The Holocaust
Adolf Hitler
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b. April 20, 1889
d. April 30, 1945
Braunau, Austria
Parents: Alois and
Klara
Adolf Hitler
Close with his mom, didn’t get along with
his dad
 Trouble at school, expelled for constant
skipping, only liked art
 Wanted to be an artist, his dad wanted him
to be a civil servant
 Vienna Academy of Art

 Interview,
portfolio
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Great landscapes and technical drawings,
but lacked the ability to draw the human
figure well.
 Hitler is encouraged to apply for
architecture school, but rejected from the
academy.

Hitler
Probably already anti-Semitic, but this may
have been a turning point (majority of
people on committee were Jews)
 Flop house, street painter
 Mother gets sick, dies from cancer before
he can get home (mother’s dr was a Jew)

Hitler
WWI breaks out; joins German army
 Hitler was a runner; very dangerous
 Wounded in a poison gas attack
 Hospitalized; shocked to find out
Germany has lost

 Blamed
Communists for Germany’s
defeat --- Karl Marx – a German Jew
Hitler as a dispatch runner in
WWI
Hitler’s Rise to Power
1919 – Hitler joins and becomes leader of
the NAZI party – National Socialist
German Workers
 1923- Hitler announces the NAZIs will take
over the government, arrested for treason

 Sentenced
to 7 years, but only serves 9
months
 Writes Mein Kampf – My Struggle
Hitler named Chancellor

President Hindenberg names Hitler
Chancellor in 1933 – pressured by NAZIs
 Hindenberg
dies in 1934
The Reichstag (Congress) turns over
legislative power to Hitler.
 Once in power, Hitler now creates a
totalitarian state. Germany - dictatorship

The Third Reich
Hitler – popular, promised economic
recovery and delivered. Massive public
works program gave people jobs.
 SS – Schutzstaffel- elite black-uniformed
troops
 Gestapo – secret police

The Holocaust Begins…

1933
March – Dachau opens – first concentration
camp (and the largest) {Image shows Dachau
being liberated by US troops.}
 23

1933
July – Law to Prevent Offspring with
Hereditary Defects (T-2 Program)
 Mental/physical handicaps
 Milder cases – sterilized
 More severe – euthanized
 Propaganda – “life without existence”
 Protests by mothers/women caused Hitler
to mostly stop this program
 All political parties outlawed except Nazi party
 14
Nuremberg Laws - 1935
Jews are declared non-Germans;
prohibited from:
 Marrying/procreating with Germans
 Attending/teaching at German schools
 Holding govt. jobs
 Practicing law or medicine
 Publishing books
 Many Jews fled (Albert Einstein)
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Physical Traits of Aryans v. Jews
 Ideal
Aryan traits
Blue eyes, blond hair, light complexion, tall and
athletic, angular features
 Blue eyes were most important
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 Jewish

traits
Brown eyes, dark hair, large forehead, rounded
face, dark complexion

1936
 Jehovah’s
Witnesses were rounded up (wouldn’t
swear allegiance to Hitler)

1938
7
Nov – Grynszpan kills von Rath in Paris

Herschel Grynszpan (17 yrs old); in school in France
 German Jew – found out that his family was being
deported to Poland. Shoots the German
ambassador to France – von Rath.
 This event triggers worst violence yet back in
Germany.

1938
 9-10

Nov – Kristallnacht – “night of broken glass”
Reaction to the killing of von Rath
Nazis
attacked Jewish homes, businesses,
and synagogues in Germany
Jewish business owners had to pay for
repairs; police looked the other way
Resistant Jews were sent to Dachau
Emigration increased, but most countries
denied Jewish refugees.

1939
Sept – WWII begins when Germany invades
Poland
1

1940
April – Auschwitz opened
 Highest # of deaths
 Selection process; healthiest were chosen
for work; the weak were gassed
 27
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1941
 Germany
invades the Soviet Union (USSR)
 Einsatzgruppen
 Mobile killing units
Babi Yar – natural ravine
 Lined victims up, shot them, and let
them fall in
 Probably killed over 30,000 here
Josef Mengele

Josef Mengele, German
physician and SS captain. In
1943, he was named SS
garrison physician
(Standortartz) of Auschwitz. In
that capacity, he was
responsible for the
differentiation and selection of
those fit to work and those
destined for gassing. Mengele
also carried out human
experiments on camp inmates,
especially twins.