Ch 19, Sec 3: The Holocaust

Holocaust• Persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany under

Hitler that killed 6 million Jews• 5 million others will killed including

homosexuals, people with disabilities, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and enemies of the state

Nuremberg Laws

• Laws for Jews that took away their rights in 1935– Examples:• The right to citizenship• The right to be married to other Germans• Voting/Holding office• Could not be doctors, lawyers, or own a business

• Result: High unemployment for Jews

Kristallnacht• “night of broken glass” on Nov 7, 1938• Started when a Jewish refugee in France killed

a German politician• Hitler ordered his troops to attack the Jews in

Austria/Germany on Nov 9, 1938

Results of the Kristallnacht

• 90 dead/100s injured• 7,500 businesses/180 synagogues were destroyed• 20,000 Jews were jailed– Forced to leave Germany if they wanted to be free– Forced to pay for all the damage– (Charged them 1 billion marks-1938 or $6.6 billion-2013)

Jewish Response• 350,000 people left Germany– Most famous: Einstein and Anne Frank– Many were ignored by other countries including

the U.S.

• Had to apply to immigrate to U.S.– Visas denied since the Jews had to leave their

wealth behind– Immigration laws limited how many Jews could

come over

Final Solution

• Wannsee Conference:– 1942 meeting with high German officials• Rounding up, shooting, and gassing (in a truck) Jews

were too slow

• New idea:– Use concentration camps and extermination

camps to get rid of the Jews

Concentration Camps• Work camps for the strong/young• Worked to death in factories• Ex: Buchenwald– Horrible living conditions 150-200 people packed into

an area for 50– Constant beatings with very little food

• Made war supplies/mined for metals/coal• Cruel medical procedures performed on the Jews

Extermination Camps• Death camps for the elderly, sick, and young children• 6 camps-mostly in Poland• Ex: Auschwitz• Could hold 100,000 people at a time• Killed 2,000 people in one gas chamber at a time• Killed 12,000 people per day (1.3 million during the war)

What took place in the camps?

• Jews forced to leave all belongings when entering the gates of the camps

• Doctors would remove all gold teeth from the Jews• Soldiers would steal anything of value• Men and women/children would be separated from

each other to go to different camps• Those to sick/old would be taken to death camps• Gassed in the showers with zyclon-b• Bodies were burned in the ovens and the remains were

buried in mass graves

How could this happen?

• 1. German people were desperate to blame somebody after WWI.

• 2. Hitler had total control.• 3. German people were not represented in the

government.• 4. Germans feared the police (Gestapo)• 5. A history of Anti-Jewish feelings dominated the culture.

Assignment

• Take the role of a person living in Germany during Kristallnacht. Write a diary entry describing the events of that night. Include a description of events during the days following Kristallnacht as well.

• Diary entry should be at least 10 sentences and use actual events.

• Due tomorrow