An Interactive Guide to The Holocaust

http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/photos/1?hr=null

Click on the icon to the right for Help at anytime

Click on the Star of David to begin.

The HolocaustClick on one of the following to learn more.

What is Genocide?

Why is the Holocaust Unique? The Six Stages of

the Holocaust

What is the Holocaust?

Click on the Star of David at anytime to bring you back to this page.Scavenger Hunt

The Six Stages of the Holocaust

Click on one of the following to begin.

1. Definition 4. Mobile Killing Units

2. Expropriation 5. Deportation

3. Concentration 6. Killing Centers

The Holocaust A specific genocidal event in the twentieth century history;

the state sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims-- 6 million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

Interactive Map of The Holocaust

GenocideThe intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or

religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Etymology of Genocide

Etymology of Genocide Raphael Lemkin Coined the word

Genocide from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing) in 1944

He was a Polish-Jewish Lawyer He lost over 50 family members in

the holocaust In 1948 United Nations

recognized Genocide as a crime The U.S. did not adopt Genocide

as a crime until 1988 Lemkin died in 1959; sadly only 5

people attended his funeral

Why is the Holocaust Unique? Propaganda- a specific type of message presentation (newspapers,

cartoons, children’s books, etc.) directly aimed at influencing the opinions of people, rather than impartially providing information.

Legal- Laws such as the Nuremberg Laws were implemented to secure the governing party’s (Nazis) legal rights to alienate and desecrate a part of its population (see The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor and The Reich Citizenship Law)

Technology- The invention of trains allowed for the transportation of victims while killers remained stationary; IBM’s technological advances made it possible for Nazis to keep detailed records

Stage 1: Definition How does one define being Jewish? Through Culture?

Race? Religion? The challenge confronting the Nazis in 1933 was to define a religious group already assimilated into German society. The Interior Ministry of the Nazi government was responsible for “solving” this problem.

In 1933 The Interior Ministry divided the German population into two categories of race

Aryan: People with no Jewish ancestors Non-Aryan: People with Jewish ancestors

Regulation of September 15, 1935 Any person who descended form two Jewish grandparents, practiced the

Jewish religion or was married to a Jewish person on September 15, 1935, and all persons descended from three or four Jewish grandparents.

Nazi Racism Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism A specific hatred or prejudice against Jews Began as early as 2000 years ago when the Romans drove them

from their land now called, Israel Jews do not share the Christian belief that Jesus is the Son of God,

and many Christians considered this refusal to accept Jesus' divinity as arrogant

For centuries the Church taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death, not recognizing, as most historians do today, that Jesus was executed by the Roman government because officials viewed him as a political threat to their rule

Racial Anti-Semitism

Racial Anti-Semitism In the 1800’s Jews became almost equal citizens under the law as ideas of

political equality and freedom spread in western Europe New forms of anti-Semitism emerged: European leaders who wanted to

establish colonies in Africa and Asia argued that whites were superior to other races and therefore had to spread and take over the "weaker" and "less civilized" races.

Writers applied this argument to Jews By defining Jews as a race of people called Semites who shared common blood

and physical features meant that Jews remained Jews by race even if they converted to Christianity

Politicians began using the idea of racial superiority in their campaigns as a way to get votes (Karl Lueger)

Conspiracy theories about Jewish plots in which Jews were somehow acting in concert to dominate the world became a popular form of anti-Semitic expression and propaganda.

Karl Lueger (1844-1910) Mayor of Vienna, Austria, at the end

of the century through the use of anti-Semitism --

Appealed to voters by blaming Jews for bad economic times.

A hero to a young Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria in 1889

Hitler's ideas, including his views of Jews, were shaped during the years he lived in Vienna, where he studied Lueger's tactics and the anti-Semitic newspapers and pamphlets that multiplied during Lueger's long rule

Stage 2: Expropriation To take (property) from

its owner ideally for public use.

(To the right) The abandoned property of Jews who have been deported from the Zychlin ghetto is piled in an open field.

Expropriation Continued Kristallnacht

Expropriation Continued Civil Rights

The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933, required most Jews holding civil service jobs to retire.

The Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935, declared Jews were no longer German citizens.

Education A regulation in April 1933, expelled all Jewish professors

from German universities. A regulation in November, 1938, expelled Jews from

German schools and declared they must attend Jewish schools.

Expropriation Continued Occupations

A regulation in the summer of 1933 stated that all Jewish artists and writers were prohibited from practicing their professions and all books published by or about Jews were burned.

A regulation in July of 1938 stated that the medical licenses of Jewish doctors had been canceled and they could only treat Jewish patients as non-licensed doctors.

Private Property The Regulation for the Elimination of the Jews from the Economic

Life of Germany of November 12, 1938, stated that Jews could not own retail stores and must pay 1.25 million Reichmarks for damages caused on Kristallnacht (Crystal Night).

A regulation in February, 1939, stated that all Jews must surrender all their gold, platinum, silver objects, precious stones, and pearls to the German government.

Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass”

November 9 & 10, 1938 During the night, rampaging mobs freely attacked Jews in the

street, in their homes, and at their places of work and worship. 1,000 Jews Killed 30,000 Jewish males sent to concentration

camps 1,000+ synagogues burned or destroyed 800 Jewish businesses destroyed

More on Kristallnacht Photo Gallery

Stage 3: Concentration A close gathering of people or things After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis began

concentrating Jews into areas known as Ghettos. The following stages occurred in Poland and Nazi Germany:

Severance of social contacts between Jews and “Aryan” citizens Housing Restrictions Movement regulation Identification Measures

Yellow Stars were used to identify Jews; often placed on the sleeve The initiation of Jewish administrative machinery- the Jewish councils

or Judenrat

The Warsaw Ghetto Types of Resistance in the Ghettos

Badges of the Concentration Camps

Red Communists, Social Democrats, anarchists, and other "enemies of the state"

Green German criminals

Blue foreign forced laborers

Brown Gypsies

Pink homosexuals

Purple Jehovah's Witnesses

Black

Asocial, a catch-all term for vagrants, bums, prostitutes, hobos, alcoholics who were living on the streets, anyone who didn't have a permanent address, or "work-shy," (those who were arrested because they refused to work)

Judenrat The local Jewish populace was required to form Jewish Councils as

a liaison (a go between) between the Jews and the Nazis Responsibilities

organizing the orderly deportation to the death camps detailing the number and occupations of the Jews in the ghettos, distributing food and medical supplies, communicating the orders of the ghetto Nazi masters.

The Nazis enforced orders with threats of terror (beatings and executions)

In the ghetto: Took on the functions of local government, providing police and fire protection,

postal services, sanitation, transportation, food and fuel distribution, and housing

Types of Resistance in the Ghetto Resistance is not always armed and violent Poetry Plays Going to school Diaries Getting married

The Warsaw GhettoCity of Warsaw

“Aryan” WarsawGhetto of Warsaw

Population 1,365,000 920,000 445,000

Area (sq. miles) 54.6 53.3 1.3

Rooms 284,912 223,617 61,295Persons Per Room 4.8 4.1 7.2

Beginning in 1941 starvation was the official policy in the Warsaw ghetto and the results were drastic. In 1940, 90 Jews died of starvation while in 1941 over 11,000 died of starvation. The overall death rate in Warsaw from 1940-1942 was over 83,000 people.

Stage 4: Mobile Killing Units The idea of mobile killers attacking stationary

victims was primarily created by the chief of the Security Police and founder of the RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich.

Four Einsatzgruppen groups were set up, with a total of 3,000 men. The Einsatzgruppen were to follow behind the German army as it

invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and kill Jews. The majority of the Einsatzgruppen were professional men:

physician, professional opera singer, many lawyers.

Einsatzgruppen Continued Einsatzgruppen Online

Einsatzgruppen Continued The killing operation was standardized

throughout every city in the USSR (present day Soviet Union) in the following manner: Jews were rounded up to a central location such as

a school or town square. They were marched outside city limits and were

forced to hand over all valuables and often clothing.

They were then shot without regard for age or gender, either individually or in mass execution style.

Einsatzgruppen Efficiency What happened to the Einsatzgruppen?

Einsatzgruppen EfficiencyNumber of Jews killed

Date

Einsatzgruppen A 125,000 October 15, 1941

Einsatzgruppen B 45,000 November 14, 1941

Einsatzgruppen C 75,000 November 3, 1941

Einsatzgruppen D 55,000 December 12, 1941

Total # Jews Killed = 1.5 million

What happened to the Einsatzgruppen? Hitler’s plan for secrecy in carrying out these

killings wasn’t possible as many non-Jews witnessed the disappearance and killing of Jewish citizens.

The mobile killing units were too “slow” and “inefficient”

The morale of some of the killers in Einsatzgruppen units was being affected as evidenced by the following testimony of Hermann Graebe, November 10, 1945.

Stage 5: Deportation When the Mobile Killing Units failed, the Nazi’s began

deporting their victims As part of the "Final Solution," Jews were "deported" or

transported by trains in cattle cars or by trucks to one of the six camps, all located in occupied Poland: Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek-Lublin.

In order to maintain order, the Nazi’s never used such harsh words as “murder” or “kill.” Rather they relied on Euphemisms, the use of a less direct word or phrase that is less offensive.

EuphemismsEuphemism Actual DefinitionFinal Solution (Endlösung) Extermination

Special Treatment (Sonderbehandlung) Killing by gas

Bath Houses (Badeanstalten) Crematoria

Protective custody (Schutzhaft) Unlimited incarceration without trial

Jewish residence district (Jüdischer Wohnbezirk)

Ghetto

labor, preferential, or POW camps Death camps

Jewish settlement region (Jüdisches Siedlungsgebiet)

Killing centers of Poland

Stage 6: Killing Centers After the victims loaded the deportation trains,

they were brought to killing centers The camps marked a shift from mobile killers and

stationary victims towards a more efficient killing system of stationary killers and mobile victims

Fewer than 150 workers were needed at Treblinka to kill an estimated 750,000 Jews.

Auschwitz could “process” up to 10,000 people in one day.

The Killing Process Killing Centers Data

The Killing Process Deception was key for getting victims to

follow orders. At Auschwitz a selection process was

implemented and carried out by SS doctors. Left = Death; Right = Work Children, elderly, and sick were sent to the left.

Killing Centers Data

Killing Centers DataCAMP VICTIMS SURVIVORS

Chelmno 360,000 3

Belzec 600,000 2

Sobibor 250,000 64

Treblinka 800,000 Under 40

Maidanek 500,000 Under 60

Auschwitz 1,500,000-2,000,000

Several thousand, because it was both a concentration camp and death camp

Thank you for participating in this journey!

Please come back!

Activities

Ordered List: Six Stages of The Holocaust

The Holocaust Scavenger Hunt

Quiz

Scavenger Hunt

Help Page

Click for help on how to use the website

Click to return to the Homepage

Click to go back to the previous slide

Click to complete the associated activity or quiz

Click to view historical film footage

Works Cited

http://ww2army.com/german/armBandsJewish.php