-
Persecution begins
Shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all "non-Aryans" to be removed from government jobs. This order was the first moves for racial purity leading to the Holocaust. -
The Condemned
The Nazis had concentrated on silencing their political opponents communists, socialists, liberals, and anyone else who spoke out against the government. -
Jews Targeted
The Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property. -
Kristallnatcht
Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and Synagogues across Germany and Austria -
The Plight of the St. Louis
Official indifference to the plight of Germany's Jews was in evidence in the case of the ship St. Louis. The ocean liner passed Miami with 740 of the ship's 943 passengers having U.S. immigration papers. The Coast Guard forced the ship to return to Europe without anyone getting off the ship. -
The Final Solution
The Germans targeted Jews, along with Gypsies- whom the Nazis believed to be a inferior race, Freemasons- whom the Nazis charged as supporters of the Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, and Jehovah's Witnesses-who refused to join the army or salute Hitler.
Concentration camps were labor camps that these groups were shipped to. -
Mass Exterminations
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. -
The Final Stage-Methods of killing
Along with mass slaughter and starvation, the Germans added murder by poison gas. Prisoners were lined up without their belongings and led to a room outside the gas chamber and told to undress for a shower. They were given pieces of soap and led into the chamber where cyanide gas spewed from the vents.
