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The Holocaust
What was the Holocaust?
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The systematic, state-sponsored persecution
and murder of approximately six million Jews
by the Nazis between 1933-1945.
"Holocaust" is a Greek word meaning
"sacrifice by fire."
The Nazis believed that Germans were
"racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed
"inferior," were "life unworthy of life."
A quote from Hitler:
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“Nature is cruel; therefore we are also
entitled to be cruel. When I send the
flower of German youth into the steel hail
of the next war without feeling the
slightest regret over the precious German
blood that is being spilled, should I not
also have the right to eliminate millions of
an inferior race that multiplies like
vermin?”
Were Jews the only victims?
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Nazis also targeted other groups because of their
perceived "racial inferiority":
-Roma (Gypsies)
-Handicapped
-Some Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others)
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Other groups were persecuted for political and behavioral
reasons:
-Communists -Socialists -Jehovah's Witnesses
-Homosexuals
-Prisoner’s of War
Gypsies
Soviet
POWs
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Photograph with the caption: "...because God cannot
want the sick and ailing to reproduce.“
This image is from a propaganda film to gather support
for the Euthanasia Program.
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At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled people
were murdered.
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In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe was over
nine million.
By 1945, close to two out of every three European
Jews had been killed as part of the “Final Solution.”
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Holocaust Map
Ghettos
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During World War II, ghettos were
city districts (often enclosed) in
which the Germans forced the
Jewish population to live under
miserable conditions.
Ghettos isolated Jews by
separating Jewish communities
from the non-Jewish population
and from neighboring Jewish
communities.
Children in the Warsaw Ghetto
The Nazis established over 400
ghettos.
The largest ghetto in Poland was
the Warsaw Ghetto, where
approximately 450,000 Jews were
crowded into an area of 1.3 square
miles.
Child factory worker in a ghetto
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The Germans established ghettos to control and
segregate Jews.
In many places ghettoization lasted a relatively
short time.
With the implementation of the "Final Solution"
in 1942, the Germans systematically destroyed
the ghettos and deported the Jews to
extermination camps where they killed them.
A smaller number of Jews were deported from
ghettos to forced-labor camps and concentration
camps.
Einsatzgruppen
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Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) were squads of German
SS and police personnel.
The tasks of the Einsatzgruppen included the murder of those
perceived to be racial or political enemies found behind the
front lines in the occupied Soviet Union.
These victims included Jews (men, women, and children),
Roma (Gypsies), and officials of the Soviet state and the Soviet
Communist party.
The Einsatzgruppen also murdered thousands of mentally
disabled living in institutions.
Many scholars believe that the systematic killing of Jews by the
Einsatzgruppen battalions was the first step of the Nazi
program to murder all of the European Jews.
Einsatzgruppen
These photographs are of Eastern European Jews taken shortly
before being massacred by the Einsatzgruppen.
They are from a series of photographs that were used as
evidence of war crimes after the war.
More than a million Jewish men, women, and children
were murdered by these units.
Concentration Camps
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The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which
people are detained or confined, usually under harsh
conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and
imprisonment.
The first camps were established in Germany and Poland,
but the camp system expanded eastward after Nazi military
victories in the Soviet Union.
The camps were also sites of hideous and perverted medical
experiments conducted on prisoners against their will and
often with lethal results.
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Example: to determine the length of time German air force personnel
might survive under reduced air pressure or in frozen water.
Also, the skin of young and healthy prisoners was prized material for
lampshades, gloves, saddles, etc. that became popular souvenirs for
Nazis.
Extermination Camps
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Nazi extermination camps
fulfilled the singular function of
mass murder.
Crematorium
Unlike concentration camps,
which served primarily as
detention and labor centers,
extermination camps were
almost exclusively "death
factories."
Over three million Jews were
murdered in extermination
camps, by gassing and by
shooting.
Hairbrushes of victims at Auschwitz
Auschwitz Map
Virtual Tour
Death Marches
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•During these death marches, SS
guards brutally mistreated the
prisoners.
•Following explicit orders to
shoot prisoners who could no
longer walk, the SS guards shot
hundreds of prisoners en route.
•Thousands of prisoners also
died of exposure, starvation, and
exhaustion.
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In January 1945, the Germans stood on
the verge of military defeat.
The Soviet army had publicized Nazi
atrocities at one camp called Majdanek,
which its troops overran in July 1944.
Nazi authorities, therefore, ordered
commandants of concentration camps to
evacuate prisoners to prevent the
prisoners from falling into Allied hands
and providing further evidence of Nazi
mass murder.
The term death march referred to forced
marches of prisoners over long
distances under heavy guard and
extremely harsh winter conditions.
Liberation
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As the Allies moved through Germany and Eastern Europe they
discovered and liberated the camps.
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Liberators confronted unspeakable conditions in the camps, where
piles of corpses lay unburied.
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Only after the liberation of the Nazi camps was the full scope of Nazi
horrors exposed to the world.
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The survivors resembled skeletons because of the demands of
forced labor and the lack of food.
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Many were so weak that they could hardly move.
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Disease remained an ever-present danger, and many of the camps
had to be burned down to prevent the spread of epidemics.
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Survivors of the camps faced a long and difficult road to recovery.
America and the Holocaust
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American leaders had knowledge of the holocaust, but
rescue was not a priority for the U.S. government.
In August 1942, the State Department received a telegram
confirming Nazi plans for the murder of Europe's Jews, but
no action was taken.
American Rabbi Stephen Wise, who also received the
report, was asked by the State Department to refrain from
announcing it.
Reports of Nazi atrocities often were not publicized by the
American press.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt given reports of
mass murder received from Jewish leaders in the Warsaw
Ghetto. No immediate executive action was taken.
American anti-Semitic
propaganda posters,
circa WWII
Aftermath
Aftermath Map
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What does “DP” stand for?
Where did the Allies set up DP camps?
Why did many survivors want to leave
Europe?
Where did many survivors desire to
relocate?
Was America a welcoming location for
survivors?
Part One Questions
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After the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935, the Jews
lost their civil liberties and rights as German citizens.
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Identify the civil rights you hold dear.
Golly D., Frank S., and Joseph K. tell us about Brown Shirts
marching and the activities of the Hitler Youth. Robert S.
speaks of being a member of the Hitler Youth at the age of
ten.
 What do you think might have attracted young people to
join the Party?
 Do you think that you could have been persuaded? Why
or why not?
Helen K. said, "We didn't believe what Hitler said or what he was
going to do."
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How do you think disbelief played a part in decision
making for the Jews?
Part Two Questions
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Edith P. said, "Had we known enough, I think we
would have done more."
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Why didn't the Jews leave their homelands after
the first signs of persecution and restrictions?
The survivors tell of heartbreaking separations
from loved ones at the time of deportation and
arrival in the camps.
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Why you think the Nazis used the plan of
separating families?
Joseph K. tells us of how the Nazis killed babies.
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Define what you think he means when he says,
"Cultured people did this."
Part Three Questions
List the reasons you think the Nazis wanted to
evacuate the camps when they learned the Allies were
advancing toward them.
To us, liberation means freedom, but to many of the
survivors this was not so.
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Describe some of their fears and worries upon liberation.
When given a rifle and told he could shoot German
officers, Joseph K. could not strike back.
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Discuss Joseph K.'s reaction.
Speculate about what others might have done in similar
situations.
Even though it is a difficult undertaking for the
survivors to give their testimonies, they have done so.
4.
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Describe why you think, after many years, they have spoken
to us.