Download Introduction to the Holocaust and World War II

Introduction to the Holocaust
and World War II
Definitions
 Genocide: the deliberate
and systematic
extermination of a
national, racial, political,
or cultural group.
 Holocaust: the genocide
of European Jews, the
disabled, Gypsies,
criminals, homosexuals,
and other groups by Nazis
during World War II
Definitions
 Allied: countries that went against the Germany
and the Axis powers (like Britain and the United
States).
 Axis: countries that sided with Germany and
Hitler.
During World War II, the
Nazi party of Germany,
led by Adolf Hitler,
systematically killed
more than 6 million
people.
What does systematically
mean?
Timeline of Holocaust Events
 1918-1933 Rise of the Nazi Party
 1933-1939 Nazification and the Start of War
 1939-1941 The Ghettos
 1942-1944 The Camps
 1942-1944 Resistance
 1944-1945 Rescue and Liberation
 1945-2000 The Aftermath
The Rise of the Nazi Party
 World War I ends in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles.
 Germany becomes humiliated with the ‘laws’ put
upon the country by the Treaty of Versailles:
 Nearly half of its conquered land was redistributed
 German army could not have more than 100,000
men and NO tanks
 Germany could not have an air force, and its navy
was limited (couldn’t even have submarines!)
 Germany even had to admit full responsibility for
starting the war as well as pay reparations
The Rise Continued…
 Nazi Party begins in 1919 as
a gang of unemployed
soldiers who blamed losing
WWI on Jews and
Communists.
 Adolf Hitler joins the Nazis
and rises to power
because of his powerfully
captivating speeches, and
impressive leadership skills
Nazification and the Start of War
 Hitler goes against the Treaty of Versailles and
starts to re-arm its army. At the same time, he
makes peace talks with neighboring countries as
a front.
 Hitler begins an aggressive search for more land
to stretch his power (Britain, France, and Russia
allow Germany to take Austria and parts of
Czechoslovakia to avoid another war)
 World War II officially begins September 1, 1939
when the Nazi party invades Poland
The Ghettos
 Ghettos were poor sections
of cities, surrounded by
barbed wire and guards
where Jewish residents were
forced to move when Hitler
came to power.
 Ghettos were not a “Hitlerinvention”.
 Hitler’s ghettos were the first
step along the way to the
“Final Solution”
The Camps
 The Nazi party used
concentration, forced labor,
extermination, transit, and
prisoner of war camps
throughout the war; all of
which had horrible living
conditions
 Some of those imprisoned
include: Jews, homosexuals,
clergymen, Gypsies, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, criminals, POWs, and
those opposed to Nazism
The Camps
 There were 6 death or
extermination camps in
Poland (AuschwitzBirkenau, Treblinka,
Belzec, Sobibor, Lublin,
and Chelmno)
 Terezin held mostly
children

15,000 children went through
this camp; only 132 survived
Resistance and Liberation
 Resistance took many forms
(armed and unarmed)
 Allied troops stumble upon the
camps
 General Eisenhower insisted on
documenting what the troops
found in order to inform future
generations
 Allied forces made
neighboring people look at
what they had lived next to for
years
Aftermath
 After the war ended, there
were two major issues to be
resolved


Punishment for the terrible deeds
of party leaders
Re-locating the people who lost
their homes during war
 The United Nations assisted in
finding homes for those
displaced during the war
 The Nuremberg Trials provided
a place to try some of the
most infamous members of
the Nazi Party
References
 www.google.com/ima
ges
 http://fcit.usf.edu/holo
caust/timeline/timeline.
htm
 http://www.ushmm.org