Holocaust

midterm 1

4 major claims long:

1. holocaust was an event of global proportions with worldwide repercussions. any effort to grasp it in its entirety must begin with recognition of that massive scope

2. happned step by step. occured over time as a process with no easily determined begining or end

3. intertwined with WWII , the holocaust needs to be understood in the context of conflict. without the war the holocaust wouldnt. or couldnt have happened.

4. Jews were the primarty targets of nazi german destruction but their fates were linked with those of other victim groups.ppl with disabilities, roma and sinti, polish elite soviet pow and homosexual men

4 major claims:

1. hocoause was global event

2. holocaust happened step by step

3. intertwined with WWII

4. jews were the primary targets but fates link with others

Integrated approach

scholors incoporate both perpetrator and victim sources to produce a synthetic account or narrative of the past

henry friedlander

famous holocaust scholor who advocated an inclusive jolocause scholorhsip

jewish refugees and exiles from europe 1933-1941

Invasion of soviet union and major killing sites

prisoner marking

begingin in 1937-1938 SS created this for prisoners in conctration camps

orgins of nazi violence

1. nazi antisemtism and racism

2. eugenics

3. europena/german imperialism and colonialism

4. lebensraum(living space)

death during WWII

what is anti semetism

• crusades

• ghettoization

• labeling

• expulsion

• inquisition

new modern antisemitism

• preconditions:

  • enlightment and jewish emancipation

• antisemitism coined in 1879 by wihelm marr

• hidden dimension: imperialism and colonialsims

  • part of broader underluong ideologies that structured european thinking inclduig anti black racism, anti slavic and anti roma and sitin also homophobia and misongyny

• gigure of the jew is consitutent with invention of races sexuality and gender

nazi innovation and antisemitism

• fusion of radical racial approach to jewish otherness and that of other undersirables who were conceieved as jewish

• biologization of politicall subervsion of judebolshevism

eugenics

• The science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics

• A "good birth" defined by white supremacist ideologies

since late 19th century racial anthropology were disciplines that had been well established in western universities

nazism

fusion of eugencis with racism

T4 operation

• first stage of biologicaracial exermination carried out by nazism

• mass killing of mentally ill and certain other categories of ppl deemed handicapped and disablled

• 90k victims

• directly connected to mass killing of jews

German imperisalism and colonialism

• genocide of hereor and nama

• practices of retaliation, the drive towards total victory and enxiety about any kind of rebllion left a brutal legacy and would resurface both in WWI and even more in WWII

herero and Nama

• 1904-1908

• first genocide of 20th century

• The Herero and Namaqua Genocide was the massacre of approximately 50,000 – 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama between 1904 and 1907 by German military forces in German South West Africa

Lebensraum- Living Space

• fusion of social darwinsim and imperialist geopolitics and stemmed from a vision of world s a space to be colonized by biologically superiror races and aspiring the extiniction of inferior ones

• hitler compared the german war on the eastern front to colonial wars

• geerman settlr colonism in the east

Hitler and the nazi party

• joseph goebbels: minister of propaganda

• hermann goring: commander in cheif of the lutwaffe, 4 year plan\heinrich himmler: head of SS and main architect of holocaust

Joseph goebbels

minister of propaganda

hermann goring

commander in cheif of the lutwaffe

in charge of 4 year plan

heinrich himmler

head of ss

main archietect of holocaust

failed beer hall putsch

• novemrber 1923

• was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria, on

great depression

• hitler uese to apeal to germans that were unelplyed to see him as a savior

results of german federal elections 1919-1938

january 30 1933

• president hindeburg named hitler as chancellor

• convicned to do so by conservite elites and industrialist in order to ousr the sucess of the german communist party

early phases

1. revolutionizing germany 1933/34

2. routinizing nazism 1934-1938

3. lebensraun and open agression 1938/1939

1933 hitlers cabnet

• only two nazi party memebrs beside himself

• goring as minister without portfolio

• frick as minister of interior

Monday, 27 February 1933

• 4 weeks after hitler sworn in

• reichstag fire

Reiechstag fire

• Monday, 27 February 1933

• was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin,

• Nazis attributed the fire to a group of Communist agitators, used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government,

• induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists.

• This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

first concentration camp

• March 1933

• capacity of 5k

• houses communist

phase 1: revolutionizing germany 1933/934

• reichstag fire

• nazi majority

• first concentration camp

• cordination

• Purge of SA

Cordination

• leagure of german girls

• hitler youth

• positve image

• peoples community

• aryan only

Militarty cordination

• SA: strumbteilung- storm division

• SS: schutztaffel- protection squadren

  • allgemine SS- general SS

  • Waffen SS- armed SS

  • SS totenkentokpfverbande- Death head unites

  • Getstapo- secret police

  • Sircheheistends: intellegent agency

SA Sturnmabteilung: Storm division

• orgininal paramllity wing of nazi party

• played significant role in hitlr rise to power in the 1920s until rohim pitsh in 1934

• provided protection for nazi rallies assemlblies distrutiong the meeting of and fighting against the paramility units of opposing parties

SS Schutzstaffel- Protection Squadron

• major paramilitary organisation in nazi germany and later througout german occupied europe

• between 1933-1945 was the foremost agency of security mass survallance and state terrorism withing germany and german occupied europe

allegience SS

• genral ss

• responsible for enforicing the racial policy of nazi germany and gerneal policing

Waffen SS

• armed SS

• comabt units

SS-totenkopfverbande

• deaths head unit

• ran concentration and extermination camps

The Night of Long Knives

• june 30-july 2 1934

• rohm putsch

• in an attempt to wipe out leaders in the SA and reinforce his power.

Phase 2: routinization 1934-1938

• centralization of power

• ritualization

• legalization

• routinization

centralization of power

• put hindeburnbg in war memorial instead of family plot

• when president hidenburg died wotht he aproval from the militarty hitler and his cabnet aboloshied the title of president

• combined the offices of president and chancellor and made hitler have all pwoer

legalization

• nurember laws

• law for protection of german blood and honor and reich citenship law

reich citenship law

• only pure germans are allwoed to be german citenship

• he remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights

law for the protection og german blood and german honor

• forgbade marrigens and sex between jews and german

• employemnt og germans in jewish houselhold femalse had ot be over 45

who is jeiwsh according to nuremberg laws

• a person with ¾ jewish grandparents

mischlinge

• neither german nor jewish

• 1-2 jewish grandparents

• mixed

Dolchstoblegende/ Stab in the back myth

• anti semtic/ anti communit conspiracy theory that was widely believed promulgated in weimar and nazi germany

• maitined imperial geerman army did not lose WWI on the battlefiedl in 1918 but was instead betrayed on the hme front by jews and revolutionary spcialist who formented strikes and labar unrest

fuhrerprinzip/ leader principle

• the basis of executive authority in the government of nazi germany

• placed hitler above al written law and meant that government policies decision and officials all served to realize his will

• enabbling act

Enabling act

• cornerstorn of hitlers dictorship

• ability for reich chancellor the ability to pass laws without consulting goverment

routinization

• stab in the back

• leader principle

• synchronization/gleichshaltung

Gleichshaltung/synchronization

• nazification of german society follwoing nazi seizure of power in 1933

• sought to cordinate all politcal, social and cultural institions with nazi state

• national unity

• state enforced cordination from top down

• single party state

• selbgleichslautung: gemans bottom up cordination

Phase 3: lebensrasum and open agression

• Kristallnacht/Night of Broken Glass

• flight

• war against poland

• expansion

border changes in central europe 1938- 1940

Herschel Grynszpan

• shot german diplomant Ernst von Roth in the german embassy in paris

• novemebr 7 1939

• bron in germany to polish jews who imigrated

• used assisnation to start progroms

9–10 November 1938

• knristalnach

• prelude to the Final Solution

flight

• ppl tried to leave

• cuban denied pasager

• so did us

German-Soviet Pact

• August 1939.

• It paved the way to invade and occupy Poland that September.

• agreement of convenience between two bitter enemies.

• It permitted them to carve up spheres of influence in eastern Europe, while pledging not to attack each other for 10 years.

• Less than two years later, however, Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union

eastern european after the german sovviet pack

1939-1940

Radio station figth

• German-Polish border : gleiwitz

• August 31, 1939

• staged mock attack

• fabricated proof that poles were to blame

division of poland septemnber 1939

euthansia and killing center, major camps and ghettos in greater germany

particular featurs of polish situation

• half of the jews murdered in nazi era were polish

• major killing centers were located in conqued ploish terrioty

  • chronology

  • ideologogy

  • demography

german invasion of denmark and norway

1940

german invasion of western europe 1940

occupation of western europe

1940

german conquest in europe

1939-1942

• incoported terretories

• general goverment

• soviet occupied territory

september 1st 1939

nazi germany invades poland

invasion of the soviet union

1941-1942

blizkrieg of 1941

the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from September 1940 until May 1941.

war of annihilation against the soviet union

• sake of advancing german settler colonialism

• ethnic cleansing of millions of undersirables and slave lanors

• enslaved millions of soviet union who werent jewish

soviet 1945

• 27 million soviets had been killed

• 2/3 civilians

• 2 million of 5 million jews

• germany: 565,000

• poland”:3 milion

• Soveit union: 2,525,00

War of anialiation

• 1941/1942

• major porgroms broke out perpertaed by locals non jews

• egged on by german forces

soviet pows

• between june 22 1941 and end of war took about 5.7million

• killed 57% 3.3m

  • starvation, disease, freezing, shooting, gassing

• killed in facility by german militarty but not ss

invasion of soviet union and major killing sites

holocaust by bullets

• instructions from reichssicherheitshauptamt SS and cheif of reichssicherheitshauptamt reinhard heydrich, einstazruggene had to kill jews, primient communsit and anyone suspected of sabatoge/anti germnt

• summer of 1941 massacure of all jews, roma, disabled

einsatzruppen

• eployment groups';^[1] also 'task forces')^[2] were Schutzstaffel (SS)

• paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II

babi yar massacer in kiev september 29 and 30 1941

Babi Yar Massacre

• kiev ukrain

• septemerb 29/30, 1941

• 33,771 Jews were murdered.

• Other victims of massacres at the site included Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Romani people.

• Ibetween 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered a

romanian deportation to transnistria 1941-1042

Transistria

• became a central location of mass murder of Jews by Romanians during the Holocaust.

• As part of Romania’s larger campaign of ethnic cleansing, Romanian authorities deported to Transnistria as many as 200,000 Jews from other parts of the country.

• Among those deported there were Jews living in Bukovina and Bessarabia. 

• Romanian authorities in Transnistria quickly, and somewhat chaotically, adopted measures to persecute Jews

• an estimated 280,000 to 380,000 Jews were murdered.

peak years of killing

1942-1943

peak years killing 1942-1943

• early this year 75% of jews who would be murdered were still alive

• by spring this year 75% of the 6 million who would be killedeed were dead

Wansee confrence date

January 20, 1942

Wannsee Conference

• middle levle adminstrators met

• discussed how, financials, impletenting a policy design

• how to organize

major deportations to extermination camps 1942-1944

Chelmo

• which was specifically intended for no other purpose than mass murder,

• operated from December 8, 1941, to April 11, 1943, again from June 23, 1944, to January 18, 1945,

• 145,000 people, primarily Jews

Belzec

• killing center on the site of a former labor camp in German occupied-Poland.

• It was the second German killing center to begin operation.

• It was also the first of three killing centers established as part of Operation Reinhard

• 400k jews

• unkoiwn roma and pole

Operation Reinhard

• the fall of 1941, Nazi Germany implemented a plan to systematically murder Jews in the General Government

• Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

• deadliest phase of Nazi Germany’s intention to commit genocide against the Jewish people.

• gassing

Sobibor

• operation reinhard

• 250k jews form eastern poland

Treblinka

• operation reinhard

• constructed in the summer of 1942.

• 900k jews

• 2k roma

Aushwitz Birkenau

• 1.1m ppl

• 1m jews

• This is about 2 miles (just over 3 km) from the Main Camp.

• The Germans started construction in 1941.

Aushwitz

• main camp

• brikenu(gas chmabers)

• monowitz and other satellite camps

• german economics intrest and aniloharting jews

• rented out slaves to companies

treaty of versailles

• may 7, 1919

• war guilt clause

• german forced to accept respobility and fincacial burden responsibility for initiating WWI

Stab in back date

• november 18 1919

• spread by feild marsjal paul von hindeburg

Beer hall putsh date

• november 9, 1923

• hilter and nazi party attemt to overthrown the weimar rebulic

January 30 1933

• hilter appointed chancellor

• dueb to nazi parie large presence in goverment