Transcript The Holocaust in Historical Context

The Holocaust
in Historical Context
Sally Levine
Teacher Fellow and Regional Educator
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
1914 – Outbreak of WWI
• Palestine under control of
Ottoman Empire (400 years)
• In Europe, tensions are built
on growing nationalism,
militarism, expansionism and
an intricate alliance system
• Assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary
leads to demands on Serbia.
• Demands are not met and
The Great War begins
• The United States decides to
supply both sides and remain
neutral in this European
conflict.
Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and
Sophie arrive at
Sarajevo City Hall
accompanied by
General Oskar
Potiorek (right),
Military Governor
of Bosnia.
Europe on the Eve of World War I, 1914
1915
Through a series of paintings, in The Great Migration, Jacob Lawrence
illustrates the mass exodus of African-Americans who moved to the North in
search of a better life. Lawrence's parents were among those who migrated
between 1916-1919, considered the first wave of the migration.
• Southern Blacks
begin migrating to
northern cities
when war
industries seek
employees.
• Between 1910
and 1930 almost
one million
Southern Blacks
leave the South in
what becomes
known as the
Great Migration.
1917
• U.S. enters WWI
• British enter Jerusalem
– 400 years of Ottoman
control ends
• Balfour Declaration
• Russian Revolution
• Jews granted full rights
in Russia.
• Russia signs the BrestLivovsk Treaty with
Germans and is no
longer at war with the
Central Powers.
British General Allenby enters Jerusalem,
December 11, 1917
Street demonstration, Petrograd, 18 June 1917.
1918
• WWI concludes
• Armistice is signed on the 11th day
of the 11th month in the 11th hour.
• Wilson’s 14 Points includes selfdetermination.
• Borders of Europe change
dramatically.
• Pandemic of Spanish influenza
kills more than 21 million people
worldwide -- over 1% of the world's
population.
• Treaty of Versailles states that
Germany must
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reduce size of its military
disarm
give up land
take responsibility for the war
pay reparations.
Europe after the First World War
Army hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, 1918,
filled with victims of the Spanish influenza pandemic
that eventually killed approximately 50 million
people worldwide.
1919
Signing the Treaty of Versailles in the
Hall of Mirrors
In 1919 Hitler joined the German
Workers' party that would become the
NSDAP or Nazi party.
• Major racial disturbances
occur across America
during the "Red Summer”;
over 100 people die and
1,000 are wounded
• Treaty of Versailles is
signed
• Nazi Party is established
• Adolf Hitler joins 9 months
later
• League of Nations is
established
• Red Scare begins in the
U.S.
• Race riots and lynchings
occur in the U.S.
1920
• Treaty of Versailles takes
effect, redrawing map of
Europe and imposing
punitive reparations on
Germany
• Women’s Suffrage Act
ratified in U.S. – 19th
Amendment
• Henry Ford begins to
reprint Protocols of the
Elders of Zion in the
Dearborn Independent
• Sacco and Vanzetti case
THE INTERNATIONAL JEW,
THE WORLD'S FOREMOST
PROBLEM
Abridged from the original as published by the world
renowned industrial leader,
HENRY FORD, SR.
Appearing originally in the periodical published by
the Ford Motor Co. "The Dearborn Independent."
1921
• The London Times declares
Protocols of the Elders of Zion a
forgery
• British Mandate, issued by the
League of Nations, restates
Balfour Declaration
• Britain granted Mandate for
Palestine (Land of Israel) by
League of Nations.
• American immigration laws
"reformed" to exclude Eastern
European Jews and other
immigrants.
• The NSDAP, also known as the
Nazi Party, establishes the SA,
Storm Troopers, Brown Shirts.
• Adolf Hitler becomes the Nazi
Party's first chairman with
dictatorial powers.
The London Times
exposed the Protocols
as a forgery in August
of 1921
1922
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Vladimir Lenin
Benito Mussolini
Transjordan set up on ¾ of the British
mandate area, forbidding Jewish
immigration, leaving1/4 of the land for a
Jewish national home.
Lenin creates the USSR.
Benito Mussolini establishes a Fascist
government in Italy.
Harvard's president proposes a quota on
number of Jews admitted. After contentious
debate, he withdraws the recommendation.
League of Nations approves Mandate for
Palestine.
Adolf Hitler Boys Storm Troop and Shock
Troop Adolf Hitler are established. The
latter will become the SS.
Churchill White Paper makes official
statement of British government policy
towards Palestine: The Balfour Declaration
did not contemplate that Palestine in its
entirety would be a Jewish National Home,
but that such a home should be
established within Palestine.
1923
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France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr
after Germany is unable to make
payment of its war-reparations designed
to pay off $31 billion war debt.
The SS, Protection Squad is established.
Initially a bodyguard for Hitler it will
become an elite armed guard of the
Third Reich.
The first issue of the pro-Nazi,
antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer (The
Attacker) is published in Nuremberg,
Germany. Its slogan is, "Die Juden sind
unser Unglück” - The Jews are our
misfortune
Hitler's “Beer Hall Putsch” takeover
attempt at Munich fails, temporarily.
Hitler is arrested in Bavaria, Germany
Teapot Dome Scandal occurs in the U.S.
Ku Klux Klan claims 5 million members in
America.
Crowds supporting Hitler gather in the
Marienplatz, November 9, 1923
1924
Adolf Hitler in Landsberg
prison in April 1924.
Cover of Adolf Hitler's
Mein Kampf.
• The United States
Congress passes the
Immigration Restriction
Act, which effectively
bans immigration to the
U.S. from Asia and
Eastern Europe.
• While in prison, Hitler
begins work on Mein
Kampf, My Struggle.
1925
• Paul von Hindenburg, a
hero of The Great War,
is elected president of
Germany.
• Scopes Trial on
evolution begins in
Tennessee
• Model T ford price drops
to $290, about three
months salary for the
average American
worker.
Paul von Hindenburg
Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan during the Scopes trial
1927
• Charles Lindbergh
arrives in Paris and is
greeted by cheering
crowds after a 33 hour
non-stop flight from
New York
• Sacco and Vanzetti are
executed
• Babe Ruth hits 60
home runs for the
Yankees
• Al Jolson stars in The
Jazz Singer, the first
talking film
Babe Ruth and
President Hoover
Charles Lindbergh and The
Spirit of St. Louis
Sacco and Vanzetti
1928
• Herbert Hoover is elected President of the U.S.
• Fifty two nations sign Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing
war
President Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Frank B. Kellogg, standing, with
representatives of the governments who have ratified the Treaty for Renunciation of War
(Kellogg-Briand Pact), in the East Room of the White House.
1929
Anne Frank is born in
Germany
The trading floor of the New
York Stock Exchange just
after the crash of 1929
• 2,000 Arabs attack Jews
praying at the Western
Wall in Jerusalem on
the anniversary of the
destruction of the
Temple.
• Arabs view British
refusal to condemn the
attacks as support.
• Hebron Jews are
massacred by Arab
militants.
• Anne Frank is born.
• On "Black Tuesday," the
American stock market
crashes, plunging the
country into the Great
Depression
1930
Nazi election poster, ca. 1930 The text
reads: "The Red War. Mother or
Comrade? Man or Machine? God or the
Devil? Blood or God? Race or Bastard?
Popular music or jazz? National
Socialism or Bolshevism?"
• In German National
Elections, Adolf
Hitler's National
Socialist Party wins
95 seats in the
Reichstag, the
German Parliament.
• Lord Passfield of
Great Britain issues
his White Paper,
banning further land
acquisition by Jews
and slowing Jewish
immigration into
Palestine.
1932
• German Chancellor von
Papen persuades
President von Hindenburg
to offer Hitler the
chancellorship.
• In the U.S., the
Reconstruction Finance
Corporation attempts to
bolster industry
• The Bonus Army marches
on Washington, D.C.
demanding early payments
for service in The Great
War
• Franklin Roosevelt wins
the presidency
The Bonus Army, American World War I veterans,
protest in Washington, demanding their bonus
pay early
1933
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Chancellor Adolf Hitler shakes
hands with German President
Paul von Hindenburg on
January 30, 1933.
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Government organized
boycott on Jewish stores in
Germany
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Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
Franklin Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd
President of the United States.
Prohibition repealed
Hundred Days of legislation follows FDR's
inauguration
U.S. Banks closed after over 6000 fail
Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs begin
First concentration camp opens in Dachau,
Germany for Nazi political opponents
The Reichstag burns and the Enabling Act allows
Hitler to establish a dictatorship
Nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses in
Germany
Jews excluded from government employment in
Germany
Book burnings in Germany
Laws passed in Germany permitting forced
sterilization of Roma and Sinti, the disabled,
African-Germans and those considered “unfit”
Albert Einstein, upon visiting the United States,
learns that Hitler has been elected and decides not
to return to Germany.
Arab riots in Jaffa and Jerusalem protest British
"pro-Zionist" policies.
1934
• Purge of the Nazi Party: Night of the Long Knives
• President Von Hindenburg dies and Hitler becomes “Fuhrer”
and absolute dictator
• Major arrests in Germany of homosexuals
• Security and Exchange Commission established in the U.S.
Hitler becomes Führer
1935
• Jehovah’s Witness Organization
is banned in Germany
• Homosexual acts between men
is criminalized in Nazi Germany
• Hitler’s army invades the
Rhineland
• Jewish rights in Germany
rescinded by Nuremberg laws.
These laws define “who is a
Jew.”
• Works Progress Administration
established in the U.S.
• In the U.S., National Labor
Relations (Wagner) Act protects
workers' rights
• Social Security Act passed in the
U.S.
• U.S. Congress passes first of
annual Neutrality Acts
1936
In the Olympic Stadium, German spectators
salute Adolf Hitler during the games in Berlin,
Germany, August 1936)
Jesse Owens became a hero after winning four gold
medals. He undermined Hitler's myth of Aryan
superiority.
• Roma and Sinti in Germany
are arrested and deported to
Dachau
• Anti-Jewish riots instigated
by Arab militants in Palestine
• Berlin Olympics – anti Jewish
signs are removed until
games are over
• Black American, Jessie
Owens, wins four gold
medals in the Olympic
Games in Berlin
• General Motors sitdown
strike
1937
• Franklin Roosevelt is sworn
in as U.S. President for a
2nd term.
• FDR proposes courtpacking plan, which fails
• The British Peel
Commission recommends
the partition of Palestine
between Jews and Arabs
• Jewish leaders, Chaim
Weizmann and David BenGurion accept the partition
plan, despite fierce
opposition at the 20th
Zionist Congress
1938
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German troops invade Austria (Anschluss) and
annex it as part of the German Reich
Father Charles E. Coughlin, a Roman Catholic
priest, launches media campaign in America
against Jews – America First – and is aided by
Charles Lindbergh
The Dominican Republic is the only country
out of 32 at the Evian Conference willing to
help Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany.
President Roosevelt sends a businessman
and friend, Myron Taylor, to the Evian
Conference
British Prime Minister Chamberlain declares
"peace in our time" after allowing Hitler to
annex the Sudetenland in the Munich
Agreement
Hershel Grynszpan, 17, a German Jewish
refugee, assassinates Ernst von Rath,
secretary to the German embassy in Paris.
Kristallnacht — German Jewish synagogues
burned down, homes and businesses looted.
30,000 Jewish men deported to concentration
camps
Jewish children expelled from public schools in
Germany
After Kristallnacht, destruction of
Jewish store, Berlin
Charles Lindbergh speaking at an
America First Rally in Indiana
1939
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German troops invade
Czechoslovakia
Jewish immigration into Palestine
severely limited by British White
Paper.
S.S. St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish
refugees from Germany, is turned
back by Cuba and the United States.
Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin
introduces his song "God Bless
America."
World War II begins September 1,
1939 with the German invasion of
Poland
U.S. Neutrality Act allows cash-andcarry for military purchases
France and Great Britain declare war
on Germany.
Germany and the Soviet Union
secretly agree to partition Poland
Hitler gives doctors power to murder
the mentally and physically unfit – T-4
Program
German troops parade through Warsaw,
Poland, September, 1939
1940
• Germany invades and defeats
Denmark, Norway, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Holland and France
• The SS establishes the Auschwitz
concentration camp in Poland
• Nazis establish Warsaw ghetto
• British government authorizes the
Jewish Agency in Palestine to
recruit 10,000 Jews to form
Jewish units in the British army.
• U.S. Congress approves first
peace-time draft
• America First Committee urges
U.S. neutrality
• FDR wins unprecedented third
term for president
Warsaw Ghetto
1941
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Soldiers from Einsatzgruppe C look through the possessions
of Jews massacred at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev. Soviet
Union, September 29-October 1, 1941.
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At 7:58 A.M., December 7, 1941, the alarm went
out: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" Later
that morning, the magazine of the USS Shaw
exploded after being struck by a Japanese bomb.
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Franklin Roosevelt is sworn in as
President for a 3rd term.
Lend-Lease Act allows U.S. to financially
assist Allied nations
FDR and Churchill sign Atlantic Charter,
pledging self-determination for all nations
Germany invades North Africa, Yugoslavia
and Greece
German army invades the Soviet Union
(6/22) Einsatzgruppen begin mass
murders
Nazis test gas chambers at Auschwitz on
Soviet and Polish prisoners
Almost 34,000 Jews murdered by Nazis at
Babi Yar, near Kiev
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
United States declares war on Japan and
Germany
Nazis begin gassing operations at
Chelmno extermination camp in Poland
1942
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Dining room In Wannsee, where the
Final Solution was discussed
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Reinhard Heydrich
U.S. begins interning Japanese-American
citizens
Nazi leaders discuss and coordinate the
"Final Solution" -- genocide of the Jewish
people -- at Wannsee Conference.
Jews are deported to death camps from
France, Poland, Holland and Belgium
Nazi extermination camps in occupied
Poland begin mass murder of Jews in gas
chambers
– Auschwitz
– Birkenau
– Treblinka
– Sobibor
– Belzec
– Majdanek
Manhattan Project begins
In the United States ,Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise publicizes Riegner report confirming
mass murder of European Jews
1943
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Americans seize Guadalcanal
Jews deported from Greece
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Inmate revolt at Treblinka
Nazis order all ghettos liquidated
and inmates sent to concentration
camps
British deport illegal immigrants in
Palestine to Cyprus.
Raphael Lemkin, an international
lawyer who escaped from Poland to
the U.S. in 1941, coins the term
genocide to describe the Nazi
extermination of European Jews.
Danish boatlift to bring Danish Jews
to safety in Sweden
Inmate revolt at Sobibor
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
1944
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D-Day: U.S. troops wading through water and
Nazi gunfire , June 6, 1944
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Scene on "Omaha" Beach on the afternoon of
"D-Day", 6 June 1944
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Roosevelt sets up War Refugee Board at
the urging of Treasury Secretary Henry
Morganthau, Jr.
Germany occupies Hungary
Beginning of deportation of over 430,000
Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz – most of
them are gassed
D-Day: Invasion of Normandy by the
Allies
Roosevelt elected U.S. President for a
fourth term
Allied island-hopping campaign retakes
Guam
Battle of the Bulge
Soviet army begins to close in on the
Nazis and the camps
Jewish Brigade formed as part of British
World War II forces.
German officers fail in an attempt to
assassinate Hitler
Soviet troops liberate Majdanek, 7/23
Prisoner revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1945
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Franklin Roosevelt is sworn in as U.S.
President for a 4th term.
Yalta Conference
Death marches
Liberation of camps by Americans, Soviets
and British soldiers
President Roosevelt dies of a stroke
Harry S. Truman becomes President of the
United States
Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in
Berlin
American troops liberate Mauthausen
End of WWII in Europe (5/8/45)
U.S. uses the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
End of WWII in Japan (9/2/45)
International tribunal for war crimes is
established at Nuremberg.
Bess Myerson becomes the first Jewish
woman to win the Miss America Pageant.
United Nations established
President Truman issues a directive giving
DP’s preference in getting visas under the
existing quota system
Mathausen prisoners cheer the
arrival of the 11th Armored Division
on May 6, 1945
Hiroshima after the bombing
1946
The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials brought 22 Nazi officials to
court in 1945-46. The defendants are on the right side of the
photo
The defendants at Nuremberg. Front row, from left to right: Hermann Göring,
Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk,
Hjalmar Schacht. Back row from left to right: Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur
von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Franz von Papen, Arthur SeyssInquart, Albert Speer, Konstantin van Neurath, Hans Fritzsche.
• Pogrom against
Holocaust survivors
returning to Poland
• Major Nazi war
criminals receive
their sentences in
Nuremberg Trials
• Ten defendants in
Nuremberg Trials
executed.
• Nazi war criminal
Hermann Goring
commits suicide in
his cell.
• Churchill gives Iron
Curtain speech
1947
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Refugee ship Exodus repelled by British forces
from shores of Palestine. Refugees return to DP
camps in Germany
United Nations recommends a new partition plan
for Palestine to create two states, one Arab and
one Jewish
Arab Higher Committee for Palestine rejects UN
Partition Plan
UN approves partition plan by a vote of 33-13
with 10 abstentions to create a Jewish and Arab
state
Arab mobs attack Jewish quarters in Jerusalem
and Arab operations begin against Jewish cities
and settlements
Truman Doctrine aids nations resisting
communism
Marshall Plan provides economic aid to Europe
House Un-American Activities Committee
investigates Hollywood
Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in baseball
Taft-Hartley Act slows growth of labor unions in
U.S.
The Exodus 1947 after the conflict
between the Haganah, the Jewish
defense force, and the British.
Jackie Robinson
1948
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David Ben-Gurion reads the
Proclamation of the State of Israel
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Marching into war... Jewish forces in the
new State of Israel move on foot in 1948.
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U.S. proposes suspension of partition plan
and calls for a special session of the
General Assembly to discuss trusteeship for
Palestine.
Declaration of Independence of the State of
Israel (May 14). Jewish immigration into the
state will be unrestricted.
U.S. recognizes Israel
End of British Mandate. Arab armies invade
Israel
President Harry S Truman recognizes the
State of Israel within its first hour of
existence
USSR recognizes Israel
Israeli War of Independence (May 1948-July
1949)
Soviets block access to West Berlin in Berlin
Airlift
Alger Hiss case begins
Truman signs armed forces desegregation
order
Congress passes Displaced Persons Act,
authorizing 200,000 DP’s to enter the U.S.
between 1949 and 1950
Approximately 80,000 war refugees
immigrate to the U.S. with aid from Jewish
agencies between 1945 and 1952
1960
Adolf Eichmann,
Germany 1940
Nixon – Kennedy debate
• Adolf Eichmann is
tracked down and
captured by Israeli
secret agents in
Argentina
• Kennedy and Nixon
participate in first
televised presidential
debates in U.S.
• Greensboro sit-in
protests, defying
segregation in the
South
• Kennedy defeats Nixon
1961
• Eichmann is put on trial in
Israel
• He is sentenced to death
for crimes against the
Jewish people and crimes
against humanity
• Bay of Pigs invasion in
Cuba fails
• Freedom rides in American
South
• Berlin Wall built
• U.S. establishes the Peace
Corps
Photo of Adolf Eichmann in glass booth at trial,
surrounded by guards
Berlin, 1961. Berlin Wall at Zimmerstrasse
/Markgrafenstrasse. West Berliners watching
over the wall to the East
1962 - 1963
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in
Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Attended by some 250,000
people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's
capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage.
President Kennedy with
his wife, Jacqueline,
and Texas Governor
John Connally in the
presidential limousine
just moments before his
assassination
• Eichmann is executed in
Ramleh prison
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Students for a
Democratic Society
formed
• The following year, 1963:
• Rev. King begins
Birmingham
desegregation efforts
• University of Alabama
admits first black student
• Premier Diem of South
Vietnam toppled by U.S.approved coup
• Pres. Kennedy
assassinated