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The Holocaust Roots of the Holocaust
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.-Pastor Martin Niemöller
Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in 1855: As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty.
Progression of Hate Approaching the Holocaust
Prejudice • Prejudice = beliefs • Attitude of hatred (Anti-Semitism) • Blamed Jews for Germany’s problems • Saw Jews as an “inferior” race
Discrimination = Action • Pushed out of homes and jobs • Denied citizenship (no rights) – yellow badges • Organized boycotts of Jewish businesses • Kristallnact – “Night of Broken Glass”
Ghettos • Jews separated from rest of population • Horrible living conditions (cold, dirty, crowed, little food…) • Forced to live there – fenced in and guarded; only allowed to leave for work
Ghetto Ration Card Ghetto ration card for October 1941. This card officially entitled the holder to 300 calories daily. Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 137.
Warsaw Ghetto Walls On October 2, 1940, the Warsaw ghetto was formally established. Six weeks later, on November 15, the ghetto was sealed with walls, as shown in this 1941 photograph. "Ghettoization" restricted the rights of Jews, created deplorable living conditions, and clustered Jews into condensed areas facilitating the eventual deportations to extermination camps. Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 75.
Warsaw Ghetto In 1940, this brick wall was built sealing the Warsaw ghetto off from the rest of the city. Approximately 138,000 Jews were herded into this ghetto while 113,000 Poles were evacuated from this section of the city.Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 74.
Child Smugglers Children scale a wall to smuggle food into the ghetto. Conditions were so extreme that they engaged in this activity despite the proclamation issued by Dr. Ludwig Fischer (Governor of the Warsaw District from October, 1939 to January, 1945), imposing a death penalty on Jews who left the ghetto and on those who helped them.Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 124.
Forced Labor in Warsaw Ghetto Forced labor was another Nazi strategy to exploit Jews. Huge German concerns as well as the local occupation authorities reaped large profits from barely paid or unpaid Jewish labor. This photograph shows Jews being forced to work in a clothing factory in the Warsaw ghetto. Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 209
Forced Labor in the Warsaw Ghetto Jews are forced to work under terrible conditions in a metal shop in the Warsaw ghetto. Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 210.
Jewish Families Surrender to the SS Jewish families surrender to the SS during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The original German caption reads: "Smoking out the Jews and bandits." Photo credit: Polish National Archives
SS Troops Guard Members of the Jewish Resistance SS troops guard members of the Jewish resistance captured during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The original German caption reads: "These bandits offered armed resistance." Photo credit: Polish National Archives
Children tried to hide, with their parents’ help, as Gordon J. Horwitz described in his bookGhettostadt: Lodz and the Making of a Nazi City: Some children hid in furniture and bedding, others in basement, in heaps of garbage and laundry, or in woodpiles. Parents did whatever they could, concealing children “in barrels in the attics, in ditches in the field, covered with leaves and branches.” One child sought refuge in a tree but was shot dead when discovered. Another, thanks to his father’s efforts to fashion an unusual hideout, rode out the danger concealed in a chimney on the roof. Though isolated and abandoned by the time they had been assembled in the collection area, child captives fought and scratched at the walls in a last-ditch effort to resist removal.
Concentration Camps • Prison/work camps • Jews were taken to camps on overcrowded “Cattle Cars” • Dehumanizing, deliberately brutal • Determined to work people to death; many died from starvation and disease
The Final Solution • Decision that all Jews were to be killed • Continued even after it became clear the Nazis were losing the war • Death camps – gas chambers – furnaces • Death marches – prisoners marched to interior death camps as Nazis lost territory • Holocaust – murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million others
Death Marches
