The Holocaust
“The Final Solution” of World War II
• Holocaust - The
systematic attempt to rid
Europe of all Jews.
Holocaust in Latin means “whole” “burned”
The Holocaust
• Hitler incorporated
anti-Semitism and his
plan for a master
race (Aryan Race).
• Anti–Semitism =
prejudice or hatred
of Jews
Motives behind the Holocaust
• Mein Kampf: Hitler’s
book describing his plan
for a Aryan master race
• An Aryan, according to
Hitler, was a white ,nonJewish person. With a tall
body, blonde hair and
blue eyes
• Hitler believed Aryans
were the smartest and
strongest
Motives behind the Holocaust
• Aryan Supremacy - Hitler believed
that Aryans were superior (better
than) all other races.
• Hitler and the Nazi
Party saw Jews as
Non-Germans
• Hitler believed in the
removal of all Jews
• Hitler and the Nazi Party were also prejudice of gypsies,
Jehovah Witnesses, disabled, and homosexuals.
Hitler’s Plan
1. 1933 - Threats and boycotts
against Jewish stores
2. 1935 – Nuremberg Laws:
• laws past to identify
Jewish people and to
segregate them.
• Segregation: separation of people by race,
religion, or nationality
Hitler’s Plan
Nuremberg
Laws – Jews
were forced to
wear the Star
of David to
identify
themselves as
Jewish
Hitler’s Plan
3. 1938 – Pogroms: a violent riot
• Riots launched against Jews by local
residents and encouraged by authorities
Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) “Night of
the Broken Glass”
• Most famous Nazi Pogrom
• Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish
buildings and Synagogues
• Burned books by Jewish authors
• Signaled the start of the Jewish elimination
Hitler’s Plan
4. 1939 – Ghettos: walled cities
• Jews were rounded up and forced into
Ghettos, or areas separated from the rest of
German population
• The idea was to
overcrowd a small
area with little food
and supplies so that
Jews would die of
starvation and
disease
• Not fast enough for
Hitler
Hitler’s Plan
5. 1939 - Hitler’s “Final Solution”
• Genocide: the deliberate killing of a
particular ethnic, religious, or cultural
group
Hitler’s “Final Solution”
• Jews were deported (transported)
from ghettos to concentration camps
• Concentration Camp:
work camps where
Jews were forced by
Nazis to perform hard
labor
• Little food
• Unsanitary
• Filled with disease
Hitler’s “Final Solution”
• Extermination Camps: when Jews were
no longer able to work they were sent
camps in Poland to be killed
Auschwitz – largest camp
“work will set you free”
Liberation!!!
• Allied troops freed Jews and others
who survived concentration camps
throughout the year 1945
Death Toll
• 6 million Jews exterminated
during the Holocaust
• 2/3 of all European Jews
were killed
• 200,000–800,000 Gypsies
• 200,000–300,000 people with
disabilities
• 10,000–25,000 homosexual
men
• 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses
Nuremberg Trials
• Nazi leaders were
convicted of war
crimes
• Led to an
increasing demand
for a Jewish
homeland which
would become
Israel, carved out
of Palestine