The Holocaust
An Introduction
holocaust (noun):
Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire”
The Nazi Reign - The Third Reich
• Reich is a German word meaning reign or
empire.
• The Nazis referred to their rule in Germany
from 1933 to 1945 as Das Dritte Reich or in
English The Third Reich.
• They considered themselves the third group to
reign over German.
• Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Third Reich.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
• He was a war veteran who
fought in WWI.
• He became the leader of
the Nazi Party in 1921.
• He later became the
absolute dictator of
Germany.
• He was appointed
Chancellor of Germany in
1933.
• He became the President
or Führer of Germany in
1934.
First They Came
In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller
Date: 1959 or 1960
Hitler Youth Movement
• A youth organization that
formed in the 1920s for boys
aged 10-18.
• Membership became
compulsory in 1936.
• One aim was to instill the boys
motivation as soldiers, to fight
faithfully for the Third Reich.
• Many of the members were
drafted into the military during
WWII. Some as young as 12.
The League of German Girls
• Formed in the 1920s for girls
age 10-18. It was the only
organized youth group for
girls in Germany.
• Enrolment grew when the
Nazi Party came to power in
1933.
• Membership became
compulsory in 1939 for all
girls age 10-18.
Hitler Youth
Pre-War
•
Poland and the Soviet
Union had the largest
Jewish populations
• Jews very assimilated:
farmers, factory workers,
business people,
doctors, teachers, and
craftsmen
• Extremists blamed Jews
for Germany’s defeat in
WWI
– Blamed the German
Foreign Minister (a Jew) for
his role in reaching a
settlement with the Allies.
Jewish community of Sighet, Romania
in front of a wooden synagogue.
Anti-Semitism
• For 2,000 years Jews have suffered discrimination and
been used as scapegoats.
– people blamed Jews for the “Black Death” during Middle Ages
• Hitler idolized Austrian mayor (Karl Lueger) who used
anti-Semitism in his political campaign.
• Political leaders used anti-Semitism as a tool - portray
Jews as a race instead of a religion.
A Class Divided
The Poisonous Mushroom
A mother and her young boy are gathering mushrooms in the German forest. The boy finds
some poisonous ones. The mother explains that there are good mushrooms and poisonous
ones, and, as they go home, says:
“Look, Franz, human beings in this world are like the mushrooms in the forest. There are good
mushrooms and there are good people. There are poisonous, bad mushrooms and there are
bad people. And we have to be on our guard against bad people just as we have to be on
guard against poisonous mushrooms. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, mother,” Franz replies. “I understand that in dealing with bad people trouble may arise,
just as when one eats a poisonous mushroom. One may even die!”
“And do you know, too, who these bad men are, these poisonous mushrooms of mankind?” the
mother continued.
Franz slaps his chest in pride: “Of course I know, mother! They are the Jews! Our teacher has
often told us about them.”
“However they disguise themselves, or however friendly they try to be, affirming a thousand
times their good intentions to us, one must not believe them. Jews they are and Jews they
remain. For our Volk they are poison.”
“Like the poisonous mushroom!” says Franz.
“Yes, my child! Just as a single poisonous mushrooms can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew
can destroy a whole village, a whole city, even an entire Volk.”
Franz has understood.
The Poisonous Mushroom, II
“Tell me, mother, do all Gentiles know that the Jew is as dangerous as a poisonous
mushroom?”
Mother shakes her head.
“Unfortunately not, my child. There are millions of Gentiles who do not yet know the
Jews. So we have to enlighten people and warn them against the Jews. Our young
people, too, must be warned. Our boys and girls must learn to know the Jew. They
must learn that the Jew is the most dangerous poison-mushroom in existence. Just
as poisonous mushrooms spring up everywhere, so the Jew is found in every
country in the world. Just as poisonous mushrooms often lead to the most dreadful
calamity, so the Jew is the cause of misery and distress, illness and death.”
The author then concludes this story by pointing the moral:
German youth must learn to recognise the Jewish poison-mushroom. They must learn
what a danger the Jew is for the German Volk and for the whole world. They must
learn that the Jewish problem involves the destiny of us all.
“The following tales tell the truth about the Jewish poison-mushroom. They show the
many shapes the Jew assumes. They show the depravity and baseness of the
Jewish race. They show the Jew for what he really is: The Devil in human form.
The Holocaust (proper noun):
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi
regime and its collaborators.
Nazi target groups:
Ethnicities:
Nationalities:
“Degenerates”:
Political rivals:
Religions:
Asocials:
Jews & Gypsies (Roma),
Slavs (Poles & Russians)
homosexuals,
the mentally & physically disabled
communists & socialists
Jehovah Witnesses & Jews
Anybody else who opposed the Nazis
1. You cannot live
among us as
Jews.
2. You cannot live
among us.
3. You cannot live.
Burning of Jewish books,
including the Torah, 1934
The Ban on Jewish Business
• The signs read "Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity
propaganda, buy only at German shops!" and "Germans, defend
yourselves, buy only at German shops!"
You cannot live among us as Jews.
On April 1, 1933,
Hitler declared a
one-day boycott
of Jewish shops
Many German
citizens
voluntarily
participated
You cannot live among us as Jews.
May 1933,
Jewish
books were
burned in
public
bonfires
You cannot live among us as Jews.
Eugenics:
Based loosely on early 20th century
understanding of the science of genetics,
eugenicists believed that people should be
bred as farmers breed animals: deliberately
weeding out “inferior” traits through genetic
selection. The Nazis believed that they could
create a “a master race”.
You cannot live among us as Jews.
Aryan race:
The Nazis believed that people of Northern
European ancestry – especially those with blue
eyes and blonde hair – were superior to all other
people, including people of African, Asian, and
Middle-Eastern ancestry.
In 1933, there were few people of African or Asian
ancestry living in Germany. There were, however,
500,000 Jews who seemed to threaten “racial
purity”.
You cannot live among us as Jews.
The Power of Words…
• “The great masses of the people will more easily
fall victim to a big lie than a small one”
• “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think”
• The victor will never be asked if he told the truth”
• “ I believe today I am acting in the sense of the
Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am
doing the Lord’s work”
All were said by Adolf Hitler…
You cannot live among us as Jews.
Above: “Juden Rause” (“Jews Get
Out”), Nazi children’s board game
A group at exit 2 are “off to Palestine”
Kristallnacht
• “Night of the Broken Glass”
November 9-10,1938
• Anti-Jewish rampage in
Germany: Arson, arrests
and beatings
• Nazis attacked synagogues,
homes and businesses
Public Humiliation
Jewish men cleaning the streets
Identification Cards
• This is the cover
of a kennkarte or
identification card
issued during
WWII.
• The “J” printed on
the front in black
identified a Jew.
Identification Cards
• The “J” was also
stamped inside in red
or purple ink.
• Fingerprints and a
photograph showing
the left ear were
required of all Jews .
• All women were
required to add the
Jewish middle name
“Sara” and the men
“Israel”.
• This woman’s name is
Erna “Sara” Fromm
Wearing the Yellow Badge
You cannot live among us as Jews.
Below: Aerial view of
Nuremberg, Germany,
prewar period
“The Nuremberg Laws”
turned prejudice &
discrimination into
systemic racism.
For example:
•1935: Jewish
Newspapers could no
longer be sold
•1936: Jews lost the right
to vote
•1938: Jews had to
surrender drivers’
licences & car
registrations
You cannot live among us as Jews.
•The Nuremberg Laws also
classified “degrees “ of
Jewish blood
•One use for this
classification was to
permit or to deny couples
the right to marry (and
thus to reproduce)
•One proposed “solution”
to the Jewish problem was
sterilization
You cannot live among us as Jews.
•By 1938, all
Jews were
required to
carry
identification
cards
•Jewish
passports &
papers were
marked with a
“J”
You cannot live among us.
Many Jews
attempted to
leave
Germany. But
many nations,
including
Great Britain,
Canada & the
United States
limited Jewish
immigration
Left: In 1939, 850
Jewish refugees
attempt to enter
British-controlled
Palestine illegally.
You cannot live among us.
British officials
arrested the 850
European Jewish
immigrants and
interned them in a
detention center
near Haifa,
Palestine.
The Frankfurt Ghetto
Deportation by Train to the Lodz
Ghetto
List of Jewish Ghettos
Biala Podlaska
Bialystok
Bochnia
Brody
Czestochowa
Grodno
Izbica
Jozefow
Kielce
Krakow
Krasnystaw
Kovno
Kutno
Lodz*
Lubartow
Lublin
Lvov
Miedzyrzec
Minsk
Piaski
Prague
Przemysl
Radom
Riga
Rzeszow
Siedlce
Tarnow
Tluszcz
Vilnius
Warsaw
Zamosc
Zwolen
Map of Lodz Ghetto
The Lodz Ghetto
The German SS
Schutzstaffel
Soup Kitchen in Lodz
A Meal in Lodz
Children Scavenging
German Police in Lodz
Deportation to Chelmno Death Camp
from Lodz
Courtyard in Lodz Ghetto. Residents
here await the final deportation in
1943
Cattle Cars
Why Have Camps?
• Essential to Nazi’s
systematic oppression
and eventual mass
murder of enemies of
Nazi Germany
• Slave labor moved them
towards their ultimate
goal- “annihilation by
work”
• What was taken from
Jews was used to
provide goods for the
German People
Auschwitz Gates
Selection off the Birkeneau ramp
Prison Uniforms
The Barracks
Prisoners
Destruction Through Work
This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite
literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day
Destruction Through Work
Same group of Jews 6 weeks later.
You cannot live
Compare the
previous picture
to this one
showing the
inmates of a
death camp.
Many who were
not immediately
taken to the gas
chambers, died
more slowly from
malnutrition &
overwork.
Once selected, you began the
process of extermination
Your luggage would be left for collection later
First you removed your valuables
Then you removed your shoes and clothes
Eyeglasses
Then they removed your hair
Finally
• Prisoners were sent to gas chambers
disguised as showers
• Xylon B gas used to gas people in 3 –
15 minutes
• Up to 8000 people were gassed per
day at Auschwitz- Birkenau, the
largest death camp with 4 operating
gas chambers
• Gold fillings from victims teeth were
melted down to make gold bars
• Prisoners moved dead bodies to
massive crematoriums
You cannot live
The gas chambers, disguised as showers, mainly used carbon
monoxide and Xylon-B. To meet the daily death quota, the SS
guards gassed men, & women; the elderly & children.
You cannot live
Large industrial
ovens were used to
cremate the
remains. Jewish
inmates operated
the ovens under SS
supervision.
Dead bodies waiting to be processed
Evil is when a few good men decide
to do nothing.
The Hangman
Maurice Ogden
Into our town the Hangman came, smelling of gold and blood and flame. And he
paced our bricks with a diffident air. And built his frame on the courthouse
square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, only as wide as the door was wide; a
frame as tall, or little more, than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time, who the criminal, what the
crime, that Hangman judged with the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his
busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread we passed those eyes of buckshot
lead; till one cried: "Hangman, who is he for whom you raise the gallowstree.”
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye, and he gave us a riddle instead of
reply: "He who serves me best," said he, "Shall earn the rope on the gallowstree.”
And he stepped down, and laid his hand on a man who came from another land
and we breathed again, for another's grief at the Hangman's hand was our
relief.
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn by tomorrow's sun would be
struck and gone. So we gave him way, and no one spoke, out of respect for his
hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down on roof and street in our quiet town
and, stark and black in the morning air, the gallows-tree on the courthouse
square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand with the yellow hemp in his busy
hand; with his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike and his air so knowing
and businesslike.
And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done, yesterday, with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed: "Oh, not for him was the gallows
raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: "Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss to
hang one man? That's a thing I do to stretch the rope when the rope is new.”
Then one cried, "Murderer!" One cried, "Shame!" And into our midst the
Hangman came to that man's place. "Do you hold," said he, "With him that
was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm, and we shrank back in quick alarm, and
we gave him way, and no one spoke out of fear of his hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise the Hangman's scaffold had grown in
size. Fed by the blood beneath the chute the gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more, than the steps that led to the courthouse door, as
tall as the writing, or nearly as tall, halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took — we had all heard tell — was a usurer and infidel, And:
"What," said the Hangman, "have you to do with the gallows-bound, and
he a Jew?"
And we cried out: "Is this one he who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme to try the strength of the
gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song had scratched out comfort hard and
long; and "What concern," he gave us back, "Have you for the doomed the doomed and black?”
The fifth.The sixth. And we cried again: "Hangman, Hangman, is this the
man?" "It's a trick," he said, "that we hangmen know for easing the trap
when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more, as the Hangman tallied his bloody
score; and sun by sun, and night by night, the gallows grew to monstrous
height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide till they covered the square from side
to side; and the monster cross-beam, looking down, cast its shadow
across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came and called in the empty streets my name
- and I looked at the gallows soaring tall and thought: "There is no one left at all
for hanging, and so he calls to me to help pull down the gallows-tree." And I went
out with right good hope to the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down to the courthouse square through the silent town,
and supple and stretched in his busy hand was the yellow twist of the hempen
strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap and it sprang down with a ready snap—
and then with a smile of awful command he laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then. "That your scaffold was built for other
men. And I no henchman of yours," I cried, "You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye: "Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said, "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true: The scaffold was raised for none but
you.
"For who has served me more faithfully than you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others that might have stood side by your side in the
common good?"
"Dead," I whispered; and amiably "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me; "First the
alien, then the Jew... I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky, none had stood so alone as I - and the
Hangman strapped me, and no voice there cried "Stay" for me in the empty
square.