holocaust

Operation Barbarossa and the Holocaust  In what ways did Germany persecute Jews in the 1930s?  How did Germany’s policies toward Jews develop from murder into genocide?  Why did Hitler turn his attention on the Soviet Union?

Voices from the Past….  “We had to form a line and an SS man stood there with a little stick. I was holding hands with my mother and…he sort of pushed me to one side and my mother to the other side…and shortly thereafter, some trucks arrived…and we were loaded onto the trucks.” Gerda Weissman Klein, sole survivor of her family  “Thirty or forty of us were shot every day. A doctor usually prepared a daily list of the weakest men. During the lunch break they were taken to a nearby grave and shot. They were replaced the following morning by new arrivals from the transport of the day…”

Rudolf Reder, Belzac prisoner  “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night…”

Elie Wiesel

Operation Barbarossa- 1941 After the evacuation at Dunkirk, Hitler turned his attention on the USSR. Hitler believed the Britain may still become his ally In 1941, Hitler embarked on Operation Barbarossa, the conquest of the Soviet Union. He believed the Russian people (Slavs) to be an inferior race of people - untermenchen (sub-human) The Nazis smashed deep into Russia, but were stalled before they could take Moscow and Leningrad. Such Rapid gains convinced Hitler it was time to exterminate this inferior race, and his Einsatzgruppen (death squads) began to round up Slavs and kill them. The Soviets at first saw the German Army as liberators from Stalin’s oppressive Regime, now knew that surrender meant death Thousands of German soldiers froze to death in Russia’s winter. Russians also suffered appalling hardships. Stalin urged Britain to open a second front in Western Europe.

Einsatzgruppen in Action

Persecution Begins  Jews in Europe faced persecution for their religious beliefs for centuries. In the 1800s, some thinkers developed the theory that European peoples, whom they called “Aryans” were superior to Middle Eastern peoples, called Semites. Europeans began to use the term anti-Semitism to describe discrimination or hostility, often violent, directed at Jews.  When Hitler became Germany’s leader in 1933, he made anti-Semitism the official policy of the nation. No other persecution of Jews in modern history equals the extent and brutality of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of European Jews. In all, some 6 million Jews would lose their lives.  Repressive policies against Jews escalated during the 1930s. In 1935, for example, the Nuremberg laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship.

Some other policies included: exclusion from public schools, forced sale of Jewish businesses, and marked identity cards. Jews were also forced to sew yellow stars marked “Jew” on their clothing.

Violence Against the Jews  When Hitler came to power he formed the SS, or the Schutzstaffel, an elite guard that became the private army of the Nazi Party. The SS guarded the concentration camps, or places where political prisoners are confined under harsh conditions. Nazi camps held people whom they considered undesirables—mainly Jews, but also Communists, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, and the homeless.  Any hopes among Jews that they could survive German persecution under Hitler were dashed when, on the night of November 9, 1938, Nazi thugs throughout Germany and Austria looted and destroyed Jewish stores, houses, and synagogues.

This incident became known as Kristallnacht, or “Night of the Broken Glass.”

Nearly every synagogue was destroyed and thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After Kristallnacht many Jews sought any possible means to leave the country.  Jewish refugees were not welcomed in many nations, in part because of the Depression. To deal with this problem, FDR called the Evian Conference in 1938.

But still, most nations, including the United States, refused to open their doors to more immigrants.

Kristallnacht

From Murder to Genocide  As German armies invaded other European countries, more and more Jews (even those who had escaped) came under German control. Nazis dealt with these Jews by confining them in ghettos, areas in which minority groups are concentrated. Nazis confined more than 400,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto in Poland. Thousands of Jews died in the ghetto as a result of disease.  In 1942, Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference outside Berlin. They developed their plan to commit genocide, or the deliberate destruction of an entire ethnic or cultural group, against the Jewish people, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question  To carry out their plan, the Nazis outfitted six camps in Poland with gas chambers. Unlike concentration camps, these death camps existed primarily for mass murder.  The U.S. government knew about the mass murder of Jews for two years before President Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944. Despite its late start, the WRB’s programs helped save some lives.  Horrified by the German death camps, the Allies conducted the Nuremburg Trials in November 1945. They charged a number of Nazi leaders with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Quick Quiz….

Why was Kristallnacht a critical event for Jews living under Nazi control?

(A) (B) (C) (D)

It proved that they could resist the Nazis.

It proved that Hitler would lose power quickly.

It proved that they would have to leave Germany to escape persecution.

It proved that the United States and other countries in Europe would not protect them from the Nazis.

How did the United States government initially respond to the news of the Holocaust?

(A) (B) (C) (D)

They showed little interest in dealing with the problem.

They opened the doors for immigration.

They entered World War II to end Jewish persecution.

They helped fund Jewish resistance groups.

Nazi Death Camps •As the far began to turn in favor of the allies, the Nazis tried to speed up the extermination of the Jews •Several Death Camps were built in Europe. They became factories of death. At Auschwitz, up to 50,000 people per day were executed.

•Many more died of starvation and disease •The Major Extermination Camps were in Poland, far removed from German civilians. A few of the camps were: •Buchenwald •Belzec •Auschwitz •Bergen-Belsen •Chelmno

Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps

Location: Weimar, Germany

Buchenwald

Established: 1937 Liberation: April 11, 1945, by the US Army Estimated number of victims: more than 56.000.

This estimate does not include 13000 inmates transferred to Auschwitz or other extermination camps "As of September 21, 1939, I was obliged to carry corpses in Buchenwald. I did that for

2 and a half years. During the winter of 1939, they erected a tent camp near the actual crematorium, where more than 40 prisoners died every day, from cold and starvation. As well, the SS adjutants Blank and Hinkelmann poisoned many of them. The prisoners received a half-liter of light soup and one bread for 8 inmates. It happened once that two prisoners were carrying the corpse of one of their comrades, hoping to receive a bigger bread ration. Blank and Hinkelmann often threw the food in the mud, so the prisoners had to kneel to get it while Blank and Hinkelmann beat them with sticks and whips. . . ."

Buchenwald

Buchenwald

Buchenwald Survivors

Auschwitz-Birkenau: “Arbeit macht Frei!”

Auschwitz-Birkenau Estimates range from 1.1- 4.1 million executions at Auschwitz

Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs.

The Gas Chambers & Zyclon B "There was a sign 'to disinfection'. He said 'you see, they are bringing children now'. They opened the door, threw the children in and closed the door. There was a terrible cry.

A member of the SS climbed on the roof. The people went on crying for about ten minutes. Then the prisoners opened the doors. Everything was in disorder and contorted. Heat was given off. the bodies were loaded on a rough wagon and taken to a ditch. The next batch were already undressing in the huts. After that I didn't look at my wife for four weeks." from the testimony of SS Private Book

Crematoriums

Medical Experiments

Liberation!

Conclusion • Over 6 million Jews were executed in extermination camps •Many more were worked to death as slaves in concentration camps like Dachau •There are a variety of groups today who deny the holocaust ever happened •Could it happen again?