Holocaust (extended)

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

The Time of World Wars

the Holocaust

Prof, Yehuda Bauer, historian

About understanding the Holocaust:

“The problem is that the nazis could do this not because they were inhuman, but because they were human”.

people in this lesson

Josef Mengele

SS doctor

Heinrich Himmler

head of the SS

Genocide: 

The crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by creating living conditions that prevent the group from surviving.

Holocaust: 

The systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this “the final solution (Endlösung) to the Jewish question".

Five phases that led to the Holocaust: 

1. discrimination
2. isolation
3. concentration
4. deportation
5. extermination

Phase 1

Discrimination:

bullying and humiliating

Jews are defined as the “other” through legalized discrimination.

boycott Jewish shops

April 1933

On April 1, 1933, the Nazi regime organizes a boycott of Jewish goods. SA men line up in front of Jewish-owned shops. They paint the Star of David on shop windows, hinder customers from entering the stores and carry signs with anti-Jewish slogans.

Phase 2

Isolation and exclusion

Once individuals are labeled as Jews, they are separated from mainstream society

Nuremberg Laws

September, 1935

The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag.

Through propaganda, such as in the horrible film The Eternal Jew or through their own newspaper Der Stürmer...

...the Nazis succeeded in brainwashing the German people: you have to exclude Jews!

Propaganda

Phase 3

concentration

Jews are forcibly removed to segregated sections of  European cities called ghettos

Important dates in this lesson:

1933: boycot Jewish shops

          Jews fired from government employment

1935: start Lebensborn program

          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)

Producing children for Hitler

The Nazis had promoted large families from the start. Children could be raised in the spirit of National Socialism and fight for Germany at a later age. Besides propaganda, the Cross of Honour of the German Mother was introduced: a decoration for women who gave birth to and raised many children as good Nazis. Estimates show that by September 1941, more than 4.7 million German women had received this decoration.

A Nazi leader and his family. The mother is decorated with the golden Cross of Honour of the German Mother (8 or more children). Five sons are in the military. The younger children are members of the Hitler Youth. Dated 1943.

Three Classes of the Mother's Cross:

1st class, Gold Cross: eligible mothers with eight or more children

2nd class, Silver Cross: eligible mothers with six or seven children

3rd class, Bronze Cross: eligible mothers with four or five children

Lebensborn

The leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, wanted to improve the German race by selecting young people with characteristics according to Aryan standards to have intercourse. In December 1935, the Lebensborn Program was established. Against all moral values of that time, Himmler publicly stated that young unmarried women classified as racially pure and healthy, should start having children as well. Lebensborn mediated with these women to have their children adopted, so they could be raised by SS members or other racially pure and healthy parents. Besides raising the birth rate in Germany, hundreds of thousands of children with racially pure characteristics were abducted from Poland and Russia to be raised in Germany.

A girl getting her face measured: the Nazis wanted "racially and genetically valuable children."

a Lebensborn birth house.

Many women that took part in the Lebensborn Program were unmarried and did not want their choldren back after the war. Lebensborn children often grew up without parents and were excluded by society.

German women carrying children of alleged aryan purity in a Lebensborn selection center in 1939. 

Euthanasia programmes

Children of the Lebensborn Program who were born with physical or mental conditions were useless according to Hitler. They were the first children to be killed in secret clinics.

In September 1939, Hitler had secretly signed a euthanasia decree. He authorized his personal physician to carry out involuntary euthanasia on all people who, after careful medical examination, were considered incurably sick. Records show that more than 70,000 mentally ill people were secretly killed during the first two years. From January 1940 onwards, gassing was introduced in gas chambers as a more efficient method for killing large numbers of people. When the public found out about Hitler’s euthanasia programme, they started to protest strongly. Although the programme was never stopped, the gas chambers were taken apart and taken to concentration camps in Poland. There they would be given a new purpose: the systematic mass killing of Jews and Romas.

Schönbrunn Psychiatric Hospital, 1934. Photo by SS photographer Franz Bauer

Isolation of Jews (1)

Hitler gained a lot of popularity by blaming the Jews for losing the First World War and for the economic depression. When the Nazis took power, they started to bring their anti-Semitism into practice. Their goal was to force Jews to emigrate from Germany and step by step, measures were taken to make their lives harder. The first step took place in April 1933: Jews working for the government and in education were fired. Jewish shops were boycotted and books that were considered ‘un-German’ – i.e. books written by Jewish writers - were burned in public (see section 2.5). 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, banning Jews from most public facilities, such as schools, public transport, theatres and swimming pools. 

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.

In 1920, Hitler announced a 25-point plan for his Nazy Party. Points included:

4. Only a member of the Aryan race can be a citizen.  A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race.

5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.

6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore, we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens […]

7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the state, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.

For the next question, read the source below:

From: Wikipedia.

Isolation of Jews (2)

Jews that resisted these measure were taken to concentration camps. Approximately 170,000 of the 500,000 Jews in Germany had fled their country before the war started. Jews that stayed were terrorised by the SA. When a Jew murdered a German diplomat in November 1938, the Nazis attacked and destroyed Jewish homes, synagogues and shops all over Germany. The night of 9-10 November 1938 is therefore known as the Night of Broken Glass (in German: Kristallnacht). Tens of thousands of Jews were arrested and many were killed.

A Frankfurt synagogue in flames during Kristallnacht.

Execution of Jews

Once the war started, the Nazis took even more extreme measures against the Jewish population in Germany and its conquered areas. Emigration was no longer an option. In Poland, thousands of Jews died of starvation and sickness in ghettos: parts of towns where Jews were crammed together, often without electricity or sufficient water supplies. In 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. Over a million people were executed this way.

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

Nazi Human Experimentation

A number of Nazi physicians considered concentration camps as providing the perfect opportunity to perform medical experiments on humans. These experiments are now considered as medical torture: they usually resulted in death, trauma or permanent disabilities. 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. Other experiments at the camps include transplantation of bones and muscles and testing of new weaponry, such as mustard gas and poisons. Some of the experiments were done to advance Nazi racial studies: 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.

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).

The Holocaust

The German solution for what they called the ‘Jewish Problem’ became clear by December 1941. Their Endlösung (Final solution) was to exterminate an entire people. This deliberate killing of a large group of people is called genocide. Gassing was considered the most effective method to put this plan into practice. A number of different extermination camps were set up in Poland. The most infamous one was Auschwitz-Birkenau, a labour and extermination camp where more than two million Jews were murdered. Some camps, like Sobibor and Treblinka, were set up with the sole purpose of gassing Jews and gypsies. Others were set up as forced labour camps where Jews were put to work until they died. Research estimate that about six million Jews were killed during what is now called the Holocaust.

The entrace gate of Auschwitz as it is today.

You can see the same gate in the picture below, at the top left.

Jews arrive at Auschwitz. SS officers or doctors immediately start the selection, separating the weak from the strong. The weak, mostly women, children, elderly and sick, go straight to the gas chamber.

9.3.5: the Holocaust

From discrimination to extermination

Stage 1: discrimination

Jews are defined as the “other” through legalized discrimination.

How?

• Through racism: categorizing people into fixed categories based on (supposed) bloodlines.
• Through laws: The Nuremberg laws (1935) defined who was a Jew and who was not a Jew.
• Through propaganda: Cartoons, books, movies, and posters portrayed Jews as different from (and inferior to) their Aryan neighbors.

Stage 2. Isolation: 

Once individuals are labeled as Jews, they are separated from mainstream society

How?

• Through laws: Jews were not allowed to attend German schools or universities.They could not go to public parks or movie theaters. 
• Through social practices: Many Germans stopped “being friends” with Jews. 
• Through the economy: Jews were excluded from the civil service and Jewish businesses were taken over by Germans. Jewish doctors and lawyers lost their license.

Stage 4. Ghettoization: 

Jews are forcibly removed to segregated sections of Eastern 

European cities called ghettos

How?

• Ghettos were walled-off areas of a city where Jews were forced to live. They were not allowed to leave their ghetto without permission from Nazi officials. 
• Conditions in the ghettos were crowded and filthy. Many families were forced to share one small apartment. There was limited access to proper waste disposal. Jews had to give up their property and valuables. There were very few jobs in a ghetto. Food and medicine was scarce.

Stage 5. Deportation:

 Jews are transported from ghettos to concentration camps 

and death camps.

How?

• Because these camps were located away from major cities, victims had to be transported to them via train. Some rides lasted for several days. Thousands of prisoners died en route to the camps.

Stage 6: mass extermination

On arrival in the death camps the Jews went through a 

selection process: those who could work  and those who could not work. The latter group was immediately killed in the gas chambers.

How?

• Victims were told to undress for a disinfection shower. Once in the shower, which had actual shower heads, gas was poured into the room, killing everybody inside.
• The gas was Zyklon B, a pesticide. These are crystals that, when mixed with oxygen, spread a poisonous gas.
• Afterwards, the bodies were cremated in ovens.

What is a concentration camp? 

The Nazis built the first concentration camp in 1933 as a place to detain (place-byforce) communists and other opponents to the Nazi Party. At the beginning of World War II, the Nazis began building more concentration camps where they could imprison “enemies of the state,” including Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals, as well as prisoners or war. Many concentration camps functioned as labor camps,

where inmates worked until they either starved to death or died of disease.

What is a death camp? 

Death camps, also called extermination camps, were designed for the purpose of killing large numbers of people in the most efficient manner possible.

Who were affected by these camps?

Of course, there were the victims; millions of children, women, and men suffered as inmates in this camps. But there were also bureaucrats—the train conductors, prison guards, cooks, secretaries, etc.—that made sure that millions of victims were transported to camps throughout Europe and who ran the camps once the victims arrived.

watch trailer

Films about the Holocaust

watch trailer

watch trailer

watch trailer

congratulations

congratulations