1 / 18

UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

Jewish population worldwide : 1939: 16.5 million 1945: 11 million 1950: 11.4 million 1970: 12.6 million 1990: 12.9 million 2020: 12.9 million (projected) If no Shoah : 1950: 17.9-18.5 million 1970: 19.8-25.2 million 1990: 20.3-30.0 million

arin
Download Presentation

UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Jewish population worldwide: 1939: 16.5 million 1945: 11 million 1950: 11.4 million 1970: 12.6 million 1990: 12.9 million 2020: 12.9 million (projected) If no Shoah: 1950: 17.9-18.5 million 1970: 19.8-25.2 million 1990: 20.3-30.0 million 2020: 20.3-35.1 million UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  2. Genocide: a successful one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority deliberately intends to destroy a group outside the universe of moral and social obligations of the perpetrators as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrators. The extermination may take place directly (through murder) or indirectly (by creating conditions which lead to the group’s destruction). UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  3. Holocaust: the deliberate, intentional murder of 2/3 of European Jewry by the Nazis and their collaborators in and before WWII. • Cannot be compared with nuclear war, slavery • Holocaust = a wholly-burnt offering or sacrifice • Popularized by Elie Wiesel • SHOAH = Hebrew for catastrophe UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  4. Every genocide has certain characteristics that define it. • The Holocaust… UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  5. Took place in the heart of Western civilization • It was an international genocide • Took place in 22 countries in Europe and N. Africa UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  6. There was a demonic obsessivenesson the part of the perpetrators • Wiesel: not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims • June 9, 1944: round-up on Greek island of 1700 Jews while the Germans were battling the Americans/Canadians in the West and the Russians in the East • June 29: arrival at Auschwitz where most were killed UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  7. Irrationality of the ideology • Jews blamed for capitalism, communism, compassion, mercy, pornography, etc. • Contradictions didn’t matter UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  8. Implementation was with the utmost rationality • Industrialized, depersonalized, dehumanized mass killing • Nazis were pioneers at this UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  9. The elite of society cooperated • Judges, teachers, doctors, etc. • The Holocaust represents the ultimate perversion of science and technology, especially medical science • Nearly 50% of German doctors belonged to Nazi party • Some came to view the Holocaust as a health measure • Eugenics became “biological therapy” UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  10. The Smoking Chimney at the Hadamar Hospital UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  11. Systematic dehumanization of its victims • Holocaust is the best-documented genocide • Simon Dubnow: “Brothers, remember what you see; write it down.” • The West German government, representing the perpetrators, admitted guilt • Reparations were paid • Holocaust is best-studied and most-studied genocide • Survivors have written and spoken about it so we might know • The Holocaust is a genocide which gave birth to a modern state: Israel UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  12. Myths about the Holocaust: • About the event • The Holocaust never happened • Deniers are perpetrators because they seek to murder the memories of the victims • The Holocaust is a Jewish problem • Raises questions for Western civilization, Christianity, and humanity in general UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  13. About the perpetrators • Those who took part were coerced under threat of extreme penalty • Most who committed the crimes did so knowingly and not under duress • “willing executioners” • Only Hitler and a few others carried out the genocide; the German people knew little… • There were few people in Germany who knew nothing about it UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  14. Jews from the Lodz Ghetto board a train for deportation bound for Chelmno. C. 1942-44. UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  15. UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  16. About the victims • Why didn’t the Jews resist more? • Wiesel: the question should be – in the face of all the obstacles, how could so many find the strength to resist? • The Jews cooperated in their own destruction • Nazis created a Judenrat wherever they went as a go-between between the SS and the Jews UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  17. UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

  18. About the bystanders • Dutch Jews had a good chance of survival • 80% (110,000 of 140,000 were murdered) died • myth grows out of the Diary of Anne Frank • The Nazis built the death camps in Poland because the Poles were anti-Semitic • most of the Jews were in Poland • Poland was far enough away from Western and Southern Europe to keep the genocide secret UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust

More Related