An American Soldier’s Diary, 1945

Please take out a piece of paper and something to write with. You will do all of your quick-writes for today on this paper and turn it in at the end of the hour.

An American Soldier’s Diary, 1945 “One thousand Weimar citizens toured the Buchenwald camp in groups of 100. They saw blackened skeletons and skulls in the ovens of the crematorium. In the yard outside, they saw a heap of white human ashes and bones. . . The living actually looked worse than the dead. Those who lived wore striped uniforms, with the stripes running up and down. Those who were dead were stripped of their clothing and lay naked, many stacked like cordwood waiting to be burned in the crematory. At one time, 5,000 had been stacked on the vacant lot next to the crematory. Often. . . . The SS wished to make an example of someone in killing him. They hung him on the lot adjacent to the crematory, and all the three sections of the camp witnessed the sight—some 30,000 prisoners. They used what I call hay hooks, catching him under the chin and the other in the back of his neck. He hung in this manner until he died.” --diary of Captain Luther D. Fletcher, from World War II: From the Battle Front to the Home Front

Quick-Write Take a few minutes to write a brief reflection on what you’ve just seen. Be sure to include what you were thinking and feeling when viewing the images and listening to the diary entry.

The Holocaust How did the U.S. respond? Why does it matter today?

Towards a “Final Solution” • The Nazis persecuted anyone who dare opposed them, but they reserved their strongest hatred for the Jewish. • They viewed Jewish people as evil and responsible for all of the hardships suffered by Germany.

Towards a “Final Solution” • The Nuremberg Laws: In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws took effect. • They took citizenship away from Jewish Germans. • They prohibited Jews from holding public office and eliminated their voting rights. • Their passports were also marked with a red “J” to identify them as Jewish.

Towards a “Final Solution” • By 1936, at least half of Germany’s Jews were jobless. • They were prevented from practicing law, medicine, and operating a business. • Anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany and Austria on November 9, 1938 known as Kristallnacht. • Kristallnacht means “night of broken glass.” • A week after Kristallnacht the Nazi government ordered the Jewish community to pay for the damages.

Towards a “Final Solution” • Between 1933 and the beginning of World War II in 1939, about 350,000 Jews escaped Nazi-controlled Germany. • Many of them emigrated to the United States. • Millions of Jews remained trapped in Nazi-dominated Europe because they could not get visas to the United States or to other countries. • The U.S. did not make any effort to help the Jews. They kept immigration limited thanks to quotas, unemployment, anti-Semitism, and Jewish poverty.

Towards a “Final Solution” • In 1939 Hitler adopted a policy of genocide against the Jewish people. • He had a special unit of the Nazi party (Einsatzgruppen) put in charge of the killing.

The “Final Solution” • On January 20, 1942, Nazi leaders met at the Wannsee Conference to decide the “final solution of the Jewish question” • Previous “solutions” were to gather up and shoot them and dispose of the bodies in mass graves • The “final solution” was to round up Jews and other “undesirables” from Nazi-controlled Europe and take them to concentration camps

Primary Source “The snow fell thickly. We were forbidden to sit down or even move. The snow began to form a thick layer over our blankets. They brought us bread—the usual ration. We threw ourselves upon it. Someone had the idea of appeasing his thirst by eating the snow. Soon the others were imitating him. As we were not allowed to bend down, everyone took out his spoon and ate the accumulated snow off his neighbor’s back. A mouthful of bread and a spoonful of snow. The SS [guards] who were watching laughed at the spectacle.” Elie Wiesel, Night

The “Final Solution” • Concentration camps were detention centers where healthy individuals worked as slave laborers. • The elderly, the sick and young children were sent to extermination camps to be killed in large gas chambers. • Thousands of people at concentration and extermination camps were killed each day. • 1/3 of the world’s Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust.

Eyewitness Account “[There] were two barracks: the men stood on one side, the women on the other. They were addressed in a very polite and friendly way: ‘You have been on a journey. You are dirty. You will take a bath. Get undressed quickly.’ Towels and soap were handed out, and then suddenly the brutes woke up and showed their true faces: this horde of people, these men and women were driven outside with hard blows and forced both summer and winters to go the few hundred meters to the ‘Shower Room.’ Above the entry door was the word ‘Shower’. One could even see shower heads on the ceiling which were cemented in but never had water flowing through them. These poor innocents were crammed together, pressed against each other. Then panic broke out, for at last they realized the fate in store for them. But blows with rifle butts and revolver shots soon restored order and finally they all entered the death chamber. The doors were shut and, ten minutes later, the temperature was high enough to facilitate the condensation of the hydrogen cyanide. This was the so-called ‘Zyklon B’. . . which was used by the German Barbarians. . . One could hear fearful screams, but a few moments later there was complete silence.” --Andre Lettich, Jewish prisoner assigned to remove bodies from the gas chambers at Birkeneau from Nazism 1919-1945, Volume 3: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination – A Documentary Reader

Liberation • As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camps. • Only after U.S. and Allied soldiers helped to liberate the concentration camps, did the full extent of the horror of the Holocaust become known.

What do you think the U.S. should have done in response to the Holocaust? http://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/LTE1NzExODAzMDQ

Putting the enemy on trial • After the war, the Allies tried Nazi leaders as war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. • 3 were acquitted and 7 were given prison sentences. • The remaining 12 were sentenced to death. • Lower-ranking officials and military officers were also tried as criminals. • 24 were executed. • 107 were given prison sentences.

Building a new world • The war crimes trials punished many of the people responsible for WWII and the Holocaust, but they were also part of the American plan to build a better world. • In response to the Holocaust, the Allies helped to establish the modern-day Jewish state of Israel.

Class discussion • 1. How did the U.S. respond to the persecution of Jews before and after the Holocaust? Do you agree with the actions or lack thereof taken by the U.S. and Allied forces? • 2. In what ways was the discrimination of the Jews in the Holocaust similar to the discrimination of Japanese-Americans during internment? • 3. Where does one draw the line between obeying the law and obeying one’s conscience? • 4. Why is the study of the Holocaust relevant, or important today?

An American Soldier’s Diary, 1945