Facing the Holocaust:Facing the Holocaust:Why Genocide?

The Aftermath of World War I: A Devastated Germany

German citizens experiencing economic troubles – c. 1925

German Pride Suffers

Loss of WWI was a shock to Germans – promised victory by government

Severe terms of Treaty of Versailles were hard for Germans to accept

Money worthless – one billion marks to equal one dollar

Hitler’s Early Years

Portrait of Adolph Hitler entitled “Our Leader”

Hitler’s Early Years Close to mother – she died of cancer in

1907, he blamed her Jewish doctor Chose the swastika as the Nazi symbol Said that Jews were responsible for the

defeat in WWI because they didn’t fight for Germany – untrue – German Jews had casualty rate 11 times higher than general population

Blamed economy on Jews – Jewish businessmen prolonged the war so they could profit from it

Hitler Rises to Power

Head of the S.S. – Heinrich Himmler

S.S. Chief – Viktor Lutze

Deputy Fuhrer – Rudolf Hess

Nazi Ideology Permeates German Society

Nazi Propaganda Used posters, movies, rallies, and

organizations to spread idea of superiority of German race; Jews seen as “impure”

All newspapers had to support Nazis Foreign papers banned Textbooks rewritten Children’s stories taught the dangers of

Jews – “Trust No Fox and No Jew” Board games had Jewish monsters that

attacked German children

Jews are Isolated and Attacked

"The Jew: He instigates war, he extends war.”

Anti-Semitic Propaganda Jews were pictured as dark-haired, fat, and evil.

They were often depicted as rats or insects. Hitler ordered “good” Germans to boycott

Jewish businesses Nuremburg laws – systematically stripped Jews

of rights – weren’t allowed to marry Germans, they weren’t citizens, their property was taken away, and they were restricted from public places

Required to wear yellow Stars of David on their clothing

Jews provided a rationale, in Hitler’s mind, for his military invasions

Attacks on Jews Escalate

Damaged storefront after Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht Said to be in retaliation for assassination of

a German embassy official in Paris by a Jewish student

Jews forced to pay for the damage ($400,000,000)

Germans portrayed as “spontaneous,” but it was planned for weeks

Many Jews realized they weren’t safe and fled to places like Britain, Palestine, Canada, and the U.S.

Jews Are Forced into Ghettos and Camps

Captive Jewish boy from the Warsaw Ghetto marches off in 1943

Jews Pushed into Ghettos Jews were sent to live in sealed-off areas

called ghettos. Conditions were unsanitary and crowded; executions were common

Ghettos were temporary housing until extermination could begin

By 1939, Jews from northern and western Europe were moved to ghettos in eastern Europe

Jews tried to revolt, but none were successful

The Horrors of Concentration Camps

Prisoners at work at Dachau, 10 miles outside Munich, Germany

Concentration Camps Established First camp established at Dachau in 1933 Inmates were used to support the war

industry Workers were starved, tortured, worked to

death, and, most often, murdered Nazi doctors used Jews for human

experimentation Conditions at the camps varied, but killings

occurred at all camps Auschwitz-Birkenau was designed as a death

camp

Physicians would examine prisoners and decide who could work. Young children were usually sent to death because they could not work.

Belongings were seized and sold by the Germans – watches were sent to German troops, gold from teeth was melted into bars, hair was cut and used to make mattresses

Performed physical labor, like mining – period of three months – deprived of necessities, many died while working

Resistance in the Camps

Ella Gärtner and Róza Robota, two women who took part in the Auschwitz Revolt. Both were killed

for their involvement.

Resistance in the CampsResistance was difficult in the

campsCivilians in surrounding areas were

subject to death with no trial for assisting a prisoner

Prisoners who attempted resistance were always executed

Many prisoners engaged in acts of resistance

The “Final Solution”

Crematoriums used to burn bodies in a concentration camp

The Systemization of KillingAccording to Hitler, the “Final

Solution,” the extermination of all Jewish people, would restore Germany’s greatness

At the beginning, Jews were executed in mass shootings – rounded up, transported to a ditch, and shot in groups of 500

Decided this wasn’t an efficient system – decided to construct death camps

Arrival at Auschwitz Prisoners separated into two groups:

workers, and those to be killed Those to be killed were told they needed to

bathe and were led to gas chambers that looked like bath houses – could hold 3,000 at a time

They were told to fold their clothes and remember where they put them and given towels and bars of soap

Once locked inside, Cyclon B was used to asphyxiate them

Special units of prisoners removed the bodies

Taken to crematoriums, where the bodies were burned – Nazis wanted it to be impossible for someone in the future to determine the number of deaths

In the end, 6 million Jews and 4-6 million non-Jewish civilians, such as Gypsies, handicapped, and homosexuals, were killed

Liberation

Dachau prisoners cheer the liberating U.S. Army

Attempt to Hide Atrocities At the end of the war, Hitler was determined

to continue his killing of the Jews and cover up evidence.

Several thousand prisoners were killed in the last days.

In some cases, Nazis had altered camps, but in many, the remains of bodies were left in ovens and the killing process could be seen.

The Allied nations all made films of what they found in the concentration camps.

The Nuremberg Trials Trials were a part of an aim to establish a

record of what the Nazis did during the war and to punish individuals who were involved.

Many Nazi records were captured, so there was plenty of evidence, like minutes from meetings, photographs, and film.

22 were tried – 12 sentenced to death, 3 to life in prison, 4 to lesser terms, and 3 were acquitted

Bodies of prisoners in the Buchenwald camp. The bodies were about to be burned when the camp was captured by the U.S. Army.

Wedding rings of captured Jews

The arrival and processing of a transport of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland in May 1944

Prisoners in their bunks at Dachau

German soldier killing a Jewish mother and her child

A German policeman shoots Jewish women who remain alive after a mass execution.

Mass grave in the Belsen camp

German soldiers torture a Jew in Poland

German soldiers cut off the beard of a Jew in Poland

Two Jewish pupils are humiliated before their classmates. The inscription on the blackboard reads "The

Jew is our greatest enemy, beware of the Jew".

A synagogue burns in Siegen, Germany, on Kristallnacht

Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz

Medical experiments in Dachau. In order to test how pilots who have to eject from their planes will fare,

doctors simulated high-altitude conditions and exposed people to these conditions. Many prisoners

died during such experiments.

The main entrance of Auschwitz Camp, with its motto "Work Will Set You Free."

Jewish women - Some are holding infants as they are forced to wait in a line before their execution. 

At Dachau concentration camp, two U.S. soldiers gaze at Jews who died on board a death train.

Dachau survivor on the day of liberation.

Dachau survivors on the day of liberation.

Chart of prisoner markings from Dachau concentration camp

SS officer Eichelsdoerfer stands among the corpses of prisoners killed in his camp

Interior of the barracks at Auschwitz

Corpses of women in Barrack 11 at Auschwitz

An American soldier stands above the corpses of children that are to be buried in a mass grave

Two survivors lie among corpses on the straw-covered floor