the holocaust part 1

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.