The Holocaust

Mr. HardyRandolph IB Middle School

2013-2014

Key Vocabulary• Genocide

– the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

• Holocaust– a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire.“– the systematic destruction of the Jewish population by Nazi

Germany– More than 6 million European Jews, as well as members of

other persecuted groups, such as gypsies and homosexuals, were murdered

• Death Camps or Concentration Camps– a place where large numbers of people are imprisoned

sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution

The Master Race

• The Master Race is a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic race- or the Aryan race—was racially superior. – Ancestry originated in the Germanic plains– Think blond hair and blue eyes!

• Believed that they were superior because they were less racially mixed.

• Nazis eventually decided to exterminate those who posed a threat to the Aryan Race– Became known as “The Jewish Problem”

The New Order

• “The year 1941 will be, I am convinced, the historical year of a great European New Order.” -Adolf Hitler, 1941

• It would:– Ensure the master race was supreme– Expansion into Eastern Europe through

colonization– Annihilation of Jews and others that were

“unworthy” to live

Kristallnacht• Night of the Broken Glass• a series of coordinated attacks against Jews

throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria • November 9-10 ,1938• Carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-

Jewish civilians. • German authorities looked on without intervening.• The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of

broken glass in the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.

Jewish Ghettos

• Jewish Quarters of a city• Used to segregate Jews from the supreme

race• Required by law to live there• Usually the most undesirable parts of a city

Concentration Camps

• First built in Germany in 1933• Used to hold political opponents and union

leaders• Held 45,000 prisoners by 1933 all across central

Europe• Then used to purge German society of so-called

"racially undesirable elements" such as Jews, criminals, homosexuals, and Romani people.

Concentration Camps

• During World War II, the number of camps exploded to more than 300,

• Political prisoners and "undesirable elements" from across Europe were mass-incarcerated generally without judicial process.

• Concentration Camps were used to re-educate according to Nazi values, held POWs, or were labor camps

• People were treated like slaves

Extermination Camps

• Camps during World War II built primarily but not exclusively by Nazi Germany

• To systematically kill millions of people by execution (primarily by gassing)

• Extreme work under starvation conditions• Most were a combination of Extermination

and Concentration Camps

The Horror of the Nazi

Auschwitz

• Polish• Auschwitz I: the base camp • Auschwitz II–Birkenau: the extermination camp• Auschwitz III–Monowitz: a labor camp • At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz• around 90 % of them Jewish• Approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in the

Holocaust died at the camp

Death Marches

• Prisoners were forced to march for tens of miles in the snow to train stations

• Transported for days at a time without food or shelter in freight trains with open carriages

• Forced to march again at the other end to the new camp.

• Those who lagged behind or fell were shot. • Around 250,000 Jews died during these marches• Used to move from one camp to another to hide the

atrocities of the Nazis.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN54KXEnxf4

Liberation

• The first major camp, Majdanek, was liberated by the Soviets on July 23, 1944.

• Most others followed soon after

• "There our troops found sights, sounds, and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind.“ – Colonel William W Quinn

Liberation