World War II and the Holocaust - English 12



World War II and the Holocaust

Holocaust: “The state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

United States Holocaust Museum

The Road to War

• Germany’s defeat in WWI brought about the formation of a new government: The Weimar Republic

• ________________________-ended WWI

o Germany had to ____________________________________________

o Forced to make reparations to ____________________________________________

o Total bill was equivalent to ________________________

o German army was dramatically limited in size

The Road to War

• Many Germans protested not only the loss of the war, but ______________________________________________________________________

• Extremists blamed ____________________________________________and blamed the German Foreign Minister, a Jewish man, for reaching a settlement

• Ultimately, many aspects of the treaty were violated or ignored, with little enforcement from the rest of Europe

• Despite the flouting of the treaty, ____________________________________________

• The German mark’s value plummeted, causing hyperinflation

• Nearly 6 million Germans were ____________________________________________

Rise of the Nazi Party

• Weakened economy and ineffective Weimar Republic led to ____________________________________________

• Hitler voted chancellor

o _____________________________________________________________________

o _____________________________________________________________________

o _____________________________________________________________________

Totalitarianism

• The total control of a country and its culture by the government

• _____________________________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________________________

Anti-Semitism

• Prior to 1933, Jews were living in every country in Europe (approx. 9 million total)

• Poland and the Soviet Union had the largest Jewish populations

• The long history of Anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews dates back _______________

• Germans used propaganda to ______________________________________.

o This included _____________________________ used in schools

The Nuremberg Laws

• During the first few years of Nazi rule, laws were passed __________________________

• Nuremberg Laws of 1935

o Stripped Jews of ___________________________

o Prohibited them from ______________________________________ with persons of “German or related blood.”

o Jews were deprived of _______________________ and were ________________ from economic and educational spheres

o Forced to carry identity cards with red “J” stamp, to allow for _____________________________________________________________

Persecution

• The Nazi plan for dealing with the “Jewish problem” evolved in three steps:

o Expulsion-____________________________________________

o Containment-___________________________________________________

o “Final Solution”-___________________________

• Other groups targeted included Gypsies, Homosexual men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Physically and mentally handicapped Germans (Euthanasia Program), Poles, and Political dissidents

Kristallnacht

• “Night of the Broken Glass”

• November 9-10, 1938

• Germans attacked _____________________________________________________________

• 91 murdered, 30,000 deported and sent to concentration camps

• By 1939, half of Germany’s 500,000 Jews had emigrated to escape Nazi persecution

Invasion and War

• 1939-Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II

o Pop. 3 million Polish Jews

• 1941-Germany invaded Russia

o Pop. 5 million Russian Jews

Einsatzgruppen

• Specially trained SS units-essentially “mobile killing squads”

• Sent by Heinrich Himmler into German occupied territory to ______________________

__________________________________________________________

• Estimated to have killed 1.3 million Jews between 1941 and 1945

• Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were ______________________

__________________________________________________________

Final Solution

• January 1942-Himmler called conference to discuss tactics against _________________

_______________________________________________________

• Existing methods were deemed inefficient-________________________________________

• Jews would be rounded up and moved to ghettos, for used as cheap labor

• Other Jews sent to “resettlement areas” where they would go through “selection”

o ______________________________________________________________

o ______________________________________________________________

• Ghettos were established across occupied Europe, usually in areas with a large Jewish population

o Life was very difficult-________________________________________________________

• Conditions designed so ___________________________________________________________

________________________________________

• How were people determined to be Jewish?

o ____________________________________________________________________________

o ____________________________________________________________________________

Concentration Camps

• Three types of camps: ___________________________________________________________

• First camp (Dachau) opened in 1933 for political dissidents and prisoners

• There were six death camps, all located in Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau (also a labor camp), Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Belzec

• Treblinka had a staff of 80 guards, 20-30 SS, ______________________________________

Great Deception

• Deception

o __________________________________________________________________

o __________________________________________________________________

o __________________________________________________________________

• Starvation

o __________________________________________________________________

• Terror

o __________________________________________________________________

Gas Chambers

• Designed for efficient mass execution

• Those “selected” would be given soap and sent to gas chambers sometimes disguised as showers

• Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and __________________________________________________________________

• Nazis would try to pack as many as _________ into a gas chamber like the one pictured

• Jews selected as sonderkommando were ordered to ___________________ and ________ of victims and __________________________________________.

• About ____________________ pairs of shoes-one day’s collection at the peak of gassing

Resistance Movements

• Despite extremely high risk, some individuals and groups attempted to resist Nazism and Nazi policies

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

• Still, less than 1% of non-Jewish European population helped in rescue operation

• Denmark and Bulgaria demonstrated most successful national resistance movements against attempts to deport their Jewish citizens

Liberation

• July 23, 1944—Soviet soldiers liberated first camp prisoners at Majdanek

• British, Canadian, American, and French troops also liberated camp prisoners

• Troops were shocked at what they saw

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

o _____________________________________________

Aftermath

• The Nazis killed at least 6 million Jews

o 2-3 million Soviet P.O.W.’s

o About 1.9 million non-Jewish Poles

o 220,000-500,000 Roma Gypsies

o 200,000 physically/mentally handicapped

• _____________________________________________

o Many stayed in camps in Germany run by the Allies

o Jewish DPs pushed for the founding of a Jewish state in British-controlled Palestine

o Jewish refugees allowed to enter U.S. _________________________________________

Nuremberg Trials

o _____________________________________________

• 22 Nazi war criminals tried by the Allies in the International Military Tribunal

• 12 prominent Nazis were sentenced to death

o Most claimed they were only following orders; this was judged to be an insufficient defense

o _____________________________________________

Art Spiegelman

• Celebrated cartoonist

• Work published in numerous journals and other media (The New York Times, The Village Voice)

o _____________________________________________

• He lives in NYC with wife and daughter

• He has won numerous awards for his work, including the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Maus

Maus

• Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is a graphic memoir

• It recounts Spiegelman’s father’s struggle to survive the Holocaust as a Polish Jew

• It draws largely on his father’s recollections of events he personally experienced

• It also follows the author’s troubled relationship with his father and the way the effects of war continue to reverberate through generations of a family

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