PROGRESSION OF DISCRIMINATION

The NAZI party and Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933 and slowly began their program against the Jews of Germany

Each new year in Germany led to harsher policies directed towards the Jews.

German IdeologyFuhrer- the idea that there

should be a single leader with complete power instead of a democracy

Autarky- the idea that Germany should be economically self-sufficient

Lebensraum- need for living space for Germans to expand

Germany was in danger from Communists and Jews who had to be destroyed

Social Darwinism and Anti-Semitism Worksheet

Social Darwinism

Hitler believed in Social Darwinism – the idea that society operated on the principle of "Survival of the Fittest".

For Hitler, the European "Master Race" was blonde haired, blue-eyed and white-skinned – the Aryan race

Social Darwinism

EugenicsHitler believed the

nation had become weak, corrupted by the infusion of degenerate elements into its bloodstream.

In his opinion, these had to be removed as quickly as possible.

targeted those humans they identified as "life unworthy of life”This is what this person suffering from hereditary defects . Costs the Community of Germans during his lifetimeFellow Citizen, that is your money, too

Man being measured by an Aryan caliper, to determine if his nose is

too wide to be German

The Nazi regime relied on a range of pseudo-scientific disciplines to identify individuals of superior or inferior heredity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADixIqj8XyA

"If inferior people have 4 children while higher-quality people have 2, this is what will happen."

A cemetery of "euthanasia" victims.

Boycott of Jewish Businesses

• The Jewish Population in Germany was less than 1%

• Existing stereotypes and prejudice against Jews gave Hitler a convenient scapegoat for the economic problems that had been created by WWI and the Depression.

Anti-Semitic Nazi Propaganda poster. It reads:Recognize the true enemy with the yellow star."

Two months after being named Chancellor of Germany, Hitler announced a boycott of all Jewish shops, goods, doctors, and lawyers.

Nazi Propaganda – 1941 Lithuanian 'Jews are your eternal enemies! Stalin and Jews are the gang of criminals!'

Many Jews decided to leave Germany to escape the growing persecution in Germany.It was incredibly

difficult to obtain exit visas

Emigrants were faced with high taxes upon leaving Germany

Many emigrants encountered hostility from the countries they chose to move to.

Emigration

The Nuremberg Laws

How Hitler Made Hatred Legal

The Nuremberg Laws:Took away German citizenship from all full Jews and prohibited Jews from flying the German flag Prohibited inter marriage between Jews and Aryans or any other type of relationshipProhibited Jews from employing Germans as domestic servantsLimited type of work they were allowed to doThe original Nuremberg Laws continued to be amended in the years 1935 to 1939, causing the Nazi regime to gain even more control over the lives of Jews living in Germany.

Jews are not

Allowed to:

Marry or haveSex withAryans

Hire Aryan Women

As maids

Have the Rights of

citizenship

The Night of Broken Glass

1938 Nazi Storm Troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues

Murdered close to 100 people

Jewish Community had to pay for the damages

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uine5MhOc0I

Himmler sent four specially trained SS units called “Einsatzgruppen battalions” into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews.

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.

In January 1942, Himmler decided to change tactics once again and called a special conference at Wannsee.

At this conference it was decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary.

How was the Final Solution going to

be organized?

Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war

effort

Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps

called Ghettos

The Jews living in these Ghettos were to

be used as a cheap source of labor.

Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many

die while the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the

hope of better conditions

On arrival the Jews would go through a

process called ‘selection.’

The remaining Jews were to be

shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the

East.

Women, children, the old & the sick were

to be sent for ‘special treatment.’

The young and fit would go through a process called

‘destruction through work.’

At the Wannsee conference it was decided that if one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish.

However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German.

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.

Oskar : It was not long before I was assigned to supervise the luggage collection of an incoming transport.When this was over, it was just like a fairground, there was lots of rubbish left and amongst this rubbish were ill people, those unable to walk. And the way these people were treated really horrified me. For example, a child who was lying there naked was simply pulled by the legs and chucked into a lorry to be driven away, and when it screamed like a sick chicken, then they bashed it against the edge of the lorry, so it shut up.

SS private Oskar Gröning We were convinced by our world view that we had been

betrayed by the entire world, and that there was a great conspiracy of the Jews against us.

Interviewer: But surely, when it comes to children you must realize that they cannot possibly have done anything to you?

Oskar Gröning: The children, they're not the enemy at the moment. The enemy is the blood inside them. The enemy is the growing up to be a Jew that could become dangerous. And because of that the children were included as well.

Interviewer: But … aren't you sorry that you made your own life more comfortable while millions actually died?

Oskar Gröning: Absolutely not. Everybody is looking out for them selves. So many people died in the war, not only Jews.

So many things happened, so many were shot, so many snuffed it. People burnt to death, so many were burnt, if I thought about all of that I wouldn't be able to live one minute longer.

… The special situation at Auschwitz led to friendships of which I'm still saying today I like to look back on with joy.

The Ghettoes

Jews were

forced to

build the

walls that

would cut off

the Jewish

ghetto from

the rest of

society.

Building the Ghettoes

The Jews in

the ghettoes

lived in

extreme

poverty and

filth. Many

children lost

their parents

to disease

and were left

as orphans to

fend for

themselves.

Filth in the Streets

Jewish

children

hold each

other over

the high

walls to

receive

contraband

items from

friends

outside the

ghettoes.

Survival in the Ghettoes

Hundreds

of Jews

were

dying

each day

in the

ghettoes

due to

starvatio

n and

disease.

Death in the Ghettoes

Schindler ListMoving from the ghettos53:26 – 1:10:30

The SS guards who murdered the Jews were brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda.

The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions.

Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda.

The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children.

What tactics did the Nazis use to get the Jews to leave the Ghettos?

Tactics

Starvation

The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were

only fed a 1000 calories a day .

A Human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain their weight

Terror

The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for

any act of resistance

Deception

The Jews were told that they were going

to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.

In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their

own train tickets.

They were told to bring the tools of their

trade and pots and pans.

Hungry people are easier to control

New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to

send to their friends.

..and the systematic destruction of humanity

Arrival at the camp…

Deception: At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station.

Entrance

Auschwitz Orchestra

At some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm down the new arrivals.

Branded like Cattle

Heads are shaved and uniforms are given

Most of the camp’s prisoners were forced to wear identifying overalls with colored badges according to the category they were set under:

• Red = Communists & Other Politicians Green = Common Criminals

• Pink= Homosexual Men

• Purple=Jehovah’s Witnesses

• Black= Gypsies & Lesbians

• Yellow= Jews

Schindler’s List

Children shipped to death camps2:03:15 – 2:06:45

Life in the camp…

Twins, dwarfs, and others scientific experiments

Mothers, children, the old & sick sent straight to the ‘showers’ which were really the gas chambers. DEATH

The able bodied were sent to work camp were they were killed through a process known as ‘destruction through work.’

Attractive females “special” servants of SS officers

Nazis experimented on large numbers of

concentration camp prisoners.

Typically, the experiments resulted in death,

disfigurement or permanent disability.

Gypsy children at Auschwitz who were part of medical experiments. Most such experiments were "terminal."

A victim of a Nazi medical experiment is immersed in icy water at the Dachau concentration camp. SS doctor. Germany, 1942.

A prisoner in a compression chamber loses consciousness (and later dies) during an experiment to determine altitudes at which aircraft crews could survive without oxygen. Dachau, Germany, 1942.

A victim of Nazi medical

experiments

A Romani (Gypsy) victim of Nazi

medical experiments to make

seawater potable. Dachau

concentration camp, Germany,

1944.

A Soviet prisoner of war,

victim of a tuberculosis

medical experiment, late

1944.

disfiguring

scars resulted

from incisions

made by

medical

personnel

that were

purposely

infected with

bacteria, dirt,

and slivers of

glass.

Mengle used the Ovitz family to lecturing on their inferior genetics. He also created a film for Adolf Hitler’s amusement staring the Ovitz family. The Ovitz family sang German songs when ordered to do so out of terror. Shortly before the request they had witnessed two newcomer dwarfs being killed and boiled so their bones could be exhibited in a Nazi museum.

Eva Kor and her Twin Sister

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat of the

Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later

Death in the camp…

Messages

left on

Walls.

What

would you

write?

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 Nazis would force

large groups of

prisoners into small

cement rooms and

drop canisters poison

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

Rumors of Gas Chambers1:56:57 – 2:00:00

The outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the Ovens easy located near the Gas Chambers

Killing was a business…

The Ovens

Processing the bodies

Specially selected

Jews were used to

to remove the gold

fillings and hair of

people who had

been gassed.

These Jews were

also forced to feed

the dead bodies

into the

crematorium.

Schindler’s List

Rumors of Gas Chambers

1:56:57 – 2:00:00

Burning of bodies /destroying evidence2:13:50 – 2:16:20

Erasing the evidence…

Soap made out of humans

Human skin

lampshade

The photograph below is a still shot from the film. It shows preserved pieces of tattooed skin laid out on a table, and a table lamp with a shade allegedly made from human skin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5odfbFNPoo

The Nazis aimed to kill 11

million Jews at the Wannsee

Conference in 1941

The Nazis managed to kill at

least 6 million Jews.

Men like Schindler helped Jews escape the Final Solution.

Not all Jews went quietly into the gas chambers.

In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realized what was really happening.

Auschwitz

recap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqcKeKBh4E

According to the evidence, the commission

said the Germans had moved out up to

60,000 inmates - those still fit enough to

walk - when they retreated. The few

thousand who were left behind were freed by

the Russians.

They also found seven tons of women's hair,

human teeth, from which gold fillings had

been extracted and tens of thousands of

children's outfits.

What the Soviets found….

Liberation did not save everyoneThousands would die only weeks after being

liberation from malnutrition and diseaseThe small percentage of inmates who

survived resembled skeletons because of the demands of forced labor and the lack of food, compounded by months and years of maltreatment.