The Holocaust

Chapter 24 Section 3

I Persecution Begins

• Holocaust= the systematic murder of 11 mil. Ppl across Europe

A. Why the Jews

• Anti-Semitism= hatred of Jews–Deep roots in German history – Scapegoats= someone to

blame for their failures and misfortunes

• Hitler blamed WWI loss and troubled after on the Jews

• Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their civil rights & Property

• Jews over age of 6 wore yellow star of David o their clothes for identification

• Kristallnacht (Crystal night/night of broken glass)= gangs of Nazi storm troopers attack Jewish homes, businesses, & Synagogues–Nazi’s later blame Jews

for the destruction

B. The Plight of Jewish Refugees

• Thousands of Jews fled Germ. But after Kristallnacht, Nazi’s speed up immigration–Other countries already

had thousands of refugees and refuse to accept more–GB feared growth of

Anti-Semitism

• Many distinguished ppl fled to the US (Albert Einstein–US could have accepted more

but…1. Didn’t relax immigration

quotas2. Anti-Semitism in the US3. Fear of job competition

during GD4. Feared “enemy agents”

would infiltrate US

II the Final Solution

• Germany unable to rid itself of Jewish pop. Sot hey adopt a new approach– “Final solution” was to send

healthy Jews to labor camps to preform slave labor while sending the rest to extermination camps

• Genocide= deliberate killing of an entire ppl

A. The Condemned

• The “final solution” based on belief that the master Aryan race must be preserved– Pol. Opp. & those not fit to be

part of master race• Mentally ill, homosexuals,

Gypsies• As they moved east they added

other Europeans

B. Concentration camps

• Nazi’s implemented “final solution” in Poland by assigning death squad to round up Jews– Some sent to concentration campworked to

death– Those too weak were killed

C. Extermination

• Late in 1941 Germans build death camps w/ gas chambers where thousands could be killed– Auschwitz= largest

death camp• Told to strip for

shower then led to gas chambers

• Corpses places in ditches but the began to smell and left evidence of denocidebuilt large crematoriums• Others died from

horrible medical experiments– Experiments were

meant to improve the master race

D. The Survivors

• About 6 mil. Jews died but some were able to escape–Ppl risked death by helping

Jews escape or hiding them in their homes

• Those who escaped were changed forever– Elie Wiesel Quote from

NIGHT in text