Unit I: The Holocaust (1933-1945)

Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

Work written by Hitler while in prison in 1923; the book outlines his policies for German expansion, war, and elimination of non-Aryans

Concentration Camps

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death

Death camps

camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany for the purpose of killing prisoners immediately.

Ghetto

A poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions

1933

Hitler comes to power in Germany (he was elected)

Anti-Semitism

Hatred of Jews

SS

Hitler's secret police

Einsatzgruppen

Nazi strike forces that killed innocent Jews with their infamous "death squads"

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws defining the status of Jews and withdrawing citizenship from persons of non-German blood.

Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht)

November, 1938; tensions boil over and things are now very violent for Jews - homes burned, schools ransacked, synagogues vandalized.

The Final Solution

Hitler's program of systematically killing the entire Jewish people -- determined at the Wannsee Conference

genocide

the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

6 million Jews

How many Jews were killed during the Holocaust?

Poland

Where were most of the Death Camps located?

Soviet Union

Which nation liberated most of the Death Camps?

The Allies

Who liberated most of the Concentration Camps?

11 million people

How many were killed during the Holocaust?

"Just following orders."

What did many Nazis use as an excuse for their role in the Holocaust?

Individuals are responsible for their own actions.

What was the most important idea that came out of the Nuremberg trials?

12

How many Nazis were executed for their crimes during the Holocaust?

Yellow star marked "Jew" on their sleeves, new middle names of "Sarah" and "Israel," identity cards with red letter "J."

How were Jews identified?

Based on the number of Jewish grandparents they had, as well as their religion.

How were Jews defined?

1) Identification, 2) Ghettos, 3) Concentration Camps, 4) Death Camps

Four Steps of the Holocaust

Gas Chambers

How Jews were exterminated at the Death Camps

Ovens/Crematorium

How the bodies of Jews were disposed of in the camps

War Refugee Board (WRB) (1944)

Created by US government to help people threatened by Nazis -- saved about 200,000 lives

Holocaust

Nazi Germany's systematic murder of European Jews

Wannsee Conference (1942)

Nazi Germany determined that the "final solution to the Jewish question" was mass genocide.

Disease, starvation, malnutrition, harsh labor, medical experiments, torture

What were other ways Jews and prisoners died at the Death Camps?

Arm tattoos

How Jews were identified upon arrival to Concentration camps

Cattle Cars

How Jews were transported to camps

Aryans

Germanic people seen as the master race