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“The Ideological War”
HOLOCAUST
Introduction to the Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime.
“Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.”
The Nazis who came to power in Germany in January of 1933,
believed that Germans were racially “superior” and the Jews were
“inferior”, thus “life unworthy of life.” During the era of the
Holocaust, the Nazis also targeted other groups because of their
“racial inferiority”: Gypsies, the handicapped, and some of the
Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). This attempted
genocide of an entire people is a true-life lesson that all can learn
from; if not, what will keep a tragedy such as this from happening
again.
What is Anti-Semitism and how was it
practiced in Europe throughout history?
Caption from an Anti-Semitic children’s book: “The Jewish nose is crooked, it looks like a six.”
• Anti-Semitism – the hatred of Jews.
• “Christ Killer” (deicide) – the Jews killed
Jesus.
• Supercessionism – Messiah has come. Time
for Christians.
• Blood Libel – belief that Jews feast on the
blood of Christian children.
After Germany’s annexation of Austria. The paint
on the window of a Jewish business reads, “You
Jewish pig, may your hands rot off!”
How and where does Hitler
find his hatred of the Jews?
• Fallacy of Jewish lineage – no Judaism found in
Hitler’s blood lines.
• Hitler Burns Key buildings in Austria
• Hitler longed to be a painter- Age 14, denied
admission to Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts.
Academy is run by Jews. Can’t paint Human Form
• Vienna’s Anti-Semitic Fine Arts scene – falls prey to
Anti-Semites who have common artistic talents.
– Discovers Anti-Semitic music of Richard Wagner.
Music with Germanic and Aryan tones. Ex: Ride of
the Valkyries.
Hitler’s Art…
Composer, Richard Wagner
What if Hitler was accepted
into the Academy of Fine
Arts?
• 1913, Hitler Moves to Munich
– Joins Army, fights in World War I.
– Rank of Corporal.
– 1916 = wounded in leg.
– 1918 = gassed and temporarily loses sight.
– Extreme anger of Treaty of Versailles;
blames France and Great Britain.
– Believes Jews are hording money supply.
• Hitler begins to crystallize his beliefs
into workable philosophy.
– Manipulate German people’s bitterness
over harsh Treaty of Versailles, the
economic depression, and failure of
Weimar Republic.
If you lived in Germany following
the WWI defeat, could you be
brainwashed by Hitler and his
Anti-Semitic beliefs?
What is Nazism?
• Nazism – a nationalistic German political
group. (National Socialist German Worker’s
Party)
• 1920 – Hitler becomes chief propagandist for
Nazis.
• 1921 – Party chairman.
• Created SA or Nazi Stormtroopers
(Brownshirts) – Nazi thugs to press party
issues.
• Hitler’s great motivator? – Treaty of
Versailles, not hatred of Jews; yet.
The SA or Nazi Stormtroopers
(The Brownshirts)
• Nov. 8-9, 1923 – Hitler’s Beer Hall
Putsch; he attempts to incite revolution
in Bavaria first, then against Weimar
Republic. Fails.
• Hitler is arrested and jailed.
– Serves 9 months of 5 year prison term.
– In prison, writes Mein Kampf; a book that
outlines the reasons Germany lost WWI
and spews hatred toward Jews and
Communists.
– Discusses Aryan Master race.
Beerhall Putsch
The Bürgerbräukeller
Cover of the book, Mein Kampf
How will Hitler use Nazism in
his rise to power?
• Two reasons Hitler will appeal to German
masses: Failure of Weimar Republic to solve
economic woes, Treaty of Versailles.
• Nazi party infiltrates Reichstag (Congress) and
claims 33% of seats.
• Jan. 1933 – President Paul von Hindenburg
appoints Hitler chancellor. (powerless)
• SA threatens and destroys all political enemies in
Reichstag. (Reichstag Fire)
• Enabling Act – March, Reichstag gives office of
Chancellor, dictatorial powers.
• Hitler purges SA, creates SS; Blackshirts.
• Aug. 1934 – Hindenburg dies; Hitler declares
himself Fuhrer, or supreme head of Germany.
Hitler’s Speech Following the
Purge of the SA –Night of Long
Knives
• In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German
people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the
German people. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders
in this treason, and I further gave the order to cauterise
down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the
wells in our domestic life. Let the nation know that its
existence—which depends on its internal order and
security—cannot be threatened with impunity by anyone!
And let it be known for all time to come that if anyone
raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his
lot.
Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor
Hitler and Goering at a rally following Hitler’s
appointment as chancellor.
What was Hitler’s first Stage in
the annihilation of the Jews?
how did he plan to achieve it?
• Stage I of the Holocaust is entitled: Emigration.
• Hitler begins an ideological war, planning to deprive
the Jews of normal lives and civil rights. Alienate
them in the eyes of the rest of Germany’s citizenry.
• Five ways in which the Nazis separated the Jews
from the whole of the German people:
– Businesses owned by Jews were boycotted or
vandalized.
– Jews could not hold civil service jobs, university,
or state positions.
– Segregation of all public facilities.
– Jews forced out of armed forces.
– Jewish book burning.
Continued…
• Nuremberg Laws – passed Sep. 15, 1935.
These were anti-Jewish racial laws which
attempted to deprive Jews of their citizenship
and forbade marriages between Jews and
non-Jews.
• Massive campaign of Anti-Semitic
propaganda begins:
–
–
–
–
Posters
Newspapers
Children’s books
Film trailers
Nazi Propaganda: The children are reading an
Anti-Jew book called, The Poisonous
Mushroom.
Support Nazism? or Support “Subhumans?”
“Healthy Aryan parents have healthy
Aryan children.”
• Aug. 1936 – Olympics are to be held in
Berlin.
• All signs of propaganda removed.
• All nations, including the U.S. attend.
• Looked at as a victory for Hitler and
Nazism.
Hitler and Goebbels sign autographs for the Canadian Ice Skating Team at the 1936 Olympics.
Streets of Berlin during 1936 Olympics.
• 1936-1938 – Jews begin to emigrate;
flee Nazi Germany for their lives.
• European countries only accept a few
thousand. Why?
– Depression
– Anti-Semitism
• Many Jews will attempt entry into the U.S., and are
turned away. How could this happen?
– Great Depression
– Anti-Semitic government officials = Sec. Of State,
Cordell Hull and his assistant, Breckinridge Long
put in place immigration quotas. Keep Jews out.
Hull
Long
The St. Louis
• May 13, 1939 – Transatlantic liner filled with
Jewish Refugees heads for Havana, Cuba.
• 937 passengers were refused entry.
• United States did nothing to help.
• Sent back to Europe, most would die in
Concentration and Extermination Camps.
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass)
• Nov. 1938 – German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath is
assassinated in Paris by Herschel Grynszpan, a
French Jew.
• Nazis have an excuse to induce widespread terror on
the Jews.
• Nov. 9, 10 – Kristallnacht, SS men in plain clothes
destroy 200 synogogues, loot 7,500 shops.
• 30,000 Jewish men are sent to Concentration camps.
(Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.)
A storefront damaged during Kristallnacht.
A synagogue burns during the “Night of Broken Glass.”
Why was Stage II of the
Holocaust entitled, ‘The
Ghettoization of the Jews?’
• By 1939 Hitler has proclaimed to the members of the
Reichstag, “If war begins, the Jews will be
exterminated.”
• Sept. 1939 – Directives established to put German
occupied Polish Jews in Ghettos.
• Ghettos – sectioned off part of a city where Jews
were forced to reside. 1.5 million.
• Ghettos were surrounded by huge walls and barbed
wire.
• Jews forced to wear Yellow Star of David to identify
themselves.
• By 1941, five major ghettos had been established,
the two largest were: Warsaw and Lodz.
Continued…
• Judenrate – council of Jews in each Ghetto that
represented the Nazis. They kept a running census
and passed on Nazi instructions.
• Life in the Ghetto was horrible – disease and
starvation ran rampant. Most people lived on bread
and straw soup. The meat was filled with sawdust.
• By Oct. 1941 – Auschwitz, an extermination camp is
finished in Poland; Ghettoization is almost over.
• Nazi plan of extermination is evident as the SS
(Einsatzgruppen) follows the invading army into the
Soviet Union. Slaughtered hundreds of thousands of
Jews, Poles, and Soviets.
• Execution styles: pit shooting, gassing van.
Jewish child guarding suitcases
prior to entering the Lodz Ghetto.
A woman who has just passed away
in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Children within the Warsaw Ghetto
eating a meal.
Child forced laborer in Lodz Ghetto.
Jews entering a ghetto with all of
their belongings.
Starving child in Warsaw
Ghetto.
Einsatzgruppen murders a
Jewish family in the Soviet Union.
Thousands of Jews are
rounded up to be slaughtered
by the Einsatzgruppen.
What was Stage III of the
Holocaust? How was this stage
exacted upon the Jews of
Europe?
• Jan. 20, 1942 – Wannsee Conference: a meeting of high
ranking officials to plan out how to murder Europe’s Jews.
• At Wannsee, the term ‘Final Solution’ is coined by the Nazis, it
means: the total annihilation of European Jewry.
• First extermination camp to be used was called Chelmno, in
Poland. Used gassing vans.
• 1942 – Belzec is first camp to use gas chambers.
• Zyclon-B (Hydrogen Cyanide) – pesticide gas used in gas
chambers. 5- 15 minutes; lungs burst inside of you. Killed
about 700 at a time.
• Bodies were incinerated in crematory ovens; why?
• Belzec could murder up to 12,000 Jews per day; Auschwitz
20,000 (one day record was 34,000).
Jews being deported by railcar
to Auschwitz.
The gates of Auschwitz.
Remains of humans found in Dachau
ovens.
Soviets find piles of dead
humans; Germans did not have
time to destroy the evidence.
Generals Patton, Eisenhower, and Bradley view
dead bodies left by escaping Nazis at Buchenwald.
Zyclon-B pellets found at
Majdanek, Poland.
Confiscated items sorted by a
Nazi guard.
Pile of hairbrushes found at
Majdanek.
Crematorium at Majdanek.
Gas chamber at Auschwitz.
Why did the German citizens
not stop the extermination
of the Jews? How might
their decision have changed
history?
Death Marches
• Death Marches – As Allied troops moved closer and
closer to defeating Germany, the Nazis attempt to
move concentration and extermination camp
prisoners to other camps. As these weakened
prisoners marched, they were required to keep up
with the group. As soon as they fell behind, they
were shot and killed.
• 1944 – Death Marches begin as Nazis now realize
their defeat. They cannot let the world know what
they have done.
8. How and when did the
liberation of European Jews
occur?
Liberation Begins
• With a major defeat at Stalingrad in the East and the
D-Day invasion to the West, Germany begins to
retreat from Allied forces.
• By Spring, 1945 – Soviets liberated camps from the
East; U.S. and Allies from West.
• Large amounts of evidence was left behind by Nazis;
starving prisoners and dead bodies. Ex: Auschwitz, 7
ton of hair found.
• Liberating soldiers horrified and angered.
Displaced Person Camps
(DP Camps)
• What happened to prisoners that survived?
– In war torn Europe, many prisoners had no place
to go, were starving, and were very sick.
– Most of them actually returned to the camps they
hated so much to get well and to decide where to
go next.
– DP Camps were just a temporary fix for most.
Children liberated from Auschwitz.
Mass grave found after the
liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
Survivors at Buchenwald.
Americans view the dead at
Buchenwald.
How did the ‘Exodus of the Jews’
lead to the establishment of a
nation known as Israel?
• In the years following WWII, most Jews were still
homeless and faced continued Anti-Semitism.
• Many European Jews came up with the idea of relocating to Palestine, the region where ancient Israel
was located. This land was indirectly controlled by
the British.
• From 1944-1948, over 70,000 Jews will attempt to
settle in Palestine. Most ships are captured and
detained by the British. Ex: “Exodus 1947”
• May 1948 – Israel is declared a new country by the
United Nations.
• The tension over this disputed land continues into
modern times. Why?
The ‘Exodus 1947’ is stopped
by the British.
‘Exodus 1947 passengers
being deported.
What type of justice was enacted
upon those who carried out the
attempted annihilation of the
Jews?
The Nuremburg Trials
• Trials held from Nov. 1945 to Oct.1946, held to bring
Nazi war criminals to justice.
• In total, 5,025 were convicted.
• Most were members of Hitler’s Nazi Cabinet. Some
were doctors involved in unspeakable medical
experiments on Jews and others were SS officers
involved in crimes in concentration camps.
• Members that were found guilty were either hanged
or given life in prison.
David Ben-Gurion reads the declaration of the State of Israel
following the UN partitioning of Palestine. May 14, 1948.
The Jewish refugee ship “Pan-York” arrives in Israel with new citizens.
The docket of Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trials.
Herman Goering and other Nazi war criminals.
• Remember: Over 6 million Jews perished in
Europe during the Holocaust. Education is
the only preventative measure we have to
avoid repeating history.
“Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims!”