Transcript the Holocaust
the Holocaust
The power of words
• “ The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one.
” • “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.” • “ The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.
” • “ I believe today I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am doing the Lord’s work.” - Adolf Hitler
The holocaust
*holocaust (noun):
Greek word meaning “ sacrifice by fire ”
*The Holocaust (proper noun):
The systematic murder of appr. 6 million Jews and others by the Nazis and its collaborators.
The Holocaust
* Genocide:
•
6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, but did you know 6 million non Jews were also murdered?
destroying a group of people because of their ethnic, national, racial, or religious identity
• • • • • • • • •
* Nazi target groups: Jews Gypsies Homosexuals (mostly men) Disabled - mentally & physically Polish, Russians Jehovah’s Witnesses (allowed to be freed, but refused) Anyone who opposed the Nazi government “Useless eaters”
Adolf Hitler
• Born April 20, 1889 • Upper Austria, not far from the German border, in what was then Austria-Hungary • His father, Alois Hitler, had been born illegitimately. Until he was 40, Alois used his mother's surname, Schicklgruber. • Later, Alois took on his adoptive father's surname.
Hitler in WW1
• Hitler volunteered to serve as a dispatch runner in WW1 where he was wounded and decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross • Saw Jewish officials staying out of harms way • He went back to the front and was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack. • (Because of the number of young men who were blinded by chemicals inWW-1 it was outlawed; it’s why we went into Iraq. Hitler never used chemical warfare even though he had no problem gassing the Jews Hitler hated the idea of it.)
Hitler in WW1
• Hitler remained in the military and became an Intelligence Agent assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers’ Party.
• became the party’s 55th member. • He was soon discharged from the Army (cut-backs), and joined the German Workers’ Party full time. • It soon became apparent that Hitler was brilliant at talking to large crowds.
The Nazi (National Socialist German Workers') Party
• Hitler designed the party’s banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.
• He encouraged national pride, militarism, and a commitment to the Volk and a racially "pure" Germany. • Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting anti-Semitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. • He changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, called for short, the Nazi Party (or NSDAP)
NAZI =
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
• (NSDAP) was founded in Germany on January 5, 1919.
• Its platform was based on militaristic, racial, anti Semitic and nationalistic policies.
How it began
• * Treaty of Versailles 1918. • – peace treaty signed at the end of WW1, in Stripped Germany of all Army, Navy, Air Force • • • Germany had to repair war damages- $33 billion Germany had to acknowledge guilt for causing WWI Germany could not manufacture any weapons.
• Economic status • “ Thousands and thousands of Germans have been made wretched by the Jews and been reduced to poverty.
” • “ Under extreme circumstances, people will look for extreme solutions.
” • So, how do you pay off a war debt?
Hyperinflation
• 1914: $1 = 4 DM • 1921: $1 = 163 DM • Nov. 1923: $1 = 130 Billion DM • Dec. 1923: $1 = 4.2 Trillion DM • the American dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks • Cost of a loaf of bread = 200 Billion DM
Why Jews?
• • •
* Anti-Semitism:
hostility toward or discrimination against Jews
Popular around the world; not a new concept Don’t like those who are “different” •
Anti-Semitism reached terrifying heights with Hitler’s rise to power.
“
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
” • Documented minutes from a meeting with the Elders of Zion, describing a Jewish plan for global domination.
• “ Proved ” a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, start depressions, and start wars. • It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages.
• Henry Ford funded the printing of 500,000 copies to be distributed throughout the US in the 1920’s. • Adolf Hitler and the Nazis publicized the text as though it were a valid document, although it had already been exposed as a fraud. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, it ordered the text to be studied in German classrooms.
“
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
” •
Hitler used the
Protocols
as his primary justification for initiating the Holocaust—his "warrant for genocide”.
• “ The goal of the Jew is to make himself the ruler of humanity.
” – Hitler •
When the war was over, Nazi leader, Erich von dem Bach Zelewsky said, “This is the greatest lie of anti-Semitism because it gives the lie…that the Jews are conspiring to dominate the world and that they are so highly organized. In reality, they had no organization of their own at all...they were taken completely by surprise. Never before has a people gone as unsuspectingly to its disaster. Nothing was prepared. Absolutely nothing.”
It’s “science”!
• * Hitler identified Jews as a
race, not a religious group
!
• • Jewish people could not simply change religions, for their “defect” was in their genes. Race is a genetic distinction, and refers to people with shared ancestry and shared genetic traits. You can't change your race; it's in your DNA.
• • •
*Eugenics: the study of methods of improving the quality of the human race, especially by selective breeding .
Based on early 20 th century understanding of the science of genetics, eugenicists believed that
people should be bred as farmers breed animals: deliberately weeding out “ inferior ” traits
. The Nazis believed that they could create a “ a master race ”
The master race
Aryan race:
The Nazis believed that people of Northern European ancestry – especially those with blue eyes and blonde hair – were superior to all other people.
In 1933, there were few people of African or Asian ancestry living in Germany. There were, however, 500,000 Jews who seemed to threaten “racial purity”.
How do you know who is Jewish?
• Lived in the country for centuries • Fully integrated in society • Jews considered themselves to be Germans • November 1935 German churches begin to collaborate with Nazis by supplying records • Data processing was used to take a census in all German territory that included questions on religious heritage
Nuremberg laws
• • • • •
* The Nuremberg Laws:
American slavery.
established officially who was a Jew, based on If you have a Jewish ancestor, you are a Jew “Half” and “Quarter” Jews Considered subhuman One use for this classification was to permit or to deny couples the right to marry (and thus to reproduce) • 1935: Jewish Newspapers could no longer be sold • 1936: Jews lost the right to vote • 1938: Jews had to surrender drivers’ licences & car registrations
It’s “science”!
• Because the inferior aspect of Jews was in their genes, the Nazis could tell who was Jewish based on physically features. • Along with synagogue records, kits like these were used to identify who was Jewish.
Prejudice
murder Ghettos
• By 1939, the Nazis were thinking of ways to get the Jews out of Germany. • Created mandatory “ Jewish Quarters ” in Poland. *Ghettos: section of a city where Jews from the surrounding areas were forced to reside, surrounded by barbed wire or walls.
Concentration camps
• • •
*Final Solution: The code name Nazis used
for the total annihilation of the Jews.
Did not specify what the solution would be, but it permitted Nazis to handle question ” “ the Jewish in ways that went beyond “ emigration and evacuation ” .
Starting in 1941, Jews were rounded up under the excuse of a sent to camps. “ resettlement ” - and
Concentration camps
•
In the ghetto, Jews were told that they were being taken into “protective custody” and beings sent to work.
•
They were told to bring clothes, money, food, etc. (why?) and were herded onto train cars.
•
Conditions were horrific; average 4 days
The camps
• •
*Concentration/Labor
: established for people to do work (usually useless) and hold POW’s. With very insufficient food and terrible conditions, the goal was “death by work”. •
Death Camp
: one purpose – mass murder.
Life in the camps
• Minimum working day of eleven hours in all concentration camps.
An end to the madness
• * By 1945, Allied troops were invading Europe and getting closer to discovering the camps.
• Nazis started burning and destroying camps and all evidence, which included any surviving prisoners. • “ Death Marches ” • As English, American, and Russian troops advanced, they came upon these camps and liberated anyone still alive.
Hitler’s death
• Suicide - April 30 1945 • Making him 56 years old • 5’8”
Nuremberg triAls
• *On November 22, 1945, the
Nuremberg Trials
began.
• Many SS guards claimed after the war that they had just “ been following orders.
” • The Commander of Auschwitz was asked if the Jews whom he had murdered had in any way deserved their fate. He answered, thinking…” “ Don ’ t you see, we SS men were not supposed to think about these things…We were all so trained to obey orders without even
Europe in 1938
Obligation to Help?
“No country is going to sacrifice its men for nothing and certainty not in the interests of others.” – Anne, pg. 238 •How much did the world know?
• Even most of those taken to the camps to die did not know what was happening. •How much could information could get around?
• Once you were in a camp, you did not leave. There was no one to tell the story of what was really happening.
•At what point do you interfere? • When are conditions bad enough to sacrifice your own men?
“The most dangerous part is the bystander because neutrality always helps the killer.” – Holocaust survivor Miles Lerman
The
U
. .
A
.
• Anti-Semitism • How much different than slavery? • • Legal segregation: different schools, different parts of the bus Did not accept full immigration quota • Current condition • • The Great Depression Did
NOT
want to enter another war • How much did we know was going on?
• No instant media (Germany controlling what information got out anyway) • • Real, hard evidence in 1942 (
) Reports were “ too horrible to believe ” !
• Simply did not see it coming • “ Unfathomable ”
The Riegner Report
“ Received alarming report that in Fuhrer's headquarters plan discussed and under consideration according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled Germany numbering 3 1/2 - 4 million should after deportation and concentration in east be exterminated at one blow to resolve once and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action reported planned for autumn; methods under discussion including prussic acid. We transmit information with all necessary reservation as exactitude cannot be confirmed. Informant stated to have close connections with highest German authorities and his reports generally speaking reliable.
”
Timeline of WWII
(Germany ’ s perspective) • 1938 : invades Austria • “ German people anyway ” • 1939 : invades Checlozivakia • Non-German; people start to worry 1940: Battle of Britain Only ones fighting against Hitler Constantly bombed • 1939 : invades Poland • Britain and France declare war • “ Phony war ” • 1940 : invades France • • Most powerful army in the world!
Defeated in under 6 weeks ( “ uh-oh ” – U.S.A.) 1941: Japan attacks U.S
U.S. declares war on Japan, so Germany declares war on U.S.
Not to rescue, b/c we were attacked
Say What?!
• 3 of Hitler’s top army officials were “half Jews”. • Hitler ’ s personal doctor was Jewish.
• Several members of the SS, including the commander Ernst Rohm, were openly homosexual. • Sturm Abteilung (Stormtroopers) abbreviated to SA
• The SA (Sturm Abteilung 'Storm battalion) was formed from front line Nazi Party activists to protect Nazi Party candidates who were campaigning during elections. Their role included using violence against political opponents. At its height, during WW2, the SA contained some 4 million members. The SS (Schutzstaffel 'Protection Echelon') began as Hitler's personal bodyguard. It owed its loyalty directly to Hitler himself, rather than the Nazi Party.