The Holocaust

1. The Holocaust

2. The Nazis had book burning campaigns for books they deemed “un-German” • Heinrich Heine, a German poet in the 1800s predicted…. “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings” • "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." Beware of those who burn books

3. Anti-Semitism – hatred or discrimination of Jews • The Jewish people had be discriminated against for over 2000 years • Especially by Christians in Europe from the Middle Ages to the years prior to WWII • Prior to the early 1800s Jews could not own businesses • They turned to lending money as a way to earn a living = the reason why stereotypes of Jews are bankers or money hoarders Anti-Semitism in Europe

4. Mein Kampf outlined his goals: one of the main ones being to get rid of non-Aryans especially Jews • Hitler also wanted to enforce racial “purification” • In his view, Germans—especially blue-eyed, blond-haired “Aryans”—formed a “master race” that was destined to rule the world. • Jews, Slavs, Romas (Gypsies) and all nonwhites are “inferior races” • These people along with communists will be targeted during the Holocaust • He was not the first person to say this, the idea was around since the 1850s Adolf Hitler

5. The historical Aryan people came from the Middle East and then to India • So they weren’t white to begin with • He claimed they then came back from India and became the Greeks, Romans, Vikings and then the German people and were basically responsible for most of humanity’s achievements • Ahnenerbe – scientific group to verify this myth • Of course they couldn’t because IT ISN’T TRUE Hitler had no clue what he was talking about

6.  The word is derived from the Sanskrit svastika, meaning “conducive to well-being •  it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism • Heinrich Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors • This was taken by the Nazis (and others) to be used as a symbol Aryan race The Swastika

7. Historians do not all agree • Some say because of his childhood in Vienna • Some say because of WWI and the economic collapse in Germany • Most banks were in Germany were ran by Jews • Others that his mother died because of a Jewish doctor • The fact is that the Jewish people were easy to scapegoat and blame all the problems of Germany on them because many people already disliked them So… Why does Hitler hate the Jews

8. Citizens are encouraged to stop going to Jewish businesses • This became the official policy of the Nazi party • The Nuremberg Laws – passed in 1935 • Stripped Jews of their German citizenship and said Jews could not marry non-Jews Beginning the Persecution

9. From 1933 – 1937 about 130,000 Jews fled Germany • This was encouraged by the Nazis • The most famous of these Jews of Albert Einstein who fled to the US in 1933 Jews fleeing Germany

10. 1937 and 1938 – the Nazis began to “Aryanize” Jewish businesses • “Aryanized” businesses – Jews had to register their property and dismissed Jewish employees and managers. Jewish doctors were banned from treating non-Jews • Germans had to carry ID cards, Jews cards were marked with a big red J • Jews also got new middle names – Sarah for women & Israel for men The Persecution Continued

11. Kristallnacht • “Night of the Broken Glass” • November 9-10, 1938 – The Nazis in Germany and Austria destroyed Jewish stores, houses and synagogues The Persecution Continued

12. Genocide - the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group • In 1939 Germany took over Poland and everything changed • 2 million Jews lived in Poland • The solution, at first, was to put Jews in ghettos by the Gestapo • Gestapo – Nazi secret police force that would round up Jewish populations in Germany and conquered territory to first be put in Ghettos then eventually Concentration Camps From Persecution to Genocide

13. The Warsaw Ghetto Most Famous Ghetto in the capital of Poland

14. During the invasion of the Soviet Union special SS Death Squads were sent behind the advancing army to kill the Jewish populations Invasion of the Soviet Union

15. Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference outside Berlin in 1942 • The plan they came up with was to build special concentration camps • It is in these concentration camps that the Jews will be systematically murdered “The Final Solution”

16. Work makes you free

17. The Nazis built death camps for mass murder • Jews were crammed into trains shipped to the camps • These camps had gas chambers disguised as showers • When the Jews got to the camps, they didn’t really know where they were going or what would happen to them, the elderly, most women and children and those too weak to work were sent to the gas chambers and killed Death Camps

18. Those who were not killed immediately were forced to live in unbearable conditions • Men and women were forced to have their heads shaved and a registration number tattooed on their arms • After Jews were killed other prisoners were forced to carry the bodies to the crematorium Death Camps (continued)

19. At many of the camps Nazi doctors performed inhumane medical experiments • Josef Mengele was the most infamous doctor at Auschwitz. Called the “Angel of Death” • Escaped captured and was never brought to justice Medical Experiments

20. Auschwitz Most Infamous Death Camp

21. Some Jews fought back against the Nazis • In April 1943 the Warsaw ghetto revolted against being moved to a death camp and held off the Nazis for 27 days • In August 1943 the prisoners at the Treblinka camp revolted so badly that it had to be shut down Fighting back

22. Oskar Schindler– saved over 1000 Jews from being sent to Auschwitz by convincing the SS that they were necessary to run his factory for the war effort • ChiuneSugihara – a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who helped save thousands of Jews by issuing visas for them to leave Europe for Japan Saving People

23. American and British leaders learned what was happening at Auschwitz and other camps, but they rejected pleas to bomb the gas chambers or the roads and rail lines leading to the camps. • Military officials opposed the bombing because it would divert "considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations." Liberation

24. Even after it was a foregone conclusion that Germany would lose the war they continued to run these camps • Advancing Allied troops found the camps and liberated the prisoners Liberation

25. Some of the American troops who liberated Dachau were so appalled by conditions at the camp that they machine-gunned at least two groups of captured German guards. • It is officially reported that 30 SS guards were killed in this fashion • The German citizens of the town of Dachau were later forced to bury the 9,000 dead inmates found at the camp Dachau

26. Nazi Camps

27. Before the Holocaust individuals were rarely held accountable for state policies • After the Holocaust top Nazi leaders were put on trial for Crimes against Humanity • As well as others who participated Justice

28. Nuremberg was where it was decided to first start persecuting Jews • Nuremberg Trials • Major War Criminals • 24 were put on indicted 12 were given the death penalty • 12 Additional trials were held for doctors, judges, industrialists and army and SS officers • 185 indicted 12 received the death sentence Justice at Nuremburg

29. Eichmann took part in the Wannsee Conference and was responsible for the deportations to the camps (a main architect of the Holocaust) • He along with many other Nazis escaped after the war • He made his way to Venezuela, who would not extradite him • Mossad, yes the same group NCIS has talked about, sent people to kidnap him and bring him to Israel • Executed in Israel in 1962 Adolf Eichmann

30. Formation of Israel • With the victory the Allies controlled the area that is now Israel • They formed the nation so that Jews would have a country of their own so this did not happen again • Mossad– an agency formed to hunt down Nazi war criminals who escaped Israel

31. Statistics

32. Some people say the Holocaust didn’t happen

34. Tell That to them