bellwork – may 1

Bellwork – May 1• Write the following quote • “It is fortunate for those in power that people do not think.” Adolf Hitler

• What does it mean?

Stages of the Holocaust

• "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."      -Martin Niemoeller on the failure to speak up against the Nazis

Stage 1- Definition• All Jews must wear a star

on their clothes.

Jewish girls

Stage 2 - Segregation• Jews life is made miserable so they

will leave Germany.• Two problems • 1. Nowhere to go• 2. Germany kept expanding and

gaining more Jews.

Stage 3 - Deportation• All Jews were forced to

move into Ghettos.

A Secret Plan In the fall of 1938, the parents of a five month old boy wrote to Adolf Hitler. In their letter, they told Hitler that their son was born blind, had a leg and part of an arm missing and seemed to be mentally impaired. They asked Hitler to allow their doctor to kill the child in a merciful manner.

Hitler sent his own doctor to examine the baby. After the doctor confirmed the baby’s condition, Hitler granted the parents’ request. The doctor gave the child a drug, and the baby was “put to sleep”. The cause of death was recorded as “heart failure.”

In granting the permission, Hitler saw an opportunity to improve the Aryan race and to save the government money. In October 1939, just one month after World War II began, he authorized a top secret mass-murder program.

The program targeted physically and mentally disabled infants, children, teenager, and adults living in hospitals and institutions. By killing these patients, the Nazis could use the money saved on their care to fund the war effort. It would also free more doctors, nurses and hospital to care for wounded soldiers.

A new law soon required all nurses to report deformed newborn babies. Nazi doctors also selected patients too physically or mentally unfit to live productive lives. In the eyes of the Nazi government, these people were “useless eaters” and a burden to the taxpayer. It simply cost too much to care for them.

Stage 4 - Extinction• 1st Type - Mobile killing units –

round up Jews and shoot each one on the edge of the city.

• Killed 1.5 million in 18 months.• Problem – too hard for soldiers to

have to kill people everyday.

Jews, on their way out of the city pass corpses lying on the street.

Men first have to dig their own graves.

Germans go through the clothes of the dead Jews.

Stage 4 continued

• 2nd type – Death camps• Jews placed in gas chambers and

killed.• One camp killed 600,000 in 10

months with only 104 staff members.• This seen as the final solution to the

“Jewish Problem”.

Children in a Ghetto

Homework

• Which is worst, the instigator or the bully?

• Choose one and 5-7 sentences explaining why.