Download Standards and Objectives

Standards and Objectives
SSHS-S1C8-01-d
Strand 1: American History
Concept 8: Great Depression and
World War II
PO 2. Describe the impact of
American involvement in World War
II:
Students will analyze how the
Holocaust came to be by inspecting
major events leading up to the Final
Solution
The Holocaust
The Persecution of the Jews
The Nuremberg Laws
1935 German citizenship was taken away
from Jews
Jews weren’t allowed to marry any non-Jews
Not allowed to hold office or vote
Jew with German sounding last names had to
adopt “jewish” names
Jewish passports were marked with a red ‘J’
Banned from practicing medicine or law or
operating businesses
The Tipping Point
Herschel Grynszpan, a young
Jewish refugee in Paris shot and
killed a German diplomat
He was angry because his family
and 14,000 other Polish Jews
had been deported
He was also upset about the way
Jews were being treated
Not good for all of the Jews in
Germany -led to Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
“Night of Broken Glass”
Hitler ordered minister of
propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to
use the assassination as an excuse
to attack the jews so that it would
look like a spontaneous reaction
to the assassination
90 Jews were killed and 7,500
businesses were destroyed as well
as hundreds of synagogues
Lawlessness Continued
Police were not allowed to interfere
as the Nazi storm troopers
wrecked havoc
After Kristallnacht the Gestapo
arrested 30,000 Jewish men who
were then sent to Concentration
Camps
The state confiscated insurance
payments owed to Jewish owners
of ruined businesses
Jewish Refugees Try to Flee
Between 1933 and 1939 about 250,000 Jews escaped
including Albert Einstein
Hundreds of thousands of Jews tried to get visas to
the U.S. but the majority were denied
Jews were not allowed to take their money out of
Germany so American saw them as “likely to
become a public charge” so they were denied
Most Americans didn’t want to raise immigration
quotas because of high unemployment and antisemitic attitudes
Only 150,000 immigrants were allowed in annually
and only so many from each country
The St. Louis Affair
May 27, 1939, the SS St. Louis carrying 950
Jewish immigrants tried to gain access to
the U.S. by first docking in cuba
Their certificates were improperly issued by
Cuba’s director of immigration giving them
permission to land but they were denied
The ship circled off the coast of Florida trying to
get permission to dock in the U.S. they were
again denied
They had to sail back to Europe where many of
the passengers ended up dying in
Concentration Camps
The Final Solution
January 20, 1942, Nazi Leaders met at the
Wannsee Conference to figure out the
“final solution to the Jewish question”
Discussed shooting them and putting
them in mass graves, or loading them
into trucks and then pipe in the
exhaust to kill them. these methods
were deemed to slow though
Decided to use Concentration Camps
and Extermination camps
Non-Jews who were also sent to the camps
Although Jewish people were the main
targets of the Nazis, others were also
sent to the camps
Anyone seen as “inferior” including:
the disabled, homosexuals, Gypsies,
Jehovah Witnesses, Polish, and
communists and socialists
The elderly, infirm, and children were
sent to extermination camps since
they couldn’t work at concentration
camps
Concentration Camps
11 million people were killed
during the Holocaust
Died from malnutrition,
overwork, and in gas
chambers
When people died, their
bodies were stripped and
stacked ready to be burned
in huge crematoriums
The Great Dictator 1940
Movie written, produced, directed,
scored, and starring Charlie
Chaplin
Premise: Charlie Chaplin’s
character was a Jewish barber
who lived in a ghetto but had a
striking resemblance to
“Hynkel.” Through a case of
mistaken identity, he ends up in
front of the army to give a
speech
Think about it
What do you think was the reason Chaplin delivered this speech dressed as Hitler?
What similarities can you find between immigration policies during WWII and
policies today?