Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust

Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust “First, they said we cannot live among them as Jews… Next, they said we cannot live among them… Finally, they said we cannot live.” We must always remember… we must never forget…

Roots of Anti-Semitism • Ancient • Between 1200 – 1400 BCE; biblical; Diaspora • Medieval • Jews scattered throughout former Roman Empire • Played a key economic role • Used as a scapegoat • Modern – many issues in the present-day • Wilhelm Marr aka “Mr. Anti-Semitism” • Coined the term in 1879 • Hitler used the already deep-seeded anti-Semitism and put a race dimension to it “defined by biology”

Hilberg’s Steps • According to historian Dr. Raul Hilberg, there were five steps used for Jewish destruction: • 1. Definition: determine and define the target group • 2. Expropriation: take away their livelihood • 3. Concentration: place the target group in a centralized location • 4. Slave labor: force them to work without pay • 5. Annihilation: kill and destroy the entire group http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/07/us/07hilberg.190.jpg

Laws and Actions Against Jews • Nazi Book Burning • May 10, 1933 • Burned “unsuitable” books • 1933, Jews banned from certain jobs • Nuremberg Laws aka “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor,” 1935: • Jews could not be German citizens or vote • ID cards (before yellow stars) • Children prevented from going to public school http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/41/67841-004-21BD0894.jpg

Laws and Actions Against Jews • 1. Germany – over 400 regulations against Jews; violence • 2. Austria – Jews targeted; beaten, humiliated, riots • 3. Poland – Hitler saw the 3 million Jewish Poles as the worst: • Himmler’s idea: limit their education and kill intellectuals • “sort out those with valuable blood and those with worthless blood” (“survival of the fittest”) • 4. Children: 1.5 million kids killed during the Holocaust • first had restrictions (no swimming pools, school, rationed) • had to help parents (ex: smuggling in food) http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blpkrakow27.htm

Evian Conference, 1938 • Significance: • 1. Called to address the Jewish refugee problem • 2. Hitler willing to let Jews go to other countries • 3. World shut out the Jews http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html

Kristallnacht • Night of the Broken Glass, November 9/10, 1938: • October 27, 1938  Hitler expelled 18,000 Jews from Germany • Son of a victim took revenge by killing a German • Murder sparked a rumor about a Jewish-takeover • Result: night of violence against Jews across Germany • destruction of stores, synagogues, people arrested/killed http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/holocaust/essaypics/kristallnacht.jpg http://www.amuseum.org/shoah/brokewin.jpg

The “Final Solution” • July 1941, the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question”: • Reinhard Heydrich (and Adolf Eichmann); Wannsee Conference • earlier thought of creating ghettos (walled-in neighborhoods) • exterminated through killings or deportations • planned to annihilate 11 million Jews • development of Auschwitz and Treblinka • Dachau the first Concentration Camp (1933) • 1941 – mass usage of camps

Development of Gas Chambers • Einstazgruppen (mobile killing units) did mass shootings • ex: Babi Yar • Himmler (head of killing orders) appalled by mistakes at shootings  led to mobile gas units • Zyklon B – pellets that gave off cyanide fumes; rat poison/disinfectant; used in gas chambers in Camps http://www.sephardicstudies.org/images/auschw-crematorium-gas-chamber.jpg

Concentration Camps • Selection process • Meals: watered-down soup and 1 ounce of bread • Lodging: barracks; 800/barrack; many to a bed (planks of wood); no pillow and 1 cover (thin sheet) • After gassed, bodies burned and buried http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blmajdanek1.htm http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blbergenbelsen1.htm

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words… http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blpictures.htm

Acts of Resistance • 3 kinds: active armed, passive unarmed, spiritual • 1. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April and May 1943) • Led by Mordecai Anielwicz • Held Nazis for 28 days • 2. First death camp rebellion  Treblinka, August 2, 1943 • 3. Warsaw Uprising  Act of resistance; August 1, 1944 • Lasted 63 days (surrendered October 2, 1944); 250,000 killed • 4. Auschwitz-Birkenau revolt, October 6, 1944 • Ala Gertner (one of the revolt organizers)  http://www.alabamaholocaustcommission.org/images/AHCpic08518.jpg

Righteous Gentiles • Righteous Gentiles  those who helped Jews (rescued, hid, gave false papers, employed, etc.) • Righteous criteria: act on own discretion; in territories under German or German collaborating control; at risk to themselves; without reward or precondition; substantiated by survivor testimony or documents • 17,433 recognized Righteous Gentiles as of January 1, 2000 Oskar Schindler Raoul Wallenberg

And It Comes to an End… • Who knew what…………………..? • Many key leaders and reporters knew, but…. • ignored evidence and information • refused to publish/broadcast information because it was “too upsetting” and “could not be corroborated” • Camps Liberated by the Allies • Soldiers could not believe what they saw • Send to Displaced Persons’ Camps • Relocated to start over (America, Israel, etc.)

Nuremberg Trial • Nuremberg Trial, November 20, 1945; Significance: • 22 high-ranking Nazis investigated for war crimes • conducted by joint American, British, French, and Russian military tribunal • 4-count indictment including conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity (like murder, extermination, enslavement, persecution on political and/or racial grounds, involuntary deportment, and inhumane acts against civilians) • 7 given lengthy prison terms, 3 acquitted, rest sentenced to death by hanging (hung October 16, 1946) • 12 other Nuremberg Trials from 1946-1949; most pardoned

Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust