Unit 10: The Holocaust and Other Genocides in History

There had been a climate of hatred against Jews in Europe and Russia for centuries. The Holocaust was
the German genocide during WWII of the Jewish people. Genocide is the systematic and purposeful
destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group. The word holocaust means death by fire.
Why did the Holocaust occur? HATRED
Hitlers belief in the master race
Anti-Semitism
Totalitarianism combined with nationalism
Racist Genocide-Final solution: Extermination camps, gas chambers
Economic depression blamed on German Jews
Defeat in World War I blamed on German Jews
The Holocaust began with Kristallnacht the night of the broken glass. After the destruction of
Kristallnacht many Jews tried to flee from Germany. Some were unable to leave. At first Hitler favored
emigration as the solution to what he called the Jewish problem. However other countries closed their
doors to groups of immigrants including the Jews.
Hitlers next plan was to separate them into designated areas or cities. The cities which Nazis herded Jews
into were dismal and overcrowded. These areas became known as ghettos. The Germans under Hitlers
orders then sealed off the ghettos with barbed wire and stone walls so no one could get out. They hoped
the Jews would starve to death or die of disease and thousands did.
Hitler grew impatient waiting for Jews to die of starvation or disease. He decided to take more direct
action. His new plan was known as the Final Solution. It was actually a program of genocide, the
systematic killing of an entire people.
At first Hitler and the Nazis built concentration camps, or slave-labor prisons. These camps were located
in Germany and Poland (which Germany had taken over in 1939). These camps forced prisoners to work
seven days a week. The guards of the camps beat and killed their prisoners and were feed almost no food
at all. Within the first month prisoners traditionally lost 50 pounds alone. One survivor recalled, that if a
bit of soup spilled over, prisoners woulddig their spoons into the mud and stuff the mess into their
mouths.
In 1942 Hitler and the Nazis built extermination camps equipped with huge gas chambers that could kill
as many as 6,000 human beings in a day.
The current estimate is that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust throughout Poland, the Soviet
Union, Hungary, Romania, Germany, and Austria.
Sadly, various other instances of genocide occurred throughout the twentieth century. Other examples of
genocide include:
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire of the Armenians
Genocide of the Ukrainians in the Soviet Union
Genocide of the Jews in Nazi Germany
Genocide of the Tutsi minority by the Hutus in Rwanda