The Holocaust

1
The Holocaust

• For the dead and the living, we must bear
  witness.
• -Elie Wiesel

2
What was the Holocaust?

• The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic,
  state-sponsored persecution and murder of about
  12 million people
• The Nazis believed that Germans were racially
  superior they sought to kill anyone who
  threatened this superiority

3
Who were the victims?

• 6 million of those who died were Jewish
• Another estimated 6 million non-Jews were killed
• Some of the remaining victims were targeted
  because of their racial inferiority Gypsies,
  the disabled, Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians,
  etc.)
• Others were killed due to their political,
  ideological, or behavioral groups Communists,
  Socialists, Jehovahs Witnesses, and homosexuals

4
the Master Race

• Nazi ideology taught that the German people were
  part of the master race
• to be ethnically pure, anyone that weakened the
  race needed to be eliminated
• this included mentally or physically disabled
  adults or children

Right Often people, like these children, were
victims of medical experiments before they were
killed
5
The Jews

• in 1933, the Jewish population of Europe was
  over 9 million
• as a part of the Final Solution, 2 out of
  every 3 Jews would be killed by the end of the
  war
• to tell them apart, Jews were required to wear
  the yellow star of David on their clothing

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Who was a Jew?
People with at least one Jewish grandparent were
considered Jewish
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Flood of Refugees

• after Kristallnacht, many Jews realized the
  seriousness of the worsening situation and tried
  to leave for other countries
• many countries, including France, Britain, and
  the United States, closed their borders after
  admitting tens of thousands of Jewish refugees
• many Jews were left trapped in Germany

The SS St. Louis was to take many Jews from
Europe to the US they were denied docking in
the US and Cuba and returned to Europe
8
Ghettos

• after Kristallnacht, many Jews were deprived of
  their businesses and jobs
• after Hitler couldnt get rid of the Jews
  through immigration, he decided to isolate Jews
  in ghettos
• Jews were forced from their homes into
  segregated sections of cities
• the hope was that Jews in ghettos would starve
  or die from disease

Right Resistance leaders led an uprising in the
Warsaw Ghetto
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The Final Solution

• the Final Solution was Hitlers plan for the
  genocide of the Jews
• genocide systematic killing of an entire
  people
• The SS (Hitlers elite security force) moved
  from town to town, hunting Jews, marching them
  into the woods, and shooting them
• this proved too time consuming, so many began to
  be sent to concentration camps

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Concentration Camps

• from ghettos, those still alive were rounded up
  and taken to concentration camps, usually by long
  trips on train boxcars with little food and poor
  sanitation
• once they arrived at the camps, victims were
  usually divided into two groups one group of
  the weak for instant execution (children, the
  elderly, the sick, etc), the second group of
  strong people for work detail before their deaths

These people are being divided at Birkenau Camp
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Death camps

• Camps like Auschwitz were known as death camps
• Prisoners designated for instant execution were
  told to undress for a shower
• Once they were inside the shower room, poison
  gas canisters were dropped, killing the prisoners
• Their bodies were burned in crematoriums
• Prisoners chosen to work were usually moved to
  other camps for work in factories, fields, etc.

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Map of Concentration Camps
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Identification Symbols

• Nazis used triangular badges or patches to
  identify prisoners in the concentration camps

Asocial most diverse criminals, homeless
Emigrant
Political Prisoner Communist, Socialist, Etc.
Habitual Criminal
Bible Researcher - often Jehovahs Witnesses
Homosexuals
Gypsies
Jews
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Life in a concentration camp

• life in a concentration camp was harsh food
  was at a minimum usually thin soup, a scrap of
  moldy bread, or potato peelings
• most prisoners lost 50 pounds in the first few
  months
• prisoners worked seven days a week as slaves

Prisoners were tattooed with a number
Concentration camp prisoners
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Liberation

• As Allied troops moved across Europe, they began
  to discover the concentration camps
• They discovered starving prisoners, many at the
  brink of death due to disease, and mounds of
  unburied dead bodies

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The Survivors

• Those who survived faced many obstacles
• Most were seriously ill and needed medical
  attention
• Where were their families?
• Where should they go? Their homes, possessions,
  and families were gone
• What should they do now? How do you move on?