The Holocaust

1
The Holocaust

• Spodek, pp. 707-710

2
Genocide in 20th Century

• Genocide had very specific form in 20th century.
• Armenian Genocide had roots in late 19th century
  but 1 ½ million were killed between 1915-1923
• Used in concentration camps as well as mass
  deportations
• Used Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa) to
  organize killing
• Turks claim it was an action against a bitter
  enemy during war

3
Rape of Nanjing

• Japanese killed over 300,000 and raped between
  60,000- 80,000.
• Like Turks, claimed massacre was a necessary act
  against enemy combattants
• Question what is moral and immoral in war? Are
  20th century wars different in the violence they
  enacted on civilians?

4
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5
Nazi PolicyExtremes of Race-based Thinking
(Eugenics)

• Wanted to purify German (Aryan) Race
• Afraid if intermarried and reproduced with other
  races, the Aryan race would degenerate.
• In Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler argued that it was
  necessary to exterminate Jews and other inferior
  races

6
Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht

• September 1935 Nuremberg Lawslaws discriminating
  against the Jews, depriving them of citizenship,
  prevent them from having sexual contact with
  Aryans/Germans
• November 1938Kristallnacht The Night the Broken
  of Glass Germans begin to put thousands of
  Jews in concentration camps, where they were
  forced to labor for the Government

7
Events during the War

• Killing Intensifies
• SS Einsatzgruppen (Action squads)
• Mobile killing units
• Firing squads murdered massive number of people
• Buried them in mass graves
• By 1941, the SS Einsatzgruppen had murdered 1.5
  million people, mostly Jews
• January 20, 1942 the Wannsee Conference in Berlin
• The Jews were rounded up and sent to Labor and
  the Death camps.
• 3 million people were killed in Auschwitz alone.
• At least 6 million Jews killed

8
The Holocaust

• European Jewish population fell from 9,739,200 to
  3,505,800
• Also killed 5 million other undesirables
  (disabled, Slavs, gypsies, homosexuals, petty
  criminals, Jehovahs Witness, communists).
• After they were killed, the bodies were burned in
  large crematories, but many bodies still evident
  when camps liberated.

9
The Holocaust in Pictures
10
Could it happen again?

• United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, But
• Genocide in Rwanda
• Genocide in Bosnia
• Genocide in Kosovo