The Holocaust

The Extermination of Jews in 

the Greater German Reich 

The Holocaust

• In 12 years of 

power Hitler 

and the Nazis 

– Ideology of 

Fascism 

– World War Two 

– Destroyed 

Europe 

– Lead to death 

of 60 million 

– The Holocaust 

The Beginnings

Anti-Semitism 

• Hatred of the Jews 

– Bigotry and racism 

– Eugenics 

• It has been going on 

since the middle ages— 

the Jews have been 

blamed for the Black 

Death as well as the 

execution of Christ. 

• Jewish Conspiracy 

– The Protocols of Zion

The Start—Wansee Meeting 

Reinhard 

Heydrich 

Heinrich 

Himmler 

• January 20, 1942 

• 15 high ranking Nazis 

gathered to co-ordinate 

the logistics for 

• Reacting to memo by 

Goering, under orders 

from Himmler and with 

the direction of 

Heydrich 

– ―the final solution of the 

Jewish Question.‖ 

Herman Goering

Speech by Himmler on the Final Solution 

…the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It's 

one of those things it is easy to talk about, "the Jewish race is being 

exterminated", says one party member, "that's quite clear, it's in our 

program, elimination of the Jews, and we're doing it, exterminating 

them". And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one 

has his decent Jew. Of course the others are vermin, but this one is an A- 

1 Jew. Not one of those who talk this way has watched it, not one of them 

has gone through it. Most of you know what it means when 100 corpses 

are lying side by side, or 500, or 1,000. To have stuck it out and at the 

same time - apart from exceptions caused by human weakness - to have 

remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of 

glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be 

written. 

I ask of you that what I say in this circle you really only hear and never 

speak of. We come to the question: how is it with the women and the 

children? I have resolved even here on a completely clear solution. That is 

to say I do not consider myself justified in eradicating the men - so to 

speak killing or ordering them killed - and allowing the avengers in the 

shape of the children to grow up for our sons and grandsons. The difficult 

decision has to be taken, to cause this Volk [people] to disappear from the 

earth.—October 4, 1943

The First: T-4 Euthanasia 

Oct 1939 to April 1941 

• Purity of the Race 

– Must prevent any weak 

elements from pulling down 

the ‗race‘ 

• Euthanasia 

– Mercy killing 

– Expanding definition of who 

was unfit 

• Sick 

• Old 

• Feeble minded 

• Genetically ‗defective‘ 

• ‗thin edge of the wedge‘ 

• 400000 sterilized 

• Estimated 75000 killed

The Final Solution 

• Regimes code word 

for the deliberate 

planned killing of all 

European Jews 

– ―evacuation‖ 

• It was estimated by 

Heydrich it would 

require the death of 

11 million

• Herman Goering—Head of 

the Gestapo 

• Heinrich Himmler—Head of 

the SS (Schutzstaffel) 

• Rienhard Heydrich—Head of 

SD (Sicherheitsdienst) 

• Theodor Eicke— 

Commander Dachau 

• Oswald Pohl—Head of 

Economics Office SS, in 

charge of slave labour 

• Bruno Strenkenbach, 

Einsatzgruppen 

• Rudolf Hoss, Commander 

Auschwitz 

• Franz Strangl, Commander 

Sobidor and Treblinka 

• Christian Wirth, Inspector of 

Euthanasia Killing Centers 

• Adolf Eichmann—SS 

Specialist in Zionist Affairs 

and For Jewish Emigration 

• Odilo Globocnik—Chief of 

Lublin District

• Herta Bothe—SS 

Overseer 

• Irma Grese—SS 

Overseer 

• Elizabeth Volkenrath— 

SS Overseer 

• Johanna Bormann—SS 

Overseer 

• Herta Ehlert—SS 

Overseer 

• Ilsa Forster—SS 

Overeer

The Final Solution 

• Yellow: Jews -- two overlaid to 

form a Star of David, with the 

word "Jude" (Jew) inscribed; 

mischlings, i.e., those who were 

deemed to be only part Jewish, 

often wore a single yellow 

triangle 

• Red: Political dissidents, 

• Green: Common Criminals 

• Purple: Religious 

fundamentalists 

• Blue: Immigrants. 

• Brown: Roma and Sinti 

(Gypsies) 

• Black: Lesbians and "antisocials" 

• Pink: Gay men

The Apparatus 

• Einsatzgruppen 

• Labour camps 

• Death camps


• Special action groups that 

would follow immediately after 

the advancing Wehrmacht and 

cleanse an area 

• Made up of highly educated and 

motivated men. 

• Many of the leaders were 

representative of the intellectual 

elite of the Nazi party. Of the 25 

Einsatzgruppen and 

Einsatzkommando leaders, 15 

of them bore the title of PhD, 

most of them doctors of 

jurisprudence or philosophy 

• Round ups and mass graves

Einsatzgruppen at work


at work

Labour Camps 

• Immediately upon their assumption of power on 

January 30, 1933, the Nazis established 

concentration camps for the imprisonment of all 

―enemies‖ of their regime: actual and potential 

political opponents (e.g., communists, socialists, 

monarchists), Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, 

homosexuals, and other ―asocials.‖ Beginning in 

1938, Jews were targeted for internment solely 

because they were Jews. Before then, only Jews who 

fit one of the earlier categories were interned in 

camps. The first three concentration camps 

established were Dachau (near Munich), Buchenwald 

(near Weimar) and Sachsenhausen (near Berlin).

Labour Camps 

• ―Arbeit macht frei.‖ 

– work brings freedom 

• Run by the SS to make 

money 

• SS rent out labour to 

industrialists like Krupp, 

etc. 

• Very limited food, heavy 

work and random acts 

of violence.

Labour Camps

Death Camps—Arrival

Death Camps—Selection

Death Camps— 

Processing

Medical Experiments 

• Nazi scientist conduct a 

number of research 

projects into questions 

of: 

– Human Endurance 

• Hypothermia 

• High altitude 

• Sea water 

• Wound recreation 

• Tuberculosis 

• Poison 

– Eugenics 

• Genetics 

• Radical Modification 

• Sterilization

Medical Experiment 

Dr. Joseph Mengele 

• March 11, 1911-Feb. 7, 1979 

– Studied human genetics 

and anthropology 

– 1938—MD 

– 1943—Posted to Auschwitz 

– The Angel of Death 

• Especially interested in twins 

– Comparative Genetics 

– Increase reproduction rate 

of the Master Race 

• Conducted a wide range of 

carefully constructed and 

noted experiments 

• Escaped to South America 

– Never apprehended 

(Wolfgang Gerhard)

Letter from Professor Clauberg to Himmler, June 7, 1943, on his research 

concerning sterilization of women (Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg 

Military Tribunals - Washington, U.S Govt. Print. Off., 1949-1953, Vol 1, p. 730): 

Dear Reich Leader, 

Today I am fulfilling my obligation to report to you from time 

to time about the state of my research work.... 

The method I contrived to achieve the sterilization of the 

female organism without operation is as good as perfected. It can be 

performed by a single injection made through the entrance of the uterus 

in the course of the customary gynecological examination known to 

every physician. If I say that the method is "as good as perfected" this 

means: 

1. Still to be worked out are only minor improvements of the 

method. 2. Already today it could be put to practical use in the course of 

our regular eugenic sterilization and could thus replace the operation. 

As to the question which you, Reich Leader, asked me almost a 

one year ago, i.e., how much time would probably be required to sterilize 

1,000 women by using this method. Today I can answer you with regard 

to the future as follows: 

If my researches continue to have the same results as up to now 

- and there is no reason to doubt that - then the moment is not far off 

when I can say: "One adequately trained physician in one adequately 

equipped place, with perhaps 10 assistants (the number of assistants in 

conformity with the speed desired) will most likely be able to deal with 

several hundred, if not even 1,000 per day." 

Eugenics

Death Camps—Final Outcome

Faces of Victims 

• Two year old 

Emanuel Rosenthal 

and five year old 

brother Avram, of 

the Kovno Ghetto, 

who were both later 

deported to the 

death camp at 

Majdanek and 

murdered by Nazis.


• Smiljka Ljoljic Visnjevac 

Smiljka was shot by a 

German firing squad in the 

Banjica concentration camp 

in early May 1941. She was 

35 years old.


• Portrait of two-yearold 

Mania Halef, a 

Jewish child who 

was among the 

33,771 persons shot 

by the SS during the 

mass executions at 

Babi Yar.


• Jews seized in their 

homes are brought by 

truck to the Muiderpoort 

railroad station in the 

Polderweg district, to be 

deported to internment 

camps, then eventually 

on to Auschwitz. Dutch 

Nazis stand in the 

foreground.


• Arrival of Jews into 

the Theresienstadt 

ghetto/ 

concentration camp.

Liberation 

• Pictured is Helena 

Rabbie. She was 

born in Amsterdam 

on September 8, 

1933, and died in 

Bergen-Belsen on 

April 24, 1945, 

eleven days after 

the liberation.

Faces of 

Unknown Victims

Where Were the Camps?

Final Outcome 

• The number of victims of the Holocaust will probably 

never be known, but at a minimum 6,000,000 

European Jews died. 

• In addition, it is estimate that another 6,000,000 

Poles, Russian, Gypsies, Homosexuals and other 

people deemed to be ‗undesirables‘ where killed by 

the machine. 

• 200 000 – 800 000 Roma & Sinti 

• 200 000 – 300 000 handicapped 

• 10 000 – 25 000 homosexuals 

• 2 000 Jehovah's Witnesses

Was it unique? 

• Only in methodology and scale 

• Sometimes referred to as 

‗megadeath‘ or ‗democide‘ 

• Democide has a long history

Known Mass Killings 

• Armenian Genocide 

• Hellenes Genocide 

• Rape of Nanking 

• Soviet Union 

• Cambodia 

• Serbia and Kosovo 

• Rwanda 

• China 

• Vietnam 

• Tito‘s Yugoslavia 

• North Korea 

• Sudan 

• ? 

• Etc.

Democide 

• Defined as 

– The murder of any 

person or people by 

a government, 

including genocide, 

politicide, or mass 

murder. 

• Many examples

Armenian Genocide 

• Turkish Government 

systematically 

worked to eliminate 

the minority 

Armenian 

population. 

• Methods 

– Starvation 

– Hanging 

– Shooting 

– Beheading

Cambodia— 

Killing Fields 

• Khmer Rouge 

systematically 

eliminated elements 

they considered to 

be politically 

unreliable 

– Intellectuals, 

educated elite, 

professionals, etc.

Japan—Rape of Nanking 

• Japanese Imperial 

Army set about 

killing the 

inhabitants of 

Nanking. 

• Estimated over 

320000 killed, and 

80000 rapes 

committed

Soviet Union 

• Stalin‘s purges and 

collectivization 

resulted in millions 

of deaths 

– Ukrainians ~5 million 

• Cleansing has 

continued 

– Chechnya.

Serbia—Ethnic 

Cleansing 

• Serbian government 

practice of removing 

non-ethnic Serbs 

– During Civil War, 

Croatia 

– Kosovo.

Rwanda 

• Systematically set 

about to kill all of the 

Tutsi population. 

Men, Women and 

Children targeted 

• Estimate 800000 

killed 

• Methods 

– Shooting, stabbing, 

beating.

The Holocaust

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