Holocaust Unit (Mr. Klein 2013)

7/29/2019 Holocaust Unit (Mr. Klein 2013)

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1933-1945

Mr. KleinAmerican History II

Hillel AcademySpring 2013


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The Jews Under Nazi Rule

1933-1939


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Eugenics: Science based on improving thegenetic composition of the population byeliminating the weak (only strong genespropagate)

Nazis have goal of purifying Aryan gene pool

Seek to eliminate:

Gypsies

The mentally and physically handicapped

Jews


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Roots of Hitlers Hatred: Years of poverty in Vienna:

resentment grew.

Jews ran many of the mostsuccessful businesses(offended his idea of Aryansuperiority)


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signature


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signature


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Roots of Hitlers Hatred: Years of poverty in Vienna:

resentment grew.

Jews ran many of the mostsuccessful businesses(offended his idea of Aryansuperiority)

Blamed Jewish businessmen

and politicians for Germanysdefeat in the First World War

Weimer Foreign Ministerwho signed Treaty of

Versailles was Jewish


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Walther RathenauWeimar Foreign Minister


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War hero in WWI (earned two Iron Crosses)

Joined German Workers Party in 1919

Rose to leadership and changed name to National

Socialist Party (Nazi) Led failed coup in 1923 (Beer Hall Putsch)

Sent to prison writes Mein Kampf

Becomes very wealthy

Nazis take majority ofReichstag(parliament)in 1933

Hitler becomes leader of Germany that year


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Opened months afterHitler becameChancellor (1933)

Initially held politicalprisoners (communists,social democrats, etc.)

Meant to CONTAIN(Like Weyler)

One of the first wasDachau


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After1933, Hitler began to mobilize fullpowers of the state against the Jews.

Deprive the Jews ofnormal lives and civil rights

Alienate them in the eyes of the rest of Germanys

citizenry.

Banned from civil and public services jobs

Segregated all public facilities

Organized boycotts of Jewish shops

Businesses marked with Star of David (or

swastika) and often vandalized


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You Jewish pig, may your hands rot off!


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Children could not be educated past the age of 14 Could not use parks, hospitals, libraries, public

benches, or, in certain cities, sidewalks Could not own firearms or any other weapons Were given a maximum amount of money they could

have on hand; they were not allowed to use banks Were given curfews and had to be in their homes by

the specified time

More Than 400Passed!


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Taught in schoolabout Hitler and howhe was Germanyssavior

Taught about therace laws and how tospot Jews by their

appearance

Jewish Childrenexpelled from public

schools in 1938


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Organization for AryanChildren

Taught Anti-Semitismand prepared for future

military service Optional at first

mandatory by 1939 forall boys 14+

8 million members by1940 used for militarysupport roles


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Next Step in Restricting Jewish Rights:

Took away German citizenship

Forbid intermarriage/relationships with pureGermans

Jews could not employ Germans asdomestic workers

Jews could not display colors of GermanFlag


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Men Given Middle Name IsraelWomen Given Middle Name Sarah


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Goal was to induce mass emigration of Jews

out of Germany

If life made miserable enough, Jews will leave

50% of Germanys Jewish Population of

500,000 does flee

Liquidation of Jewish inhabitants of Europe

only begins after 1940


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But Where to Go???


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US Tightens Immigration by Introducing

Quotas in 1921

Doors no longer open to all immigrants

Set precise quotas as to how many people couldcome to US from each country in Europe

Will only grant visas for number of new immigrants

equal to 3% of that nationality already in the US

US Further Tightened Immigration in 1924

Now 165,000 immigrants a yearTOTAL


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Northwest Europeand Scandinavia

Eastern andSouthern Europe

Other Countries

Country Quota Country Quota Country Quota

Germany 51,227 Poland 5,982 Africa (other than Egypt) 1,100

Great Britain and NorthernIreland

34,007 Italy 3,845 Armenia 124

Irish Free State (Ireland) 28,567 Czechoslovakia 3,073 Australia 121

Sweden 9,561 Russia 2,248 Palestine 100

Norway 6,453 Yugoslavia 671 Syria 100

France 3,954 Romania 603 Turkey 100

Denmark 2,789 Portugal 503 Egypt 100Switzerland 2,081 Hungary 473

New Zealand & PacificIslands

100

Netherlands 1,648 Lithuania 344 All others 1,900

Austria 785 Latvia 142

Belgium 512 Spain 131

Finland 471 Estonia 124

Free City of Danzig 228 Albania 100Iceland 100 Bulgaria 100

Luxembourg 100 Greece 100

Total (Number) 142,483 Total (Number) 18,439 Total (Number) 3,745

Total (%) 86.5 Total (%) 11.2 Total (%) 2.3

(Total Annual immigrantquota: 164,667)


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Immigration tightened further in 1929

Limited the annual total to 153,714.

Examples:

Great Britain and Northern Ireland: 65,721 Germany: 25,957 Poland: 6,524

Italy: 5,802

Great Preferences given to Northern/WesternEuropeans


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No distinction between regular immigrantsand refugees

After Great Depression starts, US does not

even fill entire quotas

Why?

Not enough jobs for existing citizens

Increase in nativism

Fear loss of American Identity


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Evian-les-Bains, FranceJuly 6-15, 1938


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Called by Roosevelt 32 nations attend

Topic is how to deal with large number ofJewish refugees seeking to flee Germany andAustria

Nuremburg laws and other persecution have German Jewsfleeing Nazi rule

Germanys annexation of Austria in 1938 put another200,000 Jews under Nazi control


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Upon Learning of Evian, Hitler responds:

I can only hope and expect that the other world,

which has such deep sympathy for thesecriminals [Jews], will at least be generous enoughto convert this sympathy into practical aid. We,on our part, are ready to put all these criminals atthe disposal of these countries, for all I care, even

on luxury ships.


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No agreement comes from Evian, butIntergovernmental Committee on Refugees (ICR)formed.

US agrees to give whole quota of 30,000 Germanimmigrant visas to Jewish refugees between1938-1941 (but will not expand quotas)

85,000 (total) refugees actually taken in 1938 and1939

Not nearly enough for all applicants 300,000already had applied by 1939


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A young Polish Jew, Herschel

Grynszpan, killed a low-level Nazi

Excuse to launch a pogrom

Plain clothes SS were given weaponsand the addresses of Jewish businesses

Goebbels said that 'World Jewry' had conspiredto commit the assassination and announced

that, "the Fhrer has decided that demonstrations should not be prepared or organizedby the Party, but insofar as they eruptspontaneously, they are not to be hampered."


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Rioted, looted, and smashed over 7,500 shops

and workplaces

91 Jews murdered, hundreds of synagogueswere burned

30,000 Jews were taken to concentrationcamps (not extermination camps)

Thousands tried to flee the country

Nazi-controlled press said it was spontaneousreaction of ordinary Germans against the

Jews


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A storefront damaged during Kristallnacht.


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A synagogue burns during the Night of Broken Glass.


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1939 - Germanyinvaded Poland

3 million more

Jews underGerman Control

1941 - Germany

invaded Russia

5 million moreJews under

German Control


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Nazis want to segregate Jewish populations ofnewly conquered lands.

Jews forced to leave homes & live in ghettos:

First in Poland, then rest of Eastern Europe

Sectioned off parts of the city many are sealed with

barbed wire and cement fortifications


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Nazis want to segregate Jewish populations ofnewly conquered lands.

Jews forced to leave homes & live in ghettos:

First in Poland, then rest of Eastern Europe

Sectioned off parts of the city, sealed with barbed wireand cement fortifications

Quality of life was horrible. Disease andstarvation ran rampant.


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Jewish child guarding suitcases prior to entering the Lodz Ghetto.


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Children within the Warsaw Ghetto eating a meal.


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Starving Children within the Warsaw Ghetto


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Surely the plight of these children

will spur US action

Right?


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Law proposed that would allow entry to 20,000

Jewish refugee children

Edith Rogers (D Mass.)Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY)


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Roosevelt does not weigh in for or against

Bill stalls in Congress and does not pass

Arguments against included: If we are to increase immigration, we cannot favor one

ethnic group

We should not break up families by taking only children

These children will all require govt aid we cannot afford

Others believe it was actuallyAnti-Semitism thatfueled its demise


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German ship leaves

Hamburg for Cuba with973 refugees (915 areJewish)

Refugees havetemporary visas forCuba intend to waitthere for US visas

When arrive in Cuba,find that Cuban govt has

rescinded their visas and

will not let them in. Gustav Schrder


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Sail around Florida for days while trying to get

entry to US

US will not allow to land will not take refugees

MS St. Louis forced to sail back to Europe

Schrder refuses to take 915 Jewish refugees toGermany

Delays as crosses ocean Considers wrecking ship off Great Britain

Arranges landing in Antwerp, Belgium

Refugees taken in by Belgium, GB, and France


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Belgium and France later occupied by Germany

Luckily, many of the refugees from the St. Louisare able to flea ahead of Nazi invasion

Still, approximately 254 of the refugees from the

St. Louis perish in the Holocaust


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Heinrich Himmler: in charge of SS andGestapo, one of most powerful men inNazi GermanyArchitect of FinalSolution

Rudolf Hss: Commandant of Auschwitz

Adolf Eichman: SS officer responsible forlogistics of carrying out Final Solution

Joseph Goebbels: Minister of Propaganda
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_7//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Eichmann,_Adolf.jpg


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1940-1945


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Means interventiongroup

4 specially trained SSunits sent to followGerman army intoSoviet Union

Eliminate allundesirables communists, political

activists, and Jews

Victims were taken todeserted areas - madeto dig own graves

before they were shot


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In January 1942, Himmler

decided to change tacticsand called a specialconference at Wannsee

Nazis decided that thecurrent methods were tooinefficient:

Bullets needed for war

Shooting was causingpsychological damage toGerman troops

A new Final Solution is

needed


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How was the Final

Solution going to

be organized?

Jews were to be

rounded up and putinto transit areas

called Ghettos

The Jews living inthese camps were to

be used as a cheap

source of labor then

shipped to death

camps

Conditions in the Ghettos

were designed to be so bad

that many die while the rest

would be willing to leave

these areas in the hope of

better conditions

On arrival there is a

selection process.

The survivors

were then shippedto resettlement

areas in the East.

Determines who will

be exterminated

immediately and who

will be put to hard

labor

Recent study shows over

14,000 resettlement

camps existed


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Germany finds Zyklon-B,an industrial pesticide,can be used to kill largenumbers of people

Zyklon-B is first tested atAuschwitz on Sept 3,1941 to execute Soviet

and Polish POWs

Extermination of Jews viagassing begins in

January, 1942


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The work of the

Einsatzgruppen


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Tactics

Starvation

The Jews in the

Warsaw Ghetto were

only fed a 1000

calories a day .

A Human being needs

2,400 calories a day tomaintain body weight

Terror

The SS publicly shot people

for smuggling food or for

any act of resistance

Deception

The Jews 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.

Hungry people are

easier to control

New arrivals at theDeath camps were

given postcards to

send to their friends.


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The SS guards who murdered

the Jews were brainwashedwith Anti-Semitic propaganda

The Jews were transported incattle cars in terribleconditions

Naked, dirty and half starvedpeople look like animals,which helped to reinforce Nazipropaganda

At Auschwitz, new guardswould fill burning trencheswith live victims usually theelderly

First person account (http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/stories/Pelt_sources/Buchenwald_Report_extract.html)


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Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station


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Notice how the Deathcamp is set out like a

factory complex

The Nazis usedindustrial methodsto murder the Jewsand process their

dead bodies
http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/krematoria_komory_gazowe_foto_ausch_26.06.44.html


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Deception &Selection

At Auschwitz the trains

pulled into a mock up

of a normal station.

The Jews were helped

off the cattle trucksby Jews who were

specially selected to

help the Nazis

At some death campsthe 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.

All new arrivals wentthrough a process

known as selection.

Mothers, children, theold & sick were sent

straight to the

showers which were

really the gas

chambers.

The able bodied were

sent to work camp

were they were killedthrough a process

known as destruction

through work.


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New Arrivals

Destruction

Through

Work

Showers


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Nazis force largegroups of prisonersinto small cementrooms

Drop Zyklon B throughsmall holes in the roof

Sometimes disguisedas showers or bathinghouses to deceive thevictims

The SS would try to pack 2000 people into this gas chamber


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Notice the Ovens located near the Gas Chambers


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Upon arrival, Nazis chose

certain Jews asSonderkommando andsegregated them

Used to remove the gold

fillings, personal items, andhair of people who had beengassed.

The Sonderkommando werealso forced to feed the deadbodies into the ovens.

Killed every 4 months to

keep secrets of camps


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Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum.

This represents one day's collection 25,000 pairs


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After US enters WWII, immigration curbed further

All visa applications from Axis-occupied nationsheavily scrutinized

Fear of admitting spies and saboteurs to US

Forbid immigration of persons with close

relatives in Axis-occupied nations to avertblackmail-induced espionage

No exception made for Jewish refugees but

majority of visas issued do go to European Jews 150,000 Jewish immigrants admitted over 5 years

Other problem is that after 1941, difficult for Jews tophysically leave German-occupied lands


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Nazis tried to keep extermination campaign a secret

Did not even use the word Jews in messages

United States first receives information aboutGerman plan to annihilate all European Jews in

August of 1942

Supplied to US Consulate in Switzerland

Info was requested to be forward to Rabbi Stephen

Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress

US feels report needs substantiation before makinginformation public does not forward to Rabbi Wise


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Rabbi Wise gets report fromGreat Britain at same time

Seeks US permission to

announce it but is denied

By November, evidence ofgenocide is piling up.

Rabbi Wise holds pressconference to make reportpublic on Nov. 17, 1942


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NY Times was leading newspaper in US

Roundly criticized for lack of attention brought to

Holocaust Editor was Arthur Hays Sulzberger

Belonged to synagogue, but believed to not want to

appear pro-Jewish in news coverage

Times publishes 1,200 stories on persecution of Jewsby Nazis only 26 are front page

Wise press-conference buried on page 10


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December 17, 1942

United States, Great Britain, and ten other Alliedgovernments issued a declaration denouncing Nazi

Germany's intention to murder the Jews of Europe.

The declaration warned Nazi Germany that it wouldbe held responsible for these crimes.

Makes front page of New York Times


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US and Great Britain meet in Bermuda to discuss

options for saving European Jews

Not attended by Roosevelt or Churchill (sentdiplomats)

Proceedings closed to public, but Jewish leaderssend proposed plans for rescue

No rescue plan emerges decision is that bestway to save the most lives is to devote all efforts todefeat the Nazis quickly

Widely considered a sham only done to stop publicpressure, not with intent of saving a single Jew.


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Page advertisement taken out in NY Times to expose Sham


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Established via Executive Order on January 22, 1944

Stated Goal of WRB is:

[T]o take all measures within its powerto rescuethe victims of enemy oppression who are inimminent danger of death and otherwise to affordsuch victims all possible relief and assistance

consistent with the successful prosecution of thewar.

Executive Order 9417


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WRB helped $20 million of relief funding for food,

shelter and escape to reach European Jews

Encouraged neutral nations of Europe to allow entryto any refugee who could reach their borders

Coordinated covert operations to evacuate Jewsfrom Nazi-occupied Hungary

Credited by historians at national HolocaustMemorial Museum with saving a minimum of 200,000lives


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Up until 1944, Allies have no ability to bomb

Poland (no bases close enough)

In 1944, Allies heavily petitioned by various

Jewish groups to bomb the gas chambersand railroad lines of Auschwitz to stop thekilling.

Allies respond that they cannot divert anyairpower away from attacking military targetsand afraid of killing prisoners.

BUT


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Allies are bombing military targets in Auschwitz complex,

but not the extermination camp itself

Synthetic Oil/Rubber Factory

5 miles


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When Alliedtroops find the

camps there aremore victimsthan survivors

Even at labor

camps, Naziskilled as manyprisoners aspossible beforeretreating

Thousands diedeven aftermedical careand food

supplied


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Impossible to know exact numbers

Estimated 6,000,000 European Jewskilled by Nazis

Estimated 7,000,000 other personsalso killed (combined)

Gypsies Communists Political opponents Christian Poles

All that is needed for evil to


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prevail is for a good man to

do nothing.

Holocaust Unit (Mr. Klein 2013)

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