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Hitler Takes Power
Hitler ordered all "non-Aryans," or people with blue eyes and blonde hair, to be removed from government jobs. This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity. This eventually led to the Holocaust. -
The Nazis Silence their Political Opponents
The Nazis eliminated communists, socialists, liberals, or anyone else who spoke out against the government. Once they did this, they turned against the other groups in Germany, including Gypsies, Freemasons, Jews, and Jehovah's Witnesses. -
Nuremberg Laws
As the Nazis started to tighten their hold on Germany, the persecution on the Jews increased. The Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property. Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing for identification. -
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Kristallnact - "Night of Broken Glass"
Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany. Around 100 Jews were killed, and hundreds more were injured. Nearly 30,000 more Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues were burned. The Nazis then blamed the Jews for the destruction. -
St. Louis
Official indifference to the plight of Germany's Jews was evidence in the case of the ship St. Louis. The German ocean liner passed Miami in 1939, and even though 740 of the liner's 943 passengers had U.S. immigration papers, the Coast Guard followed the ship to prevent anyone from disembarking in America. This ship was forced to return to Europe, and more than half of the passengers were later killed in the holocaust. -
The Final Solution
HItler wanted to rid Europe of its Jews, so he imposed what he called "The Final Solution." This plan rested on the belief that Arynas were a superior people, and everyone else needed to be gone. They targed homosexuals, the mentally deficient, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, and the incurable ill. They were forced to relocate. Concentration camps were used as a warehouse for the "undesirables." The camps were cycles of hunger, humiliation, and work that almost always ended in death. -
Death Camps
There were 6 death camps in Poland. The first, Chelmno, began operating in 1941-before the meeting at Wannsee. Each camp had several huge gas chambers in which as many as 12,000 people could be killed a day. Auschwitz was the largest of the death camps.At this camp, the prisoners were separated into strong groups and weak groups. The weak group was killed in a gas chamber. The strong ones were tortured. -
The Final Stage
The last stage of Hitler's plan, "The Final Solution." was a meeting was held in Wannasee, a lakeside suburb near Berlin. At this meeting, Hitler's top officials agreed to begin a new phase of the mass murder of Jews. To mass slaughter and starvation they would add a third method of killing, which was murder by poison gas.
