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Death on a massive scale, especially caused by
either fire or nuclear war
11 million people
were killed.
Of those, 6 million
were Jews.
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Adolf hilter
Leader of NAZI Ger?any
Jewish people
Hitler also targeted gBCsies, homosexEals,
and the physically and mentally disabled
CLASSIFICATION
DistingEishing betFeen “us” and “them”
THE NAZI NUREMBERG LAWS
• Anyone who had three or four Jewish gRandparents was also a Jew, whether they
considered themselves one or not.
• Jews were banned Tom working in the goverVment, as teachers, or in
broadcasting, news reporWing, or enterWainment.
• They could not marRB or have sexEal relations with “persons of Ger?an or
related blood.”
• They could no longer vote.
• They were no longer considered citizens.
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SYMBOLIZATION
Sy?bols oſten name and identifB the classifications
• The NAZI goverVment forced Jewish people to wear the Yellow
Star of David any time they were out in public.
• In the concentRation camps, Jews were identified with
numbers ta[ooed on their ar?.
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DEHUMANIZATION
Denying the humanitB of others is what allows killing with impunitB
• NAZI propaganda called Jews ‘rats’ or
‘ver?in’ and depicted them as snakes
• Jews were labelled a ‘threat to existence’
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ORGANIZATION
Genocide is always organized, oſten by states but also by militias and hate gRoups
• EisatzgREppen (mobile killing units): began gRoup killings in Jewish
communities as early as the 1930s.
• Euthanasia progRam: a Nazi policy to exWer?inate the physically and mentally
disabled, thereby promoting ArBan “racial integRitB.”
• Death camps: Auschwitz-‐Birkenau; Dachau
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POLARIZATION
Moderates and dissenters are eliminated along with the targeted gRoup
• Jewish people were seen as the ultimate evil, and their
exWer?ination a necessarB dutB.
• Those who were caught sheltering Jews were imprisoned, beaten,
and oſten killed outRight
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PREPARATION
Includes Identification
• Jewish passporWs and identitB cards were stamped with a red J and were
assigVed middle names ‘Israel’ or ‘Sara’.
• Their properWB and businesses were confiscated and they were forced to
live in ghe[os.
• Warsaw, the largest ghe[o, held 500,000 people and was 3.5 square
miles in size
• Ca[le tRains were used to tRansporW Jewish people to concentRation camps.
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EXTERMINATION
• Final Solution: called for the complete and mass annihilation
and exWer?ination of the Jews as well as other gRoups.
• Zyklon B gas and gas chambers became the primarB tool of
the mass exWer?ination
• Up to 8,000 people were gassed each day at Auschwitz-‐
Birkenau, which had 4 gas chambers.
The Legacy of
the
Holocaust
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• In an a[empt to prevent something like the
Holocaust ever happening again, the United Nations
developed the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
• The Declaration outlines basic human rights that no
goverVment can take Tom its people without risking
the involvement of the United Nations.
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• In 1948, the UN holds an InterVational Convention
for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide.
• The Convention legally defines genocide and
outlines an obligation for all parWicipating countRies
to prevent and punish acts of genocide both during
war and in peacetime.
• Historically, Jewish people have not had a countRB to
call their own. Aſter the Holocaust, the UN believed
such a place was necessarB as parW of reparations to
the Jewish people (also because Anti-‐Semitism
persisted in Europe even aſter WWII).
• Palestine was divided in tFo, and parW of it became
the State of Israel where Jewish people could
immigRate if they did not wish to remain in Europe.
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• Much of our moderV understanding of hyCother?ia and the
effects of phosgene gas on humans comes Tom Nazi medical
exCeriments on concentRation camp prisoners.
• Nazi doctors also exCerimented with the effects of
depressurization and the stEdy of the human brain, data that
has since been used to fErWher moderV understanding of these
topics.
• Many people are unwilling to use this medical data however,
since it was gained through torWEous exCerimentation: prisoners
did not give their consent, were not anesthetized, and oſten leſt
per?anently damaged (both mentally and physically) or died as
a result.
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• The Holocaust also resulted in a lot of moderV cyVicism
regarding human ethics.
• If people have a fEndamental understanding of right and
wrong, then how could so many people commit such
atRocities?
• Who should be held responsible for what happened
during the Holocaust?
