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silencing political opponents
communists, socialists, liberals, and anyone else who spoke out against the government got silenced (killed). Once Nazis had eliminated these groups, they turned against other groups in Germany. -
non-Aryans
Hitler ordered to remove all "non-Aryans"from government jobs. This order was one of the first moves in a campaign for racial purity, that eventually led to the Holocaust. -
persecution of Jews increases
The Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property. Jews also had to wear a bright yellow star, so the Nazis could identify them easier. -
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Kristallnacht
The "Night of Broken Glass" Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany. -
St. Louis
A German ocean liner passed Miami in 1939 with 740 out of 943 passengers having immigration papers. The coast guard made sure that nobody, not even passangers with immigration papers disembarked. The ship was forced to return to Europe. -
The Final Solution
Jews not reached by killing squads were dragged into trains or trucks for shippment to concentration or labor camps. Camps were originally created for imprisoning political opponents and protestors. The SS turned them into a warehouse for the undesirables. Life was a cycle of hunger, humiliation, and work that almost always ended in death. -
Death Camps
Overwork, starvation, beating and bullets did not kill fast enough for the Nazis. Six death camps were built in Poland, the first one was Chelmno. They had several huge gas chambers in which as many as 12000 people could be killend in one day. In death camps doctors would wave the weak into the "shower" and the strong to work. The ones to go into the gas chamber had to undress for showering and were given soaps. The chamber then got locked up and the gas was injected through the vents. -
The Final Stage
Meeting held in Wannsee, near Berlin, where Hitlers 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 -- murder by poison gas.
