Why did the Holocaust Happen?

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Why did the Holocaust Happen?

• The story of Hitlers reign

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Adolf Hitler

• 1920 Hitler establishes
• the Nazi party
• was leader of the Nazi Party
• and Reich Chancellor of the
• Third Reich from 1933 to 1945
• His tyrannical reign was marked
• with a passion for destruction,
• ruthless hatred, and the massacre
• of millions of innocent people.

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The Nazis

• The National Socialist German Workers' Party or
  NSDAP, known as the Nazi Party, controlled
  Germany from 1933 to 45.
• Nazis labeled and isolated Jews, Gypsies, Slavs,
  homosexuals, political prisoners, and the
  mentally and physically disabled. Some were
  passively killed by starvation and widespread
  disease. Millions were murdered in attacks by the
  Gestapo , the SA , and the SS , in mass
  killings of the Einsatzgruppen, in and around
  Nazi concentration, and later death camps.

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How did Hilter come into power?

• Propaganda
• Propaganda uses techniques which assume that the
  masses are not individuals capable of forming
  their own opinions. Propaganda relies on emotion
  rather than on logic, concentrates on a few
  points which are presented in simple terms, and
  then hammers those points repeatedly.

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From Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler

• The function of propaganda is to attract
  supporters, the function of organization to win
  members... Propaganda works on the general public
  from the standpoint of an idea and makes them
  ripe for the victory of this idea....

• We must be ruthless...Only thus shall we purge
  our people of their softness...and their
  degenerate delight in beer-swilling...I don't
  want the concentration camps transformed into
  penitentiaries. Terror is the most effective
  political instrument...It is my duty to make use
  of every means of training the German people to
  cruelty, and to prepare them for war...There must
  be no weakness or tenderness.

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Hitlers Henchmen

• The SS Nazi guard squadron
• The SA Nazi Party militia or storm troopers
• The SD the security for the SS
• The Gestapo- secret state police
• Einsatzgruppen- (German for "task forces" or
  "intervention groups") were paramilitary groups
  operated by the SS before and during World War
  II. Basically, they were mobile killing squads.

• All of these forces were used as instruments of
  terror

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Some of Hilters most notorious

• Joseph Mengele
• SS physician at Auschwitz,
• notorious for pseudo-
• medical experiments,
• especially on twins and
• Gypsies. He "selected"
• new arrivals by simply
• pointing to the right or the
• left, thus separating those
• considered able to work from
• those who were not. Those too
• weak or too old to work were
• sent straight to the gas
• chambers, after all their
• possessions, including their
• clothes, were taken for resale
• in Germany.

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Some of Hilters most notorious

• 0

• Heinrich Himmler
• was an unsuccessful chicken farmer and fertilizer
  salesman who became a leader in the Nazi party in
  the mid-1920s. As head of the SS as well as the
  Gestapo, he was a cold, efficient, ruthless
  administrator. He was the organizer of the mass
  murder of Jews, the man in charge of the
  concentration and death camps.

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Some of Hilters most notorious

• Reinhard Heydrich
• became the chief of the SD. His more notorious
  achievements included the establishment of
  ghettos in Poland, his leadership of the
  Einsatzgruppen, and the convening of the Wannsee
  Convention. His assassination in 1942 caused
  merciless German reprisals, continuing after his
  death the terror and intimidation that
  characterized his life.

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Concentration Camps

• In January 1942, SS official Reinhard Heydrich
  held a meeting of Nazi government officials to
  present the Final Solution. At this meeting,
  known as the Wannsee Conference , the Nazi
  officials agreed to SS plans for the transport
  and destruction of all 11 million Jews of Europe.
  The Nazis would use the latest in twentieth
  century technology, cost efficient engineering
  and mass production techniques for the sole
  purpose of killing off the following racial
  groups Jews, Russian prisoners of war, and
  Gypsies (Sinti-Roma). Their long-range plans,
  unrealized, included targeting some 30 million
  Slavs for death.

• Crematorium at Auschwitz- Birkenau

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Concentration Camps in Poland
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The Aryan Race

• Adolph Hitler twisted the theories of Gustaf
  Kossinna (1858-1931), to put forward the Aryans
  as a master race of Indo-Europeans, who were
  supposed to be Nordic in appearance and directly
  ancestral to the Germans.
• This is why so many people were persecuted.

• Pictures of German Races

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Concentration Camps Then and Now

• AUSCHWITZ
• -BIRKENAU
• Location Poland
• Type of Camp Annihilation Forced Labor
• Now camp preserved

• Prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau

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Concentration Camps Then and Now

• BUCHENWALD
• Location
• Germany
• Type of camp
• forced labor
• Now- camp
• preserved
• museum

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Concentration Camps Then and Now

• Transport to Triblinka

• TREBLINKA
• Location Poland
• Type of Camp Annhilation
• Now Monument

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Concentration Camps Then and Now

• Gypsy arrivals at Belzec

• BELZEC
• Location Poland
• Type of camp Annihilation
• Now Monument

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Victims of the Holocaust

• Approximately 11 million people were killed
  because of Nazi genocidal policy. It was the
  explicit aim of Hitler's regime to create a
  European world both dominated and populated by
  the "Aryan" race. The Nazi machinery was
  dedicated to eradicating millions of people it
  deemed undesirable. Some people were undesirable
  by Nazi standards because of who they were, their
  genetic or cultural origins, or health
  conditions. These included Jews, Gypsies, Poles
  and other Slavs, and people with physical or
  mental disabilities. Others were Nazi victims
  because of what they did. These victims of the
  Nazi regime included Jehovah's Witnesses,
  homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists,
  Socialists, asocials, and other political
  enemies.

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Victims

• Jews
• Antisemitism was a familiar part of European
  political life in the 1800s. Political
  antisemitism was preceded by centuries of
  religious persecution of Europe's Jews. There is
  evidence as early as 1919 that Hitler had a
  strong hatred of Jews. As Chancellor and later
  ReichsfŸhrer, Hitler translated these intense
  feelings into a series of policies and statutes
  which progressively eroded the rights of German
  Jews from 1933-1939.
• Under Nazi occupation Jews were made to wear the
  star symbol as a method of persecution

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Victims

• Roma (Gypsies)
• The Roma, a nomadic people believed to have come
  originally from northwest India, consisted of
  several tribes or nations. Most of the Roma who
  had settled in Germany belonged to the Sinti
  nation. The Sinti and Roma had been persecuted
  for centuries. The Nazi regime continued the
  persecution, viewing the Roma both as asocial and
  as racially inferior to Germans.

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Victims

• Poles and Other Slavs
• It is often forgotten that Christian Poles and
  other Slavs, notably Ukrainians and
  Byelorussians, were also primary targets of Nazi
  Germany hatred during World War II. To the Nazis,
  the Slavs were considered Untermenschen,or
  subhumans, and nothing more than obstacles to
  gaining territory necessary for the superior
  German race. This philosophy is apparent in
  Hitler's statement, "The destruction of Poland is
  our primary task. The aim is not the arrival at a
  certain line but the annihilation of living
  forces...."

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Victims

• Martin Niemöller

• Political Dissidents and Dissenting Clergy
• In 1933, the Roman Catholic Church signed a
  concordat or agreement with the new Nazi
  government, recognizing the legitimacy of the
  Third Reich. The Protestant Church was united
  into a single Reich Church under one bishop. In
  September 1933, Martin Niemöller, a pastor of a
  fashionable church in Berlin, set up a Pastors'
  Emergency League which led to the formation of
  the anti-Nazi Confessional Church. This church
  wrote a memorandum to Hitler attacking the
  government's anti-Christian campaign, policies of
  antisemitism, and terrorizing tactics. Hitler
  responded with a crackdown on members of the
  Confessional Church. Hundreds of dissenting
  clergy were arrested, many were imprisoned, and
  also executed.

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Victims

• Persons with Physical or Mental Disabilities
• Persons with physical or mental disabilities
  threatened the Nazi plan for human "perfection."
• In 1934, forced sterilization programs sterilized
  300,000 - 400,000 people, mainly those in mental
  hospitals and other institutions. Propaganda was
  distributed which helped build public support for
  these government policies. Persons who were
  mentally ill or physically disabled were
  stigmatized, while the costs of care were
  emphasized in propaganda campaigns.

• Five handicapped Jewish prisoners, photographed
  in Buchenwald for propaganda purposes.

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Victims

• Jehovah's Witnesses
• In 1934, Jehovah's Witnesses attempted to fend
  off Nazi attacks by having congregations send
  letters to the government explaining their
  beliefs and political neutrality.
• The Nazis did not tolerate the Jehovah's
  Witnesses' refusal, which was based on religious
  principles, to salute flags, to raise their arms
  to "Heil Hitler,"or to serve in the German army.
• If Jehovah's Witnesses within the camps signed
  documents renouncing their religious beliefs,
  they would be freed. Very few, even in the face
  of torture, signed the declarations.

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Victims

• Wall memorial. "Deathblow, deadly silence of the
  homosexual victims of National Socialism."

• Homosexuals
• The Nazi regime claimed
• its concern about homosexuality related to
  keeping the Aryan birthrate high. German and
  Austrian gays were subject to arrest and
  imprisonment, but in German-occupied countries,
  Nazis did not deport homosexuals and send them to
  camps.

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Who would be a victim today?

• Adam Sandler
• Jason Alexander
• Billy Joel
• Lance Bass
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Michael J. Fox
• Natalie Portman
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Alicia Silverstone

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• Would you be a victim?

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Works Cited

• "A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust." 1997.
  Florida Center for Instructional Technology. 24
  Feb. 2007 lthttp//fcit.usf.edu/holocaust.htmgt.