 Definition: Holocaust = the mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life…

 “ The Holocaust ” happened in
Europe from 1933 to 1945 .
 Only 70 years ago…
 Millions killed including Jews and non-Jews alike

What do you see?
What does it tell you?

Before 1933 and at the start of the Holocaust, Germany was unstable in a lot of different ways:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Upset about losing WW1
Hard to find jobs
Hoped Government would solve problems
Suspicious of outsiders

 In 1929, Stock Market crash leads to Great Depression
 Massive Unemployment (42%) and inflation
 In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of
Germany.
 Promised a proud new
Germany, and blamed the
Jews

Translation:
“ Germans defend yourselves against Jewish atrocity
(evilness), buy only at
German shops!
”
Hitler later declared himself
“The Fuhrer” (Leader) which allowed him to act without limit.

-Hitler believed in “Master
Race ” called “Aryan”
-Characteristics: Blond hair,
Blue eyes, Tall, Strong,
Perfect
Look at a photograph of Adolf Hitler. How are his beliefs ironic?

 The Nazis thought some people were inferior , including:
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Jews
Gypsies
Poles
African-Germans
Jehovah
’s Witnesses
Communists
People who were mentally or physically handicapped
Homosexuals
 Why do you think Hitler targeted these groups?

 Citizenship was revoked;
Kicked out of schools
 Doctors, lawyers, or people who owned businesses were forbidden to do their work.
 Park benches and the beaches had signs saying, “ No Jews
Allowed.
”

 Life improved for Nazis
 Jobs were taken from “Nonaryans ” and given to Nazis
 Nazi sympathizes were given more food and supplies
 Offered a sense of pride and belonging

 They convinced some
Germans that people who were different were subhuman .
 They used the mass media , like radios and newspapers, to spread Propaganda.
 How is this poster propaganda for the Nazis ?

 In November 1938, Nazis began to use violence.
 For two days all over the country, they destroyed Jewish businesses, and burnt down the synagogues.
 Homes were broken into.
People were beaten. About
30,000 people were arrested, and many were never seen again.

 Hitler and the Nazis wanted to control all of
Europe, so in 1939, Germany invaded
Poland, and World War II began .
 Soon Germany invaded many other countries. By 1941 , they had over taken
Poland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway .
 The Nazis made all Jews move out of their homes and into ghettos…gated areas to live . The ghettos in Europe were dirty and crowded. Food was scarce, and many people were sick and dying.

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In January 1942, The “Final
Solution was created ”
Goal: Kill all 11 million Jews in
Europe
The Nazis built death camps .
They wanted to keep their homeland “ pure, ” so most of the death camps were in Poland.
 The largest death camp was called Auschwitz .

 The War ended in 1945 when Allied
(American) forces invaded Berlin
 By then, 6 million people had already been killed
 Motto: “Never Again”

 Born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Romania.
 Grew up in a small village where his life revolved around the following:
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Family
Religious Study
Community
God

 In 1944, when Elie was 15, he was deported to
Auschwitz.
 When they arrived at the camp, he and his father were warned to lie about their ages. Elie said he was 18 and his father said he was 40 instead of 50.
 They were sent to be slave laborers.
 His mother and youngest sister were sent to the gas chambers.

 Elie and his father survived first
Auschwitz and then the Buna labor camp for eight months.
 They endured beatings, excessive work, starvation, and other torture.

 In the winter 1944-45,
Wiesel ’s right knee swelled up and a doctor performed surgery on it.
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Two days later, the inmates were forced to go on a death march.
For ten days they were forced to run, then crammed into freight cars, and sent to Buchenwald.

 After he was freed from the camp on April 11, Wiesel became sick with intestinal problems.
 After several days in the hospital, Wiesel wrote an outline for a book describing the Holocaust.
 He wasn ’t ready to publicize his experience, but promised he would in ten years.

 After Elie was released from the hospital, he had no family to return to.
 He went with 400 other orphan children to France.
 From 1945-1947, he moved from house to house found for him by
Children ’s Rescue Society.

 By 1947, he was reunited with both of his surviving sisters,
Bea and Hilda.
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Hilda found his picture in a newspaper.
He found Bea in
Antwerp.

 In 1948, Elie enrolled in the
Sorbonne University where he studied literature, philosophy, and psychology.
 He was extremely poor and very depressed.
 He considered suicide often.

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Over time, he became involved with the Irgun, a Jewish militant organization in Palestine, and translated materials from Hebrew to Yiddish for the Irgun ’s newspaper.
He began working as a reporter, and in 1949, he traveled to
Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper, L ’Arche .
In Israel, he found a job as a Paris correspondent for the
Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot.
 He traveled the world in the 1950 ’s.
 He also became involved in the argument whether Israel should accept reparations payments from West Germany.

 Weisel ’s turning point came when he interviewed the Catholic writer, Francois Mauriac.
 During the interview, everything was centered around Jesus and Wiesel ended up saying the following;
 "…ten years ago, not very far from here, I knew Jewish children every one of whom suffered a thousand times more, six million times more, than Christ on the cross. And we don ’t speak about them."
 Wiesel ran out of the room, but Mauriac followed and advised
Wiesel to write down his experience.

 Elie spent a year working on the 862 page manuscript he called And the World Was Silent .
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He gave it to his publisher who returned it as a 258 page book called Night.
The book was published first in France in 1958 and then in the U.S. in 1960.
 The book is autobiographical and told of his experiences during the Holocaust.
 It also is his personal account of his loss of religious faith.

 In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York as foreign correspondent for Yediot Ahronot .
 It was around this time that he decided to stop attending synagogue, except on the High Holidays, as a protest against what he concluded was divine injustice.

 Wiesel was outspoken about the suffering of all people, not only Jews.
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In the 1970s, he protested against South African apartheid.
In 1980, he delivered food to starving Cambodians
In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize as
“a messenger to mankind, ” and “a human being dedicated to humanity.
”
 He explained his actions by saying the whole world knew what was happening in the concentration camps, but did nothing.
“That is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.
”

 From 1972 to 1978, Wiesel was a Distinguished
Professor of Judaic Studies at the City University of New York.
 1978, he became a Professor of Humanities at
Boston University.
 In 1978, President Jimmy Carter asked him to head the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which he did for six years.
 In 1985, Wiesel was awarded the Congressional
Gold Medal of Achievement.

 In 1993, Wiesel spoke at the dedication of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington,
D.C.
 His words, which echo his life ’s work, are carved in stone at the entrance to the museum:
 “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.
”

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A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent.
Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another.
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.