Warm Up
Students will take notes on the
Holocaust from this PPT, lecture,
and vocabulary. You WILL be
able to use that paper on the
exam.
Read the poem. What does it mean to be a silent bystander?
How does this poem show the consequences of being just
that?
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Pastor Niemoeller
Antisemitism

Political leaders who used antisemitism as a
tool relied on the ideas of racial science to
portray Jews as a race instead of a religion.
 Nazi teachers began to apply the “principles”
of racial science by measuring skull size and
nose length and recording students’ eye color
and hair to determine whether students
belonged to the “Aryan race.”
Totalitarian State

Paranoia and fear dominate
 Government has total control over the culture
-Aggressive
-Capable of indiscriminate killing
 Nazis passed
laws which
restricted the
rights of Jews—
Nuremberg
Laws
Totalitarian State
The Nuremberg
Laws stripped Jews
of their German
citizenship. They
were prohibited from
marrying or having
sexual relations with
persons of “German
or related blood.”
Totalitarian State
Jews, like all other
German citizens,
were required to
carry identity
cards, but their
cards were
stamped with a red
“J.” This allowed
police to easily
identify them.
Totalitarian State

The Nazis used
propaganda to
promote their antiSemitic ideas.
 One such book was
the children’s book,
The Poisonous
Mushroom.
How did the Nazi decide who
was Jewish?

At the Wannsee conference it
was decided that if all three or
four of the person’s
grandparents were Jewish, then
they were Jewish.
 However, if only one or two of
their grandparents had been
Jewish then they were
classified as a crossbreed.
 In 1940, all Jews had to have
their passports stamped with
the letter “J” and had to wear
the yellow Star of David on
their jacket or coat.
Persecution
The Nazi plan for dealing with the “Jewish
Question” evolved in three steps:
1. Expulsion: Get them out of Germany
2. Containment: Put them all together in
one place – namely ghettos
3. Annihilation: “Final Solution”
Persecution
Nazis targeted other
individuals and
groups in addition to
the Jews:






Gypsies (Sinti and
Roma)
Homosexual men
Jehovah’s Witness
Handicapped
Germans
Blacks
Political dissidents
Persecution

Kristallnacht was
the “Night of
Broken Glass” on
November 9-10,
1938
 Germans attacked
synagogues and
Jewish homes and
businesses
Prelude to the Final Solution
Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads
made up of Nazi (SS) units and police. They
killed Jews in mass shooting actions
throughout eastern Poland and the western
Soviet Union.
Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen
Victims were taken
to deserted areas
where they were
made to dig their
own graves and
shot.
When the SS ran
out of bullets they
sometimes killed
their victims using
flame throwers.
The “Final Solution”

In January 1942, Himmler
decided to change tactics
once again and called a
special conference at
Wannsee.
 At this conference, it was
decided that the existing
methods were too
inefficient and that a new
“Final Solution” was
necessary.
Final Solution

The Nazis aimed to control the Jewish
population by forcing them to live in areas
that were designated for Jews only, called
ghettos.
 Ghettos were established across all of
occupied Europe, especially in areas where
there was already a large Jewish population.
Final Solution

Many ghettos were closed by barbed wire or walls and
were guarded by SS or local police.
 Jews sometimes had to use bridges to go over Aryan
streets that ran through the ghetto.
Children Dying of Starvation in
the Warsaw Ghetto
Final Solution
Life in the ghettos was hard: food was
rationed; several families often shared a
small space; disease spread rapidly;
heating, ventilation, and sanitation were
limited.
 Many children were
orphaned in the
ghettos.

Final Solution

Death camps were the means the Nazis used
to achieve the “final solution.”
 There were six death camps: AuschwitzBirkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor,
Majdanek, and Belzec.
 Each used gas chambers to murder the Jews.
At Auschwitz prisoners were told the gas
chambers were “showers.”
Where were the Death Camps built?
The work of the
Einsatzgruppen
Why do you think that they located them here?
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau
500 to 2,000 people
Zyklon-B
Pellets
Map of Auschwitz
New Arrivals
‘Showers’
‘Destruction
Through
Work’
Auschwitz from the air
Notice how the Death
camp is set out like a
factory complex
The Nazis used
industrial methods to
murder the Jews and
process their dead
bodies
The Gas Chambers


The Nazis would force
large groups of
prisoners into small
cement rooms and drop
canisters of Zyklon B, or
prussic acid, in its
crystal form through
small holes in the roof.
These gas chambers
were sometimes
disguised as showers or
bathing houses.
The SS would try and pack up to 2,000 people into this gas
chamber.
The Outside of the Gas Chamber
Notice the ovens are located near the gas chambers
Processing the Bodies


Specially selected Jews
known as the
Sonderkommando were
used to remove the gold
fillings and hair of
people who had been
gassed.
The Sonderkommando
Jews were also forced
to feed the dead bodies
into the crematorium.
Dead bodies waiting to be processed
Shoes waiting to be processed by
the Sonderkommando
Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This
represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty
five thousand pairs.
Destruction Through Work
This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you
could quite literally work the fat off the Jews by feeding
them 200 calories a day
Destruction Through Work
Same group of Jews 6 weeks later
Final Solution
There were many concentration and labor camps
where many people died from exposure to the
elements, lack of food, extreme working
conditions, torture, and execution.
Death Marches
Number by Number—6 years
1939: WWII begins when Germany
invades Poland
6,000,000+ Jews were murdered
-1,500,000+ Jewish children were
murdered
5,000,000+ others were killed
1945: WWII ends when Germany (May 8)
and Japan (August 14) surrender
Was the Final Solution
successful?

The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews at
the Wannsee Conference in 1941

The Nazis managed to kill at least 6
million Jews.

Today there are only 2,000 Jews living in
Poland (before WWII there were more
than 3 million).
Jewish Death Statistics
Genocides
Armenia 1915-1923
Darfur 2003-Present
Cambodia 1975-1979
Rwanda 1994
Native Americans 1492-1900
Bosnia 1992-1995
Nanking 1937-1938
Ukraine (Stalin) 1932-1933
Pygmie 1998-Present
North Korea 1990-Present
Yemen 2011
Libya 2011
Syria 2011-Present