Holocaust

Define genocide in your own words

*do it yourself*

Describe one hardship survivors had to face.

*do it yourself*

If you were going to teach others about the importance of studying the holocaust, what would you include?

*do it yourself*

Re-read "A Horror Erased from Memory"

*do it yourself*

Re-read "Ginott's Letter to Teachers"

*do it yourself*

Read the poem, and summarize what it is about in a few sentences. (A Survivor's Prayer: a poem)

*do it yourself*

What did mengele study in the camps?

-heterochromia -noma -the lack of resistance towards diseases among Jews and Gypsies.

Only ___________% of children survived

6-11%

When the Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz Death Camp, how many shoes did they find?

tens of thousands of pairs of shoes.

What were the first Nazi concentration camps?

the first Nazi concentration camps, opened in March 1933, and at first interned only known political opponents of the Nazis: Communists, Social Democrats, and others who had been condemned in a court of law

Hitler's Aryan race

-Adolf Hitler had a vision of a German Aryan Race. He convinced German people that if they eliminated anyone who stood in their way (the racially inferior) that Germany would prosper as a country. -Blonde haired children were "Germanized" and trained to be Nazi supporters. -Out of the 11 million people that died, 5 million were not Jewish. -People from invaded countries were placed in slave labor or drafted into the German army.

hitler: childhood

-Adolf was praised for his good grades and good behavior as a child. -After primary school, he was put in Realschule, which focused on science and technology. He was very unhappy at this school , therefore his grades went down. -Resigned from Realschule and applied for Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He was rejected twice by this school and lost hope of this dream.

Black children

-African-German children were isolated in society even prior to the Holocaust -After Hitler became Chancellor 1933, Nazis began searching for African-German adolescents and forcibly sterilized them. -The children were then kidnapped and were subject to medical experiments. -Some of these children were said to have mysteriously "disappeared".

German Worker's Party and the result

-After the war Hitler became the 55th member of a small party called the German Worker's Party. He became the leader of this party. -Then he created the well known symbol of the swastika as the party's symbol. -This party eventually became the National Socialist German Worker's Party (the Nazi Party). -He was sentenced to five years in prison and served nine months for high treason because he attempted to take over the German government. -During his time in prison Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf, ("My Struggle") . This book laid put Hitler's plans to transform German society into one based on race.

Hitler: Life info

-Baptized as a Catholic. -Married Eva Braun. -Leader of the Nazi Party. -Chancellor of Germany from 1934-1945. -Dictator of the German Reich. -Parents: Hitler's father was Alois Hitler. He was a bad tempered person and he did not get along with the family. His mother was Klara Hitler. She had very little control over the household. -Family deaths: Had many family losses including the death if 4 of 5 siblings, his father and his mother.

Disease

-Because of the unsanitary conditions they were kept in, and the absence of medical care disease arose -Some include: Dysentery, Scabies, and Typhus

Kinder Transport

-Between 1938 to 1940, Great Britain began a rescue program to save Jewish children from gory fates -Nazis would be paid fifty pounds sterling (approximately $250) per child -The children had to be between the ages of 3-17 and were forced to leave their parents -Ten thousand children were transported to the UK on trains via Holland -Only 20 % of children were reunited with their families

auschwitz

-Biggest out of all camps -1.1 million prisoners died in Auschwitz alone -The entrance was designed to be peaceful and beautiful with gardens and happy music to create the illusion of tranquility and goodness -Auschwitz was made up of three camps: Oswiecim, Birkenau, and Monowitz-Buna -The sign at the gate of Auschwitz translates to "Work Will Set You Free." -The meaning for this sign was to trick the prisoners in to thinking that it was just a camp to work and spend time not thinking about the war around them, not a place of agony and pain -Overly joyous music was played at the entrance to really sell the illusion of happiness, and anyone who was not showing pleasure and that they enjoy it was punished

Types of experiments

-He would take tissue samples and body parts for samples of deformities and would kill test subjects for post-mortem exams. -Patients would be put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to traumas. -Mengele performed surgeries without anesthesia, transfusions of blood between twins, reactions to stimuli, injections of lethal germs, sex change operations, organ and limb removal, and incestuous impregnations.

Hitler Youth

-Hitler and the Nazi Party began a military training program for German children between the ages of six to eighteen. -Boys were taught leadership, how to shoot, and military combat. -Girls were taught how to raise children, work in the home, and how to nurse. -American soldiers reported an entire military force made up of children 12 years of age and younger.

Hitler: after prison

-Hitler gained attention, followers and financial support because of his charismatic speeches. -In the election of July 1932, the Nazi Party got 37.3% of the votes so it became the controlling party of the country -Hitler became the chancellor of Germany in 1934.

Hitler's contribution to the holocaust

-Hitler initiated the Holocaust which was a genocide in which Nazi Germany killed millions of Jews. -Hitler believed that Jews and other groups were a threat to Aryan supremacy. -Other than Jews, he also persecuted homosexuals, Poles, and Jehovah witnesses. -He convinced the people of Germany to hate these groups in order to cause the rise of concentration camps. -His attack began with the invasion of Poland in 1939. -Hitler and his Nazi Army were responsible for the extermination of 6 million Jews.

Homosexuals

-Hitler's "Aryan Race" had no room for homosexuals. -They were persecuted, tortured, and exterminated. -Hitler searched his own men and sent suspected homosexuals to concentration camps wearing their uniforms. -Homosexual inmates were forced to wear pink triangles on their clothes so they could be easily recognized and further humiliated. -An estimated 100,000 homosexuals were arrested and sent to prisons and between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. Nearly 60% of those sent to camps perished.

Children after the holocaust

-In 1945, when the Holocaust was officially over, most children were sent to orphanages or displaced persons camps. -Other adolescents fled to western Germany, following the mass exodus to that area, or left to Israel after its establishment in 1948.

Mengele after the war

-In January 1945, Mengele fled Auschwitz due to the fact that the Soviets were approaching the camp. -He spent the next few weeks at Gross-Rosen camp until it was evacuated, and then attempted to evade capture by the Soviets. -Postwar, Mengele was in U.S. custody, but U.S. officials did not realize that he was a wanted criminal and released him. -From the summer of 1945 until 1949, he worked as a farmhand in Bavaria. He later settled in Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

Black children

-In WWI, African soldiers were brought into Germany to fight and that led to the integration of Germans and Africans, called "The dark skinned invasion." Those children who were born as a result of the integration were called "the Black Disgrace." -Hitler swore to eliminate all children born of mixed race, especially African-German because they were seen as insults to the German Nation. -The Nazis set up Commission No.3 to determine if children were of black decent, and to organize the sterilization of "mulatto" children in order to prevent the continuation of the "mulatto" race. -They would sterilize the children through methods such as x-rays, surfers,surgeries, and various infused drugs.

Persecution on nazis

-International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg was establish by the Allied Forces for the purpose of persecuting high ranking Nazis -Resulted in the Nuremberg Trials -12 high ranking Nazis were sentenced to death by hanging and 3 were sentenced to life in prison -Extermination of Jews = Crime against humanity

Courageous Resistors

-Like all causes, there were resistors to Hitler's plan. -Poland's underground army was responsible for defending the lives of thousands of its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. -Some German citizens died because they refused to go along with Hitler's plan.

Jews after the war

-Many faced psychological disorders following their liberation -PTSD -Concentration Camp Syndrome: Anxiety due to abuse and malnutrition, includes flashbacks -Survivor Syndrome: Deals with guilt of surviving instead of others -Self preservation became high priority -2 1/2 times greater possibility of cancer

divorce and death

-Many husbands and wives of Jews in Germany were forced to choose between divorce or concentration camps. -Hitler did not allow interracial marriages. Those that chose to remain married were punished by imprisonment in camps where many died.

Mass shooting

-Mass shootings were used before, and after, concentration camps -1.5 million Jews alone were killed using this method -These shootings were performed by lining up the victims, and shooting them, one by one, into ditches for everyone to see -During transports of prisoners, Nazi's would line them up, and shoot whoever they believed would not make it all the way to the next camp -SS soldiers, police officers, and dedicated civilians would help in the process of these mass murders by killing as well -Usage of this method lessened due to the mental toll it took on the executioners

After the camps were freed

-Most Jews feared going back to their homes because of the prevalent antisemitism -Many of the survivors' homes were destroyed, therefore they were homeless -Homeless Jews became known as displaced persons -Many European and American borders were closed off to displaced persons because of immigration laws

Overwork

-Nazi's would put all inmates to work as a way to humiliate and weaken them -Prisoners had to do grueling tasks such as pouring stones, and building railroads -They were forced to work so hard that some died of exhaustion -Due to these testing tasks, injuries occurred -When these injuries were left untreated, they would heal improperly, causing disease and severe pain

the disabled and twins

-Nazis decided that it was a waste of time and money to support the disabled. -Hitler's "cleansing program" killed thousands of deemed useless people with various handicaps. -Joseph Mengele, a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz, performed mutilating and horrendous experiments on identical twins. -The doctor would perform unnecessary amputations,give them diseases purposefully, inject chemicals into eyes, etc. -Up to 300,000 disabled people in Germany and Austria were killed and fake death certificates were distributed to their families.

Human experimentation

-Nazis would perform experiments for research to benefit the military, or out of sheer curiosity -Some of the many victims of this experimentation were: Romani, Sinti, Ethnic Poles, Soviet POW's, Disabled Germans, and the Jews -The central leader of these experiments was Josef Mengele

Statistics of races in death

-Of the 11 million people killed in the Holocaust, 6 million were Polish citizens. (3 million Polish Jews and 3 million Polish Christians), and the other victims were from surrounding European countries. -Nearly 1.5 million Roma gypsies died in total, and they were subject to imprisonment, torture, and execution.

Priests, Pastors,

-Part of Hitler's ideology was to create an entirely new religion in which Jesus Christ was no longer an influential figure or a person to be worshipped. His new religion would have him as the leader. -Since priests and pastors were typically the leaders of their community, they were sought out and killed by the Nazis. -Thousands were forced into concentration camps and special barracks were set up in specific locations for clergymen. -The Catholic Church was particularly suppressed in Poland and nearly one fifth of priests were killed in concentration camps. -Nearly a fifth of the priests-around 300,000-were killed between 1939 and 1945.

Gas chambers and showers

-People were told that they were going for a shower, when instead they were going to be killed by dangerous gasses -The gas sprayed from overhead shower heads, and roof doors that Nazi workers would spray the gas in through -Type of gasses they used were Carbon Monoxide, Zyklon B (a form of Hydrogen Cyanide), and Exhaust Gas -People the Nazi's saw as unfit to work, such as young children and pregnant women, were gassed immediately after entering the camp -People all around could smell the gasses, and people dying, from these chambers -Roughly 2,000 people could be killed at once in the chambers

Roma gypsies

-Roma Gypsies were a group of nomadic people who have been persecuted throughout history solely because of their race. -Hitler believed they needed to be completely annihilated, because like Jews they were deemed racially inferior degenerates, and therefore worthless. -They were moved to specific areas, such as ghettos, by the Nazis. Nearly three entire Eastern European Gypsy population was wiped out during the Holocaust. (Half a million people.) -They were denied many privileges in several European countries. -They were the second largest group of people to be persecuted during the Holocaust.

Refuge for displaced persons

-State of Israel was established in May of 1948 -As many as 170,000 displaced Jews moved to the area of Israel by 1953 -Refugee centers and displaced persons camps were established in European territories -President Harry Truman issued authoritative instruction that loosened the restrictions on immigration for people displaced by the Nazis -28,000 Jews immigrated to the U.S. -Congress passed Displaced Persons Act

Malnutrition

-The prisoners were fed little to no food on a daily basis, and when they were fed, the food they received was contaminated -The extent of the food they were given was watery soup and, very rarely, bread -The little food they were intaking, with the grueling work they were forced to do lead to their bodies failing due to the malnutrition

Camps

-There were 2 types of camps: labor camps, and concentration camps -Concentration camps were where they grouped people who they believed were unfit to live and work, and killed them -Labor camps were where the Nazis grouped the people they believed could survive and work, so they forced them into working -Roughly 15,000 Nazi camps were run in occupied Europe -The inmates usually lived in overcrowded barracks and slept in bunk "beds" -Inmates usually worked 12 hour shifts of hard physical work, dressed in rags

Jehovah's Witnesses

-They were a strong group of Christians who refused to follow Nazi Ideology to the point where they were willing to die. -Thousands were imprisoned as dangerous traitors after they refused to pledge loyalty to the Third Reich. -They were given the opportunity of freedom if they renounced their religious beliefs. -From the beginning, those of the Jehovah's Witness faith were seen as one of Hitler's largest religious threats, due to their strong sense of faith, and refusal to acknowledge any other god but Jehovah. -They were forced to wear purple arm bands as identification of their faith, similar to the Star of David on Jews.

Germany after the war

-Tried to justify their unfavorable past -Remained isolated for several years following the end of the Holocaust -Refused access to Holocaust related documents due to "privacy and concerns"

Modern impact

-United States Holocaust Memorial Council formed in 1980 -On November 5, 2005 UNGA voted to make January 27th the day to commemorate the Holocaust in Europe -Website and museum founded called Yad Vashem which helps find Holocaust survivors

Gas vans

-Used before concentration camps -SS soldiers would gather people who they felt were "unfit to live" and gas them in the vans -Part of a euthanasia plan by the Nazi's -They would put them in the back of the van, and let the motor run, filling the back with Carbon Monoxide therefore killing them by suffocation -These vans were nicknamed the "Black Ravens" -Approximately 500,000-600,000 people were killed in these vans

Hitler: WWI

-When he was younger, he avoided military service in Vienna, so he fled to Munich, and soon after signed up for the Bavarian Army, causing him to serve in WWI. -His experience in the war changed his point of view on society and war. -He believed that the German Army had been betrayed by civilian leaders and Marxists, which caused Germany's surrender in WWI.

Twin Experiments

-With his mentor, Verschuer, Mengele conducted painless and humane experiments to trace genetic origins of various diseases -When he went to Auschwitz, he was allowed to hurt or kill his victims. -He was specially interested in experimentation on twins to try to find a method of artificially creating a race of Aryans. -He supervised an operation in which two Gypsy children were sewn together to create Siamese twins.

Fates of jewish children

-killed on arrival at concentration camps -killed after birth in concentration camps -if they were born in ghettos or camps, they were hid -used as laborers or test subjects (12+) -killed during military operations -killed in the trains on their way to concentration camps (3 down) -if they remained in ghettos, they starved

Approximately _________ children were killed during the Holocaust

1.5 million

When did Josef Mengele conduct twin experiments

1930s

What does Abe do? Where does he go? Why? (Abe's story)

Abe realizes his only hope for survival is escape. Maybe then he can also help his parents and sisters from outside the ghetto walls. With his friend, Garfingal's help, Abe bribes a guard with a watch and a rug that his sisters had hooked from sugar sacks they had found. Abe then tells his family good-bye in a heart-wrenching scene. He is never to see his family alive again. Abe and Garfingal successfully escape, but where is there to go? They walk to nearby Krosniewice. At least Krosniewice has an open ghetto; there is some freedom to come and go during the day. Abe is able to work for the Nazis and earn a little money to buy food on the black market and smuggle it in to his family in Kutno Ghetto.

What happened after Mengele was drafted into the army?

After being drafted into the army, he was promoted to SS captain and transferred to Auschwitz to become the medical officer in charge of Birkenau's Gypsy camp.

What types of German citizens were victims of the Nazi Party?

Among the targets of this public program were Roma (Gypsies), an ethnic minority numbering about 30,000 in Germany, and handicapped individuals, including the mentally ill and people born deaf and blind. Also victimized were about 500 African-German children

What other nations treated Jews as scapegoats (blamed them for some trouble)?

Austria, France, Russia, Poland, Spain, Africa, Asia

Hitler: birth and death

Birth: April 20, 1889 in upper Austrian border town Braunau Am Inn. Death: Committed suicide and died on April 30, 1945.

Describe the picture and say how people are treated. (Abe's story)

Early winter 1939- Abe's entire family is deported from Ostrowy to the Kutno Ghetto with the rest of the town's Jews. In this scene, Abe and his sister sneak around and realize that they are in a closed ghetto, a walled-in prison. Hundreds of Jews are forced to live together in an old warehouse formerly used by a sugar factory. There are no provisions for sleeping or for heating the large room they are forced to live in. Eventually, about 2000 people have to share one open pit toilet and one hand pump for water. They have to stand in long lines to use the toilet, to draw water, and to get their meager ration of food. The prisoners have to make do as best they can.

What was Hitler's term for the "master race"? Describe this type of person.

For Hitler, the ideal "Aryan" was blond, blue-eyed, and tall.

Mengele: death

He died in Brazil after he had a stroke while swimming and, as a result, drowned. He died on February 7, 1979 and was buried in São Paolo under the false name of Wolfgang Gerhard.

Josef Mengele: education

He earned a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from the University of Munich and worked at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt.

When did Josef Mengele join the nazi party and the SS

He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and joined the SS in 1938.

Mengele and heterochromia

He was interested in heterochromia, a condition in which an individual's two irises differ in their coloration. He collected the eyes of the people he killed, so that he could study the process of artificially changing eye color.

What did the German government require of Jews in German society?

In 1937 and 1938, the government set out to impoverish Jews by requiring them to register their property and then by "Aryanizing" Jewish businesses. This meant that Jewish workers and managers were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews, and Jewish lawyers were not permitted to practice law. Like everyone in Germany, Jews were required to carry identity cards, but the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names—"Israel" for males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify Jews easily.

Why did the US not allow entrance to more refugees before WWII?

In the midst of the Great Depression, many Americans believed that refugees would compete with them for jobs and overburden social programs set up to assist the needy.

What races of children were killed?

Jewish, Polish, Romani gypsy, and Russian children along with children with mental and physical disabilities

Describe how the conditions worsened. (Abe's story)

Late fall 1940- Almost a year later, the conditions in the ghetto are horrid. The Nazis will not even allow the prisoners to remove the waste and sewage. Lice have infested the ghetto and a typhus epidemic plagues the prisoners.

Josef Mengele: birthday

March 16, 1911 in Günzberg, Germany

What happened on November 9, 1938? What caused the violence?

On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across the Reich. It appeared to be unplanned, set off by Germans' anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a Jewish teenager. In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.

Josef Mengele: family

Parents: Karl and Walburga Mengele. Brothers: Karl and Alois.

What was the goal of the "Final Solution?"

The "Final Solution" was implemented in stages. After the Nazi party rise to power, state-enforced racism resulted in anti-Jewish legislation, boycotts, "Aryanization," and finally the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom, all of which aimed to remove the Jews from German society.In its entirety, the "Final Solution" consisted of gassings, shootings, random acts of terror, disease, and starvation that accounted for the deaths of about six million Jews -- two-thirds of European Jewry.

How many ghettos existed in German occupied territories?

The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone.

What levels of German society were most drawn to Hitler and the Nazi Party?

The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people, and members of the lower middle class (small store owners, office employees, craftsmen, and farmers).

What happened at most of these camps?

The Nazis called these six camps "extermination camps." Most of the deportees were immediately murdered in large groups by poisonous gas. The Nazis changed to gassing as their preferred method of mass murder because they saw it as "cleaner" and more "efficient" than shooting.

Why were people forced to go on "death marches"?

The Soviets approached from the east, and the British, French, and Americans from the west. The Germans began frantically to move the prisoners out of the camps near the front and take them to be used as forced laborers in camps inside Germany. Prisoners were first taken by train and then by foot on "death marches," as they became known.

What was the primary purpose of these camps?

The primary purpose of these camps was the methodical killing of millions of innocent people.

Describe what happens to most "workers".

They were killed or worked to death

Many Jews escaped Germany during this time. What countries accepted the most Jewish refugees?

United States, Central and South America, Palestine, England, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Cuba

Nazis killed Jewish and children of other races thought to be "____________" and "_____________"

Unwanted, dangerous

Describe the largest ghetto.

WARSAW GHETTO On October 12, 1940, the Germans decreed the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. The decree required all Jewish residents of Warsaw to move into a designated area, which German authorities sealed off from the rest of the city in November 1940. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded to prevent movement between the ghetto and the rest of Warsaw. The population of the ghetto, increased by Jews compelled to move in from nearby towns, was estimated to be over 400,000 Jews. German authorities forced ghetto residents to live in an area of 1.3 square miles, with an average of 7.2 persons per room.

When did antisemitism begin?

With the death of Christ

According to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, how did the German government decide if someone was Jewish?

anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community.

Define holocaust

destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war.

Define antisemitism.

hostility to or prejudice against Jews