Download The Holocaust

The
Holocaust
Introduction to Night
by Elie Wiesel
WWII
• When WW I ended, Germany was in desperate
economic, social, and political trouble.
• People were homeless, jobless, and ultimately
hopeless
• The country had been decimated by war and
was slow to recover their infrastructure.
• Desperate, the aging President of the country
sought a replacement for himself. He was
looking for someone strong and charismatic to
lead the country into recovery and prosperity.
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Hitler comes to power
• On January 20, 1933, Adolf Hitler was named
Chancellor– the most powerful position in
Germany.
• He was chosen because he was a powerful
member of the National Socialist German
Worker’s (Nazi) Party.
• Once in power, he quickly ended German
democracy and invoked a state of emergency,
essentially declaring Hitler the German dictator.
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The beginning of the Holocaust
1933-1939
• The emergency clauses suspended
constitutional rights including freedom of
press, speech, and assembly.
• Special security forces, the Gestapo, the
SA, and the SS arrested leaders of the
opposing political parties
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Racial policies
• Also in 1933, the Nazi’s instituted their
racial policies. They believed they were
racially superior (Aryan).
• They felt that Jews, Gypsies, ethnic
minorities, the handicapped, homosexuals,
and all other minorities, were a serious
biological threat to the purity of the Aryan
or “master race”
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Why were Jews targets?
• Jews were persecuted for both ethnic and religious
intolerance.
• More so, in the aftermath of WWI, many Jewish citizens
were able to recover more quickly than others.
• They were shrewd business owners with strong
community ties and rebuilt quickly with pre-war savings.
• They rebuilt financial and banking institutions.
• The German population (specifically the Nazis) resented
the apparent success of the Jewish communities.
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Power of propaganda
• How powerful is propaganda?
• Are we all susceptible to propaganda?
• Hitler used propaganda to propel his
campaign.
• Let’s take a look…
• Jews were removed
from government jobs,
teaching positions,
positions as lawyers,
and any other “public
positions”.
• In April 1933, A boycott
of Jewish businesses
began and by 1937, it
was illegal for a Jew to
own a business.
• Jews could not own any
property by 1939
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The cartoon shows a Jew politely asking for room on the bench, after
which he shoves the previous inhabitant off. The poem notes that Jews
behave the same way in other situations.
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Most cartoons, like this one, depicted the German’s as a powerful race
with the Jews cowering in fear at the German might.
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Nazi Propaganda
•
Cover: "When you see this symbol...“
•
Page 2: "Remember what the Jews
have done to our people." The page
reviews World War I, for which the
Jews are held responsible, then
states: "Now for the first time, World
Jewry openly says what it wants:
'Germany must die!'“
•
Page 3: "And you can read the Jew's
solution in the booklet The War Aim of
World Plutocracy." A review of
Kaufman's proposal follows. "The
German Wehrmacht will ensure that
World Jewry's terrible plan, as
proclaimed by the Jew Kaufman, will
never become reality.
•
Page 4: "You must ensure through
your behavior that Jewry never again
has even the slightest influence on our
people."
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Newspapers, like the Der Sturmer, accuse Jews of being Satan and plotting
to murder German Christians and steal their blood in Jewish rituals 12
Kristallnacht
• In November 1938, the Nazi’s organized a
riot and attack against German and
Austrian Jews.
• The “Night of the Broken Glass” included
the physical destruction of synagogues
(churches), stores, vandalization of
homes, the arrest of Jewish men and the
murder of many innocent Jews.
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Nazi Targets
• Even though Jews were the primary target
for Hitler and the Nazi regime, they
persecuted other groups as well.
• In order to “justify” their abuse of “racially
inferior” groups, the Nazi scientists
instituted eugenics and other biological
experiments and programs.
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Eugenics laws from 1933-1935
• 320,000-350,000 individuals who were considered
“inferior” were forced into involuntary “sterilization
programs” through surgery or radiation.
• Included in these treatments were Jews, Gypsies,
blacks, German-Africans, mentally and physically
handicapped.
• Even 500 children were sterilized in the program.
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Other’s persecuted
• Hitler also attacked those he considered
“undesirables” or “enemies of the state”.
These people were arrested and deported
or placed in concentration camps.
• This included Jews, homosexuals,
Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, social, and
political opponents.
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WAR
1939-1945
The war begins!
• On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and
World War II began.
• The Polish were considered inferior or “subhuman” so
the Germans began their quest to eradicate (eliminate,
destroy) or enslave the Polish people.
• The first step was to eliminate university professors,
artists, writers, politicians, and religious leaders.
• Large populations of the Polish were resettled into
camps or pushed into other countries.
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• Their justification was that they needed to make more
“living space” for the growing “superior” German race.
• Many Nazi families moved into the newly empty Polish
homes and took over all of the “abandoned”
possessions.
• As many as 50,000 “Aryan looking” children were
kidnapped from Polish families and adopted by Nazi
families.
• Later, these children were rejected for their lack of “pure
blood.”
• They were placed in special children camps were they
died of starvation, lethal injection, and disease.
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A dislocated Jewish family
A young Jewish boy
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From chaos to insanity
• As the war progressed, the brutality increased.
Initially, the “undesirables” were forced into
relocation or labor camps.
• As the fighting began, Hitler and the Nazi regime
began “euthanasia” programs.
• Prisoners of war, those classified as
“undesirable”, children, and other victims were
immediately killed in secret camps and hospitals.
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From insanity to nihilism
• Over 400 ghettos were
established and entire
communities were
evacuated.
• Nearly 3 million Jews were
forced into these isolated
areas.
Within sealed ghettos, Jews died in tens of
thousands to starvation, overcrowding, disease,
exposure to cold, exhaustion and maltreatment.
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Eventually, the Germans became so ruthless
towards their enemies, their killings became
“common activity”.
Mobile killing squads
were dispatched and
murdered thousands
in mass shootings.
33,000 people were
murdered in two
days during one
bloody murder
spree.
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The Final Solution:
• In a secret memo between Hitler and his commanders,
he demanded that all Jews, other undesirables, and all
Nazi resistors be eradicated (killed) quickly and
completely.
• Between 1942-1944, the Germans began eliminating the
established ghettos and forced the Jews and other
“undesirables” into “extermination camps”
• Six “killing sites” were established: Belzec, Sobibor,
Treblinka, Chelmno, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• One million people died in Auschwitz alone.
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Statistics of the Holocaust
91% of the Jewish population
in Poland was killed.
That equals 3,000,000 people.
1,100,000 Jews were killed in
the USSR.
The average survival rate for a
Jewish person was 1%.
Ultimately only 1 Jew survived
for every 100 people.
No European country was
unaffected from the Nazi
hatred.
Nearly 6 MILLION Jews were
killed during the Holocaust
simply because they were
Jewish.
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This map shows the number of deaths in each country.
Total casualties of war:
• The most recent estimates of the
casualties from WWII, including Jews,
“undesirables”, military, and civilians for
both the Allies and the Axis total 72 Million
people.
• That is twice as many people that live in
the entire state of California.
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