Download death camps

1. What was the Holocaust?
2. What were the causes and
effects of the Holocaust?
3. What methods did the
Nazis use to carry out the
extermination?
4. What were the Nuremberg
Trials?
The Holocaust was the organized murder of at least 6 million
European Jews by the Nazis during World War II. The Holocaust
was the largest genocide in history.
Genocide – the
attempt to kill an
entire ethnic or
religious group
of people.
Anti-Semitism –
prejudice against
Jewish people.
By 1945 at least 66% of the European Jews were killed, with
Poland losing 91% of it’s over 3 million Jews. The Nazis also
killed a half million gypsies, 250,000 disabled persons, and over
3 million Soviet POWs. Jehovah’s Witnesses, the clergy,
homosexuals, and intellectuals were also victims.
During WWII the Nazis spread anti-Semitism into nations they
conquered. In occupied Poland Jews had to wear a yellow Star
of David and were then forced into ghettos, or inner city slums.
Poland’s Warsaw ghetto was only a few square miles but housed
500,000 people. The ghetto was sealed off to prevent escapes.
The Nazis used three main tools to control and
force Jews into ghettos:
1. Deception - Jews were told they were being
sent to “resettlement areas” in the east, and
advised to pack, bring valuables and the tools
of their trade.
2. Starvation - People need 2,400 calories a
day, but the Nazis fed the Jews only 300
which made them weak and easy to control.
3. Terror - The SS frequently performed on-thespot public executions.
When the Nazis invaded the USSR the Einsatzgruppen, or
specially trained SS killing groups, followed the army to kill Jews
and create lebensraum for Germans in the east.
The Einsatzgruppen brought Jews to secluded areas and forced
them to give up their valuables and take off their clothes. Many
were forced to dig mass graves and then shot while kneeling at
the edge of the pit. Some were buried alive.
The Einsatzgruppen also used “gas vans.” The exhaust from the
van was piped into the back of the van, and then later into a
nearby building filled with prisoners.
Einsatzgruppen
squads killed
around 2 million
people, but this
required valuable
fuel, manpower,
ammunition, and
time, so the Nazis
sought a more
efficient killing plan.
In 1942 the Nazis
decided gassing at
death camps was
much faster than the
Einsatzgruppen.
Although he referred
to the Holocaust with
code words, few
historians doubt Hitler
was directly involved.
Hitler called the
Holocaust “the final
solution to the Jewish
Hitler &
question,” and the
Himmler
“clean sweep.”
“If I can send the flower of the
German nation into the hell of
war without the smallest pity
for the spilling of precious
German blood, then surely I
have the right to remove
millions of an inferior race that
breeds like vermin…”
Adolf Hitler
All new arrivals to the death camps went through “selection.”
Children, the old and sick were sent straight to the “showers,”
which were really the gas chambers. The healthy were sent to
labor camps where they died from hard labor and starvation.
The Nazis
succeeded in
keeping the
Holocaust a
secret, and
those who
knew had no
idea it was on
such a large
scale.
The Nazis crammed hundreds at a time in the gas chambers and
dropped Zyklon B (gas) through holes in the ceiling. After a few
minutes the prisoners painfully suffocated to death.
Auschwitz was the largest death
camp where 9,000 Jews could
be gassed and cremated a day.
Around 1.5 million people were
killed at Auschwitz.
Jewish prisoners known as Sonderkommando first removed the
hair, clothes, jewelery, and gold fillings from the dead, and then
shoved the bodies into giant ovens. After four months they were
executed, cremated, and replaced with new arrivals.
Auschwitz was designed to look like a train station to deceive
incoming Jews. Jews were also greeted by an orchestra playing
classical music. Auschwitz was organized like a factory complex,
which disguised its true purpose from overhead planes.
Auschwitz Entrance
Nazi doctors
performed
gruesome
experiments
on prisoners.
Jews were
boiled, frozen,
poisoned, and
cut to pieces.
Some even
shrunk heads,
and made
lampshades
from skin.
Poisoned children
Nazi Experiments
After the war the Axis leaders were tried for “crimes against
humanity,” which included deportation, enslavement, murder,
extermination and other atrocities.
At the Nuremberg Trials
many top Nazis received
death sentences, while
others were imprisoned.
Einsatzgruppen and
camp leaders were also
executed. The trials
showed that political and
military leaders could be
held accountable for
actions in wartime.