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WHY WAS THE WORLD SILENT?
By: Calla Garner, Lizzy Wasniewski,
Emily Thiele, and Alexis Phaneuf
WHICH COUNTRIES DID/DID NOT HELP?
Fighting Against
Germans
• Countries such as; Yugoslavia, France, Poland and
Greece all had organizations that made things for
Hitler's army harder then originally planned.
• Yugoslavia- Chetnicks
• Greece- Andartes
• France-Maquis
• Poland-Guerrillas.
• Railroad cars were derailed, ammunition trucks were
blown up at night, as were bridges.
NEUTRALS
• Switzerland wasn’t involved with the wars but kept an army just incase
things turned for the worse.
• Ireland was also a neutral in Europe. The Allies believed that Ireland was
helping out the Germans.
• Sweden was also one of the lucky neutrals who helped out both sides
equally by sending food to countries that were taking over, including
Norway, Denmark and Poland.
• Portugal was also a neutral. Portugal sold supplies to both sides of the war
effort.
• Many countries were forced into the war, such as the United States,
Turkey, Russia and many others. Most of the Allies wanted to stay neutral,
but The Axis wouldn't let them. The neutrals were lucky in my mind.
WITH GERMANY
• Germany began to cajole and pressure the southeast
European states to join the Axis. Nazi Germany offered
economic aid to Slovakia and military protection and
Soviet territory to Romania, while warning Hungary that
recent German support for Hungarian annexations of
Czechoslovak and Romanian territory might change to
the benefit of Slovakia and Romania.
• Some of the allies were Italy, Hungry Slovakia and parts
of south east Europe.
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE EFFECTS OF
PEOPLE HELPING?
• It may have been inevitable that Hitler would rise to power, but there were
plenty of things that governments from other countries could have done about
the terrible crimes he committed. Other governments had control, too.
• The effects of the Holocaust were devastating. Groups persecuted were the
Jews, the Roma, the Freemasons, the Communists, the Socialists, Soviet
Prisoners of War, the Polish, the Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the
Handicapped, criminals, beggars, prostitutes, and people who opposed
Hitler’s regime. Between 11 million and 17 million people were killed as a
result of the Holocaust.
• Countries that stayed neutral: Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and
Switzerland. Sweden helped by taking in refugees, but other countries
refused. Sweden was technically not entirely neutral. After several pleas from
Finland, Sweden agreed to assist in defense of the country against the Soviet
Union with volunteer troops, in what became known as the Winter War.
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE EFFECTS OF
PEOPLE HELPING? (CONTINUED)
There were individuals who tried to get the
terrible word of the Holocaust out to people
who could help. Jan Karski, one of these
individuals, was a Polish underground man
who had been smuggled into the
concentration camp killing center of Belzec
by a resistance group and come back to try to
tell British, American, and Polish leaders
what was going on. Unfortunately, these
leaders simply could not fathom what was
occurring
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE EFFECTS OF
PEOPLE HELPING? (CONTINUED)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during the
Holocaust, did not list the Holocaust refugees as a
priority. He had his own concerns with establishing his
democratic policies and dealing with the Great
Depression in the United States. He was reportedly very
well informed about the anti-Semitism and Aryan policies
of Hitler’s regime, but chose not to do much. Besides,
there were strict immigration policies in the U.S. that
would let in only people “fit to work” in the harsh times,
and Holocaust refugees were not considered “fit to
work”.
If more governments had put mind to helping the victims of the Holocaust, the
atrocities that occurred could have been nonexistent, many people could have
been evacuated, and Hitler’s reign could have been terminated.
WHAT WAS THE MEDIA COVERAGE LIKE?
•
The coverage in most places was inadequate. Many countries and papers believed that they would be
thought of as a “Jewish” paper or “Jewish loving” if they reported too much.
•
The New York Times is a great example of this. It is said that their reports were brief and buried in the
paper. In the article “Reporting Auschwitz, Then & Now” it gives the dates of when the Times reported on
the Holocaust.
•
“On June 27, 1942, the Times devoted just two inches to the news that “700,000 Jews were reported slain in
Poland.”
•
On July 2, 1942, it noted that gas chambers were being used to kill 1,000 Jews a day – but only on page 6.
•
On November 25, 1942, it reported that there had been roundups, gassings, cattle cars and the
disappearance of 90 percent of Warsaw’s ghetto population – but only on page 10.
•
On December 9, 1942, its report that two million Jews had been killed and five million more faced
extermination appeared only on page 20.
•
On July 2, 1944, it reported that 400,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to their deaths so far, and
350,000 more were likely to be killed in the next weeks. Yet this news received only four column inches on
page 12. (That edition’s front page carried an analysis of the problem of New York holiday crowds on the
move.)”
WHAT WAS THE MEDIA COVERAGE LIKE?
(CONTINUED)
•
The New York Times was not the only American newspaper it not cover the Holocaust like
it should have been. The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, and
The Washington Post are all examples.
•
The French newspaper, Le Monde, also kept poor records of the Holocaust and what was
happening.
•
In Great Britain the BBC had missing pieces of information. The (London) Guardian also
couldn’t resist greatly exaggerating the numbers of Roma (Gypsies) who died in the
camps.
•
Iran and other Arab countries like to believe the Holocaust never happened and was
made up.
WHY DID SOME COUNTRIES IGNORE WHAT WAS
HAPPENING IN THE HOLOCAUST?
•
Examples of major countries/ groups who ignored the Jew’s cries for help include:
•
Zionists
•
United States
•
Great Britain
•
The Pope
ZIONISTS
•
Rabbi Weissmandel was a first hand accountant of the holocaust
•
He wrote a letter to a Zionist leader that gave important details about what was happening
to the jews
•
He wrote: “Those who go directly from the train to the gas chambers to be suffocated are
not branded. They are completely consumed in the ovens and leave no evidence behind.
These are 95% of each transport.”
•
The Rabbi sent this letter and got no response.
•
The Zionists ignored this cry for help because at first they thought of it as nothing more
than what Jews were already going through-discrimination. They claimed they could do
nothing for them
•
Later, the Zionists ended up saving about 200,000 Jews before WWII
UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITIAN
•
In 1942 the United States and Great Britain had proven reports on what the Germans
were planning to do with the Jews.
•
They were afraid of all the refugees that would come into their countries, so at first they
did nothing.
•
In 1944 the U.S. was finally forced to take action in helping the Jews. President Roosevelt
created the War Refugee Board that eventually helped the rescue some of the Jews.
•
By the time the War Refugee Board had been created, over 4/5 of the Jews who would die
were already dead.
POPE PIUS XII
•
Pope Pius XII was generally indifferent
towards the Jew’s cries for help
•
He claimed he was neutral but then would say
things about condemning injustices
•
He however sheltered a few Jews and
encouraged other officials to do the same
•
No one knows for sure why the Pope or
Vatican sometimes helped or not helped
•
Some say he feared the Nazis and what
would happen if he gave a speech about it
•
Some say he thought that “private
intervention could accomplish more”
•
Another reason would be said that the church
has always been politically neutral