Holocaust

JewsHitler and the Nazi’s hated anyone who was not Aryan - pure German (blonde hair and blue eyes.)

These included gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and disabled.

They especially hated the Jews and Hitler believed they were to blame for everything that was going wrong in Germany including mass unemployment.

Bullying

In 1935 Jews basic rights were taken away from them. They were not allowed to

•Have pets

•Use bikes

•Travel on public transport, use public swimming pools or parks

•Have mixed marriages, a non- Jew marrying a Jew

Nazi soldiers would smash Jewish shop windows.

Jews were often beaten up on the streets.

In 1933, all Jews were sacked from their jobs meaning that they had no means to support themselves.

GermansIf Germans went against

Hitler and the Nazi’s

they were put in prison

or worse.

German children were

taught Race Study at school,

teaching them that all Jews

were wicked.

Ghettos• Jews were then told to leave their homes and were

sent to the ghettos. • The ghettos were restricted streets that we specifically

for the Jews. • Within the ghettos thousands of people lived.• Each house had space for roughly ten people up to

thirty lived per house.• There were few toilets, little running water and

minimal food.• Many people including the elderly died from

starvation and bad health.• The ghettos were the most disgusting areas in the

town, cut off from the outside world.

Liquidation• As the ghettos got more and more crowded and people from

across Europe were being moved the Nazis needed to develop their plan.

• So the ‘final solution’ was decided.• This solution was to exterminate the Jewish race

• This was achieved through concentration or extermination camps.

• The ghettos were liquidated (emptied) and people were hoarded onto cattle trucks.

• The people believed they were going to a new place where they would all have houses to start a fresh life.

• Hundreds of people were forced into the small carts.

• On the days that people travelled within the trains many people died as there was no food, water, no toilet and only room to stand.

Concentration Camps• A selection of Jews was taken from the ghettos and

sent to concentration camps.• Concentration camps were prison camps were Jews

were worked often with little food and no sanitation.• Because so many Jews were transported to the

concentration camps working these people till death made little difference.

Only those that could work were sent.Such camps include Auschwitz 1 and the largest Auschwitz lllThe punishments that were given for breaking the rules were brutal.

Extermination Camps

• Many however were just terminated.

• These included babies, old, disabled or weak because they could not work in the concentration camps and therefore of no use to the Nazis.

• These people were sent straight to gas chambers.

• The biggest Extermination camps included Auschwitz Birkenau, Treblinka and Sobibor

• The living conditions in the camps were horrendous.

• The prisoners could only go to the toilet twice a day – morning and night.

• Many had dysentery and had to share a toilet between hundreds of people.

• 3 people shared a small barrack which were made of wood. Some had straw but others nothing. The prisoners at the bottom often did not survive the night.

MURDER•The Nazi’s started by shooting the Jews. They would be lined up and shot but this was too expensive and also took too long.

•The Nazi’s then designed and created chambers which they filled with gas.

•These was a much more economical solution to mass murder.

•Jews were told to take off all their clothes because they were going for a shower.

•Once they were in, poison was let into the chamber, killing every Jew within 20 minutes. The gas was often so strong that the bodies melted together.

•The hair was removed (if it hadn't been already) and the gold teeth and anything of any value was removed.

•Nazis also kept ‘souvenirs’ of disabled victims body parts e.g. legs.

•Corpses were then burnt in pits often by the Sonderkomando (Jewish workers)

•The ashes were then dumped in a pond or even scatted on the ground as fertiliser.

Body Parts• The hair taken from the victims was used to stuff pillows and

mattresses• If Jews had gold teeth these were removed and melted down• Jewellery, clothes and possessions were taken and often used

by the soldiers

• Glasses were kept and re – used• Tattoos were cut off and used as lamp

shade decorations ( Ilse Koch Wife of a Nazi

Camp commandant "The Witch of

Buchenwald" by the inmates because of her

alleged cruelty and lasciviousness toward

prisoners.)

Records• Meticulous records were kept• Every detail was recorded• Many inmates at Auschwitz where tattooed a number often on the

forearm or chest and for children on the lower back.• Many prisoners also had their photograph taken• At the beginning records were kept of when the prisoner arrived at

the camp, name, number, nationality and also when they died and how.

• As the number of prisoners increased into the hundreds of thousands it was harder to keep track of every person entering and leaving the camp.

• The Nazi's wanted to create a museum of an exterminated religion• In fact the records were used as evidence against the Nazis and

helped future families trace their ancestors.

Children• Children were often used as experiments.

They were put in cold water to see how long they could survive

• They were put in boiling water to see how long they could survive

• They would experiment on their brains• We have liver and heart transplants

because of the experiments on Jews• All these were done without anaesthetics

Liberation

• On January 27, 1945 Auschwitz was liberated.

• This story however does not end here.• Thousands of prisoners died after liberation due to ill

health but also over eating.• These prisoners also had no where to return.• Their houses had been taken over by other families.

• They were met with great prejudice and got little help from the government or people to re establish their lives. Many fled to other countries such as Britain and Israel.

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