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Junior English Mrs. Manzella World War II What was The Holocaust The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and quickly turned the country into a one-party dictatorship. He persuaded his Cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end individual freedoms, including freedom of press, speech, and assembly. Individuals lost the right to privacy, which meant that officials could read people's mail, listen in on telephone conversations, and search private homes without a warrant. Hitler also relied on terror to achieve his goals. Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and high leather boots of the Nazi Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilungen). Called the SA, these auxiliary policemen took to the streets to beat up and kill some opponents of the Nazi regime. Mere fear of the SA pressured into silence other Germans who did not support the Nazis. http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007673 German Invasions As the Germans invaded and overtook surrounding countries, they would require Jews to identify themselves and their businesses with a yellow Star of David. Because of pressure from the Nazis, Jewish business declined. They would round-up Jews into squalid ghettos temporarily until moving them into Concentration Camps. From the ghettos, the Jews were taken in train cattle cars to the Concentration Camps where they were either killed or forced to work. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/life_in_warsaw.html Concentration Camps http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4641117/France-responsible-forholocaust-deportations-court-rules.html • Families were separated • The old, invalid and young children were almost immediately killed • Jews were allowed to live as long as they were strong enough to work • They suffered brutal harassment from Nazi soldiers and guards • They lived in squalid conditions, in barracks with dirt floors, wooden beds with no blankets or mattresses, and were given little, if any, food. Death Marches • The Nazis had to constantly make room in the camps for new prisoners. • They would kill the weak prisoners to make room for new, healthy ones. • Sometimes they would move groups of prisoners to other camps, either by train or by forcing them to march – sometimes hundreds of miles. • Other times the Nazis were forced to abandon a camp because the Allied Forces were closing in. They would march to a camp, farther from the war front. • If a prisoner fell behind, or needed to stop, they would be killed. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005162&MediaId=6127 Extermination of a Race How were the Germans able to kill so many people and get away with it? http://www.barrybrumfield.com/holocaust/women/shot_1942.jpg Mass Murder • Germans buried hundreds of bodies in mass graves. • Fear of discovery caused them to use other sources of mass extermination, such as the gas chamber. • Hundreds of Jews could be herded into an air-tight room and gassed. • Bodies would then be carted to the ovens to be burned, leaving no trace of the victims. http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=1600&bih=1054&tbm=isch&tbnid=rxifIbStCE6N2M:&imgrefurl=http://la8period3.pbworks.com/w/page/25942446/Joesef%2520Mengele%27s%2520Deciso n&imgurl=http://la8period3.pbworks.com/f/1273673069/Ovens%252520is%252520Concentration%252520Camps.jpg&w=432&h=324&ei=91Q-UNi9BsWSqQGWYGYCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1095&vpy=462&dur=45&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=128&ty=127&sig=110859616712960967938&page=2&tbnh=153&tbnw=213&start=33&ndsp=38&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:33,i:257 Consequences • Over 6 million Jews were killed by the Germans over the course of World War II • Other groups who were also forced into the camps were: • Homosexuals • Non-Jews who helped hide Jews or transport them to safety • Gypsies or foreigners • Survivors of the camps had to spend years getting their lives back together and finding surviving family.