Refers to a specific genocidal event in the 20th century history

Defined:

the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945 - USHMM

Hitler’ Rise • Rejected Austrian

artist• WW I veteran• Treaty of Versailles• Beer Hall Putchz • Leader of the National

Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi)

• Multi-party system• National Elections• Nazi party wins

plurality of 33%• Hindenburg names

Hitler chancellor• Constitutional

freedoms suspended

Germany

Targeted GroupsTargeted Groups

• Jews • Soviet Prisoners• Sinti and Roma• Handicapped• Jehovah Witnesses • Communists and enemies of the

state• Homosexuals and a-socials

But won’t there be a negative outcry from

world leaders?

“Who, after all, speaks of the annihilation of the

Armenians?” – Adolf Hitler

Selected Nazi Legislation - 1930s

1933One day boycott of Jewish shop

1935Nuremberg Laws

Jews lost citizenshipJew/Aryan marriage outlawed

1938Jews carry ID cardsJewish street names replacedPassports marked with “J”

Jews barred from streets on Nazi holidays

1939Curfew for JewsJews turn in radiosPolish Jews required to wear Star

of DavidAll Jews must have a Jewish first

name – Sarah or Israel added if necessary

Selected Nazi Legislation – 1940s

1940German Jews into “protective

custody’Income tax to support Nazi party

1941German Jews wear Star of DavidPolice permission needed to leave

residenceFriendly relations with Jews

prohibited

1942Turn in all wool and fur clothingApartments marked as JewishNot use public transportationNot buy meat, eggs, milkNot have birds, dogs, cats, etc.Blind & deaf not wear identifying

armbands in traffic

1943 Jewish criminals sent to

extermination camps

KristallnachtNovember 1938

• Attache von Rathe shot and killed by Grynszpan, a Jew

• Demonstrations end with Jewish shops destroyed and looted

• 267 Synagogues burned or desecrated

• 91 people killed others beaten, 30,000 arrested

• 1 billion RM fine on Jews

• Jews pay own repairs• FDR recall US

Ambassador to Germany

Nazi Propaganda

"The result! A loss of racial pride." The Poisonous Mushroom

Eugenics• Selective breeding – basis

for Master Race

• Sterilize unfit parents and potential parents

• Euthanize “life unworthy of life”

• Operation T-4– Disabled killed

– Starve, injections, gassings Cemetery at Hadamar

Refugee Issue

So who will take in the Jews?

Kinder Transports December 1938 – September 1939

• 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children enter Great Britain

• Children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia

• Most never see parents again

• Many were converted to Christianity Children in the Netherlands

shortly before evacuation to London

Voyage of the St. LouisMay 1939

• Departed Hamburg for Havana - May 15, 1939

• 937 passengers almost all Jewish

• 29 allowed into Cuba• Ship forced to leave Cuba• Passengers eventually

divided between:England Netherlands France Belgium

• Most killed by Nazis

Passengers attempt to communicate with friends and

relatives in Cuba

EvianJuly 1939

• Meeting called by FDR

• Resort on Lake Geneva

• 32 Countries attend

• Discuss Jewish Refugees

• No country was willing to accept refugees

• Costa Rica and Dominican Republic would accept a small number for a large sum of money

postcard of Evian-les-Bains

“Green Light Go” – New York Times

Nazi Goal: Expansion for “Lebensraum” –

Living Space• Rhineland

• Austrian Anschluss

• Sudetenland

• Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

• Invasion of Poland – WW II begins

Wannsee Conference January 20, 1942

• Villa in a affluent suburb of Berlin• Meeting lasts less than 90 minutes• 15 officials – 8 have PHD’s• Euphemisms

– “Special treatment”– “Bath house”– “Arbeit Macht Frei”– “Final solution”

Villa at Wannsee

Resettlement to the East• Crowded cattle cars• One suitcase of

belongings• People gathered:

– volunteers– forced– “actions”– transit centers– ghettos

• Destination: – ghettos– camps Train car used in transport - Yad Vashem

Ghettos• Ghettos established by decree

on Sept. 21, 1939• Goals

– Isolation– Forced labor– Access murder/deportation

• Conditions– Life directed by Judenrat– Overcrowded – Unsanitary/disease infested– Starvation rations

Street in Warsaw Ghetto

Warsaw Ghetto Wall

Types of Camps

• Concentration

• Forced-labor

• Transit

• Extermination or “Death Camps”

Dachauestablished March 22, 1933

Barracks with “beautification project “ – line of trees on the right

Mauthausenestablished August 8, 1938

“Stairs of Death” Carrying stones up the “Stairs of Death

WesterborkGerman control July 21 , 1942

Camp blueprint Train depot inside the camp

Auschwitz-Birkenauestablished May 20, 1940

Aerial view of Birkenau Zyklon B Label – used for gassings

Perpetrators• Nazi SS – Schutzstaffel

– Death Head’s Unit

– Heinrich Himmler

– Adolf Eichmann

– Joseph Mengele

• Einsatzgruppen– Special action group

– 3000 troops in 4 units

– Goal: make German controlled areas “judenrein”

Heinrich Himmler

Einsaztgruppen

Execution of a group of Soviet civilians

Execution of a Ukrainian Jew

Collaborators• Indigenous police forces in

France and Netherlands

• Hungarian troops/fascists

• Slovakian Hlinka Guard

• Ustasa – Croatian Nationalists

• Anti-Soviet elements in:– Ukraine

– Estonia

– Latvia

– Lithuania

Ustasa militia execute prisoners near

Jasenovac camp

Bystanders• Person who is present,

without being involved, at an incident where another life or dignity is in danger

• Did people living near camps know what was happening?

• What actions could have been taken to stop the Holocaust?

• What risks were involved in taking a stand against the Nazis?

Two German women file past corpses at newly liberated

Buchenwald

Victims• “Not all victims were Jews but,

all Jews were victims” –Wiesel

– 6,000,000 Jews

– 3,000,000 Soviet POWs

– 3,000,000 Catholic Poles

– 700,000 Serbs

– 250,000 Sinti & Roma

– 70,000 Handicapped

– 12,000 Homosexual

– 2,500 Jehovah Winesses

Each number is an INDIVIDUAL with goals, dreams, and families

Mania Halef, age 2killed at Babi Yar

ResistanceOpposition to Hitler and Nazi

ideology took many different paths

which shared a common destination.

Partisans• Underground

– Oppose Nazis

– Many were anti-Semitic

– Selective membership

• Bielski Brigade

– Open Jewish membership

– Included all ages and genders

• White Rose

– Students at University of Munich

• Various Political Factions

Kalinin Jewish partisan unit (Bielski group)

Spiritual• Prayer Groups

• Torah Studies

• Religious Services

• Kosher Tradition

• Observance of Holidays

• Religious Literature

• Maintain the will to liveclandestine school in the Kovno ghetto

Cultural• Art

• Music– Concerts– Cabarets– Operas

• Plays• Literature• Schools/Libraries• Language

– Yiddish– Hebrew

prisoners' orchestra in Buchenwald

Hiding• Bunkers• Concerns

– Health– Age– Supplies– Secrecy– Assistance– Denouncing

• Generosity of Others

hiding place for Dutch Jews

Passing• Physical appearance• Cultural norms• Language• New residency• Name• Family history• Societal expectations

Vladka Meed in Warsaw

Righteous Among the Nations

Gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews; honored at Yad Vashem

• Raoul Wallenberg• Oskar Schindler• Corrie Ten Boom• Miep Gies• Varian Fry (only American)

Raoul Wallenberg

Oskar Schindler with Ludmila Pfefferberg-Page

Hiding/Destroying Evidence

• Distribution of confiscated belongings

• Transport stockpiled belongings and valuables

• Dismantle camps• Physical destruction of

Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoriumsDestroyed Crematorium in Birkenau

Death Marches• Forced marches to interior of

the German Reich

• killed for impeding progress

• Death toll: 250,000 - 375,000Starvation Wounded

Sick Exposure

• Those considered unable to survive the march left behind– Otto Frank in Auschwitz

death march from Dachau to Wolfratshausen

Now the world knows

Russia Majdanek July 23, 1944

Auschwitz January 27, 1945

British Bergen-Belsen April 15, 1945

America Dachau April 29, 1945

Germany Hitler suicide April 30, 1945

America Mauthausen May 5, 1945

VE Day WW II Ends May 8, 1945

After the War

Displaced personsThose who did not want to be

repatriated placed in DP Camps

• German Army barracks

• POW camps

• Concentration Camps– Bergen-Belsen

– Dachau

• 1957 Last DP Camp closed - located in Belgium

vocational training in displaced persons camp

Bringing perpetrators to justice

• International military tribunalCrimes against humanity & peace War crimes Conspiracy

161 convictions

• Trials within individual countries

Nuremberg defendants

Amon Goeth Plaszow camp

Eichmann receives death sentence in

Jerusalem

Some Holocaust Legacies• Anti-Semitism

– Common tie between hate groups

• White supremacist organizations

• Political ideologies tied to Nazi Philosophy

• Hate Crimes

• Establishment of Israel• UN acknowledgement

of genocidal issues• Importance of civil

rights and individual freedoms

• Human Rights Organizations

• Holocaust Centers and Museums

Share the lessons soShare the lessons so

“Never Again”

TRULY means

“Never Again”“Never Again”