The Holocaust

JournalI will show you a series of images.

Try to remember what they look like.

!

Remember as many details of this place as you can.

JournalImagine the government has

forced you to live in this place. In at least one paragraph, describe what it is like to live here. Use “5 senses” writing: what do you see,

hear, feel, smell, and taste?

Rise of the

Nazis

Rise of the NazisGermany and its

allies lost World War One in 1918. They

were blamed for the destruction, and were forced to sign a treaty that made them pay 22 billion eros. The debt destroyed the German economy. The government in place after the war

was weak.

Rise of the NazisPeople needed a cause to bring them together again, and they needed to rebuild the country.

WWI had united them against a common enemy…maybe all they needed was a new enemy.

Rise of the NazisThe Nazi party started to gain popularity because it promised to create a socialist society free

of undesirable people that would make Germany weak. It promised to make Germany a

great world power again.

Rise of the NazisBeliefs of Nazi Party Members:

• Germany should be the greatest nation in the world (German Nationalism).

• The Aryan Race (light skin, blue-eyed, blonde-haired people of German decent) is superior.

• Single-party socialist government: the government controls much of the private industry in the country, but unlike communism, everything is not distributed equally.

Nazis hated: Jews

Nazis hated: Gypsies

Nazis hated: Black People

Nazis hated: Disabled

Nazis hated: Communists

EugenicsEugenics is the study of

humans in order to improve the human race

by selecting desired traits to breed, or

undesirable traits to eliminate from the gene pool. It is an early type of science that is now

considered illegitimate.

EugenicsBased on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Eugenics was founded on

the belief that certain ethnic groups of humans had

evolved to be genetically superior to others.

Eugenics

EugenicsScientists of the late

1800s and early 1900s studied racial traits, and declared themselves to

have evolved into superior humans. The Nazi party supported the idea that

racial undesirables should be removed, and Germans should only marry other

Germans in order to keep the race pure.

Rise of HitlerIn 1933, the Nazi party was elected into power, and having eliminated all rival parties, took total control. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party at the time,

and was elected “Chancellor of Germany.” Although he was elected, he soon held all the powers of a dictator.

Hitler YouthHitler maintained support by winning the hearts of

young people in Germany. Because young people are the most easily influenced

by propaganda, many adopted Nazi beliefs.

!The Hitler Youth program was cool to be part of: it

was restricted to those who had pure German ancestry.

Hitler YouthThe Hitler Youth program was fun - kind of like an

after-school camp. It taught boys and girls to love Germany, to hate

racially inferior people, and to be physically fit. Once boys got older, it

trained them how to fight. But no one knew what exactly they would be

fighting for next.

World War IIIn 1939, Hitler ordered an invasion of Poland.

Germany wanted Lebenstraum (“living space”), and Poland was a source of farmland for food. The

imperialist expansion of Germany had begun.

Final SolutionNazi Germany's plan during World War II

to systematically exterminate the

Jewish population in Nazi occupied Europe through

genocide. The Nazis planned to capture and murder every

Jew they could find.

GhettosFirst, the Nazi police would identify the

homes Jews and other undesirables. They would force these people to move to ghettos - fenced in

areas where only Jews were permitted to live.

These areas were very poor and restrictive.

Concentration CampsJews were transported from ghettos and towns to concentration camps.

The Nazi referred to them as “work camps.” People were told they

would work there temporarily. When they

arrived at the camps they were usually separated

from their families.

Concentration CampsSoon, the Jews found out

that these camps were actually “death camps.” If they were not worked to

death or starved to death, they were often executed.

When Hitler gave the order for the execution of Jews, some

concentration camps officially became “extermination camps.”

ExterminationBodies both living and dead were cremated (burned)

in ovens. The bodies were buried in large ditches outside the camps.

ExterminationPeople were told to enter a shower when they arrived to the camps. The shower heads released poisonous

gas that choked them all to death.

Concentration Camps

Concentration Camps

Concentration Camps

The Holocaust11 million people were killed in the genocide of

the holocaust. 6 million of these were Jews.

The HolocaustAt the end of the war, Allied forces liberated

prisoners the concentration camps they discovered. (1943-45).

We are the shoes. We are the last witnesses. We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers

From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam And because we are only made of fabric and leather

And not of blood and flesh, Each one of us avoided the hellfire.

- Moses Schulstein

When the holocaust happened, European people thought they lived in a modernized society - an advanced

civilization - where horrible things didn’t happen. They thought genocide only happened in poor, developing

nations far away from them. !

Survivors of the holocaust want the world to know that horrible things can happen anywhere. They can happen

to anyone when we fail to recognize intolerance.

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent

injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to

protest. The Talmud [Jewish Holy Text] tells us that by

saving a single human being, man can save the world.

…None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our

obligation to denounce it and expose it in all its

hideousness.” - Elie Wiezel