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Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

German Jewry : the first to suffer Stats when Nazis came to power: 520,000 German Jews (.078% of the population) 1914: pop. had been 600,000 Jews Approximately 1 / 6 of Germany’s Jews served her in WWI (100,000 casualties)

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Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

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  1. German Jewry: the first to suffer • Stats when Nazis came to power: • 520,000 German Jews (.078% of the population) • 1914: pop. had been 600,000 Jews • Approximately 1/6 of Germany’s Jews served her in WWI (100,000 casualties) • 1932: of 37 Cabinet positions, only 3 were Jews and another 4 could claim Jewish descent • Jews controlled no major companies, industries, and not one of Germany’s wealthiest families were Jewish • High intermarriage rate in 1920’s (maybe 40%) • 500 conversions a year to Christianity Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  2. Prewar Jewish school, Czechoslovakia Jewish shtetl (village) Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  3. 1/3 of Jews lived in Berlin • 1/3 lived in other major cities • 1/3 scattered among thousands of villages • Many Jewish organizations operated to strengthen Jewish culture and resolve through education and social functions • Some wanted to prepare young Jews to emigrate • Zionists proposed the creation of Israel as a homeland for Jews Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  4. The majority (325,000) of German Jews survived • Reasons for staying – • “How long can Hitler last?” • “Nazism is just traditional antisemitism.” • Veterans felt their service, medals would protect them • “How can I protect my business?” • “How can I learn a new language and culture?” • “How can I leave my relatives behind?” • Bourgeois Jews would have become welfare recipients Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  5. At the time of 1938, Shanghai was the only place in the world that required no visa • Took in more Jews (25,000) than Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa combined • May, 1939: British closed the doors of Palestine to Jewish immigration except for 15,000 per year (max. of 5 years = 75,000) • Arab pressure to close • October, 1941: another 150,000 Jews fled Germany Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  6. Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  7. Scene in the Lodz ghetto marketplace • Life in the ghetto – • Nazis reinstituted slavery, barbarism, and the ghetto • Several hundred ghettos • 1st was in Nov. 1939 in Piatrkow, Poland • Lasted to summer, 1944 (became known as the Lodz ghetto) Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  8. Basic characteristics: • Form of concentration camp • Conditions of maximum deprivation • Slum parts of a city • Inadequate housing, food supply, hygiene • Some were open; most became closed • Governed by Judenrat (Jewish Council) • In 1960’s, many condemned them as collaborators Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  9. Judenrat of Lodz collaborated with Nazis most • Headed by Mordecai Rumkowski • “salvation through work” – make yourselves useful to stay alive • Lodz became an efficient ghetto for making German army uniforms Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  10. Warsaw the largest ghetto • 450,000 “inmates” in 1 ½ square miles • Judenrat led by Adam Czernizkov • He was in over his head in trying to balance saving Jews with supplying the Nazis with slave labor • July 22, 1942: order to deport Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  11. Scenes from the • Warsaw Ghetto Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  12. Minsk: capital of White Russia • Conquered June 30, 1941 • EliaMishkinhead of Judenrat • Engaged in resistance from beginning • Helped organize resistance in and out of the ghetto • 10,000 Jews made their way out to join the resistance troops in the forests Sign states, "Warning. Anyone climbing the fence will be shot!" Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  13. Negatives of ghettos – • Mortality rate • 20% died of natural causes (typhus, hunger, etc.) • Jan ’41-May ’42: more than 66,000 perished in Warsaw ghetto Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  14. Society in the ghetto: Judenrat, Smugglers, Profiteers Judenrat workers, skilled workers, Shopkeepers “Floating” population: those living hand-to-mouth; odd jobs, smugglers Refugees – continually dumped in; didn’t know how to survive… Beggars, prostitutes, orphans Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  15. Positives of ghettos – • Smuggling • Underground newspapers, schools for Hebrew • Diaries, journals that made it through the war • Underground Zionist meetings • Graffiti, artwork that survived • Intellectual and spiritual life was never fully stifled • Are each of the above a form of resistance to Nazi rule and control? Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  16. Inside the camps: the Kingdom of Death • Auschwitz: “a different planet” • Time irrelevant; “each day was a year” • Vocabulary doesn’t apply • Hunger, cold, fear don’t have the same definitions • Standards of society did not apply Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  17. Reasons people were able to survive: • Age: children and the aged didn’t • Climate of origin: harsh Polish winters • Knowledge of German: to untangle instructions • Skills: what were you worth to the Nazis? • Typhus: had it before? = developed immunity • Physical stamina • Initial work detail: level of sadism of kapo or overseer • Relationships: did you know someone? • LUCK WAS THE #1 FACTOR IN SURVIVAL Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  18. Mental, attitudinal changes to aid survival: • The power to refuse consent • Wash in dirty water with no soap • Forget the past • Learn the SS games • Role play • Develop quick reaction time • Become adaptable • Need to help was as important as the need for help • Prayer, clandestine religious observances • Victor Frankel: “The only thing they couldn’t take was your attitude” Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  19. Jewish resistance – • Many have criticized the Jewish resistance as minimal and inconsequential • Definition of resistance: any individual or group action consciously taken in opposition to known or surmised laws, actions, or intentions directed against the Jews by the Germans and their supporters Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  20. Members of The White Rose – A German Resistance Movement Jewish Resistance fighters Resistance to the Nazis Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  21. Obstacles to resistance: • Ignorance Unimaginability • Family solidarity Religious faith • Deceit, deception by Nazis – constant • How could the very young or very old resist? • Collective responsibility • Isolation from outside world in ghettos and camps • To escape – what would one escape to? • Judenrat: key was to make the ghetto as useful as possible; hope to outlast the Nazis Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  22. Resistance in the camps • Just surviving was an act of resistance • Escape • Est. 600 attempts to escape from Auschwitz (400 successful) • 1944: escape of Jew and Gentile couple • Remained free for 2 weeks; caught, tortured but revealed nothing of underground resistance Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  23. Record everything • Sonderkommando: Jews who worked in the crematoria • Wrote diaries and buried them in the ashes around the crematoria Sonderkommando engage in open pit burning of bodies Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  24. Physical, armed resistance • Treblinka (8/43) • Sobibor (10/43) • Auschwitz (10/44) • Crematorium IV put out of commission • Polish-led underground in Auschwitz, while helpful, never really affected the uprising • Gunpowder supplied by 4 young Jewish women who worked in the factories • They were found out, tortured (but revealed nothing), and hanged organized by Sonderkommando Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  25. Resistance in the forests: partisan movements • 20,000-40,000 Jewish partisans in the forests around Eastern Europe • Although Jews made up only 1% of French population, they comprised 15-20% of French Resistance • Many Jews resisted as part of nationalist movements Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  26. Jewish servicemen (-women) who fought in WWII • Americans: ½ million fought, 11,000 died • Soviets: ½ million fought, 120,000 died • Sept. 1939: 150,000 Polish Jews fought in Polish army; 33,000 were killed in battle • Jewish parachutists from Israel organized resistance in the Balkans • Worked with the British RAF Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

  27. Non-Jewish Target Groups Unit 7: Jewish and non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

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