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A horrifying word that became known to many people for the first time during World
War II was M
 î the deliberate and systematic killing of a group of people. In
1939 the Nazis proceeded toward a ´final solution of the Jewish question.µ The plan
was to exterminate all the Jews of Europeî beginning with 2 million in German
occupied Poland.

Special mobile killing units were assigned to round up Jewish menî womenî and
childrenî strip them of their clothing; and then shoot them in cold blood. Other Jews
were herded into special areas of Polish cities called ghettos. There they were left to
starve or die of disease.

In time these methods proved inefficient. They did not kill fast enough. Late in 1941
the Germans set up six death camps in Poland; Auschwitzî Belzecî Chelmnoî
Majdanekî Sobiborî and Treblinka. Each camp contained several huge gas chambers in
which as many six thousand persons could be suffocated by cyanide gas each day. The
corpses were then taken to a room where their gold dental fillings were removed and
their hair was shaved off to be used for stuffing mattresses and pillows.

At first the bodies were buried in mass graves. Howeverî as one historian explained:

The decaying corpses left odors that spread for milesî and when the rate of
killing increasedî the space needed for graves was enormous. Worseî mass
graves were evidence of mass killings« [so the Germans] turned to burning the
bodies in open pits. This proved to be the cheapest and most efficient method.

All toldî by the time World War II ended in 1945 about 6 million Jewsî as well as
hundreds of thousands of gypsies and others who spoke against the Nazisî were
slaughtered in these death camps. The systematic murder of these people is known as
  

.

1.Ê What was the ´final solution of the Jewish questionµ?

2.Ê Why do you suppose the Nazis targeted the following people for extermination:
Slavsî Catholicsî Jewsî Gypsiesî people with disabilitiesî and homosexuals?

3.Ê How should the United States government have responded to the actions Hitler
was taking against Jewsî Catholicsî Gypsiesî etc.?

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 Having secured supreme political power through the Nazi
party, Hitler went on to gain the peoples support by
convincing most Germans he was their savior from the
economic Depression, communism, the Jews, and the
Versailles Treaty, along with other "undesirable"
minorities. The Nazis eliminated opposition through a
process of strict totalitarianism.

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Before the Holocaust beganî the Nazi Party used popular anti-semitism [anti-Judaism]
to gain votes. They blamed povertyî unemploymentî and the loss of World War I all on
the Jews. In 1933î persecution of the Jews became active Nazi policy.

The Nuremberg Laws were passed around the time of the great Nazi rallies at
Nuremberg; on September 15î 1935 the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and
Honor" was passedî preventing marriage between any Jew and non-Jew. At the same
timeî the "Reich Citizenship Law" was passed and was reinforced in November by a
decreeî stating that all Jewsî even quarter- and half-Jewsî were no longer citizens of
their own country (their official title became "subjects of the state"). This meant that
they were deprived of basic citizens' rights like the right to vote. This removal of
citizens' rights was instrumental in the process of anti-semitic persecution: the process
of denying citizenship allowed the Nazis to excludeî de jureî Jewish people from the
´national communityµ thus granting judicial legitimacy to their persecution and
opening the way to harsher laws andî eventuallyî extermination of the Jews.

In 1936î Jews were banned from all professional jobsî effectively preventing them
from having any influence in educationî politicsî higher educationî and industry. There
was now nothing to stop the anti-Jewish actions that spread across the German
economy.

Between 1937 and 1938î new laws were implementedî and the segregation of Jews
from the ´German Aryanµ population was completed. In particularî Jews were
punished financially for being Jewish.

On March 1î 1938î government contracts could not be awarded to Jewish businesses.

On September 30 of the same yearî "Aryan" doctors could only treat "Aryan" patients.
Medical care for Jews was already hurt by the fact that Jews were banned from being
doctors.

On October 5thî Jews had to add a large letter "J" to their passports. On November
15thî Jewish children were banned from going to public schools. By April 1939î nearly
all Jewish companies had either collapsed under financial pressure and declining
profitsî or had been persuaded to sell out to the governmentî further reducing their
rights as human beings; they wereî in many waysî effectively separated from the
German populace.
 1.Ê Why did Hitler target the Jews once he came to power?

2.Ê What rights were taken away from Jews under The Nuremburg Laws?

3.Ê Why would the German citizens follow these laws?











Poster: "The Jew: The starter Children·s Book: ´Trust No Foxî Trust No Jew!µ
of warî the prolonger of war."


1.Ê What is propaganda?

2.Ê What are these images saying about the Jewish people?

3.Ê Why would the Nazis present these things to the German people?

Question: Now that you have learned some of the ways the Jewish people were
persecuted before the Holocaust even beganî write a  response in which you
address the question:
 Why was the Holocaust able to occur and could that happen today?
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