10.8.5 Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuingracial purity, especially against the European

Jews; its transformation into the FinalSolution; and the Holocaust that resulted in

the murder of six million Jewish civilians

• For many centuries,primitive ChristianEurope had regarded theJews as the ‘Christ-Killers’: an enemy and athreat to be convertedand so be ‘saved’, or tobe killed; to be expelled,or to be put to death withsword and fire.

• In 1543, Martin Luther setout his ‘honest advice’ as tohow Jews should be treated.‘First’ he wrote, ‘theirsynagogues should be set onfire, and whatever does notburn up should be coveredor spread over with dirt sothat no one may ever beable to see a cinder or stoneof it.’ Jewish homes, heurged, should likewise be‘broken down anddestroyed.’

• Jews should then be ‘putunder one roof, or in a stable,like Gypsies, in order thatthey may realize that theyare not masters of the land.’They should be put to work,to earn their living ‘by thesweat of their noses’, or, ifregarded even then as toodangerous, these ‘poisonousbitter worms’ should bestripped of their belongings‘which they have extortedusuriously from us’ anddriven out of the country ‘forall time’.

• Luther’s advise was typical ofthe anti-Jewish venom of histime. Mass expulsion was acommonplace or medievalpolicy. Jews had been drivenout of almost every Europeancountry including England,France, Spain, Portugal, andBohemia. In Italy they were tobe confined to a special partof town, the ghetto, and intsarist Russia, to a specialregion of the country, the‘Pale’. Expulsions andoppression continued untilthe 19th century.

• Even when Jews were allowedgrowing participation in national life,however, no decade passed withoutJews in one European state or anotherbeing accused of murdering Christianchildren, in order to use their blood inbaking Passover bread. This ‘bloodlibel’, coming as it did with outburst ofpopular violence against Jews,reflected deep prejudice with noamount of modernity of liberaleducation seemed able to overcomeJew- hatred, with its 2000 year-oldhistory, could arise as a spontaneousoutburst of popular instincts, as adeliberately fanned instrument ofscapegoat politics.

• In the 19th centuryseemed to offer theJews a change forbetter: emancipationspread throughoutWestern Europe, Jewsentered politics andparliament, andbecame integrated intothe cultural, scientific,and medical life ofevery land.

• Anti-Semitism was remainedcommon in Europe in the 1920s and1930s. During this time Germanywas experiencing highunemployment (during the 1920sas much as 7 million Germans wereunemployed), humiliation,hyperinflation, and hunger. Hitler“welcomed the misery,” wrote oneanalyst, “…declaring the need forpride, will, defiance and ‘hate, hate,and again hate!’” He soon realizedthat his all-encompassing hatredswere confusing and he began tonarrow them down. He concludedthat actions “against the Jews wouldbe popular and successful… they aretotally defenseless, no one willstand up to protect them.”

“History teaches us thatafter every catastrophe a

scapegoat is found”

• Adolf Hitler's fanatical anti-Semitism view was laidout in his 1925 book MeinKampf, which becamepopular in Germany oncehe acquired politicalpower. In 1933 Hindenburgallowed Hitler to becomechancellor and create anew government. Withintwo months he had laidout the foundation forcomplete control overGermany.

• The crowning step ofHitler’s “legal seizure” ofpower came on March 23,1933, when the Reichstagpassed the Enabling Act.This law gave thegovernment the power toignore the constitution forfour years. Once in power,the Nazis translated anti-Semitic ideas into action.With this new source ofpower, the Nazis purgedthe civil service of the Jewsand democratic elementsand concentration campswere set up for people thatopposed the regime.

• On April 1, 1933 the recentlyelected Nazis under JuliusStreicher organized a one-dayboycott of all Jewish-ownedbusinesses in Germany (the lastremaining Jewish enterprises inGermany were closed on July 6,1939). This policy helped to usher-in a series of anti-Semitic acts thatwould eventually culminate in theJewish Holocaust. In 1934, Hitlerbecame the sole dictator ofGermany with the death ofHindenburg. He was the ultimatedecision maker and absolute ruler.

• For those that needed coercion, theNazi totalitarian state used terror andrepression. The Schutzstaffeln, simplyknown as the SS were set up underthe strict direction of HeinrichHimmler. The SS came to control notonly the secret police but also theregular police.

• The SS was based on two principals:terror and ideology. Terror includedthe instruments of repression andmurder—secret police, criminalpolice, concentration camps, and laterexecution squads and death camps.For Himmler, the chief goal of the SSwas to further the group they saw asthe German master race.

• In September 1935, the Nazisannounced new racial laws atthe annual party rally inNuremburg. These Nuremburglaws excluded Jews fromGerman citizenship. A Jew wasdefined not by religion but bywhether he or she has a Jewishgrandparent. Marriagesbetween Jews and Germancitizens were forbidden. Jewswere also required to wearyellow Stars of David and tocarry identification cardssaying they were Jewish.

• A more violent phase of anti-Jewish activity began on thenight of November 9, 1938—Kristallnaht, or the “night ofshattered glass.” In adestructive rampage againstthe Jews, Nazis burnedsynagogues and destroyedsome seven thousand Jewsbusinesses. At least ahundred Jews were killed.Thirty thousand Jewishmales were rounded up andsent to concentration camps.

• Kristallnacht led to furtherdrastic steps. Jews were barredfrom all public transportationand all public buildings,including schools andhospitals. They wereprohibited from owning,managing, or working in anyretail store. Jews were forcedto clean up all the debris anddamage due to Kristallnacht.Finally under the direction ofthe SS, Jews were encouragedto “emigrate from Germany”

• In many cities throughoutEurope, Jews had beenliving in concentrated areas.During the first years ofWorld War II, the Nazisformalized the borders ofthese areas and restrictedmovement, creatingmodern ghettos to whichJews were confined. Theghettos were, in effect,prisons, in which many Jewsdied from hunger anddisease; others wereexecuted by the Nazis andtheir collaborators.

• The word 'Holocaust', from theGreek word 'holokauston'meaning "a burnt sacrificeoffered to God", originallyreferred to a sacrifice Jewswere required to make by theTorah, and later to large scalecatastrophes or massacres. Dueto the theological meaning thatthis word carries, many Jewsfind the use of this wordproblematic, as it could implythat the six million Jews were asacrifice not murdered.

• Instead of the word holocaustmany Jews prefer the Hebrewword Shoah. Spelled Shoa,Shoah, or Sho'ah. Thishebrew word Shoah means“destruction or catastrophe”.It is used by many Jews and agrowing number of Christiansdue to theological discomfortwith the literal meaning ofthe word Holocaust; it isconsidered offensive to implythat the Jews of Europe werea sacrifice to God.

• Similarly, manyRoma (Gypsy)people use the wordPorajmos, meaning"Devouring" todescribe the Naziattempt toexterminate thatgroup.

• Nowadays, the term“Holocaust” usuallyrefers to the large-scalekillings of Jews. It is alsosometimes used to referto other occurrences ofgenocide (The systematickilling of a racial orcultural group), especiallythe Armenian andHellenic Holocausts, themurder of about 2.5million Christians by theYoung Turk governmentbetween 1915 and 1923.

• The Turkish governmentofficially denies that therewas any genocide of thesepeople. They claim that mostof these deaths resultedfrom armed conflict, disease,and/or famine during theturmoil of World War I. Thisis despite the fact that mostcasualties occurred invillages far from thebattlefield and that there ishistorical proof this was asystematic attempt to wipeout all non-Muslims.

• In some circles, the termholocaust is used to describe thesystematic murder of the othergroups which were exterminatedin the same circumstances as theJews by the Nazis, includingethnic Roma and Sinti (alsoknown as Gypsies), politicaldissidents, communists,homosexuals, mental patients,Jehovah's Witnesses, Russians,Poles, and other Slavs, raising thetotal number of victims of Nazisto between ten and fourteenmillion civilians, and up to 4million POWs (Prisoners of war).

• Today, the termHolocaust is also usedto describe otherattempts at genocide,both before and afterWorld War II, or moregenerally, for anyoverwhelminglymassive deliberateloss of life, such asthat which wouldresult from nuclearwar, hence the phrase"Nuclear Holocaust".

• One feature of the NaziHolocaust thatdistinguishes it fromother mass murders wasthe systematic methodwith which the masskillings were conducted.Detailed lists of present,and future (potentialvictims) were made andmeticulous records ofthe killings have beenfound.

• In addition, considerableeffort was expended over thecourse of the Holocaust tofind increasingly efficientmeans of killing more people,for example, by switchingfrom carbon monoxidepoisoning in the AktionReinhard death camps ofBelzec, Sobibor, Treblinka tothe use of Zyklon-B atMajdanek and Auschwitz; gasvans using carbon monoxidefor mass killings were used inthe Chelmno death camp.

• In addition to masskillings, Nazisconducted manyexperiments withprisoners, childrenincluded. Dr. JosefMengele, one of themost widely knownNazis, was known asthe "Angel of Death" bythe inmates ofAuschwitz, for hisexperiments.

• His experiments includingplacing subjects in pressurechambers, testing drugs onthem, freezing them,,attempting to change eye colorwith chemical injections intochildren's eyes and variousamputations and other brutalsurgeries often per formedwithout the use ofanesthesia. The doctor'sseemed particularly keen onworking with Roma and JewishChildren.

• Twin experiments were a particularfavorite of Josef Mengele. He carriedout twin-to-twin transfusions, stitchedtwins together, castrated or sterilizedtwins. Many twins had limbs andorgans removed in macabre surgicalprocedures, performed without usingan anesthetic.

• Only a few of the children survivedAuschwitz. They later recalled howthey were visited by a smiling UncleMengele who brought them candy andclothes and sometimes played withthem. Then he had them delivered tohis medical laboratory either in truckspainted with the Red Cross emblem orin his own personal car.

• The victims were usually murderedafter the experiment was over.

One Survivor Remembers

“One day, my twin brother, Tibi, was taken away for somespecial experiments. Dr. Mengele had always been

more interested in Tibi. I am not sure why - perhapsbecause he was the older twin.

Mengele made several operations on Tibi. One surgery onhis spine left my brother paralyzed. He could not walkanymore. Then they took out his sexual organs. After

the fourth operation, I did not see Tibi anymore.

I cannot tell you how I felt. It is impossible to put intowords how I felt. They had taken away my father, mymother, my two older brothers - and now, my twin.”

• The full extent of what washappening in German-controlled areas was not knownuntil after the war. However,numerous rumors and eye-witness accounts from escapeesand others did give someindication that Jews were beingkilled in large numbers. Someprotests were held. Forexample, on October 29, 1942in the United Kingdom, leadingclergymen and political figuresheld a public meeting to registeroutrage over Germany'spersecution of Jews.

Concentration and Extermination Camps

• Concentration campsfor, "undesirables,"were spreadthroughout Europe,with new camps beingcreated near centers ofdense "undesirable"populations, oftenfocusing on heavilyJewish, Polishintelligentsia,communists, or Romagroups.

• Concentration camps forJews and other,"undesirables," alsoexisted in Germanyitself, and while notspecifically designed forsystematicextermination, manyconcentration campprisoners died becauseof harsh conditions orwere executed.

• Some camps, such asAuschwitz-Birkenau, combinedslave labor with systematicextermination. Upon arrival inthese camps, prisoners weredivided into three groups: thosetoo weak for work and womenwith small children wereimmediately murdered in gaschambers (which weresometimes disguised asshowers) and their bodiesburned, while others were firstused for slave labor in factoriesor industrial enterprises locatedin the camp or nearby.

• The Nazis also forcedsome prisoners to workin the removal of thecorpses and to harvestelements of the bodies.Gold teeth wereextracted from thecorpses and women'shair (shaved from theheads of victims beforethey entered the gaschambers) was recycledfor use in products suchas rugs and socks.

• Three camps--Belzec,Sobibor, and TreblinkaII--were used exclusivelyfor extermination. Onlya small number ofprisoners were keptalive to work at the taskof disposing of thebodies of peoplemurdered in the gaschambers.

• The transport was oftencarried out underhorrifying conditionsusing rail freight cars.

• During the invasion of theSoviet Union (OperationBarbarossa) over 3,000special killing units(Einsatzgruppen)followed the ArmedForces and conductedmass killings of theJewish population thatlived on Soviet territory.Entire communities werewiped out by beingrounded up, robbed oftheir possessions andclothing, and shot at theedges of ditches.

• By December 1941Hitler had decided toexterminate the Jews ofEurope. The plan toexterminate the Jewswould be known as the“Final Solution”. InJanuary of 1942, duringthe Wannseeconference, several Nazileaders discussed thedetails of the “finalsolution of the Jewishquestion" (Endlsung derJudenfrage).

• Dr. Josef Buhler pushedReinhard Heydrich a topSS officer to start theFinal Solution. The Nazisbegan to systematicallydeport the Jewishpopulations of theghettos and from alloccupied territories toextermination camps,such as Auschwitz andTreblinka II.

Homosexuals• Homosexuals were another of the groups

targeted during the time of the Holocaust.However, the Nazi party made no attemptto exterminate all homosexuals; accordingto Nazi law, being homosexual itself was notgrounds for arrest. Some prominentmembers of the Nazi leadership wereknown to other Nazi leaders to behomosexual, which may account for the factthat the leadership offered mixed signals onhow to deal with homosexuals. Someleaders clearly wanted homosexualsexterminated; others wanted them leftalone, while others wanted laws againsthomosexual acts enforced, but otherwiseallowed homosexuals to live as othercitizens did.

Gay men

Lesbian andAnti-Socials

• Estimates vary wildly as to thenumber of homosexualskilled. They range from as lowas 10,000 to as high as600,000. The large variance ispartly dependent on howresearchers tally those whowere Jewish and homosexual,or even Jewish, homosexualand communist. In addition,records as to the reasons forinternment remain non-existent in many areas.

Gypsies• Hitler's campaign of genocide

against the Roma people ofEurope was seen by many as aparticularly bizarre application ofNazi racial science. Germananthropologists were forced toconcede the fact that Gypsieswere descendants of the originalAryan invaders of India, whomade their way back to Europe.Ironically, this made them no lessAryan than the German peopleitself, in practice if not in theory.This dilemma was resolved byProfessor Hans Gunther, aleading racial scientist, whowrote:

• "The Gypsies have indeedretained some elementsfrom their Nordic home,but they are descendedfrom the lowest classes ofthe population in thatregion. In the course oftheir migration, theyabsorbed the blood of thesurrounding peoples, thusbecoming an Oriental,West-Asiatic racialmixture with an additionof Indian, mid-Asiatic, andEuropean strains."

• As a result, however, anddespite discriminatorymeasures, some groups ofRoma, including the Sinti andLalleri tribes of Germany, werespared deportation and death.Remaining Gypsy groupssuffered much like the Jews(and in some instances, weredegraded even more thanJews). In Eastern Europe,Gypsies were deported to theJewish ghettoes, shot by SSEinsatzgruppen in theirvillages, and deported andgassed in Auschwitz andTreblinka

Others

• Slavic people were alsotargeted by the Nazis.these people weremostly intellectuals,Communist partymembers, andprominent people,although there weresome mass murdersand instances ofgenocide (CroatianUstashe as the mostnotorious example).

• During Operation Barbarossa,the German invasion of theSoviet Union 1941-1944,hundreds of thousands (if notmillions) of Russian armyPOWs were arbitrarilyexecuted in the field by theinvading German armies, inparticular by the notoriousWaffen S.S., or were shippedto the many exterminationcamps for execution simplybecause they were of Slavicextraction. Thousands ofRussian peasant villages werekilled by German troops formore or less the same reason

• Around 2000 Jehovah'sWitnesses perished inconcentration camps,where they were heldfor political andideological reasons, asthey refusedinvolvement in politics,would not say "HeilHitler" and did notserve in the Germanarmy.

• On August 18, 1941,Adolf Hitler ordered anend to the systematiceuthanasia of mentallyill and handicappedpeople due to protestswithin Germany.

Extent of the Holocaust

• The exact number ofpeople killed by theNazi regime is stillsubject to furtherresearch. Recentlydeclassified British andSoviet documents haveindicated the total maybe somewhat higherthan previouslybelieved. However, thefollowing estimates areconsidered to be highlyreliable

• 5.6-6.1 million Jews

• 3.5-6 million Slavic civilians

• 2.5-4 million POWs

• 1-1.5 million political dissidents

• 200,000-800,000 Roma & Sinti

• 200,000-300,000 handicapped

• 10,000-250,000 homosexuals

• 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses

The Triangles• The triangle markings

system was designed toidentify prisoners in thecamps according totheir "offense", theywere required to wearcolored triangles ontheir clothing. Althoughthe colors used differedfrom camp to camp,the colors mostcommonly were:

• Yellow: Jews -- twooverlaid to form a Star ofDavid, with the word"Jude" (Jew) inscribed

• Red: political dissidents,including communists

• Green: common criminals• Purple: Jehovah's

Witnesses• Blue: immigrants• Brown: Roma and Sinti

(Gypsies)• Black: Lesbians and "anti-

socials"• Pink: Gay men

Liberation

The War Crimes Trials• By the summer of 1945, the

Allies had agreed to hold atrial of Nazi war leaders forcommitting aggressive warand crimes against humanity.A whole series of warholocaust trials were held.One of the most famous trialswas the Nuremburg Trialsheld in Germany between1945 and 1946. This included22 people including some ofthe Nazi higher ups likeHerman Goering. Of these 10were hanged. War crime trialswere also held in Japan andItaly.

Revisionists and Deniers

• Some groups, commonly referred to as"Holocaust deniers", deny that theHolocaust happened. Many of theHolocaust deniers are neo-Nazis or justanti-Semites.

• Holocaust revisionism claims that farfewer than 5-6 million Jews were killed,and that the killing was not a result ofdeliberate Nazi policy. AlthoughHolocaust revisionists claim to presentdocumentary evidence to support theirclaims, critics argue that the evidence isflawed, the research is specious, and theconclusions are pre-determined. Manyclaim that such revisionism is a form ofAnti-Semitism and tantamount to denial.

Political Ramifications• The Holocaust has had a

number of political and socialramifications which reach tothe present. The need to find ahomeland for many Jewishrefugees led to a great manyJews emigrating to Palestine,most of which was soon tobecome the modern State ofIsrael. This immigration had adirect effect on the Arabs of theregion that were displaced bythis Jewish migration and is theroot of the Arab-Jewishconflicts of the Middle East .