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The Holocaust. Hitler and the Nazi Regime. How it all started. The Nazi regime in Germany felt that those who could not work were a drain on the resources of the rest of society. They passed a series of laws regulating who was allowed to have children.
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How it all started • The Nazi regime in Germany felt that those who could not work were a drain on the resources of the rest of society. • They passed a series of laws regulating who was allowed to have children. • One law required any couple who wished to get married undergo an examination to prevent physical and mental defects in their children. • The most hated law was the so-called “Sterilization Law,” under which any person suspected of having a genetic defect that could be passed on was forcibly sterilized.
In the 1930’s, they began to identify children with physical and mental defects. They were then either given lethal injections or slowly starved to death • Later, adults were also “euthanized” if they could not work or required long-term medical care More than 5,000 children and 70,000 adults were killed
A Nazi propaganda poster designed to convince the public that sterilization was necessary. It says: "The Threat of the Underman. It looks like this: Male criminals had an average of 4.9 children, criminal marriage, 4.4 children, parents of slow learners, 3.5 children, a German family 2.2 children, and a marriage from the educated circles, 1.9 children."
The Aryan Race • During this time, the Germans were also interested in creating a “pure” German race, which they called the “master” race or the “Aryan” race. Ideal models of this pure race were thought to have blue eyes and blonde hair. • They felt that Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities were polluting the German race and making it weak. They were determined to cleanse their nation of these “impurities.”
The Nuremberg Laws The Nazi regime created new laws in an attempt to drive the Jews from their country and prevent the pollution of the German race. The laws stated that: • a Jew could not marry a German. • Jews were not citizens • Jews could not work in the homes of Germans
Discrimination • Jews were forced to carry identification cards and wear a yellow Star of David sewn to their clothes
Kristallnacht A Jewish synagogue burns • On a cold night in November 1938, Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues were attacked by the Nazi SA. Ninety-one Jews were killed. • Buildings were looted and burned and so many windows were broken that it became known as “The Night of the Broken Glass” or Kristallnacht. A Jewish synagogue burns
The Ghettos • Following the start of World War II, Jews were forced from their homes and forced to live in walled “ghettos” that were cut off from the rest of society
Food was scarce and many starved to death or died of disease • Ghettos were used to segregate • Jews and other “undesirables” into parts of the city
The Final Solution • During World War II, the Nazis no longer wished to pay for the upkeep of Jewish and other prisoners in the concentration camps and ghettos • They made a plan for their “Final Solution.” This would both save them money and get rid of the Jews and other minorities that were polluting their race. They would begin to systematically exterminate those who were considered enemies to the German nation
Deportation • Prisoners were forced onto impossibly crowded trains and taken to the concentration camps. Many died enroute.
The Camps • When they reached the camps, the prisoners were separated into those that could work (mostly young men and women) and those that could not (children, older adults and the elderly, the physically disabled or injured). • Those that could not work were sent to be gassed immediately after arriving. Nazi doctors separating the prisoners upon arrival at the camp.
The Showers • Large groups of victims were told to strip down and enter the showers where they were then killed with Zyclon-B gas pumped into the closed room, killing all inside in under 6 minutes. • At the time, many of these people thought they were the ones who were going to be saved.
A MAP OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND DEATH CAMPS USED BY THE NAZIS.
Part of a stockpile of Zyklon-B poison gas pellets found at Majdanek death camp. A group of children at a concentration camp in Poland.
Bales of hair shaven from women at Auschwitz, used to make felt-yarn. After liberation, an Allied soldier displays a stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald.
In the Camps • The prisoners were given a number that was tattooed onto their forearm for identification • The prisoners were divided into categories and made to wear triangular patches on their clothing: Ordinary criminals -green Political Prisoners -red Asocials (prostitutes, slackers, drug addicts, etc.)-black Homosexuals –pink Conscientious objectors (pacifists) – purple Jews – yellow Gypsies –brown
A Ukrainian Jew is forced to kneel before an open pit full of bodies prior to being shot. The gates of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camps-the sign over the gate tells the incoming prisoners “Work will make you free.”
In addition to the cruelty of death and imprisonment, the Nazi used the prisoners as subjects for cruel medical experiments, including traumatic injuries, attempts to change eye color or other attributes, intentional infection with diseases, etc. Twins were especially prized for experimentation purposes Doctor Josef Mengele was infamous for his experimentation on twins and the cool detachment with which he sent children and others to their deaths on the unloading ramp at Auschwitz.
The razor wire fences of Auschwitz Food in the camps was barely enough to keep one alive.
In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million. Nazis ordered the bodies of those buried to be dug up and burned to destroy all traces. Soviet POWs at forced labor in 1943 exhuming bodies in the ravine at Babi Yar, where the Nazis had murdered over 33,000 Jews in September of 1941.
Between 1939 and 1945 sixmillion Jews were murdered, along with millionsof others, such as Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled and the mentally ill. The population of Bentonville, AR = 33,744. 6 million people would = 178 cities the size of Bentonville.
Percentage of Jews killed in each country AUSTRIA 35% POLAND 91% USSR 36% NORWAY 45% BELGIUM 45% LUXEMBOURG 55% ESTONIA 44% ROMANIA 84% HUNGARY 74% YUGOSLAVIA 81% BOHEMIA 60% LATVIA 84% NETHERLANDS 71% LITHUANIA 85% GERMANY 36% FRANCE 22% GREECE 87%
The Victims • Ukrainians 5.5-7 million • Jews (all countries) 6 million + • Russian POWs 3.3 million + • Russian Civilians 2 million • Poles 3 million + • Yugoslavs 1.5 million + • Gypsies 200,000-500,000 • Mentally/Physically Disabled 70,000-250,000 • Homosexuals 30,000-90,000 • Jehovah’s Witnesses 2,500-5,000 • Countless others including: Communists, people of African descent, political enemies, social undesirables (slackers, prostitutes, drug addicts, common criminals, etc.), conscientious objectors, POWs of multiple countries, and many more…
Stage Directions • In front of • Behind • Next to • Beside • Above • Below • STAGE RIGHT • STAGE LEFT
