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Silencing Political Opponents
After taking power in 1933, the Nazis had concentrated on silencing their political opponents--communists, socialists, liberals, and anyone else who spoke out against the government. Once the Nazis had eliminated these enemies, they turned against other groups in Germany. Hitler had special Nazi death squads in Poland as well. -
"Non-Aryans" Lose Jobs
On April 7th, 1933, shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all "non-Aryans" to be removed from government jobs. This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity that eventually leads to the Holocaust. -
The Nuremburg Laws
As the Nazis tightened their hold on Germany, their persecution of the Jews increased. In 1935, the Nuremburg 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 clothing. Worse was yet to come. -
Kristallnacht
November 9-10, 1938. became known as Kristallnacht, or "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. Some 30,000 Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues were burned. Afterward, the Nazis blamed the Jews for the destruction. -
St. Louis
Official indifference to the plight of Germany's Jews was in evidence in the case of the ship St. Louis. This German ocean liner passed Miami in 1939. Although 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. The ship was forced to return to Europe. -
The Final Solution
Hitler's Final Solution rested on the belief that Aryans were a superior people and that the strength and purity of this "master race" must be preserved. Jews, gypsies, freemasons, and Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, the mentally deficient, the mentally ill, and the incurably ill were a few groups that did not meet the standards and were targeted. The Jews not reached by the killing squads were dragged from their homes to concentration camps, or labor camps where many died. -
Death Camps- Chelmno, Auschwitz
Chelmno began operating in 1941, before the meeting at Wannsee. Each camp had several chambers in which as many as 12,000 people could be killed each day. The prisoners were told to undress for a shower and were killed by cyanide gas in the chamber. -
The Final Stage
The Nazis used many methods of killing at the death camps. Along with gassing, they shot, hanged, or injected the prisoners with poison. Others also died as a result of horrible medical experiments carried out by camp doctors.
