THE NUREMBERG
TRIALS AND WAR
RESULTS
UNIT II – The History of the Holocaust
DEATH MARCHES
GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
"But the most interesting -- although horrible -- sight that I encountered during the trip
was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The things I saw beggar
description. While I was touring the camp I encountered three men who had been
inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through
an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and
bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they
[there] were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton
would not even enter. He said he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit
deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever,
in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to
'propaganda'."
Letter, DDE to George C. Marshall, 4/15/45 [The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, The War
Years IV, doc #2418]
"We continue to uncover German concentration camps for political prisoners in which
conditions of indescribable horror prevail. I have visited one of these myself and I
assure you that whatever has been printed on them to date has been understatement. If
you would see any advantage in asking about a dozen leaders of Congress and a dozen
prominent editors to make a short visit to this theater in a couple of C-54's, I will arrange
to have them conducted to one of these places where the evidence of bestiality and
cruelty is so overpowering as to leave no doubt in their minds about the normal
practices of the Germans in these camps."
Cable, DDE to George C. Marshall, 4/19/45 [The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, The War
Years IV, doc #2424]
"When I found the first camp like that I think I never was so angry in my life. The
bestiality displayed there was not merely piled up bodies of people that had starved to
death, but to follow out the road and see where they tried to evacuate them so they
could still work, you could see where they sprawled on the road. You could go to their
burial pits and see horrors that really I wouldn't even want to begin to describe. I think
people ought to know about such things. It explains something of my attitude toward
the German war criminal. I believe he must be punished, and I will hold out for that
forever."
Results:
Approximately 6 million Jews
killed
90% of the Jewish populations in
Europe were killed
Responsible for the death of
nearly 2 out of every 3 European
Jew
Non-Jewish Peoples - 9 to 10
million
The Shoah – “total destruction”
THE NUREMBERG TRIALS
TIMELINE ACTIVITY
Event Cards
● What is the event?
● Why is it significant to the Holocaust?
Laws and Decrees
US and World Responses
ID Cards
● Country of origin
● Gender of individual
● Age of individual
● Identifiable victim group
● The year in which the individual first experienced Nazi persecution
TIMELINE ACTIVITY
Looking at the whole timeline, what
conclusions can be drawn?
● Are people victimized from the beginning
to the end (1933-45) or are there certain
years that see more victims than others, from
specific countries, during specific years?
Why?
● What questions does this raise?
UNIT III ESSAY
Your essay prompt is as follows: Write about
how the Holocaust happened, based on
evidence from the timeline. You should
discuss insights into answering the following
questions:
● Was the Holocaust incremental? How so?
● How did the Holocaust affect individual lives
as well as victim groups?
● How did one’s geographic location and
events during World War II affect one’s
experience?