Transcript Life Before the Holocausta

The Holocaust:
A Quest for Meaning
• https://www.ushmm.org/confrontantisemitism/european-antisemitism-fromits-origins-to-the-holocaust
Holocaust was Catharsis but
was preceded the Shoa?
• The history of the Holocaust shows that
targeting an entire group has far-reaching
consequences.
• It can lead to an increase in xenophobia,
racism, and extremism throughout society,
with potentially devastating consequences
for individuals, communities, and nations.
Answer the following
questions…
• Why watch this film?
• How have Jews been affected by antisemitism? What impact does
antisemitism have on others?
• What is the meaning of “scapegoat”? What do people gain from
scapegoating?
• What is the effect of hateful images and speech? Do images and
words reflect existing attitudes or create them?
• (How has antisemitism changed throughout history? What are some
differences among religious, political, and racial antisemitism?
• Why would political or religious leaders espouse antisemitic ideas?
• How is antisemitism similar to or different from other forms of group
hatred?
Intro into Judaism
Ashkenazic
• Descendants of Jews
from France, Germany
and Eastern Europe
Sephardic
• Descendants of Jews
from Spain, Portugal,
North Africa and the
Middle East
• Mizrachi: Descendants
of Jews from North Africa
and the Middle East
• Other subgroups are
Yemenite, Ethiopian and
Oriental
Split
• It's not clear when the split began, but it
has existed for more than a thousand
years, because around the year 1000
Rabbi Gershom ben Judah issued an edict
against polygamy that was accepted by
Ashkenazim but not by Sephardim.
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Slight Difference
• The beliefs of Sephardic Judaism are
basically in accord with those of Orthodox
Judaism, though Sephardic interpretations
of halakhah ( Jewish Law) are somewhat
different than Ashkenazic ones.
• The best-known of these differences
relates to the holiday of Pesach (
Passover) .
• Sephardic Jews may eat rice, corn,
peanuts and beans during this holiday,
while Ashkenazic Jews avoid them.
• Although some individual Sephardic Jews
are less observant than others, and some
individuals do not agree with all of the
beliefs of traditional Judaism, there is no
formal, organized differentiation into
movements as there is in Ashkenazic
Judaism.
Sephardic Jews
• Historically, Sephardic Jews have been more integrated into the
local non-Jewish culture than Ashkenazic Jews.
• In the Christian lands where Ashkenazic Judaism flourished, the
tension between Christians and Jews was great, and Jews tended to
be isolated from their non-Jewish neighbors, either voluntarily or
involuntarily.
• In the Islamic lands where Sephardic Judaism developed, there
was less segregation and oppression.
• Sephardic Jewish thought and culture was strongly influenced by
Arabic and Greek philosophy and science.
Assimilation
• Sephardic Jews have a different
pronunciation of a few Hebrew vowels and
one Hebrew consonant, though most
Ashkenazim are adopting Sephardic
pronunciation now because it is the
pronunciation used in Israel.
• Sephardic prayers services are somewhat
different from Ashkenazi ones, and Sephardim
use different melodies in their services.
• Sephardic Jews also have different holiday
customs and different traditional foods.
• For example, Ashkenazic Jews eat latkes (
potato pancakes ) to celebrate Chanukkah ,
Sephardic Jews eat sufganiot (jelly doughnuts).
• The Yiddish language, which many people
think of as the international language of
Judaism, is really the language of
Ashkenazic Jews.
• Sephardic Jews have their own
international language: Ladino, which was
based on Spanish and Hebrew in the
same way that Yiddish was based on
German and Hebrew.
Other Jewish Subcultures
• There are some Jews who do not fit into
this Ashkenazic/Sephardic distinction.
• Yemenite Jews, Ethiopian Jews (also
known as Beta Israel and sometimes
called Falashas), and Asian Jews also
have some distinct customs and traditions.
• These groups, however, are relatively
small and virtually unknown in America.
Evolution of Hatred :Life before the Holocaust
Kielce's Market: Kielce Museum, Jewish artist P.Schultz
What is Anti-Semitism?
• Simply put, Anti-Semitism is hatred of the
Jews.
• The term Anti-Semitism did not exist until
1873 C.E. The term was coined by
Wilhelm Marr.
The History of Anti-Semitism
• The history of Anti-Semitism can be
broken into 3 main periods of history:
• Ancient/Roman times
• Christian/Medieval period
• Modern Anti-Semitism
Why have people always hated the
Jews?
• The Jews have always been monotheistic
• The Jews have always lived according to
their laws and not mixed with others
• The Jews are blamed for killing Christ
Ancient/Roman Times
• Jews were persecuted by the Romans for
not accepting their gods
• Jews refused to support the Roman
government
• Jews revolted against the Romans
• Rome crushed the rebellion and forced the
Jews out of Palestine in 70C.E.
Anti-Semitism
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Jew as ‘the Other’ under Rome & early Christianity
Persecution during the Crusades
Creation of the ghetto (Venice 1517)
Blood libel charges
Martin Luther
– Emphasis on conversion
– Issue of Usury ( Jews were allowed to lend money at unreasonably
high rates of interest)
• Mass expulsions throughout Europe (1500-1900)
• Prominence of the Other (professional accomplishments)
• Change from Anti-Semitism based on religion to ethnic
discrimination
Christian/Medieval Era
• Jews were hated by Christians
• Blood Libel– using the blood of Christian
children
• Host desecration “blasphemous behavior;
the act of depriving something of its
sacred character; "desecration of the Holy
Sabbath »
• Black Death
Pale of Settlement in Russia
• Est. 1791 by Czarina
Elizabeth II, under
pressure to rid Moscow
of Jewish
business & ‘evil’
influence
• 90% of Jews lived in
4% of land
Pogroms (E. Europe)
Yiddish/Russian term for ‘devastation’
Jewish Reaction
• Sought complete
assimilation
• Fought to be accepted
at local and national
levels (e.g. WWI service)
• Maintained separate
Jewish lifestyle
Excerpt: Norman Salsitz,
A Jewish Boyhood in Poland:
Remembering Kolbuszowa
Four-tiered Social Structure
Eastern Europe
• Poles (Catholic)
• Ukranian peasant (Russian Orthodox)
• Volksdeutsch/Ethnic German – descendant of
German settlers brought in during 18th century
• Jews (Yiddish)
After World War I
• Largest Jewish community was in Poland
• Ukraine: Petlura Gang – 60,000 Jews killed
• Germany: Weimar Constitution = democracy
– Walter Rathenau, Minister of Reconstruction
• Jews blamed for Germany’s humiliation
• National Socialist German Workers’ Party
25 Point Program
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(Munich, 25 February 1920)
Creation of a Greater Germany
Return of Germany’s lost colonies
POINT FOUR:
– None but members of the Nation may be
members of the State. None but those of
German blood, whatever creed, may be
members of the Nation. No Jew therefore may
be members of the Nation.
Adolf Hitler
• 1920 #7 in the Nazi party
• 1925 jailed for treason
• 1925 first installment of Mein Kampf
– Marxism & Judaism greatest threats
– Redefined Aryan and Semitic
– Excerpt: Mein Kampf
• 1933 Chancellor of Germany
1925-1933 Germany
• Military organization within Nazi party
established (SA, SS, Gestapo)
• 1926 Hitler Youth
• Inflation & unemployment began to rise
• 1931 Rosh HaShanah – attack on Jews
returning from synagogue; symbolic
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5 February 1933 Emergency Decree
27 February 1933 Reichstag fire
28 February 1933 Emergency Order
March 1933 Dachau opened
23 March 1933 Enabling Act
Einzeloperationen “individual
operations”
Boycott of Jewish shops
Windows marked with Star of David or
Jude
7 April 1933 Order retirement (all nonAryans)
Sachsenhausen & Esterwegen camps
Jews expelled from Universities (Einstein)
10 May 1933 book burning, Berlin Opera
House
October 1933 Law of Revolution at
Dachau (hanging)
1933
Jewish Reaction
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Despair
Suicide
Some left Germany to W. Europe
5000 emigrated to Palestine
Others waited
1934-1935
• Intensified campaign to
create Judenfrei villages
• May 1934 Der Sturmer
• Attempted legislation to prevent sexual
relations between Jews and non-Jews
• Redefinition of who is Jewish
• New term: Christian non-Aryans
• 15 September 1935 Nuremberg Laws
– 1. Citizenship only belong to a national of German
or kindred blood
– 2. Jews were not of German blood; intermarriages
forbidden
– 3. forbid relations outside marriage between Jew
and German
– 4. Jews forbidden to fly German flag
1936-August 31, 1939
• Assassination of Wilhelm Gustloff, head of Nazi
party in Switzerland, THUS all police power
centralized under Gestapo
– One of events later used to justify Kristallnacht
• March 1936 Przytyk pogrom, s. of Warsaw
– Poles would be accustomed to such actions
• Palestinian Arabs begin General Strike
– Because British allowed Jews to emigrate in Palestine
• Hitler into Rhineland (violating Versailles)
– half of German Jews find refuge
– Polish Jewry (c. 4 million) too extensive
The Eternal Jew
8 November 1937
1938
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March 1938 Austria annexed (Anschluss)
Buchenwald opens
June 1938 burning of synagogues
6 July 1938 International Conference at Evian
– issue of refugees & avoid having a Jewish
problem
• September 1938 Sudetenland to Germany
Kristallnacht
• 9 November 1938
• Impetus: Grynszpan
affair (Paris)
• 191 synagogues
damaged
• Jews fined for damage
done
Berlin, Germany
Dortmund, Germany
• December 1938 first train to Britain with German
Jewish children
• 3 May 1938 second ‘Jewish Law’: Hungary
– Forbid Jews to be judge, lawyer, teacher …
• 17 May 1939 Palestine White Paper
– 75,000 Jews to Palestine in next 5 years
• May 1939 plight of the St. Louis
• 23 August 1939 non-aggression pact between Nazi
Germany & Soviet Union
– If invade Poland, Soviet Union would do nothing
1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland:
World War II begins