Target Groups During the Holocaust• Jews

• Jehovah’s Witnesses

• Handicapped

• Homosexuals

• Poles

• Sinti and Roma (Gypsies)

Jehovah’s Witnesses• Founded in the United

States in 1870

• The JW organization sent missionaries to Germany to seek converts

• JW were often known as “International Bible Students”

• Would go door-to-door preaching the word of God

Jehovah’s Witnesses• Bans were set on the

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religious literature

• The Nazi party attempted to break up their meetings and study

• Jehovah’s Witnesses’ refused to fight - during WWI they refused to enlist themselves in the military

• The German Nazi government placed the blame on them for the loss of WWI

Jehovah’s Witnesses• Jehovah’s Witnesses were

sent to concentration camps for refusing to conform to the Nazi law

• By 1939, an estimated 6,000 Witnesses were detained in prisons or camps

• The Nazis identified the Witnesses by making them wear a purple triangle patch

Jehovah’s Witnesses• In the concentration

camps – Witnesses were often used as domestic servants by the Nazi officials

• Witnesses considered trustworthy by the guards, as they refused to escape or physically resist

Jehovah’s Witnesses• During the Nazi years –

10,000 Witnesses were imprisoned in concentration camps

• Estimated 2,500 to 5,000 Witnesses died in the camps

• After liberation, Witnesses continued their work, moving among the survivors

Handicapped• After Hitler took power,

Nazis created laws to preserve the “biologically ‘pure’ population”

• Law was called: “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases”

Handicapped• This law forced

sterilization of all persons who suffered from diseases considered heredity:• Mental illness• Retardation• Physical deformity• Epilepsy• Blindness• Deafness• Severe Alcoholism

“Sterilization Law”• Nazi Germany was not the

first county to sterilize people considered “abnormal”

• The United States led the world in forced sterilizations

• 1907-1939, more than 30,000 people in 29 states were sterilized

• Most were unaware of the sterilization, while they were incarcerated in prison or mental institutions

“Sterilization Law”• Nearly ½ of the

sterilization operations took place in California

• Germany and the US were influenced by the research of Charles Darwin – principle of natural selection

• They believed the human race could be improved by controlled breeding

“Sterilization Law”• No nation carried

sterilization as far as Hitler

• An estimated 300,000-400,000 people were sterilized under law

• Several thousands died from the procedures – mostly women

• Most were between the ages of 20-40

“Marriage Law of 1935” & “Mercy to Death”• Required that those wanting

to get married provide proof that any offspring would not be afflicted with a disability

• Sterilization only lead to further action – the systematic killing of mentally ill and the handicapped

• Patients that were considered incurable were sentenced to death by a “mercy death”

Homosexuals• The Nazi party persecuted

homosexuals with all severity – they felt such vices would lead to the downfall of the German nation

• Nazis feared that homosexuality was an “infection” that could become an epidemic

• 1933: Nazi party shut down homosexual gathering places, organizations and publications

• 1934: Gestapo ordered all police departments to give lists of men suspected of being gay

Homosexuals• 1937-1939: German police

arrested 78,000 men, 1/3 of whom were convicted and sentenced to prison and concentration camps

• Homosexual men were forced to wear a pink triangle badge on their clothing as identification in the concentration camps

• Fellow prisoners shunned the homosexuals, leaving them isolated and powerless

Homosexuals• Not until 1985, did

homosexuals murdered by the Nazis receive the first recognition

• May 2002: German parliament passed legislation pardoning all homosexuals convicted during the Nazi era

Poles: The German Invasion of Poland• 1939: Germans invaded

Poland

• Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union

• 35 million people occupied Poland – most were Roman Catholic

• Poland had an upper, small and middle class

• Poland was filled with well-educated professionals

Poles: Terror Against the Intelligent• Tens of thousands of rich

landowners, business owners, clergymen, government officials, teachers, doctors, journalists and officers were murdered in mass executions or sent to prison and concentration camps

• Germans closed universities, schools, museums, libraries and laboratories

Poles: Terror against the Clergy• Germans demolished

hundreds of monuments

• Germans created laws against providing children with a quality education

• Seized businesses without paying owners

• Germans killed priests

• Seminaries and convents were closed

• Estimated 3,000 clergy members were murdered

Poles: Forced Labor and Terror of the Camps• Forced to wear a purple

“P” sewn to their clothing for identification

• Subjected to a curfew

• Banned from public transportation

• 100’s of Polish men were executed for their relations with German women

Poles: Concentration camps• An estimated 140,000-

150,000 Poles were brought to Auschwitz

• Believed that in total 1.8-1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German occupation

Poles: Resistance• Organized one of the

largest underground movements in Europe

• More than 300 widely supported political and military groups and subgroups

• Poland never surrendered

Sinti and Roma (Gypsies)• For centuries Gypsies

were thought of as social outcasts

• 1933: anti-Gypsy laws changed and others were introduced

• Gypsies were sterilized against their will

• Were considered “racially distinctive” with “alien blood”

Gypsies: Concentration camps• Deportation of German Gypsies –

men, women and children began in 1940

• Gypsies were among the first to be killed by gassing in mobile vans

• Most Gypsies were killed by gassing, or died from starvation, exhaustion, disease (typhus, smallpox and leprosy)

• Others died as a result of cruel medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele

• In total 220,000-500,00 Gypsies were killed during the Holocaust