The HolocaustThe Development of the Final

Solution: the answer to the Nazis’ “Jewish Question”

1. Two Debates about the Development of the Holocaust

1. Intentionalists:

-HITLER PLANNED THE HOLOCAUST (KILL THE JEWS) FROM DAY 1

2. Functionalist:

-DEVELOPED OVER TIME AS A RESPONSE TO OUTSIDE PROBLEMS/EVENTS

One or the other? Or a combination of both?

Anti-Semitism

• Hostility towards or prejudice against Jews or Judaism

2. Pre-1930’s Roots

• Historically, the Jews were considered SCAPEGOATS* for

1. KILLING CHRIST

2. BLACK DEATH

And any other natural or economic problem ; however, anti-Semitism generally only a problem during poor economic times

*Left alone if they converted to Christianity

3. Then, World War One happened

• Germany BLAMED, have to PAY FOR WAR.

• Economy is in shambles, guess who is blamed? The JEWS

• When the economy is down, racism goes up

• Propaganda helps incite hate towards Jews.

Anti-Semitism in Germany

• Hitler blamed Jews for German losses after WWI and the economic depression that spread thereafter

Examples of Propaganda Posters-notice the dark colors, big nose, dark curly

hair and emphasis on money

Hitler takes over Germany and established the “Jewish Question” (What is to be done

with Germany’s Jews?)

• 1933 HITLER elected to power, crushes all opponents.

• 1934 BOYCOTT of Jewish Businesses

Hitler takes over continued

• 1935 NUREMBERG LAWS deprive Jews of citizenship and therefore rights

• Jew = RACE (BLOOD) not RELIGION

(SO CONVERSION DOESN’T MATTER NOW)

JEWISH = 1 JEWISH

GRANDPARENT

“The Jewish Question”• How do you get rid of 500 000 Jews?• Attempts: 1. MADAGASCAR PLAN2. EVIAN CONFERENCE (US AND CANADA SAY NO!)Jews randomly beat up all over Germany, 78 000 leave, but over 400

000 stay. Why?

5. The Violence EscalatesAND JEWS CAN NO LONGER LEAVE…..

• 1934: Nazis already executing MENTALLY HANDICAPPED in T4 EUTHANASIA program

• 1938: Kristallnacht “the NIGHT of the broken glass. Jews arrested and thrown in concentration camps, such as Dachau.

Krystallnacht – Nov 9th, 1938

• “Night of Broken Glass”

• Jewish homes and stores were ransacked in a thousand German towns and cities

Dachau

• The first concentration camp was opened in Germany in 1933

T-4 Euthanasia Program

• 60,000 Reichsmarks is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the People's community during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money too.

Anti-Semitism in Canada

• after Kristallnacht, many Jews tried to leave Germany.

• The ocean liner “St. Louis” took refugees to Cuba, where they would await to enter the US

• Criminal backgrounds for the passengers were made up by NAZI propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels

• Cuba refused to let the ship “land”, so it headed to Florida where it found no success

• It then arrived off our east coast, carrying 907 Jewish people, including 400 women & children

• Canada decided they would not make good settlers and forced them to return to Europe, where many died in concentration camps

Jewish Passengers from the St. Louis

And then, World War II Breaks Out

• Nazis crush POLAND

• Now total of 2.5 million Jews under Nazi control

By 1939, six large concentration camps existed in Poland

7. Jews are moved to GHETTOS

• Until Germans can decide what to do

• Ghettos are:

1. CRAMPED (HUNDREDS OF 1000S IN ONLY A COUPLE OF BLOCKS)

2. SUFFERING FROM STARVATION

3. FULL OF DISEASE AND DIRTY

The Ghettos

The Problem Gets Bigger…

• 8. The “Jewish” problems (Nazi perceived) compounded by the invasion of the SOVIET UNION in the Spring of 1940. Now have 5 million Jews under their control.

• Their response?

1. EINSATZGRUPPEN (SPECIAL SQUAD)

2. GAS VANS (DISCOVERED ACCIDENTALLY)

Meanwhile…

• A new concentration camp called AUSCHWITZ built to hold POLISH political prisoners and Russian Prisoners of WAR.

• Already using ZYKLON B in special gas chambers. (first in a sealed off cabin)

10. Jan.1942 – “Wannsee CONFERENCE”

Decide all Jews under German CONTROL

will be sent to DEATH camps.

Areas under German Control

• France, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Channel Islands, Belgium, Poland, USSR, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Lithuania, Norway etc.

Operation Reinhardt

• Establishes 5 new “Death Camps” (no labor): 1. TREBLINKA2. SOBIBOR3. BELZEC4. MAJDANEK5. CHELMNO

And expands AUSCHWITZ BIRKENAUJews transported to camps by TRAINS (CATTLE

CARS)

Trains transported Jews to camps

Zyklon-B Gas Chambers

Auschwitz

Identifying the prisoners

• Jews were given 2 black and yellow triangles• Together they formed the 6-pointed Star of

David

Identifying the prisoners

• Green = professional criminal

• Pink = homosexual

• Brown = gypsy

• Violet = Jehovah’s Witness

• Black = “a-social” (alcoholic or prostitute)

“Canada”

11. Then the Jews (and others) Fight back, 1943-44

• 1. WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING (first incident of resistance to Nazi rule

11. Resistance continued…

• 2. HUNGARIANS REFUSE TO GIVE UP THEIR JEWS.

• 3. DENMARK FERRIES 8000 JEWS TO SWEDEN

• 4. FRANCE HIDES CHILDREN IN CONVENTS.

12. What the Allies knew…

• 1944, the ALLIES find out about AUSCHWITZ.

• What do they do?• NOTHING• Most killed this year, 14 000 a day, crematoria could not keep up and had to dig large pits and burn bodies.

13. The End (for Nazis) is Nigh…

• 1. Jan. 27, 1945 AUSHWITZ is liberated

• 2. April 1945, HITLER commits suicide

• 3. May, 1945 WAR is over in Europe

• 4. NUREMBERG Trials

• However, 6 MILLION of Europe’s 11 MILLION Jews are dead.

Liberation - 1945

Mengele Children

NAZI leaders

Adolf Hitler

NAZI leaders

Joseph Goebbels

NAZI leaders

Hermann Goring

NAZI leaders

Heinrich Himmler

NAZI leaders

Rudolf Hoss – Commandant of Aushwitz

Nazi leaders

Joseph Mengele

Nuremburg Trials – 1945 - 49

Example of a Quote to use

Only once in Mein Kampf does Hitler ever refer to killing Jews when he states that if only 12,000 to 15,000 Jews had been gassed instead of German soldiers in World War I, then "the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain." Given that Mein Kampf is 694 pages long, Dawidowicz's critics contend, she makes too much of one sentence.