2. Persecution in Germany
1933 - Hitler becomes leader of Germany, anti-
Semitism(prejudice against Jews) official policy of
nation
Holocaust - Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of
European Jews
2/3 of Jewish pop., 5-6 mill. others die in Nazi captivity
3. Nazi Policies
1933 - Nuremberg laws stripped Jews of citizenship,
outlawed marriage b/Jews and non-Jews
1938 - Jews had to sell businesses to Aryans for much
less, doctors/lawyers could only serve other Jews,
students kicked out of school
Jew - any person w/ 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents
regardless of current religion
Had to wear yellow stars marked “Jew” on clothing
4. Gestapo - Germany’s secret police job of identifying
enemies of Nazi regime
SS - Schutzstaffel - private army of Nazi party (Gestapo
became part of SS)
Concentration camps - places where political prisoners
confined such as Communists, Jews, homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies and homeless, centers of
forced labor
5. Kristallnacht - 11. 9. 38, Nazi thugs in Germany and
Austria looted and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses
and synagogues - thousands arrested and sent to camps
1933 - 1937 130,00 (1 in 4) Jews fled Germany for other
European countries then US, Latin America & Brit.
controlled Palestine
Evian Conference - 32 countries meet to deal w/
Jewish refugees, all countries refused to open doors
except Dominican Republic
6. From Murder to Genocide
Jews who fled to other European countries now under
Nazi control - ghettos created to keep them isolated,
Warsaw ghetto - 400,000 Jews confined to 35 of city
1942 Wannsee Conference - Nazis developed plan to
deal w/ “Jewish question” - build special camps in
Poland where genocide (deliberate destruction of entire
ethnic/cultural group) would be carried out
7. Death Camps
Gas (pesticide Zyklon B) chambers disguised as showers
used for mass murder in Polish camps such as Auschwitz
European Jews sent to camps in cattle cars, elderly,
women with children and weak immediately killed
Workers endured unbearable conditions, lifespan at
Auschwitz a few months, dying from harsh labor,
starvation, tortured, medical experiments, periodic
“selections” for chamber
8. Fighting back
Jews resisted, joined underground groups
Escape most common resistance, most failed but a few
got word out of camps
1943- 50,000 Jews in Warsaw ghetto heard fate of
300,000 sent to Treblinka camp, for 27 days held off
Nazis
9. Rescue and Liberation
US knew of mass murder in 1942 but did little
1944 FDR creates War Refugee Board (WRB) over
objections of State Dept. to help people threatened by
Nazis
Helped save 200,000 lives - funded the issuing of special
Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews
On eve of Allied liberation Nazis moved all prisoners to
German soil - thousands died on “death march”
10. Allied forces horrified by what they found in death camps
Number of former Nazi leaders put on trial
International Military Tribunal made up of US, Britain,
France and Soviets conducted Nuremberg Trials in
1945
Of 24 defendants 12 got death penalty
Established that individuals must be held accountable for
actions
