The Holocaust 1
Experiences of the Jewish and other victims of the Holocaust Hitler decides that the Jewish race needs to be annihilated 1938 Begins with the deportation of immigrant and naturalized German people living in Germany Uses trucks, trains and buses to transport back to Eastern Europe Conditions Once they delivered to Eastern Europe they are left at the border and with no resources. Results Many die due to exposure and starvation. This is considered the beginning of the Holocaust. 2
Kristallnacht the Night of Broke Glass Hershel Grynszpan was a student in Paris His father was born in Poland but was a shop keeper in Hanover, Germany Hershel is upset when he finds out about his parents' relocation and likely death. Hershel purchases a gun and goes to the German Embassy in France. Hershel shoots an officer at the Embassy who dies 2 days later. 3
German propaganda used this as an opportunity to backlash against the Jewish people, inciting riots. Homes ransacked Broke all Crystal (sign of middle class status) Businesses looted Synagogs destroyed 4
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Think about this... Why did Kristallnacht occur? How many people died in the German Embassy? How many people died being relocated out of Germany? How many more people will die before WWII is over? 6
Ghettos Walls or locked gate around communities Only way out is death Policed by other Jewish people Led to corruption Conditions: No food malnutrition No medicine illnesses Personal Suffering Suffering of loved ones Why wouldn't they resist? Inability to fight due to malnutrition and fear, also the hope that this was the worst of it. 7
The Camps Concentration Labor Camps Transit Camps P.O.W. Camps Extermination Kill as many Targeted people as possible By the end of the war most Extermination Camps had both a gas chamber and a crematoria. Some camps were both Concentration (labor) camps and extermination camps. 8
There were 6 main extermination camps all located in Poland, each camp resembled an industrial center. Each location was selected for 3 reasons 1. it was rural, meaning it had large areas where there weren't many people living 2. close to railroads 3. far from Germany where there was a lot of international attention Food for thought... If the Nazis thought what they were doing was right, why hide in Poland? 9
Story of Nonna 10
Selection Arrival at Camp Families were split up Separated by gender and age Often occurred at night Added to confusion People would have to turn over all belongings and documents, and strip naked. Men would be killed first Women were forced to have their heads shaved. Most Women, Children and the elderly were killed. 11
Concentration Camps Some were deemed able to work. These people were sent to labor camps and forced to work. Many will still die as a result of: Malnutrition only given 600 calories of food a day. That is the equivalent of eating only king sized kit kat a day! Illness if you were too sick to work you either died from your illness or were executed Worked to death The inmates were treated cruelly and inhumanely by the Nazi soldiers. 12
Women in the camps Mothers and pregnant women were often labeled as incapable of work. Which meant execution. In both camps and ghettos, women were particularly vulnerable to beatings and rape. Pregnant Jewish women often tried to conceal their pregnancies or were forced to submit to abortions. Females deported from Poland and the Soviet Union for forced labor in the Reich were often beaten or raped, or forced to submit to sexual relations for food or other necessities or basic comforts. Pregnancy sometimes resulted for Polish, Soviet, or Yugoslav forced laborers from sexual relations with German men. If so-called race-experts determined that the child would not be Germanizable, the women were generally forced to have abortions, sent to give birth in makeshift nurseries where conditions would guarantee the death of the infants, or simply shipped to the region they came from without food or medical care. Copyright United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 13