THE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

Understand the forces that have shaped the modern world

Empathise with people from the past

Evaluate various types of sources and make judgements based on them

Communicate logical arguments concerning historical issues and concepts

Refine developing philosophy of life and value systems

Develop an interest in the contemporary world and an appreciation of the rights and responsibilities of

citizenship

SOURCE 1:

Klaus Stern, a Nazi death camp survivor, glances down at his "tattoo," his Auschwitz ID number from 1942.

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THE HITLER YEARSKEY DATES

Weimar Germany

Nazi Germany

The Second World War

MAPSMAP 1:

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Map of Europe showing Germany and Austria-Hungary before the Treaty of Versailles.

MAP 2:

Map showing territory lost by Germany and Austria-Hungary after the First World War.

MAP 3:

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Map of Europe after the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

MAP 4:

Map showing the Sudetenland, the new protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia, and how Poland was divided after its invasion.

MAP 5:

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Map of Greater Germany in November of 1942 showing territories annexed by the Reich.

MAP 6:

Map showing some of the major Jewish ghettos in Europe under the Nazis.

MAP 7:

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Map of major Nazi transit, concentration, and extermination camps in Europe.

MAP 8:

Map of Central Europe as it looked at the end of World War II.

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ANOTHER WORLD WAR

World War II (WWII) began of the 3rd of September 1939. Britain declared war on Germany after Germany’s invasion

of Poland. The two sides, which eventually fought in WWII, were called the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers.

ALLIED POWERS AXIS POWERSCOUNTRY LEADER COUNTRY LEADER

Australia Curtin Germany Hitler

Britain Churchill Italy Mussolini

USA Roosevelt Japan Hirohito

Soviet Union Stalin

SOURCE 2:

QUESTIONS:

1) Research three other countries involved in WWII, their leaders and individual involvement.7

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2) Study the maps on pages 4-7. What changes were made between the years 1920 – 1945?

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3) Complete a source analysis on source 1 and 2.

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4) In your own words, write a report on how and why World War II began.

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HITLER’S LIFE - UP TO 1933

1889 - 1909 Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Braunau, Austria.

He failed his school exams and left at the age of 16.

At 19 he left home to become an art student, however the art school did not want him.

He then lived in a hostel for tramps.

1909 – 1913

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Unemployed Hitler engaged in a number of odd jobs in order to survive. He cleaned carpets, swept snow

and pained postcards to sell on the street.

Hitler supported the nationalist parties and he grew to hate the socialists who supported better wages,

better conditions and the right to vote.

He also began to hate different races, especially the Jews.

Hitler felt that foreigners were ruling and ruining the life and culture of his country.

1913 – 1918 Hitler left Austria to avoid national service in the army.

He went to Germany and when WWI broke out, he joined the German Army.

Hitler had a very dangerous job, running messages between the trenches.

Hitler won six medals for bravery including the Iron Cross fist class – the highest award a German could

receive.

Hitler was angry when Germany lost the wars and he blamed the surrender on the Jews and socialists.

1918 – 1923 Hitler became a ‘V’ man in the army, spying on political parties, including the German Workers Party – a

small party he later joined. He became its leader and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers

Party – The Nazi Party.

The swastika was a symbol of the above party faction.

Storm troopers beat up those who disgraced him.

Hitler held meetings in which he argued Germany needed a strong leader and must get revenge for her

defeat in WWI and that the Jews and communists were ‘germs’ that must be destroyed.

1923 – 1933 In 1923 Hitler and his storm troopers tried to gain power by force (a Putsch) in Munich.

They failed and Hitler was put in prison for high treaty.

While in prison Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” (my struggle) in which he outlines the ideals and would later

dictate later policy.

Hitler was given a lenient sentence and was let out a year later. He went back to join the Nazi Party.

In 1929 the depression hit Germany and six million people found themselves unemployed.

People began to listen to Hitler’s ideas and began to blame the Jews and socialists for their

unemployment.

Eventually Hitler gained more and more support until he became Chancellor of Germany in January

1933.

Hitler banished trade unions and made a law against the formation of new parties.

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Germany was a one party state. Hitler had total control to implement his ideas in Mein Kampf.

SOURCE 3:

HITLER’S IDEAS

Most of Hitler’s ideas came from “Mein Kampf”. The following list is a summarised breakdown of Hitler’s published ideals and thoughts.

THE FUEHRER PRINCIPLE:Germany must be ruled by a single, strong leader who has great power – a Fuehrer.

LEBENSRAUM (LIVING SPACE):The Germans need more land to live and work in. They will get this land by taking over countries such as Poland and

Russia.

RACE:

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Humans are divided into races. Some pure, such as the Aryan race and they must be kept pure to become part of

the ‘master race’.

ANTI-SEMITISM:Jews (Semites) are the biggest threat to the purity of Germany. They are conspiring to take control of the world and

helped in Germany’s defeat in WWI. They must be destroyed.

COMMUNISM:The communists are too dangerous and must be destroyed.

THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES:Germany was forced to pay reparations for losses and damage caused by the war. She as also forced to give up al

her colonies and her army was reduced. Germany was also forced to sin the War Guilt Clause, which stated that

“Germany accepts responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage”. Hitler was outraged

by the treaty, arguing it was unfair and must be cancelled, the land it took must be retuned and France must be

destroyed.

EVIDENCE

SOURCE 4: SOURCE 5:March 1933 July 1933Hitler’s speech in Reichstag on the Enabling Act Law Against other political parties

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SOURCE 6: SOURCE 7:August 1934 August 1934President Hindenburg lay dying as the The Army was included in a new law.following law was passed.

SOURCE 8:

Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’Race.

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SOURCE 9:Outline of Hitler’s ideals.

QUESTIONS:

1) Write a character profile of Hitler.

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2) Imagine you are a German living in Germany during the depression years. Write a letter to a friend telling them of

your impression of Hitler. You may have listened to him giving a speech.

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DISEMPOWERMENT

SOURCE 10:

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German soldiers cutting the beard of an elderly Jew in Poland

THE JEWS IN NAZI GERMANY

The people to suffer most under the Nazi’s were the Jews. Hitler despised them and regarded them as an inferior

race. Life was made very difficult for them. Storm troopers organised a boycott of Jewish shops, while the Jews were

fired from important positions in the civil service, the law, universities, schools and the media. All Jewish shops were

marked with a yellow star or the word ‘Juden’ (Jews.)

In parks, on buses and on trains Jews had to sit separately. Children were taught to believe in anti Jewish ideas and

many Jews were victims of violence. In many towns signs were erected in shop windows saying “Jews not admitted”.

Chemists would not sell Jews drugs or medicines and hotels would not give them night’s lodgings.

SOURCE 11:

1943 Jews being led by SS

soldiers to an extermination

camp

SOURCE 12:

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This is one of the most well known pictures of the Holocaust. "German storm troopers force Warsaw ghetto dwellers of all ages to move, hands up, during the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in April-May 1943."

SOURCE 13:

German soldiers brutalizing a Jew in Poland

SOURCE 14:

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Flames pouring out of a synagogue in Siegen, Germany during Kristallnacht

QUESTION:1) Read the anti-Jewish laws carefully. What rights did the Jews have left? How were they disempowered? Why?

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ANTI-JEWISH LAWS

1. 28 March, 1933Directive to the Nazi Leadership

There was to be a “practical and systematic implementation of a boycott of Jewish businesses, Jewish goods, Jewish doctors and Jewish lawyers”.Action committees were to “popularise the boycott by means of propaganda and instruction. The basic theme of this law was: Germans don’t buy any longer from the Jews!The boycott was to start “with a bang. Instructions are being given to S.A. and the S.S. to warn the population, through posters, against entering Jewish businesses…The start of the boycott is to be publicised by poster, in the press, by pamphlets, etc. It will begin suddenly on Saturday, April 1, at precisely 10 a.m”

2. 1 April, 1933Boycott of Jewish Business

Uniformed S.A. men post themselves at the entrances to Jewish places of business and by placards give passers-by and potential customers clearly to understand that “members of the German community” do not buy from Jews.

3. 22 September, 1933

Jews banned from all cultural activities by a Reich Chamber of Culture law.

4. 21 May, 1935

Jews forbidden to join the Wehrmacht under the defence law.

5. Summer, 1935

Placards of “Jews not wanted” displayed in resorts, public buildings, cafes, restaurants and businesses. (These were only removed during the Olympic Games of 1936 – hosted by Germany)

6. 15 September, 1935Protection of German Blood and Honour

The so called Nuremberg Laws. “Marriage between Jews and citizens of German or similar blood are prohibited… Extra-martial relations between Jews and citizens of German blood are prohibited… Jews are not allowed to employ in their households female citizens or similar blood under the age of 45…”

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7. 17 August, 1938

All Jews were forced to carry the despised name “Israel”; all Jewesses to carry the equally despised name “Sarah”.

8. 30 September, 1938

Qualifications of Jewish doctors cancelled

9. 9 November, 1938Kristallnacht

The destruction of synagogues and Jewish businesses.30,000 – 40,000 Jews taken to concentration camps.The Jewish community to pay a fine of 1,000 million marks.Jews forbidden to attend places of entertainment.

10. 15 November, 1938

Jewish children confined to Jewish schools.

11. 30 November, 1938

Jewish lawyers forbidden to continue to practice.

12. 23 September, 1939

All Jews ordered to hand in their radio sets.

13. 6 February, 1940

Stoppage of the issuing of clothing coupons to Jews.

SOURCE 15:S.A. and an S.S. man together trying to stop people from shopping in a Jewish clothes store.

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SOURCE 16:1935. Two Jewish boys in a German classroom have been made to stand at the front of the class. The writing on the blackboard says ‘The Jews are our greatest enemy! Beware of the Jews!’ The star of Davi, a symbol of the Jewish religion.

QUESTIONS:

1) What do you think the poster says in source 15?

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2) What effects do you think this had on shoppers?

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3) Why do you think the two Jewish boys were made to stand in the front of the classroom?

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4) Whey do you think the blackboard said “The Jews are our greatest enemy”?

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5) Complete a source analysis on source 10 or 13.

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6) Assume the role of a Jewish shopkeeper in Germany during this time. What effects might the anti Jewish laws

have on your business? What effects might the S.A. and S.S have?

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FIVE MILLION OTHERS – NON JEWISH VICTIMS

The Holocaust is usually taught as the mass genocide of almost six million Jews in Europe during World War II. But,

more than five million others were also persecuted, tortured, tattooed and killed. These five million included innocent

citizens – men, women and children. Many of these died for their race or their beliefs. Many of these died while

helping their Jewish neighbours and they too deserve their place in history.

Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 when Germany was experiencing severe economic hardship. Hitler promised the

Germans that he would bring them prosperity and power. Hitler had a vision of a Master Race of Aryans that would

control Europe. He used powerful propaganda techniques to convince not only the German people, but countless 25

others, that if they eliminated the people who stood in their way and the degenerates and racially inferior, they - "the

great Germans" would prosper.

There were eight other grouping of people who were persecuted under Hitler’s regime:

Polish Citizen Political Groups

Afro-Europeans

Gypsies

Jehovah Witnesses

The Disabled

Homosexuals

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Close-up of a Gypsy couple sitting in an open area in the Belzec concentration camp

Polish Citizens:

On August 22, 1939, a few days before the official start of World War II, Hitler authorized his commanders, with these

infamous words, to kill "without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language. Only in

this way can we obtain the living space we need".

Heinrich Himmler echoed Hitler's decree:

"All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles."

On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from three directions. Hitler's invincible troops attacked from the west,

the north and the south. Poland never had a chance. By October 8, 1939, Polish Jews and non-Jews were stripped of

all rights and, were subject to special legislation. Rationing, which allowed for only bare sustenance of food and

medicine was quickly set up.

Young Polish men were forcibly drafted into the German army. The Polish language was forbidden. Only the German language was allowed. All secondary schools and colleges were closed. The Polish press was liquidated. Libraries and bookshops were burned. Polish art and culture were destroyed. Polish churches and synagogues were burned. Most of the priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Street signs were either destroyed or changed to new German names. Polish cities and towns were renamed

in German. Ruthless obliteration of all traces of Polish history and culture.

Hundreds of Polish community leaders, mayors, local officials, priests, teachers, lawyers, judges, senators, doctors

were executed in public. Much of the rest of the so-called Intelligentsia, the Polish leading class, was sent to

concentration camps where they later died. The first mass execution of World War II took place in Wawer, a town

near Warsaw, Poland on December 27, 1939 when 107 Polish non-Jewish men were taken from their homes in the

middle of the night and shot. This was just the beginning of the street roundups and mass executions that continued

throughout the war.

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During the period of the Holocaust of World War II, Poland lost:

45% of her doctors, 57% of her attorneys 40% of her professors, 30% of her technicians, more than 18% of her clergy most of her journalists.

Poland's educated class was purposely targeted because the Nazis knew that this would make it easier to control the

country. Non-Jews of Polish descent suffered over 100,000 deaths at Auschwitz. The Germans forcibly deported

approximately 2,000,000 Polish Gentiles into slave labour for the Third Reich. The Russians deported almost

1,700,000 Polish non-Jews to Siberia. Men, women and children were forced from their homes with no warning.

Transferred in cattle cars in freezing weather, many died on the way. Polish children who possessed Aryan-looking

characteristics were wrenched from their mother's arms and placed in German homes to be raised as Germans.

The Polish people were classified by the Nazis according to their racial characteristics. The ones who appeared

Aryan were deported to Lodz for further racial examination. Most of the others were sent to the Reich to work in slave

labour camps. The rest were sent to Auschwitz to die. Polish Christians and Catholics were actually the first victims of

the notorious German death camp. For the first 21 months after it began in 1940, Auschwitz was inhabited almost

exclusively by Polish non-Jews. The first ethnic Pole died in June 1940 and the first Jew died in October 1942.

Because of the obliteration of the Polish press by the Nazis, most of the world was not aware, including many parts of

Nazi-occupied Poland, of the atrocities going on. Even to this day, much documentation of the Holocaust is not

available. The entire records of Auschwitz were stolen by the Soviets and not returned. It was Hitler's goal to rewrite

history. The Nazis destroyed books, monuments, historical inscriptions. They began a forceful campaign of

propaganda to convince the world of the inferiority and weakness of the Polish people and likewise, their invincible

superiority and power.

Political Groups:

The Nazis persecuted groups other than Jews. Among the earliest victims of Nazi discrimination in Germany were

political opponents--primarily Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. In 1933, the Nazis

established the first concentration camp, Dachau, as a detention centre for political prisoners. The Nazis also

persecuted authors and artists whose works they considered subversive or who were Jewish.

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Prior to World War I, there were very few dark-skinned people of African descent in Germany. But, during World War

I, black African soldiers were brought in by the French during the Allied occupation. Most of the Germans, who were

very race conscious, despised the dark-skinned "invasion". Some of these black soldiers married white German

women that bore children referred to as "Rhineland Bastards" or the "Black Disgrace". In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote

that he would eliminate all the children born of African-German descent because he considered them an "insult" to the

German nation. "The mulatto children came about through rape or the white mother was a whore," Hitler wrote. "In

both cases, there is not the slightest moral duty regarding these offspring of a foreign race." The Nazis set up a secret

group, Commission Number 3, to organize the sterilization of these offspring to keep intact the purity of the Aryan

race. In 1937, all local authorities in Germany were to submit a list of all the children of African descent. Then, these

children were taken from their homes or schools without parental permission and put before the commission. Once a

child was decided to be of black descent, the child was taken immediately to a hospital and sterilized. About 400

children were medically sterilized -- many times without their parents' knowledge.

Gypsies:

Like the Jews, the Rom Gypsies were chosen for total annihilation just because of their race. Even though Jews are

defined by religion, Hitler saw the Jewish people as a race that he believed needed to be completely annihilated. The

Rom Gypsies also were a nomadic people that were persecuted throughout history. Both groups were denied certain

privileges in many European countries. The Nazis believed that both the Jews and Gypsies were racially inferior and

degenerate and therefore worthless. Like the Jews, the Gypsies were also moved into special areas set up by the

Nazis. Half a million Gypsies, almost the entire Eastern European Gypsy population, was wiped out during the

Holocaust.

Jehovah Witnesses:

Every country, even Germany, had those who did not believe in the Nazi ideology and who were willing to die for their

beliefs. Perhaps no other group stood so firmly in their beliefs as the Jehovah Witnesses. Hitler felt very threatened

by this strong group of Christians because they, from the very beginning, refused to recognize any God other than

Jehovah. When asked to sign documents of loyalty to the Nazi ideology, they refused. Jehovah Witnesses were

forced to wear purple armbands and thousands were imprisoned as "dangerous" traitors because they refused to take

a pledge of loyalty to the Third Reich.

The Disabled:

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Over 200,000 disabled people were the first victims of the Holocaust. The atrocities caused by Hitler and the Nazi

regime are well known in the Jewish community. Hitler and the regime despised disabled people because an

impairment of any kind was an abhorrent to the future of his dream of a perfect race. In his lunacy, Hitler believed by

eradicating every disabled person, he could wipe out disability. Babies born deaf, blind or with even the slightest

imperfection were immediately disposed of, and abortions were common if the parents' genetic lineage was in

question.

Hitler ordered the making of propaganda films to persuade the public of the necessity of eliminating people with

genetic defects. The film "Victims of the Past" was made on Hitler's explicit orders and he made sure the film was

shown in Germany's 5,300 cinemas. Special lighting effects distorted features so disabled people were portrayed as

grotesque and could only survive at the expense of healthy people.

The Nazis also sterilized nearly 400,000 Germans believed to have genetic impurities. During the 1930's, disabled

people in Germany were referred to as "useless eaters". Nazi Germany targeted disabled people and older people as

a drain on public resources. Doctors, not soldiers, were put in charge of killing older people and disabled people,

since they had first-hand knowledge of where they lived, and if their medical condition was temporary or not. Those

deemed "curable" were transferred to special hospitals for slave labour and experiments. Dr. Josef Mengele was the

most famous of these "researchers", torturing hundreds of children, especially those of a multiple birth, i.e. twins.

The lives of institutionalised children were further brutalized by visits from members of the SA, SS, Hitler Youth and

League of German Maidens who were taken on tours of institutions. The visitors regarded these tours as "freak

shows" and there were many instances of nasty and brutal behaviour towards the children who lived in the

institutions. More than 20,000 visitors came to the Eglfing-Haar institution. Dr. Pfannmuller, the director, took his

visitors to the wards and lectured them (in front of the children) about the necessity of killing disabled for the "good of

the nation". Pfannmuller advocated killing children long before the child euthanasia program was put into effect and

used starvation as his preferred method.

Homosexuals:

Hitler's plan for a great Master Race had no room for any homosexuals, many males from all nations, including

Germany, were persecuted, tortured and executed. Hitler even searched his own men and found suspected

homosexuals that were sent to concentration camps wearing their S.S. uniforms and medals. Homosexual inmates

were forced to wear pink triangles on their clothes so they could be easily recognized and further humiliated inside the

camps. Between 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

QUESTION:

1) You are to conduct further research on a non-Jewish individual that suffered during the Holocaust. Why them?

What were their experiences? How were they treated?

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PROPAGANDA AND CENSORSHIP

PROPAGANDA

Propaganda is a form of advertising that persuades large numbers of people to think what you want them to. Dr.

Joseph Goebbles (Minister of National Enlightenment and Propaganda) used a number of methods to win the people

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of Germany over to Nazi ideas. He told newspapers what to write and used the radio to put his message across. He

produced cheap radios and loud speakers were erected on pillars in the street. All cafes were ordered to have their

radios tuned into important programs. Mass rallies were also organised and the most famous was held at Nuremburg

each year. They lasted a week and were held in specially built arena’s.

CENSORSHIP

Propaganda alone could not win people over. Censorship was also used to stop ideas spreading. All entertainment

was censored and students were even encouraged to censor books written by Jews or Communists by burning them.

In 1933 students in Berlin burnt 20,000 books. Complaining about the government was also against the law and the

penalty for anti-Hitler jokes, was death.

SOURCE 17:1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

1 1. 1942. “This is how we fight. You,

too, must work for victory”2. 1930’s. “We build body and soul”3. 1940. “Into dust with all enemies of Greater Germany”4. 1940. Anti Semitic film “Eternal Jew”5. 1944. “The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of law6. 1940."There he is again! He's always hungry, his sack is always empty. Greedily he skulks around the oven, the stove or the dripping faucet. He sneaks around the window, the door or the light switch, stealing what he can. He steals from armaments production, which needs every little bit he steals from city and countryside. Catch him! Read more about it in the newspapers."7. 1930’s. “Germans buy German goods”

QUESTIONS:

1) Define propaganda.

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2) Complete a source analysis on three of the different examples of propaganda from page 34.

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3) What sort of information do you think was censored and why? Explain.

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4) Research and detail one book that was destroyed in 1933. Why do you think that particular book was destroyed?

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5) What was the purpose of the mass rally?

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6) Study source 18. Imagine that you attended mass rally. Write a letter to a friend describing the atmosphere and

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SOURCE 18:1936. A mass rally in one of the four giant arenas at Nuremburg

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PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS

POGROM

In November 1938 a Jewish student went into the German embassy in Paris and shot dead the first official he saw.

He wanted to take revenge for the way his family had been treated by Germany. The Nazis used this killing as an

excuse to launch a progrom against the Jews. A progrom is an organised assault on an entire community. The Nazis

called theirs ‘Kristallnacht’ (Crystal Night) because so much glass was broken.

SOURCE 19:

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Shattered store-front of a Jewish-owned shop destroyed during Kristallnacht. Berlin, Germany

SOURCE 20:Description of Kristallnacht from the Virtual Jewish Library.

“In the first half of 1938, numerous laws were passed restricting Jewish economic activity and occupational opportunities. In July, 1938, a law was passed (effective January 1, 1939) requiring all Jews to carry identification cards. On October 28, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and relocated across the Polish border. The Polish government refused to admit them so they were interned in "relocation camps" on the Polish frontier. Among the deportees was Zindel Grynszpan, who had been born in western Poland and had moved to Hanover, where he established a small store, in 1911. On the night of October 27, Zindel Grynszpan and his family were forced out of their home by German police. His store and the family's possessions were confiscated and they were forced to move over the Polish border.

Zindel Grynszpan's seventeen-year-old son, Herschel, was living with an uncle in Paris. When he received news of his family's expulsion, he went to the German embassy in Paris on November 7, intending to assassinate the German Ambassador to France. Upon discovering that the Ambassador was not in the embassy, he settled for a lesser official, Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath. Rath, was critically wounded and died two days later, on November 9.

The assassination provided Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Chief of Propaganda, with the excuse he needed to launch a pogrom against German Jews. Grynszpan's attack was interpreted by Goebbels as a conspiratorial attack by "International Jewry" against the Reich and, symbolically, against the Fuehrer himself. This pogrom has come to be called Kristallnacht, "the Night of Broken Glass."

On the nights of November 9 and 10, rampaging mobs throughout Germany and the newly acquired territories of Austria and Sudetenland freely attacked Jews in the street, in their homes and at their places of work and worship. At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000 synagogues were

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burned (and possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps”

QUESTIONS:

1) Can you suggest reasons why many German Jews despite persecution, were reluctant to leave Germany in the

1930’s?

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2) Read the sources on the events of ‘Crystal Night’. What conclusions can be reached on the basis of these

sources about the attitudes of ordinary Germans to the events of ‘Crystal Night’.

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LEADERS OF THE THIRD REICH

MARTIN BORMANN Born 1900 Joined Nazi party 1927

JOSEF GOEBBELS Born 1897 Joined Nazi party1926

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RUDOLF HESS Born 1894 Joined Nazi party 1920

HEINRICH HIMMLER Born 1900 Joined Nazi party 1923

HERMANN GOERING Born 1893 Joined Nazi Party 1922

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JULIUS STREICHER Born 1895 Joined Nazi party 1929

WILHELM KEITEL Born 1882

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ALBERT SPEER Born 1905 Joined Nazi Party 1931

QUESTION:1) You are to research all of the above members of the Third Reich.

You must research their involvement in WWII.

THE CREATION OF THE GHETTOS

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At a top-secret meeting in Berlin on the 21st September 1939, SS General Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Reich

Security Main Office - responsible for repression - told the commanders of several SS operational groups in Poland

that his ‘ultimate aim’ for Polish Jews must be kept ‘strictly secret’. Meanwhile, he wanted larger area of Western

Poland to be ‘cleared completely of Jews’, and elsewhere Jews to be confined to special area of cities and towns.

For this, any Jews living outside the designated area would be forced to move into the confined area, which was to be

called a ‘ghetto’. Ghettos had existed, as Jewish quarters of towns, hundreds of years earlier. Unlike the medieval

predecessors, the new ghettos were to be surrounded by barbed wire, brick walls and armed guards. The ghettos

were to be located - Heydrich explained - in cities on railway junctions or along a railway, ‘ so that future measures

may be accomplished more easily’.

The first ghetto was set up in Piotrkow on 28 October 1939. Jews living throughout the town were forced to leave

their home and move into ghetto area. It was desperately overcrowded. The Germans kept food and medical

supplies to a minimum. Other ghettos were set up throughout the region the two largest were Warsaw and Lodz.

From fifteen towns and several hundred villages in Western Poland, the Germans expelled 40,000 Jews into Warsaw

in the course of a few weeks. A further 38,000 were expelled from towns and villages in Poland into the Lodz and

other ghettos. Their livestock and farm implements were confiscated. It was – thus far - the largest forcible uprooting

of the Nazi era. Those expelled from their homes lost their livelihoods, and almost all their possessions, overnight.

Jewish farmers, of whom there were many, were forced to leave their farms and move to the designated towns.

SOURCE 21:

1942. Deportation to Lodz

Tens of thousands of Jews were also expelled from Germany into Poland, where they were left without resources to

fend for themselves. These expulsions began on the 17th October 1939 from Vienna, Prague and the Baltic port of

Stettin. The deportees were sent in locked passenger trains and S.S. armed guards. Their homes and properties

were taken by Germans. Many children froze to death on the journey. Adolf Eichmann, recently promoted to be

head of the Gestapo’s Department of Jewish Affairs, met the deportees on arrival and told them:

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“There are no apartments and no houses - if you build your homes you will have roof over your head. There is no water. The wells are full of epidemics. There’s cholera, dysentery, typhus. If you dig for water, you will have water.”

German soldiers opened the luggage of the arrivals and took whatever they wanted. Many other Lublinland

deportees died of starvation soon after their arrival. Inside the Warsaw ghetto, deaths from starvation were to reach

2000 a month, by the end of 1941 a thousand a month in the Lodz ghetto. Six months later, these high death rates

were doubled.

Education and Culture in the GhettosWith the creation of ghettos, Jewish communities of tens of thousands of people were cut off from contact with the

outside world. With a steady increase in hunger, the preservation of morale found many forms - one of these was

education. In every ghetto, efforts are made, in the greatest secrecy and amid continual danger, to continue with the

schooling of youngsters.

To maintain the morale of the adults and enormous effort was put into providing concerts and theatrical

performances. In the Lodz ghetto, into which thousands of German Jews were deported, internationally acclaimed

conductors and pianists performed amid the privations and hardships. In the Warsaw ghetto, Janusz Korczak, and

educator of distinction ensured that in the orphanage of which he was the director, classes continued as normal as

possible, teaching the young children as if the outside world as normal free and sane.

SOURCE 22:

Early 1940’s. A child lying on the street dying of malnutrition in a ghetto

Hunger and Death in the Ghettos

Despite all their efforts the Jews could not win the fight against the deliberate German policy of bringing them to death

by starvation. In Warsaw before the Germans embarked on the policy of deportation to death camps in the mid

1940’s - almost 30,000 Jews had died of starvation between July and December 1941 and a further 20,000 between

January and June 1942.

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The second-largest Jewish community in Poland was in the city of Lodz. There the deaths from starvation tallied

more than 12,000 in the twelve months before the deportations began in January 1942. Jews from more than fifty

towns and villages around Lodz had been forced out of their homes and taken to the Lodz ghetto. Jews from

Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were also deported to Lodz, where space had been found for them in the

already overcrowded and hungry ghetto.

The German ration scales ensured starvation in the ghettos. In the occupied towns, Poles were allowed less than

half the daily calorie intake of Germans. In the ghettos that were part of those saying towns, Jews were allowed less

than half calories allocated to Poles. The most that Jews were ever allocated was 1800 calories a day. A working

person needs at least 2000 calories a day. By the end of 1941 the average intake allowed in the Lodz ghetto had

fallen to between 700 and 900 calories - in some ghettos it was even lower.

SOURCE 23:

.Jewish man removes the body of a child from the ghetto.

QUESTIONS:

1) What was the reasoning for the creation of ghettos?

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2) Imagine that you have been forced to live in a ghetto. Write a diary entry explaining how you feel and what your

experiences have been so far.

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GENOCIDE

The last and final phase of the Nazi war against the Jews was the most horrific. In 1941 Hitler embarked on a policy

to genocide. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of the whole nation or community. The Nazis

called their policy of genocide the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish question - today it is often referred to as the

‘Holocaust’. The mass murders in Eastern Europe did not begin until 1941, although Jews were persecuted from the

moment Hitler came into power in 1933. When Germany conquered Poland in 1939, however, she found that she

now controlled the Jewish population of almost 3 million. These Jews were confined to large enclosed areas within

Poland's major cities known as ghettos. This made it easier to control them and the Germans are not happy that

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many died of hunger, cold and disease over the next two years while in these camps. Yet the solution in Poland was

only a temporary one.

SOURCE 24:October 1942 Hermann Graebe by chance witnessed a mass murder execution of Jews in Dubno USSR– which he

later documented in 1947.

“I walked around the mound and found myself facing a tremendous grave. People were wedged closely together and lying on top of each of other. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. The pit was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it held a thousand people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an SS man who sat at the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into it. He had a machine-gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette”

SOURCE 25:

A mass execution of Jews in Nazi occupied Ukraine.

SOURCE 26:

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A mass execution of Jews in Nazi occupied Soviet Union. The SS man is firing at a Jewish woman who is wounded and trying to get up.

SOURCE 27:

A pile

of the

victim’s shoes at Maidanek.

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1) What kind of people could bring themselves to do the sort of thing that Hermann Graebe describes: to kill

thousands, then millions of ordinary people?

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THE FINAL SOLUTION

In January 1942 when most of Europe and much of Russia were controlled by the Nazis, fifteen leading Nazis met for

a secret conference in Wannese, Berlin. They discussed the ‘ final solution of the Jewish problem’. The following is a 49

statement made by Rudolph Hoss, commander of several concentration camps. It was made during his trial for war

crimes in 1946 and he describes the decision made.

SOURCE 28:

The ‘ final solution’ of the Jewish question meant the complete extermination of all Jews in Europe. I was ordered to establish extermination facilities Auschwitz in June 1941. At that time there were already in…. Poland three other extermination camps; Belzec, Treblinka and Wolzek…

I visited Treblinka to find out how they carried out their extermination. The came commandant at Treblinka told me he had liquidated 80,000 in the course of half a year… he used monoxide gas and I did not think his methods were very efficient. So when I set up to the extermination building at Auschwitz, I used the Zyclon B, which was a crystallised Purssic acid which we dropped into the death chamber from a small opening. It took from three to fifteen minutes to kill all the people in the death chamber, depending on climatic conditions.

We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about half an hour before we open the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses.Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chambers to accommodate 2000 people at one time, whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each.

SOURCE 29:Hess on himself.

Let the public continue to regard me as the bloodthirsty beast, the cruel sadness and the mass murderer; for the masses could never imagine the commandant of Auschwitz in any other light. They could never understand that he, too, had a heart and that he was not evil.

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1) Why can Hess be considered evil?

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2) Suggest why he thought he wasn’t evil despite all the things he did at Auschwitz.

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The Einsatzgruppen

On 22nd June 1941 German troops invaded the Soviet Union. This helped to bring about what the Nazis sought – a

‘final solution to the Jewish problem’. The Germans would control an even greater number of Jews if they were able

to defeat Russia and this made the need for a permanent solution even more essential. Moreover the vast spaces of

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Russia meant that there was less chance for news of what was going on to escape to the outside world. It also made

earlier plans, such as deporting all Jews to the African islands of Madagascar unnecessary. This was greeted with

relief by Nazi leaders, who had begun to see the Madagascar plan as impractical in wartime. Accordingly when the

German armies across the border into Russia, they were accompanied by four even more sinister groups – the

Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups). One of their leaders describes their purpose:

SOURCE 30:

In June 1941 I was appointed by (SS leader) Himmler to lead one of the Special Action Groups which were then being formed to accompany the German armies in the Russian campaign. Himmler stated that an important part of our task consisted in the extermination of Jews -women, men and children – and of Communist leaders. When the German army did invaded Russia, I was leader of Action Group D in the southern sector. It liquidated approximately 90,000 men, women and children in carrying out this extermination program. The group would enter a selected village or city and order the most important Jewish citizens to call together all the Jews so that they could be resettled. They were told to surrender all their valuables and shortly before the execution to strip off the clothing. The people were led to a place of execution which in most cases was located next to an anti tank ditch. Then they were shot.

The two people most responsible for the mass murders were Heinrich Himmler, head of the S.S andReinhard

Heydrich, head of the S.D. (the SS intelligence service). Neither of them carried out any killings themselves.

SOURCE 31:Himmler speaking at Heydrich’s funeral, June 1942

From any discussions I had with Heydrich, I know would cost this man to be outwardly so hard and severe, despite the sufferings and struggles of his heart

SOURCE 32:SS General Karl Wolff describing a visit to Russia by Himmler

Himmler had never seen dead people before and he stood right at the edge of this mass grave. While he was looking in, he had the bad luck to in get a splash of brains on his coat, and he went very green and pale; he wasn’t actually sick but he was heaving and turned round and swayed and then I had to jump forward and hold him steady.

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Rita Yosselevska a survivor of a later mass execution tells of how she was wounded but not killed. She managed to

did her way out of the mass grave of 500 other Jews in Zagrodski, USSR. Her account describing the event in

August 1942 was recorded on May 1961.

We turned towards the grave and then (and SS man) asked, ‘ whom shall I shoot first?’ I did not answer. I felt him take my child from my arms. The child cried out and was shot immediately. And then he aimed at me. First he held on to my hair and turned my head around: I stayed standing. I heard a shot, but I continued to stand. Then he turned my head again and aimed his revolver at me and ordered me to watch. Then he shot at me. I fell to the ground into the pit amongst the bodies; but I felt nothing.

SOURCE 34:An SS man describes a similar scene

We go into the woods and look for a spot suitable for mass execution. We order the prisoners to dig their graves. Only two of them are crying, the rest assured courage. What can they all be thinking? I believe each still has the hope of not being shot. I don't feel the slightest stir a pity. This is how it is, and has got to be.

QUESTIONS:

1) Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in May 1942 by a group of Czech commandos armed and trained by the

British. Some have argued that this should not have been done as two wrongs do not make a right. What is your

view?

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2) Do sources 31 and 32 prove that Heydrich and Himmler were basically ordinary, decent people? Explain.

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3) Do you think the fact that Rita Yosselevska was testifying in a trial 20 years after the events that she describes,

makes the source unreliable as historical evidence? Explain.

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4) Why you think that the SS used expressions like ‘Special Action’ to describe the mass execution is as the Jews?

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CONCENTRATION CAMPSA concentration camp is a detention site outside the normal prison system created for military or political purposes to

confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians. During World War II concentration camps were established

throughout Europe by the Nazis. Of the millions of people of many nationalities detained in them, a large proportion

died of mistreatment, malnutrition, and disease. The Nazi camp inmates were exploited for slave labour and medical

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experimentation, but the Nazis also established extermination camps. Concentration camps were run by a branch of

the SS known as Death Head Units. They wore skull and crossbow badges on the uniforms.

SOURCE 35:Herr X describes how prisoners were treated in the camps.

Herr X, a well-to-do Jewish businessman, was for six weeks in the concentration camp at Buchenwald… Herr X said that the working hours were 16 per day, Sundays and weekdays alike. During these hours it was forbidden to drink, even in the hottest weather. The food in itself was not bad, but quite insufficient. Weak coffee at dawn and a half litre of soup at midday; bread allowance for the whole day 250 grams… while he was there the work of the Jewish prisoners was doubled, and their rations halved. The work, of course, consists of moving heavy stones, often far beyond the strength of the normal well-fed man. The men were keep standing to attention for many hours on end. Floggings were very frequent, for such small offences as drinking water during working hours. The usual punishment was 25 strokes given alternately by two guards. This often produced unconsciousness, but the Jews were told that the Fuehrer had himself given orders that the Jews might receive up to 60 strokes. Herr X was in a group of 480 men who had only one tap at which to wash and drink for a quarter of an hour on getting up. Later even this was stopped. During the six weeks he was in camp, Herr X saw neither soap nor toothbrush. Deaths took place daily in the camp - their relatives were often first informed of this by a call from an official who said they could have the ashes on payment of three marks.

SOURCE 36:

1945. Prisoners in their bunks at Dachu

Concentration camp.

QUESTIONS:

1) What do you think was the purpose of concentration camps? Why do you think prisoners were treated so badly?

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2) A number of the survivors of the war wrote about their experiences. Find an account of some aspect of life in the

concentration camp. Use this information to write a week of diary accounts in a concentration camp, a poem or a

series of letters to a friend or relative.

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EXTERMINATION CAMPS

On the 20th of January a conference took place in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. All those who attended had senior

positions in the Nazi party, most were SS men. They included the Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller and Reinhard

Heydrich; another participant was the hitherto unimportant Adolf Eichmann. The conference discussed more efficient

ways of carrying out mass extermination. None of those involved made a protest against the killing of millions of

innocent people.

Within a few weeks of the conference the first number of camps had been set up. These were not concentration

camps that had been set up in Germany since 1933 for political and social criminals. These were extermination

camps. The vast majority of Jews who was sent to them from all over Europe died within hours or even minutes of

their arrival. It became Eichmann’s job to organised the deportation of Europe's Jews from the countries of origin and

transport to the extermination camps.

Between 1942 and 1945 some four and a half million died in the extermination camps. Yet the Jews were already

being killed in the concentration camps set up before the war. Between September 1939 and May 1945 almost 6

million Jews were murdered. However these statistics cannot be totally accurate, for example, thousands of infants

and babies were murdered by the Nazi killing squads before their births could be recorded.

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The following sources shows how those who ran the camps felt about what they did, how the processes killing was

undertaken and what its victims experienced.

SOURCE 37:Franz Stangl, the commndant of Treblinka, converses with a journalist in 1971, while serving a life sentence in prison:

Q: Would it be true to say that you finally felt the Jews weren’t human beings?A: They were cargo.Q: When did you begin to think of them as cargo?A: I think it started the day I saw the death camp in Treblinka. I remember Wirth (a senior S. S. official) standing there, next to the pits full of blue black corpses. It had nothing to do with humanity - it couldn't have; a mass of rotting flash. Wirth said, “what shall we do with this garbage?” I think that started me thinking of them as cargo.Q: There were so many children - did they ever make you think of YOUR children, of how you would feel in the position of those parents?A: No, I can't say I never thought that way. I rarely saw them as individuals. I sometimes saw them in the tube (the path leading to the gas chambers) but - they were naked, being driven by whips…

SOURCE 38:Richard Glazar, a Czech Jew, describes his arrival at Treblinka extermination camp.

I saw men with blue armbands on the platform. One of them carried a leather whip - not like any whip I'd ever seen, but like something for big animals. These men spoke a very strange German. There were loud announcements, but nobody did anything to us. I followed the crowd: ‘ men to the right, women and children to the left’, we were told. The women and children disappeared into a barrack further to the left and we were told to undress. One of the SS men told us in a chatty sort of way that we were going to a disinfection bath and that afterwards we would be given work. Clothes, he said, could be left in a heap, on the floor, and we'd find them again later.

SOURCE 39:Fillip Mueller, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, talking to Claude Lanzmann, director of the documentary Shoah,

1985.

It was pointless to tell the truth to anyone who crossed the threshold of the gas chamber. You couldn't save anyone there. One day, a prisoner on the ‘ special detail’ (prisoners who were forced to work in the gas

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chamber) saw a woman who was the wife of a friend of his. He came right out and told her: ‘ you're going to be exterminated. In three hours you'll be ashes.’ She believed him because she knew him. She ran all over and warned the others: ‘ we’re going to be killed. We’re going to be gassed.’ Mothers carrying their children did want to hear that. They decided the woman was crazy. So she went to the men. It made no difference. They did believe her –they’d heard rumours. But who wanted to hear that? So everyone was gas. The woman was tortured horribly until she pointed out the man who'd told her. They threw him in alive into the ovens. We were told: ‘whoever tells anything will end like that’

SOURCE 40:Very early in the Nazi regime the SS were experimenting with methods of extermination. A witness at the Nuremburg

War Criminals’ trial testified in 1946:

Early in 1935 the SS began eliminating ‘ enemies of the Reich’ by various methods. Usually a simple shot in the back of the head at a police cell was the method. The SS had no means of mass execution as in the later concentration camp gas chambers. In 1936 a primitive gas chamber was devised. A ‘ target’ would be arrested and placed in a police van. The exhaust had a hose transferred to the inside of the van. After driving for an hour around the streets the SS van would report to headquarters. Later a death certificate would describe ‘ heart failure’ or ‘ acute thrombosis’ as cause of death. This method was discontinued because of the problem of too many witnesses at local headquarters. Eventually all executions were carried out at a distance location, usually out-of-town or in a neighbouring town.

SOURCE 41:Himmler built up a fanatical group of SA executioners who supervises the elimination of millions of people in the most

horrific manner. This is what he said to them in a lecturer to SS leaders in 1944:

Whatever our task we must be loyal to one another. We are the elite, we have the task of purifying our nation. There is no room for sentiment; we are dealing with national survival. If you work 100 prisoners to death building and anti-tank ditch why should you be worried about their deaths. The alternative is the possible death of 20 of our Waffen SS and their lives are worth more than 1000 prisoners. Whatever your task, no matter how loathsome, keep your heart pure and single-minded for the fatherland. For ours is a notable task and you have the privilege of carrying the responsibility.

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SOURCE 42:These children survived Auschwitz; this is how they looked when they were freed. If liberation had not come they

would probably have been killed, used for experiments or have starved to death.

SOURCE 43:

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Young children who were to starve to death.

SOURCE 44:

“None of the captives…realised what was in store for them. In fact some of them were given pretty picture postcards… to be signed and sent back home to their relatives with a printed inscription saying: “we are doing very well here. We have work and we are well treated. We await your arrival.” The gas chambers themselves and the adjoining crematoria, viewed from a short distance, were not sinister looking places at all … over them were well-kept lawns in flower borders; the signs at the entrance merely said baths. The unsuspecting Jews thought they were simply being taken to the baths for the de-lousing that was customary at all camps. And take to the accompaniment of sweet music!For there was light music. An orchestra of “young and pretty girls all dressed in white blouses and navy blue skirts”, as one survivor remembered, had been formed from among the inmates…To such music… the men, women and children were led to the ‘ bath houses’ where they were told to undress to take a ‘shower’. Sometimes they were even given towels. Once they were inside the ‘ shower room’ and perhaps this was the first moment they realise something was amiss, for as many as 2000 were packed into the chamber like sardines, making it difficult to take the bath – the massive door was slid shut, locked and sealed.”

SOURCE 45:

SOURCE 46:

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SOURCE 47:

SOURCE 48:

QUESTIONS:

1) Read source 37 carefully. Write out ten additional questions that you would have wish to ask Franz Stangl if you

had been interviewing him.

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3) Some people say that the Final Solution never happened and that all the evidence for it has been faked or in

some way unreliable. Which of the sources within your booklet do you regard as the best evidence for the

extermination camps? Give reasons for your answer.

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4) How was all this possible? Why didn’t anybody rebel against this happening? Why didn’t the Germans

themselves do anything? Give reasons for your answers.

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HITLER’S LEGACY

Human Rights and Human Duty

In 1946 the Nazi leaders who had survived were tried by an international Court at Nuremberg. The head of the

Luftwaffe, Herman Goering, the Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and ten other leaders were sentenced to death. The

court found the German government guilty of war crimes ‘ on a vast scale, never before seen in the history of war,

attended by every conceivable circumstance of cruelty and horror’. In all 12 million non-combatant, including 6 million

Jews, had been exterminated, but this figure did not include the 55 million soldiers and civilians of all nations killed in

fighting and bombings.

These trials were a new development in international law. No court had ever have to deal with killings on such an

unheard-of scale. There was nothing relating to them in international law. Soldiers often argued that they were

obliged to obey orders even though they themselves found that they went against what they felt was right. This court

denied: though discipline is necessary, there are limits beyond which no soldier has a right to go. There was a

problem however: was it right for British and American airmen to obey orders, which resulted in the burning down of

the city of Dresden at such speed that thousands of citizens were incinerated? Was it right to drop atom bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki? These problems have still not fully resolved the matter of conscience.

Even though Hitler was defeated, in the history of the world since his time there has been unparalleled in increase in

dictatorships which rely on torture, mass killings and suppression of freedom of speech. Yet there has also been an

increase in the number and strength of parliamentary democracies. While democracy is still the most preferred form

of government, the history of Germany proves that democracy can be destroyed in only a few years.

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Casualty of World War II

ALLIED SOLDIERS KILLED AXIS SOLDIERS KILLEDAustralia 23,400 Bulgaria 9,000

Brazil 493 Germany (incl. Austrians) 3,500,000

Canada 37,500 Hungary 200,000

China 2,050,000 Italy 60,000

Czechoslovakia 46,000 Japan 1,300,000

France 210,000 Romania 290,000

Greece 88,3000 Vichy France 1,200

Luxembourg 4,000

Netherlands 7,900

New Zealand 10,000

Poland 123,000

South Africa 6,840

Soviet Union 264,000

United Kingdom 264,000

United States 292,000

Yugoslavia 300,000

APPROXIMATE ALLIED SOLDIERS KILLED

12.1 MILLION

APPROXIMATE AXIS SOLDIERS KILLED

5.4 MILLION

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Estimated population and deaths due to the atomic bomb

Estimated population exposed to the

Atomic Bombing

Estimated Death

Hiroshima City 340,000 – 350,000 140,000

Nagasaki City 270,000 70,000

CIVILIANS KILLED SOLDIERS KILLED IN ATTACKED COUNTRIES

Albania 10,000 Albania 20,000

Austria 125,000 Belgium 12,000

Belgium 76,000 Bulgaria 1,000

Bulgaria 10,000 Denmark 1,800

China 7,750,000 Finland 82,000

Czechoslovakia 294,000 Ethiopia 5,000

Denmark 2,000 India 24,300

Ethiopia 5,000 Italy 17,500

Finland 2,000 Mongolia 3,000

France 350,000 Philippines 27,000

Germany 2,760,000 Romania 5,000

Greece 325,000

Hungary 290,000

India 25,000

Italy 153,000

Japan 672,000

Netherlands 200,000 (Incl. 105,000 71

Dutch Jews)

Norway 7,000

Philippines 91,000

Poland 5,680,000 (incl. Poles of Jewish origin)

Romania 200,000

Soviet Union 16,900,000

United Kingdom 92,000

United States 6,000

Yugoslavia 1,200,000

APPROXIMATE CIVILIANS KILLED

37.2 MILLION APPROXIMATE SOLDIERS KILLED - ATTACKED COUNTIRES

200,000

After all this has the world really changed?

Australia

July 18, 2004 -- Perth -- The largest synagogue in the west coast city Perth was defaced with anti-Semitic signs and graffiti, including "6 million more please with fries." Police made two arrests related to this incident. A member of a neo-Nazi group has been charged with racial vilification and criminal damage and a second suspect is facing one count of criminal damage. Both are due to appear in court.

GLOSSARYDEFINITION

AKTION Operation involving the mass assembly, deportation, and murder of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust

ALLIES The nations fighting Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II; primarily the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.

ARYAN RACE "Aryan" was originally applied to people who spoke any Indo-European language. The Nazis, however, primarily applied the term to people of Northern European racial background. Their aim was to avoid what they considered the "bastardization of the German race" and to preserve the purity of European blood.

AUSCHWITZ Concentration and extermination camp in upper Silesia, Poland, 37 miles west of Krakow. Established in 1940 as a concentration camp, it became an extermination camp

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in early 1942. Eventually, it consisted of three sections: Auschwitz I, the main camp; Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp; Auschwitz III (Monowitz), the I.G. Farben labor camp, also known as Buna. In addition, Auschwitz had numerous sub-camps.

AXIS The Axis powers originally included Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan who signed a pact in Berlin on September 27, 1940. They were later joined by Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia.

BELZEC One of the six extermination camps in Poland. Originally established in 1940 as a camp for Jewish forced labor, the Germans began construction of an extermination camp at Belzec on November 1, 1941, as part of Aktion Reinhard. By the time the camp ceased operations in January 1943, more than 600,000 persons had been murdered there.

COMMUNIST A supporter of Communism – a belief system that opposes the free market and aims to create a classless society.

CONCENTRATION CAMPS Immediately upon their assumption of power on January 30, 1933, the Nazis established concentration camps for the imprisonment of all "enemies" of their regime: actual and potential political opponents (e.g. communists, socialists, monarchists), Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, and other "asocials." Beginning in 1938, Jews were targeted for internment solely because they were Jews. Before then, only Jews who fit one of the earlier categories were interned in camps. The first three concentration camps established were Dachau (near Munich), Buchenwald (near Weimar) and Sachsenhausen (near Berlin).

EINSATZGRUPPEN Battalion-sized, mobile killing units of the Security Police and SS Security Service that followed the German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941. These units were supported by units of the uniformed German Order Police and auxiliaries of volunteers (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian). Their victims, primarily Jews, were executed by shooting and were buried in mass graves from which they were later exhumed and burned. At least a million Jews were killed in this manner. There were four Einsatzgruppen (A,B,C,D) which were subdivided into company-sized Einsatzkommandos.

EXTERMINATION CAMPS Nazi camps for the mass killing of Jews and others (e.g. Gypsies, Russian prisoners-of-war, ill prisoners). Known as "death camps," these included: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. All were located in occupied Poland.

FASCIST A supporter of fascism – a belief system opposed to democracy and in favour of a powerful, armed state.

FINAL SOLUTION The cover name for the plan to destroy the Jews of Europe - the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Beginning in December 1941, Jews were rounded up and sent to extermination camps in the East. The program was deceptively disguised as "resettlement in the East."

FURHRER German for leader, the title Hitler assumedGESTAPO Secret state police (Geheimnis Staats Polizei)of the Third Reich who utilized brutal

torture to find enemies of the state, inspiring fear in the people.GENOCIDE Deliberate and systematic destruction of a religious, racial, national, or cultural group.GHETTO The Nazis revived the medieval ghetto in creating their compulsory "Jewish Quarter"

(Wohnbezirk). The ghetto was a section of a city where all Jews from the surrounding areas were forced to reside. Surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were often sealed so that people were prevented from leaving or entering. Established mostly in Eastern Europe (e.g. Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, Minsk), the ghettos were characterized by overcrowding, starvation and forced labor. All were eventually destroyed as the Jews were deported to death camps.

GREATER GERMAN REICH Designation of an expanded Germany that was intended to include all German speaking peoples. It was one of Hitler's most important aims. After the conquest of most of Western Europe during World War II, it became a reality for a short time.

GYPSIES A nomadic people, believed to have come originally from northwest India, from where they immigrated to Persia by the fourteenth century. Gypsies first appeared in Western Europe in the 15th century. By the 16th century, they had spread throughout Europe, where they were persecuted almost as relentlessly as the Jews. The gypsies occupied a special place in Nazi racist theories. It is believed that approximately 500,000 perished during the Holocaust.

HOLOCAUST The destruction of some 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their followers in Europe between the years 1933-1945. Other individuals and groups were persecuted and suffered grievously during this period, but only the Jews were marked for complete and utter annihilation. The term "Holocaust" - literally meaning "a completely burned

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sacrifice" - tends to suggest a sacrificial connotation to what occurred. The word Shoah, originally a Biblical term meaning widespread disaster, is the modern Hebrew equivalent.

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES A religious sect, originating in the United States, organized by Charles Taze Russell. The Witnesses base their beliefs on the Bible and have no official ministers. Recognizing only the kingdom of God, the Witnesses refuse to salute the flag, to bear arms in war, and to participate in the affairs of government. This doctrine brought them into conflict with National Socialism. They were considered enemies of the state and were relentlessly persecuted.

KRISTALLNACHT Night of the Broken Glass: pogrom unleashed by the Nazis on November 9-10, 1938. Throughout Germany and Austria, synagogues and other Jewish institutions were burned, Jewish stores were destroyed, and their contents looted. At the same time, approximately 35,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps. The "excuse" for this action was the assassination of Ernst vom Rath in Paris by a Jewish teenager whose parents had been rounded up by the Nazis.

LODZ City in western Poland (renamed Litzmannstadt by the Nazis), where the first major ghetto was created in April 1940. By September 1941, the population of the ghetto was 144,000 in an area of 1.6 square miles (statistically, 5.8 people per room). In October 1941, 20,000 Jews from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were sent to the Lodz Ghetto. Those deported from Lodz during 1942 and June-July 1944 were sent to the Chelmno extermination camp. In August-September 1944, the ghetto was liquidated and the remaining 60,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz.

MEIN KAMPF This autobiographical book (My Struggle) by Hitler was written while he was imprisoned in the Landsberg fortress after the "Beer-Hall Putsch" in 1923. In this book, Hitler propounds his ideas, beliefs, and plans for the future of Germany. Everything, including his foreign policy, is permeated by his "racial ideology." The Germans, belonging to the "superior" Aryan race, have a right to "living space" (Lebensraum) in the East, which is inhabited by the "inferior" Slavs. Throughout, he accuses Jews of being the source of all evil, equating them with Bolshevism and, at the same time, with international capitalism. Unfortunately, those people who read the book (except for his admirers) did not take it seriously but considered it the ravings of a maniac.

NATIONALIST Someone who believes in Nationalism – a belief in the importance and dominance of their own nation state.

NUREMBERG LAWS Two anti-Jewish statutes enacted September 1935 during the Nazi party's national convention in Nuremberg. The first, the Reich Citizenship Law, deprived German Jews of their citizenship and all pertinent, related rights. The second, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, outlawed marriages of Jews and non-Jews, forbade Jews from employing German females of childbearing age, and prohibited Jews from displaying the German flag. Many additional regulations were attached to the two main statutes, which provided the basis for removing Jews from all spheres of German political, social, and economic life. The Nuremberg Laws carefully established definitions of Jewishness based on bloodlines. Thus, many Germans of mixed ancestry, called "Mischlinge," faced antisemitic discrimination if they had a Jewish grandparent.

PARTISANS Irregular troops engaged in guerrilla warfare, often behind enemy lines. During World War II, this term was applied to resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied countries.

PERNICIOUS BACILLUS The violent takeover of power, as that attempted by Hitler in the infamous Beer Hall Putsch.

PROGROM Organized violence against Jews, often with the support of the government.SA The storm troops of the early Nazi party; organized in 1921SS Abbreviation usually written with two lightning symbols for Schutzstaffel (Defense

Protective Units). Originally organized as Hitler's personal bodyguard, the SS was transformed into a giant organization by Heinrich Himmler. Although various SS units fought on the battlefield, the organization is best known for carrying out the destruction of European Jewry.

DER STÜRMER An antisemitic German weekly, founded and edited by Julius Streicher, which was published in Nuremberg between 1923 and 1945.

SOCIALISMA theory or system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of land, capital, industry, etc. by the community as a whole. In Marxist theory it represents the stage following capitalism in a state transforming to communism.

SYNAGOGUES Jewish house of worship, similar to a church.TREBLINKA Extermination camp in northeast Poland. Established in May 1942 along with the

Warsaw- Bialystok railway line, 870,000 people were murdered there. The camp

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operated until the fall of 1943 when the Nazis destroyed the entire camp in an attempt to conceal all traces of their crimes.

WARSAW GHETTO Established in November 1940, the ghetto, surrounded by a wall, confined nearly 500,000 Jews. Almost 45,000 Jews died there in 1941 alone, due to overcrowding, forced labor, lack of sanitation, starvation, and disease. From April 19 to May 16, 1943, a revolt took place in the ghetto when the Germans, commanded by General Jürgen Stroop, attempted to raze the ghetto and deport the remaining inhabitants to Treblinka. The uprising, led by Mordecai Anielewicz, was the first instance in occupied Europe of an uprising by an urban population.

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