The document provides an overview of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany's persecution and genocide of Jewish people and other minority groups. It discusses how the Nazis blamed Germany's troubles on Jews and began punishing them once in power. As the Nazis invaded other parts of Europe, they targeted Jewish populations, executing many and sending others to ghettos and concentration camps where they faced slave labor, disease, starvation and death. The Nazis eventually implemented the "Final Solution" and built extermination camps like Auschwitz to systematically murder Jewish people on a mass scale using gas chambers and medical experiments. As Allied forces advanced, they liberated some camps and found thousands of survivors and corpses. After the war, the Nuremberg trials held Nazi leaders

1. The Holocaust Friday, November 16 th

2. Reading for this lesson From the William Lyon Mackenzie King book: Page 39: How Canada neglected to help Jewish refugees Page 41: Canada’s Japanese wartime internment camps

3. Nazism and the Jews Hitler and the Nazi Party blamed Germany’s troubles on its Jewish population Once they were in power, they began a campaign to punish all Jewish people in Germany

4. Jewish refugees Jews in Germany and other parts of Europe start fleeing their countries, looking to escape Nazi officials Canadian government did not want Jews coming here – less than 5000 arrived between 1933 and 1945 Some Jewish refugees were forced to return to Germany

5. World War 2 As Germany invades Poland and other parts of Europe, they send in death squads to target Jewish population Some were executed, others sent to ghettos

6. The entire state was involved One scholar has called Germany of this time a “genocidal nation” All aspects of government and society were mobilized to assist in persecution of Jewish population Nazis also target Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, some Christian groups

7. Why were German people so willing to do this?

8. Some people helped Oskar Schindler. Abdol Hossein Sardari Raoul Wallenberg Others would hide Jewish neighbours in their homes

9. Concentration Camps After 1939, Germany sets up these camps for Jews and POWs, where they serve as slave labour Set up about 15000 camps in Europe ‘ Extermination through labour’ – people would be worked to death – disease, injury, or if too weak, would be executed Everyone in the camps was tattooed with ID number

11. Prisoners in Austria's Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp climbing the 186 steps of the Stairway of Death, carrying stone slabs. Around 44,000 inmates are believed to have died there

12. Death in the Ghettos Starvation and disease slowly starts killing off people in ghettos In some places, Jews organize uprisings against Nazis Most famous is the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943

13. The Final Solution As Nazis take over most of Europe, number of Jewish people under their control grows into several million Nazi leadership decides in January 1942 to implement a “Final Solution” to create an industrialized killing network

14. Extermination Camps In 1942 seven camps were built: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Jasenovac, Majdanek, Maly Trostinets, Solibor and Treblinka

15. Gas Chambers Most sent to these places would be immediately taken to gas chambers

16. Medical Experiments Nazi physicians like Joseph Mengele used these camps as places to carry out experiments on people

18. Liberation of camps As Allied forces march towards Germany, Nazis start to abandon and dismantle some camps Others are still operating when allied soldiers arrive

19. Belsen-Bergen Liberated on April 25, 1945 by British 11 th Armoured Division Found 60000 people here, and 13000 unburied corpses Another 10000 would die from typhus or malnutrition over the next few weeks

20. Auschwitz January 27, 1945, Soviet forces reach Auschwitz, finding 7600 survivors abandoned there This was the largest camp, responsible for killing about 1.6 million people

25. Nuremburg Trials From 1945 to 1949, Allies (US, Britain, France and Soviet Union) set up a series of trials in Nuremberg, Germany Various captured German leaders and soldiers were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity Great influence on international law

26. Holocaust deniers Various people, mostly Nazi supporters have claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax, or that the numbers of killed were exaggerated, as part of a Jewish plot Currently, Islamic fundamentalists and Islamic leaders, like the President of Iran, have been claiming this. The Iranian President called the Holocaust “a myth”

27. Evidence for the Holocaust Written documents – hundreds of thousands of letters, memos, blueprints, orders, memoirs, confessions, etc. Eyewitness testimony – accounts from survivors, Nazi guards and commanders, local townspeople Photographs – from German and Allied footage, official and unofficial The camps themselves – many still remain Population demographics,if six million Jews were not killed, what happened to them all?