THE HOLOCAUST

What is the “Holocaust”?

• Refers to a specific genocidal event in 20th century

history

– Genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination

of a national, racial, political, or cultural group

• Can be defined as “the state-sponsored,

systematic persecution and annihilation of

European Jews by Nazi Germany and its

collaborators between 1933 and 1945”

Who was targeted?• Jews were the primary victims

– 6 million were murdered

• Gypsies, Poles, and people with disabilities

were targeted for destruction based on racial,

ethnic or national reasons

– Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s

Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political

dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and

death under Nazi tyranny

Why?• Renewed prejudice combined with centuries-old prejudice

and anti-Semitism; renewed by a nationalistic fervor that

emerged in Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth

century; fueled by Germany’s defeat in World War I;

exacerbated by worldwide economic hard times, the

ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic and international

indifference; and catalyzed by the political charisma and

manipulative propaganda of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime

contributed to the occurrence of the Holocaust

• The Holocaust took place because individuals, groups

and nations made decisions to act or not to act

Concentration Camps• Refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined,

usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal

norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a

constitutional democracy

• In Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, concentration

camps (Konzentrationslager, KL or KZ) were an integral

feature

• The first concentration camps in Germany were established

soon after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor

• The Storm Troopers (SA), the SS (elite guard), the police, and

local civilian authorities organized detention camps to

incarcerate real and perceived political opponents

Results of the Holocaust• To concentrate and monitor the Jewish population as well as to

facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the Germans and their

collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor

camps for Jews during the war years.

– Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, militarized

battalions moved behind German lines to carry out mass-murder

operations against Jews, Romany Gypsies, and Soviet state and

Communist Party officials.

• Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported

millions of Jews from Germany and its occupied territories to

ghettos and to killing centers (often called extermination camps)

where they were murdered in specially developed gassing

facilities.

The End of the Holocaust• In the final months of the war, SS guards moved

camp inmates by train or on forced marches (often

called death marches) in an attempt to prevent the

Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners

• As Allied forced moved across Europe, they began

to liberate concentration camp prisoners

• The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day

the German armed forces surrendered

unconditionally to the Allies

The Effects of the Holocaust

• In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the

survivors found shelter in displaced persons

(DP) camps administered by the Allied powers.

• Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews

emigrated to Israel.

• Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United

States and other nations

• The last DP camp closed in 1957.

Primary Source Documents

• Station 1: Family Photographs

• Station 2: Documentation

• Station 3: Maps/Labor Camp Photo

• Station 4: Symbols

• Station 5: Postcards/Letters

• Station 6: Newspaper Article

Analyzing Primary Sources: Questions to Consider

• What is this document?

• What does this document tell us

about The Holocaust? Gerda

Weissmann?

• What is your reaction to the

document?

The Long Road to VictoryWorld War II

American Involvement• When the war began in 1939, the United States declared

their neutrality

– However, Roosevelt found ways to give aid to Britain

– In early 1941, FDR persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-

Lease Act

• Allowed the U.S. to sell or led war materials to countries for the

defense of the U.S.

• In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill secretly met to

issue the Atlantic Charter

– Set goals for the war and the “final destruction of tyranny”

Japan Attacks• In early 1941, Japan advanced into French Indochina and the

Dutch East Indies

– To stop Japanese aggression, the U.S. banned the sale of war

materials to Japan

• Peace talks between Japan and the U.S. were unsuccessful

• General Tojo ordered a surprise attack on the American fleet

at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i on December 7, 1941

– Japanese planes damaged or destroyed 19 ships, smashed

American planes and killed more than 2,400 people

• On December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt asked Congress

to declare war on Japan

– On December 11, Germany and Italy (as Japan’s allies) declared

war on the United States

Allied War Effort

• In 1942, the “Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill,

Stalin) agreed to finish the war in Europe before

turning their attention to Asia

• The Allies were committed to total war

– In the United States and Canada, many Japanese

citizens lost jobs, property, and their civil rights

– Some were forced into internment camps by the

government who decided they were a security risk

NORTH AFRICA AND ITALY

Turning Points in the War• In Egypt, the British under General Montgomery finally

stopped Rommel’s advance at the Battle of El Alamein

– Advancing on his troops, the “desert fox” was forced to surrender

in May 1943

• Victory in North Africa allowed the Allies to cross into Italy

– In July 1943, a combined British and American army landed in Sicily

and southern Italy

• As they moved up the country, retreating Italian forces were losing to the

Allies

– Seeing eventual defeat, the Italians overthrew Benito Mussolini and

he was hung by his troops

• The provisional government in Italy signed an armistice with

the allies but some isolated fighting continued for the next 18

months

EASTERN FRONT

The Red Army Resists• After their initial advance into the Soviet Union in 1941,

the Nazis were stalled outside of the capital for the winter

– In 1942, Hitler launched a new offensive that got as far as

Leningrad (later called Stalingrad)

• The Nazis surrounded the cities and they were fighting in

buildings and in the streets

– The Nazi forces surrendered in early 1943

• The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the costliest in the

war

– The Germans lost over 300,000 soldiers

– The Battle of Stalingrad was a Soviet victory turned the tide of

the war in the east

FRANCE

Invasion of France• By 1944, the Allies were ready to take back France

– To prepare for the invasion, Allied bombers flew constant missions

over Germany

• On June 6, 1944 the D-Day invasion of France began

– Allied planes dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines

– At dawn, 176,000 Allied troops crossed the English channel and

landed on the beaches of Normandy

• They broke through German defenses and advanced toward Paris

– At the same time, Allied forces sailed up from Italy into southern

France

– The French resistance rose up against the occupying Germans in

Paris

• Under pressure from all sides, the Germans retreated

• On August 25, the Allies entered Paris and within a month, freed all of

France

GERMANY

The Nazi Defeat• After fleeing France, the Allied forces battled toward Germany

– Their armies advanced into Belgium in December 1944 and Germany launched a

counterattack

• At the bloody Battle of the Bulge, both sides suffered terrible losses

– This was considered Hitler’s “last success”

• The Allies continued to bomb Germany over a two-year period, causing

great damage and huge number of casualties

• By March, the Allies crossed the Rhine River into Germany from the west

– In the east, Soviet troops marched to Berlin

• In late April 1945, Axis armies began to surrender

– Italy had surrendered and the troops killed Mussolini

– Hitler committed suicide in an underground bunker in Berlin

• The war in Europe officially ended on May 8, 1945

– Proclaimed as V-E Day (Victory in Europe)

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

War in the Pacific• By May 1942, the Japanese controlled most of

Southeast Asia and many Pacific islands

– The Allies strategy was “island-hopping”

– In May and June 1942, the United States fleets won

decisive battles at Coral Sea and Midway Islands

• They were able to weaken the Japanese naval power and stop

their advance

• In October 1944, General MacArthur began the fight

to retake the Philippines

– Beginning in 1944, some young Japanese chose to

become kamikaze pilots by taking suicide missions

crashing planes into warships

Victory in the Pacific• President Harry Truman replaced FDR on April 12, 1944

– Allied leaders urged the Japanese to surrender, but the

Japanese ignored the advice

• On August 6, 1945, an American plane dropped an atomic bomb

on Hiroshima

– It flattened four square miles and instantly killed more than 70,000 people

but the Japanese still refused to surrender

• On August 9, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and over

40,000 were killed

• Finally, on August 10, Emperor Hirohito forced the government to

surrender

– On September 2, 1945, the formal peace treaty was signed on board the

American battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay

Leaders of World War II

Hirohito

• Emperor of Japan during WWII

• Japanese military general who planned

the attack on Pearl Harbor

Tojo

• German dictator during WWII

Adolf Hitler

• Italian fascist dictator during WWII

Benito Mussolini

• U.S. President for most of WWII

Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Soviet dictator during WWII

Joseph Stalin

• British prime minister during WWII

Winston Churchill

• U.S. President who made the decision to

use the atomic bomb on Japan

Harry Truman