Transcript The Holocaust

Shoah/The Holocaust
Kevin J. Benoy
Origins
• Anti-Semitism has
existed in Europe
since before the
Christian era.
• In the ancient world,
the rejection of idol
worship set the Jews
apart.
• In the Christian era,
Jews were blamed for
the cruxificion of
Christ.
Origins
• In Medieval Europe
Jews often had to
wear identifying
badges and
sometimes live in
ghettos.
• They were often
forbidden from
owning land.
Origins
• In Tsarist Russia
medieval antisemitism continued in
the 18th & 19th
centuries with
officially sponsored
Pogroms.
• Jews were forced to
live in an area called
the Pale of
Settlement.
Germany 1933-39
• In 1935 Hitler passed the
Nurmeberg Laws which
allowed the state to act
against Jews on racial
grounds.
– They could not marry nonJews.
– They could not use public
facilities.
– They were banned from
state jobs.
– They could be forcefully
sterilized.
• Many were sent to the
new concentration camp
at Dachau
Germany 1933-39
• On November 9-10, 1938
the Nazis unleashed the
biggest Pogrom in recent
history – an event that is
now known as
Kristallnacht – “the night
of broken glass.”
• Jewish buildings were
looted, synagogues
burned and many Jews
injured.
• Jews were arrested after
this “for their own
protection.”
The Final Solution
• However, it was not until WWII that plans
were laid to exterminate the Jews.
• On January 30, 1939, Hitler said that in a new
Europe the Jews would be destroyed - but
did not state nothing further.
• After the conquest of Poland, Polish Jews
were concentrated in ghettos in Lodz and
Warsaw, while other European Jews were
massed in Lublin.
• Thousands died of sickness and starvation,
but there were not systematic massacres yet.
The Final Solution
• When Hitler ordered
the invasion of
Russia, he followed
it with orders to
Himmler and
Heydrich to make
preparations for the
“final solution of the
Jewish problem.”
The Final Solution
• No written order
exists, but
Himmler told
senior SS
leaders that for
certain things,
there must be no
records.
The Final Solution
• In May, 1941
Einsatzgruppen were
formed to begin
exterminating Jews and
communists captured
during the invasion of the
USSR.
• Killings began right away
in batches of several
thousand.
• In 4 months, some
600,000 were
extirminated, but the pace
of murder and techniques
were considered
inadequate.
The Final Solution
• On January 20,
1942 a meeting was
convened at
Wansee to plan a
more industrial
scaled and efficient
mass murder.
• SS, industrial and
transportation
officials attended.
• Minutes were taken.
The Final Solution
• The first
extermination
camp was
opened on Dec.
8, 1941 at
Chelmno.
• Killing was done
using carbon
monozide in
mobile vans.
The Final Solution
• At Belzec a new
technique was
pioneered --- poison
gas in fixed air-tight
chambers.
• Soon Sobibor and
Treblinka opened –
with the gas chamber
in the latter taking 200
at a time.
The Final lSolution
• The largest camp,
Auschwitz, along with
Majdanek, were dual
purpose camps –
people were sent
directly for
extermination or used,
for a time, as slave
labour.
• The gas chambers at
Auschwitz could take
up to 2000 victims at a
time.
The Final Solution
• Between 1 & 2
million were killed
at Auschwitz.
• In addition,
horrific medical
experiments were
conducted on
human subjects.
• Bodies were
burned in giant
crematoria.
The Final Solution
• Adolf Eichmann
reported to Hitler in
the summer of 1944
that about 4 million
Jews had been
killed in the camps
and another 2
million eliminated
by Einsatzgruppen
in Russia.
• As many as 6
million non-Jews
were also killed.
Resistance
• Despite the hopelessness
of resisting, many Jews
fought back.
• Jewish partisans
harassed Germans in the
forests of Russia.
• Rebellions occurred at
Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Resistance
• Most notable was the
Warsaw uprising of
1943.
• After 400,000 Jews
were deported to the
death camps, 60,000
rebelled, fighting from
buildings and sewers.
• It took a month to put
down the revolt.
Resistance
• Most did not even consider rebellion.
• Few could believe that such a horrible fate
would come to them.
• Though warnings were sometimes given, it
was inconceivable that extermination was
their fate.
• Weak and downtrodden, most accepted
their fate and went on to meet their maker.
The Issue of Guilt
• Since the war, much has
been said about the issue of
guilt.
• Some argue it can only be
assumed on an individual
basis – only those directly
involved can be held
responsible – or even that
only those giving the orders
were guilty.
• Others insist on collective
guilt. What of the German
people who did nothing to
stop the slaughter, despite
widespread knowledge of
what was happening.
The Issue of Guilt
• Those tried at
Nuremberg claimed
they were just taking
orders as loyal soldiers
of the Reich.
• This defense was not
allowed.
• Henceforth soldiers
could be held
responsible for
breaking international
law.
The Issue of Guilt
• Many Germans claimed
complete ignorance of
the holocaust.
• Hans Frank pointed out
at Nuremberg that one
should not believe
them.
• It is impossible to
murder millions without
huge numbers of
participants and
witnesses.
The Issue of Guilt
• Soldiers returning on leave from the Eastern front
often witnessed Einsatzgruppen actions. Many talked
about what they saw.
• Slave labourers from the camps worked alongside
civilians in German factories. Did they work silently?
• Those who lived near the camps must have smelled
the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh.
• Camps were on major rail lines. Passengers could
see for themselves some of the activity. As a railway
employee put it after the war, “the burning of corpses
was more or less done in public.”
The Issue of Guilt
• Few knew the whole
picture, but most knew
something of the “terrible
secret.”
• In Finland the
transportation of Finnish
Jews was halted
because their fate
became common
knowledge. Would those
even closer to the horror
know less?
• On the other hand, did
Germans want to know?
The Issue of Guilt
• In August, 1945
philosopher Karl Jaspers
told his fellow Germans:
– “We did not go into the
streets when our Jewish
friends were led away; we
did not scream until we too
were destroyed. We
preferred to stay alive, on
the feeble, if logical, ground
that our death would not
have helped anyone…We
are guilty of being alive.
The Issue of Guilt
• What of the Allies?
• The US government, Britain and Stalin did not
appear too interested in the fate of the Jews.
• They did not particularly publicize information
they had about the horror – perhaps feeling that
the public would not believe it anyway.
• More seriously, they did little to use the tools at
their disposal to stop or limit the holocaust.
The Issue of Guilt
• Walter Laquer points out:
– “No power could have saved the majority of the Jews of
the Reich and of Eastern Europe in the summer of
1942…After the winter of 1942 the situation rapidly
changed: the satellite leaders and even some of the
German officials were no longer eager to be accessories
to the mass murder. Some, at least, would have
responded to Allied pressure, but such pressure was never
exerted. Many Jews could certainly have been saved in
1944 by bombing the railway lines leading to the
extermination centres, and of course, the centres
themselves. This could have been done without deflecting
any major resources from the general war effort.
•
•
•
•
In 1979 an American mini-series
called The Holocaust was broadcast
on West German television.
From 32-41% of the entire West
German population watched it,
including 47% of all Berliners. Fully
20 million viewers saw all or part of
it.
Serious questions followed. 30,000
phoned their local stations to enquire
or provide detailed information about
what was shown.
Troublesome questions were posed
and Germans chose to face up to
history and not preserve the “wall of
silence” which followed the war.
The Issue of Guilt
• Renate Halprecht, a survivor of Auschwitz
said:
– “One cannot choose one’s people. In those
days I wished many a time that I was not a
Jew, but then I became one in a very
conscious way. Young Germans must accept
the fact that they are Germans – this is a fate
that they cannot escape.”
Finis