Transcript The Holocaust - WordPress.com

Never Again
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Ask yourself what you learned about the
Holocaust in school. Do you feel you learned
enough? Enough to teach it?
Do you feel this topic is for History teachers
only?
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Pre-Nazi Germany and Europe
1933-1939
1939-1945
Post 1945
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German society was at odds with itself. On the one hand The
treaty of Versailles (agreement made at the end of WWI blaming
Germany for the war and thus making them financially
responsible for the reconstruction of Europe as well as removing
parts of Germany and creating new sovereign countries), left
Germany financially strained and emotionally drained. On the
other hand, German artists, musicians, and writers were at the top
of their game. Extremely popular among Europeans and
Americans alike.
Tolerance was everywhere. Gay and “queer” culture abounded as
did Jazz (black cultural influence).
Religion was something most older people worried about. This
was true in most religious groups. Catholics, Protestants, and Jews
were more interested in the atheism and socialism of the day than
in the devout spirituality of the Victorians from the previous
century. The 20th century was only 20 years old and it was
booming with success and acceptance for everyone.
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Before the Great Depression hit the world banks, Social
Darwinism hit the world’s scientific minds.
Although first established in the late 1800s, it becomes
increasingly popular in the early 20th century. So
popular, in fact, that Fitzgerald mentions it in his novel
The Great Gatsby.
Social Darwinsim is the belief that social policies and
politics are directly linked to the theories of survival of
the fittest thus making some societies better due to
better “stock”.
Eugenics, a component of Social Darwinsim, is the
medical and scientific theory that genetics can and
should be altered in order to create a more perfect
human.
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Adolf Hitler did not invent either term, but used them fully to
justify his actions.
Eugenics became the foundation of Nazi medicine and is the only
true Nazi theory to have survived the war. It currently flourishes
in the United States as some forms of preventive care and genetic
testing of diseases such as cancer.
Social Darwinism became the foundation of the Nazi
propaganda/educational media. This included the Nazi theater
and film, print media, radio, and school curriculum departments.
They truly believed that Germans and other “Aryans” or Northern
Europeans were more intelligent, more efficient, harder workers,
and in better health i.e. a more perfect human than others. They
also believed that inter-marriages with these lesser peoples had
diluted and weakened the German blood lines which caused them
to loose WWI and become impoverished and shamed.
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Jan. 1933 Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany. He is leader of a small right-winged party known as
the national Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi. He quickly moved to end the democracy in
Germany and create dictatorship called a Fuhrer which suspended individual rights of speech, press,
and assembly.
He creates special security forces in addition to the regular police- The Gestapo, Storm Troopers (SA),
and the SS.
A few months later Hitler enacts the first of a series of racial purification laws. Jews, Roma (Gypsy),
gays, Blacks, and the handicapped were a serious biological threat the purity of the German race.
What Hitler called the master race.
Jews at the time made up less than 1% of the total German population (1933- 525,000 Jews in
Germany). Nazis identified Jews as a race and classified them as inferior.
The new laws forced Jews out of any civil service, educational, legal, and medical positions.
In 1935 Jews officially became 2 class citizens with restricted mobility. These laws defined Jews not by
their religion but by the religious affiliation of grandparents or great-grandparents.
Between 1937 and 1939 new laws restricted Jews even further, keeping them out of almost all public
arenas including school, theaters, resorts, and sidewalks. Businesses and bank accounts were seized.
And riots and beatings against Jews became commonplace.
Between 1935 and 1939 laws were passed to reduce and eliminate genetic “inferiors” through
involuntary sterilization programs (320,000-350,000 individuals judged as physically or mentally
handicapped were subjected to surgical or radiation procedures of sterilization) including 500
African-German children. Blacks and Roma were also sterilized and prohibited from intermarrying
with Germans.
Hitlers racial policies combined existing stereotypes and predjudices with pseudoscience to define
certain groups as undesirable races prone to asocial or criminal behaviors thus justifying their
anhialation.
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This time period is marked by Germany’s “invasion” of many neighboring countries,
although most of them, including Poland, had large portions of the population and or
government that welcomed the Nazi arrival.
It is also a time of ghettoizing and “deporting” Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other
death camps.
The Final Solution was put into practice as soon as Auschwitz was completed. It was a
methodically run system of segregating Jews from their friends and neighbors in the
“big ghetto” to the “little ghetto” where they stayed for a couple of weeks or just a few
days and were then transported by cattle car to a death camp. Once at Auschwitz or one
of its sister camps, “prisoners” segregated by gender, made to undress, leave all
belongings and valuables (including gold teeth) behind in a pile. Few were selected for
labor, most were selected for the gas chambers (disguised as showers) where Zyklon B
gas (a pesticide) was released and asphyxiated the people. Those who were selected for
labor were then exposed to malnourishment, exposure, epidemics, medical
experimentation, torture, brutality, and routine selections for the gas chamber; many
perished as a result.
The largest single mass deportation of Jews occurred between May and July 1944 when
nearly 440,000 Jews were deported for extermination from Hungary. This was one of the
final deportations to take place as Hungary was one of the last countries to join the Nazi
empire and it occurred so close to the Soviet front reaching Nazi territory. The
Hungarian deportation is also remarkable due to its swift execution and participation by
average Hungarians in the identification and deportation of Jews from Budapest and
other towns.
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It is important to note that the Allied powers, including the US,
did not pursue a policy of search and rescue for the victims of the
Holocaust. Winning the war was the priority, not stopping of the
trains to Auschwitz. This included denial of visas to Jews
attempting to flee Nazi Europe.
For the Germans winning the war was also the top priority, but it
was the war against the Jews which was paramount. As the Allied
forces progressed into Nazi territory, many outlying camps were
evacuated in order to cover up any signs of genocide, but also to
be able to finish the job.
Auschwitz was among these camps. It was evacuated by way of a
Death march – a ten days walk in the snow to Dachau located in
the center of Berlin. Many died during this treacherous march.
Other camps, never intended for extermination purposes, such as
Bergen-Belsen, became death camps due to mass shooting,
burnings, and typhus. Anne Frank was among the victims. Two
months after Anne died, Nazi Germany collapsed, the SS fled and
the camps ceased to exist in the same capacity.
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After the war, the world was outraged by what they
were faced with- genocide.
In an attempt to bring justice back to the world after
such a horrific human act as was the Holocaust, The
Allied powers created a tribunal for crimes against
humanity. It was the first of its kind and the first time a
country would be judged on such terms.
It soon became apparent that this was not simply a
state sanctioned atrocity, but one that was carried out
by heads of states, the military, local police, and
average citizens alike.
To this day it is very difficult to comprehend how a
society as cultured and educated as was the Weimar
Republic (Germany), could attend the Opera and
simultaneously torture and murder their neighbors..
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To understand what caused this in order to
prevent it from happening again we must
realize that:
The average Nazi was not a monster that had
lost his humanity, but rather a human that had
redefined what is meant to be human, so that
some people had value and others did not; so
that to kill Jews and other “undesirables” was
not murder, but patriotic duty.
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The individual did not matter
The Volk was everything.
The Volk (the people)was a key component to
Hitler's ideal of Germany. It recalled a simple,
pastoral life.
Productivity determined your worth as a person.
Aryans had the potential to be most productive.
Jews, Blacks, Gypsies, the disabled, and the feeble
were burdens on society.
Hitler did not invent any of this. He simply
expanded on ideas that were developing as a result
of WWI and the Depression.
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Hitler- leader and founder
Goebbels- Director of propaganda, press and
film departments in Nazi Germany.
Dr. Eichmann- Director of medical
experimentation on Jews and Gypsies.
Dr. Mengele- Director of Eugenics (medical
experiments on twins and pregnant women)
Himmler- military strategy
The SS- secret police (highest level and honor)
Gestapo- local police
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Had been Anti-Semetic for centuries.
Believed in Social Darwinism.
Were eager to claim their status among
European countries.
Eventually many Germans felt the Third Reich
went too far, but no one spoke up.
Other countries were eager to prove their
status as Aryans and so were often more brutal
than the original Nazis.
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Some people in Europe, like Raohl and
Schindler and many others risked their lives to
save Jewish people from the Nazis.
Israel honors these people’s commitment to
Tikkun Olam (the Jewish belief that to save a
life is to save the world) by calling them The
Righteous.
They have a special room in Yad Vashem (the
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel).
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Hitler was Jewish
Jews could save themselves if they converted
or immigrated
There were no children in concentration camps
The Holocaust was the result of a crazy man’s
dream.
The Holocaust happened because of anger and
fear due to the Great Depression.
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Hitler's ideas concerning music and art shaped the
cultural atmosphere and political policies for all of
Germany.
He decried the "degenerate" influence on German
culture from Jews and Blacks, particularly through
Jazz music, and stated his repugnance repeatedly.
Any artist who did not fit into the ideal of Volk was
excluded. This meant that only German
composers, Operas, artists, etc were acceptable
forms of entertainment and culture.
True art as defined by Hitler was linked with the
country life, with health, and with the Aryan race.
Wagner’s Opera: Tristan
Jews could not play German music as it would
taint the purity of the sound.
Most German art and film at the time was more
propaganda than art form.
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"Art is a noble mission. Those who have been
chosen by destiny [Vorsehung] to reveal the
soul of a people, to let it speak in stone or ring
in sounds, live under a powerful, almighty,
and all-pervading force. They will speak a
language, regardless of whether others
understand them. They will suffer hardship
rather than become unfaithful to the star which
guides them from within." --Hitler. Nuremberg
speech, Sept. 11, 1935
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Adolf Hitler's words are strangely prophetic.
Professional and amateur artists of all genres
recorded what they saw and experienced during
the reign of the Third Reich. They went beyond
simple protest against the hardships, misery and
inhumanity to leave an eloquent account of their
sufferings. The record left by ghetto dwellers,
camp internees, and displaced persons create
snapshots of life and death under Hitler. Inmate
drawings and paintings speak eloquently of man's
inhumanity and cruelty. The Nazis labeled this art
"horror propaganda"; Holocaust writer Lawrence
Langer calls it the "horror truth."
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Moshe Rynecki was a painter whose work
often directed attention to the persecution of
the Jews. He lived in the Warsaw ghetto and
died at Majdanek.
http://www.rynecki.org/
Some inmate art was actually sanctioned by the
camp or ghetto authorities. Preserved remnants
of barracks decoration can still be viewed in
Auschwitz and Birkenau.
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Inmates who produced clandestine art did so at
great risk to their lives. These artists used their
talents to create works of art as an expression of
their own humanity- something the Holocaust
sought to destroy and or ignore.
When the liberation forces were examining the
ghettos and camps, thousands of pictures drawn
by children and adults were discovered. These
images bear silent testimony to man's eternal
need to create, and portray for future generations
a way of living and dying that the Third Reich
tried to hide.
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"Divine destiny has given the German people
everything in the person of one man. Not only
does he possess strong and ingenious
statesmanship, not only is he ingenious as a
soldier, not only is he the first worker and the first
economist among his people but, and this is
perhaps his greatest strength, he is an artist. He
came from art, he devoted himself to art, especially
the art of architecture, this powerful creator of
great buildings. And now he has also become the
Reich's builder."
--Hakenkreuzbanner (The Swastika Flag), June 10,
1938
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Art was considered to be one of the most
important elements to strengthening the Third
Reich and purifying the nation.
Political aims and artistic expression became one.
The task of art in the Third Reich was to shape the
population's attitudes by carrying political
messages with stereotyped concepts and art forms.
True art as defined by Hitler was linked with the
country life, with health, and with the Aryan race.
Modern art, therefore, had no place in the Third
Reich.
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"We shall discover and encourage the artists
who are able to impress upon the State of the
German people the cultural stamp of the
Germanic race . . . in their origin and in the
picture which they present they are the
expressions of the soul and the ideals of the
community." (Hitler, Party Day speech, 1935; in
Adam, 1992)
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Architecture was Hitler's favorite art form. He viewed
himself as the "master builder of the Third Reich."
Among the surviving examples of Nazi architecture is
the Olympic stadium complex in Berlin.
The Olympic games had been scheduled before Hitler
came to power in 1933. He saw this event as a unique
opportunity to play host to the world and to show
Germany as a force to be reckoned with. He wanted
Germany to be portrayed in the best possible light and
removed all antisemitic slogans that had defaced the
walls of public buildings. The stadium was built as a
huge assembly place for hundreds of thousands of
people to celebrate Nazi rituals. The art that
accompanied this colossal building was no less
magnificent.
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Although all Nazi architecture was meant to
show Nazi power, not all Nazi Architecture
was beautiful.
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http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/
Concentration and Death camps were among
the Nazi’s most amazing and gruesome
buildings. They show a precision to detail and
systematic, emotionally devoid, sense of hatred
never before seen among peoples.
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Words changed in meaning as a result of the
Holocaust.
Degenerate art referred to art made by Jews
and Blacks
Camps, Survivor, witness, testimony, tattoo
and many others have been altered in meaning
forever.
It is for this reason, that Holocaust art has
become so important to the preservation of
memory and to the expression of emotions
connected to the Holocaust.
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Although generally silent about the Holocaust itself,
philosophers, writers, and artists express their feelings
via existentialist and modernist thoughts.
Existentialism- (philosophy /art/etc)- a philosophical
and literary movement centered around the individual
and the choices available to him.
Modernism- (in everyday art)- mostly an architectural
and artistic movement, but also prevelant in literature
and drama centered around scientific advancements
and man’s ability to improve his life through science
and technology.
Post-Modernism –(literature and art)- deconstructs in
order to re-construct. Most educational theory today is
post-modernist.
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The greatest form of Anti-Semitism today is in the form of
Holocaust denial.
It can be seen in outright denial of it ever happening to
believing it was a Jewish creation to blame the world for its
destruction.
Most countries have no laws against such hate speech.
Anyone can be a Holocaust denier, including college
professors.
Iran’s president hosts a yearly “academic” conference on the
topic. Academic is an oxymoronic term since all Holocaust
deniers are basing their opinions on hate and myth and not
on any historical or scientific evidence.
England and Germany are among the few nations that have
made it illegal to deny the Holocaust.
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6 million Jews were murdered by German Nazis or neighboring fascist
governments working with German Nazis.
11 million people were killed in total as a result of Nazi laws, labor and
death camps.
Gypsies, Gay men and Lesbian women were the next greatest target for
the Nazi party. Often tortured and currently seldom recognized as valid
victims of the Holocaust.
Blacks, the invalid, and political dissidents were also victims of the
Holocaust.
Everyone had their own color triangle they had to wear on their chests.
Jews were given two yellow triangles that formed a star of David.
Hitler was elected by regular people, who allowed their fears and their
dislike of others to overpower their sense of morality. They allowed
themselves to believe that not everyone is human on an equal playing
field and that some “people” don’t deserve to live.
These people were essentially bullies who gained control of a country and
created a social nightmare.