14.

2 The
Holocaust

Questions
________________________________________________________
Notes:
________________________________________________________
14.2 The Holocaust
________________________________________________________
I. The Holocaust Begins
________________________________________________________
Nazis believed Germans were Aryans (master
________________________________________________________
race) and all others were inferior
________________________________________________________
Hitler used anti-semitism (hatred of Jews) to
________________________________________________________
blame for Germanys failure in World War I
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Aryan Race

For hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews

as the Christ -killers. At one time or another Jews had
been driven out of almost every European country. The way
they were treated in England in the thirteenth century is a
typical example.

T
A
O
G
E
P
In 1287 269 Jews were hanged in
the
Tower of London.
A
C
S
a
e
r
This deep prejudice
against Jews was still strong in the
e
w
s especially in Germany, Poland and Eastern
w
twentieth
century,
e
J
Europe, where the Jewish population was very large.
In 1275 they were made to wear a yellow badge.

After the First World War hundreds of Jews were blamed for
the defeat in the War. Prejudice against the Jews grew during
the economic depression which followed. Many Germans
were poor and unemployed and wanted someone to blame.
They turned on the Jews, many of whom were rich and
successful in business.

Questions
________________________________________________________
Notes:
________________________________________________________
14.2 The Holocaust
________________________________________________________
I. The Holocaust Begins
________________________________________________________
Nazis believed Germans were Aryans (master
________________________________________________________
race) and all others were inferior
________________________________________________________
Hitler used anti-semitism (hatred of Jews) to
________________________________________________________
blame for Germanys failure in World War I
________________________________________________________
In 1935 the Nazis pass the Nuremberg Laws,
________________________________________________________
taking away citizenship and rights of Jews
________________________________________________________
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) attack
________________________________________________________
Jews and Jewish property (November 9, 1938)
________________________________________________________
forced emigration Hitler sent Jews to other
________________________________________________________
countries who refused to take them
________________________________________________________
ghettos made where Jews were forced to live
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

The First Steps in the Holocaust

Boycott of Jewish businesses - 1933

The First Steps in the Holocaust

Nuremberg Laws - 1935

The First Steps in the Holocaust

Herschel Grynszpan

Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) - 1938

The First Steps in the Holocaust

Creation of Ghettos 1938-1942

Final
Solution

Questions
________________________________________________________
Notes:
________________________________________________________
14.2 The Holocaust
________________________________________________________
I. The Holocaust Begins
________________________________________________________
Nazis believed Germans were Aryans (master
________________________________________________________
race) and all others were inferior
________________________________________________________
Hitler used anti-semitism (hatred of Jews) to
________________________________________________________
In 1935 the Nazis pass the Nuremberg Laws,
________________________________________________________
taking away citizenship and rights of Jews
________________________________________________________
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) attack
________________________________________________________
Jews and Jewish property (November 9, 1938)
________________________________________________________
forced emigration Hitler sent Jews to other
________________________________________________________
countries who refused to take them
________________________________________________________
ghettos made where Jews were forced to live
________________________________________________________
II. The Final Solution
________________________________________________________
Hitler decided to eliminate all inferior
________________________________________________________
people, (Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Poles,
________________________________________________________
Russians, the incurably ill, the disabled)
________________________________________________________
SS (elite forces) moved through Eastern
________________________________________________________
Europe killing as many Jews as they could
________________________________________________________
concentration camps were created where Jews
________________________________________________________
and other groups were sent to work and die in
________________________________________________________
gas chambers

Einsatzgruppe

Between 1939 and 1945

six million Jews were

murdered, along with
hundreds of thousands of
others, such as Gypsies,
Jehovahs Witnesses,
disabled and the
mentally ill.

Percentage of Jews killed in each country

l
a
t
o
AT

,
0
0
0
,
6
f
o

s
w
e
J
0
0
0

Horrors

of the Holocaust Exposed

Entrance to
Auschwitz:
Work Makes You
Free
Crematoria
at
Majdanek

Horrors

of the Holocaust Exposed

Slave Labor at Buchenwald

A MAP OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

AND DEATH CAMPS USED BY THE NAZIS

Part of a stockpile of Zyklon-B

poison gas pellets found at
Majdanek death camp.

Before poison gas was used ,

Jews were gassed in mobile gas
vans. Carbon monoxide gas from
the engines exhaust was fed
into the sealed rear
compartment. Victims were
dead by the time they reached
the burial site.

Smoke rises as the

bodies are burnt.

Bales of hair shaven

from women at
Auschwitz, used to
make felt-yarn.

After liberation, an
Allied soldier
displays a stash of
gold wedding rings
taken from victims
at Buchenwald.

Until September 14, 1939 my life

was typical of a young Jewish boy
in that part of the world in that
period of time.
I lived in a Jewish community
surrounded by gentiles. Aside
from my immediate family, I had
many relatives and knew all the
town people, both Jews and
gentiles. Almost two weeks after
the outbreak of the war and shortly
after my Bar Mitzvah, my world
exploded.
In the course of the next five and a
half years I lost my entire family
and almost everyone I ever knew.
Death, violence and brutality
became a daily occurrence in my
life while I was still a young
teenager.
Leonard Lerer, 1991