Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

The Diary of Anne Frank Historical Background: Hitler, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust Germany Before World War II • Germany lost World War I. • Germany owed 30 billion dollars to France in reparations. • There was no money. • There was no work. • People lived in extreme poverty. Here, the Salvation Army serves hungry Berliners in the dark days of 1923. The Rise of Adolf Hitler • He served as a corporal in World War I; awarded Iron Cross for bravery. • He was jailed because of his radical political beliefs. • He wrote his theories in a book called Mein Kampf. • He promoted extreme nationalism (extreme patriotism). • He was an exceptional speaker. • He made Germans believe that he could make things better from them. The Rise of Adolf Hitler Why are they called “Nazis? And what’s up with the symbol?” Nazi Party • The German Worker’s Party • Nationalsozialistiche Deutsch Arbeiterpartei • Based on irrational, anti-Semitic and nationalistic policies • Membership grew in 1930s because of propaganda and rallies The Aryan “race” • Hitler believed that pure German people, the Aryans, were the master race. • Hitler believed that one of the reasons that Germany lost WWI was because the German race had been weakened through Aryans marrying non-Aryans. Therefore, if Germany was to become strong again, the Nazis had to ensure the purity of the Aryan race. This view of Germans as the master race was encouraged by the use of healthy, ‘pure’ Aryans in Nazi propaganda posters. “The Aryan race is tall, long legged, slim. The race is narrow-faced, with a narrow forehead, a narrow high built nose and a lower jaw and prominent chin, the skin is rosy bright and the blood shines through .... the hair is smooth, straight or wavy possibly curly in childhood. The colour is blond.” Description of a ‘pure’ Aryan. From a leaflet ‘The Nazi Race’, 1929. A boy and a girl used in a Nazi poster. Jewish People as Scapegoats • Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s problems. • The hatred of Jews is called anti-Semitism. • The Jews became a scapegoat for Germany. • A scapegoat bears the blame for others and is the object of irrational hostility. The Difference Between a Nazi and a German • A Nazi is a member of a political group that no longer exists. • A German is a person who lives in Germany or was born in Germany. • During World War II, not all Germans were Nazis and not all Nazis were German. Genocide The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, cultural or religious group. The Holocaust Holocaust: total destruction, usually by fire The systematic, planned extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Steps to Genocide 1. Segregation (Nuremberg Laws) 2. Isolation (Ghetto/Concentration Camp) 3. Persecution (Extermination Camp) STEP 1: SEGREGATION Identification Jews were forced to wear the Star of David as part of the Nuremberg Laws. They were forced to buy the stars and wear them on their coats/outer clothing. This was a form of segregation. STEP 2: ISOLATION Relocation to Ghettos Jews were forced to move out of their homes and into ghettos. A ghetto is a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions. #2 definition from dictionary.com: a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live STEP 2: ISOLATION Sent to Concentration Camps The concentration camps were established with different purposes. For instance, there existed “ordinary” concentration camps, forced labor camps, work- and reformatory camps, POW camps and transit camps. There were at least 22 main camps distributed all over Germany and Europe, more than 1,200 affiliate camps and tens of thousands of smaller camps. Many hundreds of thousands of non-Jews and tens of thousands of Jews perished in these camps. The concentration camps formed an important part of the Nazi regime’s systematic suppression of Jews, gypsies, political dissidents, homosexuals and other groups that were viewed as socially and racially “undesirable” in the Nazi state. Their common denominator was the fact that the living conditions were extremely horrible and cruel for the inmates. With very insufficient food, the terrible conditions resulted in the deaths of an enormous amount of prisoners, especially in the work camps. STEP 3: PERSECUTION ➢November 9, 1938 ➢First extreme acts of persecution. ➢Beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution (the attempted murder of every Jewish person in Europe. ➢200 synagogues were destroyed. ➢8,000 shops were destroyed. ➢Thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. ➢Jews were forced to pay for all damage done. STEP 3: PERSECUTION Extermination Camps Hitler’s Answer to the Jewish Question This was his “Final Solution” In the period of 1941-1945, for the first time in the history of mankind, industrial plants were used to kill people. At the genocide on the Jews, extermination camps were established, where the Nazis in the most terrible way carried out the mass murder of 3 million Jews – half of the 6 million victims of the Holocaust. STEP 3: PERSECUTION Extermination Camps Chelmo: This was the first extermination camp created with the one cruel purpose of killing people – first of all Jews – in a systematic fashion. 152,000 people were killed by gas at Chelmo. Extermination Camps • Chelmo • Belzec • Treblinka • Sobibor Concentration Camp AND Extermination Camp • Auschwitz-Birkenau • Majdanek Auschwitz – largest, killed 1-2 million people in gas chambers and crematoriums. 9 out of 10 victims were Jews. The remaining victims were mainly Poles, gypsies, and Soviet POW’s. Many were killed upon arrival to the camp. The 6 extermination camps were all situated in former Poland. They were all situated near railway lines, and they lay undisturbed in rural areas in “far away” Poland. They were all situated far from “core” Germany and outside the spotlight of the German as well as the international public. http://www.holocaust-education.dk/lejre/udryddelseslejre.asp One in 6 Million: Why is Anne Frank so famous? There are various reasons why Anne Frank is so well-known. 1. The diary is so well-written. People all over the world can identify with Anne. 2. She describes precisely what she thought and felt in the secret annex, and what it’s like growing up. She argues with her parents, falls in love, thinks about her future… yet at the same time most readers know that she did not survive the war, and that makes the diary very dramatic. Her story of her life as well as her tragic death also show how terrible the Holocaust was. 3. It’s true that many other diaries have been published. But one thing that is special about the diary of Anne Frank is that the place where it was written has been preserved, and also that there are many photos of her. As well as this, Otto Frank worked tirelessly after the war to publicize the diary. Above all, the diary of Anne Frank has become famous because of the stage play and the film which were made of it. Additionally… 1955 Play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett 1. Received Pulitzer Prize, Critics Circle Prize, and Antionette Perry Award. 2. 1956 – Opened in 7 German cities and left audiences stunned and speechless. My experiences were released as a drama and finally broke the silence of what happened during the Nazi rule. “November 27… [in Amsterdam] This was the city where the events of the play had actually occurred, and many Netherlanders who had lost families and friends in the extermination of the Dutch Jews were in the audience.” “’There were audible sobs,’ the New York Times correspondent reported, ‘and one strangled cry as the drama struck its climax and conclusion […] The audience sat in silence for several minutes after the curtain went down and then rose […] There was no applause.’” - Diary of Anne “But above all, the diary remains. ‘Her voice was preserved,’ Ernst Schnabel [German writer] wrote, ‘out of the millions that were silenced, this voice no louder than a child’s whisper…It has outlasted the shouts of the murderers and has soared above the voices of time.’” Diary of Anne Frank, Afterword - So What? • Every day of this unit, you should ask yourself one or more of the following questions. • What can I learn from Anne Frank’s actions/thoughts/feelings in the reading today? • How is this related to my life and my world? • What did today’s reading or lesson teach me about myself? What did it teach me about humanity?