L4+Yeomelakis+Jenna


 * UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FARMINGTON**
 * COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION**
 * LESSON PLAN FORMAT**


 * Teacher’s Name:** Ms. Jenna Yeomelakis **Date of Lesson:** #4
 * Grade Level:** Grade 9-Diploma **Topic:** Major Events of the Holocaust

__**Objectives**__

 * Student will understand that** the major events, enduring themes, and turning points of World War II affected the Holocaust.
 * Student will know** the following key terms: concentration camps, Vel D'Hiver, Auschwitz, Kristallnacht, Nuremberg Laws, liquidation, deportation, ghettos, Gulag Labor Camps, Reichstag Fire, boycotts, burning of books, Night of Long Knives, death marches, Dachau, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Stalin, Churchill, Anne Frank, and Eli Wiesel.
 * Student will be able to** analyze and critique major enduring themes, turning points, events, consequences, and people during the Holocaust.

__**Maine Learning Results Alignment**__
Maine Learning Results: Social Studies. E. History E1. Historical Knowledge, Concepts, Themes, and Patterns Grade 9- Diploma "Holocaust" Students understand major eras, major enduring themes, and historic influences in the United States and world history, including the roots of democratic philosophy, ideals, and institutions in the world. b. Analyze and critique major historical eras, major enduring themes, turning points, events, consequences, and people in the history of the United States and world and the implications for the present and future.


 * Rationale:** My lesson meets the needs of the Maine Learning Results because covering this lesson will give students knowledge of a major era, major events, and important people of World War II and the Holocaust. It also shows the effects that World War II, Hitler's leadership, and the Holocaust had on the world. The lesson also provides the students an opportunity to uncover the causes and effects of modern-day events and how they impact the world in the future.

__**Assessment**__
Students will organize class discussion notes in a Five W's Chart. Students will have a Jigsaw activity to individually learn about a topic/event and then teach it to their other three group members. This enables the students to gain a broader perspective while discussing the major important events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. Students will create a lesson and collage to teach to the class about their certain event in the Holocaust based on the class notes and discussion. Students will add supplementary information from the resources and links provided in class by the teacher. During the learning process, students will be giving feedback on the research papers of their peers. I will also make myself available to read the papers of the students and provide my own feedback so that students may revise their research paper before they teach the class about their lesson and post it up on the class wiki.
 * Formative (Assessment for Learning)**

Wiki Research Paper and Collage. Students will analyze and critique major enduring themes, turning points, events, consequences, and people during World War II and the Holocaust. After the students have been given a lesson plan on major events and people of World War II and the Holocaust, they will then be given links and outside resources to provide further expansion on the numerous factors of the Holocaust. Students will compile all of the information into a research paper and collage that will be posted up on the class wiki. For the class presentations, the students will present their collage of the particular event or figure and teach the class about it. For: Remembering the Holocaust. Product: Wiki Research Paper and Collage. The students will hand in a hard copy of their research papers that will be graded based on peer and teacher evaluations (how much the class felt like they had learned).
 * Summative (Assessment of Learning)**

__**Integration**__

 * Technology:** I will use the class wiki for students to post up their research papers and collages. Students will be using the internet to find the information about the major events and figures during World War II and the Holocaust.


 * Other Content Areas:** I will be integrating the aspect of formal writing with the research papers about events and figures during the Holocaust that the students are required to turn in after teaching the class a lesson about their particular topic. Students are also able to integrate an artistic twist to their collages.

__Groupings__
Students will be grouped into teams of four and grouping is determined by the students' choice of an event or figure during World War II and the Holocaust. Students will use the list of websites and resources to research their particular event or figure. To organize all of their data, students will use the Five W's Charts. Each group member is assigned an event or figure to research, learn, and then to teach to his or her group members. In each group, a time keeper will be assigned so students can finish on time. After individually researching their particular event/figure, the groups reform and students teach each other about what they've discovered about their particular event/figure and why it was important during World War II and the Holocaust. Students will pick out the most important information that they've found about an event or figure. The students will complete the Five W's Chart by having one member of their group take on the role of recorder and have them write down the events/figure in the when, where, why, and how categories.

__**Differentiated Instruction**__

 * Strategies**
 * Logical:** The students will research, expand on, and organize the events, turning points, enduring themes, consequences, and people of the Holocaust into the graphic organizer.
 * Verbal/Linguistic:** Students will participate in group discussions and the Jigsaw grouping. Students will also write a research paper and teach the class about a particular chosen topic. Students will communicate their ideas and discoveries with the class.
 * Visual:** Students will watch a clip from Sobibor and view other groups' collages.
 * Aural:** Students will listen in on group discussions and listen to groups' lessons. Students will also listen to the film presented in class.
 * Intrapersonal:** Students will work individually to complete the Five W's graphic organizer and students will also write their research papers individually. After class presentations, students are able to reflect on each group's topic and write a reaction in the class wiki and in the peer evaluations.
 * Interpersonal:** Students will work together in Jigsaw grouping and students will also research and collaborate as a group in presenting to the class their lesson and collage.
 * Physical/Bodily Kinesthetic:** Students will use artistic implements (markers, crayons, scissors, etc.) when creating their collage. Students are also able to stand up during the class presentation and move around to their groups during the Jigsaw.
 * Naturalist:** Students will see the damage done to the land when the Holocaust victims were forced to dig ditches, build labor camps, build gas chambers, dig graves, etc.

I will review students' IEPs, 504s or ELLIDEPs and make the appropriate modifications and accommodations.
 * Modifications/Accommodations**

If students are absent, they are responsible to get the appropriate information from the class wiki. I will have the description of the assignment as well as giving a brief overview of how to post papers up on the class wiki. All of the daily notes will be made available on the class wiki as well as any worksheets that were handed out that day. Absent students will have one extra day past the due date to hand in the assignment. If they fail to do so, they will not receive credit for the completed assignment.

Students will work collaboratively to learn about the major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust through internet research and then produce a research paper and collage that will be posted up on the class wiki. Wiki Research Paper and Collage: Students will create a research paper that covers a particular event or figure during the Holocaust. Students will analyze and critique major events, turning points, enduring themes, consequences, and people during World War II and the Holocaust. The advanced students will also have the opportunity to create a "History Channel documentary" (iMovie) on their particular event or figure during the Holocaust.
 * Extensions**

__**Materials, Resources and Technology**__
Laptops (with wireless internet connection) Projector Projector screen Peer Evaluation and Teacher Evaluation Sheets YouTube video clip of [|Sobibor] or [|Schindler's List] Five W's Chart Graphic Organizer

__Source for Lesson Plan and Research__
YouTube video clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_O6qhn5cQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K64RMGM-3A0

Information on concentration camps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144 http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/TIMELINE/camps.htm

Information on Vel D'Hiver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafle_du_Vel%27d%27Hiv http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/18/worlddispatch.jonhenley http://www.massviolence.org/The-Vel-d-Hiv-round-up

Information on Auschwitz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp http://www.auschwitz.dk/Auschwitz.htm http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005189 http://remember.org/educate/intro.html

Information on Kristallnacht http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht http://frank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/knacht.html http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/kristallnacht/frame.htm http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/kristallnacht.asp

Information on Nuremberg Laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/nlaw.htm http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurlaws.html http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob14.html

Information on Gulag Labor Camps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_camp http://gulaghistory.org/nps/ http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/ http://www.osaarchivum.org/gulag/

Information on Reichstag Fire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm http://www.weyrich.com/political_issues/reichstag_fire.html http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/911_reichstag.html

Information on Night of Long Knives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/roehm.htm http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/night_of_the_long_knives.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215466/the_long_knives.htm

Information on Dachau http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005214 http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/ http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapBook/

Information on Adolf Hitler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.html

Information on Joseph Goebbels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/goebbels.html http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goebmain.htm http://www.psywarrior.com/Goebbels.html http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/joseph_goebbels.htm

Information on Heinrich Himmler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/himmler.html http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhimmler.htm http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-himmler.htm

Information on Anne Frank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank http://kirjasto.sci.fi/annefran.htm http://www.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&q=anne+frank&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=t&ei=IF7ISZndBuPlnQfc4PiZAw&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&resnum=18&ct=title

Information on Elie Wiesel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-bio.html http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Wiesel.html

__**Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale**__

 * //Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.//**
 * Rationale:** This lesson demonstrates Maine Standard for Initial Teacher Certification by providing different ways for students to learn and develop. The students will use the knowledge that was taught to them at the start of the lesson and expand on it. They will use their knowledge of the internet to search for more information relating to the major events and figures during World War II and the Holocaust. They will also be given a brief review on how to post their research papers and images of their collages up on the class wiki. The class agenda will be posted on the wiki ahead of class so that students will always know what we will be doing and what will follow each activity. This will help students who need to have organization in the classroom. Students can go as in depth as they want in their analysis of the major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. For the creative students, the collages can be as creative and inventive as they wish. Student can also work in teams of four, partners, or individuals; whichever is most comfortable for the student.


 * //Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory.//**
 * Rationale:** This lesson demonstrates Maine Standard for Initial Teacher Certification by pre-assessing the students' prior knowledge of the major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. Students will be asked to list as many events taken place in the Holocaust as well as major figures who took a role in the events. The lesson can be modified to fit the knowledge of the students about major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. The backward design model was used in designing this unit. Students' IEPs, 504s, and ELLIDEPs will be reviewed and the appropriate modifications and accommodations will be made. The facet of understanding that I use in this unit is Analyze. In this lesson, students will analyze and critique major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. This ties into the MLR because it reiterates the major events, enduring themes, turning points, consequences, and people during World War II and the Holocaust. Please see attached content notes for more specific material.


 * //Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs.//**
 * Rationale:** This lesson demonstrates the Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification in a variety of ways. A pre-assessment will be done to determine the current knowledge the students have of the major events and political figures of World War II and the Holocaust, so that the lesson may be modified to meet the students' learning needs. The students will be placed into groups according to an event or person that they want and will be given background information about the major events and figures of World War II and the Holocaust. The students will then work together in groups of four to do some research on the internet about their particular event or person. The students will be required to write a research paper and to create a collage depicting the events and people during the Holocaust as a formative assessment. Students will be given a brief overview of how to post their research papers and collages up on the class wiki. Students will have a Jigsaw activity to check their work with other group members to see if they are missing any required information or if they have additional questions. The Jigsaw activity will also give the students the opportunity to teach their group members about certain events and people duing the Holocaust. The students will also have the opportunity to set up a time with me to receive constructive feedback on their research paper.
 * Logical:** The students will research, expand on, and organize the events, turning points, enduring themes, consequences, and people of the Holocaust into the graphic organizer.
 * Verbal/Linguistic:** Students will participate in group discussions and the Jigsaw grouping. Students will also write a research paper and teach the class about a particular chosen topic. Students will communicate their ideas and discoveries with the class.
 * Visual:** Students will watch a clip from Sobibor and view other groups' collages.
 * Aural:** Students will listen in on group discussions and listen to groups' lessons. Students will also listen to the film presented in class.
 * Intrapersonal:** Students will work individually to complete the Five W's graphic organizer and students will also write their research papers individually. After class presentations, students are able to reflect on each group's topic and write a reaction in the class wiki and in the peer evaluations.
 * Interpersonal:** Students will work together in Jigsaw grouping and students will also research and collaborate as a group in presenting to the class their lesson and collage.
 * Physical/Bodily Kinesthetic:** Students will use artistic implements (markers, crayons, scissors, etc.) when creating their collage. Students are also able to stand up during the class presentation and move around to their groups during the Jigsaw.
 * Naturalist:** Students will see the damage done to the land when the Holocaust victicms were forced to dig ditches, build labor camps, build gas chambers, dig graves, etc.


 * //Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.//**
 * Rationale:** This lesson addresses the Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification by documenting the students' progress in the following ways: A pre-assessment of the students' prior knowledge and a class discussion when the topic begins, so that the lesson can be modified to accommodate the students' learning needs. The teacher will make herself available to all teams so that the students are able to receive constructive feedback on their research papers and collages before class presentations. Rough drafts of the students' papers will be edited by other groups. The final wiki product and a hard copy of the students' research paper and collage will be used as a formative assessment to show the students' mastery of the information provided to them in class and in their research.

__Teaching and Learning Sequence__
The students will enter the classroom and sit down at their desks, which are arranged in the standard lecture arrangement (circles). At the end of the lecture, students will be placed into groups of four based upon their choice of an event or person during World War II and the Holocaust.


 * Students will watch a video clip of Sobibor or Schindler's List (5 min).
 * The students will briefly talk about prior knowledge of major events and political figures of World War II and the Holocaust (10 min).
 * Give a lecture/discussion on events and political figures of World War II and the Holocaust (25 min).
 * Briefly review with students how they can post their research papers and pictures of collages up on the class wiki (10 min).
 * Select groups according to students' choices of events and people (5 min).
 * Send students to their groups to start research on events and figures while filling out Five W's Charts during the Jigsaw activity (25 min).
 * Day 2: Allow the students to peer edit their papers, make revisions, and allow the groups to meet with me one-on-one (80 min).
 * Day 3: Students will pass in a hard copy of their research papers and collages after class presentations.

The major events, enduring themes, turning points, consequences, and people of World War II greatly impacted the Holocaust. The reason why we're doing this today is to address the causes and effects of modern-day events and how they impact the world today. Students will be able to assess how devastating the events were and how the people reacted to them. Students will be able to understand major eras, enduring themes, and historical influences in the Holocaust, the United States, and world history, including the roots of democratic philosophy, ideals, and institutions in the world. To engage the students in the beginning of the lesson, they will watch a video clip of Sobibor or Schindler's List. By watching the devastation and power that events and figures held, students will be able to understand why the Holocaust and World War II impacted the whole entire world.
 * Where, Why, What, Hook**, **Tailors: Visual, Musical, Aural**

Class will begin with a brief review of what the students already know. I will start to instruct the class on the major events, turning points, consequences, and people during World War II and the Holocaust. I will provide students with a list of events that took place during this time along with major political figures. Following the list provided, students will fill out the Five W's Chart during the Jigsaw activity. The students will move their desks into their small groups so that they may work together to collaborate ideas and perspectives on the content provided, and they will begin to research their project. The students will begin to analyze key and essential events and start writing their research papers. I will act as a facilitator and walk around the room to answer clarifying questions, assess their progress, and give feedback on the students' brainstorming and idea for papers and collages.
 * Equip, Tailors: Bodily Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal**, **Aural, Linguistic, Logical, Naturalist**

Day 1: I will introduce to the students the project that they will be working on for this particular lesson. The students will work in groups of four and create a research paper and collage on their particular event or political figure during World War II and the Holocaust. I will briefly give the students an overview on how to post their research papers and collages up on the class wiki. I will hand out two evaluations to the students for the final product. I will explain to the students that at the end of their project, they are to fill out evaluations for how they think their peers did in teaching them about different events and people of the Holocaust. The second evaluation is to be left blank for the teacher to write the final comments. I will explain to the students that they need to have a rough script of the research paper for the next class that I see them, so that the next class, their peers can edit the papers for them.

Day 2: Students will have the full eighty minute period to work on their research papers and collages. The students will work with their peers to revise their papers for the first fifteen minutes. After revisions, the students can begin to write their final paper and create their collage. I will write them passes to go outside in the hallway or library to complete their work in a quiet place. I will also open myself up to any questions the groups may have about the wikis and the information they are providing. Students will be advised to take full advantage of this work period so they may complete their research papers and collages.
 * Explore, Experience, Revise, Rethink, Refine, Tailors: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Linguistic****, Naturalist****, Bodily-Kinesthetic**

The students will self-assess each others' work by exchanging papers with another group and providing feedback on them. I will meet with each group and have them explain to me how they are going to go about teaching the class on the particular event or person. Each group will be allowed to revise their papers and make as many refinements as needed before class presentations. They may tag links to valuable websites in their [|Delicious] account.

Day 3: The students will be required to have their collages and a hard copy of their research papers completed for homework.
 * Revise, Refine, Rehearse, Tailors: Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal****,** **Aural**

After Germany's annexation of [|Austria] in March 1938, the Nazis arrested German and Austrian Jews and imprisoned them in the [|Dachau], [|Buchenwald], and [|Sachsenhausen]concentration camps, all located in Germany. After the violent //[|Kristallnacht]//("Night of Broken Glass") pogroms in November 1938, the Nazis conducted mass arrests of adult male Jews and incarcerated them in camps for brief periods. ||  ||
 * Content Notes**
 * || Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20,000 camps to imprison its many millions of victims. These camps were used for a range of purposes including forced-labor camps, transit camps which served as temporary way stations, and extermination camps built primarily or exclusively for mass murder. From its rise to power in 1933, the Nazi regime built a series of detention facilities to imprison and eliminate so-called "enemies of the state." Most prisoners in the [|early concentration camps] were German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, [|Roma] (Gypsies), [|Jehovah's Witnesses], [|homosexuals], and persons accused of "asocial" or socially deviant behavior. These facilities were called “concentration camps” because those imprisoned there were physically “concentrated” in one location.

Major Nazi camps in Europe, January 1944 [|See maps] ||
 * ||  || [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/map/wlc/image/eur72160.gif width="140" height="92" link="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144&MediaId=354"]]

Following the [|German invasion of Poland] in September 1939, the Nazis opened [|forced-labor] camps where thousands of prisoners died from exhaustion, starvation, and exposure. SS units guarded the camps. During [|World War II], the Nazi camp system expanded rapidly. In some camps, Nazi doctors performed [|medical experiments] on prisoners. Following the June 1941 [|German invasion of the Soviet Union], the Nazis increased the number of prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. Some new camps were built at existing concentration camp complexes (such as [|Auschwitz]) in occupied Poland. The camp at Lublin, later known as [|Majdanek], was established in the autumn of 1941 as a POW camp and became a concentration camp in 1943. Thousands of [|Soviet POWs] were shot or gassed there.

[|Personal stories] ||  ||  ||   || Julian Noga's prisoner uniform jacket ||^  ||
 * [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/artifact/wlc/image/1998efsy.jpg width="223" height="180" link="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_da.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144&MediaId=105"]] ||  ||   || Describes arrival at the Stutthof camp
 * ^  || [|See more artifacts]


 * || To facilitate the [|"Final Solution"] (the [|genocide]or mass destruction of the Jews), the Nazis established [|extermination camps] in Poland, the country with the largest Jewish population. The extermination camps were designed for efficient mass murder. [|Chelmno], the first extermination camp, opened in December 1941. Jews and Roma were gassed in mobile gas vans there. In 1942, the Nazis opened the [|Belzec], [|Sobibor], and [|Treblinka]extermination camps to systematically murder the Jews of the Generalgouvernement (the territory in the interior of occupied Poland). ||  ||

Jews in Nazi-occupied lands often were first deported to transit camps such as [|Westerbork]in the Netherlands, or [|Drancy] in France, en route to the killing centers in occupied Poland. The transit camps were usually the last stop before deportation to an extermination camp. Millions of people were imprisoned and abused in the various types of Nazi camps. Under SS management, the Germans and their collaborators murdered more than three million Jews in the extermination camps alone. Only a small fraction of those imprisoned in Nazi camps survived. ||  ||
 * || The Nazis constructed [|gas chambers] (rooms that filled with poison gas to kill those inside) to increase killing efficiency and to make the process more impersonal for the perpetrators. At the Auschwitz camp complex, the Birkenau extermination camp had four gas chambers. During the height of deportations to the camp, up to 6,000 Jews were gassed there each day.

National Archives - Film Aerial view of Dachau concentration camp ||  ||
 * ||  || [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/film/wlc/image/dfd0660a.jpg width="240" height="180" link="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_fi.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144&MediaId=180"]]

The greatest mass-arrest of Jews ever carried out on French soil is known as the Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up. It involved 13 000 victims from Paris and its suburbs. Over slightly more than two days, the Round-up involved nearly a third of the 42,000 Jews deported to Polish death camps in 1942. The statistics for this terrible year account for over half of the total 76,000 Jewish deportations from France. Compared to the mass-arrests that had previously taken place in Paris on May 14, August 20-23 and December 12, this event is particular for a number of reasons, foremost being its scale. Because they had not developed the reflex of hiding, women and children were this time involved. The action was part of the vast deportation plan of European Jews, devised by the Nazis at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. The Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up was a concrete case of execution of the Final Solution. The event also gave the government of [|Pierre Laval] the opportunity to implement French sovereignty. The Vichy Armistice Convention of June 22, 1940, had provided for French sovereignty over its entire territory, but this principle was subsequently violated. [|René Bousquet], Vichy Secretary General of Police, then led new negotiations with [|General Carl-Albrecht Oberg]. The nomination of these two individuals to their positions represents a landmark event. Bousquet had occupied his position since Laval’s return to power in April. On March 9, 1942, Hitler had nominated Oberg for the position as Supreme Chief of the SS and of the German Police Military Command in France, a position that he occupied from May. The arrival in Paris of Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Reich’s Central Security Office (RSHA), and his meeting with Bousquet on May 6, 1942, are cited by Klarsfeld as the beginning of the German demands (Klarsfeld, 2001). One month before the Round-up, effective from June 16, it was envisioned that in addition to the 16 to 55 year-old Jews to be arrested in the Paris region, a further 10,000 were to be taken from the so-called free area. The age limit for men was then lowered to 2 years of age and raised to 60 years of age. It was raised further later on.

B. Decision-Makers, Organizers and Actors
Head of Government [|Pierre Laval] announced the night before the Vichy Council of Ministers of June 26, 1942 that Jean Leguay, Bosquet’s Deputy for the Occupied Zone, had been summoned by [|Theodor Dannecker], SS Councilor for Jewish Affairs (Service IV-J). Dannecker, who had been delegated to France by Adolf Eichmann, demanded the transportation of 10,000 Jews from the Southern zone, as had been promised by René Bosquet on June 16, and the arrest of a further 22,000 of which at least 40% were to be French from the Seine and Seine-et-Oise //départements//. On June 30, upon a fleeting visit to Paris, Eichmann and [|Dannecker] co-signed a declaration “to totally free France of Jews as quickly as possible” (Klarsfeld, 2001). Disregarding a promise that he should lead a unified police force, on July 2, 1942 [|René Bousquet] agreed to put his men at the disposal of the occupier for the purposes of arresting Jewish foreigners in the two zones. The following day, at the Council of Ministers, Laval announced a census for the Southern zone intended to distinguish French Jews from “the trash sent by the Germans themselves”. [|Pétain] considered the initiative to be “fair” and “that it would be understood by the public at large”. On July 4, Dannecker implemented a commission presided over by the General-Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, Louis Darquier de Pellepoix. The commission brought together the heads of various French organizations involved in round-up preparations and set-up a visit of the Southern zone camps by a German delegation. On the same day, Laval suggested to [|Helmut Knochen], Head of Security Policy and the SS Information Service (SiPo-SD), that children should be deported as well, in order to appease public opinion which could be shocked by the breaking up of families (Joly, 2006). He repeated his suggestion the following day (July 5) to Knochen’s Deputy, [|General Oberg].
 * AUSCHWITZ ||
 * || [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/images/arrow.gif]] || [|RELATED ARTICLES] || [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/images/arrow2.gif]] || [|RELATED LINKS] ||

The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was subordinate to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. Until March 1942, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was an agency of the SS Main Office, and, from 1941, of the SS Operations Main Office. From March 1942 until the liberation of Auschwitz, the Inspectorate was subordinate to the SS Economic-Administrative Main Office. ||  ||
 * || The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime. It included three main camps, all of which deployed incarcerated prisoners at forced labor. One of them also functioned for an extended period as a killing center. The camps were located approximately 37 miles west of Krakow, near the prewar German-Polish border in Upper Silesia, an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland. The SS authorities established three main camps near the Polish city of Oswiecim: Auschwitz I in May 1940; Auschwitz II (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau) in early 1942; and Auschwitz III (also called Auschwitz-Monowitz) in October 1942.

Auschwitz [|See maps] ||
 * ||  || [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/animatedmap/wlc/image/auschw.gif width="140" height="88" link="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005189&MediaId=3371"]]

In November 1943, the SS decreed that Auschwitz-Birkenau and Auschwitz-Monowitz would become independent concentration camps. The commandant of Auschwitz I remained the SS garrison commander of all SS units assigned to Auschwitz and was considered the senior officer of the three commandants. SS offices for maintaining prisoner records and managing prisoner labor deployment continued to be located and centrally run from Auschwitz I. In November 1944, Auschwitz II was reunified with Auschwitz I. Auschwitz III was renamed Monowitz concentration camp. Commanders of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex were: SS Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess from May 1940 until November 1943; SS Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Liebehenschel from November 1943 until mid-May 1944; and SS Major Richard Baer from mid-May 1944 until January 27, 1945. Commanders of Auschwitz-Birkenau while it was independent (November 1943 until November 1944) were SS Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Hartjenstein from November 1943 until mid-May 1944 and SS Captain Josef Kremer from mid-May to November 1944. Commandant of Monowitz concentration camp from November 1943 until January 1945 was SS Captain Heinrich Schwarz.

[|Personal stories] ||  ||  ||   || Knife made by Yona Wygocka Dickmann ||^  ||
 * [[image:http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/artifact/wlc/image/1998n7qc.jpg width="177" height="180" link="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_da.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005189&MediaId=114"]] ||  ||   || Describes arrival at Auschwitz, selection, and separation from his family
 * ^  || [|See artifact]

Auschwitz I, the main camp, was the first camp established near Oswiecim. Construction began in May 1940 in an abandoned Polish army artillery barracks, located in a suburb of the city. The SS authorities continuously deployed prisoners at forced labor to expand the physical contours of the camp. During the first year of the camp’s existence, the SS and police cleared a zone of approximately 40 square kilometers (15.44 square miles) as a “development zone” reserved for the exclusive use of the camp. The first prisoners at Auschwitz included German prisoners transferred from [|Sachsenhausen] concentration camp in Germany, where they had been incarcerated as repeat criminal offenders, and Polish political prisoners from Lodz via [|Dachau] concentration camp and from Tarnow in Krakow District of the Generalgouvernement (that part of German occupied-Poland not annexed to Nazi Germany, linked administratively to German East Prussia, or incorporated into the German-occupied Soviet Union). ||  ||
 * || AUSCHWITZ I

At Auschwitz I, SS physicians carried out [|medical experiments] in the hospital, Barrack (Block) 10. They conducted pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults. The best-known of these physicians was SS Captain Dr. Josef [|Mengele]. Between the crematorium and the medical-experiments barrack stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners. AUSCHWITZ II Construction of Auschwitz II, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, began in the vicinity of Brzezinka in October 1941. Of the three camps established near Oswiecim, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp had the largest total prisoner population. It was divided into more than a dozen sections separated by electrified barbed-wire fences and, like Auschwitz I, was patrolled by SS guards, including -- after 1942 -- SS dog handlers. The camp included sections for women, men, a family camp for [|Roma] (Gypsies) deported from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and a family camp for Jewish families deported from the [|Theresienstadt] ghetto. Auschwitz-Birkenau also contained the facilities for a killing center. It played a central role in the German plan to kill the Jews of Europe. During the summer and autumn of 1941, Zyklon B gas was introduced into the German concentration camp system as a means for murder. At Auschwitz I, in September, the SS first tested Zyklon B as an instrument of mass murder. The "success" of these experiments led to the adoption of Zyklon B for all the gas chambers at the Auschwitz complex. Near Birkenau, the SS initially converted two farmhouses for use as gas chambers. “Provisional” gas chamber I went into operation in January 1942 and was later dismantled. Provisional gas chamber II operated from June 1942 through the fall of 1944. The SS judged these facilities to be inadequate for the scale of gassing they planned at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Four large crematorium buildings were constructed between March and June 1943. Each had three components: a disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens. The SS continued gassing operations at Auschwitz-Birkenau until November 1944. DEPORTATIONS TO AUSCHWITZ Trains arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau frequently with transports of Jews from virtually every country in Europe occupied by or allied to Germany. These transports arrived from 1942 to the end of summer 1944. The breakdown of deportations from individual countries, given in approximate figures, is: Hungary: 426,000; Poland: 300,000; France: 69,000; Netherlands: 60,000; Greece: 55,000; Bohemia and Moravia: 46,000; Slovakia: 27,000; Belgium: 25,000; Yugoslavia: 10,000; Italy: 7,500; Norway: 690; other (including concentration camps): 34,000. With the deportations from [|Hungary], the role of Auschwitz-Birkenau as an instrument in the German plan to murder the Jews of Europe achieved its highest effectiveness. Between late April and early July 1944, approximately 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported, around 426,000 of them to Auschwitz. The SS sent approximately 320,000 of them directly to the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau and deployed approximately 110,000 at forced labor in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. The SS authorities transferred many of these Hungarian Jewish forced laborers within weeks of their arrival in Auschwitz to other concentration camps in Germany and Austria. In total, approximately 1.1 million Jews were deported to Auschwitz. SS and police authorities deported approximately 200,000 other victims to Auschwitz, including 140,000-150,000 [|non-Jewish Poles], 23,000 Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), 15,000 [|Soviet prisoners of war], and 25,000 others (Soviet civilians, Lithuanians, Czechs, French, Yugoslavs, Germans, Austrians, and Italians). New arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau underwent selection. The SS staff determined the majority to be unfit for forced labor and sent them immediately to the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower installations to mislead the victims. The belongings of those gassed were confiscated and sorted in the "Kanada" (Canada) warehouse for shipment back to Germany. Canada symbolized wealth to the prisoners. At least 960,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma (Gypsies), and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war; and 10,000-15,000 members of other nationalities (Soviet civilians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Germans, and Austrians). On October 7, 1944, several hundred prisoners assigned to Crematorium IV at Auschwitz-Birkenau rebelled after learning that they were going to be killed. During the uprising, the prisoners killed three guards and blew up the crematorium and adjacent gas chamber. The prisoners used explosives smuggled into the camp by Jewish women who had been assigned to forced labor in a nearby armaments factory. The Germans crushed the revolt and killed almost all of the prisoners involved in the rebellion. The Jewish women who had smuggled the explosives into the camp were publicly hanged in early January 1945. Gassing operations continued, however, until November 1944, at which time the SS, on orders from Himmler, disabled the gas chambers that still functioned. The SS destroyed the remaining gassing installations as Soviet forces approached in January 1945. AUSCHWITZ III Auschwitz III, also called Buna or Monowitz, was established in October 1942 to house prisoners assigned to work at the Buna synthetic rubber works, located on the outskirts of the Polish town of Monowice. In the spring of 1941, the German conglomerate I.G. Farben established a factory in which its executives intended to exploit concentration camp labor for their plans to manufacture synthetic rubber and fuels. I.G. Farben invested more than 700 million Reichsmarks (about 1.4 million U.S. dollars in 1942 terms) in Auschwitz III. From May 1941 until October 1942, the SS had transported prisoners from Auschwitz I to the “Buna Detachment,” at first on foot and later by rail. With the construction of Auschwitz III in the autumn of 1942, prisoners deployed at Buna lived in Auschwitz III. Auschwitz III also had a so-called Labor Education Camp for non-Jewish prisoners who were perceived to have violated German-imposed labor discipline. AUSCHWITZ SUBCAMPS Between 1942 and 1944, the SS authorities at Auschwitz established 39 subcamps. Some of them were established within the officially designated “development” zone, including Budy, Rajsko, Tschechowitz, Harmense, and Babitz. Others, such as Blechhammer, Gleiwitz, Althammer, [|Fürstengrube], Laurahuette, and Eintrachthuette were located in Upper Silesia north and west of the Vistula River. Some subcamps were located in Moravia, such as Freudental and Bruenn (Brno). In general, subcamps that produced or processed agricultural goods were administratively subordinate to Auschwitz-Birkenau; while subcamps whose prisoners were deployed at industrial and armaments production or in extractive industries (e.g., coal mining, quarry work) were administratively subordinate to Auschwitz-Monowitz. After November 1943, this division of administrative responsibility was formalized. Auschwitz inmates were employed on huge farms, including the experimental agricultural station at Rajsko. They were also forced to work in coal mines, in stone quarries, in fisheries, and especially in armaments industries such as the SS-owned German Equipment Works (established in 1941). Periodically, prisoners underwent selection. If the SS judged them too weak or sick to continue working, they were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and killed. Prisoners selected for forced labor were registered and tattooed with identification numbers on their left arms in Auschwitz I. They were then assigned to forced labor at the main camp or elsewhere in the complex, including the subcamps. THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its subcamps. SS units forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to [|march] west from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the days before these death marches began. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to march either northwest for 55 kilometers (approximately 30 miles) to Gliwice (Gleiwitz), joined by prisoners from subcamps in East Upper Silesia, such as Bismarckhuette, Althammer, and Hindenburg, or due west for 63 kilometers (approximately 35 miles) to Wodzislaw (Loslau) in the western part of Upper Silesia, joined by inmates from the subcamps to the south of Auschwitz, such as Jawischowitz, Tschechowitz, and Golleschau. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure on these marches. At least 3,000 prisoners died on route to Gliwice alone; possibly as many as 15,000 prisoners died during the evacuation marches from Auschwitz and the subcamps. Upon arrival in Gliwice and Wodzislaw, the prisoners were put on unheated freight trains and transported to concentration camps in Germany, particularly to [|Flossenbürg], [|Sachsenhausen], [|Gross-Rosen], [|Buchenwald], [|Dachau], and also to [|Mauthausen] in Austria. The rail journey lasted for days. Without food, water, shelter, or blankets, many prisoners did not survive the transport. In late January 1945, SS and police officials forced 4,000 prisoners to evacuate Blechhammer, a subcamp of Auschwitz-Monowitz, on foot. The SS murdered about 800 prisoners during the march to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. SS officials also killed as many as 200 prisoners left behind in Blechhammer as a result of illness or successful attempts to hide. After a brief delay, the SS transported around 3,000 Blechhammer prisoners from Gross-Rosen to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and [|liberated] around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying. It is estimated that the SS and police deported at a minimum 1.3 million people to Auschwitz complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these, the camp authorities murdered 1.1 million. || In November 1938, an event occurred which was called "Kristallnacht," or the "Night of Broken Glass." photo courtesy of [|Yad Vashem] || The Germans were looking for a way to get rid of their Jews. Send them anywhere, but just get them out. Many Jews of Polish origin had come to Germany because conditions were so much better there than in Poland. The Germans saw this as a group to be easily gotten rid of. They were rounded up and, on one cold, rainy night in the fall, they were herded and beaten across the border. 12,000-17,000 Polish Jews, who were not considered Poles any more, found themselves in a small border town in Poland that had a population of 6,000 Poles. There was no place to put them, so they were stuck into military stables, under impossible conditions. They hadn't eaten for days. photo courtesy of [|Yad Vashem] || Two of these Polish Jews had a son named Henry Grynszpan, who was living in Paris. The boy was frantic with concern for his parents and felt that he needed to "do" something to publicize to the world what was happening to the Jews in Germany. This seventeen-year-old boy got a gun, walked to the German embassy in Paris, and shot the first man he saw- an embassy official named Ernst Von Rath. Von Rath died. This triggered a "spontaneous" uprising against the Jews. It had actually been planned for quite a while, and this was just the pretext to put the plan into action. photo courtesy of [|Yad Vashem] || In one night, 1,350 Jewish synagogues were burnt to the ground or destroyed; over 91 Jews were killed; 30,000 Jews were thrown into concentration camps; 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed; and thousands of Jewish homes were ransacked. Germany did not produce plate glass at the time, and it took Belgium's total plate glass production about 6 months to replace all the windows that were broken. To top everything off, the Jews were charged 1 billion Deutsch Marks to pay for the damages. photo courtesy of [|Yad Vashem] ||
 * || Similar to most German concentration camps, Auschwitz I was constructed to serve three purposes: 1) to incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of time; 2) to have available a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises (and, later, armaments and other war-related production); and 3) to serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi Germany. Like most other concentration camps, Auschwitz I had a gas chamber and crematorium. Initially, SS engineers constructed an improvised gas chamber in the basement of the prison block, Block 11. Later a larger, permanent gas chamber was constructed as part of the original crematorium in a separate building outside the prisoner compound.
 * [|Click to Enlarge] ||
 * [[image:http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11b_113x230.jpg width="113" height="230" align="left" caption="Synagogue Burning" link="http://www.aish.com/holocaust/photo_enlarge.asp?photo=/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11b_246x500.jpg"]] ||
 * Synagogue Burning on Kristallnacht
 * [|Click to Enlarge] ||
 * [[image:http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11a_154x230.jpg width="154" height="230" align="left" caption="Herszel Grynszpan" link="http://www.aish.com/holocaust/photo_enlarge.asp?photo=/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11a_318x474.jpg"]] ||
 * Herszel Grynszpan
 * [|Click to Enlarge] ||
 * [[image:http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11h_230x155.jpg width="230" height="155" align="left" caption="Siegen Syngagogue" link="http://www.aish.com/holocaust/photo_enlarge.asp?photo=/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11h_500x338.jpg"]] ||
 * Siegen Syngagogue Burning on Kristallnacht
 * [|Click to Enlarge] ||
 * [[image:http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11f_230x167.jpg width="230" height="167" align="left" caption="Synagogue in Baden-Baden" link="http://www.aish.com/holocaust/photo_enlarge.asp?photo=/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11f_500x363.jpg"]] ||
 * Synagogue in Baden-Baden During Kristallnacht

It is hard for us to imagine the scope of destruction on Kristallnacht: Every town, every place had its little "shteibel." Germany was filled with beautiful, old synagogues that had been there for centuries. And overnight it all went up in flames. The Jews finally got the message: It was time to leave.

photo courtesy of [|Yad Vashem] ||
 * [|Click to Enlarge] ||
 * [[image:http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11g_230x162.jpg width="230" height="162" align="left" caption="Burning Dome of Synagogue" link="http://www.aish.com/holocaust/photo_enlarge.asp?photo=/holocaust/overview/graphics/he05n11g_500x353.jpg"]] ||
 * Burning Dome of Synagogue on Kristallnacht

But ... where to go?


 * Handouts**

The Nuremberg Race Laws
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the [|Nazis] announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights. The Nuremberg Laws, as they became known, did not define a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews. For a brief period after Nuremberg, in the weeks before and during the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, the Nazi regime actually moderated its anti-Jewish attacks and even removed some of the signs saying "Jews Unwelcome" from public places. Hitler did not want international criticism of his government to result in the transfer of the Games to another country. Such a loss would have been a serious blow to German prestige. After the Olympic Games (in which the Nazis did not allow German Jewish athletes to participate), the Nazis again stepped up the [|persecution] of German Jews. In 1937 and 1938, the government set out to impoverish Jews by requiring them to register their property and then by "Aryanizing" Jewish businesses. This meant that Jewish workers and managers were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews, and Jewish lawyers were not permitted to practice law. Like everyone in Germany, Jews were required to carry identity cards, but the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names -- "Israel" for males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify Jews easily.

The Reichstag Burns Adolf Hitler, the new Chancellor of Germany, had no intention of abiding by the rules of democracy. He intended only to use those rules to legally establish himself as dictator as quickly as possible then begin the Nazi revolution. Even before he was sworn in, he was at work to accomplish that goal by demanding new elections. While Hindenburg waited impatiently in another room, Hitler argued with conservative leader Hugenberg, who vehemently opposed the idea. Hitler's plan was to establish a majority of elected Nazis in the Reichstag which would become a rubber stamp, passing whatever laws he desired while making it all perfectly legal. On his first day as chancellor, Hitler manipulated Hindenburg into dissolving the Reichstag and calling for the new elections he had wanted - to be held on March 5, 1933. That evening, Hitler attended a dinner with the German General Staff and told them Germany would re-arm as a first step toward regaining its former position in the world. He also gave them a strong hint of things to come by telling them there would be conquest of the lands to the east and ruthless Germanization of conquered territories. Hitler also reassured the generals there would be no attempt to replace the regular army with an army of SA storm troopers. For years this had been a big concern of the generals who wanted to preserve their own positions of power and keep the traditional military intact. Hitler's storm troopers were about to reach new heights of power of their own and begin a reign of terror that would last as long as the Reich. President Hindenburg had fallen under Hitler's spell and was signing just about anything put in front of him. He signed an emergency decree that put the German state of Prussia into the hands of Hitler confidant, Vice Chancellor Papen. Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia took control of the police. Prussia was Germany's biggest and most important state and included the capital of Berlin. Göring immediately replaced hundreds of police officials loyal to the republic with Nazi officials loyal to Hitler. He also ordered the police not to interfere with the SA and SS under any circumstances. This meant that anybody being harassed, beaten, or even murdered by Nazis, had nobody to turn to for help. Göring then ordered the police to show no mercy to those deemed hostile to the State, meaning those hostile to Hitler, especially Communists. "Police officers who use weapons in carrying out their duties will be covered by me. Whoever misguidedly fails in this duty can expect disciplinary action." - Order of Hermann Göring to Prussian Police, February 1933. On February 22, Göring set up an auxiliary police force of 50,000 men, composed mostly of members of the SA and SS. The vulgar, brawling, murderous Nazi storm troopers now had the power of police. Two days later, they raided Communist headquarters in Berlin. Göring falsely claimed he had uncovered plans for a Communist uprising in the raid. But he actually uncovered the membership list of the Communist party and intended to arrest every one of the four thousand members. Göring and Goebbels, with Hitler's approval, then hatched a plan to cause panic by burning the Reichstag building and blaming the Communists. The Reichstag was the building in Berlin where the elected members of the republic met to conduct the daily business of government. By a weird coincidence, there was also in Berlin a deranged Communist conducting a one-man uprising. An arsonist named Marinus van der Lubbe, 24, from Holland, had been wandering around Berlin for a week attempting to burn government buildings to protest capitalism and start a revolt. On February 27, he decided to burn the Reichstag building. Carrying incendiary devices, he spent all day lurking around the building, before breaking in around 9 p.m. He took off his shirt, lit it on fire, then went to work using it as his torch. The exact sequence of events will never be known, but Nazi storm troopers under the direction of Göring were also involved in torching the place. They had befriended the arsonist and may have known or even encouraged him to burn the Reichstag that night. The storm troopers, led by SA leader Karl Ernst, used the underground tunnel that connected Göring's residence with the cellar in the Reichstag. They entered the building, scattered gasoline and incendiaries, then hurried back through the tunnel. The deep red glow of the burning Reichstag caught the eye of President Hindenburg and Vice-Chancellor Papen who were dining at a club facing the building. Papen put the elderly Hindenburg in his own car and took him to the scene. Hitler was at Goebbels' apartment having dinner. They rushed to the scene where they met Göring who was already screaming false charges and making threats against the Communists. At first glance, Hitler described the fire as a beacon from heaven. "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history...This fire is the beginning," Hitler told a news reporter at the scene. After viewing the damage, an emergency meeting of government leaders was held. When told of the arrest of the Communist arsonist, Van der Lubbe, Hitler became deliberately enraged. "The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official must be shot. All Communist deputies must be hanged this very night. All friends of the Communists must be locked up. And that goes for the Social Democrats and the Reichsbanner as well!" Hitler left the fire scene and went straight to the offices of his newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, to oversee its coverage of the fire. He stayed up all night with Goebbels putting together a paper full of tales of a Communist plot to violently seize power in Berlin. At a cabinet meeting held later in the morning, February 28, Chancellor Hitler demanded an emergency decree to overcome the crisis. He met little resistance from his largely non-Nazi cabinet. That evening, Hitler and Papen went to Hindenburg and the befuddled old man signed the decree "for the Protection of the people and the State." The Emergency Decree stated: "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed." Immediately, there followed the first big Nazi roundup as truckloads of SA and SS roared through the streets bursting in on known Communist hangouts and barging into private homes. Thousands of Communists as well as Social Democrats and liberals were taken away into 'protective custody' to SA barracks where they were beaten and tortured. "I don't have to worry about justice; my mission is only to destroy and exterminate, nothing more!" - Hermann Göring, March 3, 1933. Fifty one anti-Nazis were murdered. The Nazis suppressed all political activity, meetings and publications of non-Nazi parties. The very act of campaigning against the Nazis was in effect made illegal. "Every bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is my bullet. If one calls this murder, then I have murdered. I ordered this. I back it up. I assume the responsibility, and I am not afraid to do so." - Hermann Göring. Nazi newspapers continued to print false evidence of Communist conspiracies, claiming that only Hitler and the Nazis could prevent a Communist takeover. Joseph Goebbels now had control of the State-run radio and broadcast Nazi propaganda and Hitler's speeches all across the nation. The Nazis now turned their attention to election day, March 5. All of the resources of the government necessary for a big win were placed at the disposal of Joseph Goebbels. The big industrialists who had helped Hitler into power gladly coughed up three million marks. Representatives from Krupp munitions and I. G. Farben were among those reaching into their pockets at Göring's insistence. "The sacrifice we ask is easier to bear if you realize that the elections will certainly be the last for the next ten years, probably for the next hundred years," Göring told them. With no money problems and the power of the State behind them, the Nazis campaigned furiously to get Hitler the majority he wanted. On March 5, the last free elections were held. But the people denied Hitler his majority, giving the Nazis only 44 per cent of the total vote, 17, 277,180. Despite massive propaganda and the brutal crackdown, the other parties held their own. The Center Party got over four million and the Social Democrats over seven million. The Communists lost votes but still got over four million. The goal of a legally established dictatorship was now within reach. But the lack of the necessary two thirds majority in the Reichstag was an obstacle. For Hitler and his ruthless inner circle, it was obstacle that was soon to be overcome. As for Van der Lubbe, the Communist arsonist, he was tried and convicted, then beheaded. The Night of the Long Knives, in June 1934, saw the wiping out of the SA's leadership and others who had angered [|Hitler] in the recent past in [|Nazi Germany]. After this date, the SS lead by [|Heinrich Himmler] was to become far more powerful in [|Nazi Germany].

For all the power the Enabling Act gave Hitler, he still felt threatened by some in the Nazi Party. He was also worried that the regular army had not given an oath of allegiance. Hitler knew that the army hierarchy held him in disdain as he was 'only ' a corporal in their eyes. The Night of the Long Knives not only removed the SA leaders but also got Hitler the army's oath that he so needed. By the summer of 1934, the SA's numbers had swollen to 2 million men. They were under the control of Ernst Röhm, a loyal follower of Hitler since the early days of the Nazi Party. The SA had given the Nazi's an iron fist with which to disrupt other political parties meetings before January 1933. The SA was also used to enforce law after Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933. To all intents, they were the enforcers of the Nazi Party and there is no evidence that Röhm was ever planning anything against Hitler. However, Röhm had made enemies within the Nazi Party - [|Himmler], Goering and Goebbels were angered by the power he had gained and convinced [|Hitler] that this was a threat to his position. By June 1934, the regular army hierarchy also saw the SA as a threat to their authority. The SA outnumbered the army by 1934 and Röhm had openly spoken about taking over the regular army by absorbing it into the SA. Such talk alarmed the army's leaders. By the summer of 1934, Hitler had decided that Röhm was a 'threat' and he made a pact with the army. If Röhm and the other SA leaders were removed, the rank and file SA men would come under the control of the army but the army would have to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler. The army agreed and Röhm's fate was sealed. On the night of June 29th - June 30th 1934, units of the SS arrested the leaders of the SA and other political opponents. Men such as Gregor Strasser, von Schleicher and von Bredow were arrested and none of them had any connection with Röhm. The arrests carried on for 2 more nights. Seventy seven men were executed on charges of treason though historians tend to think the figure is higher. The SA was brought to heel and placed under the command of the army. Hitler received an oath of allegiance from all those who served in the army. Röhm was shot. Others were bludgeoned to death. The first the public officially knew about the event was on July 13th 1934, when Hitler told the Reichstag that met in the Kroll Opera House, Berlin, that for the duration of the arrests that he and he alone was the judge in Germany and that the SS carried out his orders. From that time on the SS became a feared force in [|Nazi Germany] lead by [|Heinrich Himmler]. The efficiency with which the SS had carried out its orders greatly impressed Hitler and Himmler was to acquire huge power within Nazi Germany. **Kempka, Hitler's chauffeur.** || **Herr Adolf Hitler, the German Chancellor, has saved his country. Swiftly and with exorable severity, he has delivered Germany from men who had become a danger to the unity of the German people and to the order of the state. With lightening rapidity he has caused them to be removed from high office, to be arrested, and put to death.** **The names of the men who have been shot by his orders are already known. Hitler's love of Germany has triumphed over private friendships and fidelity to comrades who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the fight for Germany's future.** **Daily Mail, July 2nd 1934.**
 * **Just before Wiessee, Hitler suddenly breaks his silence: "Kempka", he says, "drive carefully when we come to the Hotel Hanselbauer. You must drive up without making any noise. If you see a SA guard in front of the hotel, don't wait for them to report to me; drive on and stop at the hotel entrance." Then after a moment of deathly silence: "Röhm wants to carry out a coup." An icy shiver ran down my back. I could have believed anything, but not a coup by coup by Röhm.**

Peer and Teacher Evaluations Five W's Chart Graphic Organizer Outside resources on topic
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[|Christianity]