Crimes Against Humanity:

The HolocaustApril 8th 2019

Crimes Against Humanity: Learning Objectives

• 6.1.1 Define: anti-Semitism

• 6.1.2 Know, understand and be able to explain

the progression of the Holocaust from 1933 until

1945

• 6.1.3 Examine international response to Jewish

refugees during and after the Second World War

• 6.1.4 Identify international action and human rights legislation resulting from this period

Key Terms

• Anti-Semitism – hatred and/or discrimination against Jews

• The Aryan Race – Term misused by Hitler identify what he considered “The Master Race” – people of Nordic or Germanic ethnicity

• Genocide – The deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular race or nation

• Holocaust – The systemic, state-sponsored persecution and annihilation of European Jews by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

The Nuremberg Laws1935

• Jews could not:

– have German citizenship

– marry non-Jews

– work for non-Jews

– teach, practice law, work in hospitals, or banks

• People were not allowed to play the music of Jewish Composers, own books by Jewish writers

• All Jews had to wear a yellow star on their clothing

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

• 1938 : Kristallnacht

KristallnachtNovember 9th, 1938

• Nazi’s began to encourage public violence against Jews

• Many non-Jewish German citizens ransacked Jewish businesses and Synagogues.

• This act of terrorism had been ordered by the SS

• This event is known as “The Night of the Broken Glass” or Kristallnacht and represents a violent turning point

Pogrom

• A violent riot at massacre or persecution of a particular religious or ethnic group

Kristallnacht: Historical Thinking

• Basic: What was Kristallnacht? When/Where did it happen?• Identify the following people

– Herschel Grynszpan– Ernst vom Rath– Joseph Goebbels– Reinhard Heydrich

• Is it a primary or secondary resource?• If it is secondary, what primary sources does it refer to?• What were the causes and consequences of Kristallnacht?• How does Kristallnacht meet criteria for significance?• Continuity and Change

Polish assassin 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpanafter his arrest in Paris where he had shot German envoy Herr Ernst von Rath, Third Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris.

(Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

Aftermath

• 7000 businesses destroyed

• 100’s of Jews killed

• 30,000 sent to concentration camps

• Jews were now banned from using public transit

• Banned from public buildings

• Forced to clean up the mess

• Jews were strongly encouraged to emigrate from Germany, the fortunate ones did…

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

• 1938 : Kristallnacht

• 1939 : WWII Begins – Invasion of Poland

• Einsatzgruppen

• Ghettoization

1939 – Invasion of Poland

• WWII begins

• Blitzkrieg

Jewish Ghettos1939

• WWII begins with the invasion and quick defeat of Poland in September

• Polish Jews are subsequently rounded up and forced into crowded, unsanitary housing compounds called Ghettos

• Food supply to the ghettos was restricted in attempt to starve people to death

• Disease was rampant, medical care scarce

Warsaw Ghetto

• The biggest Jewish Ghetto, in Poland’s capital

• 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi) in size

• 400,000 residents

• Saw an uprising in January 1943

• 17 SS were killed as a result

• The Ghetto was then liquidated

• The Judenrat were administrative “town councils” that the Jews were forced to form

• Kept track of Ghetto populations

• Appointed Jewish Ghetto police

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

• 1938 : Kristallnacht

• 1939 : Ghettoization

• 1939 : Einsatzgruppen Death Squads

Einsatzgruppen Death Squads1939 - 1941

• Mobile killing units, followed the (Wehrmacht) regular army into Soviet Russia

• Under the command of Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler

• Rounded up and executed Jews & Communists

• Buried them in mass graves• Killed about 1 million Jews

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

• 1938 : Kristallnacht

• 1939 : Ghettoization

• 1939 : Einsatzgruppen Death Squads

• 1942 : Wanssee Conference

The Wanssee Conference1942

• A meeting of senior officials of the Nazi Regime

• The goal of the conference was to find a “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question”

• That solution was to use Jews as slave labour in concentration camps, working them to death “natural causes”

• Survivors would then be executed in death camps “special treatment”

• The goal was to eliminate all Jews from Europe

January 20th, 1942

• 15 high-ranking Nazi party and German government leaders gathered for an important meeting in a Berlin suburb, Wannsee

• The meeting had been called by Adolf Eichmann, at the order of ReinhardHeydrich

• The goal of this conference was the debate of the so-called "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"

The Minutes

• A record of the Wannsee Conference was uncovered in 1947

• What is being proposed at the meeting?

• What euphemisms are used? What do you think their true meaning is?

• What in this document may be particularly damning toward Nazi Germany as far as war crimes are concerned?

The Holocaust A Timeline

• 1933 – Hitler leads campaigns of hate filled propaganda, begins to purge the civil service of Jews, the first people are sent to concentration camps

• 1935 : The Nuremberg Laws are passed

• 1938 : Kristallnacht

• 1939 : Ghettoization

• 1939 : Einsatzgruppen Death Squads

• 1942 : Wanssee Conference

• 1942 – 1945 : Millions killed in concentration and death camps

Concentration Camps

• First ones were built in 1933• First prisoners were Jewish

civil servants fired from their jobs under the new Nazi government

• Forced labour camps, strenuous work was demanded from prisoners

• Prisoners were underfed and malnourished

• Disease and sickness were widespread

Heinrich Himmler at

Dachau Concentration

Camp - 1936

Concentration Camps & Death Camps

Concentration Camps

• Provided cruel and crowded living conditions

• Insufficient food

• Forced labour

• Death from exhaustion, malnutrition and exposure were common

• Eg. Buchenwald, Dachau

Extermination Camps

• Main purpose was industrial-scale mass murder of people.

• Eg. Auschwitz-Birkenau

Liberation of Mauthausen - 1945

Nazi Concentration & Death Camps

Crematoriums

• My job was to cut off their hair and check for any gold teeth, and remove those. Then we’d load them into the ovens. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, this was my job– Shlomo Venezia, Jewish Prisoner at

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Liberation

• As the war was ending, many prisoners endured death marches from the camps into the interior of Poland

• In other camps the SS hurried to destroy evidence of their crimes

• The Soviets were among the first Allied forces to discover some of these camps

• Americans, British and Canadian forces would discover others and be shocked by what they saw.

Elie Wiesel (1928 - 2016)

• Holocaust Survivor

• Imprisoned in Buchenwald and Auschwitz

• Won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Night

• Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Josef Mengele

• SS Doctor

• Preformed grotesque and inhumane “experiments”

– Infection studies

– Hypothermia studies

– Head injury studies

– Twin studies

• Escaped to South America after the war

The MS St. Louis

• Left Hamburg on May 15, 1939

• 907 Jewish Passengers seeking refuge

• They were denied entry by almost every country in the Americas and forced to return to Germany.

William Lyon Mackenzie King

• Prime Minister 1935 – 1948

• “Not a Canadian Problem”

• “None is too many”

• In the period 1933 - 39 of 800,000 Jews seeking refuge from the 3rd Reich, Canada admitted roughly 4000

Righteous Among the Nations

• Oscar Schindler

• Raoul Wallenberg

• Nicholas Winton

(A honorific title used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis)

Nuremberg Trials (1945 – 46)

• Military tribunals held by the Allies after WWII

• Prosecuted high ranking Nazi Party officials for crimes against humanity

• Most were sentenced to death, very few, lengthy terms of imprisonment

• Herman Goering• Commander of Luftwaffe• Highest Ranking Nazi at Nuremberg• Sentenced to death, took cyanide night

before execution

• Rudolf Hess• Had been Hitler’s deputy Fuhrer• Attempted unauthorized diplomatic

mission to England• Spent the rest of the war in a British

prison• Sentenced to life in prison at

Nuremberg• Committed suicide in 1987

The United Nations

The United Nations

• Formed directly after WWII

• Intergovernmental organization

• Central Mission: to maintain international peace and security

• Multilateralism – participation by multiple parties on a particular issue

John Peters Humphrey1905 - 1995

Essay Questions