World WAR II Holocaust and Hitler – The Facts

Essential Questions •  How does extreme hatred affect our world? • How did this time period bring out the best and worst in humanity?

• Why do we read literature from the past so we may understand our present?

• Where does one draw the line between obeying the law or obeying one’s conscience?

• What is the role and responsibility of the individual in society?

• Why is the study of the Holocaust relevant today?

Pre-World War II• World War I – 1914-1918• The Great Depression – 1929

• Most of the countries of the world were affected.• Industrial countries, like Germany, Italy, and Japan were especially

hurt.• People were desperate.

• People were looking for leaders to help them recover. • Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term to continue as

president of the United States.• Dictators came to power in other countries.

• Hitler came to power in Germany.• Mussolini came to power in Italy.• The military seized power in Japan and set up a military

dictatorship.

Trouble in Europe and the Pacific Italy and Germany attack and

conquered their neighborsJapan attacks their neighbor,

China.

World War II Begins• War began in the East when Japan began to attack

its neighbors in China and Southeast Asia in 1937.

• War began in Europe when Germany attacked Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other countries in 1939.

• Italy attacked Ethiopia in North Africa in 1935, and annexed it in 1936.

• Germany attacked Great Britain in a huge battle called “Air Battle for Britain” in 1940.

•

Two SidesAxis Powers

• Germany• Italy• Japan

Allied Powers • Great

Britain• France• Soviet

Union• China

• Canada• Australia• Belgium• Bolivia• Brazil• Denmark• Greece• Mexico• Netherlands• New Zealand• Norway• Poland• Netherlands• South Africa• Yugoslavia

The United States & World War II

• The United States wanted to help our friends, but wanted to stay out of the war (neutral), as many people felt the U.S. should not get involved in ‘Europe’s problem’. • The US did begin to help the Allies, by passing laws that

allowed the US to give military aid, such as tanks, oil, and guns to our friends fighting Germany.

• Because we were helping by sending supplies, American warships escorted them across the Atlantic Ocean. A German submarine sank an American destroyed in October of 1941, and 100 lives were lost.

The Last Straw• The final straw was December 7, 1941 at Pearl

Harbor, Hawaii. Japan staged a surprise attack on the US war fleet. • 2,402 men were killed and 1,282 wounded• 8 US Navy battleships were damaged, 4 sunk

• On December 8, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and their allies (Germany and Italy).

Pearl Harbor Video

How did World War II Change America?

• Instituted the draft which required all men between 18 and 35 to serve in the military.

• Change in industries – factories were retooled to make equipment for war. For example, a Ford factory was changed in order to make B-24 bomber planes.

• The US’s ability to change its production was incredible. • Prior to the war, a cargo ship could be produced in approx.

105 days. • By the end of the war, a cargo ship could be made in 14

days.

How did World War II Change America?

• As productions changed, the availability of products decreased. The government instituted rationing; gasoline, canned goods, shoes, meat, and tires are examples of rationed items.

• (right – standing in line for sugar)

How did World War II Change America?• The role of women changed.

• Prior to the war, most felt that a woman’s ‘place’ was in the home, not at work.

• By the end of the war, women made up 1/3 of the workforce. They had to work out of necessity, with so many men going off to war.

• Women learned how to operate cranes, rivet metal onto plans and ships, and drove heavy equipment.

• It was tough for the women. They had to do their traditional chores and then work in the factories, while only making 65% of what men made for the same jobs.

The Beginning of the End

• In 1943, the Allied forces started to take the offensive in Europe by invading Italy, which surrendered almost immediately.

• The Allied Forces invaded France at Normandy on June 6, 1944 which is now known as D-day.

The Beginning of the End• Germany faced

tremendous defeats at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. After these defeats, Hitler took his life and the German troops surrendered on May 7, 1945.

The Beginning of the End

• The war with Japan was still going, until an atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 and the atomic bomb (Fat Man) on Nagasaki, Japan three days later. • Japan surrendered

on August 19, 1945.

The Cost of the War

• In European countries where fighting took place, there was tremendous devastation of their land, millions of soldiers and civilians were killed, and billions of dollars were spent on the war.•Germany had 3 million casualties•The Soviet Union had 6 million casualties

The Cost of the War• The United States did not have any fighting take place on our soil•The US had 300,000 casualties •The US spent 350 billion dollars •The war helped jump-start the economy after the Great Depression.

What was the Holocaust? • “Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin

meaning "sacrifice by fire.

• The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Victims' Suitcases at Auschwitz

• Battered suitcases sit in a pile in a room at Auschwitz. The cases, most inscribed with each owner's name, were taken from prisoners upon their arrival at the camps. (Photo Credit: Michael St. Maur Sheil/CORBIS)

Wedding Rings Taken From Concentration Camp Inmates

• A few of the thousands of wedding rings the Nazis removed from their victims to salvage the gold. U.S. troops found rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses, and gold fillings, near the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany, May 5, 1945. (Photo Credit: Corbis)

Holocaust Survivor Shows Tattoo

• Polish-born Holocaust survivor Meyer Hack shows his prisoner number tattooed on his arm. (Photo Credit: BAZ RATNER/Reuters/Corbis)

Auschwitz Survivor Showing Tattoo

• Denise Holstein shows the identification tattoo that she received as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. (Photo Credit: Alain Nogues/CORBIS SYGMA)

Why did Hitler do this? Wasn’t he part Jewish?

• born April 20, 1889 in Austria—died April 30, 1945 in Berlin, Germany.

• Hitler's father, Alois (born 1837), was illegitimate. There is no proof that Adolf’s grandfather was Jewish.

• Father passed away when Adolf was 14, Mother when he was 18.

Why did Hitler do this? • He dreamed of being an artist,

but twice failed to get into the Academy of Fine Arts.

• For some years he lived a lonely and isolated life, earning a precarious livelihood by painting postcards and advertisements and drifting from one municipal hostel to another.

• Volunteered for the German Army at the start of World War I.

“This 1914 painting is titled: “The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich.”

Why did Hitler do this? • “He served throughout the war, was

wounded in October 1916, and was gassed two years later.”

• “He was hospitalized when the conflict ended. During the war, he was continuously in the front line as a headquarters runner; his bravery in action was rewarded with the Iron Cross, Second Class, in December 1914, and the Iron Cross, First Class (a rare decoration for a corporal), in August 1918.”

• “He greeted the war with enthusiasm, as a great relief from the frustration and aimlessness of civilian life.”

Why did Hitler do this? • After WWI, Hitler joined the

small German Workers' Party in Munich (September 1919).

• In 1920 he was put in charge of the party's propaganda and left the army to devote himself to improving his position within the party, which in that year was renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi).

• Hitler became the leader of the party quickly, and was able to rally others to the cause easily.

Why did Hitler do this? • During a demonstration, Hitler

was injured, 4 policemen were killed, and Hitler was put on trial for Treason. He was sentenced to 5 years but only served 9 months. During this time he wrote his autobiography, Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle.”

• The autobiography is where Hitler’s hatred of Jews is spelled out; he wrote that Jews are the “destroyer[s] of culture,” “a parasite within the nation,” and “a menace.”

Why did Hitler do this? • Hitler continued to rise within

the Nazi Party, and in 1932 Hitler opposed Hindenburg in the presidential election, capturing 36.8 percent of the votes.

• He would not settle until they appointed him “Chancellor.”

• He then proceeded to create laws to give himself more power. He appointed other Nazi party members to important positions. He was ready to begin his war.

What’s the difference between Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Religion? Race is:

A socially constructed idea created by western Europeans following

exploration across the world to account for differences among people and justify colonization, conquest, enslavement, and social

hierarchy among humans.

•The term is used to refer to groupings of people according to common origin or background and associated with perceived biological markers. Among humans there are no races except the human race.

•The DNA of two humans chosen at random generally varies by less than 0.1 percent.

Ethnicity is: term for the group of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion and customs. To be a member of an ethnic group is to conform to some or all of those practices.

• Examples:• American

Indians• Latinos

Culture is: a shared system of learned and shared values, beliefs and rules of conduct.

• Examples:

• Football culture• American

Culture• Pennsylvania

Dutch

Religion:an organized collection of beliefs, cultural, systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence

• Examples: • Christian• Jewish• Muslim

ExampleA Japanese-American would probably consider himself/herself:

• A member of the Asian “race” • But, if she doesn't engage in any of the practices or customs of her ancestors, she might not identify with the Japanese ethnicity, but might instead consider herself to be American.

• She may practice any number of religions.• Her culture depends on her upbringing and geographic location.

Example – Why it’s important not to assume you know someone’s background based on their looks.

• Somebody who was born in Korea to Korean parents would be considered ‘racially’ Asian.

• But as an infant was adopted by an Italian family in Italy.

• Ethnically and culturally, she feels Italian: she eats Italian food, she speaks Italian, she knows Italian history and culture. She knows nothing about Korean history and culture.

• But when she comes to the United States, she's treated racially as Asian.

How do you become Jewish?• Religiously: Born to a family that practices

Judaism, and continues to practice the faith

• Religiously: Converts to Judaism later in life

• Ethnically/Culturally: born to a Jewish family or have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage

Remember:

•People of the same race can have many different cultures among them, and people of the same culture can have many different races among them.

Then how did Hitler target the Jews? • Some Jewish people, especially those in Europe shared common ancestors, thus they had certain characteristics, which Hitler stereotyped in his propaganda.

How did Hitler know who was Jewish? Nuremberg Law of 1935• Made anti-Semitism into ‘scientific racism.’

• “The Nuremberg Laws classified people with four German grandparents as ‘German or kindred blood’.

• People were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents.

• A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of ‘mixed blood’.

• These laws deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans.”

Nuremberg Law Chart

THE END

German Civilians Viewing Holocaust Victims

• By order of the Supreme Allied Commander local Germans were rounded up by Allied troops and made to tour Hitler's "death camps." The citizens file past a long line of corpses at a camp in Wobbelin, Germany. 1945. (Photo Credit: Corbis)

Budapest Holocaust Memorial• The names of

victims inscribed at Budapest's Holocaust Memorial Centre. More than half a million Hungarian Jews were killed during World War II. (Photo Credit: Laszlo Balogh/Reuters/Corbis)

Iconic Images from The Holocaust• As you view these images, write down thoughts,

feelings, and questions.

Jewish Couple Wearing Yellow Stars

• A Jewish couple in the Budapest ghetto wear yellow stars on their jackets. In April of 1944, a declaration ordered all Jews in Hungary to prominently wear yellow stars. (Photo Credit: Yevgeny Khaldei/CORBIS)

Damaged Storefront after Kristallnacht Riot

• Berlin, Nov 1938. People walk past broken store windows in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. The Nazis destroyed Jewish owned businesses on "the night of broken glass." (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

The Gates at Dachau• An entrance gate

with the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Brings Freedom") at Dachau concentration camp. (Photo Credit: Ted Horowitz/Corbis)

The Fence at Dachau• The electrified,

barb wire fence surrounding the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. (Photo Credit: Julian Kumar /Godong/Corbis)

• http://www.history.com/photos/remembering-the-holocaust/photo6#

• http://progressivescholar.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/race-and-culture/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITz72sRcpzU&skipcontrinter=1

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws

• http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144?page=5

• http://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/hitlerpaintings.htm