The Holocaust was the systematic mass murder of approximately 6 million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime during World War 2. Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's loss in WWI and economic troubles, and outlined a plan for their elimination in his book Mein Kampf. When he rose to power, the Nazis passed laws stripping Jews of rights and isolating them, which culminated in mass killings in death camps and the murder of 2/3 of Europe's Jewish population. Roma, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and others were also imprisoned and murdered in the Holocaust.

1. THE HOLOCAUST
• The term Holocaust means total burnt offering.
• Holocaust is a term used to describe widespread
destruction it is capitalized when referring specifically to
massive killings, especially that of the Jews during WWII.
• The Holocaust is generally regarded as the systematic
slaughter of not only 6 million Jews but two-thirds of the
total European Jewish population.
• Although approximately 6 million Jews died in the
Holocaust, approximately 6 million other people also died
in Hitler’s concentration camps these include but are by no
means limited to the Roma, the Jehovah Witnesses, the
Slavic peoples and homosexuals.

2. The “Big Lie” and Mein Kampf
• Before Hitler seized power in Germany, he wrote a book called
“Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), in which he outlined his beliefs and
plans
-He believed that lies, warfare, and terror tactics were
acceptable means to obtain his goals.
-He believed that the Aryan people were the “master race”
superior to all other people, especially Jewish people.
• -Hitler blamed the Jews and used them as a “scapegoat” (became
known as the “Big Lie”) for Germany’s WWI loss and for the
economic depression that followed.
• -Mein Kampf contained a plan to eliminate all Jewish people, to
take over the Soviet Union, and to invade France. –Hitler's
followers, the Nazis, adopted these beliefs.
• This book was published in 1925.
• When Hitler took power he put these plans into action.

3. Anti-Semitism
• Anti-Semitism: is prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination
against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. A
person who holds such positions is called an "antisemite". It is
a form of racism. was a powerful force outside of Germany as
well as inside the German nation.
• This becomes clear as the collaboration of annexed countries
governments make little effort to save the Jews in there
populations from the horrors of the holocaust
A child dying in the streets of
the Warsaw Ghetto September
19, 1941

4. Nuremberg Decrees of 1935
• Nazis took measures to isolate the Jews from the rest of
society.
• Jews (and others considered “undesirable”) were
identified, concentrated into “Ghettos” , forbidden to hold
public jobs; their property was stolen and they were forced
to endure physical abuse and were murdered without
consequence
• In 1936 Adolf Eichmann established the Jewish Bureau to
systematize the processing of the Jewish population
• First it tried to remove Jews through emigration, however
other countries (excepting The British Mandate of
Palestine, which received 1500 people a month) would not
take them.

5. The "Nuremberg Laws" Only people with four German grandparents (four white circles in top
row left) were of "German blood". A Jew is someone who descends from three or four Jewish
grandparents (black circles in top row right). In the middle stood people of "mixed blood" of the
"first or second degree."

6. Kristallnacht
• In a single night, Kristallnacht saw the
destruction of more than 200 Synagogues,
and the ransacking of tens of thousands of
Jewish businesses and homes.
• In addition to property damage Jewish citizens
were attacked on the street
Damage done on Kristallnacht

7. The Goal of the Holocaust
•The purpose of the Holocaust was to enact the Nazis planned
depopulation programs and mass extermination of those people
they believed were “undesirable”
•The mass murder of the Holocaust affected every nation under
German hegemony
•Objective: the “Final Solution” genocide for Jews, Roma (Gypsies)
and Slavic people
•In the West: The German and Vichy French state seized Jewish
property and identified individuals for transportation to death
camps
•Germany declared itself “Jew-free” in 1943, but at the end of the
war there were still 33 000 German Jews, some how they had
survived.
A photo of the selection process at
Auschwitz. The photos show the arrival of
Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia.
Many of them came from the Berehov
Ghetto, which itself was a collecting point
for Jews from several other small towns.

8. The Concentration Camps
• When. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER President of
the United States learned about the
concentration camps, he ordered as many
photographs taken as possible,
• He had the German population of the
surrounding cities taken to the concentration
camps to see the horror, and in some cases
had them bury the dead.
Liberation of Buchenwald Belsen

9. Persecution of the Roma
• The Roma were nomadic people that believed
to have come originally from northwest India.
• Like Jews, they were deprived of their civil
rights.
• The fate of the Romanic peoples paralleled
that of the Jews after the beginning of World
War II they were deported and murdered.
• In total, hundreds of thousands of Roma were
killed during the Holocaust.
Romani children in Auschwitz
(one of the death camps),
victims of medical experiments

10. Persecution of the Jehovah’s witnesses
• The Jehovah’s witnesses were marked with
purple triangular badges.
• The Witnesses were a relatively small group of
prisoners in the concentration camps.
• If Jehovah's Witnesses within the camps
signed documents renouncing their religious
beliefs, they would be freed. Very few, signed
the declarations.

11. Persecution of Homosexuals
• A state policy of persecution of homosexuals
began in Germany in 1933.
• Publications by and about homosexuals were
prohibited and burned .
• Some homosexuals spent time in regular
prisons, and an estimated 5,000-15,000 were
sent to concentration camps.