What was the Holocaust?
In pairs jot down anything you already know about the
Holocaust
Holocaust
• Under the cover of the Second World War the
Nazis tried to kill every Jewish person in
Europe this event is know as the Holocaust.
• Six million Jews, including 1,500,000 children were murdered: this is called the Holocaust
The Nazis were responsib le Political
&
religious prisoner Concentratio n/ Death camps Gas chambers Steps to Genocide
• When Hitler came to power he wanted to drive the Jews out of Germany.
• By 1940 he wanted to force the Jews out of Europe.
• By 1942 death camps were being built in Poland to murder every Jewish person the Nazis could lay their hands on.
In 1942, the Nazis began the systematic deportation of Jews from all over Europe to six extermination camps Chelmno, Belzec,
Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and
Majdanek.
Deportation
• Trains from every country under Hitler’s control were crowded with men, women and children to death camps located in Poland.
• This final journey could take days in crowded trucks.
What happened at the Killing centres? • The victims then went through a selection process. Men were separated from women and children.
• The SS officer’s then pointed to the left or the right; victims did not know that individuals were being selected to live or die.
Nazi deception
These women and children are waiting in a small birch grove outside one of the gas chambers
Those who had been selected to die were led to gas chambers.
In order to prevent panic, camp guards told the victims that they were going to take a shower.
Auschwitz
Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the
Germans. It was a complex of camps, including a concentration, extermination, and forced-labour camp
Extermination by gas Extermination through work
•Jews not selected for murder in the gas chambers were to be worked to death.
• More than 2 million men, women and children were forced into labour.
• Most prisoners only survived a few weeks or months.
REVIEW
5 Dot points about what you have learnt today.. GO!
Source 1 — Estimates of Jewish populations pre- and post-Holocaust (1939–1945)
Derived from Chartock, R & Spencer, J (Eds) 1978, The Holocaust Years; Society on Trial, Bantam Books, New York
Source 3 — Extract from The Diary of Anne Frank, 1942
Anne Frank and her family lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Franks were Jews and were forced into hiding in July 1942 as persecutions of the Jews by the Nazis increased. After 2 years in hiding, they were found and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where they both died of typhus in early 1945. Anne was 16 years old. During their time in hiding, Anne kept a diary.
Anne’s diary was recovered after the war and was later published.
19 November 1942
Mr. Dussel has told us so much about the outside world we’ve missed for so long. He had sad news. Countless friends and acquaintances have been taken off to a dreadful fate. Night after night, green and gray military vehicles cruise the streets. They knock on every door, asking whether
