HOLOCAUST

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HOLOCAUST

• THE THREE STAGES OF NAZI PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS

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Background

• Anti-Semitism (words or actions that are
  anti-Jewish) goes back thousands of years to the
  times of the Israelites
• During the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe were
  restricted to certain sections of cities called
  ghettoes
• Anti-Semitism was not limited to Nazi Germany
  during the 20th century

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Stage I Anti-Semitic measures and laws

• The Nazi government used anti-Semitic propaganda
• such as posters and even childrens books

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• Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (above right)
  orchestrated these measures which also included
  book burnings by Jewish writers, boycotting
  Jewish stores, prohibiting Jewish athletes from
  German teams and banning Jews from many
  professions

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• 1936 Olympics
• Boycotts

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• The Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1936 which
  denied Jews any rights to German citizenship
• Mixed marriages between Jews and Aryans also
  became illegal at this point

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• Kristalnacht
• In 1937, the Nazi storm troopers (SA) destroyed
  many Jewish shops and synagogues in an event
  called Kristalnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)

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Stage II Deportations

• At the beginning of World War II, the Nazis
  developed a territorial solution by deporting
  Jews to Nazi occupied countries in Eastern Europe
  (mostly in Poland)

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• Jewish families were forced to live in ghettoes
  such as the Warsaw Ghetto (above right)
• Jews were forced to wear the yellow star (Star of
  David)

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• Some executions were being ordered such as the
  Babi Yar Massacre near Kiev where 30 000 Jews
  were killed in two days and buried in a ravine
  (1941)

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Stage III The Final Solution

• The decision to proceed with the elimination of
  all European Jews was made at the Wansee
  Conference in 1942
• SS officer Adolf Eichmann (right) was put in
  charge of this task

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• A euthanasia program was established to dispose
  of the physically and mentally disabled
• Executions began in experimental gas vans which
  used a cyanide gas called Zyklon B

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• Many concentration camps were converted to death
  camps such as Auschwitz (right), Treblinka,
  Belzec and others most of these were in Poland

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• European Jews were rounded up told they were
  being deported by train
• The trains would arrive at Auschwitz for example
  where the selection process would begin (lower
  right)
• The fit would be put to work and the others would
  be sent for special treatment

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• Their hair was cut and they were told to undress
  before they showered
• The gas chambers (lower right) were disguised as
  showers
• The doors were closed and the gas was poured in
  within 30 minutes, they had suffocated to death

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• The dead bodies would be transported to the
  crematoriums where they would incinerated
• Some camps were killing factories that could gas
  thousands of people per day

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• Other images of Auschwitz

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• Jews were not the only victims others included
  Poles, Gypsies and Homosexuals
• Some camps had doctors such as Josef Mengele
  (right) who did medical experiments, mostly on
  twins

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• There were some sympathizers who helped Jewish
  families such as Oskar Schindler (top) and Raoul
  Wallenberg (bottom), Wallenberg helped 700
  Hungarian Jews emigrate to Sweden

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• Towards the end of the war in 1945, the Soviet
  Red Army liberated the death camps and found a
  small number of survivors such as Simon
  Wiesenthal (right)

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• Following the war, dozens of Nazi officials were
  prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against
  humanity in the Nuremberg Trials
• Images United States Holocaust Memorial
  Museum