A Glimpse at the History of The Holocaust

“Silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can – however unintentionally – serve to perpetuate the problems.”

Germany was no longer a great superpowerGermany had to adhere to the Versailles

Treaty:Drastically reduce army Disarm Pay restitution fees

The German people were not accepting of rules.

German nationalism began to thrive.

The Aftershock of WWI

Nazi Party National Socialist German

Workers Party A right-wing political

party, formed in 1919 of mostly unemployed German veterans of WWI

Revived the hope of the public

Ideology:Calls for the rejection

of the Versailles TreatyForeigners and foreign

influence are to be rejected

Jews are included in the foreigner rejection

Jews and foreigners blamed for the problems in Germany.

1933: Nazi party assumed power in Germany and Hitler was appointed Chancellor

How gained power: an atmosphere of fear, distrust, and suspicion led people to betray one another and the Nazi Party to gain acquiescence of social institutions Civil service Educational system Churches Judiciary Industry &Business

Specific event in the 20th century: the state sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933-1945. Jews were the primary victims- six million were murdered; gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

Holocaust:

Hitler served in the German army during WWI.

He was a struggling artist for much of his life.

His ability to engage a crowd during speeches propelled him to the forefront of the party.

Hitler speaking

The Rise of Hitler

Jews were blamed for Germany’s defeat in WWI, economic issues, and the spread of communism

Nazis believed Germans were racially superior, all others were a biological threat to the Aryan raceJewsRoma (Gypsies)Handicapped Slavic (Poles, Russians, and others)Behavioral and Political: Communists,

Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, Freemasons

Why the Killing

1933-1939The Germans moved to extend their power in

central Europe, annexing Austria and destroying Czechoslavkia.

Hitler convinced the cabinet to suspend individual freedoms; 3/23/33: Enabling Act gave Hitler dictator powers

Jews were forced to quit civil service jobs, university& judicial/court positions; boycott of Jewish businesses

Nuremberg Laws: Jews declared second-class citizens

1937-39: end of economic freedom 1938: physical attack on Synagogues, stores,

and homes

Phase One

KristallnachtThe night of broken glass

Propaganda - information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

Hitler and the Nazis used brilliantlyFilms, posters, radio

Focused on problems in Germany caused by the Jews.

Nazi Propaganda

"Hitler is building. Help him. Buy German goods."

Membership in the Hitler Youth had become mandatory in 1936.

"The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war."

The movie, The Eternal Jew, was put out to display Jews as rat-like, old, and money grubbing.

Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as minister of propaganda.

Created films to bolster Nazi accord.

Goebbels's deeply rooted contempt for humanity, his urge to sow confusion, hatred and intoxication, his lust for power and his mastery of the techniques of mass persuasion were given full vent in the election campaigns of 1932, when he played a crucial role in bringing Hitler to the centre of the political stage.

He was rewarded on 13 March 1933 with the position of Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, which gave him total control of the communications media - i.e. radio, press, publishing, cinema and the other arts.

Joseph Goebbels

Invasion of Poland and Soviet UnionKidnapping of “Aryan-looking” childrenKilling of institutionalized by gas chambers,

and later lethal injection, pills, and forced starvation

Creation of more killing sites, concentration camps, and slave labor camps

Phase Two 1939-1945

Entrance to Auschwitz

Poland contained massive Jewish population: 3.3 million.Less than 1% of Germany’s population was

Jewish (600,000)Germany invaded Poland on September 1,

1939.Jews face incredible horrors.

Invasion of Poland

Nazis force Jews to move into cramped, wretched neighborhoods called ghettoes.

Families would share the same living space, which would be comfortable for two people.

Jewish Ghettoes

Ghettoes provided slave labor for Nazi war machine

Some ghettoes paid a menial wage (less than 25 cents a day).

Some labor served no other purpose than dehumanization

Ghettoes cut off from regular supplies issued to neighboring populations

Smugglers play big role in ghettoes

Judenrat - Jewish council in charge of carrying out Nazi policy inside the ghetto

Little children able to sneak around guards to get outside the ghetto walls

113,000 Poles evacuated to make space for 400,000 Jews

Conditions remained relatively normal at first, but quickly turned for the worse

Poor sanitary conditions cause typhoid outbreakBy April 1941, the mortality rate was 60,000

people per month.From 1942-1944 Germans wanted to rid of ghettos by sending residents to extermination camps

Warsaw Ghetto

Nazis could not get rid of Jews fast enoughTheir plan to deport them to Africa was not

realisticGermany invaded the Soviet Union in June

1941German war with Soviets = perfect time to

exterminate all Jews foundMobile killing units were set up, shooting all

Jews and Gypsies in fields/ravines in the conquered cities

Then established six extermination centers in Poland with gas chambers and crematoriums People were brought there from German-

occupied western Europe and ghettos in eastern Europe

The “Final Solution”

The separation.

Right or Left.

Crematorium

Elie Wiesel at age 15, before entering the concentration camp

Male barracks. Elie Wiesel

Work Make You Free

ResistanceThere was resistance

from within the camps, and some organized by othersDanish resistance,

rescued nearly the entire Jewish community of Denmark

Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat

U.S. government did not pursue a policy of rescueFocus on warClaimed “unaware”

of extremity of issue until war

1944: War Refugee Board, Fort Ontario: port for refugees from territories liberated by the Allies

Nazis destroyed more than 7,000 Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Berlin.

The Jews were held responsible for paying for the damage.

description

Sobibor Death Camp

Death Marches Allied forces approached German soil in late

1944SS (Security Police) evacuated outlying

camps and attempted to cover up evidence of genocide

Prisoners deported to camps inside GermanyLong journeys on foot: death marches

All camps became extermination sitesMay 1945, Nazi Germany collapsed

Things to Look for While Reading…

Themes / Symbols / Motifs:Alienation Death Environment Faith (loss of)FireInhumanity LiesMissed OpportunitiesNon-Human Imagery

Literary Devices:ForeshadowingImageryIronyMetaphors PersonificationSimiles Symbolism

NightParental Bonds Segregation SilenceTraditionWeather

Nonfiction: typesAn autobiography is a sketch of the

author’s entire life, often from birth up until the time of the writing.

A memoir focuses on one aspect of the writer’s life. Memoirs usually cover a relatively short span of time, and their main purpose is to draw the reader’s attention to a specific theme or circumstance.

Nonfiction: other typesA biography is the story of a life from

another person’s perspective.An essay is a short nonfiction work that

addresses a specific subject.A speech is a talk or an address presented to

an audience.

Night by Elie WieselAutobiographical, memoirFocus on observation - describes an event

that the writer witnessed firsthand. Elie Wiesel - Bearing Witness - invites us to

listen, and to remember. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

BackgroundPrewar European population: 9.5 millionMost Jews lived in eastern Europe, primarily

in the Soviet Union and Poland.The Nazi party came to power in Germany in

1933.The Germans moved to extend their power in

central Europe, annexing Austria and destroying Czechoslavkia.

Background (2)Germany invaded Poland in 1939, beginning

World War II.Over the next two years, German forces

conquered most of Europe.The Germans established ghettos in occupied

eastern territories, isolating and persecuting the Jewish population.

Background (3)Nazi anti-Jewish policy expanded with the

invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.Mobile killing units murdered Jews, Roma

(also called Gypsies), Soviet political commissars and others.

The Germans and their collaborators deported Jews to extermination camps in occupied Poland.

Background (4)At the largest extermination camp,

Auschwitz-Birkenau, transports arrived almost daily from across Europe.

By war’s end, almost six million Jews and millions of others had perished in the Holocaust.

Postwar European Jewish Population, ca. 1950: 3.5 million

Terms to KnowHolocaustGenocideGhettoPrejudiceDiscriminationKapoLosGestapo

RaceEthnicityAnti-SemitismEuphemismFascismDeath campConcentration camp

HolocaustHolocaust means “complete destruction by

fire.” The term is now associated with the murder

of more than six million Jewish people during World War II.

GenocideGenocide is a word that combines the Greek

word “genos” (meaning race, people, or nation) and the ending “cide” (meaning to kill).

Genocide refers to the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

GhettoThe confinement of Jews in a set-apart area of

the city.

PrejudicePrejudice comes from the word “prejudge”

(pre-judge, or judge beforehand).A prejudice is a preconceived opinion or

feeling formed without knowledge, thought or reason.

Prejudices are often based on stereotypes.

KapoCamp prisoner forced to oversee other

prisoners.

losGerman for “Go on!”

Anti-SemitismHostility toward or discrimination against

Jewish people.

EuphemismA mild or vague term that is substituted for

one that is harsh or offensive.“To pass away” is a euphemism for “to die.”

FascismA system of government with centralized

authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship and usually a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

Concentration campCamps that were primarily used for slave

laborHolding camps orTransit camps

Adolf Hitler

“The Fuhrer,” dictator of Germany (Chancellor – 1933,

President – 1934), a demagogue and tyrant who obtains power by appealing

to the emotions and prejudices of the masses.

Third ReichThe Third Republic of Germany which began

with Hitler’s rule in 1933 and ended with

his defeat in 1945.

SS

“Schutz-Staffel” (literally defense echelon), established in 1929 as Hitler’s blackshirted bodyguards. They became the

elite guards of the Nazis trained in brutality and put in

charge of concentration camps.

Gestapo•The secret police organized in 1933 to uncover and undermine political

opposition.•German acronym for the German

Secret State Police•Part of the SS

•Notorious for terrorism against enemies of the state.

Tesienstadther

The “model” concentration camp used to deceive the visiting International Red Cross. Many artists were imprisoned here and later

killed.

The Final Solution

The plan devised in 1941 to speed up the system of

killing the Jews and “undesirables.” The previous method of

shooting and burying the dead was too “costly and

inefficient.” This final method used an efficient system of gas chambers

and crematories to kill the Jews. Six of these death

camps were built and often were kept working round

the clock, killing thousands per day.

Selection

Term used when the SS forced prisoners to line up for inspection and decided which prisoners would live and which would be killed.