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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
Racial Ideology
Social Exclusion
German Students Association’s Book Burnings
(May 10, 1933 – Opernplatz in Berlin)
“Jews Are Not Wanted Here”
Signs excluding Jews were posted in public places (including parks, theaters,
movie houses, and restaurants) throughout Nazi Germany.
Hersbruck, Germany
May 4, 1935
“Only for Aryans!”
March 1938 – Vienna, Austria
The Final Solution as Process
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
National Boycott of Jewish Businesses
April 1, 1933
Forced Aryanization of Jewish
Businesses and Assets
• 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?
Secret State Police
Regional Command Berlin
1067
Berlin Oct. 1, 1942
ORDINANCE
Based on parag 1 of the Law about the Confiscation of Communist Property of May 26, 1933Reich 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, 1939Reich 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]
Report concerning
Stock Corporation evacuated Jews
__________________________________________________
Berlin Power and Light
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 Office
of 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
Who benefitted from forced Aryanization
of Jewish businesses and assets?
• Nazis – SS, Gestapo, Ideological
Enthusiasts of Third Reich
• Source of Patronage for Nazi Party
• Ordinary Germans – State Employees,
Wehrmacht, Civilian Population,
Intermediaries
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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
Mass Expulsion and
Forced Emigration
• Emigration in the early and mid1930s
• 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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
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
Classification: Definition of Jewishness
Racial Ideology and Social Exclusion
Legal Disenfranchisement
Economic Expropriation
State-Sanctioned Violence
Mass Expulsion and Forced Emigration
Forced Concentrations
Killing Operations
T4 Euthanasia
Program
Killing
Operations
Einsatzgruppen
Death Camps
in the East
Killing Operations:
T4 Euthanasia Program
September 1, 1939 (backdated) –
late August 1941
Murder of “The Unfit”
• Genetic and Financial Burden
– “Life Unworthy of Life”
– “Useless Eaters”
• Compulsory Sterilization
• Starvation
• Euthanasia (Gassing)
• More Than 200,000 Victims
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)
Inefficiencies in the
Killing Operations
•
•
•
•
Wasted Bullets
Escaping Jews
Disobedient Soldiers & Sensationalism
Psychological Consequences of 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
Chelmno
Gas Van (1942)
Majdanek Crematoria
July 24, 1944
Auschwitz
May 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).