Download File The Holocaust

Major events timeline
Nazi propaganda
Kristallnacht
Dachau
Warsaw Ghetto
Einsatzgruppen
Wannsee Conference
Camp system
Treblinka
Revolt at Sobibor
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Assassination of Heydrich
Liberation of camps
Statistics
Major Events of the Holocaust
1933 Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany;
laws are enacted restricting the rights of
German Jews; Dachau, Buchenwald,
Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbruck concentration
camps are opened in Germany
1934-1935 Restrictions tighten against Jews in
Germany; the Nuremberg Laws nullify Jewish
citizenship, property rights, and marriages
1938 Hitler absorbs Austria into the German
Reich and severely limits Jewish rights;
restrictions on Jews in Germany and Austria
increase: doctors are stripped of medical licenses,
all businesses, wealth, and property must be
registered with the government; Jewish
businesses and synagogues throughout Germany
are destroyed by Nazis during Kristallnacht, the
“Night of Broken Glass”; Hermann Goring
proposes a solution to the “Jewish Question”
Major Events of the Holocaust
1939 Hitler invades Czechoslovakia and
enacts anti-Jewish laws; Hitler takes over
Poland, beginning WWII; forced labor
camps open in Poland; forced removal of
Jews from Vienna, Austria, to Poland; all
Jews in Poland forced to wear yellow star
1940 German Jews deported to Poland;
Lodz Ghetto in Poland houses over
150,000 Jews; Auschwitz opens in Poland;
approximately 500,000 Jews are moved
into the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland
1941 During the invasion of the Soviet
Union, Nazi mobile killing squads, the
Einsatzgruppen, begin mass-murdering
Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders;
German Jews forced to wear yellow star;
German and Austrian Jews deported to
Eastern European ghettos
Major Events of the Holocaust
1942 Wannsee Conference establishes the logistics
of the “Final Solution” or mass extermination
of Europe’s Jewish population; gas chambers
widely used in concentration camps; more
death camps open; Jews in France and the
Netherlands forced to wear yellow stars
1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising; Nazis begin to
destroy all ghettos in Poland and Soviet Union;
prisoners at Treblinka rebel, forcing the
closing of the camp; Jews smuggled out of
Denmark to Sweden; armed rebellion in Sobibor
1944 After Nazi takeover of Hungary, Jews
deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and gassed; inmates
at Auschwitz-Birkenau blow up a crematorium
1945 Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners marched to
Germany; Soviets liberate Auschwitz; U.S. troops
liberate Buchenwald, Dachau, and Mauthausen;
Hitler commits suicide; WWII ends
Nazi Propaganda
Cover of The
Eternal Jew
shows him
holding
bloody
coins, a
whip, and
the
Communist
sickle and
hammer
Chart “proves” Jewish
control of the German
economy and justifies
German takeover of
businesses
Anti-Semitic
textbook
used widely
in schools
throughout
Germany
Images courtesy of German
Propaganda Archive
The purpose of the
children’s book The
Poisonous Mushroom
was to spread hatred of
Jews.
How to identify Jews.
A Jewish doctor
intends to cheat his
patient out of money.
The book’s title
refers to wild
mushrooms
that look
harmless but
can be deadly: a
metaphor for
Jews.
Trying to lure children
with candy.
The early stages of Hitler’s plan
involved public humiliation of Jews,
who were forced to wear yellow
stars and use segregated facilities.
Segregated transportation in Poland
Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,”
November 9-10, 1938, was a turning point in the Nazi
government’s treatment of Jews.
Map courtesy of
U.S. Holocaust
Museum
Nazi mobs targeted
synagogues and Jewishowned businesses, and even
killed Jewish residents; about
25,000 Jews were arrested
and deported.
Map shows major deportation routes
throughout Europe
Map of Dachau located in southern Germany. This
camp was the first opened in 1933, and its layout
served as the prototype for future camps. Dachau
held political, religious, and war prisoners as well as
Jews, and was the longest-running camp.
Hitler’s campaign against Jews in Poland forced
Jews into what became known as the “Warsaw
Ghetto.”
CThe ghetto
served as a
holding area
for all
undesirables
in the area,
not only Jews.
CA wall was
built around
the area and
patrolled by
armed guards.
CThe scene of
an uprising
later in 1943.
Einsatzgruppen
A division of the SS military,
Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing
units usually attached to the
Germany army.
First sent in 1939 to Poland,
they sought out all undesirables
including political enemies,
Gypsies, and the mentally and
physically disabled, as well as
Jews.
In 1941, several units were sent
with the German army to the
U.S.S.R. Jews were rounded up and
shot in mass graves or killed in
gassing vans.
It is estimated that over a
million victims were killed by the
Einsatzgruppen.
Photo source: U.S. Holocaust Museum
Wannsee Conference
Top officials of the Nazi
party and government
met on January 20, 1942,
to discuss the “final
solution to the Jewish
problem.”
List of Jewish
population
throughout
Europe by
country, used
at the
meeting
They planned the
details for the murder of
European Jewry,
including:
Reinhard
Heydrich,
presiding
official of the
conference
and in charge
of the “Final
Solution”
Building and
operating death camps
Logistics of
transporting Jews to
death camps
The Camp System
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Map
Treblinka I, a forced labor camp in Poland, became
the first of many extermination sites between
July 1942 and October 1943.
Built by prisoners of the
Warsaw Ghetto one year after
the original camp opened,
Treblinka II was a death camp
used to murder over 700,000
people.
The camp became the model
for other extermination camps
in European territory occupied
by Germany during the war.
The camp was shut down
after a rebellion in which
prisoners burned buildings; by
then, most of the Polish
Jewish population had been
wiped out.
Deportation to Treblinka
Three survivors of the
Treblinka rebellion
Treblinka Rebellion
ZIn August 1943, the
prisoners attempted to take
weapons from the armory,
set fire to the camp and
escape; however, they were
caught in the act.
ZMany rushed toward the
main gate, but were killed in
the attempt.
ZAlthough some German
soldiers were killed, the
death toll was much higher
for the prisoners, of whom
only a fraction survived.
ZThe camp was shut down as
a result, and all survivors
were shot.
Photo from Holocaust Research Project shows
survivors from the Treblinka Revolt
Train sign
Revolt at Sobibor
In October 1943, an
underground group headed by
Leon Feldhandler and Russian
POW Alexander Pechersky
carried out their plan to escape
the Sobibor death camp.
They killed 11 SS officers and
several camp guards, but due to
the discovery of the dead
officers, only about half of the
600 inmates were able to
escape; there was little support
for them outside the camp and
only 50 survived the war.
Image from www.sobibor.info created by
Thomas Blatt, a Sobibor survivor
As a result of the revolt, the
camp was closed and trees
planted in its place.
U.S. Holocaust Museum photo of Sobibor
survivors
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
In January 1943, the
Nazis planned to ship the
rest of the residents of
the ghetto to the
Treblinka extermination
camp.
In response, two
resistance groups formed:
the Jewish Military Union
and the Jewish Combat
Organization.
With mostly homemade
weapons, they attempted
to resist deportation.
Deportation efforts
were delayed, but the
insurgency was crushed
by mid-May.
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
^Located in Poland, this was the
largest camp complex, consisting
of three main camps as well as
nearly 40 surrounding satellite
camps.
^Auschwitz I was the site of
medical experiments.
^Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, was
the death camp where more than
one million people were killed, in
gas chambers using Zyklon B.
^Auschwitz III, or Buna
Monowitz, was used to provide
laborers for the nearby Buna
synthetic rubber plant.
^The satellite camps involved
forced labor, producing various
products for the war effort.
Above: gas chamber
Below: glasses from victims
Assassination of Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich, a highranking Nazi official,
masterminded and carried out
many of the techniques used to
terrorize and brutalize the Jewish
people, including administration
of the death camps.
British-trained Czech
commandos shot him in
Czechoslovakia on May 27, 1942,
on his way to a meeting with
Hitler. He went into a coma and
died on June 4.
In retaliation, more than 10,000
people were deported or killed,
including all of the male
residents of two neighboring
Czech villages.
Heydrich
Liberation of the Camps
When defeat was
imminent for the
Germans, attempts were
made to disguise the
horrors of the camps.
At the same time,
prisoners were marched
across Europe to the
death camps in Poland in
a final attempt to
exterminate the
remaining Jews of
Europe.
Soviet forces liberated
several camps in Eastern
Europe, while the Allies
entered the German
camps.
Austrian camp survivor
Children at Auschwitz
Photo taken after the Americans liberated Buchenwald in April
1945 depicts prisoners in sleeping quarters. Future Nobel Peace
Prize winner Elie Wiesel is in the second row, seventh from the
left.
Statistics vary on the exact number of deaths due to
Nazi genocidal policies; however, these are the most
widely accepted numbers:
Group
Deaths
European Jews
5,600,000-6,250,000
Soviet prisoners of war
3,000,000
Polish Catholics
3,000,000
Serbians
700,000
Gypsies
222,000-250,000
Germans (political,
religious, and resistance)
80,000
Germans (handicapped)
70,000
Homosexuals
12,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses
2,500
Source: Holocaust Chronicle