Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Holocaust Notes

Holocaust

Holocaust – literally means:• a great or complete devastation or destruction, especially

by fire• a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.

Holocaust

• Refers to specific genocidal (the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this) event in twentieth-century history

• The state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933-1945.

• Jews were the primary victims – 6 million were murdered; Gypsies, handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction

• Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and many more suffered under Nazi tyranny

Judaism

• Monotheistic (the belief that there is only one God) religion founded in the Middle East in which its followers believe in one God.

• Christianity and Islam both spring from Judaism.

Anti-semitism

• Hatred of Jews because they are Jews

• There has been anti-semitism against Jews for over 2,000 years.

Adolf Hitler

• Nazi dictator of Germany 1933-1945.

• Leader of the Nazi Party.

Nazi

• A member of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

• Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiter-Partei

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De-Nationalsozialistische_Deutsche_Arbeiterpartei.ogg

Aryan

• A non-Jewish white person

• Hitler’s master race

• blond-haired, blue-eyed physical ideal of Nazi Germany

Hitler referred to Jews as a race. Why is this a misstatement?

• Judaism is a religion, not a race; just as Christianity is a religion and not a race.

• There are people of all races who are Jewish.• Hitler needed to believe Jews were a race

because he professed one could never change from being Jewish; he believed even conversion to another religion would still make people Jewish.

Why does the Nazi Party hate the Jews?

• Jews are believed to be inferior and a corrupting influence on the Germans, among whom they live.

How did they know who was Jewish?

• Eventually Jews in Germany were locatable through census records.

• In other countries, Jews might be found via synagogue membership lists, public lists or more likely through mandatory registration and information from neighbors or local civilians and officials.

Wasn’t one of Hitler’s relatives Jewish?

• There is no historical evidence to suggest that Hitler was Jewish.

• Recent scholarship suggests that the rumors about Hitler’s ancestry were circulated by political opponents as a way of discrediting the leader of an antisemitic party.

• These rumors persist primarily because the identity of Hitler’s paternal grandfather is unknown; rumors that this grandfather was Jewish have never been proven.

For more information read ADOLF HITLER: EARLY YEARS, 1889-1913

Why didn’t they all leave?

• Frequently this question refers to German Jews before the start of 1939. Consider what is involved in leaving one's homeland as well as what sacrifices must be made. • German Jews were in most cases patriotic citizens. Over 10,000 died fighting for

Germany in World War I (1914-1918), and countless others were wounded and received medals for their valor and service. Jews, whether in the lower, middle, or upper classes, had lived in Germany for centuries and were well assimilated in the early twentieth century.

It is important to consider how the oppressive measures targeting Jews in the pre-war period were passed and enforced gradually. These types of pre-war measures and laws had been experienced throughout the history of the Jewish people in earlier periods and in other countries as well. No one at the time could foresee or predict killing squads and killing centers.

Once the difficult decision was made to try to leave the country, a prospective emigrant had to find a country willing to admit them and their family. This was very difficult, considering world immigration policies, as demonstrated by the results of the Evian Conference of 1938. If a haven could be found, consider other things that would be needed to get there.

In the years immediately preceding U.S. entry into World War II, potential immigrants wererequired to file the following documents to obtain a U.S. visa.• • Visa application (Form BC)—Five copies• • Birth certificate—Two copies (country of birth determined applicable quotas)• • Quota number, which established the person’s place on the waiting list to enter the United States• • Two sponsors (close relatives of prospective immigrant were preferred). The sponsors had to• be American citizens or have permanent resident status, and they had to fill out and provide• the following:• – Affidavit of Support and Sponsorship (Form C)—Six copies, notarized• – Certified copy of most recent federal tax return• – Affidavit from a bank about accounts• – Affidavit from any other responsible person regarding other assets (affidavit from the• sponsor’s employer or statement of commercial rating)• • Certificate of Good Conduct from German police authorities, including two copies of each• of the following:• – Police dossier prison record• – Military record• – Other government records about the individual• • Affidavits of Good Conduct (after September 1940)• • Evidence of passing a physical examination at a U.S. consulate• • Proof of permission to leave Germany (imposed September 30, 1939)• • Proof the prospective immigrant had booked passage to the Western hemisphere (imposed• September 1939)

Concentration Camps• Labor camps set up by Nazis to house “undesirable”

people.

• Most people died of torture, starvation, and gassing.• Handouts and maps!

Who is Anne Frank?

Make a list of everything you know or have heard about Anne Frank