Download Historical Background for Night by Elie Wiesel

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
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Families were separated
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The old, invalid and young children
were almost immediately killed
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Jews were allowed to live as long as
they were strong enough to work
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They suffered brutal harassment from
Nazi soldiers and guards
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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
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The Nazis had to constantly make
room in the camps for new prisoners.
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They would kill the weak prisoners to
make room for new, healthy ones.
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Sometimes they would move groups of
prisoners to other camps, either by
train or by forcing them to march –
sometimes hundreds of miles.
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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
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Germans buried hundreds of bodies in
mass graves.
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Fear of discovery caused them to use
other sources of mass extermination,
such as the gas chamber.
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Hundreds of Jews could be herded into
an air-tight room and gassed.
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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
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Consequences
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Over 6 million Jews were killed by the
Germans over the course of World War
II
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Other groups who were also forced
into the camps were:
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Homosexuals
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Non-Jews who helped hide Jews or
transport them to safety
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Gypsies or foreigners
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Survivors of the camps had to spend
years getting their lives back together
and finding surviving family.