April 7, 1933 April 7, 1933

Shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs

This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity that eventually led to the Holocaust Holocaust: the systematic murder of 11 million

people across Europe, more than half of whom were Jews

Anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism

Not only victims of the Holocaust but were center of the Nazis’ target

Anti-Semitism: hatred of Jews

For decades many Germans looking for a scapegoat had blamed the Jews as the cause of their failures What failures?

Nuremberg LawsNuremberg Laws

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property.

To make it easier for the Nazis to identify them, Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing.

Nuremberg WorksheetNuremberg Worksheet

What is the problem with the Nuremberg Laws?

KristallnachtKristallnacht

November 9-10th, 1938

Kristallnacht means “Night of Broken Glass”

Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany

Around 100 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured

Some 30,000 Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues were burned

KristallnachtKristallnacht

Who was blamed for all of the broken glass in the streets, synagogues burned to the ground, and injuries?

Floods of Jewish Floods of Jewish RefugeesRefugees

Kristallnacht caused many German Jews to try and flee to another country

Nazis tried to speed up the process of emigration

Jews fleeing Germany had trouble finding nations that would accept them

The United States only took about 100,000 refugees of “exceptional merit”

Why would countries not be willing to accept a lot of Jews trying to escape from Germany?

Who were those Who were those “exceptional merit” “exceptional merit” refugees allowed to refugees allowed to

enter the United enter the United States?States?

Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein

Thomas Mann (Author)Thomas Mann (Author)

Walter

Gropius (architect)

Paul Tillich (theologian)

What would you do?

Plight of St. LouisPlight of St. Louis

German ocean liner passed Miami in 1939

740 of the 943 passengers had U.S. immigration papers, however the U.S. Coast Guard would not allow anyone to disembark in America

The St. Louis Sent back to Germany

Hitler’s “Final Solution”Hitler’s “Final Solution”

Obsessed with a desire to rid Europe of its Jews, Hitler imposed what he called the “Final Solution” A policy of Genocide

GENOCIDE: the deliberate and systematic killing of an entire population

Hitler’s “Final Solution”Hitler’s “Final Solution”

What caused Hitler to get rid of an entire population?

(Hint: Think of his goals)

Hitler’s “Final Solution” Hitler’s “Final Solution”

His “solution” rested on the belief that Aryans were a superior people and that the strength and purity of this “master race” must be preserved

To accomplish this Hitler condemned them to slavery and death

Jews were not the only group viewed as inferior or unworthy or as “enemies of the state”

What other groups would be deemed “inferior”?

Inferior RacesInferior Races

Gypsies

Freemasons—because they were charged as supporters of the “Jewish conspiracy” to rule the world

Jehovah’s Witnesses—they refused to join the army or salute Hitler

Homosexuals

Mentally deficient

Mentally ill

Physically disabled

Incurably ill

GypsiesGypsies

Many Gypsy groups have preserved elements of their traditional culture, including an itinerant existence and the Romany language. Many tend to reject traditional life styles and are nomadic

Physically DisabledPhysically Disabled

Jehovah’s WitnessesJehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses are followers of which believe that the end of the present world system of government is near, that all other Churches and religions are false or evil, that all war is unlawful, and that the civil law must be resisted whenever it conflicts with their Church's own religious principles

FreemasonsFreemasons

A member of the Free and Accepted Masons, an international fraternal and charitable organization with secret rites and signs.

Hitler’s “Final Solution”Hitler’s “Final Solution”

Implemented in Poland with special Nazi death squads

Elite Nazi “security squadrons” (SS)

The SS rounded up Jews—men, women, children, and babies—and shot them on the spot

Forced RelocationForced Relocation

Jews were ordered to relocate to ghettos Segregated Jewish areas in certain polish cities Nazis typically sealed off the ghettos from the

rest of the city with barbed wire and stone walls

Life in the GhettosLife in the Ghettos

Bodies lined the streets

Factories located near the ghetto had free labor from the Jews living in the ghetto

Jews published underground newspapers

Set up secret schools to educate Jewish children

Theater and music groups put on shows within the ghetto

VideoVideo

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps

Concentration camps: labor camps

Families were often separated and sometimes the separation would be forever

Life in the camps was a cycle of hunger, humiliation, and work that almost always ended in death

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps

They were forced to do intensive manual labor from dawn to dusk, seven days a week

If they were too weak to work they were killed

Some jobs included burning dead bodies of other prisoners or digging ditches for bodies

LaborLabor

LaborLabor

LaborLabor

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps

Food rations for inmates were often small

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps

Prisoners were crammed into small wooden barracks in which they put about 1,000 prisoners into

Their beds were often planks of wood that had mice, fleas, rats and other rodents living among the prisoners

Final StageFinal Stage

Early 1942 A meeting held in Wannsee, Hitler’s top officials agreed to begin a new phase of the mass murder of Jews

To mass slaughter and starvation they would add a third method of killing Murder by poison gas

Mass ExterminationMass Extermination

The Nazis could not kill the Jews fast enough to satisfy them

Germans built six death camps in Poland

Each camp had huge gas chambers in which as many as 12,000 people could be killed in a day

SelectionSelection

When prisoners arrived at death camps they were paraded by several SS doctors that would separate those strong enough to work from those who would die that day

Both groups were told to leave all their belongings behind with a promise that they would be returned later

SelectionSelection

Those destined to die were led into a room outside the gas chamber and were told to undress and shower

To add to the deception some were given soap

When led into the chambers cyanide gas poured from vents on the wall as cheerful music played

Methods Methods

Gassing was not the only method of extermination

Prisoners were: Shot Hanged Injected with poison Others died as a

result from horrible medical experiments

Test SubjectsTest Subjects

Some were used as medical experiments by camp doctors

These victims were injected with deadly germs in order to study the effect of disease on different groups of people

Many were used to test methods of sterilization Sterilization was of great interest to

some Nazi doctors as they searched for ways to improve the master race

SurvivorsSurvivors

Some Jews survived the horrors of the concentration camps

Those who made it out of the camps alive were changed forever by what they had witnessed