Why Was the World Silent?

1. Why Was the World Silent? By: Calla Garner, Lizzy Wasniewski, Emily Thiele, and Alexis Phaneuf

2. Which Countries Did/Did Not Help? Fighting Against Germans • Countries such as; Yugoslavia, France, Poland and Greece all had organizations that made things for Hitler's army harder then originally planned. • Yugoslavia- Chetnicks • Greece- Andartes • France-Maquis • Poland-Guerrillas. • Railroad cars were derailed, ammunition trucks were blown up at night, as were bridges.

3. Neutrals • Switzerland wasn’t involved with the wars but kept an army just incase things turned for the worse.    • Ireland was also a neutral in Europe. The Allies believed that Ireland was helping out the Germans. • Sweden was also one of the lucky neutrals who helped out both sides equally by sending food to countries that were taking over, including Norway, Denmark and Poland. • Portugal was also a neutral. Portugal sold supplies to both sides of the war effort. • Many countries were forced into the war, such as the United States, Turkey, Russia and many others. Most of the Allies wanted to stay neutral, but The Axis wouldn't let them. The neutrals were lucky in my mind.

4. With Germany • Germany began to cajole and pressure the southeast European states to join the Axis. Nazi Germany offered economic aid to Slovakia and military protection and Soviet territory to Romania, while warning Hungary that recent German support for Hungarian annexations of Czechoslovak and Romanian territory might change to the benefit of Slovakia and Romania. • Some of the allies were Italy, Hungry Slovakia and parts of south east Europe.

5. What would have been the effects of people helping? • It may have been inevitable that Hitler would rise to power, but there were plenty of things that governments from other countries could have done about the terrible crimes he committed. Other governments had control, too. • The effects of the Holocaust were devastating. Groups persecuted were the Jews, the Roma, the Freemasons, the Communists, the Socialists, Soviet Prisoners of War, the Polish, the Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Handicapped, criminals, beggars, prostitutes, and people who opposed Hitler’s regime. Between 11 million and 17 million people were killed as a result of the Holocaust. • Countries that stayed neutral: Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Sweden helped by taking in refugees, but other countries refused. Sweden was technically not entirely neutral. After several pleas from Finland, Sweden agreed to assist in defense of the country against the Soviet Union with volunteer troops, in what became known as the Winter War.

6. What would have been the effects of people helping? (Continued) There were individuals who tried to get the terrible word of the Holocaust out to people who could help. Jan Karski, one of these individuals, was a Polish underground man who had been smuggled into the concentration camp killing center of Belzec by a resistance group and come back to try to tell British, American, and Polish leaders what was going on. Unfortunately, these leaders simply could not fathom what was occurring

7. What would have been the effects of people helping? (Continued) • Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during the Holocaust, did not list the Holocaust refugees as a priority. He had his own concerns with establishing his democratic policies and dealing with the Great Depression in the United States. He was reportedly very well informed about the anti-Semitism and Aryan policies of Hitler’s regime, but chose not to do much. Besides, there were strict immigration policies in the U.S. that would let in only people “fit to work” in the harsh times, and Holocaust refugees were not considered “fit to work”. If more governments had put mind to helping the victims of the Holocaust, the atrocities that occurred could have been nonexistent, many people could have been evacuated, and Hitler’s reign could have been terminated.

8. What was the media coverage like? • The coverage in most places was inadequate. Many countries and papers believed that they would be thought of as a “Jewish” paper or “Jewish loving” if they reported too much. • The New York Times is a great example of this. It is said that their reports were brief and buried in the paper. In the article “Reporting Auschwitz, Then & Now” it gives the dates of when the Times reported on the Holocaust. • “On June 27, 1942, the Times devoted just two inches to the news that “700,000 Jews were reported slain in Poland.” • On July 2, 1942, it noted that gas chambers were being used to kill 1,000 Jews a day – but only on page 6. • On November 25, 1942, it reported that there had been roundups, gassings, cattle cars and the disappearance of 90 percent of Warsaw’s ghetto population – but only on page 10. • On December 9, 1942, its report that two million Jews had been killed and five million more faced extermination appeared only on page 20. • On July 2, 1944, it reported that 400,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to their deaths so far, and 350,000 more were likely to be killed in the next weeks. Yet this news received only four column inches on page 12. (That edition’s front page carried an analysis of the problem of New York holiday crowds on the move.)”

9. What was the media coverage like? (Continued) • The New York Times was not the only American newspaper it not cover the Holocaust like it should have been. The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, and The Washington Post are all examples. • The French newspaper, Le Monde, also kept poor records of the Holocaust and what was happening. • In Great Britain the BBC had missing pieces of information. The (London) Guardian also couldn’t resist greatly exaggerating the numbers of Roma (Gypsies) who died in the camps. • Iran and other Arab countries like to believe the Holocaust never happened and was made up.

10. Why did some countries ignore what was happening in the Holocaust? • Examples of major countries/ groups who ignored the Jew’s cries for help include: • Zionists • United States • Great Britain • The Pope

11. Rabbi Weissmandel was a first hand accountant of the holocaust He wrote a letter to a Zionist leader that gave important details about what was happening to the jews He wrote: “Those who go directly from the train to the gas chambers to be suffocated are not branded. They are completely consumed in the ovens and leave no evidence behind. These are 95% of each transport.” The Rabbi sent this letter and got no response. The Zionists ignored this cry for help because at first they thought of it as nothing more than what Jews were already going through-discrimination. They claimed they could do nothing for them Later, the Zionists ended up saving about 200,000 Jews before WWII ZIONISTS

12. In 1942 the United States and Great Britain had proven reports on what the Germans were planning to do with the Jews. They were afraid of all the refugees that would come into their countries, so at first they did nothing. In 1944 the U.S. was finally forced to take action in helping the Jews. President Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board that eventually helped the rescue some of the Jews. By the time the War Refugee Board had been created, over 4/5 of the Jews who would die were already dead. UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITIAN

13. POPE PIUS XII • Pope Pius XII was generally indifferent towards the Jew’s cries for help • He claimed he was neutral but then would say things about condemning injustices • He however sheltered a few Jews and encouraged other officials to do the same • No one knows for sure why the Pope or Vatican sometimes helped or not helped • Some say he feared the Nazis and what would happen if he gave a speech about it • Some say he thought that “private intervention could accomplish more” • Another reason would be said that the church has always been politically neutral