Download Section: Reading

Section: Reading
Heading: Introduction to Night #2
Date:
What is the origin of the word holocaust?
The word holocaust comes from the Greek holokauston meaning completely burnt.
What is the Holocaust?
Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million
European Jews during World War II, as a part of a program of deliberate extermination
planned and executed by the National Socialist regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.
In addition to Jews, what other groups were persecuted?
Other groups were persecuted and killed by the regime, including the Roma (gypsies),
Soviet Union prisoners of war, disabled people, gay people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Polish
people, and political prisoners. Many scholars don’t include these groups in the
definition of Holocaust, defining it as the genocide of Jews, or what Nazis called the
Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Taking into account all the victims of the Nazi
persecution, the death toll rises considerably; some estimates place the total number of
victims at nine to eleven million.
How did the Holocaust begin?
After World War I ended, much of the world was in financial trouble. The Depression
that started eleven years after the war meant that millions of Americans were out of work,
but things were much worse in Germany. Germany had lost the war. The country was in
horrible debt. The people were hopeless and frightened.
A new leader emerged in Germany. His name was Adolf Hitler. He was a charismatic
and persuasive speaker. As the economic effects of the Depression worsened, people
began listening to him. He gave people hope. In his view, Germany’s many problems
had a few specific causes. If these causes were eliminated, then Germany’s problems
would be over. The people would have money again.
Hitler believed that one cause of Germany’s problems was people. Specifically, he
believed certain minorities were the cause of the problems (these minorities became
scapegoats for Germany’s problems). He wanted a racially and politically uniform
country. He was the leader of a group called the Nazi (National Socialist German
Workers) Party. The Nazis wanted only “perfect” Germans, with white skin, blue eyes,
and blond hair. The Nazis called this ideal an Aryan, which came to mean “master race.”
One of the goals of the Nazi Party was to get rid of any group that was not part of this
master race, so Germany would be a strong country again.
Why did the Holocaust happen?
First, it is important to know that Hitler’s ideas were accepted by people because they
were so desperate to isolate the cause for their problems and eliminate that cause. It is
easy to hate someone when you feel that the person is responsible for your problems.
Second, although many people made fun of Hitler, once he became powerful, he was
taken seriously. It is human nature to want to trust authority. When Hitler had no
authority, he was seen as a bad person—he was even put in prison for his ideas. Once the
Nazis rose to power, people began doing what they were told to do, even if those
directions were morally wrong.
Third, it is important to know that many people were afraid to stand up against the Nazis.
People who resisted the regime were sent to concentration camps—the price for speaking
up was, for many people, death.
What is the origin of the word scapegoat?
Scapegoat originated in the famous ritual of Hebrews, described in the Book of Leviticus
(16: 20-22). On the Day of Atonement, as a part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, a live
goat was chosen by lot. The high priest, robed in linen garments, laid both his hands on
the goat’s head and confessed over it the inequities of the children of Israel. The sins of
the people thus symbolically transferred to the beast. The goat was taken out into the
wilderness and let go. The people felt purged.
Scapegoat is more widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for
misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Prior to and
during World War II, Jews and other minorities became scapegoats for the poor
economic state of Germany that occurred after World War I.
How did the Holocaust happen?
The persecution was accomplished in stages. In the 1930s, the Nazis started moving
people that did not agree with their politics away from others. Targeted people were not
allowed to hold jobs, and many of them were no longer considered German citizens.
Some were made to wear badges, so that everyone would know that they were minorities.
They were segregated, which means separated from the main group.
Many were made to live in ghettos, special sections of town where people were confined
that were usually dirty and crowded. In 1941, Nazis began the systematic killing of
people in the ghettos, shooting huge groups of people at once. These massacres, or mass
killings, were part of what Nazis called the Final Solution. They believed that the only
way to solve the “problem” of minorities was by killing them. Ultimately, they wanted to
eliminate all of these minorities.
Some people were moved from the ghettos to concentration camps. Concentration camps
were established in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion
or disease. In the concentration camps, all of their possessions were taken away. Their
heads were shaved. They were given prison uniforms to wear. Each uniform was
marked with a badge, usually an inverted triangle that was color coded to show the reason
the person was there.
- yellow triangles for Jewish prisoners
- red triangles for political (Communist) prisoners
- purple triangles for Jehovah’s Witnesses
- pink triangles for homosexuals
- green triangles for criminals
- black triangles for Gypsies
The concentration camps were far away from the cities. The people in the camps were
made to work hard in terrible conditions. They were used in medical experiments that
often killed them. Many died because of starvation and cold.
Then the Nazis took things a step farther. Rather than waiting for people to die, they
started killing them in huge numbers by gassing them or poisoning them. Their bodies
were then burned. This happened at new camps called extermination camps. The
extermination camps were created for the sole purpose of killing large numbers of the
groups that Nazis wanted to eliminate. Trainloads of minorities were sent to the camps
every day.
What types of medical experiments were performed?
Unethical medical experimentation carried out during the Third Reich may be divided
into three categories. The first category consisted of experiments aimed at facilitating the
survival of Axis military personnel. Physicians from the German air force and from the
German Experimental Institution for Aviation conducted high-altitude experiments, using
a low-pressure chamber, to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of
damaged aircraft could parachute to safety. Scientists there carried out so-called freezing
experiments using prisoners to find an effective treatment for hypothermia. They also
used prisoners to test various methods of making seawater drinkable.
The second category of experimentation aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals
and treatment methods for injuries and illnesses which German military and occupation
personnel encountered in the field. At the German concentration camps, scientists tested
immunization compounds for the prevention and treatment of contagious diseases,
including malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and infectious
hepatitis. Prisoners were subjected to mustard gas in order to test possible antidotes.
The third category of medical experimentation sought to advance the racial and
ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview. The most infamous were the experiments of
Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Mengele conducted medical experiments on twins. An
inmate at Auschwitz who looked after 50 sets of Romani twins reflected:
I remember one set of twins in particular: Guido and Ina, aged about four.
One day, Mengele took them away. When they returned, they were in a
terrible state: they had been sewn together, back to back, like Siamese
twins. Their wounds were infected and oozing pus. They screamed day
and night. Then their parents—I remember their mother’s name was
Stella—managed to get some morphine and killed the children in order to
end their suffering.
Mengele and other doctors also performed experiments in order to determine how
different "races" withstood various contagious diseases. The research of August Hirt at
Strasbourg University also intended to establish "Jewish racial inferiority."
What happened at extermination camps?
At the pure extermination camps, all the prisoners arrived by train and were taken
directly from the platforms to a reception area where all their clothes and other
possessions were taken. They were then herded naked into the gas chambers. Usually
they were told these were showers or delousing chambers, and there were signs saying
“baths” and “sauna.” They were sometimes given a small piece of soap and a towel to
avoid panic and were told to remember where they had put their belongings for the same
reason. When they asked for water after their long journey in the cattle cars, they were
told to hurry up because coffee was waiting for them in the camp.
Once the chamber was full, the doors were screwed shut and solid pellets of Zyklon-B
were dropped into the chambers through vents in the side walls, releasing a toxic gas.
Those inside died within 20 minutes; the speed of death depended on how close the
inmate was standing to a gas vent.
The gas was then pumped out, the bodies were removed (which could take up to four
hours), gold fillings in their teeth were extracted with pliers by dentist prisoners, and
women’s hair was cut. The floor of the gas chamber was cleaned, and the walls
whitewashed. The work was done by Sonderkommando prisoners, Jews who hoped to
buy themselves a few extra months of life. When the Sonderkommando finished with the
bodies, the SS officers conducted spot checks to make sure all the gold had been removed
from the victims’ mouths. If a check revealed that gold had been missed, the
Sonderkommando prisoner responsible was thrown into the furnace alive as a
punishment.
How were people influenced to turn against the Jews and others?
The Nazis used propaganda techniques to convince people to turn against various groups.
Propaganda is an expression of opinion or action designed to influence the opinions or
actions of others with reference to predetermined ends. In other words, biased or
misleading information is used to promote a political cause or point of view. The Nazis
used posters, films, books (including children’s books), etc. to turn the country against
Jews and other groups.
What are propaganda techniques?
There are seven common propaganda techniques. They are as follows:
1. Name-Calling: giving “bad names” to individuals, groups, nations, races,
policies, etc. Today’s bad names include dictator, Communist, alien, etc.
2. Glittering Generalities: using virtue words to describe an individual, nation, etc.
The propagandist uses words like truth, freedom, the American way, etc.
3. Transfer: carrying over the authority, sanction, or prestige of something people
respect to something the propagandist wants accepted. A cartoonist might use
Uncle Sam to make people feel that the American people approve of something.
4. Testimonial: using statements or letters from important people. If a celebrity
likes something, everyone should too.
5. Plain Folks: appearing to be a common person. A politician might appear to be
working class.
6. Card Stacking: telling only a part of the truth. For example, a school might say
that the average experience of each member of the faculty is five years. This
might be technically true, but the propagandist neglected to mention that the
principal had 25 years of experience while the remaining four members had had
none.
7. Band Wagon: following the crowd. This is a common peer-pressure tactic.
“Everybody’s doing it; come along and follow the great majority, for it can’t be
wrong.”
What is the origin of the word genocide?
The term genocide did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term referring to
massive crimes committed against groups. In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named
Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) sought to describe the Nazi policies of systematic murder,
including the attempted destruction of European Jewry. He formed the word genocide by
combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe with –cide, from the Latin word
for killing.
Section: Reading
Date:
Heading: Introduction to Night—Timeline of the Events that led to WWII
1933
January 30
February 27
March 4
March 20
March 24
April 1
April 7
May 10
1934
January 26
June 30
August 2
OctoberNovember
1935
March 16
April
September 15
1936
March 7
July 12
August 1
October 25
1937
November 25
1938
July 6-15
September 29
November 7
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor.
Reichstag (parliament of German empire in Berlin) was burned.
Franklin Roosevelt became President of the United States.
Dachau, the first concentration camp, was opened. It was located in an
abandoned munitions factory in Germany. It held political prisoners
and was a prototype for Nazi concentration camps.
The Enabling Act was passed allowing dictatorial power.
Jewish businesses were boycotted.
Jews were excluded from government service.
Books written by Jews and political opponents were publicly burned.
A ten-year nonaggression pact was made with Poland.
“Night of Long Knives”: SS (Schutz-Staffel) overthrew the SA (SturmAbteilung).
Hitler became Fuhrer of Germany. Fuhrer means leader or guide in
German.
Homosexuals were arrested.
Military conscription (draft); military was upsized.
Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested.
The Nuremberg Laws were announced. Jews lost their citizenship and
were prohibited from marriage with Germans. People were classified as
Germans if all 4 of their grandparents were of “German blood.”
Someone was considered Jewish if he/she descended from 3-4 Jewish
grandparents. A person with 1-2 Jewish grandparents was considered a
Mischling (someone of “mixed blood”).
The Nazi Army invaded the Rhineland (former German territory). The
Rhineland was the land on both sides of the Rhine River .
German gypsies were sent to Dachau.
The Olympic Games were hosted by Germany in Berlin.
The Rome-Berlin Axis was signed.
A political and military pact was signed by Germany and Japan.
32 countries met at Evian, France, to discuss the refugee policy.
Munich Agreement: Germans occupied Sudentenland
(Czechoslovakia). The French and British agreed as long as Germany
stayed out of Poland.
Ernst vom Rath (German diplomat) was shot by Herschel Grynszpan (a
November 910
November 15
1939
March 15
June
August 23
September 1
September 3
Polish Jew) in Paris. The Germans used this as an excuse for
Kristallnacht.
“Kristallnacht”: Night of Broken Gas—Jewish businesses and
synagogues were looted and burned.
All Jewish children were expelled from public schools.
The Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia.
The ship St. Louis returned to Europe with Jewish refugees.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. The pact was named after
Soviet foreign minister Molotov and German foreign minister
Ribbentrop. It was a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the
USSR. It was in effect until June 22, 1941, when Germany invaded the
Soviet Union.
Germany invaded Poland.
Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.