THE HOLOCAUST
•On April 7, 1933 Hitlerordered all non-Aryansremoved fromgovernment jobs
•Thus began thesystematic campaign ofracial purification thateventually led to theHolocaust – the murder of11 million people acrossEurope (more than half ofwhom were Jews)
Title: “Away with him”
The long arm of the Ministry ofEducation pulls a Jewish teacherfrom his classroom.
April 1933 (Der Sturmer Issue #12)
JEWS TARGETED
•Jews were the centraltarget of the Holocaust
•Anti-Semitism had along history in manyEuropean countries
•For decades Germanylooked for a scapegoatfor their problems
•Many Germans blamedJews for theirdifficulties
(Placard reads,"Germans, defendyourselves, do not buyfrom Jews)
JEWS LOSE RIGHTS
•Jews in Germany were subject to increasinglyrestrictive rights
•In 1935 – Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of theircitizenship, jobs and property
•Also in 1935 Jews forced to wear bright yellow starsto identify themselves
Illustration from an anti-semitic children's primer. The sign reads "Jewsare not wanted here." Germany, 1936.
A woman hiding her face, sitting on a park bench that says, “Onlyfor Jews!”
KRISTALLNACHT (NIGHT OFBROKEN GLASS)
•On November 9-10,1938 Nazi StormTroopers attackedJewish homes,businesses andsynagogues acrossGermany
•Over 100 Jews werekilled, hundreds morewere injured, and30,000 Jews arrested
•Afterward, the Nazisblamed the Jews forthe destruction
Hundreds of Jewish homes and businesseswere torched during Kristallnacht
SOME JEWS FLED
•As a result of increasingviolence, many GermanJews fled the country
•However, few countrieswere willing to take inJewish refugees
•The U.S. accepted 100,000refugees including AlbertEinstein, author ThomasMann, architect WalterGropius and TheologianPaul Tillich
Einstein
Gropius
Tillich
THE PLIGHT OF THEST. LOUIS
Many Americansfeared Jewswould take jobs ata time whenunemploymentwas already high.
One example ofthe indifference tothe plight of theGerman Jews canbe seen in thecase of the St.Louis
THE ST. LOUISRETURNS HOME
•This German ocean linerpassed Miami in 1939
•The U.S. coast guardfollowed the ship toprevent anyone fromdisembarking in America
•The ship returned toEurope – more than ½ ofthe 943 passengers werelater killed in the Holocaust
HITLER’S FINAL SOLUTION
•In 1939 only about250,000 Jewsremained in Germany
•But other nations thatHitler occupied hadmillions more
•Obsessed with hisdesire to “rid Europeof Jews,” Hitlerimposed what hecalled the FinalSolution
JEWISHPOPULATION1939
THE FINAL SOLUTION
•The Final Solution – apolicy of genocide thatinvolved the deliberateand systematic killingof an entire population– rested on the beliefthat Aryans weresuperior people andthat the purity of the“Master Race” must bepreserved
Hitler was responsible for themurder of more than half of theworld’s Jewish population
• Hitler condemned todeath and slavery not onlyJews but other groups thathe viewed as inferior,unworthy or as “enemiesof the state”
• This list includedGypsies, Slavs, Jehovah’sWitnesses, Africans,Chinese, homosexuals,handicapped, mentally illand mentally deficient
HITLER’S HATRED WENTBEYOND JEWS
Total Deaths from Nazi Genocidal Policies
Group Deaths
European Jews 6,250,000
Soviet prisoners of war 3,000,000
Polish Catholics 3,000,000
Serbians 700,000
Germans (political, religious, and resistance)80,000
Germans (handicapped) 70,000
Homosexuals 12,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses 2,500
JEWISH GHETTOS IN POLAND
•Jews were also orderedinto dismal,overcrowded ghettos invarious Polish cities
•Factories were builtalongside the ghettoswhere people wereforced to work forGerman industry
•Many of these Jews werethen transferred toconcentration camps(labor camps) deepwithin Poland
Barbed wire separating the ghetto in Krakow, Poland.
Deportation from the Krakow ghetto at the time of the ghetto's liquidation.Krakow, Poland, March 1943.
Concentration Camps
•Between 1933 and 1945, NaziGermany established about20,000 camps to imprison itsmany millions of victims.
•These camps were used for arange of purposes includingforced-labor camps, transitcamps which served astemporary way stations, andextermination camps builtprimarily or exclusively formass murder.
•From its rise to power in 1933,the Nazi regime built a series ofdetention facilities to imprisonand eliminate so-called"enemies of the state.”
Aerial view of Dachau –Dachau, Germany
At the concentration camps, prisoners were forced tostand for hours, often in freezing weather for roll call.
THE FINAL STAGE
•Hitler’s program of genocide against Jews took placeprimarily in 6 Nazi death camps located in Poland
•The final stage began in early 1942
•The Germans used poison gas to more quicklyexterminate the Jewish population
•Each camp had huge gas chambers that could kill asmany as 12,000 per day
Dachau, gaschamber
Crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau
The six death camps established – Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, Belzec,Auschwitz-Birkenau.
IMAGES FROM A NIGHTMARE
Some of these images are disturbing
The main entrance of Auschwitz Extermination Camp, with its infamous motto"Work Makes One Free"
Buchenwald prisoners in nearby woods just before their execution. (1933)
Over 2 million children were killed during the Holocaust
A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive inthe ravine after the mass execution. (1942)
Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz
A truckload of bodies at Buchenwald concentration camp
At Dachau concentration camp, two U.S. soldiers gaze at Jews who died onboard a death train
A Naziabout toshoot thelast Jew leftalive inVinica,Ukraine.
Dachau survivors on the day of liberation