ABC’s of theHollocaust

Mrs. AllowayReading 6R O Gibson M S

A is for Adolph Hitler• Adolph Hitler spoke against

Jews even before the start of World War II, they blamed them for everything; from the defeat of World War I, for the Depression and for the fall of the Czar of Russia. People were looking for someone to blame and coincidently Adolf Hitler was there to urge them on, this hatred grew into what was called the Holocaust.

B is for Boycott• The Nazis’ first action

against German Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses.

C is for CrueltySurvivors suffering from malnutrition and a variety of other diseases in a section of the hospital barracks. The inmates in the upper bunks were unable to go to the latrine, making the sanitation in this section intolerable and immediate evacuation necessary. (April 16, 1945)

D is for Definition• The definition of the

Holocaust is: The systematic and bureaucratic mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime leading up to, and during World War 2, from 1933 until 1945

• Taken from http://www.facts-about.org.uk/facts-about-the-holocaust.htm

E is for Ending of the War• World War II ended in

1945,  with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.  On May 8, 1945, the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender, about a week after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide.

F is for Anne Frank• Anne Frank is one of the

widely known survivors of the Holocaust.

• Her diary was found after the war and has now become a book that children read all over the world called “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

G is for Gassed and Burned

• In 1944 Auschwitz records its highest daily number of people gassed and burned at just over 9,000 Jews.

H is for Housing• All Jews were forced to live

within certain areas of big cities called ghettos.

• Jews were forced out of their homes and moved into smaller apartments, often shared with other families.

• The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, Poland with its highest population reaching 445,000 in March 1941.

I is for Increase• After the “night of broken

glass,” there was in increase in the number of Jews sent to concentration camps

• The Nazis built six extermination camps: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, and Majdanek. (Auschwitz and Majdanek were both concentration and extermination camps.)

J is for Jews• 1,500,000 Jews were

murdered at Auschwitz, which is one of the most well known concentration camps that Jews were forced to live in.

K is for"Kristallnacht"• During the night of November 9-

10, 1938, Nazis started a pogrom against Jews in Austria and Germany in what has been termed, "Kristallnacht" ("Night of Broken Glass").

• This night of violence, which included the stealing and burning of synagogues, breaking the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, the looting of these stores, and many Jews were physically attacked. Also, approximately 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

L is for Life in the Camps• Life within Nazi camps was horrible.

Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and given very little food.  The food the prisoners did receive was not nutritious or sanitary in most circumstances.  Prisoners slept with three or more people on a crowded wooden bunk that had no mattress or pillow. Torture within the concentration camps was common and deaths were frequent. At a number of Nazi concentration camps, Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on prisoners

against their will.

M is for Murders• It is estimated that

11,000,000 people were killed during the Holocaust. 6,000,000 of these were Jews.

• It is estimated that 1.1 million children were murdered

N is for Nuremberg Laws• The Nuremberg Laws, issued on

September 15, 1935, began to exclude Jews from public life. The Nuremberg Laws included a law that stripped German Jews of their citizenship and a law that prohibited marriages and extramarital sex between Jews and Germans. The Nuremberg Laws set the legal precedent for further anti-Jewish legislation.

O is for Open• Some ghettos started out as

"open," which meant that Jews could leave the area during the daytime but often had to be back within the ghetto by a curfew. Later, all ghettos became "closed," which meant that Jews were trapped within the confines of the ghetto and not allowed to leave.

P is for Powers• Germany, Japan and Italy were

the three main Axis powers.

• There were many countries that made up the Allied powers. Great Britain. In all, more than 50 countries took part in the war, and the whole world felt its effects. Men fought in almost every part of the world, on every continent except Antarctica.

Q is for Quarantine

• Quarantine means to be isolated from the general population.

• The Jew were isolated from the general public and placed in Ghetto.

R is for Resistance• During the Holocaust, many brave

Jews and non-Jews fought back against the brutal Nazi regime.  The members of this resistance risked and sometimes gave their lives to save Jewish people.  The resistance included people who hid Jews from the Nazis, saved Jews from the concentration camps, and spread news about the Holocaust to the United States and other countries.  These people knew that they might be killed for opposing the Nazis, but they still fought for what was right.  The bravest of the non-Jews who saved the lives of Jewish people are honored as the Righteous among the Nations.

S is for Symbol of Fear• This is a swastika, the

Nazi symbol of terror.  The Nazis were a political group who wore this symbol on their uniforms.  They believed that Jews were evil and should be killed simply because they were different.

T is for Transported

• Prisoners transported to extermination camps were told to undress to take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed. (At Chelmno, the prisoners were herded into gas vans instead of gas chambers.)

U is for Unusual and interesting facts

• The word, Holocaust, derives from Ancient Greek word 'holocaustos' ('holo' meaning wholly and 'caustos' meaning burnt) understood to mean complete destruction.

• In 1939 Jews in Germany were subject to a curfew and doctors, lawyers and dentists were forbidden to practice.

• Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps

• The Nazis used the term "the Final Solution" to refer to their plan to murder the Jewish people.

V is for violence

The aftermath of the Gas Chambers.

W is for World War II• After the beginning of

World War II in 1933 the Jews were taken away from their homes and sent to ghettoes and concentration camps. Some Jews tried to fight for their rights.

X is for Extraordinary• Despite their

circumstances they kept their faith, love of their family and friends and found a way to survive.

Y is for Yellow Star• Jews were forced to wear

a yellow star on their clothing

My thoughts are:

• http://thechildrenoftheholocaust.com/holocaust-survivors/

• http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm