The Holocaust

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The Holocaust
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it
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What was The Holocaust?

• The Holocaust refers to a specific event in 20th
  century history where six million Jews were
  killed by the Nazi regime and their collaborators
  as a central act of state during World War II. As
  well, five million Romani, Sinti,
  African-Germans, homosexuals, mentally
  challenged, and others were murdered by the Nazis.

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How it started

• Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power
• 1933 9 million Jews lived in 21 European
  countries that would become occupied by Germany
  during WWII
• By 1945 2 out of 3 Jews would be dead

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Who was Adolf Hitler?

• Served in German army during WWI in the front
  lines (decorated for bravery)
• Became involved in politics and tried to seize
  power by force (crushed by police 1923)
• Served time for high treason and then rose to
  power legitimately
• Hatred of Jews
• Worked to rid Germany of Versailles Treaty
• Started WWII invaded Poland

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Other figures in Nazi Regime

• Henrich Himmler SS leader/Chief of German
  police responsible for implementing the Final
  Solution
• Josef Mengele ruthless/cruel doctor that
  conducted medical experiments on Jews
• Julius Streicher Earliest/loyal supporter of
  Hitler, propaganda publisher The Stormer

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Under the Nazis

• 12, 000, 000 people, half of them Jews were
  murdered by the Germans because of hatred and the
  belief they were inferior
• These people were killed by shooting,
  starvation, disease, gas, torture, and medical
  experiments

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Who was targeted?

• Jews
• People with mental/physical disabilities
• Gypsies
• Political/religious (Catholics/Jehovah Witnesses)
  dissidents, Socialists, Trade Unionists,
  Homosexuals, Communists

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The Holocaust had two main phases

• Phase I 1933-1939
• Saw Jews, Gypsies, People with handicaps as
  serious threat to purity of German master race
• Hatemongering propaganda blaming Jews for
  Germanys economic depression and defeat in WWI

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New Laws enacted against Jews

• Forced to quit civil service jobs, boycott Jewish
  businesses
• Stripped of citizenship (Nuremburg Laws)
• Segregated no public school, cinemas, vacation
  resorts, or even walking in certain German cities
• Took over Jewish businesses
• Band intermarriages

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Kristallnacht 1938The night of broken glass

• Organized riot of physical destruction of Jewish
  synagogues, arrest of Jews, destroying of Jewish
  homes and murders

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First Organized Round up

• Began after Kristallnacht of German/Austrian Jews
• 30, 000 Jewish men were sent to Dachau and other
  concentration camps with several 100 Jewish women
  sent to prison

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Phase I Possibility of fleeing dims

• During phase I approx. 1, 500, 000 Jews rounded
  up and shot
• Emphasis changing to extermination camps
  (murdered in gas chambers), concentration camps
  (where prisoners worked to death as slave labour)
• Jews attempting to flee to other areas
  (Palestine, Latin America, other European
  countries)
• Others hindered by lack of money, unable to
  obtain visas/sponsors, or unwilling to uproot
  selves

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Phase II 1939 - 1945

• September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland the
  beginning of WWII
• Hitler orders mass executions creation of
  mobile killing sites Most famous Babi Yar
  where 33, 000 people killed, mostly Jews
• Creation of Ghettos confined spaces for Jews,
  labour camps in addition to concentration camps
  Night and Fog Decree

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Executions

• Jewish men dig own graves before being executed
  as SS and German labour service look on
• Last Jew on edge of grave before execution

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Star of David

• September 1, 1941 Jews ordered to wear the
  yellow star
• 6 point star created from two interlocking
  triangles each point represents trust in God,
  his rule over the universe and all six directions
  (N, S, E, W, up/down)
• All Jews over 10 years of age had to wear the
  star it served as a marker, isolation, failing
  to wear the star meant certain death

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The Final Solution

• 1942-1944 Elimination of ghettos as residents
  deported to concentration/extermination camps
• January 1942 Decision to implement The Final
  Solution a formal German state policy to
  exterminate the Jews
• Final Solution was carried out by the SS and the
  Gestapo

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Killing Sites

• 1. Belzec
• 2. Sobibor
• 3. Treblinka
• 4. Chelmo
• 5. Majdanek
• 6. Auschwitz - Birkenau
• Sites chosen because close to rail line and rural

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Statistics Killing Sites

• Belzec 600, 000 gassed (May 1942)
• Sobibor 200, 000 (May 42-Oct.43)
• Treblinka 750, 000 (July 42-Nov. 43)
• Auschwitz-Bikenau mass murder daily routine
  1.25 million killed (9/10 Jews)

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The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but
paved by indifference.

• Main camp gate to Auschwitz
• Motto Arbeit Macht Frei meaning Work Makes us
  Free
• The Barrack City

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Murder Methods

• Arrived by rail from across Europe
• Men women separated
• Forced to undress and pass over valuables
• Sent to gas chambers disguised as shower rooms
• Small minority selected for labour (exposed to
  malnutrition, hard labour, disease, medical
  experiments)

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• Boys imprisoned in Auschwitz look out beyond
  barbed wire
• Approx. 40, 000 Polish children kidnapped and
  imprisoned for slave labour

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Gas Chambers(Last gas chamber used in Auschwitz
October30, 1944)

• Zyklon B pellets (Hydrocyanic acid) vaporizes
  when exposed to air, intended as
  insecticide/disinfectant
• Found could kill humans through experimentation
• Disguised shower rooms as gas chambers (air
  tight) pellets dropped through air shaft
• Bitter almond smell, deprived body of oxygen
• Left blue residue still inside intact gas chambers

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Stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at
Buchenwald
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Thousands of shoes taken from prisoners before
their death
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Clothing from children gassed at AuschwitzBy
February 43 800 boxcars of confiscated goods
left Auschwitz
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Cremation oven
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Mass graves
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• Crematorium ovens in Buchenwald concentration
  camp
• Soldiers view pile of cremated remains outside
  crematorium in Buchenwald

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Starvation and disease due to deplorable
conditions in the camps
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Famous Photo Tsvi NussbaumFamous Diary Anne
Frank

• Captures essence of the horrors of the Holocaust
• Warsaw 1943, a little Jewish boy raises his arms
  in surrender with lowered eyes as a Nazi soldier
  trains his machine gun on him
• What happened to him?
• Anne Frank hid from Germans, betrayed and died
  in concentration camp father published her diary

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Resistance

• Pockets of resistance existed
• White Rose group of university students opposed
  to Nazis, leaflets on views, leaders executed
• Oskar Schindler set up business employing Jews,
  prevented their departure to camps, protection
  through bribery of Nazis

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The end of the war in view

• 1944 War turning in favour of Allies
• Germans attempt to cover actions
• Death Marches bringing Jews into camps within
  Germany to prevent liberation
• 1945 Nazi Germany collapsed

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What happened to the Jews after the Holocaust?

• Hundreds of thousands homeless seeking a new life
• Many wished to return to Palestine
  (only 10, 000 allowed)
• Sought remnants of families/fate of family and
  friends
• Many started new lives in Britain, U.S., France,
  Israel, etc.

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Canada and The Holocaust

• Canadas record of accepting Jewish refugees one
  of the poorest
• 1939 1945 only 5, 000 Jewish immigrants
  allowed into Canada, compared to the U.S. 200,
  000 or Britain 195, 000
• Requests previously often denied

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Famous QuoteMartin Niemoller 1892 - 1984

• First they came for the Communists, but I was
  not a Communist, so I did not speak out they
  came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,
  but I was not one of them, so I did not speak
  out Then they came for the Jews, but I was not
  Jewish, so I did not speak out. And when they
  came for me, there was no one left to speak out
  for me.

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May History never repeat itself
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May their voice never be silenced