Holocaust

• Much of the information in these notes came for the book The Holocaust by Nora Levin.  It is available an Amazon.com.  In fact I saw a used copy for $.23!  It's quite long but well worth the time!

HOLOCAUST

Beginnings

• From 1933 - 1939 Jews were encouraged to leave Germany - most were completely stripped of their possessions by the time they left
• Other countries would not allow them to enter
• Finally all emigration was banned from Germany on October 1,1941
• U.S. January 1933 to June 1938 only admitted 27,000 (in 6 years) - their allowed annual quota from Germany was 25,957 per year
• British offered 1/2 of their quota to the U.S. to be used by the Jews - U.S. replied it was not theirs to give away
• Palestine emigration - White Paper restricted emigration - British people were against the Colonial Office - it was responsible for keeping Jews out of Palestine

General Procedure of Germans against the Jews

This list was basically followed in this order in all countries where they had control or influence

• They tried to get the existing governments to pass the laws
• 1. Took their property - or forced them to sell it
• 2. Froze their bank accounts
• 3. Took away their jobs
• 4. Took away their citizenship
• 5. Put them in ghettos
• 6. Deported them to concentration camps
• The German did everything possible to keep the Jews off balance, never knowing what to expect nice one day, brutal the next - kept them totally unaware of what awaited them in the death camps
• Elaborate shams were perpetrated to keep their lies going - not only to the Jews but to the world
• Those outside got reports and refused to believe or publish them - ex. about the Warsaw ghetto

POLAND

• Greatest losses
• History of antisemitism
• Equity under the law opposed by almost all political parties and the Catholics
• Wouldn't allow Jews to fight to defend Poland
• The people wouldn't protect the Jews - often they were worse than the Germans - the few that escaped the ghettos and death camps were mostly killed by the Partisans - this is why the death camps were located in Poland
• Most Jews poor - 10% of the population
• Not assimilated

Invasion - September 1,1939

• From the first moment the Germans committed atrocities on the civilian population
• Germans planned to kill or enslave ALL Poles and Jews and repopulate with Germans
• ***Deportations (p. 180 - The Holocaust) - read to class
• ***Maiden (p. 600 - Eyewitness to History) - read to class - had bath houses about 5 yards square - looked like a row of nice little garages - there were 6 of them - held 200 to 250 people in each box - within 2 to 10 minutes everyone dead
• Total estimated civilians dead 5,384,000 of these 3,200,000 were Jews
• After the war Poland more anti-Semitic than ever
• They were welcomed by "Oh, you're alive."
• Any Jews that lived eventually went to Palestine
• All extermination camps in Poland

EINSTAZGRUPPEN

• Killer squads
• Set up to follow the army and kill all Jews and undesirables (Gypsies and mentally ill)
• Established just before the Russian invasion
• *** massacres - description - The Holocaust p. 235
• German army cooperated - handed over Jewish prisoners
• 4 groups - each 500 to 900 men - average citizens - even a priest
• *** court questions after the war - The Holocaust p. 242
• Killers drunk most of the time
• Estimated that by the end of 1942 more than a million Jews were killed by them

RUSSIA

• Invaded June 22,1941
• Hitler planned to kill or enslave the Russians and repopulate with Germans
• Losses heaviest next to the Poles
• Estimated 1,400,000 Jews died - About 1,000,000 eluded German advance -another 1,000,000 saved in general evacuations of the population on the eastern front by the Russians
• Tried to force refuges (from Europe) to accept citizenship - if they didn't they were expelled to Siberia
• Russians started deportations early in 1940 - Jews were treated brutally but no exterminations
• Stalin unprepared for the attack
• Purges in 1930's took some of the best army officers - 90% of the generals - 80% of the colonels
• No other nation in Europe had so much human loss
• Jews allowed to join the army
• Government withheld information of the mass killings
• Polish Army formed in Russia - Jews not allowed to join
• Germans killed over 4 million Russian prisoners of war - starvation, exposure, execution
• *** read from Eyewitness to History p. 569 - Jews in the Ukraine

SCANDINAVIA

• Jews lived in peace
• Numbers not large
• Most lived in the capitals

NORWAY

• Invaded April 9.1940
• Jews fled to Sweden
• Almost 2/3 escape

SWEDEN

• Offered refuge to all Jews

DENMARK

• Invaded April 9,1940
• Entire nation resisted the destruction of the Jews
• King Christian and his whole family threatened to wear a yellow star if the Jew had to.
• Helped in escapes - everyone all over
• Only 360 deported to Theresienstadt - treated better than the other prisoners - government at home kept up a steady barrage of inquires - sent regular deliveries of food packages
• After the war welcomed home - given money by the government - made welcome by the neighbors

FINLAND

• Protected Jews
• Wouldn't bow to Nazi demands
• 4 Jews seized and deported
• No more were surrendered

NETHERLANDS

• Were very well assimilated - no noticeable differences
• Had all the rights of citizens
• supported by the population but they couldn't stop the deportations - many wore yellow flowers in sympathy - non Jews shopped for Jewish neighbors
• Protestant and Catholic churches urged resistance
• Waves of strikes against the deportations were soon crushed
• Workers were arrested and deported to concentration camps
• Cities were fined
• German control was absolute
• At least 105,000 died
• Less than 20,000 survived
• 20,000 Christians deported for opposition

BELGIUM

• almost 1/2 the Jewish population fled
• People helped the Jews every way possible
• Many wore stars in sympathy
• Hid Jews
• Police uncooperative with the Germans
• Church most active in Europe in rescues
• Railway workers left doors open
• Postal officials intercepted exposures of Jews and warned those threatened by informers
• Couldn't stop Germans
• 25,000 Jews delivered to Auschwitz

FRANCE

• Allowed the refugees to be deported but protected native born Jews
• Officials regarded them as Frenchmen first and Jews second - procrastinated
• 1939 - about 270,000 Jews in France
• 1940 - May - about 310,000 - 150,000 foreign born - more than 1/2 stateless
• France was forced to adopt strong anti-Jewish measures but the French were slow to Aryanize Jewish businesses - after 2 years only had done 21%
• There was opposition to the Vichy government by the Christian clergy - some gave their lives to rescue Jews
• Germans lacked police and had to use the French forces - who were not helpful
• Jews were active in the French resistance - they make up 15% to 20%
• Total of about 80,000 deported - only 6,000 were nationals

ITALIANS

• Abolition of the papal ghetto in Rome in 1870 - the Jews had been absorbed
• Mussolini had no intention of arousing antisemitism where none existed - felt it had no value as propaganda - he was finally forced by the Germans
• Enforcement of the laws was low and lax - Mussolini encouraged evasion
• Anti -Jewish laws harsh but the Jews were not totally deprived - not ghettoized
• Accepted Jewish refugees and tried to protect them
• September 3,1945 concluded the armistice
• Allies agreed not to make it public for 4 weeks so the Jews could be evacuated from southern France - the Allies announced it September 8 - doomed the Jews
• Losses between 8,500, and 9,500
• One of the least successful for the Nazis

GREATER REICH - (GERMANY)

• Quote from Martin Luther - The Jews were "like a plague, a pestilence, pure misfortune in our country."
• First transports in the fall of 1941 - description The Holocaust p. 470
• Theresienstadt - Czechoslovakia, about 35 miles from Prague - designed for old people, 65 and over, who were expected to die soon - originally advertised as a retirement home to live out your golden years - end of 1942 it held over 85,000 - 60,000 sent to the concentration camps -*** "model ghetto" - description in The Holocaust p. 481 - out of 15,000 children 100 survived - this and Auschwitz claimed 110,000 lives
• labor shortages - brought in Jews from Russia - 70,000
• Potential power of public protest very little used - no resistance to the movement
• Major churches passive - protected converts - very few spoke out
• Deportation of 1942 - 1,000,000 from the Reich - more than 200,000 from the Protectorate
• *** Read "Dachau Medical Experiments" from Eyewitness to History p. 555

YUGOSLAVIA

• First country in southeastern Europe to suffer
• Defied Hitler - threw him into a rage- decided to crush them - smashed them in a few days
• Delayed Russian offensive 5 weeks
• After conquest it ceased to exist as a nation
• Destroyed Jewish life - 80% killed - the worst massacres were in Serbia
• Ustashi - were Croat and Muslim fascists - hated Serbs and Jews - murdered and tortured them worse than the Germans (* There are pictures of this on the internet if you look under Ustashi.)
• The Italians protected the Jews in their sector

GREECE

• Italians protected the Jews in their sector
• Death camps were virtually unknown
• There was some help from the population
• Estimated 60,000 deported to Auschwitz
• Only 1,475 survive

SLOVAKIA

• Local support of Nazis against the Jews
• Traditions anti-liberal, clerical, and strongly nationalistic
• Some Jews ransomed - most plans failed because they were blocked by the U.S. and Britain, or they were not believed
• Europa Plan - failed - plan to ransom all the Jews in Europe - lives sold for $2 a head - about $6,000,000 - U.S. would not release the money - said it would finance Hitler
• Deaths 1942 - 1944 - 68,000 to 71,000
• Survivors 20,000 to 25,000 - one of the most shattering destruction's of any of the Jewish communities in Europe

BULGARIA - Axis Power

• No Jews from old Bulgaria deported
• At no time was the country occupied
• The government and the public favorably disposed to the Jews
• Persecution began in 1941 - the purpose to impoverish the Jews - deliberate procrastinations - public opposed - Churches helped the Jews
• Deported the Jews from the annexed areas (11,353)
• August 26,1944 withdrew from the war on Germany's side
• Declared war on Germany September 5

ROMANIA - Axis Power

• No country has a worse record in its treatment of the Jews
• Most virulently antisemetic country in pre war Europe
• Jews not accepted as nationals
• Economic oppression
• Very little assimilation
• Lived apart
• Jews considered foreigners
• Country as a whole poor
• Not a conquered country - military ally of Germany
• Government followed extremely uneven course against the Jews - at times great violence and speed - other times balked or suddenly stopped the killing process
• The people murdered the Jews - Romanian Army helped in the killings - most heavily persecuted were the immigrants and annexed provinces
• As a whole not eliminated from the economy
• The camps in Trensnistria (general geographic area) were the most appalling in Europe
• Bogdanovka - Romania's greatest death camp
• August 23,1944 - war ended with the Allies
• August 25 - declared war on Germany
• losses considered moderate - estimated the number killed was from 200,000 to 530,000

HUNGARY - Axis Power

• Had the least Jews to be attacked
• Suffered the most concentrated and methodical deportation and extermination of any in Europe
• Wiped out almost 4,000,000 Jews in 46 days
• Didn't have conviction or force of arms to oppose Germany
• Germany needed Hungary - railway vital to supply the troops in Russia
• Needed to hold open the Hungarian plain to protect Germany
• Army helped the Germans kill the Jews
• Churches tried to protect the converts - they didn't bother with the full Jews
• Police helped deport - very brutal
• Jews the middle class - others either poor or nobles
• Labor shortages forced them to forgo complete destruction of the Jews
• Deportations started on the outer perimeter and worked toward the center of the country
• Brand Mission - tried to ransom the Jews from Himmler - Joel Brand not believed - British jailed him and the Jews were killed as a consequence
• *** Death marches - description - The Holocaust p. 655
• October 1945 the Red Army invaded
• 550,000 died in 9 months
• Hungarians responsible themselves for an estimated 80,000 deaths
• *** Read from Eyewitness to History p. 620 - Belsen: 24 April 1945 - liberated camp

SUMMATION

• Clear that the Allies didn't include rescue of Jews as a wartime objective or security for survivors a postwar goal
• Slavs and Gypsies suffered great losses (about 10,000 in Germany)
• Germans also killed their own mentally retarded and mentally ill - usually with lethal injection - there were public protests to this and they stopped

EXPERIMENTS IN DEATH CAMPS

Many "scientific experiments" were performed on Jews between 1939 and 1945.  At least 70 different types took place.  Over 7,000 people were part of these forced experiments and about 200 Nazi doctors participated. Dr. Mangele is probably the most infamous of these doctors for his work with twins.  If you want to find out more about this I found a good web site: http://remember.org/educate/medexp.html.  Some of the information here is from that site.

• Skull collections
• Skeletal examinations
• Shrunken heads
• Large doses of radiation were used to sterilize prisoners
• Submerged in icy water to test the life span one could exist in below freezing temperatures - this was to help their pilots - (this is shown in the movie Nurmeburg with Spencer Tracy)
• Castration
• Injections of deadly disease - malaria is one
• Random amputation
• Attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into the eyes
• Collections of body fluids
• Blood transfusion
• Organ dissection
• Exposure to extremely high and low pressures - for pilots or submariners
• Removal of limbs and vital organs
• Crushed glass and sawdust rubbed into wounds
• Skin transplants
• Attempts to change skin color
• Placed under sun lamps for long periods of time - so hot it would burn their skin
• Internal irrigation - Tried to use hot water to revive a frozen victim
• Boiling alive

EXTERMINATION

• The Germans first tried shooting the Jews.  They found this unsatisfactory because they left evidence (bodies) and used up ammunition
• They also tried putting them in enclosed trucks and venting the exhaust into the truck.  They would then drive around until they were all dead.  They didn't like this either.  Again evidence (bodies) and they used precious gasoline.  Also the drivers didn't like it because the people cried and screamed and scratched on the sides of the truck.  It also wasn't very fast.  Taking anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
• Finally they decided to build extermination camps.  These were built in Poland because they knew the Poles would kill any that escaped. 
• They did not focus on killing prisoners in other concentration camps the way they did in Poland. 
• In Dachau which is out side of Munich they have ovens that they forced the priests to build.  They were used when necessary but not as the main focus of the camp.

CAMPS

• Once people were arrested they were transported to the concentration camps. Those slated for extermination went on to the camps in Poland.  Sometimes this trip would be short 2-3 days others it could be a week or more.  They were not given food or water and were packed so tightly they had to stand sometimes with children thrown in on top of them. 
• *** I heard a survivor speak.  She was 4 when she was sent to Auschwitz and she said on the train they drank each others urine to survive.
• Once at the camp they were taken out of the cars and herded in a line up to a desk where a doctor sat.  He would point left or right.  One side would go to the gas chambers and the others would go into the camp to be worked to death before they too were gassed.
• The people to be gassed were told they were going to get a shower to clean up after their train ride.  (The Germans tried to keep them as calm as possible because it was easier to control them.)  They were told to undress and hang their clothes on a hook, and to remember the number, so they could get their clothes later. ( Some people tried to hide small children in their clothing.  These were found and tossed into the gas chamber.)  They went unsuspecting into the gas chamber.  As they began looking around someone would notice the soap was made of stone and an out cry would begin.  The soldiers would toss in any children they found and bolt the door.
• The Germans had developed a gas called Zyklone B a cyanide-based insecticide.  This would be dropped through a door at the top of the chamber.  It would kill the people very quickly (less than 15 minutes).
• ***Zyklone is German for cyclone.
• The people would pile up in one corner.  They crawled over each other to get away from the gas.
• Once every one was dead prisoners would be sent in to untangle the bodies and check for hidden wealth.  Gold teeth would be pulled out and stomachs would be slit to see if diamonds or other jewels had been swallowed.  After this process the bodies would be taken to the ovens and burned.  The ashes would later be used by the Germans in things like fertilizer.
• *** The prisoners that had to handle these bodies were rotated every 3 or 4 months because they became so traumatized by the job.  They in their turn were sent to the gas chamber.
• The people who were sent into the camp had their heads shaved (The Germans said to prevent lice.) and were given uniforms.  They were sent out each day to work and given very little food.  Usually soup with a few vegetables and very little meat.  They usually got around 500 calories (the equivalent of one donut) and worked 12 to 14 hours.
• When they became too weak or too ill to work they were gassed.

Hitler's Final Solution killed nearly 6,000,000 Jews.  He also had killed political dissidents, priest, nuns, midgets, homosexuals, the mentally retarded, the insane and gypsies.  This count was also about 6,000,00 so the total that died in the camps was some where around 12,000,000.

Historians have always questioned why Hitler chose to exterminate the Jews.  It did not make economic sense since they contributed greatly in all areas.  The most logical argument that I have heard (not necessarily correct or incorrect, just my choice) is the he needed something to unite the German people.  They were the last country in Europe to unify and needed something to bring them together.  Because antisemitism already existed in the society it was an easy thing to use.

As far as Hitler personally being antisemitic I have read things that make me question it.   For example, he absolutely adored his mother.  When she was dying of breast cancer the doctor that treated her was a Jew.  Hitler respected this man and allowed him to treat the woman he loved beyond all others.   He also helped him to flee Germany. (I believe I read this in Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer who was Hitler's architect.) This does not sound antisemitic to me.

I have also been made aware of an opinion by authors Alice Miller and Erich Fromm. They believe "Hitler suffered from a life long obsession with avenging his mother , who had been wrongly treated by a Jewish doctor (Rudolph Binion)."  This quote came from the book The Hidden Hitler ( This book presents the opinion that Hitler was a homosexual) by Lothar Machtan.  I guess if you are using these notes to teach with you'll have to make you own call.  Obviously, no matter how he personally felt, he was still one of the greatest killers in modern times!