An Introduction to Number the Stars

The Holocaust … a quick summary by Mr. Herm

and Mrs. Zwack

The HolocaustA Primary Source History

Between 1933 and 1945 six million people (Jews and others) were persecuted and murdered as a result of the events leading up to World War ll.

…6,000,000 people!! That’s the same as 60,000 schools the size of Monticello Middle School…

…6,000,000 people!!

60,000 schools the size of Monticello Middle School…

That’s also the same as 600 towns the size of Monticello… gone!

Most died from overwork, starvation, exposure to the elements, bullets, fire, poisonous gas, beatings, or hangings.

Who could have done this kind of

thing?

The people who carried out this massacre were scientists, doctors, military, government

personnel, and ordinary people.

This horrible event in

history is now called The Holocaust.

How did the Holocaust happen?

What lead up to these horrible events?

Here’s a quick summary to help explain how the Holocaust came

about…..

World War 1 - 1914-1919

• Germany was defeated in World War 1.

• As a result of the war the German people were forced to pay for the damaged they had caused and to take the blame for World War 1.

*There was a lot of unemployment. *The German money was worthless the people were poor and desperate for change.

• In 1919, Adolf Hitler, a corporal in the German army, was hired to spy on a political party called the German Workers’ Party. (It was later known as the Nazis.)

• Hitler liked what the party stood for and he eventually became its leader.

• Hitler was a powerful speaker! He was very dramatic and theatrical in his speeches.

• Over a few years Hitler gained a lot of support for his party from the German people.

• In 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor (leader) of Germany.

• Hitler and the Nazis used fear and violence to manipulate the German people and take complete control of the government.

• Hitler’s protective police, called the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Geheime Staatzpolizei (GESTAPO) silenced any people who spoke against the Nazis.

* In March 1933 the first concentration camp for people who opposed his views was opened at Dachau, Germany. (Anyone who was identified as an opponent or enemy was arrested, taken to a concentration camp, beaten, or killed.)

* Hitler had been a racist long before he became chancellor. * He believed there existed a “master” race of physically fit, “racially pure” people called Aryans. * He believed these people should rule all of Germany and Europe.

* Hitler believed he needed to open up living space for the Aryan people. * So in order to accomplish this all people who were “inferior” had to be removed.

* Hitler and other Nazi leaders considered the Jewish “race” a danger to Germany’s future. * Hitler claimed that the Jews were “parasites” who fed off of a “host” race and weakened it. * He claimed that is was the Jews who were responsible for all the problems that existed in German society.

What happened to the Jews as time went by?

Nazi laws forbade Jews from owning businesses.

Germans pass by the broken shop

window of a Jewish-owned business.

Jews couldn’t own property.

Nazi thugs smashed Jewish homes,

shops, and synagogues

A Jewish orphanage destroyed by Nazis

Jews could no longer practice their professions – nurses, doctors, teachers, attorneys, businessmen…

Jews were forced to wear the Star of David to identify themselves.

Jews were only allowed to be outside certain times of day.

Jews were not allowed to ride buses, trains, or taxis.

No Jews allowed sign on city street

In 1939, Jews were forced from their homes into ghettos.

*Life in a ghetto was very harsh.

Jewish child working in a ghetto workshop

Jews being moved intothe Warsaw ghetto

*Several families lived in one room.

*Children could not go to school.

*All valuables had to be turned over to the Nazis.

*People died of disease and malnutrition.

1933-1945As the ghettos became overcrowded, Jews were herded onto railroad cattle cars and sent to concentration and death camps.

And this is where your story Number the Stars takes place….