THE HOLOCAUST

4 Stages

1. Defined as Other2. Removal of Rights3. Concentration4. Final Solution

History

A. The Nazi Party was built on prejudice and Anti-Semitism Prejudice: an opinion formed

beforehand /without full knowledge Anti-Semitism: hostility or prejudice

against JewsB. Anti-Semitism in Europe has a long

history Hitler's laws and the SS were not new to

Jews Many thought the discrimination was just a

passing phase

Stage One: Define as OtherA. Based on long-held stereotypes, Jewish people

were thought of as differentB. Nazis used stereotypes to enhance the

mistrust some Germans felt about the Jews Mein Kampf. Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's

problems Nazis defined the Jews as a separate race

C. Violence Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938 Attack on Jewish homes, businesses and

synagogues; killed many Jews Began to send people to concentration camps.

D. Began centuries before the Holocaust and lasted throughout the Holocaust because of propaganda

Excerpt from a children’s schoolroom:

'It is almost noon,' says the teacher. 'Now we must summarize what we have learned in this lesson. What did we discuss?' All the children raise their hands. The teacher calls on Karl Scholz, a little boy on the front bench. 'We talked about how to recognize a Jew.' 'Good! Now tell us about it!'

Little Karl takes the pointer, goes to the blackboard and points to the sketches. 'A Jew is usually recognized by his nose. The Jewish nose is crooked at the end. It looks like the figure 6. So it is called the "Jewish Six". Many non-Jews have crooked noses too. But their noses are bent, not at the end, but further up. Such a nose is called a hook nose or eagle's beak. It has nothing to do with a Jewish nose.'

'Right!' says the teacher. 'The Jew is also recognized not only by his nose...,' the boy continues. 'The Jew is also recognized by his lips. His lips are usually thick. Often the lower lip hangs down. That is called "sloppy". And the Jew is also recognized by his eyes. His eyelids are usually thicker and more fleshy that ours. The look of the Jew is sly and sharp ....'

This was a chart posted in elementary classrooms entitled "German Youth, Jewish Youth“; its purpose was to help Aryan children distinguish friend from foe.

Why?

Why, for what purpose is the blood flowing? Behind the scenes, the Jew grins. That makes the answer clear: They bleed for the Jews.

On the evening of November 9-10, 1938 -- Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass" -- rioters burned over 1,000 synagogues, vandalized and looted 7,000 Jewish businesses and homes, and killed dozens of Jews in an assault instigated by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Synagogues burned throughout the Reich……

In Baden….

In Frankfurt

In Aachen….

And in Berlin….

Following Kristallnacht, those Jews with the financial ability to leave Germany did so….the writing was now on the wall.

Stage Two: Removal of Civil Rights

A. Nuremberg Laws: laws were passed to deny Jewish people equal rights.

B. Denied citizenship, prohibited from public office and denied marriage rights to non-Jews

Nuremburg Law Examples

Section 1 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or

kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void,

even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were conducted abroad.

2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.

Section 2 Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and

nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Section 3 Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of

German or kindred blood as domestic servants ....

People with four German grandparents (white circles) were of "German blood," while people were classified as Jews if they were descended from three or more

Jewish grandparents (black circles in top row right).

An inter-married couple is publicly humiliated. The non-Jewish woman carries a sign reading "I am the greatest swine and sleep only with Jews." The man's sign reads, "As a Jew, I only take German girls up to my room."

Also in 1935, Jews were forced to purchase and wear a six-pointed star of David whenever they appeared in public. The yellow or blue star was worn on an armband or pinned on a shirt or coat.

Eugenics Program

"This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too."

Stage 3: Concentration

A. Formation of ghettos Ghetto: a walled section of a city Began when Germany invaded Poland

in 1939B. Establishment of concentration

camps for Jews

Carrying possessions into the ghetto

Jews led through the streets of Warsaw

Ghetto walls contained the Jews

Nazi authorities by a wall

Building a brick wall

Jewish police officers who worked for the Nazis

A pedestrian bridge joins parts of the ghetto (divided by a streetcar line)

A ghetto ration card officially gives 300 calories daily (average of 181)

Lining up for a drink of water

Children sneaking out for food

Forced labour in the ghetto – a clothing factory

A crowded street - 37% of Warsaw’s population lived in 4.6% of its area

Stage Four: The Final Solution A. Wansee Conference, January 20,

1942: proclaimed the Jewish population in Europe was to be eliminated entirely

B. Liquidation: Took place in the camps with gas (Zyklon B) & cremation

Mass extermination was the next step in the treatment of the Jews.

Behind the German Army came Einsatzgruppen, soldiers whose job was to execute civilians and Jews in Nazi-occupied territory.

All who were considered “enemies of the Reich” were executed. Men…..

Women….

Andchildren….

Origins Starting in 1933, Hitler began establishing camps

to harbour his enemies. The first was a Dachau, outside of Munich.

By 1939, however, the Germans had shifted from containment and death through work to mass extermination.

With that end in mind, death camps were established in occupied Poland.

Of all the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest and most infamous. It was created in early 1940 by Heinrich Himmler, originally as a POW camp.

By 1942, however, it was turned into an extermination and experimentation center under the guidance of commandant Rudolf Hoss.

In 1942, at the Wannsee Conference, SS Deputy Fuhrer Reinhard Heydrich began the “Final Solution” of the Jewish Question. This decision would lead directly to the gates of Auschwitz….

The First Camps

Three extermination camps were established in Poland: Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

Upon arrival at the camps, many Jews were sent directly to the gas chambers.

The First Camps

The Nazis also gassed Jews at other extermination camps in Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau (which was the largest camp), Majdanek, and Chelmno.

At Majdanek, groups of Jews deemed incapable of work were gassed.

At Chelmno, Jews were gassed in mobile gas vans.

The Nazis systematically murdered over three million Jews in the extermination camps alone.

Auschwitz

The largest camp established by the Germans

Included a concentration, extermination, and forced-labor camp

There were three different camps in all

Pictures of Auschwitz

Shows Auschwitz I, the main camp, and the (extermination) camp Auschwitz II - Birkenau

The distance between the two camps is approx. 3 kilometres

Auschwitz Camps

Auschwitz I, or Stammlager, was meant as a work camp

Had the capacity to hold 7,000 people

On average held 18,000 The camp was surrounded by

electrically charged fences

Auschwitz Camps

Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, was planned to be an extermination camp

At its highest point it housed 100,000 people

New occupants were divided into protective custody camps

In Birkenau were crematories II-V

The Lines of Death

Trains would have 20 cars, each car filled with up to 200 people. SS guards and doctors would greet them and ‘selection’ who would work, and who would go to the gas chambers.

Extermination MethodsGas Chambers

Early Gas Chambers started as fumigation chambers (got rid of lice from clothing)

The chambers would evolve into extermination chambers

The gas used by the Germans was Zyklon-B After its usage, prisoners would be stripped

of gold teeth and some even their hair. Prisoners would be put on wagons and

disposed in ditches for later collection while the next victims were undressing to enter the chamber

Zyklon B

This deadly gas, called “Hydrocyanic Prussic Acid”, was manufactured in a crystal form. Masked SS soldiers, called “Fumigators”, would stand on top of the gas chambers and dump the crystals through specially designed holes in the roof.

Gas Chambers

Each row of lights in the gas chamber had an opening for gas. The 750 naked people crammed inside quickly began to suffocate. It took approximately 20 minutes for every person to die. The agonized screams of the dying people were muffled by the thick concrete walls and by the rumble of diesel trucks outside, which were started as the gas was dropped.

Account of Extermination by Rudolf Hoss, Commander at Auschwitz

"The door would now be quickly screwed up and the gas discharged by the waiting disinfectors through vents in the ceilings of the gas chambers, down a shaft that led to the floor. This insured the rapid distribution of the gas. It could be observed through the peephole in the door that those who were standing nearest to the induction vents were killed at once. It can be said that about one-third died straightaway. The remainder staggered about and began to scream and struggle for air. The screaming, however, soon changed to the death rattle and in a few minutes all lay still...The door was opened half an hour after the induction of the gas, and the ventilation switched on...The special detachment now set about removing the gold teeth and cutting the hair from the women. After this, the bodies were taken up by elevator and laid in front of the ovens, which had meanwhile been stoked up. Depending on the size of the bodies, up to three corpses could be put into one oven at the same time. The time required for cremation...took twenty minutes."

Extermination Methods Crematoriums

The Nazis needed a more effective way to dispose of prisoners

Crematoriums were introduced and evolved to become more effective

Ovens ran continuously with the ashes intermingling

Early ovens would take 2 hours, later ones 10-15 minutes

Those who lived in the camp worked every day for 12 hours, and were fed only 400 calories per day. When they could no longer stand the torture or the work, they either ran into the fence, or walked up the SS and asked for “special treatment”. Their torture ended… but the camp went on.

IN 1945, AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU WAS LIBERATED BY THE SOVIET RED ARMY. THE SS HAD QUICKLY FLED THE CAMP TO AVOID CAPTURE, AND HAD LEFT A MERE 7,000 PEOPLE ALIVE. THEY HAD NOT BOTHERED TO CLEAN UP THE DEAD. WHAT THE SOVIETS FOUND AS THEY ENTERED THE CAMP DEFIED EXPLANATION. THE HORROR OF THE NAZI REGIME WAS LAID BARE FOR ALL TO SEE.

Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to

humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half

million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries

of Europe.

Auschwitz and Birkenau1940-1945

Figures Approx 6 Million Deaths in Total

Images

View of the entrance to the main camp of Auschwitz. The gate bears the motto: Work makes one free

Images

View of the kitchen, electric fencing and the main gate at Auchwitz

Images

View of the barracks at Birkenau

Images

The ruins of a crematorium

Images

Sacks of human hair headed to Germany

Images

A warehouse full of shoes and clothing confiscated from the prisoners and deportees gassed upon their arrival

Images

Former prisoners of the "little camp" in Buchenwald stare out from the wooden bunks in which they slept three to a "bed."

Images

The Liberation of the Camp

Images

Funeral of inmates who could not be saved or who were killed by the SS before the liberation of Auschwitz.

END

Protective Custody Camps Camp for Men Camp for Women Quarantine Camp Theresienstadt

Family Camp Gypsy Camp Prisoner’s Hospital

Camp Mexico Temporary Holding

Camp Camp Canada

Camp where the prisoner’s valuable goods were sorted

Name was chosen because Canada was a place of immense wealth and richness

Back

Zyklon-B

Germans were using exhaust fumes which were not efficient

Zyklon-B was being used at Auschwitz as a vermin killer and disinfectant

It is a form of Hydrocyanic acid which become active on contact with air

It was first used at Auschwitz on 600 Soviet POWs in Sept. 1941

Back

Sources

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/GALL31R/00001.htm http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/holocaust.htm http://www.remember.org/jacobs/ http://www.wsg-hist.uni-linz.ac.at/Auschwitz/HTML/

Allgem-Infos.html http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/

final.html http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?

lang=en&ModuleId=10005151 http://www.spectacle.org/695/zyklonb.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/

blpictures.htm

Sources:

fcit.coedu.usf.edu/Holocaust/resource/gallery http://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/ib_holocaust2001/Ghettoes/resistance/

resistance.htm http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/gloss.htm http://www.mcdonalds.ca/en/food/calculator.aspx