Transcript Holocaust Studies Unit 3: Liberation

Newspaper Headline Analysis:
Using the newspaper archives from the British Columbian
newspaper archive at:
http://www.hopesite.ca/remember/history/news_archives/archive_to
c.html
Chose and read at least 4 articles about the early years of the
Holocaust. After reading all of the articles, use that information to
answer the following questions.
1) Was the coverage of the events accurate? Was it complete?
2) Could the media have done more to bring attention to the
Holocaust or help its victims?
3) What should the role of newspapers and magazines be in reporting
events such as this?
4) How do you think this trend played out in the American newspapers
of the same time period?
I. Rescuers
A. Pope Pius XII
1. Started as indifferent
a. Separated Politics &
Religion
i.
1933 Concordat:
Hitler allowed
open practice of
Catholics
2. 1939: began to aid Jews
a. 3,000 visas for Jews
b. Ordered Catholic institutions to hide Jews &
provide money
3. No public denouncement of Nazi actions
B. Zegota
1. Helped Jews escape Ghettos in Poland: 1942-45
a. Saved estimated 400,000-500,000
2. Funded by the Polish Government in exile
a. Money, medical attention, forged
documents, and foster homes
3. Headed by Julian Grobelny: code
name “Trojan”
a. Found hiding places for Jews
4. Irena Sendler: code name “Jolanta”
a. Saved 2,500 children, hid them
with Christian families
C. Raoul Wallenburg
1. Swedish diplomat
a. Gave fake documents to
Hungarian Jews
b. Saved 100,000 between
1944-45
2. Arrested by Soviets & died in a labor camp
D. Varian Fry
1. American Journalist
2. Head of the American Rescue
Committee
3. Traveled to Vichy France
a. Rescued Gestapo’s most
wanted
i.
Intellectuals, artists, unionists, British &
French soldiers
b. Saved 2,000 people
E. Oskar Schindler
1. Nazi Party member
2. Entrepreneur & businessman
from Brennlitz, Czechoslovakia
a. Black market deals
b. Set up a factory for
Jewish workers
3. Made cookware & later
ammunition for Germany
4. Bribed Nazi officials to save 2,000 Jews
I don't know what his motives
were... But I don't give a damn. What's
important is that he saved our lives.
A survivor stated:
Schindler answered this question however after the war:
If you saw a dog going to be crushed
under a car, wouldn't you help him?
F. Chiune Sugihara
1. Japanese consul in Lithuania
a. Polish refugees & Lithuanian
Jews came to him for help
b. Soviets allowed safe passage
with passes
c. Japanese refused to give visas
i.
Signed 300/day until
he was called home
ii. Gave the papers & stamp
to a Jew to continue
d. Saved 6,000 Jews
II. Resistance Movements
A. Operation Valkyrie
1. July 20, 1944: failed assassination
attempt on Hitler
a. Col. Stauffenberg left a bomb
under a table at the Wolf’s Lair
b. Several Military & Civilian
leaders were involved
i. To get better surrender terms
c. Hitler had 4,000 killed for involvement
B. The White Rose: Summer 1942-43
1. University of Munich student organization
a. Convince Germany that Hitler had used them
b. Led by Hans & Sophie Scholl & Christopher
Probst
i. Published pamphlets calling for resistance
ii. Tried for treason & beheaded: February 22,
1943
C. Rosenstrasse: Jewish Community Center, Berlin
1. February 27, 1943
a. Goebbels ordered the SS & Gestapo to clean the
city of Jews
i. 8,000 sent to Auschwitz
ii. 2,000 men married to non-Jews held in the center
a. Wives came for information, but did not get it
b. 6,000 came for a week in protest
2. March 6: men held were released
Community Center
SS vs. Protestors
What would you do?
1) If you were imprisoned by the Nazis in a
concentration or death camp, in what ways would your
try to resist? (Try to name at least five ways)
2) If you were a Nazi officer assigned to a concentration
or death camp, what would you do to ensure resistance
efforts by prisoners failed? (Try to name at least five
ways)
III. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
A. September 5, 1942: Jews moved into the Ghetto
1. Deportations began: 10,000 per day
2. Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)(Zydowska
Organizacja Bojowa ): formed to resist SS
a. Gained weapons from outside the wall
Founder:
Mordecai
Anielewicz
b. Built secret bunkers with tunnels to connect them
c. Destroyed factories before they could be moved by
Nazis
d. Weed out the informants and traitors
e. Stop the deportations at all costs
3. January 18, 1943: SS surrounded the area
a. 3 days of fighting = SS pushed back
i.
Gained weapons from the Polish resistance &
created smaller fighting teams
ii. Himmler ordered it taken with extreme violence
4. April 19, 1942: 2,000 troops & tanks entered
a. ZOB fighters forced them back
b. SS brought in artillery & more tanks
c. Forced out by small arms, homemade mines &
gasoline bombs
5. SS set the Ghetto on Fire
a. ZOB set fire to the warehouse with stolen Jewish
property
6. Germans cut the gas, water, and power
7. May 8: SS found the ZOB headquarters
a. Leaders committed suicide
8. May 16: fighting ended
a. Remaining were killed or deported
b. Ghetto burned to the ground
Summary Activity:
Option 1:
After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and
watching the film Uprising, you will be creating a visual
memorial for the events and participants of the uprising.
This memorial may be either created by hand with your
own artwork, lettering, and physical cut and pasting, or it
can be created using a digital media application/software
and submitted digitally.
Two things that you need to consider when preparing for
this:
1) What images will accurately and appropriately
memorialize this event?
2) What is the most effective way to organize and
display these images?
Summary Activity:
Option 2:
After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and
watching the film Uprising, you will be creating 2 diary
entries pertaining to daily life in the ghetto or relating to
events during the uprising. (1 page, typed, double spaced,
Times New Roman 12 font each). Grammar and content
are equal components in the grade.
Two things that you need to consider when preparing for
this:
1) What information/events will accurately and
appropriately depict this event/these conditions?
2) What is the most effective way to organize
these entries so that they are easy to read and make
sense to the reader?
Option 3:
Summary Activity:
After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and
watching the film Uprising, you will be creating an underground
ghetto newspaper/newsletter. (1 page, typed, double spaced,
Times New Roman 12 font using the newsletter template in MS
Word). Grammar and content are equal components in the
grade.
Two things that you need to consider when preparing for this:
1) What information/events would Jews in the ghetto
need to know, what rumors would they try to start or stop to
keep people at ease, and what news would they likely get from
the outside?
2) The publishers were also in the ghetto, so they got
limited outside information, and only published these about
once a month, so include news for the month.
IV. Resistance in the Camps
A. Sabotage
1. Slow work, break machines, too sick to work,
mistakes & defects in products
B. Daily Life
1. Smuggled food, made items, religious services,
education, hid children/pregnant women
C. Rebellion
D. Escape
1. Had to survive with no help
2. Constantly being hunted
E. Treblinka: (2nd largest death camp)
1. Sonderkommando knew the end was near = planned an
uprising
2. August 2, 1943
a. Took axes, wire cutters, weapons, & grenades
b. Sprayed buildings with gasoline
c. Attack started early and fell into chaos
i. 400 killed in the camp, 400 escaped (100 survived)
ii. 30 guards killed
3. Remaining prisoners dismantled the camp & then killed
a. Site was turned into a farm
F. Sobibor
1. October 14, 1943
a. Sonderkommando killed SS guards & returned to
the camp
b. Plan: walk through the main gates after roll call
c. Plan fell apart
i.
Women screamed during the violence & guards
were alerted
ii. Escape went through fences = minefields
iii. 300 fled: 200 survived
d. 48 guards killed
2. Camp dismantled & replaced with a farm
G. Auschwitz
1. 300 sonderkommandos knew their death was near
a. Stole weapons & attacked Crematorium 4
i. Destroyed it with SS explosives
b. Workers in Crematorium 2 cut the fence & escaped
i. 500 escaped: all caught & killed
2. January 17, 1944: inmates moved to other camps
or killed before the Russians arrived
3. January 20: SS destroyed the other crematoriums
& much of the camp
V. Liberation
A. Allied forces began to break into Nazi controlled
nations in 1944
1. Russians found Majdanek & other death camps
2. Americans & British began to find labor camps
B. Germans rushed to hide their atrocities
1. Kill the inmates & burn the bodies & camps
C. Allies began to film/record what they had found &
help the survivors
VI. Displaced Persons (DP) Camps
A. May 7, 1945: V-E Day
1. United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation Agency
a. Helped to get people home & reunite families
2. Allied forces took care of the health & food needs
of the survivors
a. Many died from eating: sugar & caloric shock
i. West: 60,000 liberated: 20,000 died in a week
b. Most weighed 60-80 lbs: down 50-60% body
weight
c. Numbers increased to 300,000
as more arrived
B. Some returning home were killed
by Nazi sympathizers
11,000,000 murdered!
Who did the Nazis murder?
* Jews
* Gypsies
* Handicapped
* Slavs - Russians, Poles, Serbs,
Croats, Byeloruss, Bulgarians,
Romanians, Moldavians, Slovenes,
Slovaks, etc.
* Anyone who opposed the Nazis
Nazi Death Count
OVER 11 MILLION PEOPLE MURDERED
Special Action Squads, Ghettos, Labor Camps,
& Death Camps
Jews
6 million
Russian POWs
3 million
Poles
2 million
Gypsies
200,000
National Holocaust
Museum: Tower of Life
Extending & Refining Activity:
Actions have consequences. Some consequences
are short term, such as not studying for a test leads to a
lower grade. Some are longer reaching, such as poor
grades in school can lead to lower/slower career
advancement or increased chances of ending up in prison.
What about the Holocaust? What are its short term and
long term consequences? Take a minute and try to
brainstorm possible consequences.
Now working with a partner, create a list of at
least three short term and three long term consequences
for the Holocaust. We will be discussing your ideas and
creating a diagram of them in approximately five minutes,
so work fast.
Activating Strategy:
Think about each of the following questions and discuss them
with the person sitting beside you.
1) What kind of behavior should be allowed in war? Explain what
you mean.
2) How should a government treat its citizens? Should it protect
all citizens or just some?
3) How should a government treat people who reside in their
country, but are not citizens?
4) Should SS officials who said that they followed Hitler’s orders
be held responsible for the murder of the Jews and the
mistreatment of the other groups targeted in the Holocaust?
5) Should people who did nothing to help the Jews be held morally
responsible for murder? Why or why not?
VII. Nuremberg Trials
A. United Nations War Crimes Commission
1. Investigate the crimes of individuals &
organizations of the Reich
2. 3 categories of crimes
a. Crimes Against Peace: starting or participating
in a war
b. War Crimes: murder, ill-treatment, targeting
civilians
c. Crimes Against Humanity: inhuman acts
committed against people based on race,
religion or politics
B. International Military Tribunal:, October 1 to November
20, 1945
1. Trials held at the Palace (Halls) of Justice in
Nuremberg
a. 22 leaders put on trial: 20 claimed not guilty
i. 12 executed, 3 life, 4 shorter terms, 3 innocent
C. Other trials held from 1945-49
D. Some escaped to other countries
1. Josef Mengele: Paraguay (died in 1977 of a swimming
accident)
2. Nacelles Scoffer (camp Guard): Pennsylvania
(returned to Romania for trial in January 2000)
*pg 202-212 more examples
VIII. Creation of Israel/Zionism
A. Allied nations did not welcome large numbers of
Jewish refugees
1. Nazi controlled nations were too weak to provide
for or protect them
2. Americans, UN, & Red Cross did what they could in
DP Camps
B. 200,000 moved to Palestine between 1945-48
1. 1948: British and Americans created Israel &
vowed to protect them
C. May 14, 1948: Israel was a nation: flew the Star of
David in pride
Discussion Points:
* Is
it possible for another Holocaust to occur?
* What
* What
events or conditions would be needed?
role do white supremacist groups or
Palestinian liberation groups play in persecuting
or discriminating against Jews today?
IX. Holocaust Denial
A. Disguises for Denial
1. Revisionists: claim new evidence or a new
interpretation
2. Relativism: point to minor “inconsistencies” or
other conditions as reason to ignore
3. Reversal: Jews are as bad as the Nazis
(treatment of Palestinians)
B. Origins: the Nazis
1. Nazis hid their actions from the beginning
a. No written orders from Hitler on the Final Solution
b. Use of code words in orders pertaining to it
c. Unit 1005: exhume mass graves and burn the bodies
d. Dismantling of Belzec, Treblinka, & Sobibor
e. Himmler’s speech in Poznan October 1943:
“The destruction of the Jews is a glorious
page in history, which has not been recorded and
will never be.”
C. Paul Rassinier: created the main
arguments in 1948
1. No plan for systematic
annihilation of Jews
2. Only 1 million Jews killed
3. Jews declared war on Germany
4. Survivor Testimonies were
exaggerated
D. Arthur Butz: Electrical Engineering
Professor
1. The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
a. 6 million is a false number
b. Jews spread stories as propaganda
c. Auschwitz documents did not
mention gas chambers
d. Zyklon B was only a disinfectant
e. Eichmann plead guilty because
he could not win
f. Testimony = lies, use only documents
g. Jews created it to get Israel
E. David Irving: British Military
Historian
1. Hitler’s War, 1977
a. Hitler never ordered Jews
to be killed
b. Hitler never knew about
the Final Solution or the
death camps
F. Holocaust Truth is based on the following sources
1. German military, civil, & personal documents
2. Jewish documents & testimonies
3. Documents & recollections of those who lived near the
camps & resistance members
4. Documents captured by the Russians in the east
5. Testimony and evidence presented at the Nuremberg
Trials
6. Declassified military intelligence from the war
7. Film & photos taken by allied forces
“Sanitary” Language Used by the Nazis
German Word
Literal Meaning
Real Meaning
Ausgemertz
Exterminate (pest)
Murder
Liquidiert
Liquidated
Murder
Erledigit
Finished (off)
Murder
Aktionen
Actions
Missions to seek & kill
Sonderaktionen
Special Actions
Special Killing Missions
Sonderbehandlung
Special Treatment
Camp’s Death Process
Sauberung
Cleansing: Purge
Sent through the Process
Ausschaltung
Elimination
Murder
Aussiedlung
Evacuation
Murder
Umsiedlung
Resettlement
Murder
ExekutivemaBnahme
Executive Measure
Order for Murder
Entsprechend Behandelt
Treated Appropriately
Murder
Losung der Judenfrage
Solution of the Jewish Question
Murder of Jewish People
Judenfrei Gemacht
Made Free of Jews
All Jews killed in the area
Spezialeinrichtungen
Special Installations
Gas chambers and Crematoria
Badenastalten
Bath Installations
Gas Chambers
Leichenkeller
Corpse Cellar
Crematorium
Examples of Evidence
• On January 30, 1941,
• Hitler said the following:
• “Today I will once more be a prophet. If the international Jewish
financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging
nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the
Bolshevization of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the
annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!
• Hitler threatened the Jews again in September 1942:
• “In my speech before the Reichstag on the first of September
1939, 1 spoke of two matters: first, since we are forced into war,
neither the threat of weapons nor a period of transition shall
conquer us; second, if world Jewry launches another war in order
to destroy the Aryan nations of Europe, it will not be the Aryan
nations that will be destroyed, but the Jews. “
• In late July 1941, Himmler gave explicit
orders to kill the Jews and to drive the
Jewish women into the marshes near
Baranowicze.
• In August 1941, Himmler visited Arthur
Nebe in Minsk. After observing a mass
execution of Jews, Himmler delivered a
brief speech to those present, stressing
the need to carry out these orders, which
came directly from the Fuhrer.
• On Oct. 2, 1941, Himmler visited Otto
Ohlendorf, commander of Einsatzgruppe
D. Again Himmler stressed to his soldiers
that he and Hitler bore sole responsibility
for these orders; he emphasized the need
to eliminate all Jews and political
commissars.
• In July 1942, Himmler visited
Auschwitz and Sobibor; he
observed the murder of Jews
in gas chambers.
• On September 29, 1942,
Himmler reported to Hitler on
combat against the partisans
and the elimination of Jews.
In his report, which refers
only to August-November,
Himmler spoke of the
liquidation of 363,211 Jews.
• The Einsatzgruppen reports are the
largest set of documents that refer to
the annihilation of the Jews.
• The murder of Jews in Kiev (Babi Yar)
in late September 1941 — Report No.
101 of October 2, 1941.
• “Sonderkommando 4-A, in
cooperation with the
Einsatzgruppen command and
two police units from the
southern region, executed
33,771 Jews in Kiev on
September 30, 1941.”
• With these lines, Paul Blobel
reported the first mass
slaughter of Jews on such a
scale after Germany invaded
the Soviet Union on June 22,
1941.
• A report by Karl Jaeger, of
Einsatzkommando 3, on
the murder of Lithuanian
Jews on December 1,
1941. Jaeger’s report
specified the dates and
locations of the murders;
at the end, Jaeger added
up the number of victims
— 137,346
• Einsatzgruppe D reported on April 8, 1942, a total of 92,000
dead. Himmler reported to Hitler on December 20, 1942, the
following numbers of Jews shot in the Ukraine, Russia and
Bialystok –
•
•
•
•
•
August 1942 - 31,246
September 1942 - 165,282
October 1942 - 95,735
November 1942 - 70,948
Total - 363,211
• According to these reports,
900,000 Jews were murdered.
Other reports speak of another
250,000 Jews murdered,
bringing the total murdered
according to these reports to
1,150,000.
• Other German Documents Used Euphemisms
• 1. A document from Goering to Heydrich on
July 31, 1941, on the preparation of a plan for
the Final Solution to the Jewish problem.
• “In completion of the task which was
entrusted to you in the Edict dated January 24,
1939, of solving the Jewish question by means
of emigration or evacuation in the most
convenient way possible, given the present
conditions, I herewith charge you with making
all necessary preparations for an overall
solution (Gesamtloesung) of the Jewish
question in the German sphere of influence in
Europe… I further charge you with submitting
to me promptly an overall plan of the
preliminary organizational, practical and
financial measures for the execution of the
intended final solution (Endloesung) of the
Jewish question
• A document dated March 1943
by Richard Korherr, chief
statistician of the Third Reich.
In late 1942, Himmler asked
Korherr to prepare an interim
report on the implementation
of the Final Solution to the
Jewish question. According to
his 16-page document, about
four million Jews had been
given “special treatment” by
the end of 1942
• Reports from the German railway authority
(Deutsche Reichsbahn), composed by various
bureaucrats in the German transport ministry.
One of the many reports, dated January 6, 1943,
contains the dates of deportations, point of
departure, destinations, and number of deportees.
This report speaks of 16,000 Polish Jews who were
taken to Auschwitz or Treblinka in February 1943
X. Other Genocidal Events
A. Native Americans
1. US expansion: led to removal to
reservations or
extermination
B. Armenians: Early 20th century
1. 2.5 million Christian Armenians in Muslim Turkey
a. Turkey expelled them across the deserts
i. Thirst, exposure, starvation, disease killed many
b. Rounded up all educated & able-bodied men &
slaughtered them
c. 1.5 million killed
C. The Rape of Nanking: December
13, 1937
1. Japanese captured: Capital of
China
a. Killed all Chinese POWs
b. Attacked civilians
i.
Murder, decapitation,
torture
ii.
80,000+ cases of
rape
c. 200-300,000 killed in 7
weeks
D. Tibet
1. Buddhist rule until Chinese invasion in 1950
a. People revolted led by monks in 1959
2. Chinese used harsh tactics to restore their control
a. Killed priests, monks, & nuns, & destroyed temples &
shrines
b. Cruelty continues (2-6 million killed)
E. Cambodia: 1975
1. Khmer Rouge Communist take over:
Pol Pot
a. Urban life is destructive = must end
i.
Massacred Westernized &
educated
ii. Expelled city dwellers to rural
b. Outlawed Buddhism
i. Executed priests & destroyed temples
c. 2 million killed in 4 years
F. Rwanda
1. 2 social groups: Hutu (majority) &
Tutsi (minority)
a. Tutsi were in control until 1962
2. 1973: Juvenal Habayarimana
became president
a. Gave Hutus the power & excluded
Tutsi from positions of power or
education
3. April 6, 1994: Presidential plane
shot down
a. Hutus blamed Tutsis & attacked
(100 days)
b. By mid-July 1994: 1 million
Tutsis killed (1/3)
G. Yugoslavia: “Ethnic Cleansing”
1. Created after WWI: joined 6 republics
together = tensions
2. 1989: Slobodan Milosevic became president
a. Wanted Serbia to be dominant & would not allow
independence
3. Croatia tried to break away 1991-92
a. Ethnical cleansing of Serbs
4. Bosnia declared independence: 1992
a. Milosevic invaded and removed all Muslims from the area
5. Milosevic voted out in 2000 & stood trial for war crimes
a. 250,000 killed in Bosnia, 3 million refugees