The document provides background information on the origins and creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It discusses how the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against Jewish and other minority groups shocked the world. This led the newly formed United Nations to focus on establishing agreed upon human rights that all governments should protect. After lengthy negotiations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was published in 1948, enshrining fundamental civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all people.

1. The Origin of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights

2. What is the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights?
•It was published by
the United Nations in
1948.
•It lists the rights that
all people have.
•Most governments
have agreed to
respect and protect
these rights…

3. The Origin of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
The Beginning –
why it was written
Applies to everyone,
regardless of
ethnicity, nation,
age, gender etc
An OFFICIAL statement Yesterday’s definition….

4. Five things you will learn today….
1. The definitions of PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION,
PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE.
2. That there is a set of Human Rights that most
governments agree should be guaranteed.
3. That the organisation which protects and
promotes them is based in New York.
4. That one of the darkest episodes in history made
governments realise that Human Rights needed to
be agreed upon and protected.
5. What those rights are!

5. Which event in 20th Century history shocked
the world so much that it made the leaders’ of
nations focus on Human Rights?
Clues….
1. The event happened in
Europe…
2. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights turned 60
in 2008…
3. The event involved the
deaths of over 6 million
people.

6. The event was…..
The treatment of minorities – especially
Jews – in Nazi Germany.

7. In 1924 Adolf Hitler wrote a book called Mein
Kampf (My Struggle)
• The book explained Hitler’s view of the
world.
• At the time Germany was experiencing
a lot of economic and social problems.
• Hitler blamed a lot of those
problems on the Jewish people.
• Anti-semitism (hatred of the Jewish
people) was a common
PREJUDICE at the time.

8. What do you think these words mean?
Word
PREJUDICE
DISCRIMINATION
PERSECUTION
GENOCIDE

9. What do you think the word PREJUDICE
means?
Definition: Negative and irrational beliefs
about a group of people.
Prejudice = “To pre-judge”
Example: Thinking someone will be a
bad worker simply because of their
ethnicity or religion.

10. Prejudice against Jews in Nazi
Germany
• Many Germans felt the Jews could not be trusted in
business dealings and that they were greedy and
dishonest.
• This was a prejudice that went back centuries and
many Europeans also believed it.
• This was irrational because there
was no evidence to support it – it
was just a stereotype.

11. Turning Prejudice into action -
DISCRIMINATION
• People can be prejudiced because that was how they
were brought up.
• Some negative stereotypes are common but few people
base their day-to-day actions upon them.
• A prejudice is a belief about a group. DISCRIMINATION
is a little different. What do you think the word
‘DISCRIMINATION’ means?

12. What is the difference between
PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATION?
Definition: Treating a group of people unfairly
because of a prejudice against them.
Prejudice = Pre-Judge
DiscriminaTION = AcTION
Examples:
1. Refusing to employ someone because
of their ethnicity.
2. Firing someone when you find out they
belong to a particular religious group.

13. Discrimination in Nazi Germany
• Many Germans had Jewish friends.
• Some Germans who shared Hitler’s prejudice
still treated Jews fairly.
• However, some individual Germans would
not employ Jews, allow their children to date
them, shop in Jewish shops or rent property
to them.
• These are ACTS of Discrimination

14. A common prejudice…
Some would have even discriminated against
them…
In countries like England, France, the United
States and even New Zealand there were
many people in the 1930s who were
prejudiced against Jews.
Woodrow Wilson
President of the USA
(1913-1921)
Prejudiced against Jews
and African Americans

15. This picture was taken in Nazi Germany. What
evidence can you see that Discrimination in Nazi
Germany went beyond individuals being unfair to
Jews?

16. Discrimination PERSECUTION
Jewish
Symbol –
the Star
of David
Sign
telling
Germans
not to
shop
there.
Locked gate
Soldier in
uniform
enforcing
closure

17. In Nazi Germany it was government policy to
discriminate against the Jewish people.
Laws were passed that targeted the Jewish
population.
Definition
Persecution: Organised
discrimination against a group of
people.
Example: A law making it illegal to
employee people of a particular
ethnicity or religion.

18. The shocking event that made the world take
Human Rights seriously…
• Nazi Germany not only persecuted the Jewish people.
Gypsies, the mentally ill and homosexuals were also
targeted.
• In 1941 the Nazis decided that the Jewish ‘problem’
(their existence) needed to be ended once and for all.
• The Nazis set up large camps in the occupied country
of Poland.
• They shipped millions of Jews from Europe to these
camps….

19. The Final Solution to the Jewish ‘Problem’
Hitler and other leading Nazis decided to
exterminate every Jew in Europe.
This was a policy of GENOCIDE.
Definition
GENOCIDE: AN ATTEMPT TO EXTERMINATE
AN ENTIRE RACE OF PEOPLE

20. Auschwitz
The extermination camp outside the Polish town of
Auschwitz was one of the largest. Over 1.5 million
Jews were exterminated in this camp alone.
“Work will set
you free”

21. The Liberation of the Extermination Camps
In 1944 and 1945 the Nazis started
to lose territory to the Allies.
Russian, British and American
soldiers captured the camps
and liberated the surviving
Jews.
They were greeted as heroes and
saviours.

22. The awful truth confronting the liberating
forces
American soldiers at the camp in Dachau

23. The awful truth confronting the liberating
forces
The clothes of Jews were
confiscated before they
were executed. They were
sold or given to Germans.

24. The awful truth confronting the liberating
forces

25. The awful truth confronting the liberating
forces

26. These horrors shocked the world….
Soldiers and journalists
reported what they had
seen in the camps.
Newspapers around the
world exposed the
horrors of the camps.
Survivors returned home to
their communities and
told the world about life
and death inside the
camps…
Jewish survivors wearing
jackets confiscated from
Nazi guards.

27. The creation of the United
Nations
World War Two had demonstrated that the existing
ways of preventing war were not effective.
The war had also created a massive refugee problem
and destroyed many cities in Europe and Asia.
The leaders of the world’s most powerful nations
realised that a new organisation was needed to help the
world recover and prevent future wars.
The organisation was the United Nations.

28. The United Nations was created in 1945
The first
meeting was in
San Francisco

29. The United Nations Headquarters is based in
New York.
The land it is on is international, not American.
Statue emphasising the goal
of world peace.

30. Which rights should the United Nations protect?
During World War Two Britain, the United States and Russia
had agreed that FOUR freedoms would be guaranteed in
Europe once the Nazis were defeated :
1. Freedom of expression (“To say what you
want”
2. Freedom of assembly (“To associate with who
you want”)
3. Freedom from fear (“So no government will
persecute you”)
4. Freedom from want (“So no person will be
homeless or hungry”)

31. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Governments could not easily agree on the
rights they would give their citizens.
Democracies like the United States wanted to
emphasise political freedoms such as the
right to vote.
Dictatorships like the Soviet Union wanted to
emphasise the right to food and shelter.
After three years of arguments and discussions
the final text was agreed to.
In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was finally published. It is still the
most important agreement on Human Rights.

32. REVIEW
Prejudice, Discrimination or Persecution?
• Thinking someone is less intelligent because of the
country they were born in…
• A law which stops teachers from belonging to a particular
religious group.
• Not allowing your daughter to marry someone because of
their race.
• Firing a worker in your shop because you don’t like their
religion.
• Believing that all members of a religion believe the same
thing.
• .