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The Persecution Begins!
On April, 7, 1933, shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all "non-Aryans" to be removed from governement jobs. This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity that eventually led to the Holocaust. -
Nazis Take Power
After taking power in 1933, the Nazis had concentrated on silencing their political oppenents- communists, liberals, and anyone else who spoke out against the governement. -
Nuremberg Laws
In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property. To make it easier for the Nazis to identify them, Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothinng. -
Kristallnacht
November 9-10, 1938, became known as Kristallnacht, or "Night of Broken Glass." Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, amd synagogues across Germany. Around 100 Jews were killed, and hundereds more were injured. Some 30,000 Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues were burned. Afterward, the Nazis blamed it on the Jews. -
The Plight of the St. Louis
The German ocean liner, The St. Louis, passed Miami in 1939. Although 740 of the liner's 943 passengers had US immigration papers, the Coast Guard followed the ship to prevent anyone from disembarking to America. More than half were killed in the Holocaust. -
The Final Solution
Hitler began implementing hid Final Solution in Poland with special Nazi death squads. Hitler's elite Nazi SS rounded up Jewish men, women, children, and babies, and shot them on spot. Jews also were rodered into dismal, overcrowded ghettos, segregated Jewish areas in certain Polish cities. The Nazis sealed off the ghettos with brabed wire fence and stone walls. While some formed resistance inside the ghettos, others resisted by other means. They published and distributed underground newspapers. -
The Final Solution pt. 2
Secret schools were set up to educate Jewish children. Even theater and music groups continued to operate. Finally, Jews in communities not reached by the killing squads were dragged from their homes and herded onto trains or trucks for shipment to concentration camps, or labor camps. Families were often seperated, sometimes, forever. -
Chelmno and Auschwitz
The Germans built six death camps in Poland. The first, Chelmno, began operating in 1941. Each camp had several huge gas chambers in which as many as 12,000 people could be killed a day. When prisioners arrived at Auschwitz, the largest camp, they had to parade by deveral SS doctors. With a wave of the hand, the doctors seperated those strong enough to work from those who would die that day. Both groups were told to leave all their belongings behind, with a promise they would be returned later. -
Chelmno and Auschwitz pt. 2
Those destined to die were then led into a room outside the gas chamber and were told to undress for a shower. Finally, they were led into a chamber and poisened with cyanide gas that spewed from vents in the walls. -
The Final Stage
Gassing was not the only method of extermination used in camps. Prisioners were also shot, hanged, or injected with poison. Still others died as a result of horrible medical experiments carried out by camp doctors. Some were injected with deadly germs to study the effect of the disease. Others were used to test methods of sterilization.
