The HolocaustOutcome: Background to the Murder

Constructive Response Question

1. Other than the Holocaust, what other hardships have Jewish people experienced in their existence?

What Will We Learn?

1. Historical look at the Hebrew people

2. Jewish culture

3. The Nazis and their actions

Background to the Murder

1. Setting the Stagea. Holocaust: a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life

often through fire

b. Genocide: the deliberate & systematic destruction of a racial/political/cultural group

c. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, the Nazis led by Adolf Hitler attempted to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe ---> in the end they killed over 6 million Jews

Background to the Murder

2. A Rocky Past: The Hebrew People

a. The Ancient Hebrew people were led by Abraham --> became the father of the Hebrew people

Background to the Murder

2. A Rocky Past: The Hebrew Peopleb. Eventually the Hebrews migrated to Egypt --> better

land --> were enslaved for hundreds of years until Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt through the Exodus

c. The Hebrews later became known as Jews and follow Judaism as a religion

Background to the Murder

2. A Rocky Past: The Hebrew Peopleg. Jews have been targets of persecution by the

Romans, Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centuries, and many others.

h. Anti-Semitism is hatred or prejudice against Jews

Background to the Murder

4. Rise of Adolf Hitler & Nazisma. Germany had been hit hard by the Depression

i. Hitler came to power by promising to return Germany to glory

ii. He also promised to get rid of the Jews

iii. Fact: In times of need, people will follow those who will lead; Hitler delivered on his promises and this made him very popular

Background to the Murder

b. Why did Hitler hate the Jewish people?

i. Unclear; there are many theories but no clear answer

ii. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat to strengthen his own power

Background to the Murder

c. The Treaty of Versaillesi. Hitler was outraged by the end of WWI; felt Germany could still

fight

ii. The Allied Powers punished Germany for WWI

iii. The Treaty of Versailles fueled Hitler’s motivation to create a new German empire called The Third Reich; started World War II (Sept ’39)

The Final Solution1. Setting the Stage

a. Adolf Hitler made several promises to the German people as his power grew:i. Will return Germany to its former glory

ii. Will give people jobs

iii. Will get rid of the “Jewish Problem”

In the late 1930’s to early 1940’s, the Nazis had rounded up and killed over 1 million Jews, but “The Final Solution,” the plan to exterminate all Jews from Europe, was not decided upon until 1942

Background to the Murder

e. Anti-Semitism

i. Hitler was not the only person in Europe that disliked the Jews

ii. Anti-Semitism existed within a lot of people in and around Germany

iii. Hitler began passing laws stripping Jews of their citizenship; Germans believed in him and these laws

iv. Propaganda was also used to help dehumanize Jews

v. In the early days of the Holocaust, Jews were removed from their homes and businesses and most German people were not upset

vi. Most Nazis who rounded up or killed Jews did so out of orders, but many did so because they didn’t see the Jews as humans anymore

Joseph Goebbels

Nazi Propaganda

Nazi Propaganda

Background to the Murder

Result: The Nazis systematically made Jews the enemy and began removing them to create more “lebensraum” or living space. The Final Solution or decision to exterminate/kill millions of Jews would not be made for several more years, but through Nazi propaganda and law, life was very dangerous for Jews in Europe by the end of the 1930’s.

The Final Solutionc. Kristallnacht

i. The Night of Broken Glass- Anti-Semitic riots in Germany and Austria.

ii. 30,000 Jews rounded up and taken to concentration camps

iii. Homes, businesses, and synagogues destroyed

iv. Jews were rounded up and sent to walled off sections of cities called ghettos

The Final Solutione. Concentration Camps

i. Thousands of Jews were transported to work camps around Poland, Austria, and Germany to work as slave labor for the Nazis

ii. Railroad boxcars were filled with people with no food or water as transport

iii. Thousands starved, worked to death, or were killed in these camps

f. Death Camps (The Final Solution)i. Once the Final Solution was decided upon, many camps became

extermination camps aimed solely at killing Jews

ii. Heinrich Himmler was the chief engineers and overseers of the Final Solution

iii. At first bodies were buried in shallow graves; the stench could be smelled for miles --> neighboring Germans were either ignorant or ignored the atrocity

iv. The Nazis forced Jews to transport dead bodies, exhume bodies, and even kill

The Final Solutionv. Gas chambers, Gas vans, and shooting Jews became

main mode of death

1. Thousands could be killed in mere minutes

2. Zyklon B gas pellets were dropped in3. Bodies were moved to crematoriums were bodies were

quickly burned

4. Often times, Sonderkommandos were used; Jews forced to put dead Jews into crematoriums

The Final Solutionvi. Auschwitz was the worst of the death camps

1. Located in Poland2. 1,100,000 killed at Auschwitz; 200,000 children

killed3. Joseph Megele- “the angel of death” did

medical experiments on Jews and children4. He would try to sew twins together, change eye

color, and tested extreme cold and heat on human body

The Final Solutionvii. Other Camps were Mauthausen, Dachau, Birkenau, and

viii. Others targeted in the Final Solution:

1. Gypsies

2. Communists

3. Political Prisoners

4. Homosexuals

5. Jehovah’s Witnesses

6. Soviet Prisoners of War

The Final Solution Result: The Nazis were organized, systematic, and

merciless. Most of the death camps were in Poland and over 11 million people were killed of which 6 million were Jews. Most of the world had no idea and those who did know, were powerless to stop Hitler and the Nazis.

Band of Brothers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHcJtU9dr6I