“first they came for the communists, but i was not a communist so i did not speak out

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.

And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Pastor Martin Niemoller

HOLOCAUSTTHE THREE STAGES OF NAZI PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS

Background

Anti-Semitism (words or actions that are anti-Jewish) goes back thousands of years to the times of the IsraelitesDuring the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe were restricted to certain sections of cities called ghettos

The Nazi government used anti-Semitic propaganda

Stage I: Anti-Semitic measures and laws

Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (above right) orchestrated these measures which also included book burnings by Jewish writers, boycotting Jewish stores, banning Jews from many professions

1936 Olympics - Berlin - Jesse Owens

Boycotts

The Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1936 which denied Jews any rights to German citizenship and forbade mixed marriages between Jews and Germans

Kristalnacht

In 1937, the Nazi storm troopers (SA) destroyed many Jewish shops and synagogues in an event called Kristalnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)

Stage II: Deportations

At the beginning of World War II, the Nazis developed a territorial solution by deporting Jews to Nazi occupied countries in Eastern Europe (mostly in Poland)

Jewish families were forced to live in ghettos such as the Warsaw Ghetto (above right)

The Babi Yar Massacre occurred where 30 000 Jews were killed in two days and buried in a ravine

Stage III: (The Final Solution)

SS officer Adolf Eichmann was in charge of the elimination of all European Jews

Executions (done by the Einzatsgruppen) began in experimental gas vans which used a cyanide gas called Zyklon B

Many concentration camps were converted to death camps such as Auschwitz (right), Treblinka, Belzec and others; most of these were in Poland

European Jews were rounded up told they were being deported by train

The selection process

Their hair was cut and they were told to undress before they showered

The gas chambers (lower right) were disguised as showers

The dead bodies would be transported to the crematoriums where they would beincinerated

Other images of Auschwitz

Jews were not the only victims; others included Poles, Gypsies and HomosexualsSome camps had doctors such as Josef Mengele (right) who did medical experiments, mostly on twins

There were some sympathizers who helped Jewish families such as Oskar Schindler (top) and Raoul Wallenberg (bottom), Wallenberg helped 700 Hungarian Jews emigrate to Sweden

Towards the end of the war in 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the death camps and found a small number of survivors such as Simon Wiesenthal (right)

Following the war, dozens of Nazi officials were prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg Trials

Images: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum