The Holocaust

a) Discuss the nature of the Holocaust and b) address individual and collective responsibility in human rights issues

Discuss Canada’s response to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust

Explain how intolerance has been an issue in Canada since 1914

11 Million people were killed, murdered, exterminated

~ 6 Million Jews~ 5 Million other “undesirables”

Walmart employees: Worldwide – 2.2 millionAmerica – 1.4 million

Estimated people (military and civilian) working in the

Nazi concentration camp system, 1943-45:4.5-5 million

“Anti-Semitism”Racism / Hatred of Jews

Reasons for Anti-Semitism in Germany?

Europe?

167,000 Jews in Canada, representing 1.5% of

the population Most lived in Montreal,

Toronto and Winnipeg The majority were foreign-

born and many spoke Yiddish as their first language.

A 1943 Gallup poll put Jews in third place, behind the Japanese and Germans, as the least desirable immigrants to Canada

During the Holocaust from 1933 to 1945, Canada admitted fewer than 5,000 Jews, arguably, the worst record of all the other refugee-receiving countries.

By contrast Argentina admitted 50,000 Jewish refugees; Australia, 15,000; Brazil, 27,000; the United Kingdom, 70,000; and the United States, 200,000.

Summer 1939:907 German Jews with visas for Cuba

sailed from Hamburg aboard the S.S. St. Louis.

When the ship reached Havana on May 27, the Cuban government refused to honour their landing permits.

Panama, Argentina, Columbia, Chile and Paraguay all denied the ship permission to land.

The Americans sent its coast guard to escort the St. Louis northward and away from the American coast.

S.S. St. Louis

The St. Louis’ last hope was Canada. The Canadian government refused them.

Many of the passengers who disembarked in Belgium, France and the Netherlands were later

caught up in the Holocaust and perished.

Defining the HolocaustHOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah)

which originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire

the annihilation of the Jews and other groups of people of Europe under the Nazi regime during World War II

GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group

Casualties of the Holocaust:

63% of Jewish population in Europe killed

91% of Jewish population in Poland killed

Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. The Soviets found 836, 255 women’s dresses, 348, 000 men’s suits, 38, 000 pairs of men’s shoes and 14, 000 pounds of human hair. But only 7, 650 live prisoners

“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one”

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think”The victor will never be asked if he told the truth”

The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew”

What do all these quotes have in common?

All are quotes from ADOLF HITLER…

The Holocaust was a progression of actions leading to the annihilation of millions by: 1: Stripping of Rights

2: Segregation

3: Concentration

4: Extermination

Evil in Stages…

Sept 15, 1935: Nuremberg Laws stated that all JEWS were :

- stripped of German citizenship - fired from jobs & businesses boycotted - banned from German schools and universities- Marriages between Jews and Aryans forbidden- Forced to carry ID cards - Passports stamped with a “J”- forced to wear the arm band of the Yellow “Star of David”- Jewish synagogues destroyed- forced to pay reparations and a special income tax

Stage 1: Stripping of Rights

GHETTOSJews were forced to live in designated areas called “ghettos” to isolate them from the rest of society

Stage 2: Segregation

- essential to Nazi’s systematic oppression and eventual mass murder of enemies of Nazi Germany (Jews, Communists, homosexuals, opponents, gypsies)

- Slave labor = “annihilation by work”- Prisoners faced undernourishment and starvation - Prisoners transported in cattle freight cars - Camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation

Stage 3: Concentration

Stage 4: ExterminationEinsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) had began killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities in the 1930s

But this was soon realized to be too inefficient… Too much time, a waste of bullets.

Wansee Conference (Berlin -1942 ) established the “complete solution of the Jewish question”

called for the complete and mass annihilation and extermination of the Jews as well as other groups Zyklon B gas became the agent in the mass extermination

The “Final Solution”

Prisoners were sent to gas chambers disguised as showers

Zyklon B gas used to gas people in 3 – 15 minutes

Up to 8000 people were gassed per day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp with 4 operating gas chambers

Gold fillings from victims teeth were melted down to make gold bars

Prisoners moved dead bodies to massive crematoriums

Gas Chambers and Crematoriums

With the end of the war and the liberation of the concentration camps, the atrocities of the Holocaust became more widely known. Hundreds of thousands of surviving European Jews found themselves displaced with no homes or communities to return to.

Despite this growing refugee crisis, Canada steadfastly maintained its restrictive immigration policies. In 1945 a senior Canadian government official was asked how many Jews he thought that Canada would be prepared to admit. His response, which reflected Canada’s official position at the time, was “none is too many.”

“None is Too Many”