Holocaust Background

Anne Frank Unit

Hitler’s Rise to Power

• World War I (1914-1918) is a disaster for Germany• They enter the war as the strongest nation in the

world; at the end they lose everything.• Germans though the war was lost due to internal

treason because the government hid the truth about the war.

• 80% of all men in Germany between the ages of 18-30 were killed, maimed, or “shell-shocked” during WWI

Treaty of Versailles

• Treaty of Versailles- the peace treaty that ends WWI

1. Limit army- German army can not have more than 100,000 men.

2. No manufacture of items needed for war (tanks, guns, etc.)

3. Germany must make reparation payments.

Results of Treaty

• Germans hated this treaty because it blamed Germany for WWI.

• Treaty resulted in anger, revolts, and Germany felt humiliated

Postwar Conditions in Germany

• High Inflation• Unemployment• Great political unrest and rioting• Jewish people were blamed for Treaty of

Versailles (scapegoats)

Adolf Hitler

• Born April 20,1889 in Austria

• Austrians speak German• Not a German citizen

until 1930• Dropped out of school at

age 16• Wants to be an artist-fails

entry exam at Vienna Academy of Fine Arts

Adolf Hitler

• Did not hold a permanent job

• Joined German army in WWI and served as a message runner (a dangerous position)

• Wounded twice during the war

• Reached rank of corporal

1919

• National Socialist German Workers Party = NAZI

Anti-democraticRacist against JewsNationalistic- believe their country is the best• Nazi party was formed by 7 members who

met in beer halls1920-Hitler joins to find meaning in his life

1924

• Beer Hall Putsch (takeover)• Met in beer hall, planned armed rebellion to

take over Germany and put in their own president

• Hitler goes to prison for treason for 5 years• Used the publicity of the trial to preach Nazi

ideas and compromises

Mein Kampf

• While in prison Hitler writes Mein Kampf, or “my struggle,” about his life and Nazi philosophy

• Introduces the idea of a master race

• Sells millions of copies• By 1933 it outsells all books

except the Bible• December 20- Yuletide

Amnesty- all prisoners set free• Hitler only serves 10 months

of a 5 year term

1925-1929o 1925- only 27,000 dues-paying members in Nazi party• 1928- 4 times that number even though government banned

the party because of Beer Hall Putsch• 1929-Great Depression in USA caused depression in Germanyo 1930: 30% of Germans unemployed

20% of Germans under-employed• Hitler tells people they were betrayed by Jewish bankers and

moneylendersThe Depression was the single greatest reason for Hitler’s rise to power (people were vulnerable and fearful)

Hitler set up soup kitchens, hired his own troops, and bought a national newspaper

1933• January 20- Hitler is elected Chancellor (vice-

president) of Germany under Hindenburg• Tears up the Treaty of Versailles• February 27- Reichstag Fire-claims

Communists are attacking the government (inspires fear into the German people)

• March 24- Enabling Act- gave Hitler legal dictatorship; allows him to pass laws without legislature

• People lose freedom of speech, press, and civil rights; can only agree with Nazi ideas

1933• Ignores Treaty of Versailles• Hitler creates jobs and brings people out of the

depression• Because he is able to restore the economy, people

love him• Two powerful weapons: appeal to Anti-Semitism and

charismatic personality, great speaker• Dachau- builds first concentration camp for political

prisoners (people who break Nazi laws)• Begins removing rights: people need to register as

Jews, boycott of Jewish shops

1934• August 2- President Paul von

Hindenburg dies; Hitler takes over powers of presidency

• Office of presidency is now eliminated; Hitler becomes dictator of Germany

• Army swears allegiance to him

• Germany is now a police state

• Begins murdering mentally challenged and the ill

Nuremberg Laws

• Nuremberg Laws- laws of race and citizenship against the Jews

No Jew could be a citizenNo Jew could marry a non-JewNo Jew could hold position or job in military,

universities, or governmentNot welcome to see doctors or lawyersCould only shop in Jewish stores

1937

• Hitler goes to war• Hitler invades Austria on basis that all

German-speaking countries were one country.• Hitler’s expansion could have stopped at this

point if Britain, France, and the USA had intervened because Hitler did not have the military power to pull it off.

1938• (July) Evian Conference- 42 countries met abut

Jewish immigrants. They waited for the U.S. to decide to take Jews in- only 26,000 Jews were allowed in.

• Munich Pact- signed September 30, 1938• Meeting held between Hitler (Germany),

Mussolini (Italy), Neville Chamberlain (England), and Daladier (France): agreed to give the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia to Germany

• Tried to appease Hitler and avoid war

1938- Kristallnacht

• November 7= Kristallnacht ( Night of Broken Glass)

• An organized pogrom against Jews (mass violence, homes and businesses destroyed, synagogues destroyed, Jews beaten)

• Turning point in the extermination of the Jews

Images of Kristallnacht

1939• Jews were forced to carry ID cards, they were

rounded up and sent to ghettos• August 23- Germany and Russia sign a non-

aggression pact- they will divide Poland between them

• September 1- Invade Poland, which has a large Jewish population and no army

• WWII begins

World War IIAllies

• England (never conquered) • France (conquered in 1940)

Axis• Germany• Japan (fights in Pacific)• Italy• Russia

1939• Basis for “Final Solution” begins• Hitler issues sterilization laws• Practiced gassing in vans- people learned to

be desensitized to this type of killing and were brain-washed into believing they were doing the right thing

• Hitler called this a “scientifically clean, productive way of killing”

• Targeted victims included political leaders and religious leaders of opposing groups

1940 “Final Solution”

• Hitler conquers Holland, Belgium, and France• “Final Solution” begins to get rid of all Jews• Concentration camps were created (considered

labor camps as opposed to death camps, but food and living conditions were inhumane and people, of course, did die

• 6 specific death camps created- all in Poland, did not want them in Germany because of task of burying the dead, too much bloodshed, and growing of new crops might be affected

Concentration Camps (Poland)

• 1. Auschwitz- Birkenau• 2. Belzec• 3. Chelmno• 4. Maidanek• 5. Sobibor• 6. Treblinka

1941

• June 21, 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union

• Hitler saw the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union as a temporary, tactical maneuver

• Nazi troops annihilate entire villages of Russian Jews

• Stalin (Russian leader) joins the Allies in the war (only country to fight for both sides)

Pearl Harbor• December 7, 1941• Day of Infamy• Japanese attack Pearl

Harbor• Lasts 10 minutes 7:55-

8:05 am• December 7- USA

declares war on Japan• December 11- US

declares war on Germany (last country to enter the war

Wannsee Conference

• January 20, 1942• Meeting between the SS and the German

government agencies• Come up with “Final Solution” to murder 11

million Jews, even in non-occupied countries of Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and Great Britain

• Plan to murder them all in death camps• German resources are depleted from war

effort; German citizens suffering and starving

D-Day

• June 6, 1944• USA and Allies land in

Europe on Normandy Beach (France)

• Known as D-Day• Major step in the defeat

of the Axis powers

1945

• Hitler and close officers had been holed up in underground bunkers in Berlin

• April 30- Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide together- bodies burned to prevent recognition

• Hitler was 56• Russians secretly had bodies exhumed

VE Day

• May 7- VE day- Victory in Europe- when Germany surrendered and WWII ended in Europe!

• August 6 and 9- USA drops the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan

• August 14- Japan surrenders and WAR IS OVER!!!!

Important Leaders during WWII

• England- Winston Churchill• USA- Franklin Roosevelt (through most of WWII)• USA- Harry Truman (at the end of WWII)• Italy- Benito Mussolini• Russia- Joseph Stalin• Japan- Emperor Hirohito• Germany- Adolf Hitler