Download Indoctrination and Discrimination

Lesson 3
1933–1939
Indoctrination
and Discrimination
1933–1939
Indoctrination and Discrimination
CONTENTS
Lesson Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Quotation Hitler’s “New Order”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
127
Document 1A Graph: German Unemployment 1928–1933 . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Document 1B Graph: Elections 1924–1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Document 2C Photo: The Poisonous Mushroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Document 2B Photo: Children reading anti-Jewish Propaganda . . . . . . . 130
Document 2C Photo: Classroom Indoctrination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Document 3 Reading: Into the Arms of Strangers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Document 4 Reading: “Education for Death:
Nazi Youth Movements” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Document 5 Photo: 1933 Boycott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Document 6 Reading: Nuremberg Laws
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
138
Document 7 Photo: Book Burning, 1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Document 8 Reading and Photo: The 1936 Olympics
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
140
Document 9A Reading: “Kristallnacht” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Document 9B Map and Photo: Kristallnacht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Document 9C Reading: “Nazis Now Drive to Complete
Their Program”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Document 9D Photo: Expulsion from School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
World War II and Holocaust Time Line 1933–1938 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Homework Reading The Cage, Chapters 2 and 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The HHREC gratefully acknowledges
the funders who supported our
curriculum project:
• Office of State Senator
Vincent Leibell/New York State
Department of Education
• Fuji Photo Film USA
124
Indoctrination and Discrimination
KEY VOCABULARY
boycott
Nuremberg laws
ethnic
propaganda
expulsion
racial slurs
LESSON OVERVIEW
In this lesson students will be introduced to the policies of statesponsored indoctrination and discrimination in order to understand how these developed as steps toward genocide.
This lesson will illustrate how the Nazis used propaganda, a policy
that led to discrimination against Jews, to indoctrinate the
German people, including the youth.
indoctrination
refugee camp
Kristallnacht
tribunal
National Socialist Party
OBJECTIVES
• Students will identify strategies of
state-sponsored indoctrination.
• Students will identify legal acts of
discrimination.
• Students will recognize why and how
German youth were indoctrinated.
• Students will recognize how indoctrination and discrimination contributed to genocide.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Why and how did the Jews become
targets of discrimination after Hitler
took power?
INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN AND ACTIVITIES
Activity 1
• Review homework reading: “The Tightening Noose.”
• Lead students in discussion in which they give examples of prejudice from the reading and explain how they are different from
those previously discussed. Ask students how such prejudice
could occur in Germany in the 1930s. Ask students if similar
actions could occur in the United States today.
Activity 2
• Using documents 1A and 1B, ask students to identify those
factors that contributed to Hitler’s rise to power.
Activity 3
• Distribute documents 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, and 4 related to indoctrination. Discuss how the Nazis used indoctrination to promote
their ideology. Discuss how effective it was.
Activity 4
• Lead students to identify the ways in which the Nazis discriminated against the Jews. Distribute documents 5, 6, 7, 8, 9A, 9B,
9C, and 9D.
• The World War II and Holocaust Time Line for 1933–1939 may be
distributed to aid in the understanding of the above documents.
Activity 5
• Show Chapter 1, “Indoctrination and Discrimination,” of
Testimony of the Human Spirit (23 minutes).
• Discuss: What was life like for Sel Hubert and Susan Rothschild
and their families before 1933? Describe how their lives became
more difficult after 1933.
• For more questions, refer to the Teacher’s Guide Testimony of the
Human Spirit.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
125
RESOURCES
1A Graph: German Unemployment
1928–1933
1B Graph: Elections 1924–1933
2A Photo: The Poisonous Mushroom
2B Photo: Children Reading
anti-Jewish Propaganda
2C Photo: Classroom Indoctrination
3 Reading: Into the Arms of
Strangers
4 Reading: German Youth Groups
5 Photo: 1933 Boycott
6 Reading: Nuremberg Laws
7 Photo: Book Burning, 1933
8 Reading and Photo: The 1936
Olympics
9A Reading: Kristallnacht
9B Map and Photo: Kristallnacht
9C Reading: “Nazis Now Drive to
Complete Their Program”
9D Photo: Expulsion from School
Concluding Questions
1. How was life changing for the German people?
2. How did state-sponsored indoctrination and discrimination
become stepping-stones on the long road ending in genocide?
Contemporary Connection
• “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never
hurt me.” Why are ethnic jokes and racial slurs dangerous?
Assessment
• Compare the experience of the Jews in Germany during the
1930s with the experience of African-Americans in America
from 1875-1965.
Homework
• Read Chapters 2 and 3 of The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender.
• How did the relationship between neighbors change from
Chapter 2 to Chapter 3?
10 World War II and Holocaust
Time Line
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Indoctrination and Discrimination
QUOTATION
Hitler’s “New Order”
“My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered
away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which
the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth.
Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and
gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from
its eyes. . . . That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human
domestication. . . . That is how I will create the New Order.”
—Adolf Hitler, 1933
www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/
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127
DOCUMENT 1A
German Unemployment 1928–1933
From Edwin Fenton, John M. Good, Linda W. Rosenzweig, and George M. Gregory, Teacher’s Guide for the Shaping of Western Society (New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1974), p.163. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.
QUESTION
What conclusions can you draw?
128
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 1B
Elections 1924–1933
From Edwin Fenton, John M. Good, Linda W. Rosenzweig, and George M. Gregory, Teacher’s Guide for
the Shaping of Western Society (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974), p.163. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.
QUESTION
Refer to the two charts “German Unemployment” and “Elections to the Weimar Republic” to explain
the increase in the number of seats won by the Nazi Party from 1924 to 1933.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
129
DOCUMENT 2A
The Poisonous Mushroom
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archives
DOCUMENT 2B
Children reading anti-Jewish Propaganda
German children read an anti-Jewish
propaganda book titled Der Giftpilz
(The Poisonous Mushroom). The girl
on the left holds a companion volume,
whose translated title is “Trust No Fox.”
Germany, ca. 1938.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archives
QUESTION
What message does this book convey about the Jews?
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Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 2C
Classroom Indoctrination
“Die Judennase ist an ihrer Spitze
gebogen. Sie sieht aus wie ein
Sechen…”
“The Jewish nose is bent. It looks
like the number six…”
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive
QUESTION
How was the classroom utilized as a vehicle to teach Nazi ideology?
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131
DOCUMENT 3
Reading: Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Whenever they had lessons
on racial teachings—which I
wasn’t allowed to join—I had to
stand outside in the corridor
for the whole hour. The children and teachers who were
walking by always gave me a
funny look. It was quite frightening to be there on your own.
At the end of the hour, I
had to go back into the class,
and you could feel the tension.
You could feel their eyes on
you. They would look at you as
if you were some sort of vermin. I found it very difficult to
cope with.
I remember once the
teacher had been teaching the
children to measure skulls.
There was a typical Germanic
type of skull and I think the
Jews were supposed to have
very low, reclining foreheads—
I can’t remember exactly. The
teacher made the children all
measure each other, and when I
came in at the end of the lesson
he said, “Now you go and
measure Ursula.” I didn’t dare
to say anything, and the teacher
was very disappointed because
I didn’t measure up to his
expectations.
132
I can’t remember how he
explained this, but on top of
that, I didn’t have dark hair, I
had blonde hair, and long plaits,
and I didn’t really conform to
the caricature of what the
Germans thought the Jews
should look like. Perhaps only
my nose.
I just hated school. I was
terrified every day. But my
mother made us go. She said
we should be proud because we
were Jewish, and this was the
yoke we had to bear. We should
do just a little bit better, we
should work that little bit
harder and we would get
through in the end. She gave us
a lot of encouragement, but it
was very hard.
Playtime was an absolute
nightmare for me. At least in
class I would sit at my desk, and
even though the children used
to throw ink over my work, on
the whole it wasn’t too bad. I
could cope. But after each lesson you had to go into the playground; they wouldn’t let me
stay in the classroom. In the
playground you had to deal not
only with your own class, but
with the other children as well. I
would have liked to have been
invisible, to have disappeared
into the ground.
I still have nightmares sometimes about it today. It comes
back to me in dreams, the terror
which you felt at the time,
because you never knew what
was going to happen, who was
going to trip you up. If you fell,
they just burst out laughing; they
thought that was very funny.
Later, in the girls’ high
school, which I attended when I
was ten, I had a gym teacher:
Fraulein Maus. I still remember
her very well—she was such a
Nazi. She was also our history
teacher and, of course, had her
angle on history. I never learned
any real German history. Her
gym classes were worse. One
particular instance: we used to
have a vault horse, and we’d
have to take a run to jump over
it. She’d be standing at the other
end to catch you.
When it was my turn to
go—I tried all kinds of excuses
to get out of it, but nothing
helped—I’d start to jump
across, and the moment when
she was about to catch me, she’d
step aside. Of course, I’d crash. I
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 3 (continued)
Reading: Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
tried not to jump too hard or
run too fast, and then she’d
shout at me, “You’re not doing it
right,” and I had to repeat it. It
was terrifying really.
Hella and I were both very the house. So gradually we told
conscious, though, that our par- fewer and fewer tales about what
ents were going through tremen- was happening to us at school.
dous problems themselves.
There was very little laughter in
Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer, Into the Arms of Strangers “When the Bough Breaks.” (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), pp. 28–29.
Reprinted by permission.
QUESTIONS
1. How was the classroom utilized as a vehicle to teach Nazi ideology?
2. How does Ursula’s recollection illustrate the use of the classroom as a vehicle for propaganda and
discrimination?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
133
DOCUMENT 4
Reading: “Education for Death: Nazi Youth Movements”
EDUCATION FOR DEATH:
NAZI YOUTH MOVEMENTS
Gregor Zeimer
This is the story of the Pimpf,
the Little Fellow. The Nazi Party
takes him from the NSV,
Narodowe
Sily
Zbrojne
(National Armed Forces), at the
age of six, and keeps him until he
is ten. He wears a dignified uniform: heavy black shoes, short
black stockings, black shorts, a
brown shirt with a swastika armband, and a trench cap.
The Pimpf organization
lays the groundwork for Party
activities in the Jungvolk and
Hitler Youth. The boy receives a
number, and is given a
Leistungsbuch, an efficiency
record book. Throughout the
years it records not only his
physical development, and his
advancement in
military
prowess, but also his ideological
growth. His school, home, and
Party activities are minutely
supervised, controlled, inspected, and indelibly registered.
“At the age of ten the Pimpf
must pass a rigid examination
as outlined in the Pimpf manual, before he can be promoted
to the Jungvolk.”
“If he fails to be promoted,
he is made to feel that he would
be better off dead; if he does
pass, he is told that he must be
ready to die for Hitler in
Jungvolk, even as he was ready
to die for him in the Pimpf
stage.”
Until the girls in Nazi
Germany are fourteen, they are
classified as Jungmaedel, young
girls. During this time they
acquire those rudiments of
education that the Party considers essential. But, above all,
they are made conscious of the
mission in the Third Reich, to
be bearers of healthy children.
Hence, the subject of sex is
broached early and realistically.
Their uniforms, called
Kluften, include heavy marching shoes, stockings which
emphasize durability rather
than beauty, full blue skirts,
white blouses, cotton neckerchiefs with wooden rings bearing the group insignia. For bad
weather, the girls have heavy
blue “training suits,” slacks, and
capes. They usually go bareheaded.
134
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 4 (continued)
Reading: “Education for Death: Nazi Youth Movements”
Jungvolk are the Nazi boys
from ten to fourteen. This
stage precedes the Hitler Youth
and follows the Pimpf. The
rigid system of recording physical achievements as prescribed
for the Pimpf is continued, but
on a more comprehensive
cal eagerness and restlessness:
What can we do, what can we
learn, how can we live to prepare ourselves for our great mission—to be the mothers of
Hitler’s future soldiers?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
scale.
The Jungvolk is divided into
approximately six hundred
smaller units, the Jungbanne.
These go through a series of
Spartan tests. The marches are
longer, the hunger periods
come more often, the privileges
granted are fewer than those for
the Pimpf.
The boys of ten begin their
lives in the Jungvolk with an
initiation ceremony at which
they again swear to give up their
lives for Hitler. They conclude
their Jungvolk activities with a
similar ceremony, more devout,
more intense in nature.
Three letters are sacred to
every German girl from fourteen to twenty-one years of age:
BDM, the abbreviation for
Bund Deutscher Maedel—
League of German Girls.
The oath that the girls swear
when they are initiated on the
eve of Hitler’s birthday included the clause of self-sacrifice.
From the minute they don
the BDM uniforms, elaborate
with emblems, letters, triangles,
and swastikas, one thought governs their lives; a mature
thought, nourished by biologi-
German boys from fourteen
to eighteen belong to the Hitler
Youth. They are Hitler’s secondary army ready to die for
him, but ready to fight first.
And they consider themselves
well equipped, mentally, and
physically.
On their ideological foundation, laid when they were
Pimpfs and Jungvolk, the Hitler
Youth erect a superstructure of
knowledge useful to soldiers:
Deutschkunde, including a
study of Germanic culture,
Party history, military geography; natural science, chemistry;
mathematics; and a foreign language. There is, naturally, further education in Hitler doctrines.
The Hitler Jugend, HJ, as it
is known, has its own system of
ranks and promotions. It maintains its own leadership schools
and camps. The uniforms
resemble those of the regular
Storm Troopers.
135
DOCUMENT 4 (continued)
Reading: “Education for Death: Nazi Youth Movements”
The outstanding characteristic of the HJ is their conviction that they are the most powerful youth organization in the
world. To outsiders they seem
impatient to prove it.
They realize their own
importance, for has not the
Fuhrer, in a speech addressed to
his boys in the Lustgarten,
Berlin, 1929, told them, “Youth
has its own State?”
Dr. Joseph Goebbels has
given them another slogan. In HJ
Marschiert (“Hitler Youth
Marches”) he informs German
boys: “The older generation says,
‘He who has the Youth, has the
Future.’ We say, ‘He who has the Future, has the Youth.’ That is why Youth follows Hitler and his ideology,
which is the embodiment of the dreams and hopes of Youth. Don’t let the older generation influence you.
We will win. For Youth Is Always Right!”
University of the State of the New York, Education Department. Teaching About the Holocaust and
Genocide. Vol. 2 of Human Rights Series. Albany, New York, 1985.
From Trials of the Major War Criminals before the Military Tribunal, documents 2 441-PS Volume XXX p. 502-541 (Nuremberg, Germany: 1948),
30:502–541. Reprinted by permission.
QUESTIONS
1. What methods were used to indoctrinate German youth?
2. Why was it important to Hitler to indoctrinate German youth?
3. What did Hitler see as the ideal role of German females in German society?
136
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 5
Photo: 1933 Boycott
“No respectable German shops here.”
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive
QUESTION
What were the potential outcomes of the boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals on both Jews
and non-Jews?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
137
DOCUMENT 6
Reading: Nuremberg Laws
NUREMBERG LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF GERMAN
BLOOD AND GERMAN HONOR, SEPTEMBER 15, 1935
Moved by the understanding that
purity of the German Blood is the
essential condition for the continued
existence of the German people, and
inspired by the inflexible determination to ensure the existence of the
German Nation for all time, the
Reichstag has unanimously adopted
the following Law, which is promulgated herewith:
# 1
1). Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of German or
related blood are forbidden.
Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded
abroad to circumvent this law.
2). Annulment proceedings can be
initiated only by the State
Prosecutor.
# 2
Extramarital intercourse between Jews
and subjects of the state of German
or related blood is forbidden.
# 3
Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of
German or related blood who are
under 45 years old.
# 4
1). Jews are forbidden to fly the
Reich or National flag or to display the Reich colors.
2). They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is
protected by the State.
# 5
1). Any person who violates the prohibition under #1 will be punished by a prison sentence with
hard labor.
2). A male who violates the prohibition under #2 will be punished
with a prison sentence with or
without hard labor.
3). Any person violating the provisions under #3 or #4 will be punished with a prison sentence of up
to one year and a fine, or with
one or the other of these penal-
ties.
# 6
The Reich Minister of the Interior, in
coordination with the Deputy of the
Fuhrer and the Reich Minister of
Justice, will issue the Legal and
Administrative regulations required
to implement and complete this Law.
# 7
The Law takes effect on the day following promulgations except for #3,
which goes into force on January 1,
1936.
Nuremberg, September 5,1935 at the
Reich Party Congress of Freedom
The Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick
The Reich Minister of Justice
Dr. Gurtner
The Deputy of the Fuhrer
From Raul Hilberg, Documents of Destruction (Chicago: First Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law. Quadrangle Books, 1971), pp. 18–21. Reprinted by
permission.
QUESTIONS
1. How do these laws reflect earlier restrictions on Jewish rights?
2. What are the effects of these restrictions on the human rights of Jews?
138
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 7
Photo: Book Burning, 1933
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive
Referring to book burning in the nineteenth century, the poet Heinrich Heine said:
“Where they burn books, they will burn people.”
Facing History and Ourselves, Resource Book. Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. 1994. p. 180
QUESTION
Why burn books?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
139
DOCUMENT 8
Reading: The 1936 Olympics
The most outstanding athlete at the 1936 Olympics was not a German, but an American.
Max von der Grun, who was ten years old that summer, later recalled,
Although it was drummed into our heads every day that anything or anyone non-German was
completely worthless, a black man became our idol: the American Jesse Owens, winner of four
Olympic medals. In the playing field, we used to play at being Jesse Owens; whoever could jump
the farthest or run the fastest or throw some object the greatest distance became Jesse Owens.
When our teachers heard us, they forbade us to play such games, but they never replied to our
question of how a black man, a member of an “inferior” race, could manage to be such a consummate athlete.
Facing History and Ourselves, Resource Book. Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. 1994. p. 221
The Nazi Olympics
The African-American athletes left
Germany with good memories of their
treatment by the German public and
the friendships they developed at the
stadium and the Olympic Village with
athletes from other countries. Owens
was pursued everywhere he went and
cheered loudly by the largely German
audience every time he entered the
Olympic stadium. Some AfricanAmerican athletes were invited to
German homes for coffee or dinner.
The reception that Owens and
other African-American athletes
received from Nazi leaders was less
warm. Both the mainstream and
African-American press reported that
Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens’
hand or congratulate other AfricanAmerican medalists. In fact, Olympic
officers in charge of protocol had
urged Hitler to receive all the medal
winners or none, and after the first
day’s events, he chose the latter.
Whether he did this to avoid shaking
hands with “non-Aryans” is unclear.
The Nazi leader could not have been
pleased with the bad publicity, as his
regime did everything possible to
avoid any incidents that would tarnish
the image of Germany as the Olympics
host. Despite Owens’ popularity with
the spectators, Hitler never posed for
photographs with him as he had done
with the blonde Sonja Henie during
the winter Olympics.
Backrach, Susan D. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936. p. 95 Boston: Little, Brown, 2000.
QUESTIONS
1. Why was Hitler so eager to host the 1936 Olympics in Germany?
2. Why would the results of some of the Olympics events displease him?
140
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 9A
Reading: “Kristallnacht”
Kristallnacht
On November 9, 1938,
Adolf Hitler attended a dinner
in Munich to honor Nazi Party
heroes. During the course of the
evening, he received word of the
death of Ernst vom Rath, a
German diplomat in Paris.
Upon receiving the news, Hitler
spoke intensely with his propaganda
minister,
Joseph
Goebbels, and then left without
giving his customary speech.
Goebbels took the floor.
After announcing Rath’s death,
he referred to the anti-Jewish
violence in Germany earlier that
week. According to Goebbels,
Hitler did not wish for such
demonstrations to be “prepared
or organized” by the Nazi Party.
However, Goebbels added,
Hitler did say that if those
actions “erupted spontaneously,
they were not to be hampered.”
This encrypted signal was
the product of Rath’s murder. A
Jewish teenager named Herschel
Grynszpan provided the excuse
for the Third Reich’s worst prewar pogroms, which left the
German streets littered with
shattered glass from Jewish synagogues and store windows. These
pogroms came to be known as
Kristallnacht—“Crystal Night”
or “Night of Broken Glass.”
On November 7, 1938,
Grynszpan, 17, was eking out
his existence in Paris. At that
time, his family was among
some 17,000 Polish Jews—
many of them, like the
Grynszpans, longtime residents
of Germany—whom the Nazi
government had deported to
Polish territory in late October.
When the Polish state refused
them entry, most of these hapless Jews ended up in a miserable Polish refugee camp near
the border town of Zbaszyn.
Grynszpan
correctly
inferred that his family was in
serious trouble. “We don’t have
a cent,” his sister Berta wrote in
a letter to him. Her brother did
not have much more, but he
had enough to buy a pistol.
Next he went to the German
Embassy, asked to see an offi-
cial, and then shot and fatally
wounded Ernst vom Rath.
As Rath lay dying, Nazi plans
were laid to give free rein to the
“spontaneous” eruption of “popular anger” that news of the
shooting had provoked. Within
48 hours of Rath’s death, hundreds of Jewish synagogues were
torched—while fire brigades idly
stood by. More than 7,000 Jewish
businesses were looted without
intervention by the police. Jewish
cemeteries were desecrated.
Some 91 Jews were killed, and
30,000 Jewish men were placed
under arrest and sent to the
newly enlarged concentration
camps at Dachau, Buchenwald,
and Sachsenhausen.
Jews were blamed for the
pogrom and had to pay for the
damages as well. A fine of one
billion Reichsmarks—equal to
some 400 million U.S. dollars at
1938 rates—was imposed on the
Jewish community. Kristallnacht
showed that no Jew could ever
expect to live a normal life within the Nazi dictatorship.
Hogan, David and David Aretha, Eds. Kristallnacht. The Holocaust Chronicle: A History in Words-Pictures. (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International,
2000). p.144 Reprinted by permission.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
141
DOCUMENT 9B
Map and Photos: Kristallnacht
The synagogue in Baden-Baden burning the morning after Kristallnacht, November, 1938. United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, Photo Archives
142
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 9B (continued)
Map and Photos: Kristallnacht
Destruction of the synagogues, November 9–10, 1938.
Victoria Sherrow, Smoke to Flames (Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch Press, 1998). Reprinted by permission.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the significance of the name Kristallnacht?
2. According to the map, how many synagogues were destroyed in Germany and Austria on
November 9–10, 1938?
3. What can be inferred about the effects of this destruction on the lives of Jews and non-Jews in
Germany and Austria?
4. How does the name cloud the fact that it was a night of broken lives as well as broken glass?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
143
DOCUMENT 9C
Reading: “Nazis Now Drive to Complete Their Program”
The New York Times
Sunday, November 20, 1938
NAZIS NOW DRIVE TO COMPLETE THEIR PROGRAM
BERLIN, November 19—
The final “liquidation” of the
Jews in Germany in the name of
retribution for the murder of a
German diplomat has surprised
and shocked the world as a new
manifestation
of
“Furor
Teutonicus.”
The world reaction has
been as violent as the outbreak
itself and has produced an even
more violent reaction in
German official quarters and
the press. As a result, Germany’s
public relations with the rest of
the world are today apparently
worse than ever, and even the
greatest optimists and “realists”
outside Germany are abandoning the hopes that they pinned
on “the peace of Munich.”
A flabbergasted world now
asks how such things can occur
in our twentieth-century civilization. The shock to which the
National Socialists respond by
144
rattling the skeletons in the
closets of other nations, is
important for itself, but as for
the surprise the German press
rightly points out that the
world itself is at fault because it
refused to take the National
Socialists and their program
seriously.
What Others Thought
That violent anti-Semitism is a
fundamental part of the
National Socialist program has
been obvious since the present
regime came into power five
and a half years ago.
Despite this, however, it
appears to have been the general
assumption of many people,
including many Jews and the
British Government, that the
National Socialist program, after
all, was only a party platform for
election purposes and that now
that Chancellor Adolf Hitler had
achieved undoubted successes
both in the foreign and domestic
fields he would be willing to settle down, lead a quiet life and
perhaps go fishing.
Viscount Halifax, the British
Foreign Secretary, it is believed
here, considered Herr Hitler a
second Gandhi, whom he would
tame, and Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain is thought
to have considered Herr Hitler a
British labor leader whom he
could dress up in knee breeches
and take before the King.
Contempt Felt in Berlin
For such speculations of the
“umbrella carrying bourgeois
world” the National Socialists
have only profound contempt.
The National Socialist regime
now feels itself strong enough
according to its own purposes,
its own morals and its own
methods.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
DOCUMENT 9C (continued)
Reading: “Nazis Now Drive to Complete Their Program”
Jews’ Doom Long Evident
That the Jews were marked for
complete elimination from
German national life has been
evident from the very start of
the National Socialist regime,
and notice that they would be
deprived of most of their possessions was served on the
world in April, when Marshal
Goering issued a decree compelling them to register their
property with the State. The
question that remained to be
answered was when and how.
The answer came when it
did, first because the “peace of
Munich” which surrendered the
Czech liaisons to Germany and
therewith made her impregnable enabled her to disregard
world opinion without the fear
of the consequences, and, second, because the murder of
Ernst vom Rath, German
Embassy Secretary in Paris, by a
Polish Jew whose parents had
been deported from Germany
provided provocation to all
German anger and make drastic
action plausible.
But that it took the form it
did is less easily explained.
There is no doubt that five
years of hammering antiSemitic slogans into the
German mind, especially at
every meeting of party or
Storm Troop units, had accumulated explosive material,
but that in such a disciplined
State as Germany that material
was permitted to explode
under circumstances that
betrayed even to the casual
observer a well-functioning
organization and common
mode of procedure suggests
some deeper reasons that can
only be guessed at.
QUESTION
According to this article, how did the countries of the world react to Kristallnacht and how could they
have responded?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
145
DOCUMENT 9D
Photo: Expulsion from School
Illustration from a 1938 German schoolbook: Jewish children and their teacher are
expelled from school.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive
“November 15, 1938: All Jewish students are expelled from German schools. From now on,
they may only attend Jewish schools.”
Hogan, David, and David Aretha. The Holocaust Chronichle: A History in the Words and Pictures. Lincolnwood, IL. : Publications International. p. 144
QUESTION
How did legal measures following Kristallnacht make the day-to-day lives of Jews more difficult?
146
Indoctrination and Discrimination
WORLD WAR II/
HOLOCAUST TIMELINE
ROAD TO WAR
ROAD TO HOLOCAUST
PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATION
1933
January 30
Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor
of Germany.
March 23
March 27
April 1 – 20
Spring –
Summer
July
October 7
Germany withdraws from League
of Nations.
First concentration camp opened at
Dachau.
Enabling Acts suspending civil liberties.
Jewish shops and businesses boycotted
nationwide.
Jewish professionals excluded from
government jobs, including teaching.
Jewish dietary laws prohibited.
Public burning of books by Jews and
other anti-Nazis.
Jewish professors expelled from universities.
Jewish writers and artists prohibited from
practicing their professions.
Laws passed permitting forced sterilization
of those considered “inferior”
Protests by American organizations of
Nazi persecution Of Jews.
1934
August 2
Hitler names himself “Fuhrer”
over both government and party.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
October
First major arrests of homosexuals
throughout Germany.
147
WORLD WAR II/HOLOCAUST TIMELINE (Continued)
ROAD TO WAR
ROAD TO HOLOCAUST
INDOCTRINATION and DISCRIMINATION
1935
March
Germany enacts draft law violating
Treaty Of Versailles
April
May –
November
Jehovah’s Witnesses barred from civil
service jobs and many arrested.
Jews barred from serving in the German
armed forces.
Nuremberg Laws enacted.
Jews could not be German citizens.
Jews could not marry Aryans.
Jews could not fly the German flag.
Jew defined as one with two or more
Jewish grandparents.
1936
March 7
Nazi army marches into Rhineland.
May 5
Ethiopia occupied by Italy.
October
Rome-Berlin Axis agreement signed
March 3
July
Jewish doctors barred from practicing in
government institutions.
First Gypsies arrested and sent to Dachau.
July 16
Buchenwald concentration camp opened.
1937
148
Indoctrination and Discrimination
WORLD WAR II/HOLOCAUST TIMELINE (Continued)
ROAD TO WAR
ROAD TO HOLOCAUST
INDOCTRINATION and DISCRIMINATION
1938
March 13
April
July
September
Evian Conference to discuss
refugee policies.
Munich Pact signed. Britain and France
agree to Turn over Sudetenland.
Austria annexed by Germany.
All German anti-Semitic laws immediately
apply In Austria
Jews in Reich must register all property
with the authorities.
August
All Jewish men required to add “Israel” to
their name and Jewish women “Sarah”.
October
First Polish Jews deported from Germany.
At Swiss request, Germans order all
Jewish passports stamped with a “J”.
Kristallnacht following assassination of
vom Rath.
Anti-Jewish progrom in Germany
and Austria
200 synagogues destroyed.
7,500 Jewish shops looted.
30,000 Jewish men arrested; many sent to
concentration camps.
Decree forcing all Jews to transfer Jewish
businesses to Aryan hands.
Jewish pupils expelled from German
schools.
Gypsies in Germany required to register
with the police.
Nov. 9
Nov. 12
December
1939
March
Jan.
Hitler states that if war erupts it will mean
the extermination of European Jews.
May
Ravensbruck concentration camp for
women established.
Jewish refugees aboard SS St. Louis
denied entry to Cuba and US.
Germany invades Czechoslovakia.
June
Indoctrination and Discrimination
149
HOMEWORK READING
The Cage, Chapters 2 and 3
The Cage, by Ruth Minsky Sender, is her story of young Riva Minska , who becomes the head of her
household and shepherds her brothers through their experiences in the Lodz ghetto and later through
the shock of roundups and deportation. Sender tells her story of survival in a comprehensive fashion
that manages to touch on numerous significant events of the Holocaust. Chapters 2 and 3 are used
here because they clearly illustrate the neighbors’ rapid change in attitude once Hitler comes to power.
Later, Chapters 7 and 17 are used to reveal the harsh daily routines of ghetto life and the struggle the
young family must make just to stay together.
The Cage, Chapter 2
Lodz, Poland
It is spring. The smell of fresh
paint blends with the fresh
scent of the new season. Spring,
warm and gentle, brings the
beautiful holiday of freedom:
Pesach, or Passover.
The hustle of Pesach is in full
swing. The homes are aired,
cleaned, and painted. Excitement
is in the air. The long-awaited
guest is coming to remind us of
the joys of freedom and the bitterness of slavery.
Mama is busy sewing new
clothes for her seven children.
Pesach would not be the same
without new clothes and new
shoes. She sings a Yiddish song,
pushing the pedal of the
sewing machine to the rhythm
of the tune:
Tell me, children, if you know,
150
What is this dear holiday called?
Her song and the sound of the
sewing machine ring happily all
through the house.
Mrs. Gruber, our landlady,
pokes her silver-gray head
through the open door of our
apartment. “Nacha,” she calls in
her rugged voice, “don’t forget
to order your matzos today. The
holiday is almost here! I see you
still have a lot to do to get
ready!” Her eyes take in every
little detail of our busy home
and stop to rest for a moment
on the table laden with all kinds
of fabrics. “And remember to
make something for my Harry
for Pesach!” she adds, still
standing by the open door, too
busy to come inside.
Mama smiles and calls back.
“I ordered matzos already, Mrs.
Gruber. I will be ready for Pesach
in time, don’t worry.” From the
pile of fabric she picks up black
satin and silver braid. “This, Mrs.
Gruber, is for your grandson
Harry, for his new peasant shirt,
the same shirt that I am making
for my sons. You know, Harry is
one of my kids, too.”
Mrs. Gruber smiles her
approval, leaving to make the
rounds of her other tenants, to
make sure they are all ready to
greet the holiday with honor.
She stops to admire her pride
and joy, the huge oak tree in the
yard, its strong branches covered with blossoms.
I have the job of cleaning
our windows for the holidays,
and I see Mrs. Gruber standing
under the tree, proud and stately, just like that old oak tree. I
see the tree covered with big,
green leaves, spreading out its
Indoctrination and Discrimination
HOMEWORK READING (continued)
The Cage, Chapters 2 and 3
branches like a beautiful
umbrella even now, when it is
first beginning to sprout.
On hot summer days, I see
our tired neighbors sitting in
the tree’s shade, trying to solve
the problems of the world. It is
so much easier to solve world
problems in the shade of a huge
oak tree. I often hear them say,
“What pleasure, such a tree.”
I look at Mrs. Gruber again.
I am thirteen years old, and I
have known her all my life. My
mother was born in this house,
and Olga, Mrs. Gruber’s daughter, was also born here. Olga’s
thirteen-year-old son, Harry, is
like a member of my family. I
have brothers and sisters, but
Harry is an only child and
spends most of his time with us.
They all speak Yiddish, celebrate the holidays with us, share
our lives. It is hard to believe they
are not Jewish. They are so much
a part of our world, in happiness
and in sorrow. If one of us takes
sick, Mrs. Gruber is the first to
come running with her remedies
and treats. If we play too loudly,
she is the first to scold us: “Slow
down, you’ll break a leg. Your
mother has plenty to worry
about without you kids giving
her more trouble!”
Mama is a widow, supportIndoctrination and Discrimination
ing seven young children. She
runs a tailor factory and works
very hard to be able to send us
to private schools. She gives us
the best she can in a home filled
with love. We are all happy, surrounded by friends we can trust
and count on.
The lovely Pesach passes, and
spring turns into summer.
The discussions under the
oak tree are loud and full of
worry. Words like war and
Hitler are part of the daily
vocabulary. Reserve soldiers are
being recalled for duty. It is
believed to be only a precaution.
“Poland is strong!” I hear
Moishe, our neighborhood
optimist. “We have nothing to
worry about. The world will not
let Hitler take over Poland.”
“But the world let Hitler
take
over
Austria
and
Czechoslovakia,” Yankl voices
his view.
Harry and I sit on the grass
near the tree and listen. I am
frightened as I look at the faces
of our neighbors. Their eyes are
so full of fear and sadness. They
know war brings hunger, pain,
death…I look at Harry. Our
eyes meet. Silently, we take each
other’s hand. Harry’s gentle
touch makes me feel safer. Why
would anybody want to hurt
us? We are only children. No
reason to be afraid. No reason
to panic.
But panic and hysteria
slowly take over. Stories about
German spies, rumors about
traitors among the people
spread like fire out of control.
One day an angry mob surrounds Harry, shouting, “He is
a spy! He is sending secrets to
the Germans! He is a German!
His ancestors were German!
Kill him! Kill him!”
Harry’s face is pale and
stricken with terror. He is begging, “Let me go. Don’t hurt
me. I am not a spy! Please!”
I see Harry pushed against
the wall, his shirt torn. I scream,
“Leave him alone! He is my
brother. He is not a German.
You are all mad!”
They are mad. They do not
know what they are doing. They
will hurt my friend. I know he is
not a spy.
I see Mama. Like a tigress
pushing forward to protect her
young, her eyes flashing, her
voice raging, she places herself
in front of Harry. “What are
you doing?” she shouts. “He is
only a child! We all know him.
He was born here. Grew up
with our children. He is one of
151
HOMEWORK READING (continued)
The Cage, Chapters 2 and 3
us. Our child! You will have to
kill me before you touch a hair
on his head! Go home and
calm down!”
She looks at the faces
around her. There is sudden
silence. Painful silence. They are
leaving.
Mama holds Harry close to
her. He is trembling. She whispers gently, “It is over. You are
safe now.”
Harry is crying. I cry with
him. What crazy, crazy people.
How could Harry, his mother,
his grandmother do anything to
hurt us, their friends? Only
because they have German
ancestors…they
are
not
Germans. They are part of our
family.
QUESTIONS
1. Describe the relationship between Mrs. Gruber, the Christian landlady, and Nacha, the narrator’s
Jewish mother.
2. What is Pesach, and why is it important to know that Mama is sewing a new shirt for Harry?
3. What is Ruth’s reaction when Harry is accused of being a spy for the Germans? How does Mama
react?
The Cage, Chapter 3
In September 1939, the
Germans invade Poland. They
march into the homes of Jews,
giving them five minutes to
move out, beating and killing
helpless people. It is war against
the Jews: men, women, children.
A new breed of German
comes suddenly to life:
Volksdeutsche. Poles who never
knew of their German heritage
dig into their past to find a drop
of German blood that will link
them to “the Fatherland.” They
put on swastikas and become
Nazis.
Mrs. Gruber, Olga, and
Harry join the Volksdeutsche.
152
Mrs. Gruber loads wagons with
Jewish belongings she has taken
and moves into a Jewish home
in the nicest part of Lodz.
Morning. A pounding at the
door. I jump out of my bed,
startled. “Open the door!” It is a
familiar voice. I open the door.
Before me, smiling proudly,
stands Harry in the uniform of
the Hitler Youth. He holds a
club in his hands.
I stare at him in disbelief. A
cold sweat covers my body. I
feel sick. “Not you,” I whisper
hoarsely. “Not you, Harry. How
could you join them? How
could you, my brother, become
a part of killing people? You
know what the Nazis are doing
is horrible, unforgivable…”
For a moment he looks a little ashamed. Then a Harry I
never knew, in a voice I never
heard before, says, “Riva,
Germany is my fatherland. I’ll
do anything for my fatherland.”
I feel the salty taste of tears
in my mouth. They have poisoned his mind.
“I will still be your friend.”
His voice is softer now. “I’ll help
you, protect you.” In his new
brown uniform, blond, blue
eyed, he looks like the boys on
the Nazi posters I have seen.
Indoctrination and Discrimination
He touches my hand. I pull
away. “Why are you moving
away from me?” he asks, bewildered. “Why are you crying?”
“I am crying for both of us,
Harry. I am crying for both of
us…” I run to my bed and bury
my head in the pillow.
Later his family stands calmly
by, watching Volksdeutsche rob
our home. Our tile oven, used
to heat the house, attracts Mr.
Brown, the farmer who has
delivered potatoes to us for
many years.
“Mr. Brown,” Mama pleads
with him with tears in her eyes.
“Mr. Brown, it is winter. It is
bitter cold. My children will
freeze. Please don’t take the
oven now. I will give it to you as
soon as it gets a little bit
warmer. But not now, please.
We have nothing else to keep
the house warm.” She stands
between him and the oven, begging for her children’s sake.
He pushes her roughly
aside, puts rope around the
oven, ties the rope around him-
self, and carries the oven to his
wagon without saying a word.
“Mrs. Gruber!” Mama calls
desperately. “Please stop him!
Help me!” Tears pour from her
eyes now. “You are my friend.
He’ll listen to you! Don’t let my
children freeze!” She turns to
Olga. “Please, Olga, have pity!
Help me!”
“Don’t worry, Nacha,” Olga
says calmly. “You will not be
here much longer. You will all
be gone soon.”
She walks over to the closet
and opens it wide. My Uncle
Chaim, a furrier, left several fur
coats for safekeeping. She takes
the coats and puts them over
her shoulder.
“You will not need these,
either,” she says in a chilling
voice, walking out the door.
We all stand motionless,
shocked, betrayed, helpless.
“You will pay for your
crimes!” Mama cries out. “God
will punish you for what you
are doing! German blood will
flow, just as Jewish blood is
flowing in the streets!
Remember my words, Mrs.
Gruber! Remember!”
Mrs. Gruber, her arms filled
with our possessions, turns to
Mama in a rage. “Be silent! God
is with us! I could have you killed
for your insane outcry, Nacha!”
Mama looks at her in sudden terror. Is this the woman
she has known all her life, her
friend in happiness and sorrow?
“What happened to you? What
happened to you?” she whispers.
Standing in the doorway,
Mrs. Gruber calls out, “Next
week I am sending men to chop
down the oak tree. I do not
want you Jews to enjoy the
beauty of my tree.”
“Mrs. Gruber, you took our
homes, you took our belongings, you took our pride,” Mama
says in a strange voice. “Take
your tree. The dead tree will help
us remember what you became.”
Mrs. Gruber stares at Mama
for a moment. The she turns
and walks out.
I run to Mama’s arms. “Why
did they betray us like this?” I
whisper. “Why? Why?”
Ruth Minsky Sender, The Cage (New York: Puffin Books, 1987).
QUESTIONS
1. What is the Volkdeutsche and why would Mrs. Gruber, Olga, and Harry join this group?
2. How does Harry act while wearing the Hitler Youth uniform? How does Ruth react?
3. Mama calls out to Olga for help as Mr. Brown steals the oven used for heating the house. What is
Olga’s prophetic reply?
4. What does Mama prophesy?
5. How does the relationship between neighbors change from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3?
Indoctrination and Discrimination
153
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Bachrach, Susan D. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936. Boston: Little,
Brown, 2000.
Fenton, Edwin, John M. Good, Linda W. Rosenzweig, and George
M. Gregory. Teacher’s Guide for the Shaping of Western Society.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.
Harris, Mark Jonathan, and Deborah Oppenheimer. Into the Arms
of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. London:
Bloomsbury, 2000.
Hilberg, Raul. Documents of Destruction. Chicago: Quadrangle
Books, 1971.
Hogan, David, and David. Aretha, eds. The Holocaust Chronicle: A
History in Words and Pictures. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications
International, 2000.
New York Times. “Nazis Now Drive to Complete Their Program.”
November 20, 1938.
“Propaganda and Sports.” In Facing History and Ourselves:
Holocaust and Human Behavior. Brookline, MA: Facing
History and Ourselves National Foundation, 1994.
Sender, Ruth Minsky. The Cage. New York: Bantam Doubleday
Dell, 1988.
Sherrow, Victoria. Holocaust: Smoke to Flame. Woodbridge, CT:
Blackbirch Press, 1998.
University of the State of New York, Education Department.
Teaching About the Holocaust and Genocide. Vol. 2 of Human
Rights Series. Albany, New York, 1985. (Reprinted from Trials
of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military
Tribunal, vol. 30 (Nuremberg, Germany: 1948).
Photos
Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acknowledgements
Every effort has been made to secure complete rights and permissions for each selection presented herein. Updated acknowledgements, if needed, will appear in subsequent printings.
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Indoctrination and Discrimination