Aim: How was the Nazi regime able to commit genocide? I- Definitions 1- Holocaust- Greek- complete destruction by fire 2- Genocide- the systematic and planned extermination of an entire racial, ethic, political, religious or social group 3- Final Solution- Der endlsung der Judenfrage- Nazi codeword for the physical extermination of European Jews A- decided at the Wansee Conference which took place on 20 Jan decided the number of Jews in each Nazi occupied territory that would be exterminated within a given amount of time B- Adolf Eichmann was the mastermind of the Final Solution 4- Zyklon B- pesticide used in the gas chambers 5- Einsatzgruppen- mobile killing units of the SS used before the advent of the gas chambers & camps 6- Aryan- bermensch- those of Germanic pure blooded background 7- Eugenics- science of improving the human breeds through DNA to secure a desirable combination of physical & mental characteristics- Nazi policy of euthanising & removing reproductive organs of the handicapped A- Aktion T-4 Tiergartenstrae 4 Nazi policy of racial hygene 8- Nuremberg Laws- laws instituted by the Nazis against Jews and others considered ntermensch The Camps II- The Camps 1- Concentration Camp- Konzentrationslager- forced labor camps located mainly in or around Germany 2- Extermination Camp- Vernichtungslager located mainly in Poland to prevent the Allies from learning of the Final Solution- mainly women & children sent to prevent another generation from being born 3- Prisoners were off-loaded from cattle cars, separated from their families & given tattoos for dehumanization purposes 4- Gas chambers in the extermination camps were disguised as showers to prevent mass hysteria, chaos & rebellion Human Experimentation III- Human Experimentation 1- Dr. Josef Mengele- The Angel of Death- headed human experimentation at Auschwitz A- goal was to purify the Aryan race & have Aryans produce more multiple births B- experimented on pregnant women and twins C- twin experimentation- isolation endurance, blood transfusions, castration, dye injections, lethal germ injections, torture endurance, tissue samples, sex change operations, removal & exchange of organs and limbs, DNA, incest all performed without anesthesia D- fertility experiments- to find optimal conditions for impregnation & gestation- mothers subjected to various stimuli & forms of stress, offspring monitored, experimented upon & killed female sterilization 2- Military experimentation- done mainly to further the war effort modifications for equipment, soldiers, etc A- Freezing- simulated arctic warfare & conditions along the Eastern Front to see how soon death would come & how best to resuscitate victims B- Pressure chambers- tested optimal conditions for the Luftwaffe & nterseeboots C- Sunlamps- simulated desert warfare & conditions in Africa to see how long a human could survive while the skin slowly burned & optimal treatments D- live bacterium, gasses & poisons were often injected into the veins & lungs of victims to test immunity & death rates IV- T TT The Lebensborn Project 1- Life Spring- secret Nazi breeding program of the SS to enrich German racial lines & assist German women to give birth to racially pure children to increase the Aryan population for Hitlers Thousand Year Reich 2- Racially pure German women were mated with SS officers to produce offspring 3- Some children remained with their birth parents, others were adopted by SS families or raised by the state V- T TT The Aftermath 1- Over 12 million people were exterminated by the Nazi regime 2- anyone deemed to be impure & not Aryan were to be liquidated- Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, political dissidents, physically & mentally handicapped, etc 3- The Nuremberg Trials- high ranking Nazi officials are tried for crimes against humanity A- Most tried were given prison sentences, 12 were given the death sentence B- Showed both leaders & soldiers could be held accountable for their actions in war But this trial has shown that under a national crisis, ordinary men -- even able and extraordinary men -- can delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and heinous that they beggar the imagination - Judgement at Nuremberg