The following is an abbreviated version of my lecture on non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was built for the Virginia Social Studies convention 2009.

1. “Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust” Enemies of the State Timothy Hensley Research Librarian Virginia Holocaust Museum

2. Question: How many people died during the Holocaust?

3. Answer: Between 11 million and 17 million* * We use 13 million

4. Question: Who were the victims?

5. Jews (6 million) Roma & Sinti (250,000) Handicapped (80,000) Soviets (3 million) Poles (3 million) Serbians (700,000) Political opponents (80,000) Homosexuals (12,000) Jehovah’s Witnesses (2500) Answer: Source: Holocaust Chronicle

6. Victim Rosette

7. Race

8. Ideology

9. Nation

10. “Race Science” The pseudo-science of 20th Century Eugenics

11. Father of modern eugenics Francis Galton

12. The Nazi’s used “junk science” to target certain groups. “Race Hygiene” “Bad genes enter a village”

13. Hair samples Profiling Facial measurements

14. Result of Nazi “racial science”

15. “Racial Enemies” Handicapped, Roma & Sinti (Gypsies), Afro-Germans

16. The handicapped were promoted as a drain on federal dollars. Sterilization Law (1933)

17. Eugenic sterilization programs were found throughout the US in the 1930s. U.S. Eugenics

18. The handicapped were murdered by lethal injection and eventually gas chambers. Operation T4 (1939)

20. Nationless

21. Drain on the StateRoma & Sinti

23. Deportation

24. Concentration

25. ExterminationNazi Policy toward “Gypsies”

27. French-African troops

28. Treaty of Versailles

29. RhinelandAfro-Germans

30. “[Hitler] was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.” --Albert Speer Berlin Olympics1936

31. Afro-Germans were frequently used in Nazi propaganda posters. “Insult to the German nation” “Racial pride fades”

32. Jazz music was attacked as being the product of a “lesser race.” Degenerate Music

33. According to one liberator's testimony there were approximately 8000 Afro-German or mixed-race Germans in Dachau. 8000 in Dachau?

34. “Ideological Enemies” Political Dissidents, Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses

36. Backlash against the “bourgeoisie”

37. Were the first sent to concentration campsPolitical opponents

38. Spent six years in Buchenwald as a political prisoner Eugene Kogon

40. Imprisoned initially then sent to camps

41. Were treated harshly by fellow prisonersHomosexuals

42. Were denied Nazi victim status until relatively recently Post War

44. Headquartered in the United States

45. Banned in 1935

46. Deported to campsJehovah’s Witnesses

47. Were given the option to sign a renouncement in order to be freed from the camp system (no one took this option). Renouncement

48. “National Enemies” Poles, Soviets, Serbians

49. While grabbing lebensraum was their ultimate goal, the Nazis attempted to displace populations throughout the east and obliterate their culture. Cultural Assault Grunwald monument in Krakow

51. Squash oppositional press

52. Subdue resistance movementsIntelligentsia

53. Russian troops were sent to concentration camps and used for slave labor. 5.7 million POWs

55. Others were murdered in open air killings3 million perished Hemer POW camp

56. Questions? thensley@va-holocaust.com