the holocaust. part i. anti-semitism through world war i the term ‘anti-semitism’ very few...
TRANSCRIPT
The Holocaust
Part I. Anti-Semitism Through World War I
• The term ‘anti-Semitism’• Very few dual-racial societies in history
– In those that have existed, one race is almost always in a subservient role
• Jews in Europe– Reprisal of their difficult position
• Diaspora• Apartness (covenant with God) • Education and money lending • Christ-killers
– Kicked out of countries periodically throughout European history
• Social Darwinism gave a justification for racial superiority
• Nationalism (Nations rather than kingdoms)– Who belongs?
• Ironically, many Jewish-Germans felt highly assimilated- had deep roots in Germany – Had done relatively well pre-WWI – Served in WWI in a higher proportion than their
population
• Why are these dates significant? • Germans felt duped at the end of World War I and by the
Treaty of Versailles – 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 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
– Makes them easy targets for bigots
Part II. 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 ‘confirms’ international Jewish plot to take over the world – Marx and Lenin were Jews
• Ironically, Marx and Lenin were secular Jews
• Communism is international, rather than national
• 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, but Mein Kampf is 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 III. 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 places a blanket of censorship over Germany– Allows Jews to become victims
• 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 crystal
• 30,000 Jewish men—a quarter of all Jewish men in Germany—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."
• American anti-Semitism – Immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe
1890s to 1930s • Up to 3 % of population of U.S. • Limits on immigration from Eastern Europe,
religiously biased acceptance to university programs, and barriers to entry in certain professions were examples of anti-Semitism in America at the time
– Henry Ford – KKK
IV. The Reaction of the Rest of the World
• American attitudes towards Jews (from Wikipedia)• United States national public opinion polls taken from the mid
nineteen thirties to the late nineteen fortiesshowed 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 _____
The Holocaust- Lecture Part I
Part I. Anti-Semitism Through World War I• The term ‘anti-Semitism’ _____________________
_________________________________________• Very few ______________________ in history
– In those that have existed, _______________ _____________________________________
• Jews in Europe– Reprisal of their difficult position
• Diaspora _________________________ _________________________________
• Apartness (covenant with God) _______ _________________________________
• Education and money lending ________ _________________________________
• Christ-killers ______________________ _________________________________
– ______________________________ periodically throughout European history
• ______________________ gave a justification for racial superiority
• Nationalism (Nations rather than kingdoms)– Who belongs? __________________________
______________________________________• Ironically, many Jewish-Germans felt highly
____________________ - _________________ ________________ in Germany
– Had done relatively well _________________– Served in WWI in a ___________________ than
their population
Part II. 1919 to 1933• Why are these dates significant? _____________
________________________________________• Germans felt _______________ at the end of
World War I and by the _____________________– Some Jews in ____________ Gov’t – Right wing Germans (Hitler, Ludendorff) wondered ‘Did
the Jews care less about ______________ because ________________________________________?’
– Similar to what happened to the Armenians in WWI (see pics on next two slide) ____________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________
• Hitler’s radicalization– Moved to ___________ (from a small town) as a young
man and encountered Jews for the first time • Vienna at the time had an _________________
_______________________mayor – Part of the Jewish faith is to remain a people with a
special covenant with God apartness in ______ _________________________________________ _________________________________________
• Makes them easy targets for ____________
• Hitler’s Racial Aryan Purity– Liked to reference _________ as a society that
achieved great strength because it _____________ _________________________________’ which gave the strong space to thrive
• ___________________ (Communist) Revolution in Russia in __________ ‘confirms’ international Jewish plot to take over the world
– __________ and ________ were Jews • Ironically, Marx and Lenin were ___________Jews
• Communism is _____________, rather than ________________
Part II (Continued)• Bad economic times in Germany that
followed WWI, and then in the Great Depression, increased a need for __________________________
– anger at Jews who were relatively ____________(bankers, doctors, lawyers)
• Hitler came to power– ________________________ his anti-Semitism once
he had decided to try to win election, but ______________________ is still out there
• ______________in Hitler’s anti-Semitic Stance
– ‘foreign’ Jews had been in Germany _______ _______________________
– _____________________had been saved by a Jewish doctor
• Hitler promised to ‘never forget’– Hitler’s own _________________ is murky… many have
speculated that he is part Jewish– He was awarded ________________
_____________________in WWI by a Jewish officer– Jews fought in WWI in numbers that were higher than
their % in the population (why important?) ________________________ __________________________________
Part III. Hitler in Power – the Start of WWII• Hitler’s decided to______________ the Aryan race • First group killed?
– ________________(T4 Program) – Early experiments with killing efficiency –
_____________________________, _________________, (shooting is too messy, inefficient, and expensive)
– Construction of concentration camps, originally for ________________________
• Hitler’s regime places a blanket of ________________ over Germany
– Allowed Jews to become victims• ________________________________
– Jews lose ______________________• Thus, afterwards, all persecution is ‘legal’
– Banned from certain _________________– miscegenation laws - _________________
__________________________________– ghetto-ization – _____________________________ – kicked out of school
• Efficient, scientific Nazi model of racial categorization ___________________________________________
• Kristallnacht – Response to ____________________________
_______________________________________– Dual meaning of the name ______________
___________ v __________________________ – ____________________ men—a quarter of all
Jewish men in Germany—taken to __________ __________________________________
– Around 1,668 _______________were ransacked, and 267 set on fire.
• The Times of London wrote at the time: "No foreign propagandist _____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenceless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.“
IV. The Reaction of the Rest of the World• American anti-Semitism
– _____________ of Jews from Eastern Europe 1890s to 1930s
• Up to _______ of population of U.S. • Limits on immigration from Eastern Europe,
religiously biased acceptance _________ ___________________, and barriers ______________________ ________________were examples of anti-Semitism in America at the time
– Henry Ford, KKK