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'Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' (George Santayana). -is impossible to ascertain the exact number of Jewish victims, statistics indicate that the total was over 5.8 million How many Jews were murdered in each country and what percentage
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'Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' (George Santayana)
-is impossible to ascertain the exact number of Jewish victims, statistics indicate that the total was over 5.8 million How many Jews were murdered in each country and what percentage of the prewarJewish population did they constitute? • Austria 50,000 -- 27.0% Finland 7 -- 0.3% • Italy 7,680 -- 17.3% Norway 762 -- 44.8% • Belgium 28,900 -- 44.0% Poland 3,000,000 -- 90.9% • Latvia 71,500 -- 78.1% Estonia 2,000 -- 44.4% • Bohemia/Moravia 78,150 -- 66.1% France 77,320 -- 22.1% • Lithuania 143,000 -- 85.1% Slovakia 71,000 -- 79.8% • Bulgaria 0 -- 0.0% Greece 67,000 -- 86.6% • Luxembourg 1,950 -- 55.7% Yugoslavia 63,300 -- 81.2% • Denmark 60 -- 0.7% Germany 141,500 -- 25.0% • Netherlands 100,000 -- 71.4% Hungary 569,000 -- 69.0% Romania 287,000 -- 47.1% Soviet Union 1,100,000 -- 36.4%
'..the Holocaust was not the murder of six million Jews, but themurder of one,then another, then another.' (Stephen Smith, co-founder and director of theBeth Shalom Holocaust Centre)
Anti- Semitism -means ‘Hatred of Jews’ • -religious (Jew as Christ-killer), • -economic (Jew as banker, usurer, money-obsessed), • -social (Jew as social inferior, "pushy," vulgar, therefore • excluded from personal contact), • -racist (Jews as an inferior "race"), • -ideological (Jews regarded as subversive or revolutionary), • -cultural (Jews regarded as undermining the moral and structural fiber of civilization)
Anti- Semitism • -for hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews as the Christ -killers. • -had been driven out of almost every European country at one time or another • 1275-were made to wear a yellow badge • 1287- 269 Jews were hanged in the Tower of London painting from 1515 (note the yellow badges)
Anti- Semitism -in medieval times, were ostracized from most professions by local rulers, the church and the guilds -were pushed into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collecting and moneylending -Natural tensions between creditors and debtors were added to social, political, religious, and economic strains -became an element in a vicious circle -peasants were forced to pay their taxes to Jews who were economically coerced into becoming the "front men" for the lords -Jews would then be identified as the people taking their earnings, while peasants remained loyal to the lords
Anti- Semitism • -after WWI, hundreds of Jews were blamed for the defeat • -prejudicegrew during the economic depression which followed • -many Germans were poor and unemployed and wanted someone to blame • -turned on the Jews, many of whom were rich and successful in business • -1929, urging Germans to avoid buying from Jewish shops • “One can do anything to those Goyim. Our people crucified their Christ on the cross, and we do a great business on his birthday....”
Anti- Semitism -Nazis' saw history as a racial struggle -considered the Jewsa race whose goal was world domination and who, therefore, were an obstruction toAryan dominance -considered it their duty to eliminate the Jews, whom they regarded as a threat -the Jews' racial origin made them habitual criminals who could never be rehabilitated and were, therefore, hopelessly corrupt and inferior
Nazi Propaganda • -April 1, 1933-boycott of Jewish shops and businesses by the Nazis • -April 7, 1933-The law for the Re-establishment of the Civil Service expelled all non-Aryans (defined on April 11, 1933 as anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent)from the civil service • -April 7, 1933-prohibited theadmission of lawyers of non-Aryan descent to the Bar. It also denied non-Aryanmembers of the Bar the right to practice law. Similar laws were passedregarding Jewish law assessors, jurors, and commercial judges • -April 22, 1933- The decree regarding physicians' services with the national healthplan denied reimbursement of expenses to those patients who consulted non-Aryandoctors
Nazi Propaganda • -April 25, 1933-restrictedJewish enrollment in German high schools to 1.5% of the student body. Incommunities where they constituted more than 5% of the population, Jews wereallowed to constitute up to 5% of the student body • From a German schoolbook: • Inge sits in the doctor’s waiting room…Again and again her mind dwells on thewarning of the BDM leader (League of German Girls): ‘A German must not consulta Jew doctor! And particularly not a German girl! Many a girl who has gone to aJew doctor to be cured has found disease and disgrace.’The door opens. Inge looks in. There stands the Jew. She screams…she jumps interror. Her eyes stare into the Jewish Doctor’s face. His face is the face of thedevil. In the middle of the devil’s face is a huge crooked nose. Behind thespectacles two criminal eyes. And thick lips that are grinning. A grin that says‘Now I’ve got you at last, little German girl.
Nazi Propaganda May 1939 -Page from antisemitic newspaper, "DerStürmer," -illustration from a medieval book depicting ritual murder, a medieval antisemitic myth, is reproduced
Nazi Propaganda "The Scourge of God, Polish Jews"
Nuremberg Laws • -November1935-Nazis issued the following definition of a Jew: • -anyone with three Jewish grandparents • -someone with two Jewish grandparents who • belonged to the Jewish community on September 15, 1935, or joined thereafter • -wasmarried to a Jew or Jewess on September 15, 1935, or married one thereafter • -wasthe offspring of a marriage or extramarital liaison with a Jew on or after September • 15, 1935
Nuremberg Laws • -Mischlinge(hybrids) were divided into two groups: • -Mischlingeof the first degree--those with two Jewish grandparents • -Mischlingeof the second degree--those with one Jewish grandparent • -were officially excluded from membership in the Nazi Party and allParty organizations (e.g. SA, SS, etc.) • -were drafted into the GermanyArmy, they could not attain the rank of officers • -were also barred from the civilservice and from certain professions • -wereplans to sterilizeMischlinge, but this was never done • -many were sent to concentration and death camps
Nuremberg Laws -1940-all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J’ -also had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat
Kristallnacht • -November 9, 1938 • -”Night of Broken Glass” • -91 Jews were killed • -30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps • -Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked • -over 1,000 synagogues wereburned • -over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged Interior of Berlin's FasanenstrasseSynagogue
Kristallnacht • -pretext for the attacks was the assassination of German diplomat by a German-born Polish Jew in Paris, France • -was followed by further economic and political persecution of Jews • -is viewed by historians as the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust synagogue in Munich
Kristallnacht • The Daily Telegraph, 12/11/1938 • An eyewitness account ofKristallnacht • Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout this afternoon and evening, andhordes of hooligans indulged (took part in) an orgy of destruction. I haveseen several anti-Jewishoutbreaks during the last five years, but neveranything as sickening as this. • Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold ofotherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping theirhands and screaming with glee, while respectable mothers held theirbabies to see the ‘fun’. • The fashionable shopping centre of the capital has been reducedto a shambles, with the streets littered with the wreckage of sackedJewish shops and offices. No attempt was made by the police to stopthe rioters.
The St. Louis May 13-June 17, 1939 • -German transatlantic linersailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. • -938 passengers • -almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. Most were German citizens, some were from Eastern Europe, and a few were officially "stateless."
The St. Louis • -majority of thepassengers had applied for U.S. visas, and had planned to stay in Cuba only until they could enter the United States • -political instability in Cuba meant that they could not leave the ship and were told to go back to Europe • -was forced to return to Europe in June 1939 • -US (and Canada) refused to accept any refugees- were eventually accepted by Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands • -many were eventually caught up in the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to murder the Jews of Europe
Wannsee Conference • -Berlin, January20, 1942 • -lasted only about ninety minutes • -is where German officials discussed the implementation of the “Final Solution” • (Germany's plan to murder allthe Jews of Europe) • -systematic murder of Jews did not begin until the Germaninvasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 • -aimed to kill 11 million Jews
Wannsee Conference • Organization of the Final Solution: • Women, children, the old & the sick were to be sent for ‘special treatment.’ • On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’ • The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East. • The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’ • Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the hope of better conditions • Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war effort • Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes • The Jews living in these Ghettos were to be used as a cheap source of labour.
Ghettos • Tactics used by the Nazis to get the Jews to leave the Ghettos: • Deception- were told that they were going to ‘resettlement areas’ • in the East • -In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their own train tickets • -They were told to bring the tools of their trade and pots and pans • -New arrivals at the Death camps were given postcards to • send to their friends • Terror- SS publicly shot people for smuggling food or for any act of resistance • Starvation- Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a day (we need 2400 calories a day to maintain our weight) • -hungry people are easier to control
Ghettos • -Warsaw ghetto • -created autumn 1940 • -had housed 240,000 Jews and 80,000 Christians • -Christians were given an order of eviction, and a month later the ghetto was sealed off by a wall • -March 1941- 445,000 Jews were living in the ghetto, and conditions deteriorated rapidly
Ghettos -summer 1942- 265,000 Jews were sent to Treblinka -vast majority were to die in the gas chambers. These sudden evictions, coupled with the news of Nazi crimes which were filtering in through the underground, laid the foundations for the Ghetto Uprising, which began in earnest in April 1943. -led to the further slaughter of some 55, 000 Jews -area was liquidated in May 1943 -entire ghetto was razed to the ground
Ghettos • Judenrat -council of Jews, appointed by the Nazis in each Jewishcommunity or ghetto • were led by noted community leaders • -enforcement of Nazi decrees affecting Jews and administration of the affairs of theJewish community were the responsibilities of the Judenrat • -were guided, for the most part, by • a sense of communal responsibility, but lacked the power and the means tosuccessfully thwart Nazi plans forannihilation of all Jews
Concentration Camps • -first concentration camp, Dachau, opened on March 22, 1933 • -approximately 5,000,000 non-Jews were killed • -Gypsies, Serbs, Polish intelligentsia, resistance • fighters from all the nations, German opponents of Nazism, homosexuals, Jehovah'sWitnesses, habitual criminals, and the "anti-social," e.g. beggars, vagrants, andhawkers
Concentration Camps “Destruction Through Work” (fed 200 calories per day)
Concentration Camps Same group six weeks later
Concentration Camps Ovens at Dachau
Concentration Camps A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution
Concentration Camps -stash of gold wedding rings taken from victims at Buchenwald
Concentration Camps An American soldier stands near a wagon loaded with corpses outside the crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, following its liberation
Death Camps -a concentration camp with special apparatus specifically designed for systematic murder -six such camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka -all were located in Poland. Why?
Death Camps -were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions -naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda -SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children -all new arrivals went through a process known as ‘selection.’Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent straight to the ‘showers’ which were really the gas chambers
Death Camps -at Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station. -were helped off the cattle trucks by Jews who were specially selected to help the Nazis -at some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm down the new arrivals -at Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music
Death Camps Notice how the Death camp is set out like a factory complex
Death Camps -the SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this gas chamber -dropped canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof -gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses
Death Camps -one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs
Death Camps -”Processing the bodies” -sonderkommando -specially selected Jews were used to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed -were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium