A History of Persecution: Holocaust

Martin Niemoeller, Dachau, 1944.

“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 but I didn't speak up because I was not 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 nobody was left to speak up.”

Elie Wiesel

●How do you describe the sorting out on arriving at Auschwitz, the separation of children who see a father or mother going away, never to be seen again? How do you express the dumb grief of a little girl and the endless lines of women, children and rabbis being driven across the Polish or Ukrainian landscapes to their deaths? No, I can’t do it. And because I’m a writer and teacher, I don’t understand how Europe’s most cultured nation could have done that. For these men who killed with submachine-guns in the Ukraine were university graduates. Afterwards they would go home and read a poem by Heine. So what happened?

Anti-Semitism Before the War

00,000 German Jewshe Nazi’s used existing anti-Semitism to their advantage (create a common enemy for all Germans).●State sponsored persecution of Jews began immediately after Hitler’s election in 1933.

A History of Persecution

Let us never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Hitler’s Ideas●Hitler saw history as a struggle between races. In his mind the Aryan or Nordic race was superior.●What he meant was that the German race was better than all others, the Jews were the most inferior of all.●Jews were seen as the opposite of everything Germans stood for. Hitler believed it was his mission to make Germans the rulers of the world. This required the destruction of the Jews.

6 Million Jews (2/3rds of all European Jews) were murdered by the Nazi’s.

This mass murder was called the Holocaust or Sho’ah

by the Jews.

Jewish Persecution

1933 – Jewish businesses are boycotted, shops are looted, Jews are beaten by Nazi supporters. Jews are permitted and encouraged to immigrate to other nations (but are often refused entry wherever they turn).

The Nuremburg Laws●1935 – the Nuremburg Laws come into effect.●A Jew is defined as anyone with one or more Jewish grandparent●Jews are no longer considered citizens of Germany (can not vote)●Mixed marriages are banned●Jews lose their assets and businesses●From 1935 – 1942 there is a Jew Ban – Jews can no longer be executives of companies or be involved in crafts, they are removed from schools, forbidden use of movies, theaters, museums, bikes, pets etc.●Jews are forced to wear the Yellow Star of David and register to make them easily identifiable and known to authorities.

Kristallnacht●November 1939 – Night of Broken Glass●Synagogues are burned and the shop windows of Jewish businesses smashed.●20,000 Jews are arrested, many are brutally beaten.●The Jews are told to pay for the damages

The Ghettos●1939 the Jews are forced into Ghettos – designated living areas in the city where Jews were made to live. ●This type of physical control over the Jews makes them easier to humiliate, torture and murder.

The Warsaw Ghetto

Concentration Camps●As Hitler moved across Europe, ghettoes emerged everywhere.●Eventually these Ghettos were emptied; the people inside of them were sent to concentration camps.●Many people died on the way to the camps, once there those who were not killed immediately were used as slave labour until they were too weak.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed....Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

-Night

The Final Solution●As Hitler invaded other countries the removal and extermination of Jews become increasingly difficult.●Nearly 2 million were rounded up, stripped of their possessions and shot but Hitler considered this too slow.●1941, Hitler come up with the Final Solution – a number of extermination camps were to be established where Jews could be killed en mass.

AuschwitzThe largest concentration

camp was Auschwitz in

Poland.

Prisoner Markings at Buchenwald

●Red – Political Prisoner●Pink – Homosexual●Purple – Gypsy●Green – Convict●Brown – Jehovah's Witness●Blue – Émigré

● Black – Asocial Prisoner● Yellow – Race Defiler

Gas Chambers

●A new method of killing was developed – gas chambers disguised as showers. The bodies were placed in large ovens for cremation.●6000 Jews were gassed each day in Auschwitz.●Using this method it took 3-15 minutes for everyone to die.

Medical Experimentation

●A number of German physicians conducted painful and often deadly experiments on thousands of concentration camp prisoners without their consent.●These experiments can be broken into three categories:●Experiments aimed at ensuring the survival of Axis military personnel●Developing and testing treatments for injuries and illnesses ●Experiments aimed at advancing the racial goals of the Nazi world

Medical ExperimentationBlock 10 was a balance of horrors. Being an experimental subject could prolong life, or end it immediately. An inmate assigned here might undergo skin testing for reaction to relatively benign substances, or receive a phenol injection. Block 10 was a balance of horrors. Being an experimental subject could prolong life, or end it immediately. An inmate assigned here might undergo skin testing for reaction to relatively benign substances, or receive a phenol injection to the heart for immediate dissection. Doctor Mengele,Block 10 was a balance of horrors. Being an experimental subject could prolong life, or end it immediately. An inmate assigned here might undergo skin testing for reaction to relatively benign substances, or receive a phenol injection to the heart for immediate dissection. Doctor Mengele, the most evil man in Auschwitz, reigned here; Dr. Ernst B.protected and saved many inmates here.

The Nazi’s are Caught

●Before his suicide Hitler sent a message to those in charge of the camps to destroy them so they could be kept a secret.●It was too late, the camps were already being liberated.●The camps were never destroyed and now stand as a reminder of what humans are capable of.

●Physical resistance largely futile●Jewish resistance was spiritual●Two reactions within Jewish community (leading to the creation of modern Judaism)

The Jewish Response

MODERN JUDAISM

JUDAISMPRE-HOLOCAUST

Strengthen FaithStay true/reinforce traditions

Weaken FaithTraditions no longer relevant

Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round. But

there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises. I did not fast. First of all, to please my father, who had forbidden me to do so. And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that action into a

symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. (5.23-24)

And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed. “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done." (6.65-66)

Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the

furnaces? (5.4-11)

Akiba Drummer has left us, a victim of the selection. Lately, he had been wandering among us, telling everyone how weak he was: "I can't go on

... It's over …“

He was not alone in having lost his faith during those days of selection. I knew a rabbi, from a small town in Poland. He was always praying, in

the block, at work, in the ranks. He recited entire pages from the Talmud, arguing with himself, asking and answering himself endless

questions. One day, he said to me:

"It’s over. God is no longer with us."And as though he regretted having uttered such words so coldly, so

dryly, he added in a broken voice, "I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited,

to even try to comprehend God’s mysterious ways. But what can someone like myself do? I’m a simple creature of flesh and bone. I suffer

hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God’s mercy? Where’s God? How can I believe,

how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?"

Poor Akiba Drumer, if only he could have kept his faith in God, if only he could have considered this suffering a divine test, he would not have

been swept away by the selection. But as soon as he felt the first chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death.

(5.105-109)

Impact on Judaism●Until the Holocaust Jews could make sense of their difficult history –after the Holocaust traditional reasons for Jewish suffering no longer made sense.●Jews responded in a variety of ways:●Some maintained that they deserved even this as a punishment for their sins (specifically for abandoning the traditional ways of Judaism)●Others contended that the Holocaust could only mean that God had broken his covenant (bringing about the emergence of a group of Jews who are cultural Jews ONLY).●A very prominent response was Zionism, support for the state of Israel.

Zionism:

●Term originally referred to a movement to re-establish a Jewish homeland ●Since Israel was established in 1948 the term has referred to the support of Israel.

The Holocaust and Religion●Changed EVERYTHING●Prior to WWII, it was “okay” to be discriminatory in your practices of your faith●After, no longer acceptable●ECUMENISM = Catholic reaction (Nostra Aetate)●Came face to face with the depths of Humanity’s depravity●Made possible because of CENTURIES of discrimination in Europe

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing – Edmund Burke

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifferenceAnd the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

– Elie Wiesel

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.