Ch 19, Sec 3: The Holocaust
Holocaust
• Persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany under
Hitler that killed 6 million Jews
• 5 million others will killed including
homosexuals, people with disabilities, gypsies,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and enemies of the state
Nuremberg Laws
• Laws for Jews that took away their rights in
1935
– Examples:
•
•
•
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The right to citizenship
The right to be married to other Germans
Voting/Holding office
Could not be doctors, lawyers, or own a business
• Result: High unemployment for Jews
Kristallnacht
• “night of broken glass” on Nov 7, 1938
• Started when a Jewish refugee in France killed
a German politician
• Hitler ordered his troops to attack the Jews in
Austria/Germany on Nov 9, 1938
Results of the Kristallnacht
• 90 dead/100s injured
• 7,500 businesses/180
synagogues were destroyed
• 20,000 Jews were jailed
– Forced to leave Germany if they wanted to be free
– Forced to pay for all the damage
– (Charged them 1 billion marks-1938
or $6.6 billion-2013)
Jewish Response
• 350,000 people left Germany
– Most famous: Einstein and Anne Frank
– Many were ignored by other countries including
the U.S.
• Had to apply to immigrate to U.S.
– Visas denied since the Jews had to leave their
wealth behind
– Immigration laws limited how many Jews could
come over
Final Solution
• Wannsee Conference:
– 1942 meeting with high German officials
• Rounding up, shooting, and gassing (in a truck) Jews
were too slow
• New idea:
– Use concentration camps and extermination
camps to get rid of the Jews
Concentration
Camps
• Work camps for the
strong/young
• Worked to death in factories
• Ex: Buchenwald
– Horrible living conditions 150-200 people packed into
an area for 50
– Constant beatings with very little food
• Made war supplies/mined for metals/coal
• Cruel medical procedures performed on the Jews
Extermination Camps
• Death camps for the elderly, sick, and young children
• 6 camps-mostly in Poland
• Ex: Auschwitz
• Could hold 100,000 people at a time
• Killed 2,000 people in one gas chamber at a time
• Killed 12,000 people per day (1.3 million during the war)
What took place in the camps?
• Jews forced to leave all belongings when entering the
gates of the camps
• Doctors would remove all gold teeth from the Jews
• Soldiers would steal anything of value
• Men and women/children would be separated from
each other to go to different camps
• Those to sick/old would be taken to death camps
• Gassed in the showers with zyclon-b
• Bodies were burned in the ovens and the remains were
buried in mass graves
How could this happen?
• 1. German people were desperate to blame
somebody after WWI.
• 2. Hitler had total control.
• 3. German people were not represented in the
government.
• 4. Germans feared the
police (Gestapo)
• 5. A history of Anti-Jewish
feelings dominated the
culture.
Assignment
• Take the role of a person living in Germany
during Kristallnacht. Write a diary entry
describing the events of that night. Include a
description of events during the days
following Kristallnacht as well.
• Diary entry should be at least 10 sentences
and use actual events.
• Due tomorrow