The Holocaust Hitlers Final Solution Mein Kampf Hitlers

The Holocaust Hitler’s “Final Solution”

• • Mein Kampf Hitler’s book provided view of future plans Envisioned a Germany free of Jews When in total control in Germany, he was able to implement his plans Nazis promoted extreme nationalism Ideas on racial purity promoted w/ propaganda Non-German ethnic groups seen as threats to GER Jews depicted as evil, money-grubbing – Not people - vermin, rats, or insects that should be exterminated

Anti-Semitic Propaganda

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 • Nazis systematically stripped Jews of rights and property • Between 1933 -38 over 2000 anti-Jewish laws passed including Nuremberg Laws – Jews not citizens of Germany – Not allowed to go to college – Not allowed to work in the government – Not allowed to marry non-Jews – Had to wear a Star of David armband/patch

Kristallnacht • “Night of Broken Glass” • November 9, 1938 • Nazis destroy synagogues and businesses in Ger. & Aust. • 91 killed & 30, 000 jailed • Response to killing of Nazi official by a Jew

The Ghettos • • War put millions of Jews under Hitler’s control Nazis set out to solve the Jewish “problem” Jews were forced from their homes into ghettos Conditions in these restricted areas were crowded and unsanitary • Most ghettos in occupied Eastern Europe – Warsaw Ghetto the largest • 300 K Warsaw Jews sent to concentration camps and killed

Deportation of Jews to Warsaw Ghetto Forced Jewish Labor Children scaled walls to steal food

The Warsaw Uprising • April 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto uprising • German troops attacked the ghetto • 60 K Jews slaughtered • 9 Nazis dead & 86 wounded

Wannsee Conference – Jan. 1942 • Meeting at which the SS proposed a plan to transport all 11 million of Europe’s Jews to camps where they would be killed • Plan also called for killing Russian POW’s, Gypsies, and eventually 30 million European Slavs • SS would expand existing camps to handle the task

Concentration Camps • Nazis began setting up camps soon after they took power • First camps were detention and labor camps for political enemies • Soon after – others were sent – Communists, homosexuals, religious dissenters (Jehovah’s Witnesses), and Gypsies • Jews were sent in large numbers after Kristallnacht • Prisoners were often used as slave labor

The Final Solution • Term meaning the extermination of Jews of Europe • Some camps designed exclusively as death camps • Among the camps: – Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno • In these camps, Nazi doctors performed medical experiments on prisoners – Josef Mengele – “Angel of Death” – Twins, Dwarfs, others subjected to testing

The Selection Process • On arrival, prisoners went through a selection process • Some marked for death in the showers: – The old or sick – Young children • Kinderlager – kids section of a death camp – Pregnant women • Some would be temporarily spared so they could work: – The healthy – Persons 16 -45 – People with special talents • Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work Makes One Free”

Wholesale Slaughter • Final Solution began in summer & fall of 1941 – Coincided w/ invasion of USSR – USSR had large Jewish population • Killing groups followed directly behind the attacking army – Jews told they would be resettled – were instead led to huge ditches where they were shot – up to 500 at a time – At first, graves were dug (usually by the Jews themselves) to bury bodies • Later, to hide evidence – crematoria were built

Warehouse in Auschwitz containing items confiscated from prisoners

Buchenwald

Twisted Priorities • Killing the Jews started to take priority over the war • Trains carried Jews to camps instead of transporting supplies • Soldiers needed elsewhere instead manned the camps and killing units • Extermination plans continued even as the Nazis were losing the war

Numerous methods of killing • Firing squads – Considered inefficient • Gassing trucks – people locked in a sealed truck & asphyxiated with carbon monoxide – Used until first death camp – Chelmno – began operating in late 1941 • By 1942, camps used poison gas – Zyklon–B, a pesticide – – – Gas chambers designed to look like showers Gas chambers in Auschwitz could kill 6, 000/day Crematoria (large ovens) burned the remains Soon they couldn’t keep up with the high #’s of dead Large open pits used to burn piles of bodies

Liberation of the Camps • By 1942 – no selection process – prisoners being killed immediately upon arriving at death camps • Camps liberated as Soviets & Allies pushed Nazis back to Germany – Germans tried to cover up evidence • Prisoners still alive had severe digestive problems – malnutrition • U. S. Army forced citizens of Weimar to witness Buchenwald camp – Many had denied the camp’s existence – Allies made Germans bury the dead – Made films of what they found – proof

Dachau

The Human Cost • In all, about 12 million people were killed by the Nazis – 6 million were Jews – More than 3 million Jews killed in camps • Others killed by firing squads or in the ghettos – Remaining 6 million from various other groups including Slavs, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Political Prisoners, the sick, etc.

Who is to blame? • Nazi government / Hitler • Anti-Semitic history of Europe • Collaborationist governments • Allies? – How much did they know?

Nuremberg Trials (1946 -49) • Trials held to punish Nazis leaders • Had 3 goals – Establish formal record of what happened – Re-establish basic rules of international conduct – Punish Nazis guilty of war crimes • Why Nuremberg? - Site of massive Nazi rallies • Defense – accused claimed they followed orders

Results: 22 Nazi Leaders tried • 12 - executed • 3 - life terms • 4 – lesser terms • 3 - acquitted