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The Holocaust
1933-1945
What is the Holocaust?
• The Holocaust was the
-systematic (there was a plan that was followed)
-bureaucratic (various jobs that became routine)
-state-sponsored (government enacted and enforced)
persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews and
other various targeted groups by the Nazi regime and its
collaborators.
• The Holocaust is an example of a genocide, but a genocide does not
begin overnight.
Steps to the Holocaust
1. You cannot live among us as Jews.
2. You cannot live among us.
3. You cannot live.
Burning of Jewish books, 1934
1. You cannot live among us as Jews
Prejudiced Attitudes & Stereotyping
Discrimination & Harassment
Systemic Racism
Prejudiced Attitudes & Stereotyping
• The Eternal Jew art exhibit in Munich (November 1937) featured
photos pointing out “Jewish” traits
Prejudiced Attitudes & Stereotyping
• Childrens’ books like Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom) were
used in schools to teach kids about the dangers of Jews
• Stories included:
-How to Recognize
a Jew
-How Jewish Traders
Cheat
-How Jews Torment
Animals
-What Christ said
about the Jews
Discrimination & Harassment
• Boycott of Jewish businesses
• Laws passed made daily life difficult- couldn’t attend school, public
spaces, etc.
• Kristallnacht
“Jews are not wanted
here”
“The Jews are our misfortune”
Systematic Racism
• Nuremberg Laws- Jews were no longer German citizens, could not
marry German citizens
2. You cannot live among us
• Jews were removed from German society and forced to live in
Ghettos and concentration camps
Ghettos
• The ghettos were used to control, confine, and weaken the Jews in
Europe
• Became transition areas
used as collection points
for deportation to
concentration and death
camps
• Conditions were
unbearableovercrowded and
unsanitary, disease and
malnutrition were
common.
Warsaw Ghetto
• Largest ghetto- over 400,000 Jews lived in the 1.3 sq. mile space.
Jewish
A Warsaw
children
ghetto resident
smuggling
gives money
to
some
two children onfood
a Warsawthrough
ghetto a hole
in the Ghetto
street. Warsaw,
wall
Poland, between
October 1940
and April 1943.
civilians
An emaciatedPolish
woman
walk by a
sells the compulsory
section of the
German
Star ofADavid
that
policeman
armbands
forwall
Jews.
In
separated
the
interrogates
the background
area
Warsaw
Jewish
man
concert
posters;
from
of
almostaccused
all areghetto
tryingWarsaw
tothe rest of the
destroyed.
city.
Warsaw,
smuggle
a loaf
ghetto,
Poland,
Poland,
1940–
of bread
into
September
19,
1941the
Warsaw1941
ghetto.
Warsaw, Poland,
1942-1943
Lodz Ghetto
• The Lodz Ghetto was a major production center for Nazi Germany
because of its location in an industrialized city
A German
Povertyshowing
in the
postcard
ghetto:
residents
the
entrance
to
wait
forghetto.
soup at a
the
Lodz
public
The
sign kitchen.
reads Lodz
ghetto, Poland,
"Jewish
between area—
1940 and
residential
1944.
entry
forbidden."
Lodz, Poland,
1940-1941.
Jewish children
forced to haul a
wagon.
Lodz
ghetto,
Jews deported
to the
Lodz
Poland,
wartime.
ghetto. Poland,
1941
or 1942.
Concentration Camps
• Concentration camps were first established shortly after Hitler came
to power in 1933 to incarcerate real and perceived threats to the
Nazi regime
• Prisoners were forced to labor for the Nazi regime, and although the
SS realized the need for laborers, prisoners were deliberately
starved and mistreated
• After the start of the war, new camps were constructed to hold the
increasing numbers of political prisoners, resisters, and those who
were “racially inferior”
• As Germany expanded control across Europe, camps were
constructed throughout newly acquired territory
Concentration Camps
Concentration Camps
• Prisoners in
Concentration Camps
were made to wear
badges specifying their
“offense”
Girls are assembled for roll call at the Jugend- schutzlager
Litzmannstadt, a concentration camp for Polish juveniles.
Behind them stands the camp commandant Eugenie Pohl.
Uniformed prisoners
A Romani (Gypsy)
with triangular
badges
A transport
of
victim of Nazi medical
are assembled
under
Jews from
experiments to make
Nazi guard
at the
Hungary
seawater safe to drink.
Sachenhausen
arrives at
Dachau concentration
concentration
camp.
Auschwitzcamp, Germany, 1944.
Sachsenhausen,
Birkenau.
Germany,
1938May
Poland,
1944.
Survivors at
Buchenwald
Concentration
Camp
remain in their
Camp
guards beat
a prisoner at
the Cieszanow
laborbarracks
camp. after
liberation by Allies on April 16, 1945. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize winning
author of Night, is on the second bunk from the bottom, seventh from the left.
3. You cannot live
• “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was the euphemism
used to describe the Nazi program of mass murder of the Jews of
Europe. It was intentionally vague so that it could be discussed with
a degree of obscurity, and so that perpetrators would not have to
continually face the true nature of what they were planning to do.
• Although thousands of Jews were killed by the Nazis prior to 1942,
mass murder was not the goal until the Final Solution. For the Final
Solution, the Nazis built six camps to be used for the primary
purpose of killing massive numbers of Jews and opponents. They
also established the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units, that
consisted of SS and police that were tasked with murdering
perceived enemies in German-occupied Soviet territory.
Einsatzgruppen
• The Einsatzgruppen followed the German
army into Soviet territory and carried out
mass murder operations, often drawing on
local civilians and police for assistance to
carry out the shooting of large groups
• At first only men were killed, but by the
summer of 1941 the killing was
indiscriminate
• Around the same time, Heinrich Himmler
(leader of the SS) requested a more
convenient mode of killing be developed,
as the mass shootings were causing a
psychological burden on his men
• This led to the development of a mobile
gas chamber mounted on the back of a
cargo truck
Death Camps
What do you notice about the location of the death camps?
Death Camps
• The death camps were constructed
in semi-rural areas that were also
close to railroads
• SS commanders had experimented
with various methods of mass
murder and found that gas
chambers were the most effective
• Most of the prisoners taken to these
camps were killed within hours of
their arrival. A small number of
prisoners considered healthy were
temporarily forced to work until
they were unable, at which point
they were killed.
Methods of Killing
• The Nazis decided the most effective
way to commit mass murder was by
using poisonous gas
• Initially camps used carbon
monoxide fumes, but they eventually
moved to using Zyklon-B, a form of
cyanide gas.
• Victims were told they were going to
shower or be de-loused and they
would then return to camp
• They were forced to undress and
then locked in a room, at which
point Zyklon-B pellets were dropped
through designated holes in the roof.
Aerial View of Auschwitz
Disposal
• The first method of disposing of bodies was to simply bury them in
mass graves. However, the graves could not be dug deep enough
for the rate of killing.
• It was decided that bodies would be burned. Though Auschwitz
had crematoriums, other death camps used large outdoor fire pits.
WARNING:
Disturbing images
follow. Viewer
discretion is advised.
Completing the roof of
Crematorium II, winter 1942-43
The remnants of Crematorium II at
Auschwitz
Sonderkommando Photos
• Four blurred photographs were taken in August 1944 inside the
Auschwitz Concentration Camp by a prisoner. The pictures were
taken within 15-30 minutes of each other by a prisoner known only
as Alex, a Jewish prisoner from Greece.
Photographs
• Most of the photographs we have of the Holocaust are of the
liberation period or were taken for Nazi propaganda purposes.
• Liberators of various camps found piles and piles of personal
belongings and valuables, hinting to the number of victims.
A warehouse full of shoes and
clothing confiscated from the
prisoners and deportees gassed
upon their arrival at Auschwitz
Bales of the hair of female prisoners
found in the warehouses of
Auschwitz at the liberation.
Death Marches
• As American and Soviet troops closed in on Nazi forces, it was
ordered that all concentration camp prisoners be evacuated to the
interior of the Reich.
• The SS did not want prisoners to be able to tell their stories to their
liberators, and they wanted to hide evidence of mass murder, so
along with evacuating prisoners, they demolished the camps they
left behind.
A column of prisoners on a
forced march from Dachau
concentration camp passing
through Bavarian villages in the
direction of Wolfratshausen,
late April 1945. Picture taken
by a German civilian.
Liberation
• Liberating troops were forced to
confront the atrocities committed
by the Nazis head on.
• The victims they encountered
were weak, diseased, and
malnourished. Thousands
continued to die in the months
after liberation, too sick to
recover.
• General Eisenhower insisted that
the horrors of the concentration
camps be documented, and forced
villagers who lived in the areas of
death camps to come and see
what had happened in their
backyards.
Prisoners at the time of liberation of
the Ebensee camp, a subcamp of
the Mauthausen concentration
camp. This photograph was taken by
Signal Corps photographer Arnold E.
Samuelson. Austria, May 7, 1945
Perpetrators
• Everyone knows Adolf Hitler as the face of Nazism and the
Holocaust, but the Nazi regime was a bureaucracy- there were
different men in charge of various aspects of the Reich, including
the Final Solution.
Heinrich Himmler
• Leader of the SS- built it from only 280 men in charge of Hitler’s
personal security to an elite corps of 52,000 who oversaw the racial
purity of the Reich
• Established and controlled the concentration camp system
• Attempted to go into hiding, but was captured and turned over to
the British. Committed suicide prior to interrogation.
Himmler during a visit to the
Auschwitz camp, July 18, 1942
Himmler visiting the Dachau
Concentration Camp in 1936
Joseph Goebbels
• Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany
• Centralized control of film, radio, and the press in his office, and
only promoted those that furthered the Nazi agenda- depicting
Hitler as a heroic leader and the Jews as evil and dangerous
• “He played probably the most important role in creating an
atmosphere in Germany that made it possible for the Nazis to
commit terrible atrocities against Jews, homosexuals and other
minorities”
Goebbels
giving a
speech in
Berlin, 1934
Goebbels
family with
Hitler, 1938
Hermann Goering
• Highest ranking Nazi official tried at Nuremberg- Hitler’s second in
command
• Established the Gestapo, was commander of the Luftwaffe, and was
the highest-ranking military official in the Reich
• Fell out of favor with Hitler when the Luftwaffe was unsuccessful in
Britain and Stalingrad
• Surrendered and was sentenced to death at Nuremberg, but
committed suicide the night before his execution.
Goering with Hitler and Albert
Speer, August 1943
Adolf Eichmann
• Responsible for organizing and coordinating the deportation of
European Jews to ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination
camps
• Escaped Germany at the end of the war to Argentina, where he
lived until 1960 when Mossad agents abducted him and brought
him to trial in Israel for his role in the Holocaust
Dr. Josef Mengele
• SS physician at Auschwitz famous for his
medical experiments on prisoners,
especially twins
• Wanted to prove that heredity was more
important than environment to justify Nazi
racial supremacy theories
• Committed atrocious experiments on
twins, and when one died, would kill the
other to conduct concurrent autopsies
• Escaped to South America after the war,
where he died in 1979 of natural causes.
Bystanders
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the labor leaders, and I did not speak out
because I was not a labor leader.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one
left to speak out for me.
-The Reverend Martin Niemöller, a German pastor who was arrested
and sent to Dachau in 1937
Bystanders
• From USHMM: “Bystanders” is a catch-all term that has often been
applied to people who were passive and indifferent to the escalating
persecution that culminated in the Holocaust.
• Bystanders were typically citizens who lived in the societies directly
impacted by the Holocaust but who did not speak out against what
they witnessed
• People were bystanders for a variety of reasons: fear for their own
safety, sense of powerlessness, social pressures, focus on surviving.
• The existing antisemitic prejudices in Europe made people
uninclined to step in on the behalf of the Jews, who were seen by
most as “alien”
Nazis and local residents look on as Jews are forced to get on their
hands and knees to scrub the pavement. Vienna, Germanincorporated Austria, March–April 1938
People gathered along the street watch as Jews are rounded up and
marched through Lvov. Lvov, Poland, June-July 1941.
Concentration Camps today
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Dachau
Majdanek