The Holocaust

Adolph Hitler• Failed artist, brilliant

speaker• Appointed chancellor of

Germany in January 1933• August 1934: President of

Germany died, Hitler became leader (no legal limit to his power) and established a dictatorship

• April 30, 1945: Hitler committed suicide rather than be captured by Allied forces

"SA and SS, Heil! The great time has now begun. Germany is now awakened. We have won power in Germany. Now we must win over the German people. I know, my comrades, it must have been difficult at times, when you were desiring change which didn't come, so time and time again the appeal has to be made to continue the struggle - you mustn't act yourself, you must obey, you must give in, you must submit to this overwhelming need to obey."

--Hitler on the night he was appointed Chancellor

Nazi Party• National Socialist German

Worker’s Party• SS (Schutzstaffel) = Hitler’s elite

guard– Led by Heinrich Himmler

• Gestapo = Nazi police force• Final Solution = mass murder of

Jews• Propaganda

– Anti-Semitism = hatred of Jews

• Aryan race = pure Germanic race– Tall, white, blonde hair, blue eyes

“Jews are our misfortune”“The result! A loss of racial pride.”

“HE is responsible

for the war!”

“Healthy Parents Have Healthy Children”

How could it happen?

• In February 1933 the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down under mysterious circumstances

• It was treated as an act of terrorism• The next day Hitler convinced the German

president to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree– Suspended peoples’ civil rights (freedom of speech,

assembly, and press)– Allowed for imprisonment of Nazi opponents without a

trial

• One month later, the first concentration camp (for political opponents) was established

Victims• Jews

– 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust

• Roma (Gypsies)– Considered “unproductive” and “socially unfit”

• Poles and Slavs– Considered “inferior” and were used for forced labor

• Jehovah’s Witnesses– Refused to salute Hitler or join the army

• Mentally and physically disabled– Considered “incurable” or “unworthy of life”– Forced sterilization

• Male homosexuals

Anti-Semitism

• Nazis organized nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses

• Laws were passed to prevent Jews from holding university, government, law, and medical jobs

• Nuremberg “racial laws” = Jews were officially second-class citizens– No sex or marriage between Jews and

“persons of German or related blood”

Anti-Semitism

• 1941: All Jews over 6 living in Germany were required to wear a yellow Star of David in public at all times

Why Would People Follow?

• June 30-July 1, 1934

• “Night of the Long Knives”

• Hitler ordered the Nazis to murder members of Nazi leadership, army, etc.

• Deemed the murders “legal and necessary to achieve the Nazi Party’s aims”

Anti-Semitism and the U.S.

• Most countries (including U.S.) were unwilling to ease immigration restrictions

• Most of those fleeing Germany had nowhere to go

• 1939: U.S. and Cuba refuse the St. Louis, a ship holding 900 Jewish refugees; they were forced to return to Europe

Ghettos• Closed off by walls, barbed-wire fences, and gates• Crowded and unsanitary

– Starvation, shortages, harsh winter weather, outbreaks of epidemics and high death rate

• Warsaw ghetto in Poland = largest– 450,000 Jews in 1.3 square miles

• Run by Jewish councils and Jewish police– Chosen by Nazis

• Illegal activities– Smuggling of food and weapons– Youth movements– Cultural events– Education

• Some armed uprisings

Concentration Camps

• Primarily for detention and labor

• First camp (model for all others) = Dachau

• Forced labor– Pointless and humiliating– Work meant survival (those who couldn’t work

were shot)– Factory and farm work– Many were literally worked to death

Extermination Camps

• Mass murder (usually gassed or shot)• Prisoners sent to these camps were

usually immediately sent to gas chambers• Considered top secret• Sonderkommando = prisoners who were

forced to cremate the gassed bodies• Largest and most infamous = Auschwitz

(Poland)– Up to 8,000 prisoners per day were gassed

Medical Experiments

Three kinds:

1. To aid survival of German military personnel

2. Development / testing of drugs and treating injuries and illnesses of German military

3. Advancement of the racial ideals of the Nazi Party

Survival of German Military

• Freezing people to find out how to treat hypothermia

• High altitude tests to see how little oxygen people need to survive

• Drinking salt water to see if seawater could be made potable; sometimes prisoners had salt water injected into their bloodstream to see what happened

Drug Testing

• Prisoners were given various drugs

• Prisoners were exposed to diseases and were gassed in order to test antidotes

Josef Mengele

• “Angel of Death”• Worked at Auschwitz• Worked mostly on sets of

twins• Goal was to establish the

racial inferiority of Jews• Wanted to know if

different races could withstand different diseases

Kristallnacht

• “Night of Broken Glass”

• November 9-10, 1938

• Synagogues burned

• Jewish homes and businesses looted

• At least 91 Jews killed

• 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps and jails

Didn’t Anyone Know?

• Hitler went to extremes to hide what was going on

• Olympics were held in Berlin in 1936

• All Anti-Semitism was toned down (propaganda was removed)

• Jews were even included on the German Olympic teams

Allied Invasions

• As the Allied forces began to invade, the Nazis needed to cover up their atrocities

• Many camps were liquidated

• Crematoria and gas chambers were demolished

• “Death marches” = prisoners were evacuated by SS units and forced to march to evade Soviet troops

How Long Did It Last?

• 1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor • 1934: Hitler becomes dictator• September 1,1939: World War II begins• December 8, 1941: U.S. enters WWII• 1945: concentration and death camps liberated• April 30, 1945: Hitler commit suicide• May 7, 1945: Germany surrenders• September 2, 1945: Japan surrenders, WWII

officially ends

Aftermath

• Many survivors had nowhere to go• Were put in DP (Displaced Persons) camps• Many Nazis fled and lived in hiding for the rest of

their lives• November 20, 1945:

– 21 major Nazi leaders went on trial in Nuremberg, Germany

– 18 were convicted– 11 sentenced to death