Holocaust Lecture #1- The Jews of Germany
Part I. Pre 19th Century Anti-Semitism
• The term ‘anti-Semitism’
• Jews in Europe– Recap of their difficult position
• Diaspora• Apartness (covenant with God) • Education and money lending • Christ-killers
– Kicked out of countries periodically throughout European history
Part II. The 19th Century
• New Developments in this century created new challenges for Europe’s Jews– Social Darwinism gave a new justification for racial superiority
• Nationalism -Nations rather than kingdoms– Kingdoms a political entity is made up of all subjects, no
matter what ethnicity they are – Nations a political entity is made up of people of a common
culture and ethnicity – Do we see why this is important? Now Jews have no political
place in society! • Ironically, many Jewish-Germans felt highly assimilated
– had deep roots (centuries long) in Germany – Had done relatively well pre-WWI compared to Jews in other
European countries
• Why are these dates significant? • Germans felt duped at the end of World War I and by the
Treaty of Versailles Why? – Sudden and suprising collapse of the German war effort! – Some Jews in Weimar gov’t – Right wing Germans (Hitler, Ludendorff) wondered ‘Did the Jews care
less about winning because they weren’t real Germans?’ – Similar to what happened to the Armenians (a minority group living
under the Ottoman Turks in WWI -see pics on next two slide)
• Hitler’s radicalization– Moved to Vienna (from a small town) as a young man and
encountered Jews for the first time • Vienna at the time had an outspokenly anti-Semitic mayor
– Part of the Jewish faith is to remain a people with a special covenant with God apartness in diet, traditions, and customs
– This visibility made them easy targets for bigots
Part III. 1919 to 1933
• “Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter -- with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilisation will say about me. I have issued the command -- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?“
Who’s quote???
• Hitler’s Racial Aryan Purity– Liked to reference Sparta as a society that
achieved great strength because it destroyed ‘weaklings’ which gave the strong space to thrive
Nazi Racial Ideology (from Wikipedia) • Ideology
– Rosenberg argued that the Nordic race had evolved in a now-lost landmass, Atlantis, off the coast of North Western Europe, and had migrated through Scandinavia and northern Europe, expanding further south, and as far as Iran and India where it founded the Aryan cultures of Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. He argued that the entrepreneurial energy of the Nordics had "degenerated" when they mixed with "inferior" peoples.
– With the rise of Hitler, Nordic theory became the norm within German culture. In some cases the "Nordic" concept became an almost abstract ideal rather than a mere racial category. Hermann Gauch wrote in 1933 that the fact that "birds can be taught to talk better than other animals is explained by the fact that their mouths are Nordic in structure." He further claimed that in humans, "the shape of the Nordic gum allows a superior movement of the tongue, which is the reason why Nordic talking and singing are richer.
• Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution in Russia in 1917 ‘confirmed’ the international Jewish plot to take over the world – Marx and Lenin were Jews
• Ironically, Marx and Lenin were secular Jews
• Communism refutation of nationalism – According to Communist ideology, people
are bound by their class, not their ethnicity
– To racial zealots (see- Hitler) this is a Jewish plot to preserve their own ‘inferior’ breed and dilute the pure races
• Bad economic times in Germany that followed WWI, and then in the Great Depression, increased a need for scapegoats – anger at Jews who were relatively wealthy
(bankers, doctors, lawyers)
• Hitler comes to power– Had downplayed his anti-Semitism once he
had decided to try to win election (after Beer Hall Putsch), but Mein Kampf and Hitler’s basic genocidal ideas were still out there
Ironies in Hitler’s anti-Semitic Stance
• ‘foreign’ Jews had been in Germany for 1000 years • His mother’s life had been saved by a Jewish doctor
– Hitler promised to ‘never forget’
• Hitler’s own family tree is murky… many have speculated that he is part Jewish
• He was awarded a medal for bravery in WWI by a Jewish officer
• Jews fought in WWI in numbers that were higher than their % in the population (why important?)
Part IV. Hitler in Power the Start of WWII
• Hitler’s decided to purify the Aryan race
• First group killed? – Handicapped (T4 Program) – Early experiments with killing
efficiency – gas in showers, gas vans, (shooting is too messy, inefficient, and expensive)
– Construction of concentration camps, originally for political prisoners
• Hitler’s regime placed a blanket of censorship over Germany– Allowed mass exterminations
• Nuremberg Laws – Jews lose citizenship
• Thus, afterwards, all persecution is ‘legal’
– Banned from certain professions– miscegenation laws – ghetto-ization – wearing badges – kicked out of school
• Efficient, scientific Nazi model of racial categorization
Kristallnacht
• Response to assassination of a German diplomat by a Jew in France
• Dual meaning of the name shattered glass v night of ‘brilliant clarity’
• 30,000 Jewish were taken to concentration camps
• Around 1,668 synagogues were ransacked, and 267 set on fire.
• The Times of London wrote at the time: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenceless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."
• Halt to Jewish Immigration– As a result of massive European immigration between 1850 and
the 1920s, and because of the high unemployment caused by the Great Depression, Jews (along with other Eastern Europeans) were forbidden to immigrate to the U.S. in the 1930s
– By this time, about 3% of the American population were Jewish
• American anti-Semitism • religiously biased acceptance to university programs • barriers to entry in certain professions
• The KKK, which had formed to keep emancipated blacks ‘in their place’ also aimed their attentions at Jews
V. American Reaction to Germany’s Treatment of Jews
• American attitudes towards Jews (from Wikipedia)• United States national public opinion polls taken from the mid
nineteen thirties to the late nineteen forties showed that over half the American population saw Jews as greedy and dishonest. Americans believed that Jews were too powerful in the United States … 35-40 percent of the population was prepared to accept an anti-Jewish campaign.
• In one 1938 poll, 41 percent of respondents agreed that Jews had "too much power in the United States," and this figure rose to 58 percent by 1945. In 1939 a poll found that only thirty-nine percent of Americans felt that Jews should be treated like other people. Fifty-three percent believed that "Jews are different and should be restricted" and ten percent believed that Jews should be deported. Several surveys taken from 1940 to 1946 found that Jews were seen as a greater threat to the welfare of the United States than any other national, religious, or racial group.
• Although only 0.6 percent of the nation's 93,000 commercial bankers in 1939 were Jewish, the idea that Jews controlled the banking system remained a popular myth.
• Thus, anti-Semitism was fairly widespread in the U.S, a sentiment which reduced the inclination of Americans to help the Jews in Europe.
Hansen Name _______________WWII Period _____
Holocaust Lecture #1- The Jews of Germany
Part I. Pre 19th Century Anti-Semitism • The term ‘anti-Semitism’ _____________________
_________________________________________• Jews in Europe
– Recap of their difficult position • Diaspora __________________________________
_________________________________________ • Apartness (covenant with God) _______________
_________________________________________ • Education and money lending ________________
_________________________________________ • Christ-killers ______________________________
_________________________________________ – _________________________________________________
Part II. The 19th Century • _______________________ in this century created new challenges
for Europe’s Jews– Social Darwinism gave a new _______________________
• Nationalism -Nations rather than _____________________– Kingdoms a political entity is made up of ___________, no
matter what _______________ they are – Nations a political entity is made up of _______________
________________________________________– Do we see why this is important? Now Jews have no ________
________________ in society! • Ironically, many Jewish-Germans felt highly ________________
– had deep roots (___________________) in Germany – Had done relatively well pre-WWI compared to Jews in
_____________________________________________
Part III. 1919 to 1933• Why are these dates significant? ____________________________• Germans felt ____________at the end of World War I and by the
Treaty of Versailles Why? – ______________________________ of the German war effort! – Some Jews in __________________________ – Right wing Germans (Hitler, Ludendorff) wondered ‘Did the
Jews ______________________________________because they weren’t real Germans?’
– Similar to what happened to the __________ (a minority group living under the ______________ in WWI
• Hitler’s ______________________– Moved to ___________ (from a small town) as a young man and
encountered _____________________________• Vienna at the time had an outspokenly _____________________
– Part of the Jewish faith is to remain a people with a special covenant with God ___________ in diet, traditions, and customs
– This visibility made them __________________for bigots • Hitler’s Racial _______________________
– Liked to reference ____________ as a society that achieved great strength because it _________________________ which gave the strong space to thrive
• Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution in Russia in 1917 ___________ ______________________________________________________
– __________________________ were Jews • Ironically, __________________ were ________ Jews
• Communism is refutation of nationalism – According to Communist ideology, people are bound by their
_________, not their ______________ – To racial zealots (see- Hitler) this is a Jewish plot to preserve their
own ____________________ and dilute the ________________• Bad economic times in Germany that followed WWI, and then in the
____________________, increased a need for _______________– anger at Jews who were ___________________________
(bankers, doctors, lawyers) • Hitler comes to power
– Had downplayed his anti-Semitism once he had decided to try to __________________ (after Beer Hall Putsch), but Mein Kampf and Hitler’s _____________________________were still out there
Ironies in Hitler’s Anti-Semitic Stance • ‘foreign’ Jews had been in Germany for ________________ • His mother’s life had been saved by a ___________________
– Hitler promised to _______________________• Hitler’s own _______________________________… many have
speculated that he is part Jewish• He was awarded a ________________ in WWI by a Jewish officer• Jews fought in WWI in numbers that were ___________________
___________ in the population (why important?)- ______________ ___________________________________________
Part IV. Hitler in Power the Start of WWII• Hitler’s decided to _____________________
• First group killed? – _____________________________________– Early experiments with killing ________________ – gas
in showers, gas vans, (shooting _________________ _____________________________________)
– Construction of concentration camps, originally for ___________________________________
• Hitler’s regime placed a blanket of censorship over Germany– ___________________________________________
• _________________________– Jews lose citizenship
• Thus, afterwards, all persecution is ___________– Banned from certain ________________– miscegenation laws - ____________________________– _______________________– wearing ______________________– kicked out of school
• Efficient, scientific Nazi model of ________________________
V. American Reaction to Germany’s Treatment of Jews• Halt to Jewish _______________________
– As a result of massive European immigration between 1850 and the 1920s, and because of the high __________________- caused by the Great Depression, Jews (along with other Eastern Europeans) were _____________________________________ to the U.S. in the 1930s
– By this time, _______________ of the American population were Jewish
• American anti-Semitism • religiously biased acceptance to
_________________programs • barriers to entry in certain _______________
• The KKK, which had formed to keep emancipated _________ ‘in their place’ also __________________________ at Jews
