Background: The

Holocaust
Directions
As you go through the Power Point
presentation, complete the note-taking guide.
Be sure to complete the reflection questions
and critical writings along the way

WARNING: This presentation does contain

graphic photos from the Holocaust. If you
prefer to not see those images, scroll past
them quickly or see me for an alternate
assignment to complete
Bystander Visual Example
Read the poem. What does it mean to be a silent
bystander? How does this poem show the consequences of
being just that?
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Pastor Niemoeller
Antisemitism

Political leaders who used antisemitism as a

tool relied on the ideas of racial science to
portray Jews as a race instead of a religion.
Nazi teachers began to apply the principles
of racial science by measuring skull size and
nose length and recording students eye color
and hair to determine whether students
belonged to the Aryan race.
How did the Nazis decide who was Jewish?
At the Wannsee conference, it
was decided that if all three or
four of the persons
grandparents were Jewish, then
they were Jewish.
However, if only one or two of
their grandparents had been
Jewish then they were
classified as a crossbreed.
In 1940, all Jews had to have
their passports stamped with
the letter J and had to wear
the yellow Star of David on
their jacket or coat.
Totalitarian State
Paranoia and fear dominate (have control), because
government has total control over the culture. They
use:
-Aggression
-and is allowed indiscriminate killing; or murdering
people without thinking who theyre actually killing
Nazis passed
laws which
restricted the
rights of Jews
Nuremberg
Laws
Totalitarian State (continued)

The Nuremberg
Laws stripped Jews
of their German
citizenship. They
were prohibited from
marrying or having
sexual relations with
persons of German
or related blood.
Totalitarian State (continued)
Jews, like all other
German citizens,
were required to
carry identity
cards, but their
cards were
stamped with a red
J. This allowed
police to easily
identify them.
Totalitarian State (continued)

The Nazis used

propaganda to
promote their anti-
Semitic ideas.
One such book was
the childrens book,
The Poisonous
Mushroom.
Persecution
The Nazi plan for dealing with the Jewish
Question, which was How to eliminate (get rid
of) the Jews. evolved (changed) in three
steps:

1. Expulsion: Get the Jews out of Germany

2. Containment: Put them all together in one
place called ghettos
3. Annihilation: Final Solution the Nazi
program of killing all of the Jews in German-
controlled lands
Persecution
Nazis targeted These groups included:
(focused on) other
Gypsies (Sinti and
individuals and Roma)
groups in addition to
Homosexual men
the Jews to
Jehovahs Witness
discriminate & hurt:
Handicapped Germans
Blacks
Political dissidents
(people who protested
against the
government)
Persecution

Kristallnacht was the Night

of Broken Glass on
November 9-10, 1938
Germans attacked
synagogues, Jewish
homes, and businesses
Jews were forced to move
into ghettoes or sent to the
concentration camps
Persecution

Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads

made up of Nazi (SS) units and police. They
killed Jews in mass shooting actions
throughout eastern Poland and the western
Soviet Union.
Persecution
Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen

Victims were taken

to deserted areas
where they were
made to dig their
own graves and shot.

When the SS ran out

of bullets they
sometimes killed
their victims using
flame throwers.
The Final Solution
In January 1942, Heinrich
Himmler, a leader in the
Nazi Party, decided to
begin The Final Solution
He felt that existing
(current) methods were too
inefficient and that a new
Final Solution was
necessary
Final Solution:
The Ghettos

The Nazis aimed to control the Jewish

population by forcing them to live in areas
that were designated for Jews only, called
ghettos.
Ghettos were established across all of
occupied Europe
Life in the ghettos was made to be difficult. In
particular, there were many Jews put into a
small area with little food, water, clothing,
proper plumbing, or access to medicine.
Final Solution: The Ghettos
Life in the ghettos was hard: food was
rationed; several families often shared a
small space; disease spread rapidly;
heating, ventilation, and sanitation were
limited.
Many children were orphaned in the
ghettos, because their parents were
dead.
Children Dying of Starvation in
the Warsaw Ghetto
 Final Solution: The (Death)
Concentration Camps
Death camps, or concentration camps, were
the means the Nazis used to achieve the
Final Solution.
There were six death camps: Auschwitz-
Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor,
Majdanek, and Belzec.
Each used gas chambers to murder the Jews.
At Auschwitz, prisoners were told the gas
chambers were showers.
Where were the Death Camps built?
The work of the
Einsatzgruppen

Why do you think that they located them here?

Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau

500 to 2,000 people

Zyklon-B
Pellets
 Map of Auschwitz

New Arrivals

Showers

Destruction
Through
Work
Auschwitz from the air
Notice how the Death
camp is set out like a
factory complex

The Nazis used

industrial methods to
murder the Jews and
process their dead
bodies
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 2,000 people into this gas
chamber.
The Outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the ovens are located near the gas chambers

Processing the Bodies
Specially selected Jews
known as the
Sonderkommando were
used to remove the gold
fillings and hair of
people who had been
gassed.
The Sonderkommando
Jews were also forced
to feed the dead bodies
into the crematorium.
Dead bodies waiting to be processed
Shoes waiting to be processed by
the Sonderkommando

Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This

represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty
five thousand pairs.
Destruction Through Work

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you
could quite literally work the fat off the Jews by feeding
them 200 calories a day
Destruction Through Work

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later

Final Solution
There were many concentration and labor camps
where many people died from exposure to the
elements, lack of food, extreme working
conditions, torture, and execution.
Death Marches
Number by Number6 years

1939: WWII begins when Germany

invades Poland
6,000,000+ Jews were murdered
-1,500,000+ Jewish children were
murdered
5,000,000+ others were killed
1945: WWII ends when Germany (May 8)
and Japan (August 14) surrender
 Was the Final Solution
successful?
The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews at
the Wannsee Conference in 1941

The Nazis managed to kill at least 6

million Jews.

Today there are only 2,000 Jews living in

Poland (before WWII there were more
than 3 million).
Jewish Death Statistics
Genocides Since the Holocaust
Armenia 1915-1923
Darfur 2003-Present
Cambodia 1975-1979
Rwanda 1994
Native Americans 1492-1900
Bosnia 1992-1995
Nanking 1937-1938
Ukraine (Stalin) 1932-1933
Pygmie 1998-Present
North Korea 1990-Present
Yemen 2011
Libya 2011
Syria 2011-Present