Andrea Richardson & Alicia Smith

The Holocaust

“Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews…until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.”

— Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

http://www.librarising.com/astrology/celebs/images2/A/adolfhitler.jpg

1933-1945The term “Holocaust” refers to the Nazi’s

persecution of the Jewish peopleTargeted Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals,

Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the DisabledEthnic cleansing of anyone that did not fit

Hitler’s idea of a perfect race.

The Holocaust

What was the most difficult part of being a child during

the Holocaust?

Was it Having to Wear a Badge?

Yellow Star of David with the word Jude in the middle

November 23, 1939Jews 10-years old

or olderSeptember 1, 1941

All Jews were required to wear the yellow Star or arm band

Wearing a Badge

http://www.holocaustcentermilwaukee.org/images/children_star.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ys4yaY-ijmk/Sr3HL6chgpI/AAAAAAAAAGI/1r7Lc5P9Ngc/s400/yellow_badge.jpg

Made them a target of violence and humiliation

Wearing a Badge

He who wears this symbol is an enemy

of our people.

http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/judentum-aktenlage/hol/EncJud_judenstern-d/008-kleber-jude-ist-feind-unseres-volkes.jpg

Wearing a badgecaused fear.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_ph.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007295&MediaId=6222

I had no choice but to wear the star.

―Delia Van Haren

The yellow badge was a kind of stamp. A stamp that distinguished me from the rest of the population. Anyone could approach me, tell me, do to me whatever they wanted.”

—Jutta Szmirgeld, age 12

www.holocaust.com.au/jn/images/pic_peter.gif

Was it Being Segregated and Excluded?

Segregated from the general public and excluded from

parks

Jews: Entry is Forbidden

Sign at the entrance of a park

Jews go to the left, non-Jews to the right.

Sign on a streetcarImages from: http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/krakow/krkw_pages/krkw_ghetto.html

November 15, 1938 All Jewish children are

expelled from public schools.

Segregated Jewish schools are created.

Excluded from School

Diary Entry: During the war, I’ve been studying by myself, at home. When I remember that I used to go to school, I feel like crying.

—David Rabinowitz, August 1940

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/theworldforgets-on-remembrance-day.html

Forced to live in ghettos

Excluded from Neighborhoods

http://lifeboat.com/images/jewish.ghetto.jpg

The Ghettos

Images from: www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/krakow/krkw_pages/krkw_ghetto.html

v Diary Entry: When I look at the barbed wire that separates us from the rest of the world, my soul longs for freedom—like a bird in a cage. My eyes are filled with tears. I envy those birds that can fly freely. When I write these words my heart breaks and I see images from the past. Will I ever live in better times? Who knows? It’s a difficult question. May God help us. Will I be with my parents and friends after the war? Will we have enough bread and rye flour? Right now the starvation is at its peak. Once again we have nothing to cook…. Everybody wants to live.

—Anonymous girl, March 6, 1942,

the ódz ghetto in Poland

http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/photo/lc/image/51/51733.jpghttp://www.kosherdelight.com/GermanyHolocaustChildrenPoland.gif http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3426769/AN-EXHIBITION-OF-THE-

UNITED-STATES-HOLOCAUST-MEMORIAL-MUSEUM-WASHINGTON

Was it Hiding From the Nazi Army?

Hiding in the Sewer

http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/story_krystyna.asp

Krystyna and her brother Pawelek Chiger lived for 14

months in a sewer, never seeing the light of day.

Later we headed for the sewer. It was very wet and dark. I was very scared and I was shaking, but I tried to be calm and only asked Daddy if we still had far to go. There were stones with yellow worms crawling all over. We put all our things over the stones and sat on top of them. It was awful there. Water seeped from the walls and it smelled bad. I saw large, red rats which ran by us just like chickens. At first I was very afraid, but later I got used to it. My little brother, Pawelek, was not scared at all.

—Krystyna Chiger

Pawelek, 3 years old

Krystyna, 7 years old

Hiding AloneOften, families were torn apart. In a desperate attempt to save their children, parents made the agonizing decision to leave their little ones with strangers. And, frequently, children were left to fend for themselves, wandering through forests and villages in search of food and shelter.

http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/photo/lc/image/89/89473.jpg

Thousands of Jewish children survived the Holocaust because they were protected by people and institutions of other faiths.

Children quickly learned to master the prayers and rituals of their “adopted” religion in order to keep their Jewish identity hidden from even their closest friends.

Hiding Under a Different Religion

http://z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/t/5/children7.jpghttp://www.gexweb.com/Holocaust/inside/images/SisterHuberte.jpg

Hiding Under a Different Religion

I was 4 years old and my brother was 5-1/2 years old when we were first separated from our parents and placed in a Protestant orphanage in Belgium. I was a depressed and confused child, but with the passing of time, I began to believe that all children lived away from their parents.

— Lili Silberman

Lili & Charles Silberman with their Mother

http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/beyond_tears1.gifhttp://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/beyond_tears2.jpg

Was it Living in a Concentration Camp?

Concentration Camps Life within Nazi

concentration camps was horrible.

Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and yet given tiny rations.

Prisoners slept three or more people per crowded wooden bunk (no mattress or pillow).

Torture within the concentration camps was common and deaths were frequent.

http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00841/HOLOCAUST/holocaust%20pics/holocaust2.jpghttp://library.thinkquest.org/12663/media/img/children.jpg

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/auschwitzscrapbook/2005Photos/GasChamberClose-up.jpg

• Because children were generally too young to be deployed at forced labor, German authorities generally selected them, along with the elderly, ill, and disabled, for the first deportations to concentration camps, or as the first victims led to mass graves to be shot.

• Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau and other killing centers, the camp authorities sent the majority of children directly to the gas chambers where they were killed by poisonous gases.

Children Were Often Killed First

Children being led to the gas chambers.

http://robertbonnett.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/nazi-camp1.jpg

• Physicians and medical researchers used a number of children, including twins, in concentration camps for medical experiments that often resulted in the deaths of the children.

• Concentration camp authorities deployed adolescents, particularly Jewish adolescents, at forced labor in the concentration camps, where many died because of conditions.

Slide 8 www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/fragments/theStar.html www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007295

Slide 11 http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/2009/theme.asp

Slide 14 http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3426769/AN-EXHIBITION-OF-THE-UNITED-STATES-HOLOCAUST-

MEMORIAL-MUSEUM-WASHINGTON

Slide 18 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html

Slides 3 and 21 http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm

  Slides 22 and 23

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005142  Slides 16, 17, 19

http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/story_beyond_tears.asp

References