The Holocaust

Our Autumn term in Year 10 takes us into the darkest part of human history – the planned killing of millions of people simply because of their ‘difference’ – This is called the Holocaust.

We will look at how one man, with destructive and hate filled views, managed to convince a highly civilised, educated and cultured country to systematically hate, persecute and then destroy vast amounts of people.

We will investigate how Hitler hated not just Jewish people but many other types of people too like Eastern Europeans, homosexuals, Communists and even the disabled.

We will investigate how Hitler’s Nazis began by persecuting the Jews before placing them in Ghettos.

We will investigate the concentration camps and examine how they worked and why they were never challenged

We will look at the legacy of the holocaust and find out that the planned killing of people (Genocide) did not stop in World War 2.

Jewish families rounded up

” …. THE DELIBERATE AND PLANNED MURDER OF OVER 6 MILLION JEWS AND OTHER GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR 2″

It seems impossible now to imagine that over 6 million people, young and old, mothers and children, women and men, were deliberately mistreated and then murdered simply because they were described as ‘different’.

The reasons for the Holocaust was based on simple hatred. This hatred was encouraged by a popular political party in Germany called the NSDAP or National Socialists (They were nicknamed the NAZIS).

It was led by a man called Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was a failed artist

Adolf Hitler was one of the most evil men in history. He was an Austrian. When he was younger he had a difficult family life. He had a difficult relationship with his father who bullied him. He was adored and spoilt by his mother. Both his parents died when Hitler was relatively young.
He went to Austria, where he failed to get into Vienna Art academy. This failure soon left him penniless and struggling on the streets of Vienna. He as rescued in a way by the outbreak of World War 1. He went to fight for Germany, winning the Iron cross and twice being badly injured. He was devastated & angry when Germany lost the war in 1918. Many Germans like Hitler looked for people to blame for losing the war. One group of people Hitler blamed for was the Jews. Hitler noticed how some Jewish people spoke differently, dressed differently and had their own religion. He associated them with another hated political theory – Communism. To him they were ‘different’ and couldn’t be ‘proper’ Germans
In the 1920’s Hitler was put in prison for attempting to take over Germany in a failed revolution. It was in prison that he wrote a book. It was called MEIN KAMPF ( My struggle) In the book he described all his political ideas. Many of them were based on hatred for other groups of people. Hitler would use these ideas to build up his Nazi party when he left prison.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/dSjkpaXlXIE?wmode=opaque

Hitler, never hid his ideas. It should have been no surprise to people as to what he believed. He wrote down his ideas in his book Mein Kampf. He made many speeches about his views and his party had clear aims based on them.

HISTORY SOURCE:

An example of Hitler’s extreme views from his book Mein Kampf written in 1924:

‘Like leeches, the Jews slowly suck the blood from the pores of the people… The Jew is a parasite (like a flea) a sponger who like an evil virus, spreads over wider and wider areas.. The effect is also like that of a vampire… wherever they live the people who welcome them are bound to be bled to death sooner or later’

Propaganda cameras following Hitler

Hitler deliberately targeted the young people of Germany. They were easiest to indoctrinate and they would make up the next fanatical generation of Nazis and soldiers.

Soon Germany was regimented into doing what Hitler wanted – the killing of the Jews would be part of this

Click on the link below to see the policies of the Nazis towards the Young.

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Hitler did not take simply begin to kill Jews when he took power in Germany in 1933. He had to prepare the German people for such an outcome

The Holocaust took part in stages beginning with PERSECUTION and ending up in GENOCIDE

In this part we will look at a number of areas:We will see how Hitler and his Nazis took power and how they began to first mistreat and persecute the Jews. We will see how they turned ordinary Germans and even children against the Jews. We will look at the anti Jewish laws they created.We will then investigate how they created special GHETTOS to imprison them

KEY WORDS: PERSECUTIONPERSECUTION is treating someone badly simply because they are different

GENOCIDEGENOCIDE is the deliberate killing on people simply because they are different

Hitler took power in 1933 becoming Chancellor (Prime Minister) However in 1 year he would become a DICTATOR (Someone with complete power) Hitler had a goal of COMPLETE CONTROL OF EVERY ASPECT OF GERMAN LIFE. Hitler and his Nazis began to control all areas of Germany. They would imprison anyone who disagreed with their views.They would ban all other political parties.They would control what organisations adults and children belonged to They would even begin to control what people listened to on the radio or watched in the cinema.They would control what children learnt at school.

Can you think of why Hitler would want so much control

Jews- even the elderly had to wear a Jewish identification badge

The Nazis encouraged many Germans to refuse to buy from Jewish shops or business or have Jewish Dentists or Doctors. SA Stormtroopers were placed outside shops to discourage people from entering. Those who did so could be lifted later by the GESTAPO (Secret Police)Many Jews tried to leave Germany. However, this was difficult due to Nazi restrictions and the fact that many countries around the world closed their borders to Jews or restricted their entry. Those who were successful in escaping to France, Poland, Hungary, Belgium or the Netherlands would be later doomed to be invaded by the Nazis.

On 9th November 1938, Nazi leaders organised a wave of Anti Semitic attacks against Jews, after a Nazi diplomat was shot dead in Paris. Nearly 8,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed.400 Synagogues were burntOver 90 Jews were murdered.Thousands were sent to concentration camps.
The Nazis even fined the Jews for cleaning up all the damage caused by this pogrom

Jewish synagogue in flames

Jewish shop windows smashed

People are clearly scared to look

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ffy30P2IHbI?wmode=opaque

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A GHETTO is a sealed off area of a city, town or village where the Jews were put in terrible conditions.

These Ghettos were horrible places.
They had little food, water or medicine.
There was terrible overcrowding with people crammed in so tightly that disease and starvation spread quickly.

Nazi soldiers humiliate people in the Ghetto

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HOLE IN THE ROOF TO SLOT IN GAS PELLETS

http://www.youtube.com/embed/qJcX1vvVs5k?wmode=opaquehttp://www.youtube.com/embed/t5XJkCYs4RI?wmode=opaque

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Or6QTKBT_Xc?wmode=opaquehttp://www.youtube.com/embed/MTbHYBeUe0Y?wmode=opaque

“THE MAN WHO FORGETS ABOUT HISTORY IS CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT”

This is a very famous quote and is apt when it comes to the Holocaust. ‘Never again,’ people would have said in 1945, as they discovered the horrors of the camps. Yet man’s hatred has no limit at times. GENOCIDE- the planned killing of people, has happened again and again. Rwanda in Africa in the 1990’s. The former Yugoslavia, Cambodia (Kampuchea) in the 1970’s. Humanity’s ability to inflict suffering on their fellow men and women shows no sign of stopping.

WOULD YOU HAVE TAKEN PART?
We ask ourselves – Could we be capable of such destruction and horror? Could we have played a part ? Would we have stood up and said No? Would we have simply obeyed orders? Two YouTube clips here show clearly how easy it is for us – sane, intelligent, human being to simply obey without question.
1) Shows how easy it is to get people to obey orders unflinchingly
2) Shows how easy it is to indoctrinate people and turn them against each other.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/4b7YFtiE5EA?wmode=opaque

The Holocaust

Hitler used his control to persecute Jews in Germany.
The Nazis persecuted Jews in many ways:

A BOYCOTT is when people refuse to buy from a person or a shop for a reason.

IN 1938 THINGS GOT EVEN WORSE FOR THE JEWS..

The outbreak of the Second World War made things even worse for the Jews. Gradually, the Nazis came up with the idea of sending the Jewish people to Ghettos.

Warning : be advised on the content of the following clips. they show scenes of a disturbing nature related to the holocaust. discretion is advised

Hitler used his control to persecute Jews in Germany. The Nazis persecuted Jews in many ways:

A BOYCOTT is when people refuse to buy from a person or a shop for a reason.

IN 1938 THINGS GOT EVEN WORSE FOR THE JEWS..

The outbreak of the Second World War made things even worse for the Jews. Gradually, the Nazis came up with the idea of sending the Jewish people to Ghettos.

Warning : be advised on the content of the following clips. they show scenes of a disturbing nature related to the holocaust. discretion is advised

Hitler used his control to persecute Jews in Germany.
The Nazis persecuted Jews in many ways: