1. The
Approx. 1933-1945
H ocaust
ol

2.  “Holocaust” is a word of
Greek origin meaning “
sacrifice by fire”
 The Nazis believed that
Germans were "racially
superior" and that the
Jews, thought to be
"inferior“, were an alien
threat to the so-called
German racial
community

3.  “The Holocaust was the
systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution
and murder of approximately six million Jews by the
Nazi regime and its collaborators.” (Intro to
Holocaust)
 Methods of death:
 Disease
 Starvation
 Neglect
 Maltreatment
 Incarceration
 Extermination Camps

4.  During WWII, the Nazi
camp system expanded
rapidly. In some
camps, Nazi doctors
performed medical
experiments on prisoners

5.  To help make the “Final
Solution” possible, the
Nazis established Killing
Centers in Poland, the
country with the largest
Jewish population. The
killing centers were
designed for efficient
mass murder

6.  The Nazis constructed gas
chambers to increase killing
efficiency and to make the
process more impersonal.
 At the Auschwitz camp
complex, the Birkenau killing
center had four gas chambers.
During the height of
deportations to the camp, up
to 6,000 Jews were gassed
each day.
 Auschwitz was the site of
more than 1,300,000 Jewish
deaths.

9.  Elie Wiesel was born September 30, 1928 in a small town in




Transylvania which became part of Hungary during the
1940’s
His father was quite involved in the Jewish community and
so was Elie himself, familiarizing himself with many Jewish
texts
Until 1944 the Jewish community of Hungary were
relatively unaffected by the catastrophe that was affecting
other parts of Europe
May of 1944, Wiesel and his family were deported to the
Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Wiesel’s
father, mother, and little sister all died in the Holocaust.
Out of the 15,000 Jews in his Pre-War community, only
about 50 families survived the Holocaust

10.  In 1956, Weisel published Un di Velt Hot Geshvign
which means And the World Remained Silent. It was
an account of his life during the Holocaust
 In 1958, he translated it from Yiddish into French
 The work was then translated into English and
published in 1960 as Night

11.  Although the book is Wiesel’s testimony about his
experiences, Wiesel is not necessarily the story’s
protagonist. The story is told by a boy named Eliezer
who is supposed to represent Wiesel. It is a memoir
without being classified as one, an attempt at recreating the thoughts and experiences that Wiesel had
as a concentration camp prisoner and survivor.
 One of the techniques Wiesel uses to ensure this is
slightly changing some of the experiences, slight
details that change the character from Wiesel himself
into this boy.

12.  Movies:
 Schindler’s List
 Life is Beautiful
 The Pianist
Books
 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
 Number the Stars
 The Book Thief
The Holocaust Museum in DC