The Holocaust

Holocaust Denial

Some individuals and groups deny the Holocaust, claiming it's an exaggeration or a hoax. Examples include statements from the Institute for Historical Review and former Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

Laws Against Holocaust Denial

Many countries have laws criminalizing Holocaust denial, including Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland, Israel, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein.

The Holocaust: 1940-1945

The Holocaust, a period from 1940 to 1945, led to the murder of approximately six million Jews.

Prelude to the Final Solution

• Enabling Law: This law granted Hitler dictatorial powers.

• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): A pogrom in November 1938.

• Emigration: By 1939, half of Germany's 500,000 Jews had emigrated to escape Nazi persecution.

Expansion and Increased Persecution

• Invasion of Poland (1939): Poland had a large Jewish population of 3 million.

• Invasion of Russia (1941): Russia had a Jewish population of 5 million.

Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen

The Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads that murdered Jews and other perceived enemies of the Nazi regime.

The 'Final Solution'

• Wannsee Conference (January 1942): Himmler, led by Heydrich, decided existing methods were too inefficient and a new ‘Final Solution’ was needed.

The Wannsee Conference

This conference formalized plans for the systematic annihilation of European Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws

These laws, introduced in 1935, stripped Jews of their German citizenship and prohibited marriage or sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews.

Organizing the Final Solution (Wannsee Conference)

• Inefficiency of Shooting: Shooting was deemed too slow and psychologically taxing for the perpetrators.

• Ghettos: Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettos.

• Exploitation of Labor: Jews in Ghettos were used as a cheap labor source.

• Conditions in Ghettos: Deliberately designed to be so bad that many would die and others would be willing to leave in hope of better conditions.

• Selection Process: On arrival at the camps, Jews underwent a process called ‘selection'.

• Resettlement Areas: The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.

• Special Treatment: Women, children, the old, and the sick were sent for ‘special treatment’ (extermination).

• Destruction Through Work: The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’

Defining Who Was Jewish (Wannsee Conference)

• One Jewish Parent: If one parent was Jewish, the person was considered Jewish.

• One Jewish Grandparent: If only one grandparent was Jewish, the person could be classified as German.

• Identification: In 1940, all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J', and wear the yellow Star of David.

Location of Death Camps

Death camps were built across Nazi-occupied Europe, including in Poland (Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek), Germany (Bergen-Belsen, Dachau) and other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).

The estimated minimum number of Jews murdered from each country:

• Norway: 728

• Finland: 11

• Estonia: 1,000

• Latvia: 80,000

• Denmark: 77

• Lithuania: 135,000

• Holland: 106,000

• Belgium: 24,387

• Germany: 160,000

• Poland: 3,000,000

• Czechoslovakia: 817,000

• Luxembourg: 700

• France: 83,000

• Austria: 65,000

• Italy: 8,000

• Yugoslavia: 60,000

• Hungary: 365,000

• Romania: 364,632

• Bulgaria: 8,000

• Albania: 200

• Greece: 66,300

• Soviet Union: 1,000,000

The work of the Einsatzgruppen resulted in mass murders.

Nazi Tactics to Get Jews to Leave Ghettos

• Starvation: Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto received very little food (A human being needs 2000 calories a day to maintain their weight)..

• Terror: The SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or any act of resistance.

• Deception: Jews were told they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East and were sometimes even made to purchase their own train tickets, bring tools, and pots and pans.

SS Tactics: Dehumanization

• Brainwashing: SS guards were brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda.

• Transportation: Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions.

• Appearance: Naked, dirty, and half-starved people looked like animals, reinforcing Nazi propaganda.

Tactics: What Happened to New Arrivals?

• Deception & Selection: At Auschwitz, trains pulled into a mock-up of a normal station.

• Calming Measures: Jewish orchestras played classical music to calm new arrivals.

• Selection: Mothers, children, the old, and the sick were sent straight to the ‘showers’ (gas chambers).

• Work Camps: The able-bodied were sent to work camps where they were killed through ‘destruction through work.’

Auschwitz

A complex that was built to resemble a railway station.

The Gas Chambers

The Nazis forced large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and dropped canisters of Zyklon B (prussic acid) in crystal form through holes in the roof. Up to 2000 people were packed into each gas chamber.

Processing the Bodies

• Sonderkommando: Specially selected Jews were used to remove gold fillings and hair from gassed people.

• Cremation: The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

Warehouses of Plunder

Large quantities of Zyklon B, shoes, human hair, prayer shawls, and silver and gold teeth were stored in warehouses at Auschwitz.

• Human Hair: 15,400 pounds of human hair was found at liberation.

Destruction Through Work

Prisoners were provided with approximately 200 calories a day.

Goals/Results

• Wannsee Conference: The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews in 1942.

• Jewish Population in Poland: In 2014, less than 10,000 Jews lived in Poland.

• Number Killed: The Nazis killed at least 6 million Jews.

• Rescuers: Individuals like Wallenberg helped Jews escape the Final Solution.

• Resistance: Some Jews revolted, such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943 and the Auschwitz Sonderkommando uprising in 1944.

Conclusion

Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.