Hitler’s vision of Europe
Germanic people- Aryans
All non-Aryan people were inferior
Lead to Holocaust- systematic mass slaughter of Jews and other groups judged inferior by Nazis

Jews were blamed for defeat in WWI and economic problems
1935- Nuremburg Laws- deprived Jews of their rights to German citizenship
No marriages Jews to non-Jews
Limited work they could do

November 9, 1938
Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues
Murdered 100+ Jews
Marked start of eradication of Jewish population

Many Jews began to flee to
other countries to seek refuge
France, GB, USA- later started to refuse admission of Jewish Refugees.



Hitler began to think of another plan.

Made Jews move to designated cities.
Made them go to ghettos- segregated areas
Sealed areas with barbed wire and stone walls
Hoped they would starve and die

Jews fought hard to stay alive
Keep traditions
Created theaters and schools
Kept records of happenings.

Still have these today.

Hitler wanted a more direct action
Genocide

Believed they had to eliminate all non-German society
Gypsies, Poles, Russians, homosexuals, insane, disabled, ill
ESPECIALLY Jews

SS moves from town to town looking for Jews
Rounded up men, women, children
Put in pits and killed.

Those not found by killing squads sent to concentration camps, or slave-labor prisons

Worked 7 days a week
Guards severely beat or killed prisoners who were not working fast enough
Given very little food (some ate mud instead)- lost weight very quickly

AND THESE WERE THE EASY TIMES!!

End Stage
Nazis built extermination camps equipped with huge gas chambers
Could kill 6,000+ a day
Auschwitz- largest of extermination camps

Prisoners would walk in front of SS doctors
Strong were separated- mostly men
Rest were labeled weak and take to take a shower
Undressed, put into showers with fake showerheads.
Then gassed
Later Nazis installed ovens to cremate the bodies