Download Teacher Notes for Holocaust Definition Prezi

Defining the Holocaust
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The Prezi Presentation is called The Holocaust
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Make sure students/participants have The Many Layers of the Holocaust handout so that they can follow along.
The following definition is the definition of the Holocaust used by the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum. Note that other organizations have their own definitions.
To start the Prezi, click on the play button. You can also enlarge it to the full screen. Below, you will find a script
for the presentation:
The Holocaust was a STATE-sponsored (note the adjective denoting the involvement of government sponsorship in the
Holocaust, which lent it more credence and more resources),
SYSTEMATIC (What happened during the Holocaust was methodically planned step-by-step and not just random events
that conveniently fell into a pattern)
persecution and annihilation of EUROPEAN Jewry (Though the Nazis had long-range plans to annihilate Jews the world
over, the Jewish population of Europe was the primary target and the group impacted the most. It wasn’t just German
Jews that were targeted, especially considering that the Jewish population in Germany during this time period was less
than 1 % of the total population),
by NAZI Germany (All Germans did not participate in the Holocaust, just as all Germans were not members of the Nazi
party. This adjective is especially important!)
and its COLLABORATORS (It wasn’t just members of the Nazi party who were perpetrators in the Holocaust. Many
collaborators in occupied territories joined the ranks of the perpetrators all across Europe)
between 1933-1945 (These thirteen years are included as the beginning and end of the Holocaust, not just the
beginning of the war in 1939. Hitler’s rise to complete power in Germany and the alienation of the Jews and non-Jewish
victim groups from 1933-1939 and on are critical years during the Holocaust).
Jews were the PRIMARY targets (While there are many other non-Jewish victim groups, the main target of the Nazis
during this time period were the Jews)
6 MILLION were murdered (While we don’t want to focus solely on the numbers of people killed, it is important to know
the approximate number of Jews, the primary victim group, who lost their lives during this time period. There has been
much speculation since the Holocaust on this number, but this is the most commonly accepted estimate of how many
Jews were killed in the Holocaust)
Picture of Jewish Family: Three generations of a Jewish family pose for a group photograph. Vilna, 1938-39.
Gypsies (This group was targeted because the Nazis believed that they were another race. Also known as the Roma or Sinti,
they are a nomadic people)
Picture of Gypsy wagon: Three Gypsies pose in front of a horse-drawn caravan. Rita Reinhardt Seibel (now Prigmore) is the
daughter of Gabriel and Theresia (Winterstein) Reinhardt. She and her sister, Rolanda, were born March 3, 1943 in Wuerzburg,
where her parents were both working in the Stadttheater. In 1941 several members of Theresia's family were brought to
Gestapo headquarters where they were forced to sign sterilization authorization forms. They were threatened with deportation if
they refused. Before Theresia's sterilization was scheduled she made a conscious decision with her boyfriend, Gabriel, to get
pregnant. By the time she was called in for the procedure, she was three months pregnant with twins. When this was discovered
by the racial hygienists, she and her family were detained and word was sent to Berlin to determine what should be done. The
response was the Theresia should be allowed to continue the pregnancy on condition that the babies would be turned over,
upon their birth, to the clinic at the University of Wuerzburg. There, Dr. Werner Heyde, professor of neurology and psychiatry,
and a key member of the Nazi euthanasia program, was conducting research on twins. Apparently, Dr. Joseph Mengele also
took a personal interest in the Sinti twins. Throughout her pregnancy, Theresia and Gabriel were under constant surveillance.
No longer permitted to perform at the Stadttheater, Theresia took a job as an usher and Gabriel went to work as a delivery man
for a pharmaceutical company. The twins were born in the presence of Dr. Heyde at the University of Wuerzberg. They were
allowed brief stays at home with their parents, but generally were confined to the clinic. On one notable occasion, the twins were
released to their parents for a propaganda photo shoot of Sinti parents strolling with their babies along the Domstrasse in
Wuerzburg. In the second week of April, Theresia and Gabriel received notices to report for deportation. The babies were not
included, and Theresia immediately went to the clinic to see them. When she arrived she was told she could not see them, but
Theresia pushed her way in. She found Rolanda lying dead in a ward with a bandaged head, the victim of experiments with eye
coloration. Hysterical at this discovery, Theresia grabbed the surviving twin, Rita, and fled. Later that day or the next, Rita was
removed from her parents and taken back to the clinic. Theresia and Gabriel did not see her again for another year. Within a few
days of these events Rolanda's body was released to her parents and they arranged for a proper Sinti funeral. A week later
Theresia was forcibly sterilized. Gabriel lost his job with the pharmaceutical company, but was not subjected to sterilization. In
1943 several members of Theresia's extended family, including her younger brother, Otto Winterstein, and her uncle, Fritz
Spindler, were deported (both survived). In April 1944 Theresia mysteriously received a letter from the German Red Cross clinic
in Wuerzburg instructing her to come and pick up Rita.
The HANDICAPPED (Through the T-4 Euthanasia program, hundreds of thousands of disabled in Germany were euthanized.
Some disabled were sterilized.)
Picture of handicapped boy: Robert Wagemann, a physically disabled Jehovah's Witness child, sits on his hospital bed.
Robert K. Wagemann is the son of Johann and Luta (Wheeler) Wagemann. He was born May 23, 1937 in Mannheim, Germany.
Both Johann and Luta were converted Jehovah's Witnesses (known as Bibelforscher or Bible Students) who married in 1936.
Luta was arrested and imprisoned in Mannheim in 1937, when she was over eight months pregnant, for distributing pamphlets
for the Jehovah's Witnesses denouncing the Nazi regime. During the amnesty granted to non-criminals on Hitler's Birthday, she
was released. Just a few days later she gave birth to Robert. Her Jewish doctor had fled to Switzerland and the family could only
afford a midwife who was unable to cope with the complicated labor. The breech birth shattered Robert's hip. The damage went
unnoticed until he was almost four years old. An attempt to replace his injured hip with a silver one was unsuccessful. Shortly
afterward, Robert's mother was summoned to bring him to the University Clinic in Heidelberg for a check-up. After his exam,
Luta overheard the doctors discussing euthanizing him. During their lunch break, she gathered up Robert and their belongings,
quickly left the clinic, and almost immediately went into hiding at the home of his paternal grandparents in Ingelheim am Rhein.
In order to avoid persecution, his father became a factory inspector for the BASF and began travelling constantly for work.
Ingelheim am Rhein was comprised almost exclusively of Catholics and Protestants. Robert and his mother blended in easily
because his grandparents were both Protestant and well-respected. During Robert's first day of school, the children had an
assembly where they sang the National Anthem and saluted Hitler. Robert refused to do so, based on his beliefs as a Jehovah's
Witness. This was noted by his teachers and the next day the police showed up at his house to collect him. His grandfather used
his influence to ward them off long enough for Robert and his mother to escape. They spent the remainder of the war on the
farm of his maternal grandparents near Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, in the suburb of Haardt. Since he and his mother could
not officially register, the family of four lived off two ration cards and what the farm could produce. His parents reunited after the
war and returned with Robert to the home of his paternal grandparents.
and Poles (millions of Polish citizens were murdered, many of them who held positions of power such as doctors, lawyers,
priests, and teachers, as well as those who resisted the Nazis)
Picture of Polish girl: Irena Sendlerowa, a member of Zegota, an underground organization of Poles and Jews that
coordinated efforts to save Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland
Were also targeted for destruction or ANNIHILATION for racial, ethnic, or national reasons.(Extinction; destruction of an
entire people was the goal)
Millions more: Homosexuals (A law was passed that outlawed Homosexuality; the Nazis also targeted them because they
were not doing their biological duty to produce children.)
Picture of Homosexual: Interior designer from Duesseldorf who was charged with homosexuality and imprisoned for 18
months. Duesseldorf, Germany, date uncertain.
Jehovah’s Witnesses (This group refused to obey the government, serve in the army, or pledge any allegiance to Hitler, such
as the salute; they were the only group in concentration camps given the option of getting out by signing a declaration giving up
their beliefs, so they were not seen as another race like the Jews)
Picture of Jehovah’s Witness: Hildegard Kusserow, a Jehovah's Witness, was imprisoned for four years in several
concentration camps including Ravensbrueck. Germany, date uncertain.
Soviet Prisoners of War: (The Germans did not treat the Soviet Prisoners of War with any dignity, feeding them spoiled food,
food made with sawdust, and often forcing them to dig holes to sleep in. They were also used to experiment with poison gas,
especially in Auschwitz, to find the most effective method of killing large amounts of people)
Picture of Soviet Prisoners of War: Soviet prisoners of war wait for food in Stalag (prison camp) 8C. More than 3 million
Soviet soldiers died in German custody, mostly from malnutrition and exposure. Zagan, Poland, February 1942.
And Political Dissidents: (those who opposed Hitler’s regime, especially early on when he took power, were often put into
concentration camps or executed)
Also suffered grievous oppression and DEATH under Nazi Tyranny.
The final photograph of the unloading ramp at Birkenau is meant to illustrate the definition of the Holocaust.