near Auschwitz.
Because he knew the German language well,
Coward was appointed Red Cross liaison officer for
the 1,200-1,400 British prisoners. In this trusted role
he was allowed to move fairly freely throughout the
camp and often to surrounding towns.
 Coward and the other British prisoners smuggled
food and other items to the Jewish inmates, even
supplying dynamite to the Sonderkommando in a
partially successful attempt to blow up the gas
chambers and crematoria.
 Using Red Cross supplies he bribed SS guards to
buy corpses of the dead in order to fool the Germans
into thinking live prisoners had died along the roads
between the camps when they had actually
escaped.
Jewish Resistance:
Bielski partisans
Defiance (2008 film)
Tuvia Bielski
The Bielski
Partisans were an
organization of Jewish
partisans who
rescued Jews from
extermination and fought
against the Nazi
German occupiers
and their
collaborators in Germanoccupied Poland
(now western Belarus).
Under their protection,
1,236 Jews survived the
war. The group spent
more than two years
living in the forests.
Bielski partisans