The European Holocaust: 1936-1946

The European Holocaust: 1936-1946

Holocaust: Definition• Literal: completely burnt

by fire• 1: a thorough destruction

involving extensive loss of life especially through fire <a nuclear holocaust>

• 2: a often capitalized : the mass slaughter of European civilians- especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II

• b: a mass slaughter of an entire race; : genocide

Common Misunderstandings about W.W. II and the Holocaust

• Yes, the Holocaust was Horrible!

• But, it wasn’t the primary reason for W.W.II

• More accurately, W.W.II was about “Lebensraum” or living space for Hitler’s Aryan “master” race

• Once this land was conquered there would be NO undesirables living in it

• Undesirables included: Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, crippled, Jehovah Witnesses, mentally challenged, political opponents

• These people died in the camps or were executed just like the Jews

• Not all died in concentration camps by gas and ovens. Up to ½ died from being shot or simply starving to death

• * Estimated numbers • 6,000,000 Jews• 1,000,000 Slavs

(Polish/Russian undesirables)

• 2,500,000 Soviet POWs• 300,000 Gypsies• 200,000 disabled• 100,000 political

opponents• 15,000 homosexuals• 100,000 undesirable

religious (pacifists)

Hebrews/Jews/Israelites• Adam/Eve • Garden of Eden • Noah’s Ark • Abraham• Promised Land• Isaac/Ishmael • Moses • Red Sea• 10 Commandments • David and Goliath• wisdom of Solomon• Sabbath• Rabbi• Torah• Kosher• Hanukah• Passover

Anti-Semitism (anti-semitic): being anti-Jewish. Policies, writings, practices that discriminate against the Jews (a semitic tribe)

Believing things like the Jews control the banks and Media

Why have Jews been the target of so much persecution

• Jews are different (clothing, beliefs, customs, ,etc)

• Don’t believe Jesus was son of God

• Wrongly labeled “Christ killers”

• Tradition of being money lenders led to the myth that they control the banks or money system

• Because of their money – Jews have gone to good universities so some say they influence education

• Many Jews are writers or journalists

• Some say that they control the media (newspapers, radio, tv)

• Hitler needed someone to blame for Germany’s failures and the Jews were an easy target

• In Hitler’s new Europe there would be no Jews – purge Europe of all Jews (holocaust)

• Since Karl Marx

was Jewish• Many Anti-Semites

taught that communism was part of a Jewish plot to control even more

• The Nazis hated communism and felt that it was their duty to destroy it

“Lebensraum”: living space (for the master race)

“Borders are made by man and changed by man” – Adolf Hitler

“borders are just silly lines that politicians draw on maps”

“the master race will decide what their borders will be not the League of Nations”

Concentration/Death camps during W.W.II

Helpful Vocabulary specific to the European Holocaust of the 20th Century

• Anti-Semitism: having to do with being anti-Jewish. Publications policies, practices that discriminate against the Jews (a Semitic tribe)

• Ghettos: run-down, separated areas of towns where undesirables or different people were forced to live. The term originated during European Middle Ages as Christians would not allow Jews to live in the same areas with them

• Nuremburg Laws: Policies drawn up in Nazi Germany in the city of Nuremburg. Laws took away citizenship rights to Jews. Forbid Jews from government positions –including teachers. Forbid inter marriage between Jews and non-Jews. Jews must register with government and wear yellow Star of David to identify selves

• SS, Gestapo: Hitler’s elite secret police that oversaw the roundup and eventual extermination of the undesirables

• Final Solution to the Jewish question: Hitler’s Plan to not simply enslave Europe’s Jews but to permanently erase all trace of Jewish blood from the continent of Europe (Genocide- complete extermination of an entire race of people)

• Auschwitz largest and most infamous Nazi concentration camp located in Poland. Held over 400,000 prisoners. Contained gas chambers and ovens. Over million people were murdered here.

SS “blackshirts”

• SS – Hitler’s strict super elite forces that did his “special” assignments (think Holocaust – torture)

SS officer

• Once an area was conquered – the Nazis were the law

• In the rural areas SS squads were sent out to round up Jews, have then dig trenches and then murder them

Reinhard Heydrich• Reinhard Heydrich (1904-

1942) was second in importance to Heinrich Himmler in the Nazi SS organization. Nicknamed "The Blond Beast" by the Nazis, and "Hangman Heydrich" by others, Heydrich had insatiable greed for power and was a cold, calculating manipulator without human compassion who was the leading planner of Hitler's Final Solution in which the Nazis attempted to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe.

• Once the area was conquered Jews were forced to leave their homes and move to locked and guarded ghettos

Later, the Jews were forced to leave the ghettos were sent to labor

camps

Auschwitz: the most infamous death camp. Over 1 million were gassed and burned here

Allied forces making ordinary German citizens view the bodies and sign off as

witnesses to the Holocaust

Dr. Josef Mengele chief medical officer at Aushcwitz

• Called the “Angel of Death”

• Treated humans as laboratory rats

• Conducted hundreds of experiments on twins, dwarfs and children

Nazi “medical” experiments• Included things like: • How long can someone

survive in cold water• Altitude experiments; how high

can someone go without oxygen

• Drinking seawater• Infect Jews with various

diseases and then try your vaccines

• Sex change operations• Re-attaching limbs• Changing eye-color• Sterilization experiments • Burn remedies• Remedies to gas and poison• Psychological experiments on

twins

How does this happen ?• indoctrination • Controlled media• De-humanizing • “No one gets in

trouble” culture • War-zone “WE

make the rules” mentality

• Culture of obedience

• Stanley Milgram study (1961)

• “ To those who say that they will not come over to our side I calmly reply, ‘We already have the minds of your children’

- Adolf Hitler

NAZI book burning ceremonies

•“wherever they burn books they will also in the end burn human beings”

»- Heinrich Heine

Could another Holocaust happen?

• How?

»First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--    because I was not a communist;Then they came for the unions, and I did not speak out--    because I wasn’t in a union

»Next they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--    because I was a Christian

»Last they came for me--    and by then there was no one left to speak out for me

»Martin Neimoller – »(christian pastor and survivor of Nazi

concentration camp)

Assignment: •Now • turn the paper over and brainstorm with your group ideas to help assure that someone thing like this will never happen again

•“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

» - Edmund Burke

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of

others he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and

daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”

Robert F. Kennedy

• Once the area was conquered Jews were forced to leave their homes and move to locked and guarded ghettos

Later, the Jews were forced to leave the ghettos were sent to labor

camps

Concentration/Death camps during W.W.II

• Oscar Schindler

• Amon Goeth (Nazi SS officer)

The Real Amon Goeth