PANEL 1LR PANEL 1RL PANEL 2LL PANEL 2LR PANEL 2RL 48" 1,222 mm 13 1 /2" 343 mm DATE APRIL 30, 2018 1:5 SCALE STATUS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT CLIENT VHEC PROJECT CODE 1228 WMW PUBLIC COMMUNICATION VHEC: EXHIBIT DESIGN Hanging Theme Text Panels Religion and Faith The Jewish faith centres around belief in, and service to, a single all-knowing and forgiving God. As a people, Jews have a sacred agreement with God, called a covenant: in exchange for God’s continued help and support, Jews promise to follow God’s laws and to bring the spirit and practice of those laws into all aspects of their lives. Jews across pre-war Europe chose numerous and varied ways to apply their beliefs to their lives. For some, Jewish identity was tied less to religious observances than to a sense of connection with thriving Jewish artistic and literary cultures. For many others, religious faith and ritual were part of most aspects of daily family life and shaped the rhythm of their weeks and years; observing the Jewish Sabbath on Fridays, marking the Holy Days, and keeping the dietary (kosher) guidelines established in the Jewish holy texts were part of a covenant with God. In eastern Europe in particular, it was common to find communities in which religious Judaism was part of the fabric of everyday life for the great majority of residents. Life that Was Jews have lived in Europe for more than 2,000 years. Prior to the Holocaust, Jewish life in Europe was characterized by the abundance and diversity of Jewish communities. Throughout Europe, factors that helped to shape one’s experience as a Jew—religious thought, language, state-instituted freedoms and restrictions—varied over time. By the 19 th century, Jews in western European countries began to integrate more fully into the main cultures. Some married non-Jews, and many spoke the national language as their mother tongue. A religiously liberal form of Judaism developed and grew in popularity. A similar process began to occur in eastern Europe in the early 1900s. There, however, it remained common for Jews outside the urban centres to live in smaller towns composed almost entirely of Jews, called shtetlekh, where Yiddish was primarily spoken. Likewise, in southern Europe, Ladino, a Jewish language with roots in Old Spanish, remained common into the 20 th century. Across these different regions, Jews, though always a minority, were vital participants in social, cultural and economic spheres of European life. In spite of exclusionary, antisemitic attitudes and regulations, Jewish life in Europe was vibrant due to the work of Jews in wide-ranging professions and locations. Antisemitism—the hatred of Jews—existed in Europe long before the Nazis’ rise to power. Prior to the 19 th century, religious antisemitism was fueled by the false beliefs that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ and that Jews required the blood of Christian children for ritual use, among other superstitions. Such allegations frequently led to outbreaks of violence against Jews, called pogroms, and expulsion. During the 19 th century, pseudo-scientific theories about race, biology and religion produced a new racial antisemitism which emerged alongside the spread of nationalism across Europe to reinforce the belief that Jews were a foreign group. When the National Socialist German Workers’ Party—the Nazis—came to power in the 1930s, its leaders harnessed the language of racial and political antisemitism to cast Jews as an “inferior” racial group that was “alien” to the German nation. The Nazis sought public support by blaming Germany’s loss of the First World War, and subsequent economic crisis, upon the betrayal of the German nation by its internal enemies— the Jews. Galvanizing the antisemitism of centuries prior, the Nazis blamed the Jews for Germany’s hardships. Within a decade, the Nazis took this antisemitism they had started to genocidal ends. The Longest Hatred The Rise of Nazism The Nazi Party began in 1920 as a far-right fringe party in Germany. The Nazis’ promise of a strong, expansionist Germany became attractive to a German population oppressed by the Treaty of Versailles, the economic, social and political turmoil in 1920s Germany, and the Great Depression. By 1932, the Nazis were elected to more seats than any other party in the German Reichstag and assumed power legitimately with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. The “Enabling Act” of March 1933, gave Hitler complete control of the Reichstag, ending democracy in pre-war Germany. Within a year, Hitler outlawed all other political parties to solidify his position as dictator. For German Jews, this meant escalating persecution and exclusion. Between 1933 and 1939, Jews were barred from German civic life through a series of laws that stripped Jews of their citizenship, excluded them from economic, professional, and social life and segregated them in neighbourhoods apart from other Germans. Even before the violent, nation-wide Kristallnacht pogrom of 9-10 November 1938—and the first mass deportations of German Jews to concentration camps—the Nazis had created a German society in which the isolation and persecution of Jews was firmly entrenched. Manipulating the Masses The systematic use of antisemitic and ultra-nationalist propaganda by the Nazis was essential to acquiring and maintaining power. State-sponsored propaganda was used to promote the myth of a “German national community” and to identify groups for exclusion from that community, such as Jews, Roma, homosexuals and the disabled. Designed to incite hatred and justify measures against these “outsiders”, Nazi propaganda was disseminated throughout every aspect of German life in contexts as various as school curricula, art exhibitions, films of pro-Nazi rallies, and radio addresses from leading Nazis. In all these contexts, propaganda preyed on people’s fears of German social and economic decline and exploited their desire for national pride by promoting a sharp divide between “us”—people the Nazis considered part of a “pure” northern European “Aryan” race—and “them”— people they considered “non-Aryans” such as Jews. By the time of the first mass killings of Jews in 1941, propaganda had been employed for years to persuade the German public that these “outsiders” were “inferior,” a “danger to national culture,” and ultimately “undesirable” and “unworthy of life.” The Nazis spread their propaganda in each country they invaded, where it was often aided by pre-existing antisemitism and racism.
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PANEL 1LR PANEL 1RL PANEL 2LL PANEL 2LR PANEL 2RL
48"
1,22
2 m
m
13 1/2"343 mm
DATE
APRIL 30, 2018
1:5
SCALE
STATUS
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
CLIENT
VHEC
PROJECT CODE
1228
WMW PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
VHEC: EXHIBIT DESIGNHanging Theme Text Panels
Religion and FaithThe Jewish faith centres around belief in, and
service to, a single all-knowing and forgiving God.
As a people, Jews have a sacred agreement with
God, called a covenant: in exchange for God’s
continued help and support, Jews promise to
follow God’s laws and to bring the spirit and
practice of those laws into all aspects of their lives.
Jews across pre-war Europe chose numerous and
varied ways to apply their beliefs to their lives. For some,
Jewish identity was tied less to religious observances
than to a sense of connection with thriving Jewish
artistic and literary cultures. For many others, religious
faith and ritual were part of most aspects of daily family
life and shaped the rhythm of their weeks and years;
observing the Jewish Sabbath on Fridays, marking the
Holy Days, and keeping the dietary (kosher) guidelines
established in the Jewish holy texts were part of a
covenant with God.
In eastern Europe in particular, it was common to find
communities in which religious Judaism was part of the
fabric of everyday life for the great majority of residents.
Life that Was
Jews have lived in Europe for more than 2,000
years. Prior to the Holocaust, Jewish life in Europe
was characterized by the abundance and diversity
of Jewish communities. Throughout Europe,
factors that helped to shape one’s experience as a
Jew—religious thought, language, state-instituted
freedoms and restrictions—varied over time.
By the 19th century, Jews in western European countries
began to integrate more fully into the main cultures.
Some married non-Jews, and many spoke the national
language as their mother tongue. A religiously liberal
form of Judaism developed and grew in popularity.
A similar process began to occur in eastern Europe in
the early 1900s. There, however, it remained common
for Jews outside the urban centres to live in smaller
towns composed almost entirely of Jews, called
shtetlekh, where Yiddish was primarily spoken.
Likewise, in southern Europe, Ladino, a Jewish language
with roots in Old Spanish, remained common into the
20th century.
Across these different regions, Jews, though always a
minority, were vital participants in social, cultural and
economic spheres of European life. In spite of
exclusionary, antisemitic attitudes and regulations,
Jewish life in Europe was vibrant due to the work of
Jews in wide-ranging professions and locations.
Antisemitism—the hatred of Jews—existed in
Europe long before the Nazis’ rise to power. Prior
to the 19th century, religious antisemitism was
fueled by the false beliefs that Jews were
responsible for the death of Christ and that Jews
required the blood of Christian children for ritual
use, among other superstitions. Such allegations
frequently led to outbreaks of violence against
Jews, called pogroms, and expulsion.
During the 19th century, pseudo-scientific theories
about race, biology and religion produced a new racial
antisemitism which emerged alongside the spread of
nationalism across Europe to reinforce the belief that
Jews were a foreign group.
When the National Socialist German Workers’
Party—the Nazis—came to power in the 1930s, its
leaders harnessed the language of racial and political
antisemitism to cast Jews as an “inferior” racial group
that was “alien” to the German nation. The Nazis sought
public support by blaming Germany’s loss of the First
World War, and subsequent economic crisis, upon the
betrayal of the German nation by its internal enemies—
the Jews. Galvanizing the antisemitism of centuries
prior, the Nazis blamed the Jews for Germany’s
hardships. Within a decade, the Nazis took this
antisemitism they had started to genocidal ends.
The Longest Hatred
The Longest Hatred
The Rise of NazismThe Nazi Party began in 1920 as a far-right fringe
party in Germany. The Nazis’ promise of a strong,
expansionist Germany became attractive to a
German population oppressed by the Treaty of
Versailles, the economic, social and political turmoil
in 1920s Germany, and the Great Depression.
By 1932, the Nazis were elected to more seats than any
other party in the German Reichstag and assumed
power legitimately with the appointment of Adolf Hitler
as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. The “Enabling
Act” of March 1933, gave Hitler complete control of the
Reichstag, ending democracy in pre-war Germany.
Within a year, Hitler outlawed all other political parties to
solidify his position as dictator.
For German Jews, this meant escalating persecution and
exclusion. Between 1933 and 1939, Jews were barred from
German civic life through a series of laws that stripped
Jews of their citizenship, excluded them from economic,
professional, and social life and segregated them in
neighbourhoods apart from other Germans. Even before
the violent, nation-wide Kristallnacht pogrom of 9-10
November 1938—and the first mass deportations of
German Jews to concentration camps—the Nazis had
created a German society in which the isolation and
persecution of Jews was firmly entrenched.
Manipulating the MassesThe systematic use of antisemitic and
ultra-nationalist propaganda by the Nazis was
essential to acquiring and maintaining power.
State-sponsored propaganda was used to promote
the myth of a “German national community” and to
identify groups for exclusion from that community,
such as Jews, Roma, homosexuals and the disabled.
Designed to incite hatred and justify measures against
these “outsiders”, Nazi propaganda was disseminated
throughout every aspect of German life in contexts as
various as school curricula, art exhibitions, films of
pro-Nazi rallies, and radio addresses from leading Nazis.
In all these contexts, propaganda preyed on people’s fears
of German social and economic decline and exploited
their desire for national pride by promoting a sharp divide
between “us”—people the Nazis considered part of a
“pure” northern European “Aryan” race—and “them”—
people they considered “non-Aryans” such as Jews. By
the time of the first mass killings of Jews in 1941,
propaganda had been employed for years to persuade the
German public that these “outsiders” were “inferior,” a
“danger to national culture,” and ultimately “undesirable”
and “unworthy of life.”
The Nazis spread their propaganda in each country they
invaded, where it was often aided by pre-existing
antisemitism and racism.
PANEL 3LL PANEL 3LR PANEL 3RL PANEL 3RR PANEL 4LL
DATE
APRIL 30, 2018
1:5
SCALE
STATUS
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
CLIENT
VHEC
PROJECT CODE
1228
WMW PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
VHEC: EXHIBIT DESIGNHanging Theme Text Panels
E≠orts to LeaveBy the mid-1930s, Jews in Nazi Germany faced an
increasingly hostile political, social, and economic
situation. In response, some sought to leave the
country but found their options for emigration
limited.
Although Jewish emigration from Germany was
encouraged before the Second World War, taxes and
other regulations imposed by the Nazi government
made it difficult for Jews to leave. Many were reluctant
to leave older relatives behind and hoped, instead, that
the threat posed by Nazism would pass as antisemitic
movements had done in previous generations.
The restrictive, often racially or ethnically-based
immigration policies of immigrant-receiving countries,
including Canada, posed a critical barrier to Jews fleeing
Germany. As the head of the World Zionist Organization
at the time summarized: “The world seemed to be
divided into two parts—those places where Jews could
not live and those where they could not enter.” 1
International Jewish organizations assisted some
European Jews to reach Palestine, China, the United
Kingdom, and North and South America. Between 1938
and 1940, approximately 7,500 Jewish children fled to
Great Britain in the Kindertransport rescue operation.
Many German Jews fled to countries in western Europe,
only to fall again under Nazi rule within a few short years.
1 Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Manchester Guardian, 23 May 1936.
Without rescuers and helpers, few Jews could have
escaped Nazi-occupied Europe or survived in
hiding. After the outbreak of war, Jews fleeing
Europe required real or forged documentation to
facilitate their escape and entry into one of the few
countries that accepted refugees. Those who
sought to survive within Europe were desperate for
places to hide and for helpers willing to risk their
lives to sustain Jews in hiding.
Diplomats and religious institutions could often exploit
the independence granted to them by the Nazi
occupiers to shelter Jews in their embassies, safehouses,
convents and orphanages, or to issue visas permitting
passage out of Nazi-occupied countries. Assistance also
came from individual citizens acting independently or in
organized resistance groups to provide hiding places,
rescue networks, food, medicine and forged identities.
Helpers came from diverse religious, social, educational,
and economic backgrounds. They were motivated by
moral, religious or political beliefs to help both
neighbours and strangers in peril. Despite the personal
danger, helpers were active in every European country,
including Nazi-occupied eastern Europe where the
punishment for assisting Jews was death for helpers and
often their families. Rescuers, however, were relatively
few, representing only a small fraction of the total
population in Nazi-occupied countries.
Help and Rescue
Stripped of their citizenship and forbidden to exist
in their communities, Jews unable to escape the
Nazi regime through emigration could only avoid
deportation to ghettos and camps by going into
hiding.
Jews in hiding were at constant risk of discovery, arrest
and death. Many had to remain physically concealed in
silence and in cramped hiding places that ranged from
attics, to hay bales, to underground cellars. Others
assumed false identities in attempt to pass as Christians.
In rural regions, particularly the forests of eastern
Europe, some Jews fled to remote areas and survived
with other escapees as part of resistance groups.
Some families managed to hide together. Others were
forced to split up, entrusting their children to non-Jews
willing to risk the dangers of concealing a Jewish child in
their homes, either in exchange for payment or out of
moral conviction. Communication between Jews in
hiding was dangerous, and hidden Jews often moved
locations to avoid detection. Thus, it was difficult for
family members to remain in touch with their children
and each other while in hiding. Fear, boredom, abuse,
hunger and the emotional distress of separation from
family were just some of the challenges faced by hidden
Jews.
Life in Hiding
Identity and BelongingJews who managed to flee the Nazi regime were
forced to leave behind their possessions,
communities, and families to face the difficult task
of building new lives in foreign countries. For the
children sent alone to safety in England and
elsewhere, retaining a sense of their pre-war
identities was particularly challenging.
In Nazi-occupied Europe, many Jewish children who
survived the Holocaust did so by hiding in Christian
homes, convents and schools and by assuming Christian
identities as cover. These identities were often
reinforced through baptism. Although false identities
were essential to protect hidden children from the
Nazis, they created complex questions of identity for
children who had been assigned multiple names,
families, and religions in their young lives.
For many hidden children, the end of the Second World
War did not bring an end to their trauma. Reunions with
parents were often joyous, but also difficult. Many child
survivors were too young to remember their families
and struggled to recover a sense of comfort with their
pre-war Jewish identities. For children whose families
did not survive, there was little to help them regain their
connection with Jewish culture and faith. Long after the
war, many survivors still grappled with questions of
identity and belonging.
Imprisoned in GhettosWhen the Nazis invaded Poland in the fall of 1939,
they reinstated a practice dating back to the Middle
Ages of creating confined areas, called ghettos,
where Jews were forced to live. The establishment
of ghettos became a key step in the isolation and
persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Removed from their homes, Jews were forced into
cramped accommodation in ghettos, often created in
the poorest area of a city. Most ghettos were then
sealed off from the rest of the city by walls and barbed
wire. Access to food, sanitation and medical supplies
was severely limited within the ghettos and contact with
outside assistance was cut off. Death from starvation
and illness was common and Jewish councils, appointed
by the Nazis to administer the ghettos, could do little to
reduce the suffering except ration scarce resources.
In response, physical resistance by Jews developed in
ghettos throughout Europe, the most famous being the
armed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Despite the
desperate conditions, Jews also strove to ensure that
educational, religious, and cultural life continued in the
ghettos by establishing underground schools, hospitals