WWII - War Crimes

Soon after the end of the war, Matsui and his lieutenant Tani Hisao were tried and convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the far East - both men were executed.

After the war ended, how were the crimes committed by the Japanese addressed?

liberated concentration and death camps

As allie's advanced into Nazi occupied Europe l, they

Joseph Megelle

Auschwitz Physician, performed cruel experiments

Reinhard Heydrich

Chair of the Wannsee Conference and helped oversee Kristallnacht (thought he would surpass Hitler)

the policy intended to rid an area of a certain population, not necessarily physical destruction.

Definition of Ethnic Cleansing

-While trying to rest from hunger and weeks of marching, the Japanese troops were seeking revenge for the comrades that they lost. So, as a way to do this they killed families, elderly, infants, raped women, and left their bodies in the streets for months. -Women, about 80,000 were brutally raped and tortured, including young girls and elderly. Women were also mutilated and killed after being assaulted. -The Japanese also looted and burned at least one third of Nanjing's buildings. They went back on their word of protecting the safety zones, and dismantled them and Japanese took control of the city

Describe the Nanjing Massacre in your own words.

-On February 13th hundreds of RAF bombers dropped lethal cargo over the city, and since defenses were so weak, only six were shot down. By the next day, 800 British bombers had dropped more than 1,400 tons of high-explosive bombs and more than 1,100 tons of incendiaries on Dresden that killed many civilians and fired at the city. -Later that day, more than 300 US bombers began bombing Drsden railways, bridges, and transportation facilities as refugees tried to flee, killing hundreds more. -On February 15th another 200 US bombers continued their assault on the city's infrastructure and Later the air force would drop another 2,800 more.

Describe the bombing of Dresden in your own words.

Inmates were usually stripped of all clothes and valuables, shorn of body hair c disinfected, showered, and put on a striped prison uniform without regard to size. They were then given a number that may have been tattooed onto their arm. The purpose of these steps was to dehumanize prisoners. Inmates would begin at dawn where they woke up from their barrack that housed 300-800 inmates, beds were wood. The inmates were organized in groups to go use the bathroom and they marched to the distribution center for breakfast of bread and liquid substance of tea or coffee. They then worked at the mine, favorite, railroad, or airfield building for 10-14 hours often in sub zero weather or in the extreme summer heat. They faced beatings, harassment, and if you resisted orders you were shot on the spot. Numerous role calls were held to ensure no escape, if one did occur, all inmates would suffer

Describe the conditions of Concentration Camps.

The process was to isolate jews socially and economically through physical isolation. The Nazis hoped that a wretched ghetto would deplete and confine the total jewish population. Many died from starvation, disease, and cold. The ghetto also served as a holding area for eventual transport to death camps to those able to survive. Life at the ghetto meant many would become slaves, there was no medicine, food was barely rationed, water was contaminated, epidemics of tuberculosis, typhoid, and lice were common. Bodies were piled up in the street to be pulled away

Explain the process and purpose of Ghettoization.

st. louis

German ship that passed miami in 1939

Herman Goering

Headed Luftwafe. Advocated for confiscation of Jewish business - part of Nuremberg Laws

Death camps had no house for prisoners, only for workers. They were designed solely to kill (except for Auschwitz and Majdanek who allowed the able to work until they no longer could)

How did Death Camps differ from Concentration Camps?

Another plan for mass emigration in which Jews would be sent to Siberia to work as slaves. But, due to the fighting in the Soviet Union the plan dragged on and both this plan and Madagascar plan were shelved to support Final Solution.

How did Generalplan Ost show an increase in Nazi persecution? Why was it abandoned?

The Nazis forced all remaining Auschwitz's prisoners to march toward Germany under indescribably cruel conditions. Approximately 20,000 to 58,000 prisoners died en route from exhaustion, starvation, cold, beatings, and execution by guards

How did Nazis react once the Soviets were advancing toward Poland?

A small group of Western businessmen and missionaries (International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone) attempted to set up a neutral area of the city that would provide refuge for Nanjing's civilians. In December of 1937, the Chinese government left, leaving the International Committee in charge. About the size of central park.

How did foreigners try to help the city?

Germans were using outdated transportation compared to USA's means of transportation was more revolutionized

How does the allocation of resources to the Final Solution foreshadow the outcome of World War II for the Germans?

Between 80,000 and 130,000 lay dead. There were described to be countless bodies floating, all covered in black soot.

How many Japanese civilians died in the operation?

Due to the fact that there were a large number of refugees in Dresden at the time, it is impossible to know the exact number of civilians that died. At the time, 8,000 to over 200,000 were killed. Now, estimates range from 35,000 to 135,000 people.

How many civilians died in Dresden?

forced 23,000 jews into ghetto

Japan took control of shanghai and

refers to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent ro destory the existence of the group

Definition of Genocide

Any Non-Jew found assisting jews through transporting, hiding, buying valuables, or providing food would be sentenced to death.

How did the Nazis ensure non-Jews wouldn't support Jews?

Albert Speer

In charge of war production

protecting human rights mostly monitor (watch to see if human rights are being violated) and investigate (study the impacts and extent) of violations

Main bodies of UN were in charge of

Adolf Eeichman

Organized the deportation and extermination of Jewish people

light industries that produced prefabricated war materials designed for Japanese aircraft factories.

What are "shadow factories?"

The Nzi's planned to ride their land of the jews through forced emigration to Madagascar. The plan called for resettlement of a million jews per year for four years. The Nazis faced a setback when the British issued a naval blockade of the island and then the Battle of Britain suspended all plans.

What was the Madagascar Plan? What setbacks did the Nazis face?

Estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 people

What was the death toll in Nanjing?

The League of Nations was the organization that preceded the United Nations. This organization was dismantled because it played little role in stopping Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain in their rampage for newly acquired land. It ignored each hostility and did nothing to fix it.

Which organizations preceded the United Nations? Using your prior knowledge, why was this organization dismantled?

left to face charges

high ranking officials were

poland — to blame them

most death camps were located in

nuremberg germany

nazi war criminals were out on trial in

night of broken glass

Kristallnacht

Heinrich Himmler

Leader of SS who oversaw killing squads

Joseph Goebbles

Leading propagandist, succeeded Hitler

2nd gen Japanese

Nisei were

Fearful of losing his military forces in battle, China's nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the removal of nearly all official Chinese troops from the city. This lift is defended by untrained auxiliary troops. He also ordered the city to hold and restrict official evacuation of the citizens.

Once the Japanese turned their attention towards Nanjing, how did the Chinese government respond?

The European convention on human rights where all countries and citizens can bring cases. The countries must comply with the verdict given by the court.

The video explains "not all human rights instruments are powerless." What are examples of organizations that can enforce laws or hear cases?

One reason is that it is not easy to enforce the rights or punish the abusers. The declaration is not a hard law so if a country violates it the mechanisms to violate it are not strong

The video lists two reasons why we continue to see human rights abuses. What were the reasons provided:

The crews were also warned that if they were shot down to aim for the water they could be picked up by rescue. They wanted that if they landed on land they would be given the worst treatment by civilians because the mission would be killing tens of thousands of civilians.

What advice did military leaders give to the airmen?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, freedom from discrimination, right to life liberty and pursuit of happiness, freedom from slavery and servitude, freedom of movement, freedom to have a nationality, right to own property, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, right to educate, right to work, right to receive free pay, and right to join unions,.

What are some examples of human rights described in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

They cannot hold countries accountable for following the policy or compensate a victim.

What can the UN NOT do

344 bombers flying just 500 feet above the ground dropped their loads, creating a giant bonfire fanned by 30 knot winds that helped raze Shitamachi and spread the flames through Tokyo. Civilians panicked, but remained trapped in the inferno. The carnage was so bad that the smell of the bodies caused American pilots to grab gas masks.

What factors made the situation particularly difficult for the Japanese civilians in Shitamachi?

The Einsatzgruppen also rounded up Jews for resettlement in Babi yar outside Kyiv who were then mowed down by machine guns. Those who were not wounded were thrown out of the bodies and buried alive. 33,771 Jews were killed a Babi Yar, making the total execution at 100,000 people between 1941-1943 In the summer of 1943, bodies were dug out by slave labor and burned to hide the evidence.

What happened at Babi Yar?

Defines the meaning of the fundamental freedoms and human rights and declares that these rights should be universally protected

What is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The UN is an intergovernmental organization to promote international cooperation. It was formed after WWII to replace the League of Nations

What is the United Nations? Why was it formed after 1945?

They told victims they were being relocated for labor, they issued work permits, and told them to bring along tools and exchange for german currency they were given foreign currency. Food was also used to get them onto the train. Once they arrived, trucks transported the weak to walk directly to the gas chamber, others had to be delivered and enter baths (which were gas chambers) after being seperated by sex. The shower heads were actually inlets for poisonous gas. Each shower could hold 2,000 people at Auschwitz meaning they could kill them in five minutes and 12,000 people daily. The bodies were removed by guys with hazards on, burdened, and their teeth plucked to be melted down for gold.

What methods were used to deceive the Jewish victims that they were going to death camps?

The Allies claimed that by bombing Dresden, they were disrupting important lines of communication that would have hindered the Soviet offensive. While this was true, the British attack was conducted for the purpose of terrorizing the German population and forcing an early surrender as well. Getting back for Battle of Britain.

What was the Allied justification for bombing Dresden to the extent they did?

They were specially trained Units of the SS following the first wave of German troops into the Soviet Union who received orders to kill all communists, Jews, and Roma on the spot. They were estimated to have killed more than a million soviet jews Victims were shot or loaded into enclosed trucks that were loaded with carbon monoxide to asphyxiate victims.

What was the role of Einsatgruppen and what methods did they use to commit mass murder?

They were stripped of all guns except the tail turret to increase the speed of each Superfortress bomber and increase bomb load capacity. They want to increase the speed of planes.

What was unusual about preparing the American planes before attacking Tokyo in March 1945?

Adolf Eichman was a Nazi SS officer who was in charge of transporting enough jews to feed the death camps. He traveled from country to country that was under German occupation to systematically plan the deportation of the local Jewish population.

Who was Adolf Eichmann and what was his role in the holocaust?

Heinrich Himmler was the S.S. Head. He played a role in changing the way that Nazis removed jews. Now, instead of encouraging them to emigrate, they were deported to camps and ghettos in the East, which was a significant step of the Final Solution. The first death camps were designed, like Chelmno which was the site of the first gassing of Jews. They were brought here when the government told them they were being "relocated for work"

Who was Heinrich Himmler? What role did he play?

Camps were expanded to house German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, trade union leaders, Roma, Poles, homosexuals, mentally and physically disabled, people of color, Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhaussen

Who were some of the non-Jews also targeted by the Nazis?

The UN General Assembly

Who wrote the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

It was an unlikely place for an Allied Attack because it had little contribution to the war effort compared to other German cities. Refugees fleeing Russia advanced and took rescue here because Hitler threw his defense to Berlin. Since the defenses were minimal, Russians would have little trouble capturing it and seemed unlikely for major Allied air attack

Why was Dresden, Germany an unlikely place for an Allied attack?

This was the perfect target because it was composed of three quarters of a million people who lived in wooden-framed buildings. Setting this "paper city" was kind oof an experiment in the effects of firebombing. It would destroy light industries called shadow factories

Why was Shitamachi the perfect target for the United States cluster bombing operation?

They were originally established to imprison political opponents.

Why were concentration camps originally established?

relocation camps; 3/4 were Nisei

after the oder 110,000 were sent to

see crimes against humanity

allied forces were able to

force jews out

before war started what were the germans trying to do

Palestine

british allowed 30000 to settle in

germany

concentration camps were located in

happy at first, then mad because they wanted jews killed

how did Germany feel about internment camps in Japan

concerned they would steal jobs, wide spread anti semitism

how did US feel about Jews

100,000

how many jews were accepted by the US

40,000 didn't want more

how many refugees did France have

80,000

how many refugees did british have

removed all people of Japense Ancestry from California and parts of oregon, arizona and washington

in 1942 FDR signed executive order 9066 which

mass rvac of Japense Americans from Hawaii

in 1942 the war department called for

compensate those who lost property

in 1965 congress authorized 38 mil to

20,000 to every Japanese American sent to camps

in 1988 regan signed a bill promising

finding nations to take them

jews had a hard time emigrating because they had a hard time

governments evacuating was justified based on military necessity

korematsu vs. US decided that

shanghai

many jews moved here following night of broken glass

executed and corpses burned at former concentration camps

many officials were

destroy evidence

nazis tried to

pearl harbor

paranoia in the US began after

national security

people believe the executive order was necessary for

homes, businesses, belongings

terrified families sold their

jews were completly striped of their citizenship

the nuremberg laws meant that

yellow

what color were Jewish badges

740 of 943 had immigration papers, the coast guard prevented anyone from disembarking and more than half would be killed during holocaust

what happened with the St. Louis

government allowed people to destroy and vandalize anything related to judaism

what is the night of broken glass

don't help the jews

what were police and fire department told on night of broken glass

west coast

when the war began, 120,000 Japanese Americans lived mostly on the