CH11L3 Holocaust

CH11L3 Holocaust

By Richard Orton

​SS.912.A.6.3

Analyze the impact of the Holocaust during World War II on Jews as well as other groups.

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Nazi Persecution of the Jews

The Nazis murdered nearly 6 million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe. They also murdered millions of people from other groups they considered inferior. The Holocaust was genocide, a systematic murder of members of a group with the intent to destroy the existence of the group.

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The Nuremberg Laws

The Nazis persecuted anyone who opposed them, as well as the disabled, Gypsies (now known as Roma), homosexuals, and Slavic peoples. However, the Nazis directed their strongest hatred toward the Jews

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Multiple Choice

The Nazis reserved their strongest hatred for Jews, although they also held other groups in contempt, including homosexuals, the disabled, Roma, and

• A. Russians.

• B. Scandinavians.

• C. Slavs.

• D. the Japanese.

The Nuremberg Laws

After the Nazis came to power, they quickly moved to deprive German Jews of many rights. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws took citizenship away from Jewish Germans. The laws also banned marriage between Jews and other Germans. In November 1935, a law barred Jews from holding public office or voting. Another law forced Jews with German-sounding names to adopt “Jewish” names. Jewish passports were marked with a red “J” to identify them as Jewish. By the summer of 1936, half of Germany’s Jews were without jobs, having lost the right to work in several fields. In 1938, Jews were also banned from practicing law and medicine and from operating businesses.

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The Nuremberg Laws

Despite the worsening conditions, in the early years of the Nazi government, many Jews chose to stay in Germany. They did not want to give up the lives they had built there, and they thought conditions would improve.

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Kristallnacht

On November 7, 1938, a Jewish refugee who had been forced to leave Germany shot and killed a German diplomat in Paris. Using this act as a pretext, Hitler ordered attacks against Jews in Germany. On the night of November 9, 1938, throughout Germany and Austria, Nazi storm troopers destroyed Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues. The night was called Kristallnacht, or “night of broken glass,” because broken glass littered the streets afterward. More than 90 Jews were killed, hundreds more were injured, and thousands were terrorized. The Nazis destroyed 7,500 Jewish businesses and hundreds of synagogues.

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Multiple Choice

What event in 1938 marked a significant escalation of the Nazi policies of persecution against Jews?

• A. Kristallnacht

• B. Nuremberg Laws

• C. Wannsee Conference

• D. Anschluss

Open Ended

CITING TEXT EVIDENCE

What did the Nazis in Germany do to persecute the Jews?

Jewish Refugees Try to Flee

After Kristallnacht, many Jews decided it was time to leave Germany for their safety. Between 1933, when Hitler took power, and 1939, about 250,000 Jews escaped Germany. After the Nazi Anschluss, about 3,000 Austrian Jews applied for U.S. visas each day. Most never received visas to the United States or to the other countries to which they applied. As a result, millions of Jews remained trapped in Nazi-dominated Europe.

​At an international conference on refugees in 1938, the United States and several countries from Europe and Latin America stated regret that they could not take in more of Germany’s Jews without raising their immigration quotas.

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Multiple Choice

Following the unification of Austria and Germany, around 3,000 Austrian Jews

• A. died from horrible living conditions every month..

• B. applied for American visas each day.

• C. escaped to the United States in a few weeks.

• D. were deported by the Nazis every week

Open Ended

IDENTIFYING ALTERNATIVES

How did the United States respond to Jewish refugees? Do you think they should have responded that way? Why?

The Final Solution

On January 20, 1942, Nazi leaders met at the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the “final solution of the Jewish question.” They had been rounding up Jews, Roma, Slavs, and others, shooting them and burying the bodies in mass graves. The Nazis also forced Jews and other so called “undesirables” into trucks and then piped in exhaust fumes to kill them.

The Nazis wanted a quicker and more efficient solution. Jews were taken to detention centers. Each detention center was known as a concentration camp. In these camps, healthy individuals would work as slave laborers until they died from exhaustion and malnutrition. The elderly, young children, and the sick were sent to extermination camps. In an extermination camp, these people would be executed in massive gas chambers.​

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The Final Solution

In only a few years, these Nazi extermination tactics wiped out Jewish culture that had existed in Europe for more than 1,000 years. How such a horrifying event as the Holocaust could have occurred continues to be debated today. Most historians point to several factors, including the Germans’ sense of injury after World War I, severe economic problems, Hitler’s control over Germany, German fear of Hitler’s secret police, and a long history of anti-Jewish discrimination in Europe.

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Multiple Choice

What did the Nazis’ “final solution” refer to?

• A plans to defeat Britain and France

• B plans to send German Jews to the United States

• C plans to unite Germany with other countries

• D plans to exterminate European Jews

Poll

SPECULATING

Of the factors listed here, which do you think was most influential in leading to the Holocaust?

• Germans’ sense of injury after World War I

• Severe economic problems

• Hitler’s control over Germany

• German fear of Hitler’s secret police

• long history of anti-Jewish discrimination in Europe.