The Holocaust and Genocides

Elements Leading to the Holocaust

Genocide: The systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group.

Totalitarianism: allowed for full government control and they used fear to gain loyalty to their cause.

Nationalism: Wanted people to be proud of their country again after the devastation of WWI.

History of Anti-Semitism: going back in history Jews are often blamed for events, as events, as well as were persecuted for their faith.

Defeat in WWI and Economic Depression blamed on Jews, Jews were often better educated and had higher paying jobs, Hitler used these factors to say the Jews were taking the money away from the people who deserved it.

Master Race: Hitler wrote about his goal of having a Master Race: Aryan, blond hair and blue eyes before the events of the Holocaust took place

Nuremberg Laws

  • 1935
  • Deprived Jews of their rights
  • No German citizenship
  • Forbade marriages between Jews/Non-Jews
  • Jews were forced to identify themselves with a yellow star of David on their clothing, they also had to carry identification papers.
  • They were not allowed on public transportation, could not own a bicycle, and had to observe a curfew.
  • Limited kind of work jews could do, took away businesses

  

Kristallnacht

  • “c of Broken Glass”
  • November 1938
  • Nazis attacked Jewish homes, business and synagogues across Germany
  • Murdered nearly 100 Jews

Ghettos

  • Segregated Jewish areas within cities forcing Jews to move into Ghettos.
  • Ghettos had Stone walls, barbed wire and were guarded day and night, they were overcrowded many apartments and rooms had more than one family living there, dismal conditions with little food and water, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people
  • Hitler hoped that the Jews inside would starve to death or die from disease, when this wasn’t happening fast enough for Hitler, looked for another way…

Final Solution

  • 1942
  • Hitler sought a solution, after the Ghettos were taking too long to rid him of the “Jewish Problem”
  • He designed camps that would speed the process up that was known as the Final solution.
  • Those that were deemed “Sub-Human” were sent to concentration camps across Europe.
  • To protect racial purity, Nazis had to eliminate “sub-humans”

Holocaust Timeline

  • History of Anti-Semitism
  • Anti-Semitic Propaganda
  • Nuremberg Laws
  • Kristallnacht
  • Ghettos
  • “Final Solution”

20th Century Genocides

  • Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
  • Russians by Stalin
  • Cambodia
  • Rwanda
  • Yugoslavia

Armenian Genocide

1915-1917

  • Armenians by leaders of the Ottoman Empire
  • 1.5 million people deported/executed

Stalin’s Great Purge

1936 - 1938

  • Peasants, government and military leaders, and members of the elite in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin; gulags
  • 600,00 - 1.2 million
  • Approx. 1,000 executed per day

Genocide in Cambodia

1975 - 1979

  • Khmer Rouge - Communist group led by Pol Pot
  • The educated, artists, technicians, former government officials, monks, and minorities were targets by Pol Pot in Cambodia
  • 1.5 - 3 million executed
  • Wanted huge agrarian state

Rwanda

1994

  • Tutsi (minority) by Hutu (majority).
  • Two groups fight for power in vacuum left by Belgium; civil war between ethnic groups
  • 800,000 - 1 million, mostly Tutsi