Final Review: The Holocaust and Nazi Policies 1933-1945

1933: removed from economy

Boycott (April 1)

1935: revoked citizenship

Nuremberg Laws

1937-1938: voluntary Aryanization

Evolution: voluntary to stepped-up to forced

1938-1939: forced Aryanization

Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) violence discredited radicals

1940: ghettos in Poland/eastern Europe

Ex: Lodz (April 1940)

Refugee crisis 1938-1941

Realized emigration was infeasible

1941: Final Solution (late summer/early fall)

This was it

1942-1943: deportations to death camps

Ex: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka aka Operation Reinhard camps + Auschwitz and Majdanec

Operation Reinhard camps

Closed when Auschwitz could handle the rest

Rudolf Hess

Made more efficient with Zyklon B

Auschwitz closed 1944

Death marches to concentration camps in Germany begun as German lines infiltrated by Soviets

1939: Britain effectively closed doors to Palestine

Realizing after Anschluss and Czechoslovakia invasion that they had to go to war with Germany

British White Paper

Used by state department to restrict immigration during the Roosevelt administration

1941: Nazis mostly planning on resettling Jews

Deep into USSR after a short war with the USSR

War with USSR

Lasted longer than expected

Annihilation grew out of bureaucratic realization

Mass deportation would not work

Decision from Hitler

Complex decisions in the field developed into plans approved by leaders

Old master narrative about the Holocaust

Historians changed our understanding of it

New master narrative

Is there a new master narrative?

Raul Hilberg

Author of 'The Destruction of the European Jews'.

Einsatzgruppen

SS units that rounded up and killed Jews during the invasion of the USSR.

Wannsee Conference

A meeting held on January 20, 1942, to discuss the resettlement of Jews in the East.

Madagascar Plan

A plan for the resettlement of Jews in Madagascar, part of Nazi racial engineering efforts.

Final Solution

The Nazi plan for the systematic extermination of the Jewish people.

Commissar Order

An order that led to the killing of Jews as communists, carried out by Einsatzgruppen.

Antisemitic ideology

The belief system that fueled the Nazi agenda against Jews.

Functionalism

An approach that emphasizes local decisions and circumstances in the implementation of the Holocaust.

Christopher Browning

Author of 'The Origins of the Final Solution', which discusses the planning of deportation.

Ethnic cleansing

The process of removing a particular ethnic group from a region, which evolved into genocide by late summer 1941.

Decimation

The process of dying during deportation, which was part of the transition to genocide.

Jewish Councils

Local Jewish leadership in ghettos that adopted various strategies for survival.

Warsaw Ghetto

A ghetto where Jewish leader Adam Cherniakov exhibited reluctance and refusal to cooperate with Nazis.

Lodz Ghetto

A ghetto where Chaim Rumkowski promoted a 'rescue-through-work' strategy.

Vilna Ghetto

A ghetto where Jacob Gens initially promoted rescue through work, later leading to malicious cooperation.

Purpose of ghettos in Poland

To temporarily concentrate Jews for deportation to the East and make room for ethnic Germans.

Evaluation of Judenrats

The assessment of Jewish councils as collaborators, which is considered unfair as they were in impossible situations.

Resistance activities

Actions taken by Jews against the Nazis, though specific activities are not detailed in the notes.

Local initiatives

Actions taken by local leaders to achieve Nazi goals, such as the Belzec initiative by Odilo Globocnic.

Racial engineering

The Nazi policy aimed at reshaping populations based on racial criteria.

Nazi leaders' decisions

Complex decisions made in the field that evolved into plans approved by leaders.

1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

An uprising on April 19 by ZOB seeking honorable death using homemade hand grenades, resulting in about 80 escapes.

Partisans

Groups that blew up trains and attacked Nazis during the Holocaust.

1943 Treblinka Uprising

An uprising on August 2 where the camp was set on fire.

Sonderkommando

A group that blew up a gas chamber with smuggled dynamite from an arms factory.

Revitalization of Jewish identity

A movement characterized by solidarity in synagogues and new meanings of holidays, such as Passover.

Robert Weltsch

An individual who encouraged Jews to 'Wear the Yellow Badge with Pride.'

Suicide in the Holocaust

An act exemplified by Adam Cherniakov during the period.

Defiance of death

Actions such as smuggling food and medicine, establishing ration systems, soup kitchens, orphanages, and hospitals.

Self-help networks

Organizations formed for education and occupational training within the Jewish community.

Jewish Culture Association

An organization headed by Kurt Singer that employed Jewish artists.

Martin Buber

An educator who focused on adult education during the Holocaust.

Rabbi Leo Baeck

Leader of the RV national Jewish organization.

Diaries in the Holocaust

Personal accounts such as those by Dawid Sierakowiak documenting experiences.

Oyneg Shabbes

A documentation effort led by Emmanuel Ringelbaum.

Responses of German Jews

Characterized by coping mechanisms and a belief that persecution was temporary until Kristallnacht.

Responses of Polish Jews

Marked by dazed reactions, some armed resistance, and collaboration to survive.

Factors for deportation success

Local cooperation/control, the role of Jews in national identity, timing in the war, and concentration of Jews.

Operation Reinhard

Nazi death camps in Poland that achieved high success rates in deportations (90%).

Nazi occupation in Holland

Characterized by mixed cooperation due to high control and low antisemitism (75% success).

Conditions in concentration camps

Characterized by filth, disease, starvation, overcrowding, overwork, brutality, and death.

Dehumanization in camps

Created conditions aimed at repression, weakening, and mass murder of the Jewish population.

April 1, 1933 Boycott

A nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany.

1935 Nuremberg Laws

Laws that institutionalized racial discrimination against Jews in Germany.

1937-8 Voluntary Aryanization

The process where Jewish businesses were sold to non-Jews voluntarily.

1938-9 Forced Aryanization

The compulsory transfer of Jewish businesses to non-Jewish ownership.

November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht

A coordinated attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in Germany.

Radicals

Individuals who advocated for extreme measures against Jews.

Rationalists

Those who believed in a systematic approach to the Jewish question.

Ghettos

Enclosed districts where Jews were forced to live under harsh conditions.

April 1940 Lodz

The establishment of a ghetto in Lodz, Poland, for Jews.

1938-41 refugee crisis

The period when many Jews sought refuge from Nazi persecution.

Late Summer/Early Fall 1941 Final Solution

The Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish population.

Chelmno

The first extermination camp established by the Nazis.

Operation Reinhard camps: Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka

Extermination camps where mass killings of Jews occurred.

Auschwitz and Majdanec

Concentration and extermination camps used for mass murder.

Rudolf Hess and Zyklon B

Hess was involved in the use of Zyklon B as a method of extermination.

White Paper

A document outlining British policy on Jewish immigration to Palestine.

1924 US National Origins Quota

Legislation that limited immigration based on national origin.

Paper walls and Breckinridge Long

Policies that restricted Jewish immigration to the US during the Holocaust.

Raul Hilberg

A historian known for his work on the Holocaust.

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile killing units responsible for mass shootings of Jews.

1941 letter

Correspondence related to the implementation of the Final Solution.

January 20, 1942 Wannsee Conference

Meeting where the Final Solution was coordinated among Nazi officials.

Resettlement to the East

The euphemism used for the deportation of Jews to extermination camps.

Functionalists

Those who viewed the Holocaust as a result of bureaucratic processes.

Racial engineering

The Nazi ideology aimed at creating a racially pure society.

Madagascar Plan

A proposed plan to relocate Jews to Madagascar, which was never implemented.

Gotz Aly

A historian who has written extensively on the Holocaust.

Commissar Order

A directive for the execution of Soviet political commissars.

Working toward the Fuhrer

The concept of subordinates taking initiative to fulfill Hitler's goals.

Christopher Browning

A historian known for his research on the Holocaust and the perpetrators.

Ethnic cleansing

The systematic removal of an ethnic group from a territory.

Belzec and Odilo Globocnic

Belzec was an extermination camp, Globocnic was its commandant.

Adam Cherniakov

A leader in the Jewish community of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Chaim Rumkowski

The head of the Lodz Ghetto, known for his controversial leadership.

Rescue through work

The belief that Jews could save themselves through labor.

Sacrificing some to save the rest

A strategy where some Jews were sacrificed for the survival of others.

April 19, 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the ZOB

A revolt by Jewish fighters against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto.

August 2, 1943 Treblinka

The date of a significant uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp.

Walter Rosenberg and Alfred Wetzler

Survivors who escaped from Auschwitz and documented the atrocities.