The
Results of
WWII
Discovery of the Holocaust
Near the end of the war allied troops
discovered the concentration camps set up by
the Nazis. At these camps Jews worked for
the German war effort. In some cases they
were used in German medical experiments as
guinea pigs. At Auschwitz over 6,000 Jews
were gassed per day. By the end of the war
Hitler had killed over 1/3 of the Jews in
Europe, approx. 6 million people.
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.”
Holocaust Map of Concentration Camps
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau
500 to 2,000 people
Zyklon-B
Pellets
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
Outcome of the Final Solution
• 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).
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
Naked Jewish women, some of whom are holding infants, wait in a line
before their execution by Ukrainian auxilliary police. Source: Main
Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, Warsaw, Poland.
U.S. troops watch a passing cart laden with corpses leave the
Dachau concentration camp, intended for burial. Allied
authorities required local farmers to drive their loaded carts
through the town of Dachau as education for the inhabitants.
Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz.
Source: The Pictorial History of the Holocaust, Edited by
Yitzhak Arad, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York,
1990.
High-altitude medical experiments in Dachau. In order to test the
probable endurance of pilots who have to eject from their planes, SS
doctors exposed prisoners to high-altitude conditions simulated in a
chamber. Many victims died during such experiments. In order for the
simulation to be as realistic as possible, prisoners were hung by
parachute straps.
Medical Experiments on Jews
Auschwitz SS doctors, led by the infamous Dr. Josef
Mengele, performed different medical experiments on
Jewish inmates. Common were the sterilizations of young
Jewish men and women at the prime of their fertile lives.
Crude methods of local anesthesia were used during
experiments on their sexual organs, while young girls and
boys were forced to watch the procedures. Several of
these victims survived the ordeal and lived to tell their
story.
Other medical experiments were performed to test human
resistance to freezing temperatures and human endurance
under the most severe conditions.
Video Footage: Auschwitz
Creation of the United Nations
The United Nations was formed in 1945 to
maintain peace, bring an end to war, improve the
standard of living for all nations, and to promote
human rights. It was led by the security council
(Britain, France, U.S., U.S.S.R., & China) and
included all major powers of the world.
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Attlee, Truman, and Stalin at Potsdam.
Joseph Stalin at Yalta in Feb. 1945.
Ju;y-Aug. 1945.
During the conference (Potsdam), Truman mentioned to Stalin about an
unspecified "powerful new weapon"; Stalin, who knew of its existence long
before Truman ever knew through placing spies inside US borders,
encouraged the usage of any weapon that would hasten the end of the war.
Manhattan Project & Atomic Age
The United States, led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer,
developed an atomic bomb under the secretive Manhattan
Project. By mid-1945 there was a belief by the
Americans that the Japanese were too proud to
surrender. This led American President Harry S. Truman
to order the dropping of the atomic bomb. On August 6,
1945 the U.S. bombed Hiroshima. More than 70,000
people were killed and 61,000 were injured instantly.
Many people were vaporized, and radiation burns scorched
others. The Japanese refused surrender and on Aug. 9
the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. Aug. 10,
1945 Japan surrenders ending WWII. This signaled the
beginning of the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.
Atomic bomb test explosion
Los Alamos was so secret that officially it did not
exist. Babies born there received birth certificates
indicating they were born at box 1663.
Watch towers and prison-like security
surrounded the U.S. top security, top
secret Los Alamos atomic bomb
development facility during WWII
The patterns of clothing were
permanently burned into the skin
because of the intense flash of light.
Hair loss due to radiation exposure
Atomic Blast Shadows
The shadow of the parapets are imprinted on the surface of the bridge, 2,890 feet
(880 meters) south-south-west of the hypocenter. These shadows give a clue as to
the exact location of the hypocenter
Little Boy
Fat Man
Birth of the Cold War
The Cold War resulted from disputes between
democratic and communist nations during
WWII. The US and the USSR could not agree
on how to deal with Germany at the end of
WWII. The US did not want reparations to be
paid while the USSR did. This led to the division
of Germany into separate zones (both communist
and democratic). A power struggle emerged
between the superpowers leading to an arms
race and the formation of alliances based upon
communist or democratic lines throughout the
world.
The countries
behind the iron
curtain are shaded
in red. Yugosalvia
(in grey) was
independent of the
Eastern Bloc, yet it
was still communist
run.
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Germany divided into
separate zones after
WWII ends. The
creation of West
Germany (democratic)
and East Germany
(communist) was a
result of the cold
war.
Berlin was located in
East Germany
(communist) but the
city itself was divided
into both democratic
and communist zones.
From 1949-1961, almost
three million East
Germans escaped to the
West. In July 1961
alone, 30,000 fled,
precipitating another
Berlin Crisis on August
13, 1961 when East
German authorities built
a 28-mile-long wall
(euphemistically called
the "antifascist
protective barrier")
along the border to
prevent East Germans
from escaping to the
West.
Baby Boom Generation
With the return of peace many Canadians began to
marry and start families. As a result the population
soared in Canada after the war. Between 1945 and
1965 the baby boom occurred. The average family had
3-4 children. As these children aged society had to
change to accommodate the large numbers. This led to
a boom in infrastructure, employment and housing.
How did the birthrate rise and fall during the baby boom
years in the US?
1940
2,559,000 births per year
1946
3,311,000 births per year
1955
4,097,000 births per year
1957
4,300,000 births per year
1964
4,027,000 births per year
1974
3,160,000 births per year
Symbols of the Baby Boom in Suburbia
1950
1960
Hot Dog Production (millions of lbs)
750
1050
Potato Chip Production (millions of lbs)
320
532
Sales of lawn and porch furniture (millions of dollars)
53.6
145.2
Sales of power mowers (millions of dollars)
1.0
3.8
Sales of floor polishers (millions of dollars)
0.24
1.0
Sales of Encyclopaedia (millions of dollars)
72
300
Number of Children age 5-14
24.3
35.5
Number of baseball Little Leagues
776
5,700
Music the Baby Boomers Have Taken to Heart
Rock Around the Clock
by Bill Haley and His Comets
Heartbreak Hotel
by Elvis Presley
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
by The Platters
Save the Last Dance for Me
by The Drifters
Duke of Earl
by Gene Chandler
I Want to Hold Your Hand
by The Beatles
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
by The Righteous Brothers
The Sounds of Silence
by Simon and Garfunkel
Aquarius
by The Fifth Dimension
American Pie
by Don McLean
Fads of the Baby Boomers
Hula Hoops
Frozen Foods
Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes
Panty Raids
Barbie and GI Joe Dolls
Bikinis
Frisbees
Yo-yos
Ouija Boards
Dune Buggies
Before: picture of the land that would become the American suburb of Levittown, in Long Island, NY.
After: An aerial view of the suburban development of Levittown as a result of the baby boom.