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Home , Babi Yar, Einsatzgruppen, Extermination camp, Final Solution

Do Now Explain how you can rationalize the indiscriminate of the elderly, the disabled, women, and children. Learning Targets and Intentions of the Lesson I Want Students to: 1. KNOW the characteristics of the 2. UNDERSTAND and explain the rationale behind the Nazis decision to systematically murder all the of Europe. 3. Complete a guided reading and writing activity on a selected topic of the (SKILL). The Jews 1940 - 1945 This is the term given to political, social and economic agitation against Jews. In simple terms it means ‘Hatred of Jews’.

Aryan Race This was the name of what Hitler believed was the perfect race. These were people with full German blood, blonde hair and blue eyes. Prelude to the

• When Hitler seizedFinal power in 1933 Solution he used his new powers under the ‘Enabling Law’ to begin his attack on the Jews.

• 1933 Jews denied public jobs Jewish businesses boycotted

• 1933 defined Jews by religious affiliation of grandparents

• In 1938, the Nazi attack on the Jews changed and became more violent with Himmler launching on 11th November 1938. - November 9, 1938 -Jewish homes & businesses attacked & destroyed across Prelude to the Final Solution • In 1939, Germany invaded which had a much larger population of 3 million Jews. • In 1941, Germany invaded Russia which had a population of 5 million Jews. A Chance to Emigrate

A view of the SS St. Louis surrounded by smaller vessels in the port of Hamburg. June 1939 American Response

Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis attempt to communicate with friends and relatives in Cuba, who were permitted to approach the docked vessel in small boats. June 3, 1939. Havana, Cuba Source: National Archives and Records Administration Change of Tactics:

• Himmler sent four specially trained SS units called “Einsatzgruppen battalions” into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews. • Victims were taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and shot. • When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers. Mobile Killing Units (Einsatzgruppen)

Jewish men, women, and children await execution in a ravine. October 14, 1942. Source: Instytut Pamieci Narodowej Massacre at

A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution. In 1943, when the number of murdered Jews exceeded 1 million. Nazis ordered the bodies of those buried to be dug up and burned to destroy all traces.

Soviet POWs at forced labor in 1943 exhuming bodies in the ravine at Babi Yar, where the Nazis had murdered over 33,000 Jews in September of 1941. Portrait of two-year-old Mania Halef, a Jewish child who was among the 33,771 persons shot by the SS during the mass executions at Babi Yar, September, 1941. Nazis sift through a huge pile of clothes left by victims of the massacre. Two year old Mani Halef’s clothes are somewhere amongst these. Between 1939 and 1945 six million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of others, such as Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, disabled and the mentally ill. Change of Tactics: Einsatzgruppen The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem

• In 1942, Himmler change tactics once again and called a special conference at . • It was decided that the existing methods were too inefficient and that a new ‘Final Solution’ was necessary. The young and fit would go Shooting was too Women, children, through a process called inefficient as the the old & the sick ‘destruction through work.’ were to be sent for bullets were needed ‘special treatment.’ for the war effort How was the On arrival the Jews Jews were to be would go through a Final Solution rounded up and put process called going to be into transit camps ‘selection.’ organised? called Ghettoes

The remaining Jews The Jews in these were to be shipped were so bad many died Ghettos were used as to ‘resettlement whilst the rest would be willing to cheap labour. areas’ in the East. leave to find better conditions How did the Nazi decide who was Jewish? • At the Wannsee conference it was decided that if one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish. • However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German. • In 1940, all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J’ and had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat. Children Dying of Starvation in the Resistance

SS troops guard members of the Jewish resistance captured during the suppression of the uprising. April 19, 1943-May 16, 1943. Warsaw, Poland Source: National Archives and Records Administration What tactics did the Nazis use to get the Jews to leave the Ghettos? Deception Arrivals at the camps Starvation were given postcards to send The Jews were told to their friends. The Jews in the that they were going Warsaw Ghetto were to resettlement areas’ only fed a 1000 in the East calories a day . Tactics In some Ghettos A Human being Jews had to needs 2400 calories a purchase their own day to maintain their train tickets. Terror weight Told to bring their The SS publicly shot people tools, pots & pans. for smuggling food or for any Hungry people are act of resistance easier to control The Dehumanisation of the Jews

Jews arriving at Movies-The Dachau an Eternal Jew: . The Scourge of Some dead…some the Earth sick…they look like animals…they look sub-human

The Greedy Jewish Merchant Jews are Rats SS Tactics: Dehumanisation • The SS guards who murdered the Jews were brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda. • The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions. • Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda. • The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children. Tactics: What happened to new arrivals? All new arrivals went At Auschwitz the trains through a process known pulled into a mock up as ‘selection.’ of a normal station.

Mothers, children, the old The Jews were helped & sick were sent straight Deception & off the cattle trucks by to the ‘showers’ which Selection Jews who were were really the gas specially selected to chambers. help the Nazis

The able bodied were sent to At Auschwitz the new At some death camps the work camp were they were arrivals were calmed Nazis would play killed through a process known down by a Jewish records of classical as ‘destruction through work.’ orchestra. music to help calm down the new arrivals. Entrance to Auschwitz

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station Auschwitz Orchestra Concentration Camps

Prisoners standing during a roll call. Each wears a striped hat and uniform bearing colored, triangular badges and identification numbers. 1938-1941. Buchenwald, Germany

Where were the Death Camps built? The work of the Einsatzgruppen

Why do you think that they located them here?

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. gas from the engine’s exhaust was fed into the sealed rear compartment. Victims were dead by the time they reached the site. The Gas Chambers

• The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of , or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof. • These gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses.

The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this The Outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the Ovens easy location near the Gas Chambers Smoke rises as the bodies are burnt. Processing the Bodies

• Specially selected Jews known as the were used to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed. • The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium. The Ovens at Dachau Dead Bodies Waiting to be Processed 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. Shoes waiting to be processed by the Sonderkommando

Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs. Destruction Through Work

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day Destruction Through Work

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later The American Response to the Holocaust

• Despite knowing about Hitler’s policies toward the Jews and events such as Kristallnacht, American immigration limited the number of Jews who could move to the United States. • In 1942, Americans officials began to hear about what was happening to the Jews in Europe and specifically about Hitler’s Final Solution. – The Americans were doubtful at first and thought the reports might just be war rumors. – According to Thomas H Baer, "Warnings from the allies to the Jews of Europe of a planned never came. The Nazi depended on secrecy and subterfuge. Warnings would not have stopped the Holocaust, but they could have saved lives." . – Elizabeth Holtzman added, "This recently declassified document helps pinpoint how much officials within our government knew about the Holocaust and when they knew it. The next question is why our government--not did nothing in response. It is unbearable to think that plans to 'eradicate' a Jewish population were a matter of such indifference." Was the Final Solution successful? • The Nazis aimed to kill 11 • Men like Schindler helped Jews million Jews at the Wannsee escape the Final Solution. Conference in 1941 • Not all Jews went quietly into the • Today there are only 2000 gas cambers. Jews living in Poland. • In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like • The Nazis managed to kill at many others revolted against the least 6 million Jews and 5 Nazis when the Jews realised million other people what was really happening. Percentage of Jews Killed in Each Country “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 Guided Reading & Post-It Note Activity

Reading 18 Rationalizing Genocide