By Lucy Beam Hoffman

Inspiration

Striking Workers and Hyper
Inflation
 The effects of defeat - Warfare meant that Germany could not import
or export industrial goods and severely limited trade. Resources and
food were diverted to the war.
 The terms of the Treaty of Versailles ordered that Germany had to
pay huge sums in reparations to the Allies. In 1921, as Germany
could not pay, French and Belgian troops invaded and occupied the
Ruhr to take goods and raw materials.
 During 1923 Germany printed more money to pay striking workers.
Hyperinflation resulted, wiping out the value of savings.
 The 'Golden Years‘ - The years 1924 to 1929 became known as the
'Golden Years' – Germany became increasingly prosperous and
peaceful. The USA lent Germany huge sums of money. The
economy was rebuilt, unemployment was reduced, and people
began to feel secure.



Hitler – A Runner in WWI
Hitler had volunteered at age 25 by enlisting in a Bavarian
Regiment. After its first engagement against the British and
Belgians near Ypres, 2,500 of the 3,000 men in the Hitler's
regiment were killed, wounded or missing. Hitler escaped
without a scratch. Throughout most of the war, Hitler had great
luck avoiding life-threatening injury. More than once he moved
away from a spot where moments later a shell exploded killing
or wounding everyone.
Corporal Hitler was a dispatch runner, taking messages back and forth from
the command staff in the rear to the fighting units near the battlefield. During
lulls in the fighting, he would take out his watercolors and paint the
landscapes of war.
On October 7, 1916, Hitler's luck ran out when he was wounded in the leg by a
shell fragment during the Battle of the Somme. He was hospitalized in Germany.
It was his first time away from the Front after two years of war. Following his
recovery, he went sightseeing in Berlin, then was assigned to light duty in Munich.
He was appalled at the apathy and anti-war sentiment among German civilians.
He blamed the Jews for much of this and saw them as conspiring to spread
unrest and undermine the German war effort.

Hitler Appointed Chancellor

Concentration Camps

Germany – post WWI
The Occupation of the Ruhr was a period of military occupation of the
German Ruhr valley by France and Belgium between 1923 and 1925 in
response to the Weimar Republic's failure to continue its reparation payments
in the aftermath of World War I.

Concentration Camps

Timeline of the
Holocaust
1933
January 30 Adolf Hitler appointed
Chancellor of Germany
March 22 Dachau concentration
camp opens
April 1 Boycott of Jewish shops and
businesses
April 7 Laws for Re-establishment of
the Civil Service barred Jews from
holding civil service, university, and
state positions
May 10 Public burnings of books
written by Jews, political dissidents,
and others not approved by the state
July 14 Law stripping East European
Jewish immigrants of German
citizenship

Sachsenhausen
1935
September 15 “Nuremberg Laws”:
Anti-Jewish racial laws enacted;
Jews no longer considered
German citizens; Jews could not
marry Aryans; nor could they fly
the German flag.
November 15 Germany defines a
“Jew”: Anyone with three Jewish
grandparents; someone with two
Jewish grandparents who
identifies as a Jew
1936
March 3 Jewish doctors barred
from practicing medicine in
German institutions
July Sachsenhausen
concentration camp opens
1937
July 15 Buchenwald concentration
camp opens

Cooperation of
the Austrians

 1938 - March 13 Anschluss (incorporation
of Austria): All anti-Semitic decrees
immediately applied in Austria
 April 26 Mandatory registration of all
property held by Jews inside the Reich
 August 1 Adolf Eichmann establishes the
Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna to
increase the pace of forced emigration
 APPEASEMENT
 September 30 Munich Conference: Great Britain and
France agree to German occupation of the
Sudetenland, previously western Czechoslovakia
 Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain,
Benito Mussolini and Édouard
Daladier
 October 5 Following request by Swiss
authorities, Germans mark all Jewish
passports with a large letter “J” to restrict
Jews from immigrating to Switzerland


The Anschluss

Timeline
November 9-10, 1938
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass): Anti-Jewish program in
Germany, Austria, and the
Sudetenland; 200 synagogues
destroyed; 7,500 Jewish
shops looted; 30,000 male
Jews sent to concentration
camps (Dachau, Buchenwald,
Sachsenhausen)
November 12 Decree
forcing all Jews to transfer
retail businesses to Aryan
hands
November 15 All Jewish pupils
expelled from German schools
December 12 One billion mark
fine levied against German
Jews for the destruction of
property during Kristallnacht,

Kristallnacht

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
“Liebensraum”
 The German-Soviet Pact was signed in
August 1939. It paved the way for the joint
invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union that
September. The pact was an agreement of
convenience between the two bitter
ideological enemies. It permitted Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union to carve up
spheres of influence in eastern Europe,
while pledging not to attack each other for
10 years. Less than two years later,
however, Hitler launched an invasion of the
Soviet Union.

The German – Soviet Pact

Poland’s Changing Boundaries
 https://www.google.com/search?q=map
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ndaries+of+Poland&aqs=chrome..69i57j
33i160l3.9357j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie
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8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e0492f99,vid:66y
49BnxLfQ

Blietzkrieg
"Blitzkrieg," a German word meaning “Lightning War,”
was Germany’s strategy to avoid a long war in the first
phase of World War II in Europe. Germany's strategy
was to defeat its opponents in a series of short
campaigns.

Countries conquered with
Blietzkrieg
• Poland (attacked in September 1939)
• Denmark (April 1940)
• Norway (April 1940)
• Belgium (May 1940)
• the Netherlands (May 1940)
• Luxembourg (May 1940)
• France (May 1940)
• Yugoslavia (April 1941)
• Greece (April 1941)

EINSATZGRUPPEN – MOBILE KILLING SQUADS
The Einsatzgruppen (task
forces, special action groups)
were units of the Security
Police and SD (the SS
intelligence service) that
followed the German army as
it invaded and occupied
countries in Europe. Often
referred to as “mobile killing
squads,” they are best known
for their role in the systematic
murder of Jews in mass
shooting operations on Soviet
territory.

 1940 - April 9 Germans occupy Denmark and southern
Norway
 May 7 Establishment of Lodz Ghetto
 May 10 Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxemberg, and France
 May 20 Concentration camp established at Auschwitz
 November 16 Establishment of Warsaw Ghetto
 1941- January 21-26 Anti-Jewish riots in Romania,
hundreds of Jews murdered
 April 6 Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece,
occupation follows
 June 22 Germany invades the Soviet Union
 September 28-29 34,000 Jews massacred by
Einsatzgruppen at Babi Yar outside Kiev
 October Establishment of Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
 December 8 Chelmno death camp begins operations


The Euthanasia Program
Life unworthy of Life
 The Euthanasia Program was the systematic murder of
institutionalized patients with disabilities in Germany. It
predated the genocide of European Jewry
(the Holocaust) by approximately two years. The
program was one of many radical eugenic measures
which aimed to restore the racial "integrity" of the
German nation. It aimed to eliminate what eugenicists
and their supporters considered "life unworthy of life":
those individuals who—they believed—because of
severe psychiatric, neurological, or physical disabilities
represented both a genetic and a financial burden on
German society and the state. The goal of the Nazi
Euthanasia Program was to kill people with mental and
physical disabilities. In the Nazi view, this would cleanse
the “Aryan” race of people considered genetically
defective and a financial burden to society.

Who did the Nazis kill in the
Euthanasia Program?
• those suffering from schizophrenia, epilepsy,
dementia, encephalitis, and other chronic
psychiatric or neurological disorders
• those not of German or "related" blood
• the criminally insane or those committed on
criminal grounds
• those who had been confined to the institution
in question for more than five years

Babi Yar
 April 6 Germany attacks
Yugoslavia and Greece,
occupation follows
 June 22 Germany invades
the Soviet Union
 September 28-29 34,000
Jews massacred by
Einsatzgruppen at Babi
Yar outside Kiev
 October Establishment of
Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
 December 8 Chelmno
death camp begins
operations

Final Solutions Attempts
Zyklon-B was developed by German
chemists in the early 1920s and
patented in 1926. It was
manufactured by two German
companies: Tesch and Stabenow
(which was based in Hamburg) and
Degesch (which was based
in Dessau).
Zyklon-B was produced as blue-
colored pellets that would change
into HCN, an extremely poisonous
gas, when exposed to the air. Because
of the risk to handlers, the pellets had
to be stored and transported in
hermetically sealed metallic
containers to avoid exposing the
pellets to the air.

1942
 1942 - January 20 Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Plan is
developed for “Final Solution”
 March 17 Gassing of Jews begins in Belzec
 May Gassing of Jews begins Sobibor
 June Jewish partisan units established in the forests of
Byelorussia and the Baltic states
 Summer Deportation of Jews to killing centers from
Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland;
armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets,
Lachva, Mir, and Tuchin
 Winter Deportation of Jews from Germany, Greece and
Norway to killing centers; Jewish partisan movement
organized in forests near Lublin

Wannsee Conference and the "Final
Solution"
 1. The SS – including Eichmann
 2. Not present at the meeting were representatives
of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) and the
Reich Railroads (Reichsbahn) in the German
Ministry of Transportation.
 The SS and police had already negotiated
agreements with the German Army High
Command on the murder of civilians, including
Soviet Jews, in the spring of 1941, prior to
the invasion of the Soviet Union.
 In late September 1941, Hitler had authorized the
Reich Railroads to transport German, Austrian, and
Czech Jews to locations in German-occupied Poland
and the German-occupied Soviet Union, where
German authorities would kill the overwhelming
majority of them.

 1943
 March Liquidation of Krakow ghetto
 April 19 Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins
 Summer Armed resistance by Jews in Bedzin, Bialystok,
Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnow ghettos
 Fall Liquidation of large ghettos in Minsk, Vilna, and Riga
 October 14 Uprising in Sobibor
 October-November Rescue of the Danish Jewry
 1944
 March 19 Germany occupies Hungary
 May 15 Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews
 July 24 Russians liberate Majdanek
 October 7 Revolt by inmates at Auschwitz; one
crematorium blown up
 November Last Jews deported from Terezin to Auschwitz

 1945
 January 17 Evacuation of Auschwitz; beginning of
death marches
 January 27 Beginning of death march for inmates of
Stutthof
 April 6-10 Death march of inmates of Buchenwald
 April 15 Liberation of Bergen Belsen by British Army
 April Liberation of Nordhausen, Ohrdruf,
Gunskirchen, Ebensee and Dachau by American
Army
 May 5 Liberation of Mauthausen and Gusen by
American Army

Discovery of Auschwitz
Soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front opened the gates of
Auschwitz Concentration Camp on January 27, 1945. The prisoners greeted
them as authentic liberators. It was a paradox of history that soldiers formally
representing Stalinist totalitarianism brought freedom to the prisoners of Nazi
totalitarianism.
The Red Army obtained detailed information about Auschwitz only after the
liberation of Cracow, and was therefore unable to reach the gates of Auschwitz
before January 27, 1945.

The World-Wide Depression
- US had been assisting Germany with reparation loans.
- 1930 – US the largest purchaser of German exports.
- US put up tariff barriers to protect US companies.
- German industrialists lost US markets – credit impossible to find.
- 1932 – German industrial production 58% of 1928 level.
By the end of 1929, 1.5 million Germans unemployed.
By early 1933 (Hitler appointed) 6 million Germans out of work.

Beer Hall Putsch
On November 8–9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party led a coalition
group in an attempt to overthrow the German government. This attempted
coup d'état came to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch.
Although the putsch failed—and Bavarian authorities were able to prosecute
nine participants, including Hitler—the leaders ultimately redefined it as a
heroic effort to save the nation and integrated it into the mythos of Hitler and
the Nazis' rise to power.

Hitler in Prison – “Mein Kampf”
Rambling anti-Semitic, semi-autobiographical political statement – Make German
Great again – regain its superior, dominant and domineeriring place on the world
Stage.
- Destroy the virus known as the Jewish People; regain Lebensraum in the east.

Dauchau – Built in 1933
Dachau concentration camp was the first of the
Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany,
intended to hold political prisoners. It is located on
the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory
northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about
10 miles northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria,
in southern Germany.
Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose
was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually,
the imprisonment of Jews, German and Austrian
criminals, and eventually foreign nationals from
countries that Germany occupied or invaded.

Boycott of Jewish
Businesses
 APRIL 1, 1933
 NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF JEWISH-OWNED BUSINESSES
 At 10:00 a.m., SA and SS members stand in front of Jewish-
owned businesses throughout Germany to inform the public that
the proprietors of these establishments are Jewish. The word
"Jude," German for "Jew," is often smeared on store display
windows, with a Star of David painted in yellow and black across
the doors. Anti-Jewish signs accompany these slogans. In some
towns, the SA marches through the streets singing anti-Jewish
slogans and party songs. In other towns, violence accompanies
the boycott; in Kiel, a Jewish lawyer is killed. The official boycott
ends at midnight.

1935 Nuremberg Laws
 At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis
announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories
prevalent in Nazi ideology.
 The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from
marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."
 Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most
political rights.
- Anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a
Jew
- After the Olympic Games (in which the Nazis did not allow German
Jewish athletes to participate), the Nazis again stepped up the
persecution of German Jews

Race Laws

Anschluss – 3/13/1938

Euthanasia Program – T4
The "euthanasia" program was Nazi Germany's
first program of mass murder. It predated the
genocide of European Jewry (the Holocaust)
by approximately two years.
The program was one of many radical eugenic
measures which aimed to restore the racial
"integrity" of the German nation.
It aimed to eliminate what
eugenicists and their supporters considered
"life unworthy of life": those individuals who—
they believed—because of severe psychiatric,
neurological, or physical disabilities represented
both a genetic and a financial burden on German
society and the state.

Joseph Goebbels
Adolf Hitler and Nazi propagandists played on widespread
and long-established German anti-Semitism.
• The Jews were blamed for things such as robbing the
German people of their hard work while themselves avoiding
physical labor.
• Hitler declared that the mission of the Nazi movement was to annihilate "Jewish
Bolshevism.”
• Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish Marxism" were democracy,
pacifism and internationalism, and that the Jews were behind Bolshevism,
communism and Marxism.
• Joseph Goebbels in the 1937 The Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibition declared
that Bolshevism and Jewry were the same thing.
• At the 1935 Nazi party congress rally at Nuremberg, Goebbels declared that
"Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans
against culture itself."
• Der Stürmer, a Nazi propaganda newspaper, told Germans that Jews kidnapped
small children before Passover because "Jews need the blood of a Christian child,
maybe, to mix in with their Matzah."

Kristallnacht – Nov 9/10, 1938

2017
NEVER AGAIN!

Books about the Holocaust
 1. If This Is a Man by Primo Levi
 Denial: Holocaust History on Trial by Deborah E. Lipstadt
Lipstadt
 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
 The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger
 The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
 Night by Elie Wiesel
 Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan