4. The mass murder of the jews

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3

4. The mass murder of the jews 

The Holocaust

What is this lesson about?

• How did the Nazi's organise the Holocaust?
• For what reasons did the Nazi's persecute the Jews?
• How did the Nazi's organise mass murder of Jews and other groups of people 
• To what extend was this mass murder preplanned by the Nazi's 

Word Duty

Nuremberg laws: anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany, introduced in 1935

Night of Broken Glass: riot against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938; also known as Kristallnacht

ghetto: Jewish quarter in a city

genocide: the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.

Holocaust: the mass murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million of people who were not Jewish by the Nazis during World War Two

KEY WORDS

Important dates in this lesson:

1933: boycot Jewish shops

          Jews fired from government employment

1935: Neuremberg Laws

1938: Jews banned from public facilities like parks and theaters

          Kristallnacht

1939: start euthanasia program

          start WW2: start mass executions of Jews in Eastern Europe by SS Einsatzgruppen

1941: start Endlösung: the final solution.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, he dreamed of creating a new species of racially pure, fierce and courageous people. Hitler’s racial theories and hatred of Jews eventually led to the mistreatment and mass murder of millions of innocent people.

Hungarian Jewish women and children arrive at Auschwitz in May/June 1944. 

(photo credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0827-318/CC BY-SA)

Anti-semtism

In 1933 around 500.000 Jews lived in Germany 

3.5 million Jews lived in Poland 

Anti-semitism = Jew hate 

Diaspora in the 1st century ->

Rising nationalism led to discrimination against the Jews. 

Isolation of Jews 

Hitler gained a lot of popularity by blaming the Jews for losing the First World War and for the economic depression. 

April 1933: Jews working for the government and in education were fired. 

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 took away their rights as German citizens: Jews were no longer allowed to vote, to marry or even have intercourse with a German. 

By 1938, signs saying ‘Forbidden for Jews’ appeared, 

Public humiliation of a Jewish man and none-Jewish woman for having a relationship. The woman’s sign: ‘I am the biggest pig in town and only get involved with Jews’, the man’s sign: ‘As a Jewish boy, I only go to bed with German girls’. Dated 1933.

Isolation of Jews (2)

A German diplomat got killed in Paris by a 19-year-old Jew. 

The night of 9-10 November 1938 is called Reichkrstallnacht 

Synagogues, shops and other Jewish buildings were deystroyed. 

A Frankfurt synagogue in flames during Kristallnacht.

Anti-semitism is hatred against

1. Jews
2. Muslims
3. Communists
4. Liberals

What was the objective of the Nazis' implementation of the Nuremberg Laws?

Execution of Jews

Once the war started, the Nazis took even more extreme measures against the Jewish population in Germany and its conquered areas. 

In Poland, thousands of Jews died of starvation and sickness in ghettos: parts of towns where Jews were crammed together.

Russia, the treatment of Jews was even worse: special killing squads called Einsatzgruppen (mobile murder units) were ordered by Hitler to shoot as many Jews, Romas and communist officials as possible.

German ‘Einsatzgruppen’ murder Jews in Ukraine, July-September 1941.

Die Endlösung (= The final solution)

Op 20 januari 1942 kwamen vijftien hoge nationaalsocialistische kopstukken bij elkaar in een villa aan de Wannsee.  De Wannsee-notulen (waarin besloten werd dat elf miljoen mensen (Joden) gedood zouden worden.) vormen een van de weinige schriftelijke documenten waarin de naziplannen voor een massamoord in Europa zo duidelijk naar voren komen.

Key words

Jewish quarter in a city

Auschwitz

Mauthausen

Auschwitz, May 1944: Hungarian Jews on the platform at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp after disembarking from the transport trains. To be sent to the right meant the person had been chosen as a forced labourer; to the left meant death in the gas chambers.

The Holocaust

Holocaust is derived from the Greek word holocaustos (burnt offering). The Ancient Greeks used the word for animal sacrifices to their gods. However, many Jews prefer the biblical word shoah (Hebrew: catastrophe). Nazis referred to the Holocaust as Endlösung der Judenfrage (final solution to the Jewish question).

Holocaust= The mass murder of the Jews

Nazi Human Experimentation

A number of Nazi physicians considered concentration camps as providing the perfect opportunity to perform medical experiments on humans. 

Probably the most notorious is the research conducted by Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. This doctor performed experiments on almost fifteen hundred sets of twins to find out whether it was possible to manipulate human genetics.  

Hitler wanted proof that Jews were lesser humans.

High-altitude experiments, using a low-pressure chamber, to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety

Dr Josef Mengele, nicknamed "angel of death", fled to South America after the war. Although on the "most wanted" list he eventually died in 1979, presumably of a heart attack or a stroke while taking a swim.

Statement:
"The Holocaust could only have taken place in a totalitarian state".
Write down two arguments to support this statement.