Warmup Take out two sheets of paper and

Warm-up: Take out two sheets of paper and answer the questions below silently. Be prepared to write responses the whole class period. Put yourself into these children’s place. How would you feel? What types of emotions/feelings would you have? Have you had any experiences in your life, where you have experienced these emotions? Write a response in paragraph form. Place on a clean sheet of paper!!! (4 minutes)

Directions • Today you will be taking notes- anything written in red. • You will also be keeping a journal. Throughout class you will answer a series of questions or reflections/prompts (written in yellow). Answer all in complete sentences. • Journal will be collected at the end of class.

Standard • SS 6 H 7 The student will explain conflict and change in Europe to the 21 st century. b. Explain the impact of WWII in terms of the Holocaust, the origins of the Cold War, and the rise of Superpowers.

THE HOLOCAUST

Vocabulary Holocaust- Killing of millions (6) of Jews during WWII. Anti-Semitism- prejudice or discrimination towards the Jews. Concentration Camps- Large prison camps used to confine Jews. Ghetto- Section of a city where Nazis forced Jews to live.

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How would it feel to have someone come into your home and force you to leave? If you could only take 1 bag (small), what would you put in it? 8

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Between 1939 and 1945 six million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of others, such as Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled and the mentally ill.

FINAL SOLUTION • This plan had 3 phases designed to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe • “Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when the knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth!” Nazi Newspaper • How would people react if something like this was written in today’s newspaper? Why was it allowed?

Phase 1 = Shooting • Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated • They were taken to the woods and were shot one by one • their bodies were buried in mass graves • What would you think of; knowing death was waiting for you at the end of the line?

Jewish women, some holding infants, are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators.

Phase 2 = Gas Vans • Again, Jews were rounded up and told they were to be relocated in vans • The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped back into the van 700, 000 Jews killed in Vans

Problems with Phases 1, 2 • The Nazis encountered several problems with the executions and gas vans • First, they were both taking too much time • Second, resources such as gas and munitions were becoming scarce • Third, soldiers involved were beginning to have psychological problems with what they were doing.

Phase 3 = The Camps • Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution • there were two different types of camps: • CONCENTRATION CAMPS • EXTERMINATION CAMPS • Jews from all over occupied Europe were to be brought here.

CONCENTRATION • • 100 of these in Nazi-occupied Europe prisoners used forced labor prisoners usually lasted less than 1/2 year communists, homosexuals, criminals, socialdemocrats, artists. • First camp was opened in 1933, right after Nazis came to power • People were literally worked to death (200 calories per day) • Compare/Contrast concentration camps with chattel slavery?

“In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up. ” Reverend Martin Niemoeller, Protestant minister, Germany, and concentration camp survivor What can we learn from this passage (moral)? How could you apply these lessons to your daily lives?

AUSCHWITZ • Started operations in January 1940 (Poland) • Himmler chose Auschwitz as the place for the Final Solution (Extermination Camp) • had 4 gas chambers/crematories by 1943 • mass killings with Zyklon B gas • commanded by Rudolph Hoess • recorded 12, 000 kills in one day

Entrance to Auschwitz Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station. Why would the Nazi’s want their prisoners to think this was a train station and not a concentration camp?

THE SS AT AUSCHWITZ ORDERED TO TAKE ALL POSSESSIONS FROM JEWS TEETH WITH GOLD PILES OF GLASSES

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.

The Gas Chambers • The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof. • These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses. The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber

ZYKLON-B GAS USED TO KILL VERMIN. IT WAS INEXPENSIVE COMPARED TO GAS. DROPPED FROM CEILINGS

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Warm-up List 5 things you have learned about the Holocaust. List 2 things you still want to know. 29

Dead bodies waiting to be processed H

Smoke rises as the bodies are burnt.

STATISTICS BY COUNTRY Jewish population before, Jewish population after Holocaust

Percentage of Jews killed in each country 6 f o l a t o AT s w e J 0 0 0 , , 000

The End… • The concentration and extermination camps were shut down by the end of the war (1945). • The Allies did not know the extent of the camps until this time.

Reflection • Why would millions of German citizen’s allow and/or participate in such a horrific event as the Holocaust? • What can be done to prevent something like this from happening in the future? • In light of the fact that several genocides (Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan) have occurred since, why have we not learned from history? (optional discussion topic)

“Until September 14, 1939 my life was typical of a young Jewish boy in that part of the world in that period of time. WHY? I lived in a Jewish community surrounded by gentiles. Aside from my immediate family, I had many relatives and knew all the town people, both Jews and gentiles. Almost two weeks after the outbreak of the war and shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, my world exploded. In the course of the next five and a half years I lost my entire family and almost everyone I ever knew. Death, violence and brutality became a daily occurrence in my life while I was still a young teenager. ” Leonard Lerer, 1991