Download The Holocaust

The Holocaust
Learning Target
When I leave this class, I can…
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Define the term holocaust and genocide.
Describe anti-Jewish policies passed by the
Nazis in the 1930’s
Identify Hitler’s “Final Solution” program
Genocide
The Systematic and purposeful
destruction of a racial, political, religious,
or cultural group.
 Examples
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Armenian (100,000-200,000 killed and many
forced to convert to Islam)
Rwanda (1994: almost 1 million)
Cambodia (1975-1979 approx 1.7 million)
Holocaust (6 million Jewish people)
Holocaust
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Comes from Greek word: holocaustos
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Religious animal sacrifice that is completely
consumed by fire
Biblical word: “shoah” : calamity
Destruction
Modern Times: Genocide of approximately
six million European Jews and millions of
others during WWII.
Background Information…
1930’s Germany
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Mood = grim
Lacked confidence
Weak government
Economic depression
Lost WWI
Adolf Hitler
Powerful / spellbinding
speaker
 Attracted people who were
desperate for change
 Appealed to the unemployed,
young people, members of lower middle
class
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1924 ….
Nazis = practically unknown only 3% of vote
1932 ….
Nazis won 33% of vote
1933….
Hitler was appointed chancellor
(the head of the German government)
Elements Leading to the Holocaust
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Totalitarianism combined with Nationalism
History of Anti-Semitism.
Defeat in World War I
Hitler’s belief in the Master Race
The Final Solution
Totalitarianism
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Centralized control by
an autocratic authority
and the political
concept that the
citizens should be
totally subjected to an
absolute state of
authority
Nationalism
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Loyalty and devotion to a
nation; and a sense of
national consciousness
exalting one’s nation
above all others and
placing primary
emphasis on promotion
of its culture and
interests as opposed to
those of other nations or
supranational groups.
Anti -Semitism
This is the term given to
political, social and economic
agitation against Jews. In
simple terms it means ‘Hatred
of Jews’.
Aryan Race
This was the name of what Hitler
believed was the perfect race. These
were people with full German blood,
blonde hair and blue eyes.
The “Inferior” : Not Just Jews
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Gypsies
Disabled
Slavic people (Poles, Russians, and others)
Communists
Socialists
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Homosexuals
For hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews as the
Christ -killers. At one time or another Jews had been driven out of
almost every European country. The way they were treated in
England in the thirteenth century is a typical example.
In 1275 they were made to wear a yellow badge.
In 1287 269 Jews were hanged in the Tower of London.
This deep prejudice against Jews was still strong in the twentieth
century, especially in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe, where
the Jewish population was very large.
After the First World War hundreds of Jews were blamed for the
defeat in the War. Prejudice against the Jews grew during the
economic depression which followed. Many Germans were poor
and unemployed and wanted someone to blame. They turned on the
Jews, many of whom were rich and successful in business.
Between 1939 and 1945 six
million Jews were murdered,
along with hundreds of
thousands of others, such as
Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
the disabled, and the mentally ill.
The Final Solution: Euphemism
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Plan to annihilate the Jewish people
Stages:
1.
Nazis seize power.
2.
State-sponsored anti-Jewish legislation, boycotts,
“Aryanization,” and street violence (Kristallnacht)
3.
Forced Immigration / Transportation
4.
Establish Ghettos
5.
Labor Camps / Concentration Camps / Death Camps
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Mobile Killing Units
7.
Gas Chambers
Terms to Know
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Gestapo: Secret State Police: Formed in
1933. Was permitted to question and
imprison “suspects” without due process.
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Nuremberg Laws: Two laws enacted in
1935 which removed the rights of
citizenship from Jews and others who were
not of “German or related blood.”
Ghettos
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During WWII, enclosed areas in which
Jewish people were forced to live
Isolated Jews
Separated Jewish communities from nonJewish population
Toward goal of removing Jewish population
Final Solution: Deporting residents to
concentration camps or death camps
Concentration Camps 1933-1942
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Term “concentration” : confining a group of
people to one place
Dachau: 1st camp: “political prisoners”
1,2000 camps and subcamps were run
Prisoners worked to produce goods
Sold their goods for profit
After beginning of WWII, camps became
sites for mass murder
Treatment in Concentration Camps
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Many died due to maltreatment, starvation,
overwork, dehydration, or executed as unfit
for labor.
Transported in inhumane conditions by rail
freight cars
Auschwitz
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Largest Network of concentration and
extermination camps
Up to 1.1 million died there
Poles, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Jews, and other nationalities
Died in gas chambers, forced labor,
infectious disease, individual executions,
medical experiments, starvation.
“Work Makes Free”
Auschwitz Children
Execution Wall
Liberated in 1945 by Soviet Troops
T-4 Euthanasia Program
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Physicians killed about 275,000 deemed
“incurably sick.”
Physically or mentally handicapped
Trying to reach “racial hygiene”
Lethal injection; carbon monoxide
Extermination Camps
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Death Camps
Not Labor Camps
Systematically killing millions by gassing
Zyklon-B
Near the end…
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Allied troops moving across Europe
Nazis begin shipping out prisoners on death
marches
Attempted to burn / cover evidence
Soviet forces were the first there in July 1944
U.S. Forces liberated more than 20,000 prisoners
at Buchenwald April 1945
British Forces liberated Bergen-Belsen mid-April
1945: 60,000 prisoners in critical conditions
Auschwitz Liberated in 1945 by
Soviet Troops
More than
800,000 women’s
Outfits
 Hundreds of
Thousands of men’s
Suits
 14,000 pounds of
Human hair
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