Holocaust Studies Unit 3: Liberation

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Newspaper Headline Analysis:

Using the newspaper archives from the British Columbian newspaper archive at: http://www.hopesite.ca/remember/history/news_archives/archive_to c.html

Chose and read at least 4 articles about the early years of the

Holocaust. After reading all of the articles, use that information to answer the following questions.

1) Was the coverage of the events accurate? Was it complete?

2) Could the media have done more to bring attention to the

Holocaust or help its victims?

3) What should the role of newspapers and magazines be in reporting events such as this?

4) How do you think this trend played out in the American newspapers of the same time period?

I. Rescuers

A. Pope Pius XII

1. Started as indifferent a. Separated Politics &

Religion i. 1933 Concordat:

Hitler allowed open practice of

Catholics

2. 1939: began to aid Jews a. 3,000 visas for Jews b. Ordered Catholic institutions to hide Jews & provide money

3. No public denouncement of Nazi actions

B. Zegota

1. Helped Jews escape Ghettos in Poland: 1942-45 a. Saved estimated 400,000-500,000

2. Funded by the Polish Government in exile a. Money, medical attention, forged documents, and foster homes

3. Headed by Julian Grobelny: code name “Trojan” a. Found hiding places for Jews

4. Irena Sendler: code name “Jolanta” a. Saved 2,500 children, hid them with Christian families

C. Raoul Wallenburg

1. Swedish diplomat a. Gave fake documents to

Hungarian Jews b. Saved 100,000 between

1944-45

2. Arrested by Soviets & died in a labor camp

D. Varian Fry

1. American Journalist

2. Head of the American Rescue

Committee

3. Traveled to Vichy France a. Rescued Gestapo’s most wanted i. Intellectuals, artists, unionists, British &

French soldiers b. Saved 2,000 people

E. Oskar Schindler

1. Nazi Party member

2. Entrepreneur & businessman from Brennlitz, Czechoslovakia a. Black market deals b. Set up a factory for

Jewish workers

3. Made cookware & later ammunition for Germany

4. Bribed Nazi officials to save 2,000 Jews

A survivor stated:

I don't know what his motives were... But I don't give a damn. What's important is that he saved our lives.

Schindler answered this question however after the war:

If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car, wouldn't you help him?

F. Chiune Sugihara

1. Japanese consul in Lithuania a. Polish refugees & Lithuanian

Jews came to him for help b. Soviets allowed safe passage with passes c. Japanese refused to give visas i. Signed 300/day until he was called home ii. Gave the papers & stamp to a Jew to continue d. Saved 6,000 Jews

II. Resistance Movements

A. Operation Valkyrie

1. July 20, 1944: failed assassination attempt on Hitler a. Col. Stauffenberg left a bomb under a table at the Wolf’s Lair b. Several Military & Civilian leaders were involved i. To get better surrender terms c. Hitler had 4,000 killed for involvement

B. The White Rose: Summer 1942-43

1. University of Munich student organization a. Convince Germany that Hitler had used them b. Led by Hans & Sophie Scholl & Christopher

Probst i. Published pamphlets calling for resistance ii. Tried for treason & beheaded: February 22,

1943

C. Rosenstrasse: Jewish Community Center, Berlin

1. February 27, 1943 a. Goebbels ordered the SS & Gestapo to clean the city of Jews i. 8,000 sent to Auschwitz ii. 2,000 men married to non-Jews held in the center a. Wives came for information, but did not get it b. 6,000 came for a week in protest

2. March 6: men held were released

Community Center

SS vs. Protestors

What would you do?

1) If you were imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration or death camp, in what ways would your try to resist? (Try to name at least five ways)

2) If you were a Nazi officer assigned to a concentration or death camp, what would you do to ensure resistance efforts by prisoners failed? (Try to name at least five ways)

III. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

A. September 5, 1942: Jews moved into the Ghetto

1. Deportations began: 10,000 per day

2. Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)(Zydowska

Organizacja Bojowa ): formed to resist SS a. Gained weapons from outside the wall

Founder:

Mordecai

Anielewicz

b. Built secret bunkers with tunnels to connect them c. Destroyed factories before they could be moved by

Nazis d. Weed out the informants and traitors e. Stop the deportations at all costs

3. January 18, 1943: SS surrounded the area a. 3 days of fighting = SS pushed back i. Gained weapons from the Polish resistance & created smaller fighting teams ii. Himmler ordered it taken with extreme violence

4. April 19, 1942: 2,000 troops & tanks entered a. ZOB fighters forced them back b. SS brought in artillery & more tanks c. Forced out by small arms, homemade mines & gasoline bombs

5. SS set the Ghetto on Fire a. ZOB set fire to the warehouse with stolen Jewish property

6. Germans cut the gas, water, and power

7. May 8: SS found the ZOB headquarters a. Leaders committed suicide

8. May 16: fighting ended a. Remaining were killed or deported b. Ghetto burned to the ground

Summary Activity:

Option 1:

After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and watching the film Uprising, you will be creating a visual memorial for the events and participants of the uprising.

This memorial may be either created by hand with your own artwork, lettering, and physical cut and pasting, or it can be created using a digital media application/software and submitted digitally.

Two things that you need to consider when preparing for this:

1) What images will accurately and appropriately memorialize this event?

2) What is the most effective way to organize and display these images?

Summary Activity:

Option 2:

After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and watching the film Uprising, you will be creating 2 diary entries pertaining to daily life in the ghetto or relating to events during the uprising. (1 page, typed, double spaced,

Times New Roman 12 font each). Grammar and content are equal components in the grade.

Two things that you need to consider when preparing for this:

1) What information/events will accurately and appropriately depict this event/these conditions?

2) What is the most effective way to organize these entries so that they are easy to read and make sense to the reader?

Summary Activity:

Option 3:

After discussing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and watching the film Uprising, you will be creating an underground ghetto newspaper/newsletter. (1 page, typed, double spaced,

Times New Roman 12 font using the newsletter template in MS

Word). Grammar and content are equal components in the grade.

Two things that you need to consider when preparing for this:

1) What information/events would Jews in the ghetto need to know, what rumors would they try to start or stop to keep people at ease, and what news would they likely get from the outside?

2) The publishers were also in the ghetto, so they got limited outside information, and only published these about once a month, so include news for the month.

IV. Resistance in the Camps

A. Sabotage

1. Slow work, break machines, too sick to work, mistakes & defects in products

B. Daily Life

1. Smuggled food, made items, religious services, education, hid children/pregnant women

C. Rebellion

D. Escape

1. Had to survive with no help

2. Constantly being hunted

E. Treblinka: (2 nd largest death camp)

1. Sonderkommando knew the end was near = planned an uprising

2. August 2, 1943 a. Took axes, wire cutters, weapons, & grenades b. Sprayed buildings with gasoline c. Attack started early and fell into chaos i. 400 killed in the camp, 400 escaped (100 survived) ii. 30 guards killed

3. Remaining prisoners dismantled the camp & then killed a. Site was turned into a farm

F. Sobibor

1. October 14, 1943 a. Sonderkommando killed SS guards & returned to the camp b. Plan: walk through the main gates after roll call c. Plan fell apart i. Women screamed during the violence & guards were alerted ii. Escape went through fences = minefields iii. 300 fled: 200 survived d. 48 guards killed

2. Camp dismantled & replaced with a farm

G. Auschwitz

1. 300 sonderkommandos knew their death was near a. Stole weapons & attacked Crematorium 4 i. Destroyed it with SS explosives b. Workers in Crematorium 2 cut the fence & escaped i. 500 escaped: all caught & killed

2. January 17, 1944: inmates moved to other camps or killed before the Russians arrived

3. January 20: SS destroyed the other crematoriums

& much of the camp

V. Liberation

A. Allied forces began to break into Nazi controlled nations in 1944

1. Russians found Majdanek & other death camps

2. Americans & British began to find labor camps

B. Germans rushed to hide their atrocities

1. Kill the inmates & burn the bodies & camps

C. Allies began to film/record what they had found & help the survivors

VI. Displaced Persons (DP) Camps

A. May 7, 1945: V-E Day

1. United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation Agency a. Helped to get people home & reunite families

2. Allied forces took care of the health & food needs of the survivors

a. Many died from eating: sugar & caloric shock i. West: 60,000 liberated: 20,000 died in a week b. Most weighed 60-80 lbs: down 50-60% body weight c. Numbers increased to 300,000 as more arrived

B. Some returning home were killed by Nazi sympathizers

11,000,000 murdered!

Who did the Nazis murder?

* Jews

* Gypsies

* Handicapped

* Slavs - Russians, Poles, Serbs,

Croats, Byeloruss, Bulgarians,

Romanians, Moldavians, Slovenes,

Slovaks, etc.

* Anyone who opposed the Nazis

Nazi Death Count

OVER 11 MILLION PEOPLE MURDERED

Special Action Squads, Ghettos, Labor Camps,

& Death Camps

Jews

Russian POWs

Poles

Gypsies

6 million

3 million

2 million

200,000

National Holocaust

Museum: Tower of Life

Extending & Refining Activity:

Actions have consequences. Some consequences are short term, such as not studying for a test leads to a lower grade. Some are longer reaching, such as poor grades in school can lead to lower/slower career advancement or increased chances of ending up in prison.

What about the Holocaust? What are its short term and long term consequences? Take a minute and try to brainstorm possible consequences.

Now working with a partner, create a list of at least three short term and three long term consequences for the Holocaust. We will be discussing your ideas and creating a diagram of them in approximately five minutes, so work fast.

Activating Strategy:

Think about each of the following questions and discuss them with the person sitting beside you.

1) What kind of behavior should be allowed in war? Explain what you mean.

2) How should a government treat its citizens? Should it protect all citizens or just some?

3) How should a government treat people who reside in their country, but are not citizens?

4) Should SS officials who said that they followed Hitler’s orders be held responsible for the murder of the Jews and the mistreatment of the other groups targeted in the Holocaust?

5) Should people who did nothing to help the Jews be held morally responsible for murder? Why or why not?

VII. Nuremberg Trials

A. United Nations War Crimes Commission

1. Investigate the crimes of individuals & organizations of the Reich

2. 3 categories of crimes a. Crimes Against Peace: starting or participating in a war b. War Crimes: murder, ill-treatment, targeting civilians c. Crimes Against Humanity: inhuman acts committed against people based on race, religion or politics

B. International Military Tribunal:, October 1 to November

20, 1945

1. Trials held at the Palace (Halls) of Justice in

Nuremberg a. 22 leaders put on trial: 20 claimed not guilty i. 12 executed, 3 life, 4 shorter terms, 3 innocent

C. Other trials held from 1945-49

D. Some escaped to other countries

1. Josef Mengele: Paraguay (died in 1977 of a swimming accident)

2. Nacelles Scoffer (camp Guard): Pennsylvania

(returned to Romania for trial in January 2000)

*pg 202-212 more examples

VIII. Creation of Israel/Zionism

A. Allied nations did not welcome large numbers of

Jewish refugees

1. Nazi controlled nations were too weak to provide for or protect them

2. Americans, UN, & Red Cross did what they could in

DP Camps

B. 200,000 moved to Palestine between 1945-48

1. 1948: British and Americans created Israel & vowed to protect them

C. May 14, 1948: Israel was a nation: flew the Star of

David in pride

Discussion Points:

*

Is it possible for another Holocaust to occur?

*

What events or conditions would be needed?

*

What role do white supremacist groups or

Palestinian liberation groups play in persecuting or discriminating against Jews today?

IX. Holocaust Denial

A. Disguises for Denial

1. Revisionists: claim new evidence or a new interpretation

2. Relativism: point to minor “inconsistencies” or other conditions as reason to ignore

3. Reversal: Jews are as bad as the Nazis

(treatment of Palestinians)

B. Origins: the Nazis

1. Nazis hid their actions from the beginning a. No written orders from Hitler on the Final Solution b. Use of code words in orders pertaining to it c. Unit 1005: exhume mass graves and burn the bodies d. Dismantling of Belzec, Treblinka, & Sobibor e. Himmler’s speech in Poznan October 1943:

“The destruction of the Jews is a glorious page in history, which has not been recorded and will never be.”

C. Paul Rassinier: created the main arguments in 1948

1. No plan for systematic annihilation of Jews

2. Only 1 million Jews killed

3. Jews declared war on Germany

4. Survivor Testimonies were exaggerated

D. Arthur Butz: Electrical Engineering

Professor

1. The Hoax of the Twentieth Century a. 6 million is a false number b. Jews spread stories as propaganda c. Auschwitz documents did not mention gas chambers d. Zyklon B was only a disinfectant e. Eichmann plead guilty because he could not win f. Testimony = lies, use only documents g. Jews created it to get Israel

E. David Irving: British Military

Historian

1. Hitler’s War, 1977 a. Hitler never ordered Jews to be killed b. Hitler never knew about the Final Solution or the death camps

F. Holocaust Truth is based on the following sources

1. German military, civil, & personal documents

2. Jewish documents & testimonies

3. Documents & recollections of those who lived near the camps & resistance members

4. Documents captured by the Russians in the east

5. Testimony and evidence presented at the Nuremberg

Trials

6. Declassified military intelligence from the war

7. Film & photos taken by allied forces

German Word

Ausgemertz

Liquidiert

Erledigit

Aktionen

Sonderaktionen

Sonderbehandlung

Sauberung

Ausschaltung

Aussiedlung

Umsiedlung

ExekutivemaBnahme

Entsprechend Behandelt

Losung der Judenfrage

Judenfrei Gemacht

Spezialeinrichtungen

Badenastalten

Leichenkeller

“Sanitary” Language Used by the Nazis

Literal Meaning

Exterminate (pest)

Liquidated

Finished (off)

Actions

Special Actions

Special Treatment

Cleansing: Purge

Elimination

Evacuation

Resettlement

Executive Measure

Treated Appropriately

Solution of the Jewish Question

Made Free of Jews

Special Installations

Bath Installations

Corpse Cellar

Real Meaning

Murder

Murder

Murder

Missions to seek & kill

Special Killing Missions

Camp’s Death Process

Sent through the Process

Murder

Murder

Murder

Order for Murder

Murder

Murder of Jewish People

All Jews killed in the area

Gas chambers and Crematoria

Gas Chambers

Crematorium

Examples of Evidence

• On January 30, 1941,

• Hitler said the following:

• “Today I will once more be a prophet. If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the

Bolshevization of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!

• Hitler threatened the Jews again in September 1942:

• “In my speech before the Reichstag on the first of September

1939, 1 spoke of two matters: first, since we are forced into war, neither the threat of weapons nor a period of transition shall conquer us; second, if world Jewry launches another war in order to destroy the Aryan nations of Europe, it will not be the Aryan nations that will be destroyed, but the Jews. “

• In late July 1941, Himmler gave explicit orders to kill the Jews and to drive the

Jewish women into the marshes near

Baranowicze.

• In August 1941, Himmler visited Arthur

Nebe in Minsk. After observing a mass execution of Jews, Himmler delivered a brief speech to those present, stressing the need to carry out these orders, which came directly from the Fuhrer.

• On Oct. 2, 1941, Himmler visited Otto

Ohlendorf, commander of Einsatzgruppe

D. Again Himmler stressed to his soldiers that he and Hitler bore sole responsibility for these orders; he emphasized the need to eliminate all Jews and political commissars.

• In July 1942, Himmler visited

Auschwitz and Sobibor; he observed the murder of Jews in gas chambers.

• On September 29, 1942,

Himmler reported to Hitler on combat against the partisans and the elimination of Jews.

In his report, which refers only to August-November,

Himmler spoke of the liquidation of 363,211 Jews.

• The Einsatzgruppen reports are the largest set of documents that refer to the annihilation of the Jews.

• The murder of Jews in Kiev (Babi Yar) in late September 1941 — Report No.

101 of October 2, 1941.

• “ Sonderkommando 4-A, in cooperation with the

Einsatzgruppen command and two police units from the southern region, executed

33,771 Jews in Kiev on

September 30, 1941.”

• With these lines, Paul Blobel reported the first mass slaughter of Jews on such a scale after Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22,

1941.

• A report by Karl Jaeger, of

Einsatzkommando 3,

on the murder of Lithuanian

Jews on December 1,

1941. Jaeger’s report

specified the dates and locations of the murders; at the end, Jaeger added up the number of victims

137,346

• Einsatzgruppe D reported on April 8, 1942, a total of 92,000 dead. Himmler reported to Hitler on December 20, 1942, the following numbers of Jews shot in the Ukraine, Russia and

Bialystok –

• August 1942 - 31,246

• September 1942 - 165,282

• October 1942 - 95,735

• November 1942 - 70,948

• Total - 363,211

• According to these reports,

900,000 Jews were murdered.

Other reports speak of another

250,000 Jews murdered, bringing the total murdered according to these reports to

1,150,000.

• Other German Documents Used Euphemisms

• 1. A document from Goering to Heydrich on

July 31, 1941, on the preparation of a plan for the Final Solution to the Jewish problem.

• “In completion of the task which was entrusted to you in the Edict dated January 24,

1939, of solving the Jewish question by means of emigration or evacuation in the most convenient way possible, given the present conditions, I herewith charge you with making all necessary preparations for an overall solution ( Gesamtloesung ) of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in

Europe… I further charge you with submitting to me promptly an overall plan of the preliminary organizational, practical and financial measures for the execution of the intended final solution ( Endloesung ) of the

Jewish question

A document dated March 1943 by Richard Korherr, chief statistician of the Third Reich.

In late 1942, Himmler asked

Korherr to prepare an interim report on the implementation of the Final Solution to the

Jewish question. According to his 16-page document, about four million Jews had been

given “special treatment” by

the end of 1942

• Reports from the German railway authority

(

Deutsche Reichsbahn

), composed by various bureaucrats in the German transport ministry.

One of the many reports, dated January 6, 1943, contains the dates of deportations, point of departure, destinations, and number of deportees.

This report speaks of 16,000 Polish Jews who were taken to Auschwitz or Treblinka in February 1943

X. Other Genocidal Events

A. Native Americans

1. US expansion: led to removal to reservations or extermination

B. Armenians: Early 20 th century

1. 2.5 million Christian Armenians in Muslim Turkey a. Turkey expelled them across the deserts i. Thirst, exposure, starvation, disease killed many b. Rounded up all educated & able-bodied men & slaughtered them c. 1.5 million killed

C. The Rape of Nanking: December

13, 1937

1. Japanese captured: Capital of

China a. Killed all Chinese POWs b. Attacked civilians i. Murder, decapitation, torture ii. 80,000+ cases of rape c. 200-300,000 killed in 7 weeks

D. Tibet

1. Buddhist rule until Chinese invasion in 1950 a. People revolted led by monks in 1959

2. Chinese used harsh tactics to restore their control a. Killed priests, monks, & nuns, & destroyed temples & shrines b. Cruelty continues (2-6 million killed)

E. Cambodia: 1975

1. Khmer Rouge Communist take over:

Pol Pot a. Urban life is destructive = must end i. Massacred Westernized & educated ii. Expelled city dwellers to rural b. Outlawed Buddhism i. Executed priests & destroyed temples c. 2 million killed in 4 years

F. Rwanda

1. 2 social groups: Hutu (majority) &

Tutsi (minority) a. Tutsi were in control until 1962

2. 1973: Juvenal Habayarimana became president a. Gave Hutus the power & excluded

Tutsi from positions of power or education

3. April 6, 1994: Presidential plane shot down a. Hutus blamed Tutsis & attacked

(100 days) b. By mid-July 1994: 1 million

Tutsis killed (1/3)

G. Yugoslavia: “Ethnic Cleansing”

1. Created after WWI: joined 6 republics together = tensions

2. 1989: Slobodan Milosevic became president a. Wanted Serbia to be dominant & would not allow independence

3. Croatia tried to break away 1991-92 a. Ethnical cleansing of Serbs

4. Bosnia declared independence: 1992 a. Milosevic invaded and removed all Muslims from the area

5. Milosevic voted out in 2000 & stood trial for war crimes a. 250,000 killed in Bosnia, 3 million refugees

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