WORLD HISTORY II 1945 TO PRESENT

1. WORLD HISTORY II1945 TO PRESENT THE HOLOCAUST: ANTI-SEMITISM & GENOCIDE IN NAZI GERMANY LITTLE FLOWER CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

2. LEARN FROM THE PAST • To dwell in the past is foolish. To forget the past is a disgrace.

3. THE UNICORN

4. BIG IDEAS OF THE HOLOCAUST • prejudice • racism • stereotyping • pluralism • tolerance • diversity • silence • apathy • indifference • social engineering • genocide • use and abuse of power • civil rights • democratic responsibilities • Fairness • justice • individual identity • peer pressure • conformity • obedience

5. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS • How was it possible for a modern society to carry out the systematic murder of a people for no reason other than that they were Jews? • How was it possible for a people to almost be destroyed? • What makes some people resist and others obey authority? • How was it possible for the whole world to stand by without halting this destruction? • Could such a thing happen again? • What would I have done under similar circumstances? • What can such a catastrophe tell us about human nature? • What comparable examples are there of people’s inhumanity to others? • Where does one draw the line between obeying the law or • obeying one’s conscience? • What is the role and responsibility of the individual in society • What is your citizen’s responsibility to explore your roles as an educated and responsible human beings in a global society. • Why is the study of the Holocaust relevant today?

6. Students will understand that… • man’s inhumanity to man can surface in a variety of historical circumstances. • genocide is a threat to all humanity, and the loss of one group is a loss to all. • prejudice has had a long history and is still alive today. • blind obedience to authority can be dangerous. • when tyranny prevails, individuals can make a difference by acts of moral courage. • democratic institutions and values are not automatically sustained, but need to be appreciated, nurtured, and protected. • silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can - however, unintentionally - perpetuate the problem. • the Holocaust was not an accident in history - it occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass murder to occur.

7. OVERVIEW • Persecution and mass murder of as many as 11 million people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. • Who were the people they targeted? • What were the events leading up to the Final Solution? • How did the genocide finally come to an end?

8. SOME CAUSES • The consequence of unbridled racism… • Centuries-old bigotry and anti-Semitism… • Renewed by a nationalistic fervor that emerged in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century… • Fueled by Germany’s defeat in World War I and its national humiliation following the Treaty of Versailles… • Exacerbated by worldwide economic hard times… • The ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic… • International indifference… • Catalyzed by the political charisma and manipulative propaganda of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime…

9. ADOLPH HITLER • The Holocaust corresponds with the political rise of one man: Adolf Hitler. • He became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. • By the middle of the next year, he was dictator with the title of Fuhrer.

10. THE CLEANSING • Hitler had started cleansing, what he called, 'the master race' almost as soon as he took office. • In addition to the nearly six million Jews he targeted, there were more than five million non-Jewish victims as well. • The Nazi regime tried to eliminate anyone who might pose a political threat, including: • communists, journalists and various Christians who opposed Hitler • those who would 'dilute' the Aryan gene pool, such as Romani, Jews, blacks and the handicapped • criminals and others who drained the economic system • people they just didn't like, such as homosexuals

11. THE VICTIMS • Victims subject to heavy labor, forced abortions and sterilization. • Assets stolen & imprisoned in a concentration camp anywhere in the Third German Empire, or Reich. • Often executed or worked to death. • Current estimates total about 20,000 camps.

12. ANTI-SEMITISM • Hitler had specifically blamed Jews for his nation's problems since 1918. • Anti-Semitism not new in Europe, but the Nazis went from prejudice to murder. • Jews identified by voluntary registration, census and immigration records, synagogue membership rolls, and informants (bounties). • In 1933 - increasingly strict laws stripped away Jewish rights, including land ownership. • Barred from professions like law, medicine, journalism, military. • By 1935 - lost their citizenship & personal, business and property restrictions and regulations were enacted.

13. KRISTALLNACHT • The Night of Broken Glass – Kristallnacht. • November 1938 - turning point in Jewish persecution. • Retribution for the murder of a German embassy employee in Paris by a German-born Jewish student. • More than 9,000 Jewish-owned businesses, homes and synagogues were destroyed or vandalized. • 91 Jewish men were murdered, and upwards of 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps. • German government eliminated Jews from the economy, remaining Jewish-owned property was seized and Jewish children were expelled from public schools. • Jewish community as a whole was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage of Kristallnacht.

14. PERSECUTION BEYOND GERMANY • Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. • Separated the 'undesirable' citizens from the rest of the population. • 100,000’s of Jews were relocated into ghettos near railroad lines. • Polish Jews became slaves and wear a white Star of David on their arms. • Jews throughout the Reich - required to wear the recognizable yellow Star of David on their chests.

15. NEW CLEANSING PROGRAMS • Nazis conquered more territory - encountered more and more of what they called 'sub-humans,' including Allied POWs. • Germany began deporting Jews to concentration camps. • Those allowed to remain at home became slave labor in the war industries. • In newly occupied lands - simply kill as many Jews as possible on the spot, pay locals to do it, send to camps. • Hitler's allies started their own cleansing programs.

16. AUSCHWITZ • Summer of 1941 - Fuhrer ordered the systematic extermination of all Jewish people in Europe. • Final Solution • Genocide program began at Auschwitz – ultimately six death camps, all in Poland, specially equipped for mass murder. • European Jews & other 'undesirables,' were typically deported by freight and cattle cars, packed shoulder to shoulder for days - no room to sit, no protection from weather, no food, water or bathroom facilities. • Those who survived the train ride were separated upon arrival.

17. AUSCHWITZ • Summer of 1941 - Fuhrer ordered the systematic extermination of all Jewish people in Europe. • Final Solution • Genocide program began at Auschwitz - ultimately included six death camps, all in Poland, specially equipped for mass murder. • European Jews & other 'undesirables,' were typically deported by freight and cattle cars, packed shoulder to shoulder for days - no room to sit, no protection from weather, no food, water or bathroom facilities. • Those who survived the train ride were separated upon arrival.

18. HOW SEPARATED • Useful prisoners were tattooed with a number, stripped of their clothes and belongings, shaved and hosed down. • Allowed to live as long as they were productive workers for the German war machine. • Not useful enough - killed immediately, including almost all children and the elderly. • Zyklon-B gas became the preferred method. • Early victims were buried in mass graves, but cremation soon became the only sustainable option.

19. HUMAN TRIALS • Little resistance/rebellion in the camps or ghettos. • Nazis suppressed all uprisings. • A few managed to escape to safety. • Nazi doctors viewed the masses of defenseless prisoners as lab rats - human trials on a variety of medical experiments. • Deliberately inflicted and then tested various treatments for diseases, poisons, frostbite, hypothermia and battle wounds, including amputations and transplants. • Other doctors - the most efficient ways to exterminate all the 'sub-humans,' such as sterilization and execution techniques.

20. THE ARYAN RACE • Doctors tried to benefit the Aryan race - artificial insemination, infamous experimentation on twin children, breed multiple & perfect specimens of 'the master race.' • Developed a method for making soap from human fat. • But failed to change eye color or make seawater safe to drink.

21. END OF THE HOLOCAUST • D-Day - Allied invade Northern France on June 6, 1944. • Camps increased executions - record daily high of 9,000 at Auschwitz - faster than they could dispose of the bodies. • Soviet army liberated the first camp in July. • Nazis started eliminating as much evidence as possible, destroying camps and moving the prisoners as the Allies closed in. • Auschwitz discovered January 1945 - two million people murdered there. • First camp to be liberated by American troops was Buchenwald in April 1945. • April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide. • Germany surrendered a week later. • The war in Europe and the Holocaust were finally over.

22. LESSON SUMMARY • The Holocaust - 1933 and 1945 - murder of 11 million people at the hands of Hitler's regime in Nazi Germany. • Five million 'undesirable' people and six million Jews were systematically stripped of their rights and property, imprisoned and often killed. • The Final Solution attempted to exterminate all Jewish people in death camps, such as Auschwitz. • Before their deaths, many prisoners were used as slave labor or as unwilling subjects in medical experiments. • The Holocaust ended with Germany's surrender at the end of World War II in May 1945.

23. MY JOURNAL • How can you connect the history of the Holocaust to other world events and to the world you live in today? • Reflect on what you have learned and consider what this study means to you personally and as citizens of a democracy. • I did not know that… • I couldn’t believe that… • If I were _____, I think I… • If I were _____, I wish I… • This incident reminds me of a time when… • This incident reminds me of a book in which… • This incident reminds me of an experience that… • When I read ______, I… • I think that… • This person, ______, is similar to _____ because… • This event is ______, is similar to because…