Aftermath of the Holocaust
Liberation, Recovery, & the Nuremberg Trials
Mass Grave in Bergen-Belsen
Dead Bodies in Buchenwald
Dead Bodies
Dead Bodies in Dresden
Dead Bodies
Corpses in Ohrdruf
Mass Grave in Prager
Introduction
The Holocaust's lasting impact on generations - descendants of liberators, survivors, & Nazis
- Liberation
- Atrocities & discoveries shocked the world
- Healing
- Uncountable deaths took painful tolls on workers
- Recovery
- Persisting antisemitism even after the Holocaust
- Nuremberg Trials
- Shocked the world again with evidence in trials
The Liberation
Discoveries that Shocked the World
Soviet Troops
- Most Polish Jews were already killed when Soviet troops overrun camps
- When Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, most were already on "death march"
- Auschwitz: last of 6 extermination camps, created for the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem"
- More than 3 of 6 million died in Auschwitz
Death Marches
- Germans evacuated camps, losing in battle
- Prisoners forced to march non-stop for days to the next death camp
- Several prisoners died on the way
- Crowdedness, starvation, dehydration, disease, & lack of shelter
- Epidemics quickly spread among the prisoners - typhus, dysentery, tuberculosis
Bergen-Belsen
-
Germans afraid of diseases, neglected to provide basic life necessities
-
Some prisoners starved to death outside
- Rotten stenches were detected up to 3 miles away
- Went without water for 6 days, no attempt to fetch
-
20000 naked, unburied, emaciated corpses
Items Recovered
- 348820 men's suits found
- 836255 women's outfits found
- 14000 pounds of human hair
- Corpses, bones, human ashes found
Shoes
Hair
Healing the Victims
The Psychological Toll on Liberators
Bergen-Belsen
- Many survivors critical from typhus epidemic
- 20,000 of 50,000 survivors critically ill
- 13,000 survivors died within weeks of liberation
- Prisoners were barely alive - "living skeletons"
- Protruding ribs, distended bellies
- Some lost the ability to digest from starving so long
- Some were too weak to even respond to liberators
A Survivor in Bergen-Belsen
"Living Skeletons"
Holocaust
Healing
- Doctors washed, disinfected, fed, & rehydrated - many were still too weak to recover
- Developed nutritious & easily digestible concoction, mostly through trial & error
- "If they did not go blind drunk each night, they would go 'stark staring mad'"
Effects
- Local German population led on compulsory tours of camps - forced to inspect atrocities
-
SS camp guards forced to carry corpses into mass graves
- Constant danger of epidemic spread - forced to burn down Bergen-Belsen
- Large memorial of "man's inhumanity to man" lost
Mass Graves in Bergen-Belsen
Mass Graves in Bergen-Belsen
Jewish Recovery
The Arduous Road to Reestablishmement
Relocation
- 7-9 million people displaced
- 1.5-2 million reluctant to return to former homes
- Antisemitism persisted in certain regions
- Polish pogroms (violent revolts) - most significant in Kielce 1946, 42 deaths
- Jews housed in DP (displaced person) camps
- Remained "persona non grata" (unwelcome person)
- Migrated westwards to European countries
Organizations
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Provided shelter, food & supplies
- Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training
- Vocational training to Jews
- Sh'erit ha-Pletah - "surviving remnant"
- Largest Jewish survivor organization
- Jewish Brigade Group
- Palestinian Jewish unit of British army
- Brihah/B'richa
- Group to facilitate Jews from Europe to Palestine
- Aliyah Bet - illegal immigration by ship
Settlement
- Act of Displaced Persons
- 400,000 immigration visas
- Strong antisemitic elements remained
- Jewish State of Israel established in 1948
- Attacked by neighboring Arabs 2 days later
- 170,000 migrated to Israel by 1953
The Nuremberg Trials
Punishment for Atrocious Crimes Delivered
Prosecutions
- High ranking Nazis, military leaders
- Adolf Eichmann tried & sentenced to death - 1960
- Large part of the "Final Solution"
- Herman Göring - committed suicide
- International Military Tribunal established
- Tried top Nazi politicians, party functionaries, technocrats, military personnel
- Several imprisoned or executed
- Showed the world much more about the Holocaust
Nuremberg Judges
Nuremburg Trials
Conclusion
- Liberation
- Germans' unbelievable measures to exterminate Jews
- Germans' shockingly inhuman treatment in camps
- Healing the Victims
- New diseases & sicknesses never seen before
- Painful effects on doctors, workers, & liberators
- Recovery
- Jews faced a difficult task to restore their status
- Antisemitism & hostility persisted in several regions
- Nuremberg Trials
- Important leaders prosecuted & punished
- Evidence revealed in courts also taught the world
Thank you.
Presentation by Kye W. Shi
Aftermath of the Holocaust
By kyeshi98
