ww2 entire unit

invasion of russia

gemrany broke non aggression pact - invaded russia,

end of the war over 3 million germans fough on eastern front

•Blitzkrieg style attack failed because of the resistance of the Russian people, long supply lines, and bad weather

•Fiercest combat was in the battle of Stalingrad

•Soviets gained the advantage and started a push towards Berlin for revenge

hong kong 1941

•Canadians first engagement in WWII was defending Hong Kong from a Japanese attack

•Many Canadians were killed or taken prisoner

Attack on pearl harbour

December 6, 1941 - •The U.S.A. was a neutral country as of December 1941

•Without declaring war, Japan surprise attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbour Hawaii, destroying half the fleet

•Americans were outraged and declared war on Japan

•Germany and Italy then declared war on the U.S.A.

•Known as a ‘Day that will live in infamy’

dieppe

aug 1942 - •Canadian troops conducted a raid to gather information about the German defences and to relieve pressure on the Russians

•5000 Canadian soldiers raided the French port of Dieppe

Why it was significant for Canadians:

First major Canadian army engagement in Europe: The raid involved nearly 5,000 Canadian soldiers, making it one of the first large-scale battles for Canada during WWII.

Testing for future invasions: Dieppe was intended to test German defenses and gather intelligence, as well as to gauge the feasibility of future amphibious assaults (like D-Day).

Lessons for D-Day: The disastrous raid provided critical lessons on amphibious warfare, such as the need for better planning, more air and naval support, and surprise—lessons that were successfully applied during the Normandy invasion in 1944.

Why it was a failure:

Lack of surprise: German forces were aware of the raid in advance, making the element of surprise impossible.

Poor planning: The raid was rushed and poorly coordinated, with limited intelligence about German defenses.

Insufficient air and naval support: The operation lacked the air and naval bombardment needed to suppress German positions, leaving Canadian troops vulnerable on the beaches.

Terrain challenges: The steep cliffs, shingle beaches, and fortified German positions created a near-impossible environment for the Canadian soldiers to succeed.

High casualties: Of the 6,100 troops who participated, 3,367 were killed, wounded, or captured—more than half were Canadian. Only about 2,200 soldiers managed to return to England.

The Italian campaign

1943-1945 - •Canadians landed on the island of Sicily, moved into the Italian mainland and pushed northwards

•Faced a fierce battle in the town of Ortona (house to house combat)

•Italian leader Mussolini was killed and a new government signed an armistice with the Allies

•Germany rushed troops to defend Italy

d-day

june 6 1944 - •A huge Allied seaborne invasion of German held Europe

•Landings occurred along the 80km stretch of Normandy Beach in France

•Canadians landed on Juno Beach, there will utah, omaha, gold, and sword too beaches

•Gave the Allies a foothold in Europe and began the long campaign to push back the German armies

battle for berlin

april may 8 1945 - •The Russian Red Army closed in on Berlin and the Nazi’s made their last stand

•Germany children and elderly were given weapons and instructed to defend the Fatherland

•Hitler spent his final days in an underground bunker, committed suicide when the Russians were closing in on the bunker

•Germany surrendered and the Third Reich was over (known as ‘Victory in Europe Day’ or ‘V-E Day’)

hiroshima

aug 6 1945 - •Americans were left with the task of finishing off Japan to end WWII

•They had a choice- invade by land (estimated 1 000,000 American soldiers would be killed) or use the newly created nuclear bomb

•An American B-29 bomber named the ‘Enola Gay’ dropped the first nuclear bomb (nicknamed ‘Little Boy’) used in combat on the Japanese city of Hiroshima

•The explosion destroyed most of the city and immediately killed approximately 80 000 people (tens of thousands would die later from radiation exposure)

nagaski aug 9 1945

•When Japan did not surrender after the first atomic bomb was dropped, another (nicknamed ‘Fat Man’) was dropped 3 days later on the city of Nagasaki

•An estimated 40 000 were killed instantly (and more later from radiation exposure)

•Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender by radio address on August 15th, citing the power of a “new and most cruel bomb”

•August 15^th became known as ‘Victory Over Japan Day’ or ‘VJ Day’

naking massacare

dec 1937- jan 1938

•Japan invaded China, perpetrated widespread rape, looting, and murder (Example- Contest to kill 100 with a sword)

•Thousands of Chinese women were forced into sexual slavery (“comfort women”)

•Death toll is debated but estimated to be between 200,000-300,000

•Event remains an issue in China-Japan relations

Non-aggression pact with the soviet union

August 1939 - •To make sure Russia would not interfere with the invasion of Poland, Germany signed a non-aggression agreement with the Soviets (known as the ‘Nazi-Soviet Pact’)

•The two countries agreed not to fight each other and secretly agreed to divide up Poland

Invasion of Poland

September 1939 - •At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland all along its border with Germany

•Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces

•Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action but Britain and France declared war on September 3^rd (2 days after invasion) and Canada declares war on September 10^th after debating in Parliament

blitzkrieg

The new Blitzkrieg (‘lightning war’) tactics overwhelmed opponents in the early stages of the war, allowing Germany to overrun much of Europe.

Blitzkrieg tactics included:

-mobility

-concentrating offensive weapons along a narrow front

-close coordination between the air force, tank divisions, and soldiers

-modern communication technology

-a series of short military campaigns

Lebensraum

•Invasion of Poland would bring ‘Lebensraum’ (living space) for a growing German population

The phoney war

October 1939-April 1940

•Phoney War’ is the name given to the early period of the war after the fall of Poland when seemingly nothing happened

•Germans called this period ‘Sitzkrieg’ (sitting war)

•Both sides spent this time preparing for war and conducting minor military operations

•

Invasion of Denmark and Norway

April 1940

•Gaining control of these countries ensured Germany had access to the sea to allow shipping of iron ore which was necessary for the war effort

•Control of this area would provide a staging area for planned future attacks against Britain

•Denmark was easily overrun by the Germans, surrendering in under 6 hours

•Norway resisted for a few weeks but surrendered in June 1940

Invasion of Luxembourg

may 10, 1940 - •Country was situated at a strategic point at the end of the French Maginot Line

•Battle lasted just one day

•Young men were conscripted into the German Wehrmacht (army)

Invasion of Belgium

May 10-28, 1940 - Despite some support by British forces, the Belgians were simply outnumbered and outgunned from the beginning 

After 18 days of ceaseless German bombardment,  King Leopold of Belgium agreed to an unconditional surrender

Invasion of France

may- June 1940 - •

• France defended its border with Germany using the Maginot Line.

• Germany surprised France by invading through the Ardennes Forest, thought to be impassable.

• Germany occupied Northern France.

• Vichy France was established in the unoccupied south.

• The Free French (group of french citizens) continued to resist German forces.

• Controlling France gave Germany a base to attack Britain.

The evacuation of Dunkirk

may-june 1940, •Hundreds of thousands of British troops were sent to help France

•They became trapped along the northern coast of France and were about to be surrounded by German soldiers

•Hitler was going to allow the Luftwaffe (airforce) to finish off the Allied soldiers but this plan was delayed

•The Allies managed to evacuate over 350 000 British and French troops across the English Channel back to Britain (but had to leave their equipment)

•If this evacuation didn’t happen it would have been devastating to Britain and the Allied war effort

Battle of Britain

July-October 1940 - •By the end of 1940 Britain was the only European country left to fight against the Nazis

•Germany planned to attack the island of Britain but needed to gain air superiority first

•Bombed Britain (and especially London) relentlessly to soften the British will to fight (‘The Blitz’)

•Rather than breaking the British will to fight, it made them want to fight even more

•Radar technology helped the British defend their airspace

•Germany eventually called off this attack and turned their attention to Russia

•Britain’s victory prevented a land invasion and possible occupation by German forces

Japanese internment

•Japanese had long suffered from racism in Canada

•In December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and Hong Kong (where Canadian troops were stationed)

•Distrust of Japanese Canadians spread in a panic along the Pacific coast

Order in council p.c. 1486

•On February 24, 1942 the federal government issued Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 to remove and detain “any and all persons”  from “protected areas” in the country

•These powers were broad enough to detain any person, but were specifically used to target Japanese Canadians living within 100 km of the West Coast

•Japanese were told to pack a single suitcase-anything that couldn’t be carried would be confiscated

•22,000 Japanese Canadians were moved during the war---the largest forced movement of people in Canadian history

Japanese Canadian internment (restrictions)

•Japanese fishing boats were confiscated

•Schools and newspapers shut down

•Their homes and businesses were sold by the government in order to pay for their detention

•Not one was ever charged with an act of disloyalty

•Restrictions lasted until 1949

governemnt apolgoy

•In 1998 (43 years after the end of the war) the Canadian government acknowledged the wartime wrongs and announced a $300 million compensation package that  included: $21,000 for each of the 13,000 survivors

•$12 million for a Japanese community fund

•$24 million to create a race relations foundation, to ensure such discrimination never happens again

other internees in canada during the time period

•Approximately 600 Germans were interned during WWII (mostly members of German sponsored organizations or leaders of the Nazi Party in Canada)

•Approximately 700 Italian men suspected of sympathizing with fascism were also interned

•These camps also housed captured enemy soldiers (eg. Hundreds of German sailors captured in East Asia and sent to Canada)

British commonwealth
air training program

•Aircrew could not be safely trained in Britain

•Over 130,000 aircrew were trained in Canada during WWII (from Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand)

•Canada’s big open spaces and good climate for flying made it an ideal choice

•At the programs peak there were 231 sites across Canada

•Nearly half of the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, air gunners, wireless operators and flight engineers employed in Commonwealth air forces were training in Canada

Camp x

•More than 500 secret agents received instruction at Canada’s secret spy school, known simply as ‘Camp X’

•Hidden from view in the woods near Whitby, Ontario- and disguised as a CBC radio broadcast centre

•Students were taught how to parachute into enemy territory, garrotte sentries, rig booby traps, break codes, and assassinate enemy operatives

•Trained spies from Canada, Britain, U.S.A., and other occupied countries (many sent behind enemy lines to act as spies)

Finding the money for war

•The government needed to buy things such as munitions, food, uniforms, trucks, tanks, planes, fuel, and ships

•The people serving in the armed forces also had to be paid

•$ raised through income tax helped pay for the war as well as Victory Bonds

•During WWII Canada’s population of just 11.5 million people bought nearly $9 billion worth

conscription

•when war broke out in 1939 Prime Minister King promised there would be no conscription for overseas service

•By the spring of 1940 the government had adopted the National Resource Mobilization Act, providing for enlistment only for home defence

•In 1941 more voices were raised for conscription

•To appease supporters of conscription, Prime Minister King held a plebiscite in 1942 asking Canadians to release the government from its anti-conscription promises (the “yes” side triumphed in all provinces except Quebec)

•Government then passed Bill 80, authorizing conscription for overseas service if it was deemed necessary

Conscripts sent overseas

•In November 1944 Prime Minister King, in an effort to save his government, announced that conscripts would be sent overseas

•12,908 conscripted soldiers, known as “zombies”, were sent abroad,

2463 reached units in the field before the end of fighting, and 69 died in battle

•Worsened relations between English speaking Canadians (who generally supported Conscription) and French speaking Canadians (who generally did not support Conscription)

A wartime highway (alaska)

•After Pearl Harbour, the American government feared Japan invading Alaska

•Alaska could be reached only by sea- no road connected it to the rest of North America

•As a result, the Canadian and American governments agreed to build a highway through Canada to move soldiers and equipment to Alaska over land

•Canada paid $108 million for airstrips, buildings, and telephone systems

•The U.S. paid the $148 million construction bill

•11 000 American soldiers and 16 000 Canadian and American civilians built a road that stretched 2451 kilometres from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Fairbanks Alaska

•Completed in an 8 month period in 1942

•Made the Canadian North more accessible-helped Canada’s forestry, oil, mining, tourist, and trucking industries

Facts about the Alaska highway

•75%- 1190 kilometers- of the highway is within Canada

•In the early days, pilots flying in the North often used the highway as a navigational aid, and some even used it to make emergency landings

•The entire highway is now paved, but at first it was a single lane dirt track through the bush.  Driving it was a bone rattling adventure

Gearing up for war

•Many Canadian factories closed during the Depression

•As a result, Canada needed factories, workers, and raw materials when WWII began

•The Department of Munitions and Supply was created to oversee the country’s industrial war effort

•This department was headed by C.D. Howe, who expanded existing industries and created new ones throughout Canada

•Ontario specialized in aircraft factories, Vancouver in shipbuilding, Calgary in high-octane fuel

•Canada was committed to ‘Total War’---anything necessary to defeat the enemy

Keeping factories going

•During the 1930s up to 1/3 of Canadians had been unemployed

•When WWII started it ended unemployment- and the Depression

•By 1942, the unemployment rate was nearly zero

•By the end of the war, more than a million Canadians (about 10% of the population) were working in war plants

Canada’s Wartime production

•By 1945, Canada’s war production was 4^th among Allied nations (less than only U.S.A., the Soviet Union, Britain)

•This boom in production signalled the beginning of Canada’s move away from an economy based on farming toward one based on manufacturing

•During the war Canada produced approximately:

•16,000 aircraft

•4000 naval vessels

•815,000 military vehicles (including 45,000 armoured vehicles)

•Rifles, machine guns, light machine guns, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns

Women at work on the home front

•As in WWI, women were once again urged to fill the jobs that had been left vacant by men who had signed up for the armed forces

•Women were also needed to fill new jobs in the war industries

•At first only single women were encouraged to work but by the end of the war all women were encouraged

•By 1943, more than 25,000 women were working in aircraft factories and another 250,000 worked in munitions factories, in shipyards, and on construction sites

Price and wage controls

•As the demand for labour increased, wages went up- and so did prices

•King’s government did not want a repeat of what happened during WWI, when prices rose much faster than wages

•To prevent this, King set up the Wartime Prices and Trade Board to control both prices and wages

•This meant that few Canadians experienced the hardships that had occurred during WWI

rationing

•Items needed by the armed forces were rationed

•Rationing limited the amount of sugar, tea, coffee, butter, meat, alcohol, gasoline, and tires that the public could buy

•Everyone was also urged to save metal, paper, glass, rubber, and rags so that these could be used by factories

•Schools held contests to see which class could collect the most material

censorship

•The government feared that essential information about the war effort would fall into enemy hands

•To make sure this did not happen, official censorship was introduced

•Government censors, for example, approved every speech broadcast on the CBC

•Military censors read all letters written by member of the armed forces to make sure they contained no information that could help the enemy

•Anything that revealed too much information was blacked out

•Censors also examined stories published in newspapers and magazines

•Many news outlets self-censored and did not criticize the armed forces or war effort

•Some worried that Canadians weren’t getting the whole truth

propaganda

•During WWII Canadians got their news, ideas, and information from the radio, newspapers, magazines, and movies

•These were the tools the government used to spread its messages about the war effort

•The government needed to keep Canadians spirits high and spread news that helped people feel good about Canada’s war effort

•Institutions like the CBC and the National Film Board were used to give people positive news about the way the war was going

The wartime information board

•Wrote stories and provided information and photographs to newspapers and magazines

•This material always explained how well the government and Canadian forces were doing

•Even cartoons and comic books carried the message that Canadians must pull together to fight the enemy

Plowshares into swords
1943

•A typical industrial incentive film of WWII

•Film shows the gigantic agricultural and industrial capacity of Canada and describes how production must be increased for the war effort

•At the same time the film reassures Canadians that they will not have to sacrifice their own quality of life in extreme ways, to support the war effort

The Fuhrer’s Face

•An American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in 1943

•Feature Donald Duck in a nightmare setting working at a factory in Nazi Germany

•Cartoon was made in an effort to sell war bonds

Education for death:  The making of a nazi

•Animated propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in January 1943

•Features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination into the Hitler Youth, and his eventual march to war

Operation daddy

•During the war, hundreds of thousands of Canadians waited in England to see combat

•They often dated British women, and many of these couples got married

•When the war ended and troops were sent home their brides could not travel with them

•Government launched a program to reunite the couples in Canada

•Between 1942-1948 this program reunited 45 000 war brides and their 22 000 children with their Canadian husbands and fathers

New social programs

•Unemployment insurance was introduced in 1940 to help those who were temporarily out of work

•Family allowance (baby bonus) was introduced in 1944 and provided mothers of children under 16 a monthly payment for each child

Help for veterans

•Plans were made to smooth the way for war veterans when they returned to civilian life

•Programs were introduced that focused on jobs, education, health, and long-term care

•Returning veterans received job training and help gaining admission to university, loans to start small business, mortgages to buy land or build a home, financial help if they had trouble finding a job, hospital care if they were wounded and lifetime pensions if they were disabled

total killedin ww2 worldwide w soilders and civlians

55 million

Number of Jews allowed to enter Canada during the holocaust

•Fewer than 5000

Total number of Canadians who served in the military during wwII

Over 1 million

Number of Canadians who won the Victoria cross during wwii

16

canadains injured in ww2

54 414

canandain killed in ww2

42 042 - 22 917 were from army

17 101 is royal canadian air force

2024 - royal canadain navy

Number of Canadians taken prisoner during wwII

8995 - 1946 captured druing dieppe raid

• 1700 in hong kong

Number of german prisoners of war held in Canada during WWii

•34,000 (Spread across 26 camps)

Number of german prisoners of war who escaped Canadian custody

    One

•In January 1941, POW Franz von Werra — a celebrated German fighter pilot ace captured by the British in 1940 — jumped from a train carrying him and other POWs in Ontario.  

Von Werra crossed the St. Lawrence River into New York State and managed to return to Germany via Mexico and South America. U

pon his return, von Werra was decorated by Hitler personally.

He rejoined the Luftwaffe and died in October 1941, when his plane crashed into the North Sea off the Netherlands.

Number of SURVIVING Canadian Wwii VETERANS (AS OF the 2021 Census)

Approx. 20,000  (average age=94)

What was the holocaust?

The Holocaust (1933-1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and

murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators.

•In this context, “allies” refers to Axis countries officially allied with Nazi Germany.

• “Collaborators” refers to regimes and organizations that cooperated with German authorities in an official or semi-official capacity.

key facts about the holocaost

the foundation of the holocaust was antisemistim—hatred of against jews and it was spread throughout europe

the persuection of jews envolved and became increasingly more radical between 1933 n 1945, this culminated in mass murder of 6 million jews

during ww2, nazi germ and its allies killed nearly 2 out of 3 european jews using deadly living conditions, brtual mistreatment, mass shottings, gassing

when did the holocaust happen

began jan 1933 when hitler and nazi party came to power in germany, ended may 1945 when allied powers defeated nazi germany in ww2

the shoah

holocaust also referred to the shoah - hebrew word for catastrophe

why did thr anzis target jews

bc nazis were radically antismeistic — they were prejudiced against and hated jews

antisem was a basic part of their ideaogloy and at the foundation of their worldview

some germans were receptive to these nazi claims

they falsey accused jews of causing germ’s social economic, political and culutral problems and blamed them for germany’s defeat in ww1 (1914-1918)

the instablility of germany under the democractice weimar republic (1918-1933), fear of communism, and economic shocks of great depression made germans more open to nazi ideas, like antisemitsm.

antisem throughout history

•The Nazis did not invent antisemitism.

•Antisemitism is an old and widespread prejudice that has taken many forms throughout history.

•In Europe, it dates back to ancient times.

•In the Middle Ages (500–1400), prejudices against Jews were primarily based in early Christian belief and thought, particularly the myth that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.

didn’t start as mass murder

when coming into power, nazis didn’t immediaty start mass murder

they quikcly began using govenrment to target and exlude jews from germ society

The Nazi German government passed unfair laws and carried out violent attacks against Jewish people in Germany as part of their antisemitic policies

nazi racial ideas

nazi beleived world divided into distinct races - some were superior to tohers

germans were members of the superior aryan race

they asserted that aryans were locked in a struggle for existence w other inferior races

they say jewish race most inferior and dangerous of all

to the nazis, jews were a threat needed to be removed from german soicety, otherwise nazis said that they would permanetly corrupt and destory the german people

where did the holocaust place

it was a nazi gemran intitave that plce throughout german an axis controlled europe

affected nearly all of europe’s jewish population, in 1933 numbered 9 million

how idd nazi gemrany collabrotors persecutre jews so many

in german controlled territoires, the killing of jews took a variety of forms

legal discrimination - nuremberg race laws and other discriminatroy laws

public identification and exclusion - anti sem propganda boycotts of jewish owned buisnesses, public humilation, obligatory makrings like jewish star badge orn as an armbands or on clothign

orgsnized violence - kristallnacht, other isolated incidiencts and violent riots

phyiscla displacement - used forced emigrations, resseltement, deportation, and ghettoization, to phtsically displace jews

internment - interned jews in overcrowded ghetoosconcentration camps, forced labor camps where many died form starvation, disease, and inhumane

widespread theft and plunder - confiscation of jews property, personal belonginggs and valuables

forced labour - jews had to perform forced labour in service of the Axis war effort or for the enrichment of Nazi organizations, the military, and/or private business.

Concentration camps

defintino

•The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.

Nazi officials established the first concentration camp, Dachau, on March 22, 1933,  for political prisoners. It was later used as a model for an expanded and centralized concentration camp system managed by the SS.

•What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. The prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process.

•The major purpose of the earliest concentration camps during the 1930s was to imprison and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis perceived to be a threat to the survival of the regime.

first comcentration camp

•The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933.

•In the weeks after the Nazis came to power, the SA (Sturmabteilung; commonly known as the Storm Troopers), the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons—the elite guard of the Nazi party), the police, and local civilian authorities organized numerous detention camps to incarcerate real and perceived political opponents of Nazi policy.

types of camps

•Many people refer to all of the Nazi incarceration sites during the Holocaust as concentration camps. however, not all sites established by the Nazis were concentration camps.

•Concentration camps: For the detention of civilians seen as real or perceived “enemies of the Reich.”

•Forced-labor camps: the Nazi regime brutally exploited the labor of prisoners for economic gain and to meet labor shortages. Prisoners lacked proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest.

•Transit camps: functioned as temporary holding facilities for Jews awaiting deportation. These camps were usually the last stop before deportations to a killing center.

•Prisoner-of-war camps: For Allied prisoners of war, including Poles and Soviet soldiers.

•Extermination camps (Killing centers): Established primarily or exclusively for the assembly-line style murder of large numbers of people immediately upon arrival to the site. There were 5 killing centers for the murder primarily of Jews.

Identifying prisoners:  the marking system

•From 1938, Jews in the camps were identified by a yellow star sewn onto their prison uniforms, a perversion of the Jewish Star of David symbol.

•After 1939 and with some variation from camp to camp, the categories of prisoners were easily identified by a marking system combining a colored inverted triangle with lettering.

•The badges sewn onto prisoner uniforms enabled SS guards to identify the alleged grounds for incarceration.

auschwitz - msot infamous camps

•Auschwitz was established by the Germans in 1940  in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis.

•The camp was established when mass arrests of Poles increased beyond the capacity of existing "local" prisons.

•Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s.

•It functioned in this role throughout its existence. beginning in 1942, it also became the largest of the extermination centers where the Final Solution was carried out.

Auschwitz:  gas chambers

•At the Auschwitz camp complex, the Birkenau killing center had four gas chambers.

•Here gassing took place using the pesticide Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide, or prussic acid).

• During the height of deportations to the camp in 1943-44, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed there each day

More than a million people - the vast majority of them Jews - died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.

medical expierements

•Concentration camps were sites of horrific medical experiments on unwilling prisoners, often resulting in death.

• At Dachau, German scientists tested how long air force personnel could survive under low pressure or in frozen water.

• At Sachsenhausen, experiments sought vaccines for deadly contagious diseases.

• At Auschwitz III, Josef Mengele experimented on twins to find ways to increase the German population.

josef mengele

•SS physician Josef Mengele conducted inhumane medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz.

• He was the most prominent of a group of Nazi doctors who conducted experiments that often caused great harm or death to the prisoners. 

•Experiments centered around three topics: survival of military personnel, testing of drugs and treatments, and the advancement of Nazi racial and ideological goals.

angel of death

• Around 30 physicians served at Auschwitz while Mengele was assigned there.

• Medical staff performed prisoner “selections” as part of their required rounds.

• These selections decided who would work and who would be sent to the gas chambers and die.

• Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death,” was infamous for his cruel demeanor during selections.

• He is closely linked to this duty, though he performed it as often as other officers.

• His postwar notoriety partly explains this association.

twins of aushwitz

•When the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz death camp 77 years ago many of the prisoners had been killed or marched away by the retreating Nazis.

But among those left were some twin children - the subject of disturbing experiments by Dr Josef Mengele, as Maria Polachowska reports.

nuremberg code

• Medical professionals were tried after the war for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Holocaust.

• The trial raised questions about medical ethics after brutal experiments on camp prisoners.

• The Nuremberg Code was created to address medical abuses discovered in the camps and trials.

• The Nuremberg Code introduced informed consent and set standards for research.

other incarceration sites

•Other types of incarceration sites numbered in the tens of thousands.

•These included but were not limited to early camps; “euthanasia” facilities for the murder of disabled patients; 

Gestapo, SS and German justice detention centers;

so-called “Gypsy” camps, and

Germanization facilities.

purpose of concentration camp system

•To incarcerate people whom the Nazi regime perceived to be a security threat. These people were incarcerated for indefinite amounts of time.

•2)  To eliminate individuals and targeted groups of individuals by murder, away from the public and judicial review.

•3)  To exploit forced labor of the prisoner population. This purpose grew out of a labor shortage.

concentration camps after outbreak of ww2

•After Nazi Germany started WWII in September 1939, new conquests and more prisoners led to a rapid expansion of the concentration camp system in the east.

• The war did not change the camps' original purpose as detention sites for political enemies.

• The national emergency allowed Nazi leaders to expand the camps' functions.

• The camps increasingly became sites where SS authorities killed targeted groups of enemies.

• They also served as holding centers for forced laborers used in SS construction projects, industrial sites, and by 1942, weapons production for the war effort.

• Despite the need for forced labor, SS authorities continued to undernourish and mistreat prisoners, leading to high death rates.

final solution

•Many Jews died as a result of these practices. (concentration camps)

•But before 1941, the systematic mass murder of all Jews was not official Nazi policy.

•Beginning in 1941, however, Nazi leaders decided to implement the mass murder of Europe’s Jews.

•They referred to this plan as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” 

•It was the last stage of the Holocaust and took place from 1941 to 1945.

•Though many Jews were killed before the "Final Solution" began, the vast majority of Jewish victims were murdered during this period.

development of the final solution

Dr. David Silberklang outlines the "Final Solution," which led to of six Jews.

He highlights key steps:

pre-war separation

and anti-Jewish measures,

exploring territorial solutions,

escalating during German expansion,

killings in ,

early mass murder systems,

the "Wannsee Conference,"

and the mechanized mass murder of the war's final years.

mass murder as apart of the final solution

•There were two main methods of killing.

One method was mass shooting. German units carried out mass shootings on the outskirts of villages, towns, and cities throughout eastern Europe.

The other method was asphyxiation with poison gas. Gassing operations were conducted at killing centers and with mobile gas vans. 

mass shooting as apart of the final solution

• The Nazi regime carried out mass shootings of civilians on an unprecedented scale.

• After invading the Soviet Union in June 1941, German units began shooting local Jews, Initially targeting Jewish men, by August 1941, entire Jewish communities were massacred.

• These killings often occurred in broad daylight, witnessed by local residents.

• Mass shootings took place in over 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across Eastern Europe.

• German units moved through the region, committing horrific massacres. They typically entered towns, rounded up Jewish civilians, and took them to the outskirts.

• Victims were forced to dig mass graves or taken to pre-dug graves.

• German forces and local auxiliaries then shot men, women, and children into the pits.

• Some massacres used mobile gas vans to suffocate victims with carbon monoxide.

soviet jews

as many as 2 millions jews were murdered in mass shootings or gas vans in territoies seized from soviet forces

killing centers

•In late 1941, the Nazi regime began building specially designed, stationary killing centers  in German-occupied Poland. also called “extermination camps” or “death camps.”

The five killing centers:  Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibo, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

• They built these killing centers for the sole purpose of efficiently murdering Jews on a mass scale.

•The primary means of murder at the killing centers was poisonous gas released into sealed gas chambers or vans. 

deportations

•German authorities, with the help of their allies and collaborators, transported Jews from across Europe to these killing centers.

•They disguised their intentions by calling the transports to the killing centers “resettlement actions” or “evacuation transports.”

•Most of these deportations took place by train

Role of Railroad system

•In order to efficiently transport Jews to the killing centers, German authorities used the extensive European railroad system, as well as other means of transportation.

•In many cases the railcars on the trains were freight cars; in other instances they were passenger cars. 

•The conditions on deportation transports were horrific.

•German and collaborating local authorities forced Jews of all ages into overcrowded railcars.

•They often had to stand, sometimes for days, until the train reached its destination.

•The perpetrators deprived them of food, water, bathrooms, heat, and medical care.

•Jews frequently died en route from the inhumane conditions.

most were immediately killed at

•The vast majority of Jews deported to killing centers were gassed almost immediately after their arrival.

•Some Jews whom German officials believed to be healthy and strong enough were selected for forced labor. 

jews forced to assist

•At the five killing centers, German officials forced some Jewish prisoners to assist in the killing process.

•Among other tasks, these prisoners had to sort through victims’ belongings and remove victims’ bodies from the gas chambers.

•Special units disposed of the millions of corpses through mass burial, in burning pits, or by burning them in large, specially designed crematoria.

death toll of killing centers

2.7 million jew men, women, children murdered at five killing centers

what were ghettos

•Ghettos were areas of cities or towns where German occupiers forced Jews to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

•German authorities often enclosed these areas by building walls or other barriers.

• Guards prevented Jews from leaving without permission.

•Some ghettos existed for years, but others existed only for months, weeks, or even days as holding sites prior to deportation or murder. 

•German officials first created ghettos in 1939–1940 in German-occupied Poland.

•The largest was located in the occupied Polish city of Warsaw.

•Beginning in June 1941, German officials also established them in newly conquered territories in eastern Europe following the German attack on the Soviet Union.

• German authorities and their allies and collaborators also established ghettos in other parts of Europe. 

purpose of gettos + forced labour

originally established the ghettos to isolate and control the large local Jewish populations in occupied eastern Europe.

• Initially, they concentrated Jewish residents from within a city and the surrounding area or region.

•However, beginning in 1941, German officials also deported Jews from other parts of Europe (including Germany) to some of these ghettos. 

•Jewish forced labor became a central feature of life in many ghettos.

•In theory, it was supposed to help pay for the administration of the ghetto as well as support the German war effort.

•Sometimes, factories and workshops were established nearby in order to exploit the imprisoned Jews for forced labor.

•The labor was often manual and grueling. 

life in ghettos

•Life in the ghettos was miserable and dangerous, There was little food and limited sanitation or medical care.

•Hundreds of thousands of people died by starvation; rampant disease; exposure to extreme temperatures; as well as exhaustion from forced labor.

•Germans also murdered the imprisoned Jews through brutal beatings, torture, arbitrary shootings, and other forms of arbitrary violence. 

jewish reisitance

•Jews in the ghettos sought to maintain a sense of dignity and community.

•Schools, libraries, communal welfare services, and religious institutions provided some measure of connection among residents.

•Attempts to document life in the ghettos, such as clandestine photography, are powerful examples of spiritual resistance. 

•Many ghettos also had underground movements that carried out armed resistance. The most famous of these is the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943.  

liquidating the ghettos

•Beginning in 1941–1942, Germans and their allies and collaborators murdered ghetto residents en masse.

• They called this process “liquidation.” It was part of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

•The majority of Jews in the ghettos were murdered either in mass shootings at nearby killing sites or after deportation to killing centers.

•Most of the killing centers were deliberately located near the large ghettos of German-occupied Poland or on easily-accessible railway routes. 

Who was responsible for carrying out the holocaust?

•Many people .

•At the highest level, Adolf Hitler inspired, ordered, approved, and supported the genocide of Europe’s Jews.

he didnt lay out an exact plan for the implementation of the Final Solution.

•Other Nazi leaders were the ones who directly coordinated, planned, and implemented the mass murder.  

•However, millions of Germans and other Europeans participated in the Holocaust.

• Without their involvement, the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe would not have been possible.

•Nazi leaders relied upon German institutions and organizations; other Axis powers; local bureaucracies and institutions; and individuals. 

German institutions, organizations and individuals

relied on many German institutions and organizations to help them carry out the Holocaust.

•These organizations included the Nazi Party, the SA (Stormtroopers or Brownshirts), and the SS (Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadron).

•Once the war began, the SS and its police affiliates became especially deadly.

•Other German institutions involved in carrying out the Final Solution included the German military

; the German national railway and healthcare systems;

the German civil service and criminal justice systems;

and German businesses, insurance companies, and banks. 

members of these institutions: countless German soldiers, policemen, civil servants,  lawyers, judges, businessmen, engineers, and doctors and nurses chose to implement the regime’s policies.

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