HOLOCAUST
• Holocaust cannot be understood without understanding anti-Semitism
• Defined:
Hatred, Contempt, Stereotyping and Fear of Jews as Jews
• Distinguish anti-Semitism from plain hostility or xenophobia.
• In the absence of these definitions anti-Semitism does not exist
TEACHING OF CONTEMPT
• Jews seen as allies of the devil; the anti-Christ.
• Jews seen as not just “wrong” but inherently evil
• Role of Jews divinely ordained
JEWS SEEN AS• DEMONIC• WICKED• UNBELIEVER• DOOMED• SATANIC PEVERSE• GREEDY• CHRIST KILLER• REJECTED BY GOD
EARLY CHRONOLOGYPower of the Medieval Church
• 395 St. John Chrysostom denounces Jews of Antioch
• 1096 First Crusade• 1144 First recorded
“Ritual Murder” (Norwich, England)
• 1290 Jews expelled from England
• 1306 Jews expelled from France
• 1492 Jews driven out of Spain
• 1534 Martin Luther “Concerning the Jews and their Lies”
• 1648 Decade of Progroms in Poland (Chmielnicki) Up to half a million slaughtered
Causes of JEW HATRED
• Mysteries Explained• Black Death 1347-
1350• Well poisoners• Desecration of the
Host• Ritual Murders• The Inquisition
• Jews burned at the stake or otherwise slaughtered
• Forced conversions or death
• Marginalized and without legal protection.
• Marked
1905 PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION
• Widely circulated (and still in Arab countries)
• Purported meeting of 300 Jews in Basel Switzerland in 1887
• Actually written by agent of Russian secret police.
• Serialized in Dearborn Gazette by Henry Ford!
• RUMORS and MISINFORMATION
• Plot destruction of Christianity
• Takeover of the world by Jews and Freemasons
• Jewish rule over all finance
STEREOTYPINGJEWS AND MONEY
• Not allowed in Guilds or to work at most trades
• Moneylending forbidden to Christians because it “endangered Christian souls”
• Since Jewish souls were deemed “lost” it was left to them to provide this necessary service in the expanding commercial life of Europe
Money Is The God Of The Jews: "The God of the Jews is money. To earn money, he commits the greatest crimes. He will not rest until he can sit on a huge money sack, until he has become the king of money."*
SECULARIZATION OF a-S
The identity of Jews with evil was so pervasive that as the role of the Church weakened, anti-Semitism became secularized and independent of theology
• European “liberals” demanded that Jews sever themselves from their roots and their traditions
• Voltaire: “The Jews were the enemies of mankind”
TWO 19th CENTURY INNOVATIONSSOCIAL DARWINISM
MYSTICAL IDEAS OF RACE
Based on language and physical characteristics
• (“Redneck” scenario)
SCIENTIFIC BASIS Sought Respectability
(“Scientific Method)
• Biological
• Zoological
• Statistical
TWO TYPES OF ANTI-SEMITISM
• CLASSICAL• RELIGIOUS• MYSTICAL
Hatred based on religious convictions or opposition
• RACIAL• BIOLOGICAL
Hatred based on concepts of racial
and biological superiority/inferiority
“ARYAN”Relates to a group of languages
based on Indian Sanskrit
• Aryan commercial society lives by honest work
• Jews live on speculation and as parasites on the workers
• Aryans can only survive by destroying the parasites
ARYAN BELIEFS
• Natural Selection• Survival of Fittest• Personified by the Peasant• A Gospel of Work• Service for the Common Good
How to Tell a Jew: "The Jewish nose is bent. It looks like the number six..."*
The Poisonous Mushroom: "Just as it is often hard to tell a toadstool from an edible mushroom, so too it is often very hard to recognize the Jew as a swindler and criminal..."
Mein Kampf
• Vicious anti-Semite
• Social Darwinist
• Extreme nationalist,
• Aryan race – Master race
Mein Kampf (1933)
THE GREAT WAR
• “Guns of August” A nation united and a sense of common purpose
• Glory with a capital “G”
• THE REALITY– New War– New Weapons– Unimagined Losses– U.S. Participation
The March Towards Nazism…..and the
Holocaust
BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN BAD TIMES
NAZI ROOTS
• 1919 German Workers Party founded by Anton Drexler
• One of MANY Right Wing post-war parties• Hitler joins as #7• Ernst Roehm• Rudolf Hess• Herman Goering (rich WWI flying “ace”)• Jules Streicher (Der Stuermer)• Joseph Goebbels
HITLER
• Set the anti-Semitic Course. It was critical because he made it so.
• The Appeal: – Aroused a nation. Imagined a powerful Jewish
conspiracy with paranoid delusions about WWI
– Recognized and addressed real fears and grievances
Poster sketch by Adolf Hitler"National Socialism will free Germany from the lie of Sole Guilt"
In reference to the Treaty of Versailles placement of sole guilt of WWI on Germany.
Weimar Constitution of 1919• Bicameral Reichstag
• 7 -year term President - elected by the people
• Chancellor appointed by President & confirmed by Reichstag
• President had power to dissolve Reichstag & call for new elections
• Majority of Reichstag could force Chancellor to resign
Mistake of the Weimar Constitution
• Article 48 gave President emergency powers
• could suspend civil rights & arrest traitors
• could make decrees in name of national security
• could hold the Chancellor position - presidential chancellor
Aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles
Germany in the 1920’s
• Devastation of Defeat
• Humiliation of the Diktat – Treaty of Versailles
• Weakness of the Weimar Republic
“German children are starving"
portrait done by German artist (1920's)
Economic Hardship of the 1920’s
Exchange rates, US Dollar to Mark, 1918-1923 Source : Gerald D. Feldman, The Great Disorder,
Oxford : UP 1997, p.5
Jan. 1918 Jan. 1919 Jan. 1920 Jan. 1921 Jan. 1922 April 1922
July 1922 Oct. 1922 Jan. 1923 Feb. 1923
5.21 8.20
64.80 64.91
191.81 291.00 493.22
3,180.96 17,972.00 27,918.00
Mar. 1923 Apr. 1923 May 1923 June 1923 July 1923 Aug. 1923 Sept. 1923
Oct. 1923 Nov. 1923 Dec. 1923
21,190.00
24,475.00 47,670.00
109,966.00 353,412.00
4,620,455.00 98,860,000.00
25,260,000,000.00 2,193,600,000,000.00 4,200,000,000,000.00
Gustav StresemannChancellor (1923-1929)
• Aimed to restore Germany’s position in the world and hoped that cooperation would lead to fairer treatment of Germany and would speed up Germany’s recovery.
• Aimed to build closer links with the USA, the USSR and France.
Locarno and the League of Nations
• Dawes Plan 1925– New reparations payment schedule that included a
large loan to help stabilize Germany’s economy
• Locarno Pact 1925 (Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Italy)- Rejected the use of invasion- Some thought this made Germany look even weaker!
• League of Nations (1926)- Germany joined the League and was recognized as a
legitimate and stable power
Gustav StresemannChancellor (1923-1929)
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
(1926)
However….• No significant revision of the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles.
• Failed to achieve widespread support from the German population:
- Right wing opponents, including Nazis, argued the Locarno Pact made Germany look weak.
- Little German national pride.
National Socialist German Worker’s Party - Nazi
• Anti- Marxist: not popular among the working class who were Marxists
• Appealed to patriotic German’s who were not factory workers - shopkeepers, clerks, teacher, civil servants..
Germany, presidents, 1919-1923
1919-1925 Friedrich Ebert SPD
Germany, chancellors, 1919-1923
1919 1919-1920 1920 1920-1921 1921-1922 1922-1923 1923
Philipp Scheidemann Gustav Bauer Hermann Mueller Konstantin Fehrenbach
Josef Wirth Wilhelm Cuno Gustav Stresemann
SPD SPD SPD Zentrum
Zentrum
DVP
Hitler…the appeal
• Took advantage of chaotic conditions
• Appealed to the young rather than the old
• Addressed a people humiliated, disarmed, frightened, unemployed
• Told them the enemy were the Jews and the Marxists
• Accused Jews of power when in fact they had none
• "Youth Serves the Führer" is the title of this Hitler Youth recruiting poster. This organization mobilized boys into the Nazi community through sport and hiking, and later trained them for military combat.
German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
Unrepresented at Peace conferenceNot allowed to keep any of their colonies Forced to accept terms - diktatAngry with military reductionsInjustice - War guilt, loss of land etcReparations - set too high (6.6 billion)
Beer Hall Putsch - 1923
Hilter’s plan to overthrow the Weimar Republic by gaining the
support of influencial men.
ie. Bavarian Prime Minister, Gustav von Kahr and retired
general, Ludendorff.
Nov. 9, 1923
In Munich, staged a march
with 3000 supporters
to overthrow
the “November Criminals”
Beer Hall Putsch failedHowever….
• Herman Gorring, Ernst Rohm, Rudolph Hess involved in the Putsch.
• Hitler & German Workers Party gained publicity
• Hitler arrested - wrote Mein Kampf
NAZIS IDEOLOGY
• State based on:
–ARYAN
–LEBENSRAUM–FUEHRER PRINZIP
MACHTERGREIFUNG(SEIZURE OF POWER)
• From a marginal group of radical misfits in 1919 to Germany’s single largest party in 1932
• Helped by deteriorating world economy in 1929
• Come to Power Jan. 30, 1933
• Gleichstaltung (“synchronization”)
How does an unknown with radical views become leader
of Germany?
Reichstag Vote (Nazi Party)
• May 1928 – 2.6%• Sept. 1930 – 18.3%• July 1932 – largest
party.
HITLER COMES TO POWER
• Jan. 1933 – Hitler appointed Chancellor
Clemenceau, the Vampire
JANUARY 30, 1933
Georges, Grim Reaper, The Nation (April, 1933)
This painting by Arthur Kampf commemorates the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933. There was a huge torch lit procession that evening
in Berlin.Source: Die Kunst im Dritten Reich, January, 1938.
April 1935: Hitler canceling the Versailles Treatyand rebuilding his army and air force.
1933 BOOK BURNING
THE GREAT TEMPTATION
• Nazis both rallied and paralyzed: major psychic appeal to masses
• Hitler promised real solutions to real grievances
• Saw in Hitler Hope, Order and Power
• Restored sense of belonging
• Churches and the elites back down or climb on board
• Transformed politics into permanent delirium. It became easy to overlook what was ominous and evil
• GERMANS WERE DRAWN TO ANTI-SEMITISM BECAUSE THEY WERE DRAWN TO NAZISM!
Upon the death of President Von Hindenburg, Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany
NUREMBERG LAWSSeptember 15, 1935 and Later
RACE LAWS DESIGNED TO SEGREGATE, ISOLATE AND REMOVE JEWS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM GERMAN SOCIETY
Slowly and methodically taking away the rights of Jews.
“November Criminals”
Left-wing traitors –(liberals, socialists & Jews) who “stabbed in
the back” (Dolchtoss)
Quickly and methodically, Hitler limits the rights of German people.
• Trades unions abolished
• Political parties banned
• Massive Book Burn
• State control – press, media, cinema, radio, art, orchestra…
• Local state assemblies dissolve
Rights Denied
• Jews must retire from their jobs @ universities and gov’t• Marriages & Extramarital relations btw. Jews and
Germans forbidden• Jews cannot be employed as servants in German
households.• Jews cannot display the national flag• Jews lost their citizenship, cannot vote – Nuremberg
Laws• Jews had to wear yellow arm bands, then arm bands
with yellow stars.• Jews weren’t allowed to go to school or play German
music.
At the same time, Hitler is slowly and methodically taking
away the rights of Jews.
Hitler will violate the Treaty of Versailles (1936) by moving troops and artillery
across the Rhineland.
In 1937, the Nazis organized a traveling exhibition featuring virulent anti-Semitic materials under the title "Der Ewige Jude" ("The Eternal Jew").
NAZI OLYMPICS, AUGUST 1936
• AWARDED TO GERMANY SOME YEARS EARLIER
• HUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR GERMANY TO STRUT ITS STUFF
• GERMANS WHITEWASH SIGNS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
• AVERY BRUNDAGE HEAD OF U.S. OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SUGGESTS JEWS ARE BEHIND BOYCOTT EFFORTS
• SUCCESS OF EVENT DEMONSTRATES TO HITLER LACK OF WORLDWIDE CRITICISM
German soldiers dive in full field equipment in a pre-game show at Olympic swimming trials at
Halberstadt. July 27, 1936.
Olympics in Berlin• For two weeks in August
1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics.
• The magazine Das Deutsche Madel (The German Girl) portrays the "ideal" female Aryan athlete. August 1935.
Olympics• Minimizing its anti-
Semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to impress many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.
• Having rejected a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the United States and other western democracies missed the opportunity to take a stand
1938-1939
• ALL JEWISH RETAIL STORES AND BUSINESSES ‘ARYANIZED’
• ALL JEWISH STUDENTS EXPELLED FROM SCHOOLS
• HITLER’S ‘VERNICHTUNG’ SPEECH TO REICHTAG (Jan. 30, 39)
• WAR STARTS SEPT. 1, 1939
• T-4 PROGRAM BEGINS
Munich Agreement 1938
Britain, France, Italy,Germany agreed to give carve Czechoslovakia and give Hitler the
SudetenlandAPPEASEMENT DOES NOT WORK
ANSCHLUSS - MARCH, 1938
1938• EVIAN (July)
• MUNICH CONFERENCE (Sept. 29)
• SWISS “REQUEST” JEWISH PASSPORTS MARKED WITH “J” (Oct 5)
• 17,000 GERMAN POLES EXPELLED (Oct. 28)
Anschluss (March 1938)
Germany takes over and annexes Austria. V
violation of the Treaty of Versailles
KRISTALLNACHTNovember 1938
• MOST SYNOGOGUES BURNED
• SEVERAL HUNDRED JEWS KILLED
• 7,500 JEWISH SHOPS DESTROYED
• 30,000 JEWS SENT TO CAMPS FOR “RANSOM”
• JEWS ‘FINED’ 1 BILLION MARKS
• 150,000 MORE JEWS FLEE GERMANY (ABOUT 180,000 STILL LEFT)
Stephen Roth, Art Has Become Very Spontaneous andSincere Under the Supervision of National Socialism (1940)SOCIAL REALISM
NAZI “FRUSTRATION”(DO THE MATH)
• ABOUT 500,000 JEWS IN GERMANY IN 1933 (Less than 1% of population)
• ABOUT 200,000 EMIGRATE 1933-1939
• ABOUT 190,000 AUSTRIAN JEWS ARE “ADDED” IN 1938
EMIGRATION ENDS
• January 1933: 525,000 Jews in Germany
• Sept 1, 1939 About 250,000 Jews Left in Germany
• Hitler attacks Poland– Two Weeks Later: 3 Million Jews in Poland
• Hitler attacks Lithuainia– Two Years Later: 5 Million Jews in Russia
“TIPPING POINT”
QUESTION
What Was the Tipping Point ?
March 1939
Hitler invades Czechoslovakia
1939 Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact
THE “FINAL SOLUTION”
1939-1945
1939 “INTERIM SOLUTION”
• MOVEMENTSept.: Heydrich (Head of SD) Proposes Ghettos
• MARKINGNov.: Jews Forced to Wear Star
• MURDER “Einzelaktionen” and Einsatzgruppen
“JUDENSTERN”
GHETTOS• Clear German Areas• Remove Jews from Countryside• Concentrate Jews• Started Winter 1939• Over 100 Ghettos• LODZ, WARSAW, LUBLIN, RADOM.
LWOW• Judenrat
The Warsaw Revolt
• April-May 1943 • armed revolt after rumors that the Germans would deport
the remaining ghetto inhabitants to the Treblinka killing center.
• As German SS and police units entered the ghetto, members of the Jewish Fighting Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ZOB) and other Jewish groups attacked German tanks with Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, and a handful of small arms.
• It took the vastly superior German forces nearly a month before they were able to completely pacify the ghetto and deport virtually all of the remaining inhabitants.
“FINAL SOLUTION”
• Transition from forced emigration to annihilation
• Crystallized Spring-Summer 1941 with “Barbarossa” and the Eastern Occupation
• No Wartime Restraints
• Few Mixed Marriages
• Jews Not Integrated
• Stricter Secrecy and Security
“MURDER TECHNOLOGY”
• “T-4” Program• Einsatzgruppen• Gas Vans• Fixed Installations• Zyklon B• Starvation, Disease, Medical Experiments,
Hangings, Exposure• 1.4 million shot, 4.5 million gassed or killed in
camps
WANNSEE CONFERENCE
January 20, 1942
Decision: Murder All Jews Within the Reich and
Occupied Areas
FOUR EINSATZGRUPPEN
EINSATZGRUPPEN
TWO DAYS – 33,771 JEWS(Of a Total of About 100,000 Persons Murdered There)
EXECUTION AT MIZOCZUkraine
MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS
SIX KILLING CENTERS
KILLING CENTERS
• KULMHOF (CHELMNO) 150,000
• TREBLINKA 850,000
• MAJDANEK (LUBLIN) 200,000
• SOBIBOR 250,000
• BELZEC 600,000
• AUSCHWITZ (BIRKENAU) 2,500,000(EINSATZGRUPPEN 1,400,000)
Total: 5,950,000
TREBLINKA “FACTORY”
AUSCHWITZ
• Murdered from Nov. 1941 to Nov. 1944
• 5 Gas Chambers
• Reached Killing Rate of 10,000 in 24 HRS.
• 1.5 to 2.5 Million Jews
• 6000 Gypsies
• Zyklon B (Degesch and Testa)
• October 1944 Revolt of Sonderkommando
AUSCHWITZ: BURNING BODIES
THE NETHERLANDS
WESTERBORK
BERGEN BELSEN
First they came for the Communists...
In reflecting on events in Nazi Germany during the years 1933-1939, Reverend Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) penned these immortal words.
• In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
• Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
• Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
• Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
• Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Evil thrives when good men do nothing.
A collection of toothbrushes confiscated from Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Thousands of shoes confiscated from arriving prisoners at the Majdanek camp. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Group portrait of Jewish high school students at the Hebrew gymnasium in Mukachevo (Munkacs).
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
