The Holocaust

Beginning of Hate

Roots of Anti- Semitism

• Discrimination of the Jewish people stems back to biblical times

• Egyptians used the Jews as slaves

• Jews blamed during the Middle Ages for the plague

• Jewish community has been fighting over the territory of Israel since biblical times

Inside the Jewish Culture

• Jewish culture focuses on education as the most important

• Jewish culture focuses on being frugal and not buying items outside your needs

• Jewish culture shows a high respect for elders• Jewish women are never to show their hair or

large parts of their skin to anyone other than their husband.

• Jewish religion speaks of returning to their homeland, Israel

Hitler’s Target

• After WWI, many successful business owners were of the Jewish faith

• Hitler blamed wealthy business men for the corruption in the government and loss of WWI

• Hitler made the Jewish community into a scapegoat for the country

• Hitler's first goal was to dehumanize the Jews

Symbols of Hate: Swastika• Swastika- Nazi symbol to display the Nazi

ideology used on the flag, and sewn into every Nazi uniform, used as a display that you support or are a member of the Nazi Party. Became a modern day symbol of hate and anti-Semitism

• The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.

• Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.

Symbols of Hate: the SS• Adolf Hitler founded the Schutzstaffel (SS) in April of 1925, as a group of personal

bodyguards.

• The man in charge of the SS was Heinrich Himmler, who commanded the SS from 1929 until 1945.

• Between 1934 and 1936, the SS gained control of Germany's police forces and expanded their responsibilities. Because of these new responsibilities, the SS divided into two sub-units: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS), and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS).

• The General SS dealt with local police matters and with "racial matters." The General SS also dealt with foreign espionage and counterintelligence.

• The Waffen-SS dealt with military matters, ran the concentration camps and were dispersed in the regular army

• Because of the distasteful nature of their duties, members of the SS were schooled for many years in racial hatred, and were encouraged to harden their hearts to human suffering.

• Easily recognizable by the lightning-shaped "S" insignia on their black uniforms, they soon became known as the purest of all Germans.

Symbols of Hate: Nazi

• The German Workers' Party , the beginning of the Nazi Party, , consisted of demobilized soldiers from WWI. They were disgruntled and looking for an extreme change in government after the back lash of WWI and the Treaty of Versailles

• Adolf Hitler joined this small political party in 1919 and rose to leadership through his emotional and captivating speeches. He encouraged national pride, militarism, and a commitment to the Volk and a racially "pure" Germany.

• Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting anti-Semitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. He changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, called for short, the Nazi Party (or NSDAP).

• By the end of 1920, the Nazi Party had about 3,000 members. A year later Hitler became its official leader, or Führer.

Symbols of Hate: Jewish Star of David

• The Magen David (shield of David, or as it is more commonly known, the Star of David) is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol. It is supposed to represent the shape of King David's shield (or perhaps the emblem on it), but there is really

no support for that claim in any early rabbinic literature.• In the middle ages, Jews often were required to wear badges to identify

themselves as Jews,

• During the 1930’s they were forced to wear similar badges in Nazi Germany and Nazi Occupied territory

• These Jewish badges were not always the familiar Magen David. For example, a fifteenth century painting by Nuno Goncalves features a rabbi wearing a six-pointed badge that looks more or less like an asterisk.

Gestapo

• the German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its brutal methods and operations.

• Göring became the commander of this new force on April 26, 1933.

Ghetto

• Confining Jews in ghettos was not Hitler's brainchild. For centuries, Jews had faced persecution, and were often forced to live in designated areas called ghettos .

• The Nazis' ghettos differed, however, in that they were a preliminary step in the annihilation of the Jews, rather than a method to just isolate them from the rest of society.

• As the war against the Jews progressed, the ghettos became transition areas, used as collection points for deportation to death camps and concentration camps

• The five major ghettos were located in Warsaw, Lódz, Kraków, Lublin, and Lvovnd Lvov.

Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom or Labor sets you free) was the sign over the gates of Auschwitz. It was placed there by Major Rudolf Hoss, commandant of the camp. He seems not to have intended it as a mockery, nor even to have intended it literally, nor as a false promise that those who worked to exhaustion would eventually be released, but rather as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labor does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom.

Concentration Camp

• The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined

• usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.

• The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in 1933

Auschwitz• The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest of its kind established by

the Nazi regime.

• It included three main camps, all of which deployed incarcerated prisoners at forced labor.

• One of them also functioned for an extended period as a killing center.

• Auschwitz I in May 1940 (15.44 square miles) permanent gas chamber was constructed as part of the original crematorium in a separate building outside the prisoner compound.

• At Auschwitz I, SS physicians carried out medical experiments in the hospital Between the crematorium and the medical-experiments barrack stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners.

• Auschwitz II (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau) in early 1942 had the largest total prisoner population, it also contained the facilities for a killing center. It played a central role in the German plan to kill the Jews of Europe.

• Auschwitz III (also called Auschwitz-Monowitz) in October 1942. Made to house prisoners assigned to work at the Buna synthetic rubber works

Dachau

• Established in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the Nazis in Germany.

• The camp was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the town of Dachau.

• Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”

• Dachau served as a prototype and model for other Nazi concentration camps that followed.

Heinrich Himmler

• Head of the Gestapo and the Waffen-SS

• Became one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany

• Responsible for organizing the mass murder of all German and European Jews

• Set up Dachau, and lead the charge of extinguishing all “sub-humans” not just Jewish persons.

Nuremburg Laws

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

• “Firm in the knowledge that the purity of German blood is the basis for the survival of the German people and inspired by the unshakeable determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:

• Section 1Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or some related blood are forbidden. Such marriages contracted despite the law are invalid, even if they take place abroad in order to avoid the law…’’

Nuremburg Laws

• Laws Restricted the rights of the Jews in German territory in 1935

1. Jews could not marry any German Aryan (Blond haired, blue eyes German, non-Jew)

2. Jews were no longer citizens of Germany3. Jews could not hold jobs, buy or sell items, own

business, have maids that are of the Aryan race4. Jews had to wear a Star of David patch that

labeled them as “Jude” (German for Jew)

KRISTALLNACHT The Night of Broken Glass

• On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews.

• In the space of a few hours, thousands of Jewish synagogues, businesses and homes were destroyed

• Began because a Jew shot a German officer in Paris for revenge• Killed at least 91 Jews• Kristallnacht culminated the escalating violence against the

Jews • First time the Jews were brought to concentration camps• Hitler was upset about the incident, claiming it was too early to

show that type of brutality.

For the Next 10 Minutes

• Look at each of the following slides

• Do not giggle or say any inappropriate words

• Write down for each of the following images:

What you see and how that image makes you feel. What emotions are evoked?