Transcript Other Victims

Lesson Study
Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Karen Levine, Central Middle School, New Jersey
Jenny Levy, Independence High School, New York
Laurie Schaefer, Mt. Tabor High School, North Carolina
Lesson Study Challenges
Personal collection of Laurie Schaefer
Lesson Study Challenges
Personal collection of Laurie Schaefer
Lesson Objectives
MAIN GOAL:
-Students will understand the wide-spread impact and
effectiveness of Nazi racial policies on all victim groups.
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
-Students will explain how Nazi ideology dictated which
groups were targeted by the Nazis, as well as the different
Nazi policies/actions toward those groups
Pre-Teaching: Aspects of Nazi Ideology
Multiple Aspects of Nazi Ideology were based on
the following premises:
Survival depends on racial purity. (The Germans
believed that there was a measurable, physical difference
between other races and themselves.)

Survival depends on the seizure of territory. (In
order for the Germans to expand into a great nation, much
more space was needed.)

Survival depends on nullifying or eliminating
anti-social groups who undermine society and
government. (Those whose lifestyle or belief system did
not fit into the Nazi Ideology were labeled as “anti-social.”)

Predictions/Conclusions
Name of Victim
Group
Prediction of
Ideology Used
Poles
SPACE
Jehovah’s
Witnesses
ANTI-SOCIAL
Disabled
RACIAL
Homosexuals
ANTI-SOCIAL
Gypsies/Roma
ANTI-SOCIAL
Conclusion about
Ideology Used
Disabled
Photograph with the
caption: "...because
God cannot want the
sick and ailing to
reproduce." This
image originates
from a film, produced
by the Reich
Propaganda Ministry,
that aimed through
propaganda to
develop public
sympathy for the
Euthanasia Program.
__________
United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
http://www.ushmm.org
Disabled
Propaganda slide
produced by the Reich
Propaganda Office
showing the
opportunity cost of
feeding a person with
a
hereditary disease.
The illustration
shows that an entire
family of healthy
Germans can live for
one day on the same
5.50 Reichsmarks it
costs to support one
ill person for the
same amount of time.
http://www.ushmm.org
Disabled
http://www.ushmm.org
Disabled
•
Helene Lebel, raised as a Catholic in Vienna,
Austria, first showed signs of mental illness when
she was nineteen. Her condition worsened until she
had to give up her law studies and her job as a legal
secretary.
In 1936 she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and
was placed in Vienna's Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital.
Two years later, Germany annexed Austria.
Helene's condition had improved at Steinhof, and
her parents were led to believe that she would soon
be moved to a hospital in a nearby town. In fact,
Helene was transferred to a former prison in
Brandenburg Germany.
There she was undressed, subjected to a physical
examination, and then led into a "shower room"
where she was killed with deadly gas.
http://www.ushmm.org
Homosexuals
Among the
personal
responses to the
growing police
attention to
individual
homosexual's lives
was the
"protective
marriage" to give
the appearance of
conformity. Paul
Otto (left) married
the woman behind
him with her full
knowledge that his
long-time partner
was Harry (right).
Berlin, 1937.
Private Collection,
Berlin/UNITED
STATES HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL MUSEUM
#073
http://www.ushmm.org
Homosexuals
Diagram of the spreading
"contagion" of homosexuality
from individual number 1 to 28
others. The Nazis believed that
the agent of "infection" was the
"seduction" by one man of
another. K. W. Gauhl,
Statistische Untersuchungen
über Gruppenbildung bei
Jugendlichen . . . (1940),
82/UNITED STATES
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
MUSEUM #379
http://www.ushmm.org
Homosexuals
Friedrich–Paul was born in the old trading city of Luebeck in
northern Germany. He was 11 when his father was killed in
World War I. After his mother died, he and his sister Ina were
raised by two elderly aunts. After graduating from school,
Friedrich–Paul trained to be a merchant.
1933—39: In January 1937 the SS arrested 230 men in
Luebeck under the Nazi–revised criminal code's paragraph 175,
which outlawed homosexuality, and I was imprisoned for 10
months. The Nazis had been using paragraph 175 as grounds
for making mass arrests of homosexuals. In 1938 I was re–
arrested, humiliated, and tortured. The Nazis finally released
me, but only on the condition that I agree to be castrated. I
submitted to the operation.
1940—44: Because of the nature of my operation, I was
rejected as "physically unfit" when I came up for military
service in 1940. In 1943 I was arrested again, this time for
being a monarchist, a supporter of the former Kaiser Wilhelm
II. The Nazis imprisoned me as a political prisoner in an annex
of the Neuengamme concentration camp at Luebeck.
After the war, Friedrich–Paul settled in Hamburg.
http://www.ushmm.org
Homosexuals
NAZI LEADER HEINRICH HIMMLER ON THE "QUESTION OF HOMOSEXUALITY"
If you further take into account the facts I have not yet mentioned, namely that with a static
number of women, we have two million men too few on account of those who fell in the war [of
1914-18], then you can well imagine how this imbalance of two million homosexuals and two
million war dead, or in other words a lack of about four million men capable of having sex, has
upset the sexual balance sheet of Germany, and will result in a catastrophe.
I would like to develop a couple of ideas for you on the question of homosexuality. There are
those homosexuals who take the view: what I do is my business, a purely private matter.
However, all things which take place in the sexual sphere are not the private affair of the
individual, but signify the life and death of the nation, signify world power or 'swissification.'
The people which has many children has the candidature for world power and world domination.
A people of good race which has too few children has a one-way ticket to the grave, for
insignificance in fifty or a hundred years, for burial in two hundred and fifty years....
Therefore we must be absolutely clear that if we continue to have this burden in Germany,
without being able to fight it, then that is the end of Germany, and the end of the Germanic
world....
Translated in Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany 19331945 (New York, 1991), pp. 192-93.
Soviet Prisoners of War
Extract from the Commissar's Order for "Operation Barbarossa," June 6, 1941
June 6, 1941
Staff Command Secret Document
Chief Only
Only Through Officer
High Command of the Wehrmacht
WFST [Armed Forces Operational Staff] Div. L (VI/Qu)
No. 44822/41 g.K Chiefs
Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars
In the fight against Bolshevism it is not to be expected that the enemy will act in
accordance with the principles of humanity or international law. In particular, the political
commissars of all kinds, who are the real bearers of resistance, can be expected to mete
out treatment to our prisoners that is full of hate, cruel and inhuman.
The army must be aware of the following:
1. In this battle it would be mistaken to show mercy or respect for international law towards
such elements. They constitute a danger to our own security and to the rapid pacification
of the occupied territories.
2. The barbaric, Asiatic fighting methods are originated by the political commissars. Action
must therefore be taken against them immediately, without further consideration, and with
all severity. Therefore, when they are picked up in battle or resistance, they are, as a
matter of principle, to be finished immediately with a weapon.
Soviet Prisoners of War
Anti-Bolshevik Poster;
Translation: “Europe’s Victory
is Your Prosperity” 1941
http://www.ushmm.org
Soviet Prisoners of War
http://www.ushmm.org
Soviet Prisoners of War
Wounded Soviet
prisoners of war
await medical
attention. The
German army
provided only
minimal treatment,
and permitted
captured Soviet
personnel to care for
their own wounded
using only captured
medical supplies.
Baranovichi, Poland,
wartime.
__________
Bildarchiv Preussischer
Kulturbesitz
http://www.ushmm.org
Poles
This is a late 1939 postcard
proclaiming "Danzig is German."
Danzig, now the Polish city of
Gdansk, was a free city, separated
from Germany as a result of the
Treaty of Versailles, until the Nazis
recaptured it after invading Poland.
The sun peeking through the clouds
(on a church) suggests that even the
heavens approve of Hitler's
conquests.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/postcard.htm
http://www.ushmm.org
Poles
A German soldier
stands on a toppled
Polish monument.
Krakow, Poland,
wartime. Institute of
National
Remembrance
http://www.ushmm.org
Poles
Janusz Piotrowski (Born Plock, Poland, June 21, 1919)
Janusz was the eldest of four children born to Catholic parents in Plock, a town
located in a rural area north of Warsaw. His father was an accountant. Janusz
attended local schools, and became active in scouting.
1933-39: Janusz went to Warsaw to study civil engineering. On September 1,
1939, the Germans began bombing Warsaw. One week later, all able-bodied
men who had not been mobilized were directed to retreat east. On September
17, Janusz was 90 miles from the Romanian border. That night, the Soviets
invaded Poland from the east, cutting off any escape route. Trapped, Janusz
returned to German-occupied Poland, to his family in the town of Wyszogrod.
1940-44: Janusz was arrested in his parents' home in Wyszogrod on April 6,
1940. Some 129 community leaders, professionals and university students were
taken that day. Two weeks later, Janusz arrived with a transport of 1,000 Polish
political prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp. One month later, he was
in the first transport to the Gusen camp in Austria. Janusz spent most of the
next five years in Gusen, working in the quarry for the first year, and then in the
camp's construction office. He was a member of the camp's underground
organization.
At 5 p.m. on May 5, 1945, Janusz was liberated in Gusen by soldiers of the U.S.
3rd Army. He emigrated to the United States on March 23, 1948.
http://www.ushmm.org
Poles
http://www.ushmm.org
Jehovah’s Witnesses
To the Officials of the Government:
The Word of Jehovah God, as set out in the Holy Bible, is the supreme law, and to us it is our sole
guide for the reason that we have devoted ourselves to God and are true and sincere followers of
Christ Jesus.
During the past year, and contrary to God’s law and in violation of our rights, you have forbidden us as
Jehovah’s Witnesses to meet together to study God’s Word and worship and serve Him. In His
Word he commands us that we shall not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews
10:25) To us Jehovah commands:
‘Ye are my witnesses that I am God. Go and tell the people my message.’ (Isaiah 43:10, 12; Isaiah 6:9;
Matthew 24:14).
There is a direct conflict between your law and God’s law, and, following the lead of the faithful
apostles, ‘we ought to obey God rather than men,’ and this we will do. (Acts 5:29) Therefore this is
to advise you that at any cost we will obey God’s commandments, will meet together for the study
of His Word, and will worship and serve Him as He has commanded. If your government or
officers do violence to us because we are obeying God, then our blood
will be upon you and you will answer to Almighty God.
We have no interest in political affairs, but are wholly devoted to God’s Kingdom under Christ His King.
We will do no injury or harm to anyone. We would delight to dwell in peace and do good to all men
as we have opportunity, but, since your government and its officers continue in your attempt to
force us to disobey the highest law of the universe, we are compelled to now give you notice that
we will, by His Grace, obey Jehovah God and fully trust Him to deliver us from all oppression and
oppressors
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Declaration Denouncing Beliefs
Jehovah's Witnesses incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps were given the opportunity to be freed if
they signed the following statement renouncing their beliefs and indicating a willingness to become a soldier.
Few did so, even when beaten and tortured.
Concentration camp: .......................................
Department II
DECLARATION
I, the ........................................................................
born on .......................................................................
in.............................................................................
herewith make the following declaration:
1.I have come to know that the International Bible Students Association is proclaiming erroneous teachings
and under the cloak of religion follows hostile purposes against the State.
2.I therefore left the organization entirely and made myself absolutely free from the teachings of this sect.
3.I herewith give assurance that I will never again take any part in the activity of the International Bible
Students Assocation. Any persons approaching me with the teaching of the Bible Students, or who in any
manner reveal their connections with them, I will denounce immediately. All literature from the Bible Students
that should be sent to my address I will at once deliver to the nearest police station.
4.I will in the future esteem the laws of the State, especially in the event of war will I, with weapon in hand,
defend the fatherland, and join in every way the community of the people.
5.I have been informed that I will at once be taken again into protective custody if I should act against the
declaration given today.
..............................................................................................
Dated.......................................
..............................................................................................
Signature
*
From Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, 1993), p.661.
http://www.ushmm.org
Jehovah’s Witnesses
When Wolfgang was an infant, his parents became
Jehovah's Witnesses. His father moved the family to the
small Westphalian town of Bad Lippspringe when Wolfgang
was 9. Their home became the headquarters of a new
Jehovah's Witness congregation. Wolfgang and his ten
brothers and sisters grew up studying the Bible daily.
1933-39: The Kusserows were under close scrutiny by the
Nazi secret police because of their religion. As a Jehovah's
Witness, Wolfgang believed that his highest allegiance was
to God and His laws, especially the commandment to "love
God above all else and thy neighbor as thyself." Even after
the Nazis arrested Wolfgang's father and oldest brother,
Wilhelm, the Kusserows continued to host, illegally, Bible
study meetings in their home.
1940-42: Believing that God, not Hitler, was his guide, and
obeying God's fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill,"
Wolfgang refused induction into the German army. He was
arrested in December, 1941, and a bill of indictment was
issued on January 12, 1942. After months in prison,
Wolfgang was tried and sentenced to death. On the night
before his execution, he wrote to his family, assuring them
of his devotion to God.
Wolfgang was beheaded by guillotine in Brandenburg Prison
on March 28, 1942. He was 20
http://www.ushmm.org
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Johann was born to Catholic parents in the part of Austria
known as Carinthia, where he was raised on the family farm.
Johann enjoyed acting and belonged to a theater group in
nearby Sankt Martin, which also happened to have a Jehovah's
Witness congregation. He became a Jehovah's Witness during
the late 1920s, actively preaching in the district around Sankt
Martin.
1933-39: Johann continued to do missionary work for the
Jehovah's Witnesses even after this was banned by the Austrian
government in 1936. The situation for Jehovah's Witnesses
worsened after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. Like
other Witnesses, Johann refused to give the Hitler salute, to
swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler, or to enlist in the army.
1940-44: In April 1940 Johann was arrested by the Gestapo
and imprisoned in Klagenfurt. The Nazis deported him to the
Neuengamme concentration camp, and then to the
Sachsenhausen camp. In Sachsenhausen, the Germans tried to
force Johann to repudiate his faith as a Jehovah's Witness, but
Johann refused. Though it was forbidden, he had secretly
hidden a tiny Bible, and reading Scripture enabled him to fortify
his belief that the power of God was stronger than the power of
the Nazi regime.
Johann was executed on May 7, 1944, in Sachsenhausen. He
was 34 years old.
http://www.ushmm.org
Gypsies (Roma)
German hygienist
Sophie Ehrhardt checks
the eye color of a
Gypsy woman during a
racial examination.
Bundesarchiv.
http://www.ushmm.org
Gypsies (Roma)
HIMMLER’S CIRCULAR OF DECEMBER 8, 1938: “COMBATTING THE GYPSY NUISANCE”
Experience gained in combating the Gypsy nuisance, and knowledge derived from race-biological research,
have shown that the proper method of attacking the Gypsy problem seems to be to treat it as a matter of race.
Experience shows that part-Gypsies play the greatest role in Gypsy criminality. On the other hand, it has been
shown that efforts to make the Gypsies settle have been unsuccessful, especially in the case of pure Gypsies,
on account of their strong compulsion to wander. It has therefore become necessary to distinguish between
pure and part-Gypsies in the final solution of the Gypsy question.
To this end, it is necessary to establish the racial affinity of every Gypsy living in Germany and of every
vagrant living a Gypsy-like existence.
I therefore decree that all settled and non-settled Gypsies, and also all vagrants living a Gypsy-like existence,
are to be registered with the Reich Criminal Police Office-Reich Central Office for Combating the Gypsy
Nuisance….
Treatment of the Gypsy question is part of the National Socialist task of national regeneration. A solution can
only be achieved if the philosophical perspectives of National Socialism are observed. Although the principle
that the German nation respects the national identity of alien peoples is also assumed in combating the Gypsy
nuisance, nonetheless the aim of measures taken by the State to defend the homogeneity of the German
nation must be the physical separation of Gypsydom from the German nation, the prevention of
miscegenation, and finally, the regulation of the way of life of pure and part-Gypsies. The necessary legal
foundation can only be created through a Gypsy Law which prevents further intermingling of blood, and
which regulates all the most pressing questions which go together with the existence of Gypsies in the living
space of the German nation.
(Translated in Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945
(New York, 1991), pp. 120-21.)
Gypsies (Roma)
Ceija Stojka
Born Kraubath bei Knittelfeld, Austria
1933
Ceija was the fifth of six children born to Roman Catholic Gypsy parents. The
Stojka's family wagon traveled with a caravan that spent winters in the
Austrian capital of Vienna and summers in the Austrian countryside. The
Stojkas belonged to a tribe of Gypsies called the Lowara Roma, who made
their living as itinerant horse traders.
1933-39: I grew up used to freedom, travel and hard work. Once, my father
made me a skirt out of some material from a broken sunshade. I was 5 years
old and our wagon was parked for the winter in a Vienna campground, when
Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. The Germans ordered us to stay
put. My parents had to convert our wagon into a wooden house, and we had
to learn how to cook with an oven instead of on an open fire.
1940-44: Gypsies were forced to register as members of another "race." Our
campground was fenced off and placed under police guard. I was 8 when the
Germans took my father away; a few months later, my mother received his
ashes in a box. Next, the Germans took my sister, Kathi. Finally, they
deported all of us to a Nazi camp for Gypsies in Birkenau. We lived in the
shadows of a smoking crematorium, and we called the path in front of our
barracks the "highway to hell" because it led to the gas chambers.
Ceija was subsequently freed in the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945. After the
war, she documented and published Lowara Gypsy songs about the
Holocaust.
http://www.ushmm.org
Gypsies (Roma)
Dr. Robert Ritter and his associate
Eva Justin taking a blood sample as
part of their racial research on
Gypsies. Landau, Germany, 1938.
Bundesarchiv, Koblenz. Germany
http://www.ushmm.org
Exit Question
Based on the predictions each group made at the beginning of class
and the conclusions each group reached,:
1. What patterns do you see in how the Nazis targeted their
victims?
2. What surprised you the most about what you learned today or
the conclusions the class reached?
Homework/Follow-Up Activity
Do you believe that any of the Nazi ideologies used to target the
other victims groups are still alive and effective in our world today?
Explain your answer, using one or both of the following as
examples:
1. groups who are targeted today
2. any of the other victims groups (handicapped,
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, Poles,
Soviet Prisones of War) who are still targeted today
Follow-Up Activities
The next day:
• Put all of the handouts back up on the board and have the
students spend some time making observations and finding
patterns in the pieces of evidence in each category.
• Hold a whole class discussion about their findings, discussing
each ideology and how the groups can “cross over” into
different categories.
• Use the homework piece to hold a class discussion of the
modern-day influences of Nazi Ideology on victim groups.
Follow-Up Activities
Other Extension Activities:
• Have students write down two questions they
have about other victim groups and use those
questions in a whole class discussion or use it to
jump-start a mini-research project.
• Take students to the computer lab and have them
choose a victim group to create a photo essay on,
exploring life before the Holocaust and how they
were targeted during the Holocaust.
• Have students do a gallery walk-by of all of the
pieces of evidence, commenting on the
conclusions the original groups reached. This
would allow them to see and analyze all of the
pieces.