The Holocaust 1933-1945 What does ‘Holocaust’ mean? o Holocaust n 1 a sacrificial offering consumed by fire 2 an instance of wholesale destruction or loss of life 3 often capthe genocidal persecution of the European Jews by Hitler and the Nazi party duringWWII o Shoah or Ha Shoah (literally denoting a "catastrophic upheaval") is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust o The Final Solution of the Jewish Question - the German Nazis' plan to engage in systematic genocide against the European Jewish population during World War II. The term was coined by Adolf Eichmann, a top Nazi official who supervised the genocidal campaign. o The Porajmos (also Porrajmos) - literally Devouring, or Samudaripen (Mass killing) is a term coined by the Roma (Gypsy) people to describe attempts by the Nazi regime to exterminate most of the Roma peoples of Europe during the Holocaust. Who were the Victims of The Holocaust?
. Who were the Victims of The Holocaust?
o The Jews- used as scapegoats for everything that had gone wrong in Germany since WWI. They were seen by the Nazis as subhuman & worth less than animals. o Roma & Sinti Gypsies- like the Jews they were seen by the Nazis as racially inferior, degenerate & worthless. o Slavs, Poles & Russians- viewed as inferior & subhuman. o Mentally & physically disabled- thought of as useless & a financial burden on the state. o Homosexuals- seen as degenerate & against the Aryan ideal. o Political opponents- e.g. Communists, Socialists. These were people who disagreed with Nazi politics & policies. o Jehovah’s Witnesses- their religious beliefs made them refuse to pledge their allegiance to the Third Reich. Kristallnacht
th th November 9 – 10 1938 T-4 Euthanasia Programme o Designed to kill physically, mentally & emotionally handicapped people. The name comes from the address of the headquarters at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Charlottenburg. o The process was carried out by doctors, nurses & physicians. o Children were killed by medication or were starved to death. o Adults were given lethal injections or gassed. o Doctors & nurses were given supplementary payments known as ‘Schmutzgeld’ (dirty money). o In 1941 Hadamar celebrated the cremation of its ten thousandth patient in a special ceremony where everyone (secretaries, nurses & psychiatrists) received a bottle of beer. o Hitler ordered the program for adults to end in August 1941 but it continued as the ‘wild’ euthanasia program. o Approximately 200,000 people were killed under the T-4 program. T-4 Euthanasia Programme
Hartheim Castle, Austria Buses used to transport a euthanasia killing centre where people patients to Hadamar This image originates from a film produced by with physical and mental disabilities The windows were painted to prevent were killed by gassing and lethal injection. the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It shows patients people from seeing those inside.. in an unidentified asylum. Their existence is described as "life without hope." The Nazis sought, through propaganda, to develop public sympathy for the Euthanasia Program.
Emmi G., a 16-year-old A victim of the Nazi housemaid diagnosed as Euthanasia Program: schizophrenic. She was hospitalized in a Head nurse of the children's ward sterilized and sent to the psychiatric ward for her Friedrich Mennecke, Nazi physician nonconformist beliefs Karl Brandt, Meseritz-Obrawalde at the Kaufbeuren-Irsee euthanasia facility. a Euthanasia Program euthanasia centre and writings, she was physician who was director of the where she was killed with murdered on responsible for sending Euthanasia Program. an overdose of tranquilizers January 26, 1944. many patients to be gassed. on December 7, 1942. The Ghettos
A line of people wait to get a drink of water in the overcrowded Children scale a wall to smuggle food into the ghetto. Conditions were Warsaw ghetto which housed about half a million Jews. Living so extreme that they engaged in this activity despite the proclamation conditions were miserable; insufficient food and water, unsanitary issued by Dr. Ludwig Fischer (Governor of the Warsaw District from conditions, and overcrowding led to starvation and rampant disease. October, 1939 to January, 1945), imposing a death penalty on Jews Warsaw ghetto, 1941. Homeless children. who left the ghetto and on those who helped them.
This scene of a makeshift market place in the Lódz ghetto shows how The Lvov ghetto, shown here in the spring of 1942, was established in late A typical room in a ghetto. some people tried to sell personal belongings for a little extra money. 1941 with 106,000 people. By May of 1942, only 84,000 residents were left. Ghettos were established to confine Jews into tightly packed areas of the cities of Eastern Europe. Starting in 1939, Polish Jews were systematically moved into designated areas of large Polish cities. The Ghettos were walled off, and any Jew found leaving them was shot. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of these Ghettos, with 380,000 people and the Łódź Ghetto, the second largest, holding about 160,000. The Ghettos The Ghettos
Jews captured during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are led by German soldiers to the assembly point for deportation.
One way Nazis suppressed the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was to burn blocks of buildings. German stormtroopers force Warsaw ghetto dwellers of all ages to move, hands up, during the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in April-May 1943.
Jews captured during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are marched off through a debris-covered street to the Umschlagplatz for SS officers interrogate a captured resistance fighter deportation. during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19,1943, and ended on May 16,
1943. SS troops suppressed the uprising under The bodies of Jewish resisters lie in front of the ruins of a building where they were shot by the SS during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. the command of General JŸrgen Stroop. The Einsatzgruppen
A young mother with her two children, sitting among a large group of Jews from Members of an Lubny who have been assembled for mass Einsatzkommando execution by the Germans. (October 16, before shooting a 1941) Jewish youth. The boy's murdered family lies in front of him; the men to the left are ethnic Germans aiding the squad. Slarow, Soviet Union, July 4, 1941.
Over one thousand Jews from the Ukrainian town of Lubny, ordered to assemble for "resettlement," in an open field before they were massacred by Einsatzgruppen. Lubny, Soviet Union, October 16, 1941. o The Einsatzgruppen were death squads sent into Eastern Europe Men with an unidentified unit to murder Jews, gypsies & execute a group of Soviet civilians A German policeman shoots kneeling by the side of a mass grave. individual Jewish women who (June 22 - September 1941) political opponents of the Nazis. remain alive in the ravine after a mass execution of Jews from o They operated from 1941-1943. the Mizocz ghetto. (October 14, 1942) o Their standard killing method was to gather Jews from surrounding areas and then shoot them in front of mass A member of Einsatzgruppe D prepares to graves. shoot a Ukrainian Jew kneeling on the edge of a mass grave filled with the bodies of previous o In some areas they also took gas victims. vans to poison their victims with exhaust fumes.
Death toll approx. 1.6 million Jews The Einsatzgruppen Concentration Camps & Death Camps Concentration Camps & Death Camps
Treblinka
Chelmno Sobibor Majdanek Belzec
Auschwitz Chelmno
o Constructed in Nov. 1941 o Victims were killed in gas
vans . (one large gas van for 150 victims Jews of the Lodz Ghetto being marched to A convoy arrives in Chelmno Chelmno death camp, 1942 and two smaller ones for 80 - 100 victims) o Until spring of 1942, the bodies were buried in four long mass graves. o After that time the corpses were cremated. (Two crematoria Chelmno: One of the three gas vans were built, which were probably complemented by two mobile field ovens.)
Chelmno: Jews before being o 1st phase: 7th Dec 1941- sent to the gas chamber. March 1943. o 2nd phase:June and July 1944
o Death Toll: 155,000-320,000 Belzec
Gipsies in Belzec before being Jews of the Lublin Province of Poland are sent to the gas chamber Two Jews before execution in Belzec death camp deported to the Belzec death camp, March 1942. o Construction began on 1st Nov. 1941 and was completed by the end of Feb. 1942. o Initially, there were three gas chambers using carbon monoxide housed in a wooden building. They were later replaced by six gas chambers in a brick and concrete building o Corpses were then dragged to burial pits. o During the early months of 1943, the corpses of the murdered Jews were disinterred and burned in open air pits. st o 1 phase: mid-March 1942 to mid-May 1942. A woman about to be executed in Belzec extermination nd camp. The soldier on the left is an SS guard, the o 2 phase: mid-July 1942 to the end of December 1942 soldiers in the background are Ukrainian guards. Picture found on an SS prisoner. o Death Toll: 600,000
Treblinka
oEstablished in 1941 as a forced labour camp.
oA second camp was built, opening for operation on July 23, Transports to the Camp 1942. This was to be the extermination camp. oTreblinka opened with three gas chambers in operation but
Deportation from Siedlce, 22nd quickly expanded to at least six. August 1942 oThe bodies would be dragged to mass graves for burial. oStarting in the Autumn of 1942, the corpses were disinterred and stacked on a grid of old railway tracks for burning. oAutumn of 1943 evacuation of the camp was begun & orders were given to destroy the camp. One of the very rare photographic documents of Treblinka: prisoners of the "Straflager“ preparing a pyre for the burning of the victims
oDeath Toll: 750,000- 850,000 Auschwitz Birkenau
Birkenau arrival platform, known as the ‘ramp’. Auschwitz Birkenau
Awaiting the ‘Selektion’. Auschwitz Birkenau
The ‘Selektion’ process. Auschwitz Birkenau
Deemed "unfit for work“ & sent almost immediately to the gas chambers. Auschwitz Birkenau
Jews who were classified as “not fit for work” waiting in a grove outside Crematorium IV before they were to be gassed. At this point, the Jews were exhausted and in a state of shock from the horrors of the journey and the selection process that they had just endured.The vast majority had no idea what fate Awaited them. Auschwitz Birkenau
Men & women fit for work, after the delousing process. Auschwitz Birkenau
Sorting out the personal Belongings of the recent arrivals at Auschwitz in a special section of the camp known as "Canada." Auschwitz Birkenau
Sacks of human hair packed for dispatch to Germany.
Jewish children, kept alive in the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, pose in concentration camp uniforms between two rows of barbed wire fencing after liberation
A warehouse full of shoes and clothing confiscated from the prisoners and deportees gassed upon their arrival.
Corpses of women piled up on the floor of Block 11. (February 1945)
One of the warehouses in Auschwitz, which is stuffed to overflowing with clothes confiscated from prisoners.
On arrival each prisoner was registered & given a number that replaced his or her name. This number was tattooed on the prisoner’s forearm. A scrap of fabric with this number was worn at chest height on the left of the jacket. Below this was a coloured triangle which showed the prisoner’s category. This triangle or ‘winkel’ was also worn on the hem of the right trouser leg.
‘Re-education prisoners’, whose sentences were officially limited to 46-52 days but often lasted 3-6 months, anti-social political criminal homosexual Jehovah’s emigrant Sinti & were identified by a Witness Roma large ‘E’ rather than e.g. lesbian, a triangle. prostitute gypsy Prisoner badges at Auschwitz The same coloured triangles were used throughout the camp system.
Jew, with a different triangle over the Prisoners in the yellow one according to reason of punishment units also imprisonment, making a Star of David wore a black dot. e.g. Red & Yellow – politicall Jew Prisoners suspected of planning an escape From mid-1944 a yellow strip wore a red dot & the letters for (in replaced the yellow triangle iL im Lager the camp)