The Holocaust

1
The Holocaust

• and Elie Wiesels Night

2
On Wiesels Night
I cannot teach this book. Instead, I drop copies
on their desks, like bombs on sleeping towns, and
let them read. So do I, again. The stench rises
from the page and chokes my throat. The ghosts of
burning babies haunt my eyes. And that bouncing
baton, that pointer of Death, stabs me in the
heart as it sends his mother to the blackening
sky. Nothing is destroyed the laws of science
say, only changed. The millions transformed
into precious smoke ride the wind to fill our
lungs and hearts with their cries. No, I cannot
teach this book. I simply want the words to burn
their comfortable souls and leave them scarred
for life. -- Thomas E. Thornton English Journal
(February 1990)
3
holocaust

• a thorough destruction involving extensive loss
  of life especially through fire lta nuclear
  holocaustgt
• a mass slaughter of people especially genocide
  
• (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

4
The Holocaust

• The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and
  murder of approximately six million Jews by the
  Nazi regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945,
  during WWII.
• (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

5
anti-Semitism

• The hatred of and discrimination against Jewish
  people
• (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

6
Adolf Hitler

• Catholic
• Born in Austria
• Anti-Semitic
• Appointed German Chancellor in 1933
• Nazi Party leader--called himself the Führer
  (ruthless, tyrannical leader)
• Established a dictatorship in Germany
• Implemented The Final Solution
• (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

7
tyranny dictatorship

• tyranny
• cruel and unfair treatment by people with power
  over others OR a government in which all power
  belongs to one person the rule or authority of a
  tyrant
• dictatorship
• a country ruled by a person with total authority
  and often in a cruel or brutal way
• (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

8
The Nazis

• Socialist political party in Germany, 1933-1945
• Abolished democracy and took control of
  influential organizations
• Swore allegiance to Hitler (rather than German
  constitution)
• The SS (Schutzstaffel Protection Squadrons)
• Nazi police who took over German police
• Held extreme power brutality
• Considered themselves racial elite
• Controlled concentration camps
• (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

9
persecution

• the cruel or unfair treatment of someone,
  especially because of race or religious or
  political beliefs
• harassment or punishment in a manner designed to
  injure, grieve, or afflict specifically to
  cause to suffer because of belief
• (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

10
ghetto

• A quarter of a city in which Jewish people were
  forced to live in horrible conditions by the Nazi
  Regime
• Separate from non-Jewish population
• Located in Germany, Poland, Soviet Union
• (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

11
concentration camp

• A prison camp used for forced-labor and
  extermination of enemies of the state
• Over 20,000 camps built by the Nazi Regime
• Run by corrupt SS
• (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Work makes freedom (entrance to concentration
camp Auchwitz)
12
Nazi Concentration Camps

• The Nazis built thousands of concentration camps.
  Here are only a few
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Poland
• Buchenwald Germany
• Dachau Germany
• Janowska Ukraine
• Kaiserwald Latvia
• Natzweiler-Struthof France
• Terezin Czech Republic
• Westerbork The Netherlands
• (Jewish Virtual Library)

13
Peoples Persecuted by the Nazis

• Jews
• Gypsies (Roma)
• Slavic people
• Poles
• People with disabilities
• Non-Aryans
• Homosexuals
• Political prisoners

14
The Final Solution

• The Nazis plan to annihilate all European Jews
• Hilters ultimate goal to create a master race
• Nazis killed 6 million Jews 2/3 of Jewish
  population in Europe
• The Master Race
• According to Hitler and the Nazis, the superior
  race of blond-haired, blue-eyed Germans of Nordic
  descent
• genocide
• the deliberate killing of people who belong to a
  particular racial, political, or cultural group
• (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, US Holocaust
  Memorial Museum)

15
Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel

• To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest
  sin of all.
• Born in 1928 in Romania
• Devoutly religious as a child
• Survived concentration camps Auchwitz-Birkenau
  and Buchenwald
• Wrote first version of Night 10 years after
  liberation
• Appointed chair of US Presidents Commission on
  the Holocaust and helped created the American
  Holocaust Memorial
• (University of Virginia)