Preview

1
The Holocaust

• Preview
• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• Nazi Anti-Semitism
• The Final Solution
• Faces of History Anne Frank
• The World Reacts

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The Holocaust
Main Idea During World War II, Germanys Nazi
government deliberately murdered some 6 million
Jews and 5 million others in Europe. These
actions became known as the Holocaust.

• Reading Focus
• What was the history of Nazi anti-Semitism during
  the 1930s?
• What was the Nazi governments Final Solution?
• How did the world react to Hitlers efforts to
  destroy European Jews?

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Nazi Anti-Semitism

• At the time of Hitlers rise to power, 9 million
  Jews lived in Europe.
• Hitler blamed Jews for Germanys problems
• Promoted belief of racial superiority of German
  people
• No factual basis for anti-Semitism
• No factual basis for claims about master race
• Many Germans found Hitlers twisted vision
  appealing
• Germans had suffered through World War I
• Humiliation of Treaty of Versailles
• Economic crises of 1920s and 1930s
• Jews a convenient scapegoat, blamed for wrongs in
  Germany

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Long History of Anti-Semitism

• In Europe
• Hostility based on religion

• Under Hitler
• Hatred based on race

• Nuremberg Laws
• Separate legal status for German Jews

• Deportation
• Thousands of Jews deported

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• Limited emigration options
• Nazi laws left Jews without money, without
  property
• Countries unwilling to take in poor immigrants

• Aftermath of Great Depression
• Nations recovering economically jobs scarce
• Strict limits set on number of Germans allowed in
• 250,000 Jews trapped at start of war
• Germany outlawed emigration late in 1941

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Summarize Describe Nazi anti-Semitism in the
1930s.
Answer(s) Jews had separate legal status, no
citizenship and no right to hold government jobs,
limited right to work and own property thousands
of Jews deported
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The Final Solution

• Conquered areas of Europe
• Millions of Jews came under Hitlers power
• Nazi leaders adopted Final Solutionthe
  deliberate mass execution of Jews

• Killing begins
• Brutal treatment of Jewish civilians
• Forced to live in ghettos within a city
• 400,000 Jews confined to Warsaw ghetto

• Concentration camps
• Slave labor camps set up to hold these enemies
  of the state
• Cruel medical experiments
• Large-scale executions with civilians gunned down

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After 1941
After Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union,
Hitler called for the destruction of all European
Jews.
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Find the Main Idea What was the Final Solution,
and how did the Nazis attempt to carry out this
plan?
Answer(s) Nazi leaders adopted a plan they
called the "Final Solution"the deliberate, mass
execution of Jewish prisoners.
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The World Reacts
Other countries were aware of Hitlers
anti-Semitism in the 1930s. After the outbreak of
war, the extent of Hitlers brutality was
shielded from the outside world.
As the Allies pushed Germans back, the
concentration camps were discovered, in spite of
German attempts to cover up evidence.
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Auschwitz

• Actions revealed
• January 1945, Soviet troops found starving
  survivors at Auschwitz
• Evidence showed number of prisoners once held
  there

• Buchenwald and other camps
• April 1945, Americans reached Buchenwald to find
  thousands of corpses remaining inmates near
  death
• British reached Bergen-Belsen camp, finding
  35,000 bodies

• Scenes of horror
• Hardened combat veterans unable to describe the
  death and destruction
• Clear picture of Hitlers control
• Nazi hopes of world domination would not last

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Summarize How did the world react to Nazi killing
of Jews and other prisoners?
Answer(s) At first they didn't believe them, but
as the reports were confirmed, they met to
discuss possible responses. In January 1944, the
United States established the War Refugee Board
to help rescue Jews in Europe.