Holocaust Notes

Vocabulary:

Allies: states cooperating with another state; in World War II, theAlliesincluded Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jews

Aryan: the master race according to the German people

Assimilation: the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture.

Brown Shirt (S.A.): storm troopers or para-military that implemented Nazi assault on the Jews including Kristallnacht and the Finaly Solution

Concentration Camp: a prison camp, especially one for political prisoners or prisoners of war, in which many die from poor conditions and treatment or from mass execution.

Dehumanization: To deprive of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility

Final Solution: he Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews which resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews in concentration camps between 1941 and 1945.

Genocide: the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Gestapo (S.S.): official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe.

Ghetto: put in or restrict to an isolated or segregated area or group.

Holocaust: The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million Jews.

Kristallnacht: The Night of the Broken Glass. On this night, November 9, 1938, almost 200 synagogues were destroyed, over 8,000 Jewish shops were sacked and looted, and tens of thousands of Jews were removed to concentration camps.

Ideology: a system of ideas that form the basis for policy

Opportunistic: seize an opportunity; take advantage of a situation

Special Action Squads: Einsatzgruppen, made up of Nazi (SS) units and police, moved with speed on the heels of the advancing German army. Their job was to kill any Jews they could find in the occupied Soviet territory

Treaty of Versailles: Peace treaty at the end of World War I, signed by Allies and defeated Germans. This treaty imposed military, economic, and territorial punishment on the Germans.

Rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler:

  • Germany defeated by the Allies in World War I (1918)
  • Signed the Treaty of Versailles- held Germany responsible for the war. This included financial responsibility and loss of land.
  • This caused economic stress and low morale among Germans.
  • The loss of land, money, and hope sowed the seeds for World War II.
  • American Stock Market crashes (1929) and America demands Germany pay loans back. Also, there is little world trade because of the crash so German industry is crippled. There was no money, no employment, no food, and no hope
  • Nazi- National Socialist German Workers Party offered hope
  • Hitler, a young painter from Austria, became leader of this party.
  • Hitler had a very strong personality and a gifted speaker.
  • Hitler was arrested for a plan to overthrow the government. While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf which outlined his master plan
  • Nazi Ideology: the Aryan race was superior physically, mentally, and spiritually.
  • Jews were considered the most inferior race but Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled were also considered inferior.

War World II

  • 1939- Hitler took over Czechoslovakia.
  • Germany invaded Poland
  • Hitler’s plan was to take back lands that were considered “Aryan.” He believed that the master race should take over the world.
  • Hitler invested all of Germany’s resources into building his Army.
  • Invaded all neighboring countries: France, Italy, etc.

The Holocaust

  • Hitler used pre-existing fears and prejudices for certain groups. He blamed Germany’s problems on groups he saw as inferior, specifically Jews.
  • Anti-Semitism:

Ancient Origin

With the beginning of Christianity, the two religions were in competition.

Early church fathers believed Jews had failed in their role in the world and Christians had inherited it.

Romans had crucified Jesus and Jews were held responsible for it

Jews were considered stubborn, unwilling to assimilate because of their religious beliefs.

Middle Ages

Lived in Europe as outsiders.

Jews could only live in certain places and practice certain trades and professions.

Consequently, Jews often were involved with trading and banking (birth of stereotype that Jews care about money and cannot be trusted).

Black Death scapegoats: Jews were accused of poisoning the wells and causing the plague.

Jews were massacred, expelled, or forcibly converted to Christianity.

By 20th Century

  • Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): First organized violent act against Jewish population

Nazis torched synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes, schools, and business.

Over 90 Jews were killed, 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps, and anti-Jewish law enacted soon after.

  • The Anti-Jewish laws started in the early 1930’s. These laws really restricted what Jews could and could not do. These laws extended to all neighboring countries as Germany invaded them.
  • Ghettos:

Ghettos were used to segregate Jews from the rest of society.

The term is first used to describe the Jewish quarter where Jews were required to live in Venice, Italy, in the 16th century.

Over the next two centuries, ghettos were set up in cities throughout Europe to isolate Jews.

Ghettos were considered temporary until the final solution.

The vast majority of ghetto inhabitants died from disease, starvation, were shot, or deported to killing centers.

  • “The Final Solution” to eliminate all those considered inferior.

Concentration Camps are places were Jews were detained indefinitely.

Conditions were harsh and many prisoners died of starvation, disease, and brutality.

Prisoners were used as forced labor and also in many inhumane experiments to further medical science.

Gas chambers were generally used to dispose of prisoners when they were no longer useful.

Six million Jews killed: Two out of every three Jews in occupied Europe died as a result of Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

  • Post World War II

Germany was defeated by the Allies. Hitler committed suicide.

Two out of every three Jews in occupied Europe died as a result of Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

Almost 6 million Jews; 3 million Soviet POWs; 2 million Poles and other Slavic groups; approximately 250,000 mentally /physically handicapped people; 100,000s Roma as well as thousands of other groups died.

  • The Righteous

Although many Germans profited from the treatment of the Jews, taking their confiscated homes, businesses and possessions.

Many others, the Righteous, risked their own lives to help the Jews by hiding them or helping them to escape Germany.