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Updated as of 2 October 05
Today in History:
On October 2, 1780, Major John
Andrι, a British spy associated with Benedict Arnold, was
executed on this day in history.
Quote of the Day:
"In my view we are much worse
off now than when we went into Iraq. This is not a partisan position. I voted
for these guys."
A senior figure at a
military-sponsored think tank as told to James Fallows in "Bush's Lost Year" in
The Atlantic Monthly (Oct. 2004)
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Take the Ann Coulter
Quiz
Where are you politically? Take
the
Neocon Quiz and find out.
"History
is Far too Important to be left to History Professors"
Teaching isn't such a novel idea
Announcements
Age of Despotism
Age of Total War
Current History
Dictators and Dems
DDE in War & Peace
Splendid Little
Wars
Terrorism Online
World War II Online
Bibliography:
History of Disease
Bioterrorism
Contemporary Terrorist Organizations
How to Write an Essay
Map of Islamic
Terrorist Cells in the U.S.A.
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Fall 2009
Schools of Thought
Intentionalists - Those who believe that Hitler
wanted to eliminated the Jews from the very beginning .
Functionalists -
Those who believe that
the Final Solution was a twisted road and prearranged.
Some Historians and The
Holocaust
Christopher
Browning -- a Moderate Functionalist
sees no clear evidence that Hitler was planning Genocide.
Gerald Fleming
-- takes a Functionalist view that Hitler didnt need to give an order since
his subordinates knew what he wanted. He called this the Fuhrers Wish.
David Irving
-- In Hitlers War Irving argues that Hitler never knew of the Final
Solution.
When The
Nazis Came to Power
in 1933
The Nazi victory gave
Anti-Semitism a forum.
Nazi Racial Experts would have
made David Duke proud.
The rank and file Nazis hoped
that in time they would have a Juderein (Jew Free) Germany.
It was very difficult to purge
Germany of the Jews since Jews were so integrated into the German community.
Many traditional conservatives
wanted the Nazis to tone down the rhetoric.
Hitlers Background
Using Traditional Models for Jewish
Persecution
Pre-Final Solution Persecutions
Boycott of Jewish Businesses
(April 1-4, 1933)
Denationalization - removing
citizenship of Jews from Eastern Europe that entered Germany after Nov. 11,
1918.
Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
Driving Jews from public and
business community.
The SS rationalized the
persecutions.
The goal was for Jews to
immigrate.
Early Immigration Solutions
Syrian Solution
-- Buy 30,000 square miles in Syria from the French and locate the Jews
there.
Ecuador Solution
-- Move the Jews to Oriente Province.
Madagascar Solution
-- Move the Jews to the large island off the coast of Africa.
Nazi Solutions to the Jewish
Question
The Voyage of the SS St. Louis
Jewish Immigration in Europe
Jewish Immigration Outside of
Europe
Getting The Message
Pressure came from the Gestapo.
Developed the Judenliste
and Adolf Eichmann was responsible for
arranging the swift exodus of Jews from Germany and Austria.
Then there was the Berlin
Olympics in 1936.
The worst was the Kristallnacht
pogrom on November 9-10, 1938.
The Origins of Kristallnacht
Poland passed an Expatriates Law
on March 31, 1938.
If Polish Jews did not renew
their passports, then they could not claim Polish nationality and this had to be
done by Oct. 29, 1938.
The Germans then rounded up the
Ostjuden and shipped them back to Poland on Oct. 28.
One such family was the
Grynzpans and their son Herschel was living in Paris.
Young Grynzpan received a letter
from his sister telling of their plight.
Grynzpan then shot the German
Third Sec in the German Embassy -- Ernst Vom Rath.
Kristallnacht Pogrom
The Training Ground for the
Final Solution
With the outbreak of the war,
the immigration solution was no longer possible.
Earlier, Hitler authorized the
elimination of the sick and mentally ill.
This was called the T4 Program,
named after Tiergartenstrasse 4, the headquarters of the program.
Only the effort of Cardinal
Galen slowed, but did not stop the process.
What it did was to serve as a
training ground for the men who would run the killing centers in the East.
Did They All Look Like This?
The Final Solution to the Jewish
Question
The Machinery of Destruction
The Origins of the Final
Solution
The first step was the start of
the euthanasia program.
Followed by the establishment of
Ghettos in Poland and the decision on a Territorial Solution.
The Invasion of the Soviet Union
and the use of the Einsatzgruppen, special action units, which traveled in the
wake of the Wehrmacht into Russia.
The Wannsee Conference
July 31, 1941, Herman Goering
orders Reinhard Heydrich to develop a comprehensive plan for the Final Solution
to the Jewish Problem.
The Meeting was set for January
20, 1942 in the Berlin Suburb of Wannsee.
It was to be a meeting of all
bureaucratic and party agencies.
Numbers and costs were
finalized.
Hitler in Mein Kampf on Jews
Operation Reinhard Death Camps
What About Resistance?
Most Jews did not know about
what was about to happen.
European Jews thought that this
persecution would pass too.
Resistance was rare with the
exception of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Few Jews could expect help from
the outside.
The Germans used a policy of
Collective Responsibility.
There has to be hope of success.
What Did The Allies Know and
When Did They Know it?
Word reached the WJC in 1942 and
was passed to the British and Americans.
The British broke the Enigma
Code and knew what the Germans were doing in the West.
Escapees, especially Rudolf Vrba,
passed photos to the West.
German soldiers took photos and
it was the worst kept state secret.
What Could The Allies Have Done?
Bomb Auschwitz?
Distribute literature to
Germany?
Execute German POWs?
Destroy German Cities?
Bomb the Railroads leading to
Auschwitz?
Win the war as quickly as
possible?
Encourage Jews to flee the
Nazis?
Division of War Criminals and
Perpetrators
The Planners or CEOs of the
Holocaust.
Concentration or Death Camp
Commandants.
The Civil Servants who made the
process work.
The Ordinary men, including the
police, soldiers, railroad workers, and the SS guards.
Concentration/Death Camp
Commandants
Most were trained at Dachau, the
first concentration camp in the system.
Many were veterans of World War
I.
More had a background in the T4
Program.
Most saw themselves as soldiers
serving the interests of the Reich.
The Civil Servants and the
Holocaust
They saw themselves as competent
and inner directed.
They did not belong to the Nazi
Party.
They did not buy the Nazi
Rhetoric.
Most were not Anti-Semites.
They did not read Anti-Semitic
literature either.
They were not robots.
Yet they made the system work.
What About the Men of Reserve
Police Battalion 101?
Many were middle age.
They came from the least Nazi
region in Germany.
Most had a steady job before the
war.
They received their education
before Hitler came to Power.
Only 25 Percent were Party
members.
Most were from the lower
economic classes.
Factors That Influenced Rescue
The level of German control.
The Status of the Jews before
the war.
The level of Anti-Semitism
before the war.
Local attitudes toward the Jews.
The likelihood of rescue.
Geographical factors.
Why Did Rescuers Take The Risk?
They knew the intentions of the
Nazis.
They believed what the Germans
were doing was a crime.
If the Nazis could do this to
the Jews, then they could do it to them.
Many helped without being asked.
Many rescuers volunteered
knowing the risks.
Factors That Influenced
Individual Rescuers
Patriotism and the respect for the law.
A sense of egalitarianism.
Christian values.
Hatred for the Nazis.
Political activism.
Primo Levis Gray Zone
Who is Kurt Gerstein?
The Ambiguity of Good: The
Strange Case of Kurt Gerstein
He was born in 1905.
He was extremely religious.
Like many he was initially swept
up with the enthusiasm of the Nazi movement.
When the Nazis attacked the
Churches, he left the movement.
Spent time in Dachau and later
joined the SS.
He witnessed the first use of
Zyklon B gas.
He told the Swedes, the Church
and the Dutch.
What Did The Church Know?
Holocaust Deniers
Origins and Goals of Holocaust
Deniers
They see themselves as revisionists.
They seek to make fascism a legitimate political movement again.
They question the issue of numbers.
They call The Diary of Anne Frank a fraud.
They claim that most victims died of disease and are living in Russia or
the United States.
They question if gas was ever used.
This Has Been A Corky
Presentation
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