The Holocaust (1932-1945)
The Holocaust HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah) which
originally meant a sacrifice totally burned by fire
the annihilation of the Jews and other groups of people of Europe under the Nazi regime during World War II
GENOCIDE: the systematic extermination of a nationality or group
The Jewish Problem
▶ April 1, 1933 Boycott of Jewish shops and
Business in Germany, lasts 24 hours
▶ September 1935- Race laws(Nuremburg Laws)
restricted future German citizenship, no
Gypsies or Jews. Limit Jewish Rights.
▶ Prohibited marriage to Jews
The Jewish Problem
Kristallnacht(1938)- “Night
of broken Glass” planned
attacks of violence against
the Jewish people of
Germany
Buildings, Stores, Houses
were destroyed, 30,000
Jews sent to concentration
camps.
The Jewish Problem
• Final Solution: Hitler wanted Jews
eliminated
– A lot of anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish)
sentiment in the Soviet Union and
across Europe
Jewish Ghettos Jews were arrested and sent to
Ghettos
Ghettos- parts of a city walled-
up where Jews were forced to
live
Some Ghettos were built for
10,000 people but held 10X to
20X that amount
Mobile Killing Squads to limit
numbers
Concentration Camps
Commonly between 80 and 100 people
were crammed into railcars of this type.
Deportation trains usually carried 1,000 to
2,000 people.
Most died on the journey and most
survivors were murdered upon arrival to
the death camps.
Concentration CampsPrisoners were awoken at 3 am
beds had to be made quickly or
faced with 25 lashes
Only one bathroom was
available for a group of four
hundred people
Breakfast was severed a 5 am-
given black coffee
Roll call at 6am
After roll call preformed daily jobs
building railway tracks
carrying stones and coal
sewer repair
Concentration Camps
Lunch was given at noon
meal consisted of cabbage soup
Resumed work at 1 to 6pm
At head count prisoners who did not
preform to their best ability were put
through the “punishment parade”
forced to strip publicly
lie on specially constructed benches
received 25 to 50 lashes
Classifications
Jewish-Yellow Star
Criminals-green inverted triangle
Political Criminals- Red Triangle
Roma(Gypsies)- Brown Triangle
Poles, outsiders- Black triangle
Homosexual-Pink Triangle
Jehovah’s Witness-Purple Triangle
Holocaust Timeline Apr 26, 1933 – The Gestapo is created by
Hermann Göring
Nov 9-10, 1938 – Kristallnacht – The
“Night of Broken Glass”
Jan 25, 1940 – Nazis choose town of
Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland for new
concentration camp
Countries with Most Holocaust Victims
Country Minimum Loss
Maximum
Loss
% of Jewish
Population lost in
that country
1 Poland 2,900,000 3,000,000 90%
2 Soviet Union 1,000,000 1,100,000 36%
3 Hungary 550,000 569,000 69%
4 Romania 271,000 287,000 47%
5 Lithuania 140,000 143,000 85%
6 Germany 134,500 141,500 25%
7 Netherlands 100,000 100,000 71%
8
Bohemia and
Moravia78,150 78,150 66%
9 France 77,320 77,320 22%
10 Latvia 70,000 71,500 78%
Source: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans
0
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
2,500,000
3,000,000
Series1
Source: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans
Liberation of Buchenwald