The Holocaust. “Auschwitz taught us what man is capable of doing. Hiroshima taught us what is at stake.” Victor Frankl.

The Holocaust

“Auschwitz taught us what man is capable of doing.

Hiroshima taught us what is at stake.”

Victor Frankl

Three Questions to Consider

Posed by Lucy Dawidowicz in

The War Against the Jews (1975)

Question #1

How was it possible for a modern state to carry out the systematic murder of an entire people for no other reason than that they were Jewish?

The Holocaust and Modernity

Only a modern state, with its capacity for bureaucratic organization, mass communication/propaganda, and modern technology (e.g. railroads, mass communications) could carry out murder on such a scale.

The Holocaust was systematic

The Holocaust was centrally planned and an expression of state policy. To carry out the transport and murder of millions took significant organization and involved many government agencies and tens of thousands of workers.

Why the Jews?

Anti-Jewish attitudes deeply rooted in European Christian culture and society.

Jews historically charged with the crime of deicide (murder of God).

All measures taken by the Nazis against the Jews had precursors in European history (badges, ghettos, restrictive laws, etc).

Anti-Jewish Propaganda

This is a poster from the anti-Semitic movie, The Eternal Jew. It was shown in theatres throughout Germany and depicted Jews in the most appalling and stereotypical manner.

The History of anti-Semitism

Early Christianity: You cannot live among us as Jews.

Middle Ages: You cannot live among us.

Holocaust: You cannot live.-Raoul Hilberg

The Holocaust was systematic

The Nazis came to power in January 1933. The systematic murder of Jews didn’t begin until 1941.

The Holocaust was preceded by government policies designed to isolate the Jews and condition the population to accept anti-Jewish policies.

Stages of the Holocaust

1. Anti-Jewish Legislation (1933-1935)

2. (a) Boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany (April 1, 1933)

3. (b) Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of rights of citizenship and barred Jews from education, professions, and public spaces (parks, pools, theatres, etc). Jews disappeared from German public life.

Stages of the Holocaust

2. Persecution (1938-39)

3. *Kristallnacht (November 1938) Anti-Jewish pogrom orchestrated by Nazis after murder of German diplomat by Jewish youth.

4. *Expulsion: Germany attempted to expel many Jews from the Reich. Few nations would accept Jewish refugees.

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

On November 9, 1938, the Nazis orchestrated an

attack on Jews throughout the Reich. Synagogues

and Jewish business were burned. Jews were

arrested and interned. The Jewish communities had to pay for the damage to

Jewish property.

States of the Holocaust (3)

GhettoizationThe German invasion of Poland in September 1939 brought millions of Jews under German control in an area called the General Government. Jewish ghettos, reminiscent of the Middle Ages, were established. Jews were segregated in ghettos were they were systematically starved and exploited as slave labour.

Ghetto Life

A child is arrested in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Ghetto Life (2)

Stages of the Holocaust (4)

The Final Solutionbegan with the invasion of Russia in June 1941

• Nearly 2 million Jews murdered by Einsatzgruppen (“special action” units)

• Method of killing (mass shooting) deemed too slow and difficult for killers

The Einsatzgruppen

Stages of the Holocaust (5)

Wannsee Conference (Jan 1942) SS leaders (under Heydrich and Eichmann) met in Berlin to confirm plans for “final solution” to the Jewish question.

Extermination camps (1941-1944) Millions of Jews killed at Auschwitz,

Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Death Camps

Auschwitz

.

Notice how the entrance looks like a Train Station

Auschwitz Complex

Auschwitz was made up of three main camps and thirty-nine sub-camps where prisoners did forced labor. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)Auschwitz I had three purposes: capture Nazi enemies, create a forced labor group, and ensure Germany’s safety by getting rid of certain groups. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)Auschwitz II, Birkenau, was the main death camp. (Shuter, 6)Auschwitz III, Monowitz, was a.k.a. the Labor Education Camp where prisoners were forced to work. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)

SelectionUpon arrival, prisoners were either sent directly to the gas chambers or were put to forced labor. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)The 10-30% chosen for labor were mostly strong men from about age eighteen to forty. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)The young, old, or weak were sent to be killed. (Shuter 6)

Destroying Identities After selection, prisoners stripped their clothes, and their belongings were taken to “Kanada.” (“Auschwitz” n.p.)Next, all of the hair on their bodies was painfully shaved off and they were sent to take a shower. (Shuter11)Their left arm was tattooed with their identification number and they were given uniforms with their ID number sewn on. (Shuter11)

Killing MethodsAt first, the murdering was done close-range, but this left the killers traumatized, so they looked for new methods. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)They began using Hell Vans, where the carbon monoxide rigged to the back would suffocate them. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)The main killing methods were the gas chambers and medical experiments. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)

Hell VansThe prisoners would be shoved into the back of a truck, and it would drive off into the woods. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)The exhaust fumes with carbon monoxide were hooked up to the back, and the gasses would suffocate the prisoners to death. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)“We could hear the screams, but we couldn’t see the people. They were loaded in and murdered there. It was hell. That’s why we called these vans Hell Vans.” ~Zofia Szalek, witness~ (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)

Chambers & Crematoria

Zyklon B, the gas used in the chambers and the Nazi’s best killing method, was the pesticide used to kill lice on clothing. (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.) The Nazis had to continue building more chambers and ovens because they underestimated their rate of killing. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)

Daily LifeBefore toilets and taps were built in the barracks, the prisoners went to the bathroom in a huge hole covered by a wooden bar with holes. (Shuter14)When they got toilets, the prisoners were timed, and if they were in the bathrooms to long, they would be beaten. (Shuter14)Day’s Rations at best:

Breakfast- coffee or tea Lunch- turnip and potato soup Dinner- bread with either sausage, cheese, butter, or jam

(Shuter,15)

Liberation

The Nazis tried to blow up all of the gas chambers/crematoria and burn or erase all records when they heard the Soviets were coming. (Shuter,7)They evacuated the camp and began the death marches. (Shuter 7)When the Soviets arrived, there was still some evidence such as piles of corpses and undestroyed records. (Shuter 7)The Soviets freed 7,600 prisoners, and the truth of the camps was out! (Shuter 7)

Death Marches

When the Soviets were rumored to be coming, the Nazis had to get everyone out of the camps, so they started marching. (Shuter7)If someone fell from being too sick or tired to march, they were immediately shot. (Shuter,7)About 15,000 people died of starvation, being too cold, and exposure on the marches. (“Auschwitz” n.p.)

Outcome

The Nazis were eventually able to kill 2,000-3,000 people per hour at the camps! (“The Killing Evolution” n.p.)There were about 1.3 million people that went into the camps, and about 1.1 million were murdered! (“Auschwitz” n.p.)Out of the 1.1 million killed, 90% of them were Jews!

Dachau

1938 10,000 Jews arrive

Main gate sign

“Arbeit Macht Frei”

Dachau

Registration tags worn

Dachau

1. Jourhaus - gate

2. Roll-call square

3. Schunt room

4. Prisoner Baths

5. Main bldg. & bunker

6. Bunker

7. Camp Road

8. Religious Memorials

9. Memorials

10. Crematorium

The roll call square

It was in this area that the prisoners were counted

every morning & evening, & assigned to their work. Punishment

measures were announced & carried out here

publicly to intimidate the prisoners. As the number

of prisoners increased, the roll-call procedure also became longer & more

exhausting. Dead prisoners were brought to roll-call & included in the

count.

The prisoner’s bath

The baths were the last station of the admission procedure. This is where newly arrived prisoners had their heads shaved, were disinfected, showered & then sent to the barracks dressed in their prisoner clothing. Those already imprisoned came here once a week at the beginning - later less frequently - to "bathe," a procedure that according to the recollection of many survivors often involved harassment.

Solitary Confinement

Dachau

Dachau

Dachau

Dachau

Two crematoria

1942 gas chamber is built Used?

Medical experiments conducted

Dachau

April 29, 1945 liberated by the US 7th Army

27,400 prisoners left alive in camp

Medical Experiments

Nazi doctors conducted as many as 30 different types of experiments of concentration camp inmates.

They did these without consent of the victims who suffered indescribable pain, mutilation, permanent disability, or in the case of many…death.

High Altitude

• In 1942, Sigmund Rascher and others conducted high-altitude experiments on prisoners at Dachau. •Eager to find out how best to save German pilots forced to eject at high altitude, they placed inmates into low-pressure chambers that simulated altitudes as high as 68,000 feet and monitored their physiological response as they succumbed and died. •Rascher was said to dissect victims' brains while they were still alive to show that high-altitude sickness resulted from the formation of tiny air bubbles in the blood vessels of a certain part of the brain. •Of 200 people subjected to these experiments, 80 died outright and the remainder were executed.

Freezing

•To determine the most effective means for treating German pilots who had become severely chilled from ejecting into the ocean, or German soldiers who suffered extreme exposure on the Russian front, Rascher and others conducted freezing experiments at Dachau. •For up to five hours at a time, they placed victims into vats of icy water, either in aviator suits or naked; they took others outside in the freezing cold and strapped them down naked. •As the victims writhed in pain, foamed at the mouth, and lost consciousness, the doctors measured changes in the patients' heart rate, body temperature, muscle reflexes, and other factors. •When a prisoner's internal body temperature fell to 79.7°F, the doctors tried rewarming him using hot sleeping bags, and scalding baths.

Sulfanilamide •For the benefit of the German Army, whose frontline soldiers suffered greatly from gas gangrene, a type of progressive gangrene, doctors at the Ravensbruck concentration camp performed studies to test the effectiveness of sulfanilamide and other drugs in curbing such infections. •They inflicted battlefield-like wounds in victims, then infected the wounds with bacteria such as streptococcus, tetanus, and gas gangrene. •The doctors aggravated the resulting infection by rubbing ground glass and wood shavings into the wound, and they tied off blood vessels on either side of the injury to simulate what would happen to an actual war wound. •Victims suffered intense agony and serious injury, and some of them died as a result.

Twins •In an effort to find ways to more effectively multiply the German race, Dr. Josef Mengele performed experiments on twins at Auschwitz in hopes of plumbing the secrets of multiple births. •After taking all the body measurements and other living data he could from selected twins, Mengele and his collaborators dispatched them with a single injection of chloroform to the heart.

Poison•Researchers at Buchenwald concentration camp developed a method of individual execution by injecting Russian prisoners with phenol and cyanide. •Experimenters also tested various poisons on the human body by secreting noxious chemicals in prisoners' food or shooting inmates with poison bullets. •Victims who did not die during these experiments were killed to allow the experimenters to perform autopsies

Tuberculosis •To determine if people had any natural immunities to tuberculosis, and to develop a vaccine against the disease, Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer injected live tubercle bacilli (bacteria that are a major cause of TB) into the lungs of inmates at the Neuengamme concentration camp. •About 200 adult subjects died, and Heissmeyer had 20 children from Auschwitz hung in an effort to hide evidence of the experiments from approaching Allied forces.

Bone, Muscle, and Joint Transplantation

•To learn if a limb or joint from one person could be successfully attached to another who had lost that limb or joint, experimenters at Ravensbruck amputated legs and shoulders from inmates in useless attempts to transplant them onto other victims. •They also removed sections of bones, muscles, and nerves from prisoners to study regeneration of these body parts. •Victims suffered excruciating pain, mutilation, and permanent disability as a result.

Seawater

•Dr. Hans Eppinger and others at Dachau conducted experiments on how to make seawater drinkable. •The doctors forced roughly 90 Gypsies to drink only seawater while also depriving them of food. •The Gypsies became so dehydrated that they reportedly licked floors after they had been mopped just to get a drop of fresh water.• The experiments caused enormous pain and suffering and resulted in serious bodily injury.

• Few today would disagree about denouncing the Nazi experimenters as barbaric and their experiments as little more than sadistic torture executed under the guise of science.

• As such, many feel that findings from those studies should never be published or used. However, some of the research resulted in data that potentially could save lives today.

• Nazi hypothermia studies, for instance, have been cited in the medical literature for decades, and recently several scientists have sought to use the data in their own work.

"Based on what you now know, do you think doctors and scientists should be able to use data from Nazi death-camp experiments?"

Question #2

How was it possible for an entire people to allow itselfto be destroyed?

Examples of Jewish Resistance

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943)

Revolt of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz (1944)

Sobibor Uprising (1943)

Jews as partisans

Thousands of acts of individual resistance

Jewish Resistance

During Passover 1943, the surviving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto revolted. They held off the Nazis for nearly three weeks before they were subdued.

Why was resistance limited?

There was little support in the larger community.Jews were deceived about their fate.Nazi retaliation threatened the entire community.Family members protected each other.Dehumanization of victims diminished capacity to resist.

Why was resistance limited? (2)

The Jewish experience with persecution “conditioned” Jews to accept their fate.

The concept of the total annihilation of the Jewish communities of Europe was inconceivable to the victims.

Question #3

How was it possible for the world to stand by without halting this destruction?

International Response

From 1935 until the outbreak of war, many Jews tried to leave the Reich (Germany and Austria), but found few nations willing to take them.

Why? Economies suffering by depression had little capacity to absorb refugees. Anti-Jewish attitudes pervasive among world leaders and among larger populations.

International Response (2)

After war broke out, opportunities to rescue Jews diminished.

Historians debate whether nations responded adequately to the Holocaust.

Allies threatened Nazi leaders with punishment for crimes against the Jews and civilian populations.

International Response (3)

Some Jews did manage to find

sanctuary. This is a visa for a Jewish

person admitted to China.

International Response (4)

Could Allies have done more, such as bomb Auschwitz or the rail networks leading to death camps? Were there opportunities to ransom the surviving Jews in Nazi occupied Europe?

Of all the nations of the western world, Canada’s response was the most dismal. Between 1933 and 1946, Canada admitted only 5,000 Jewish refugees, fewer than Cuba, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic.

Issues in Holocaust Studies

Origins of the Holocaust• Intentionalism (the straight road) Hitler planned

the annihilation of European Jews from the start. There is evidence of this in Mein Kampf (1924)

• Functionalism (the twisted path) The decision to annihilate Europe’s Jews emerged gradually in response to wartime developments. By the summer of 1941, the direction was assured.

Issues in Holocaust Studies (2)

Uniqueness of the Holocaust: Is the Holocaust a singular event in history are are there parallels?

International Response: Could the Jews of Europe have been saved?

Issues in Holocaust Studies (3)

Christianity and the Holocaust: To what extent did long-standing Christian anti-Semitism make the Holocaust possible? Did the organized churches fail to respond morally to the plight of European Jews?

Christianity and the Holocaust

Historians have criticized the silence

of Pope Pius XII. Would condemnation of the killings by the

Pope influenced Hitler’s policy toward

the Jews?

Roles in the Holocaust

Perpetrators

Who were the perpetrators? Where they monsters or ordinary people? There have been many attempts to understand the behaviour of perpetrators. The sad truth is that few individuals resisted orders to kill Jews.

Adolph Eichmann: Perpetrator

Adolph Eichmann was hung in Israel in 1961 for his role in the murder of 600,000 Hungarian Jews. Philosopher Hanna Arendt covered the trial and referred to the “banality of evil”.

Roles in the Holocaust

BystandersBy far the largest group in Europe were bystanders. To varying degrees they knew what was taking place, but did nothing.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

– Edmund Burke

Roles in the Holocaust

Victims

There were 11-12 million victims of the Holocaust, including Jews, Gypsies, political prisoners, Jehovah Witnesses, and homosexuals.

“Not every victim was Jewish, but every Jew was a victim.” – Elie Wiesel

Roles in the Holocaust

Rescuers

Despite grave risk to themselves and their families, some individuals and communities rescued Jews.

What do you think that rescuers had in common?

Rescuers

Oskar Schindler saved 1,000 Jews (700 men and 300 women) in Crakow. His heroism was the subject of the Stephen Spielberg film, Schindler’s List.

The White Rose

Brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl (left

and centre in photo) were students who organized resistance to the Nazis.

They were murdered by the Nazis for their heroic

resistance.

Holocaust Denial

As in the case of all historical events, there is much about the Holocaust that is subject to debate.

Some people claim that the Holocaust never took place or that the number of victims has been greatly exaggerated.

Holocaust Denial (2)

There is no legitimate debate about the reality and extent of the Holocaust any more than there is debate about whether World War I or the French Revolution occurred. There are mountains of evidence including documents and testimonies by eyewitness, including perpetrators, victims and by-standers.

Famous Holocaust Quotes

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

Martin Niemöller

Quotes

The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. Tim Holden  

"When I came to power, I did not want the concentration camps to become old age pensioners homes, but instruments of terror." - Adolf Hitler