Class Notes: Holocaust
Antisemitism:
prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish religion or heritage
Hitler’s Utopia:
GOAL
Master Race (Aryan Race)
with a
Jew-Free Europe (1930s onward)
4 Part Tragedy:
Gestapo (Secret Police)
•The Gestapo had the authority to investigate cases of treason, espionage, sabotage and criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany.
•The basic Gestapo law (1936) allowed them to operate without judicial review—in effect, putting it above the law.
•The Gestapo also maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps.
Stage One: Nazi’s have no coherent plan
•Boycott Jewish Business
•Propaganda Against Jews
•Nazis Assault Jews
Stage 2: Nazi Anti-Jewish “Nuremburg Laws” were not “working”
Nuremberg Laws (1935):
1.Marriage restrictions between Jews and non-Jews
2.Jews could not vote or have public office
3.Jews cannot display the national flag
Jews banned from professional jobs
Stage 3: Jewish Persecution Intensifies
•11/ 1938
Kristallnacht: “Night of Broken Glass”
•A Pogrom (a serious of coordinated attacks against) against Jews in Nazi Germany
•100 People Died
•Read the Book Night by Elie Wiesel
•Assassination of a German Diplomat
by a Jewish Man
•“Comrades we cannot let these attacks go unchallenged…together we must plan our answer to Jewish Murder.”
- Joseph Goebbels
•Main Target (Synagogues)---275 TOTAL
•Jewish Homes
•Jewish Businesses
Over 7,500
Judenvermögensabgabe (Economic Pressures on Jews to GET OUT!)
20,000 Jewish Men Arrested in 3 Large Concentration Camps
•Mass Murder was not yet on the agenda
•Germans released most the 20,000 men charged.
•Jewish response:
In the next 10 months, 115,000 Jews wish to emigrate out of Germany
Stage 4: (1939-1945) More Jews under Nazi Control
•Nazi Starts Taking lands more Jewish People: Poland, Low Countries, France, Belorussia
Poland is invaded
•Warsaw Ghetto and the Krakow Ghetto are est.
•Walled off part of the cities until the Nazi figure what to do with these Jews
•Schindler’s List will take place in the Krakow Ghetto
•Krakow Ghetto
•Western Jews are deported to Polish Ghetto
•Housed in poor conditions
–(Many Starve and Die of disease)
September 1941:
All Jews required to wear the Star of David
Einsatzgruppen (Killing Units)
Holocaust (1941?-1945)
•The mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II
•6 of the 9 million Jews in Europe were killed
•The Holocaust was 66% effective…sadly
Different Kinds of Concentration Camps
1.Labor Camps
2.POW Camps
3.Internment Camps
4.Transit Camps
Extermination or Death Camp
•Concentration Camp that was designed for the systematic killing of human beings
•Zyklon B Gas was used to kill Jewish prisoners
The War Refugee Board
•U.S. agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis victims
–Credited with rescuing as many as 200,000 Jews from Nazi occupied Germany
Nuremberg Trials
•Military tribunals (trials) held by the Allied powers after WW2 in order to prosecute war criminals in international criminal court (ICC).
•Ex: Military leader of Axis powers: Tojo, Goering
•Ex: Individuals involved in the Holocaust
Antisemitism:
prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish religion or heritage
Hitler’s Utopia:
GOAL
Master Race (Aryan Race)
with a
Jew-Free Europe (1930s onward)
4 Part Tragedy:
Gestapo (Secret Police)
•The Gestapo had the authority to investigate cases of treason, espionage, sabotage and criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany.
•The basic Gestapo law (1936) allowed them to operate without judicial review—in effect, putting it above the law.
•The Gestapo also maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps.
Stage One: Nazi’s have no coherent plan
•Boycott Jewish Business
•Propaganda Against Jews
•Nazis Assault Jews
Stage 2: Nazi Anti-Jewish “Nuremburg Laws” were not “working”
Nuremberg Laws (1935):
1.Marriage restrictions between Jews and non-Jews
2.Jews could not vote or have public office
3.Jews cannot display the national flag
Jews banned from professional jobs
Stage 3: Jewish Persecution Intensifies
•11/ 1938
Kristallnacht: “Night of Broken Glass”
•A Pogrom (a serious of coordinated attacks against) against Jews in Nazi Germany
•100 People Died
•Read the Book Night by Elie Wiesel
•Assassination of a German Diplomat
by a Jewish Man
•“Comrades we cannot let these attacks go unchallenged…together we must plan our answer to Jewish Murder.”
- Joseph Goebbels
•Main Target (Synagogues)---275 TOTAL
•Jewish Homes
•Jewish Businesses
Over 7,500
Judenvermögensabgabe (Economic Pressures on Jews to GET OUT!)
- Because the incident was started by a Jewish assassin in Paris against a German, Hitler enacted:
- A required seizing of 20% of all Jewish property by the state
- a collective fine of one billion marks for the murder the German Diplomat(equal to roughly $US 5.5 billion in today’s currency)
20,000 Jewish Men Arrested in 3 Large Concentration Camps
•Mass Murder was not yet on the agenda
•Germans released most the 20,000 men charged.
•Jewish response:
In the next 10 months, 115,000 Jews wish to emigrate out of Germany
Stage 4: (1939-1945) More Jews under Nazi Control
•Nazi Starts Taking lands more Jewish People: Poland, Low Countries, France, Belorussia
Poland is invaded
•Warsaw Ghetto and the Krakow Ghetto are est.
•Walled off part of the cities until the Nazi figure what to do with these Jews
•Schindler’s List will take place in the Krakow Ghetto
•Krakow Ghetto
•Western Jews are deported to Polish Ghetto
•Housed in poor conditions
–(Many Starve and Die of disease)
September 1941:
All Jews required to wear the Star of David
Einsatzgruppen (Killing Units)
- Set Up to Kill Eastern Jews (They follow behind the Blitz)
- Too Public
- Not efficient
Holocaust (1941?-1945)
•The mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II
•6 of the 9 million Jews in Europe were killed
•The Holocaust was 66% effective…sadly
Different Kinds of Concentration Camps
1.Labor Camps
2.POW Camps
3.Internment Camps
4.Transit Camps
Extermination or Death Camp
•Concentration Camp that was designed for the systematic killing of human beings
•Zyklon B Gas was used to kill Jewish prisoners
The War Refugee Board
•U.S. agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis victims
–Credited with rescuing as many as 200,000 Jews from Nazi occupied Germany
Nuremberg Trials
•Military tribunals (trials) held by the Allied powers after WW2 in order to prosecute war criminals in international criminal court (ICC).
•Ex: Military leader of Axis powers: Tojo, Goering
•Ex: Individuals involved in the Holocaust