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Facing the Holocaust:

Facing the Holocaust:. Why Genocide?. The Aftermath of World War I: A Devastated Germany. German citizens experiencing economic troubles – c. 1925. German Pride Suffers. Loss of WWI was a shock to Germans – promised victory by government

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Facing the Holocaust:

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  1. Facing the Holocaust: Why Genocide?

  2. The Aftermath of World War I: A Devastated Germany German citizens experiencing economic troubles – c. 1925

  3. German Pride Suffers • Loss of WWI was a shock to Germans – promised victory by government • Severe terms of Treaty of Versailles were hard for Germans to accept • Money worthless – one billion marks to equal one dollar

  4. Hitler’s Early Years Portrait of Adolph Hitler entitled “Our Leader”

  5. Hitler’s Early Years • Close to mother – she died of cancer in 1907, he blamed her Jewish doctor • Chose the swastika as the Nazi symbol • Said that Jews were responsible for the defeat in WWI because they didn’t fight for Germany – untrue – German Jews had casualty rate 11 times higher than general population • Blamed economy on Jews – Jewish businessmen prolonged the war so they could profit from it

  6. Hitler Rises to Power Head of the S.S. – Heinrich Himmler S.S. Chief – Viktor Lutze Deputy Fuhrer – Rudolf Hess

  7. Nazi Ideology Permeates German Society

  8. Nazi Propaganda • Used posters, movies, rallies, and organizations to spread idea of superiority of German race; Jews seen as “impure” • All newspapers had to support Nazis • Foreign papers banned • Textbooks rewritten • Children’s stories taught the dangers of Jews – “Trust No Fox and No Jew” • Board games had Jewish monsters that attacked German children

  9. Jews are Isolated and Attacked "The Jew: He instigates war, he extends war.”

  10. Anti-Semitic Propaganda • Jews were pictured as dark-haired, fat, and evil. They were often depicted as rats or insects. • Hitler ordered “good” Germans to boycott Jewish businesses • Nuremburg laws – systematically stripped Jews of rights – weren’t allowed to marry Germans, they weren’t citizens, their property was taken away, and they were restricted from public places • Required to wear yellow Stars of David on their clothing • Jews provided a rationale, in Hitler’s mind, for his military invasions

  11. Attacks on Jews Escalate Damaged storefront after Kristallnacht

  12. Kristallnacht • Said to be in retaliation for assassination of a German embassy official in Paris by a Jewish student • Jews forced to pay for the damage ($400,000,000) • Germans portrayed as “spontaneous,” but it was planned for weeks • Many Jews realized they weren’t safe and fled to places like Britain, Palestine, Canada, and the U.S.

  13. Jews Are Forced into Ghettos and Camps Captive Jewish boy from the Warsaw Ghetto marches off in 1943

  14. Jews Pushed into Ghettos • Jews were sent to live in sealed-off areas called ghettos. Conditions were unsanitary and crowded; executions were common • Ghettos were temporary housing until extermination could begin • By 1939, Jews from northern and western Europe were moved to ghettos in eastern Europe • Jews tried to revolt, but none were successful

  15. The Horrors of Concentration Camps Prisoners at work at Dachau, 10 miles outside Munich, Germany

  16. Concentration Camps Established • First camp established at Dachau in 1933 • Inmates were used to support the war industry • Workers were starved, tortured, worked to death, and, most often, murdered • Nazi doctors used Jews for human experimentation • Conditions at the camps varied, but killings occurred at all camps • Auschwitz-Birkenau was designed as a death camp

  17. Physicians would examine prisoners and decide who could work. Young children were usually sent to death because they could not work. • Belongings were seized and sold by the Germans – watches were sent to German troops, gold from teeth was melted into bars, hair was cut and used to make mattresses • Performed physical labor, like mining – period of three months – deprived of necessities, many died while working

  18. Resistance in the Camps EllaGärtnerandRózaRobota, two women who took part in the Auschwitz Revolt. Both were killed for their involvement.

  19. Resistance in the Camps • Resistance was difficult in the camps • Civilians in surrounding areas were subject to death with no trial for assisting a prisoner • Prisoners who attempted resistance were always executed • Many prisoners engaged in acts of resistance

  20. The “Final Solution” Crematoriums used to burn bodies in a concentration camp

  21. The Systemization of Killing • According to Hitler, the “Final Solution,” the extermination of all Jewish people, would restore Germany’s greatness • At the beginning, Jews were executed in mass shootings – rounded up, transported to a ditch, and shot in groups of 500 • Decided this wasn’t an efficient system – decided to construct death camps

  22. Arrival at Auschwitz • Prisoners separated into two groups: workers, and those to be killed • Those to be killed were told they needed to bathe and were led to gas chambers that looked like bath houses – could hold 3,000 at a time • They were told to fold their clothes and remember where they put them and given towels and bars of soap • Once locked inside, Cyclon B was used to asphyxiate them

  23. Special units of prisoners removed the bodies • Taken to crematoriums, where the bodies were burned – Nazis wanted it to be impossible for someone in the future to determine the number of deaths • In the end, 6 million Jews and 4-6 million non-Jewish civilians, such as Gypsies, handicapped, and homosexuals, were killed

  24. Liberation Dachau prisoners cheer the liberating U.S. Army

  25. Attempt to Hide Atrocities • At the end of the war, Hitler was determined to continue his killing of the Jews and cover up evidence. • Several thousand prisoners were killed in the last days. • In some cases, Nazis had altered camps, but in many, the remains of bodies were left in ovens and the killing process could be seen. • The Allied nations all made films of what they found in the concentration camps.

  26. The Nuremberg Trials • Trials were a part of an aim to establish a record of what the Nazis did during the war and to punish individuals who were involved. • Many Nazi records were captured, so there was plenty of evidence, like minutes from meetings, photographs, and film. • 22 were tried – 12 sentenced to death, 3 to life in prison, 4 to lesser terms, and 3 were acquitted

  27. Bodies of prisoners in the Buchenwald camp. The bodies were about to be burned when the camp was captured by the U.S. Army.

  28. Wedding rings of captured Jews

  29. The arrival and processing of a transport of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland in May 1944

  30. Prisoners in their bunks at Dachau

  31. German soldier killing a Jewish mother and her child

  32. A German policeman shoots Jewish women whoremain alive after a mass execution.

  33. Mass grave in the Belsen camp

  34. German soldiers torture a Jew in Poland

  35. German soldiers cut off the beard of a Jew in Poland

  36. Two Jewish pupils are humiliated before their classmates. The inscription on the blackboard reads "The Jew is our greatest enemy, beware of the Jew".

  37. A synagogue burns in Siegen, Germany, on Kristallnacht

  38. Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz

  39. Medical experiments in Dachau. In order to test how pilots who have to eject from their planes will fare, doctors simulated high-altitude conditions and exposed people to these conditions. Many prisoners died during such experiments.

  40. The main entrance of Auschwitz Camp, with its motto "Work Will Set You Free."

  41. Jewish women - Some are holding infants as they are forced to wait in a line before their execution. 

  42. At Dachau concentration camp, two U.S. soldiers gaze at Jews who died on board a death train.

  43. Dachau survivor on the day of liberation.

  44. Dachau survivors on the day of liberation.

  45. Chart of prisoner markings from Dachau concentration camp

  46. SS officer Eichelsdoerfer stands among the corpses of prisoners killed in his camp

  47. Interior of the barracks at Auschwitz

  48. Corpses of women in Barrack 11 at Auschwitz

  49. An American soldier stands above the corpses of children that are to be buried in a mass grave

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