The Holocaust: (a) The Rise of Nazism (1933-1939)

(b) The Final Solution as Process (1939-1945)

Dr. James Waller

Cohen Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies,

Keene State College (NH)

Academic Programs Director,

Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

e-mail: jwaller@keene.edu

November 2015

Learning Objectives

• Understand…– (1) about the Final Solution as a process rather

than as an event;– (2) the ways to learn from the Holocaust as a

example of rational, highly organized, bureaucratic, planned, deliberate, centralized, systematic, mechanized, technically developed , industrialized, and institutionalized policy decision of genocide and atrocity crimes;

– (3) the implications for the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes.

• “Come here you free citizen of the world, whose life is safeguarded by human morality and whose existence is guaranteed through law. I want to tell you how modern criminals and despicable murderers have trampled the morality of life and nullified the postulates of existence.”– Zalmon Gradkowski, murdered in

Sonderkommando revolt in Birkenau on October 7, 1944

What was the Holocaust?

• Historical Perspective– Nazi Destruction of the European

Jews (1939-1945)– Death Toll = 6 Million (not fewer,

probably more)• Nazi Perspective

– Final Solution (Die Endlosung)• Etymological Perspective

– Sacrifice: Derived from the Greek holokauston, meaning “burnt whole” or “totally consumed by fire” – in a sacrificial sense.

• Theological Perspective– Sho’ah: Hebrew noun that signifies

catastrophic destruction, doubt and despair.

Non-Jewish Victims

• Persons Afflicted with Diseases or Disabilities

• Persons Deemed Dangerous to Public Order– Political Prisoners– Habitual Criminals– Jehovah’s Witnesses– Homosexuals– Asocials

• Other Nationalities Under German Control– Sinti & Roma (Gypsies)

• 1.25-1.50 Million Victims– Slavic Peoples of Central

and Eastern Europe, the Balkans

Historical Context: Life in Post-WWI Germany

• Carnage and Loss of WWI in 1918• Treaty of Versailles

– June 28, 1919

• Political Chaos & Fear of Communist Revolution – Revolution (Nov. 9, 1918) and fall of

German Empire– Weimar Republic (1919-1932)

• Economic Chaos– 1914: 1 dollar equals 4 marks– January, 1922: 1 dollar equals 191 marks– January 1923: 1 dollar equals 17,792

marks– November, 1923: 1 dollar equals

4,200,000,000 marks

Protest Against Treaty of Versailles (circa 1935)

Small Group Exercise

• Consider the early Nazi Party platform from February 24, 1920…– What themes of this

platform would the public be particularly receptive to in post-WWI Germany?

– What themes of this platform will become reality once Hitler assumes power?

Rise of Nazism

• 1932 – Hitler Loses Runoff Presidential Election to Hindenburg

• January 30, 1933 – Hitler Named Chancellor by Hindenburg

• 1933 General Election (March 5)– NSDAP Received 43.9% of Vote– Only 288 Seats out of 647 in

Reichstag• March 21, 1933 – German

Reichstag Passes “Enabling Act”

• 1934 – Hitler Assumes Title of Fuhrer

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

The Making of “Otherness”

• Nazi Weltenschaunng (Worldview)

• Jews = Weltfeind (World Enemy)

• Less than 1% of Total German Population

Chart indicating the determination of Jewish racial ancestry in Nazi Germany.

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Racial Ideology

German Students Association’s Book Burnings(May 10, 1933 – Opernplatz in Berlin)

Social Exclusion

“Jews Are Not Wanted Here”

Signs excluding Jews were posted in public places (including parks, theaters, movie houses, and restaurants) throughout Nazi Germany.

Hersbruck, GermanyMay 4, 1935

“Only for Aryans!”March 1938 – Vienna, Austria

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Nazi Laws Passed Against German Jews (1933)

• February 1933: Emergency laws are passed to prevent people from “acting against the country’s interests”. These allow the police or army to search any house they wish and give the government power to lock up anyone writing or making speeches which criticize what is going on. The death penalty is brought in for anyone found guilty of setting fire to a building, damaging the railways, or plotting against the government.

• March 1933: Jewish people are forbidden to serve on juries. • April 1933: No Jew can work in government. No Jew can join the police.

No Jew can work in the law courts. No Jew can work as a doctor or dentist in a hospital.

• June 1933: Jews are not allowed to enter cinemas, theatres, or art galleries, or to use sports facilities.

• July 1933: It is declared that the Nazi party will be the only party in Germany. Anyone who tries to form another political party will be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

• September 1933: People can inherit farmland only if they can prove there is no Jewish blood in the family going back as far as 1800.

Nuremberg Laws• Passed on September 15,

1935• Reich Citizenship Law =

German citizenship belonged only to those of “German or related blood.”

• Law for the Protection of Blood and Honor – Marriage and

Intercourse– Jewish Employment– Raising of Reich Flag

Structure of Camp System

Concentration Camps (1933-1945)• “Enemies of the State”• More than 20,000 Across Nazi-Occupied Europe

Labor Camps• 14 Million Prisoners in Hundreds of Forced Labor Camps• Across Nazi-Occupied Europe

Death Camps (1941-1945)• Six Extermination Camps in Poland• Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

National Boycott of Jewish BusinessesApril 1, 1933

• Document Analysis:

– How does this process impact one woman, Else Ury? – What do these documents reveal about who was willing

to implement the Nazis’ plans? Who had to participate?

– How do we assess responsibility for individuals who were involved at all levels? Do you think those involved (at any level) might have encountered moral dilemmas as they went about accomplishing their work? How might they have dealt with those dilemmas?

Forced Aryanization of Jewish Businesses and Assets

Secret State Police

Regional Command Berlin Berlin Oct. 1, 1942

1067

ORDINANCEBased on parag 1 of the Law about the Confiscation of Communist Property of May 26, 1933-

Reich Statute Book 1 p. 293-combined with the Law about the Confiscation of Property Hostile to the People and the State of July 14, 1933-Reich Statue Book 1, p. 479-the Decree about the Confiscation of Property Hostile to the People and the State in the Country of Austria of Nov. 18, 1938-Reich Statute Book 1, p. 1620-the Decree about the Confiscation of Property Hostile to the People and the State in the German Sudeten Area of May 12, 1939-Reich Statue Book 1, p. 911-and the Decree about the Confiscation of Property in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia of Oct. 4,1939-Reich Statue Book 1, p. 1998-in combination with the Order of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor about the Utilization of Confiscated Property of Enemies of the Reich of May 29, 1941-Reich Statute Book 1 p. 303 – the entire property of

Else Sara Ury

born as _______________________, born Nov. 1, 1877

in Berlin

lastly resident in

Northwest Berlin 87, Solinger St. 10

is confiscated for the benefit of the German Reich

[stamp] By order [Signature]

March 15, 1943

To the Mayor of the Reich Capital Branch Office of the Central Office for Economic Affairs, Dept for used furniture

To the hands of Mr. Senior Municipality Inspector Mayer

Berlin Schonenberg, Rudolf- Wilde Place, Towns Hall, room 351

Subject: Clearing of the Jewish apartment

Else Sara Ury, Berlin NW. 87 Solinger St.10

The apartment of the above mentioned Jewish female has been assigned to the O.Z.I (Senior Customs Inspector) Oskar Heinrich, formerly resident Berlin- NW 87, Wikinger banks 2, who has suffered total damage by air-raids.

It is requested to fix the value of the furnishings with preference and to offer the opportunity to the applicant to buy the furnishings. The applicant, who has suffered damages by air-raids, was able to save some damaged furnishings from his apartment which was affected by the bombs, but because of the lack of man-power they can only be repaired in 6-9 months. Furthermore, the applicant’s wife has got a physical illness according to the information by the applicant and just because of this it is of special importance to settle the issue with preference. Mr. Heinrich is an official of the Senior President of the Tex Authorities in Berlin-Brandenburg and works at the customs investigation office.

By order signed Brah

[Form used by the Berlin electricity company]

Berlin Power and Light Report concerning

Stock Corporation evacuated Jews

__________________________________________________Our previous customer Else Sara Ury

Location Berlin N.W., Solingerstr. 10

Present address evacuated

Has an unpaid electricity bill a credit from an electricity deposit including interests RM 34.41 according to the following calculation, which is due 3.4.43

____________________________________________________________________________

Debt from electricity consumption according to bill

from 25.3.43 RM 9,76

….

…. RM 9,76

Credit from electricity deposit RM 40,-

Interests up to RM 4,17 RM 44,17

Remaining debt credit on account 3550/14/554 von RM 34,41

Central Finance Officeof the Senior Finance President Berlin-Brandenburg

Berlin W 15, April 20, 1945

Kurfurstendamm 193-194

Mr.

Senior Finance President Berlin-Brandenburg

Office for Utilization of Property

1 Berlin NW 40

Alt-Moabit 143

Confiscation of assets 0 5210—40/23072—Ka 2002—

5205

From Globus Bank Corporation. Berlin, by order of the Globus Publishing Company

Berlin concerning Else S. Ury

176 RM 10 Pf. (value March 22, 1945) have been paid in and booked in book 1, volume

D under No. 5/25 as property fallen to the Reich.

By order

[signature]

Else Ury (born 1877)

• Died in Auschwitz II Gas Chambers in January 1943 at the age of 66

• Nazis – SS, Gestapo, Ideological Enthusiasts of Third Reich

• Source of Patronage for Nazi Party• Ordinary Germans – State Employees,

Wehrmacht, Civilian Population, Intermediaries

Who benefitted from forced Aryanization of Jewish businesses and assets?

In the area of the former death camp at Treblinka, Polish militia members came upon people plundering jewelry from murdered Jews.

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Assassination of Ernst vom Rath(November 7, 1938)

Ernst vom Rath Herschel Grynszpan

State-Sanctioned Violence

• November Pogrom/Kristallnacht– November 9-10, 1938– More than 400 synagogues burned and more

than 7,500 Jewish businesses and other properties looted and ransacked.

– More than 30,000 Jewish men deported to concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.

November 10, 1938

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

• Emigration in the early and mid-1930s• Forced Emigration as Official Governmental Policy (1938)

– Emigration no longer an act of choice to be organized by Jews.

– Forced emigration carried out by existing Jewish organizations.

– Confiscation of property of forced emigrants.

• Why did forced emigration fail?– Lack of worldwide receptiveness to

emigration of the Jews.– Global economic depression.

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Deportation of Jews from Wuerzburg, Germany April 25, 1942.

Warsaw Ghetto

• Created October 2, 1940

• 500,000 Jews in 1.3 Square Miles of Warsaw Ghetto

• Fewer than 1 Million Polish Christians in 53.3 Square Miles of Warsaw Area

What purposes did forced concentrations serve?

• Economic Expropriation• Attrition• Assembly for Deportation

The Final Solution as Process

Killing Operations

Forced Concentrations

Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration

State-Sanctioned Violence

Economic Expropriation

Legal Disenfranchisement

Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion

Classification: Definition of Jewishness

Killing Operations

T4 Euthanasia Program

Einsatzgruppen

Death Camps in the East

Killing Operations:T4 Euthanasia Program

September 1, 1939 (backdated) –

late August 1941

• Genetic and Financial Burden–“Life Unworthy of Life”–“Useless Eaters”

• Compulsory Sterilization• Starvation • Euthanasia (Gassing)• More Than 200,000 Victims

Murder of “The Unfit”

Killing Operations:Einsatzgruppen

(Operational Units)

Occupied Areas of Soviet Union

Beginning June 22, 1941

“Operation Barbarossa”

USSR (1941)

Ukraine (1942)

Mizocz Ghetto Liquidation (1942)

USSR (1942)

• Wasted Bullets• Escaping Jews• Disobedient Soldiers & Sensationalism• Psychological Consequences of Killing

Operations

Inefficiencies in the Killing Operations

Killing Operations:Death Camps in the East

1941-1944

• Chelmno: December 1941-March 1943– 152,000 Victims

• Majdanek: 1941-July 1944– Concentration, Labor, and Extermination Camp– 200,000 Victims

• Auschwitz: March 1941-July 1944– Concentration, Labor, and Extermination Camps– 1.1 Million Victims

• Belzec: March-December 1942– 600,000 Victims

• Sobibor: May 1942-October 1943– 250,000 Victims

• Treblinka: July 1942-August 1943– 870,000 Victims

• Note: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka = Operation Reinhard Camps

ChelmnoGas Van (1942)

Majdanek CrematoriaJuly 24, 1944

AuschwitzMay 1945

Belzec Death Camp

Postwar Refugees: Displaced Persons

• 14 Million European Refugees Became Displaced Persons (DPs)

• "Displaced Persons: Civilians outside the national boundaries of their country by reason of war, who are desirous but unable to return home or find homes without assistance; or are to be returned to enemy or ex-enemy territory." – Administrative Memo No.

39, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force

Conclusion

• What are the implications of what we have learned about, and from, the Holocaust for the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes?

• What are the implications of understanding genocide and atrocity crimes as processes rather than events? –“A strategy to prevent genocide should

attack each stage, each process” (Stanton, 1996).