JS 211 Final
Shmaltsovniks
pejorative Polish slang word used during World War II that denoted a person blackmailing Jews who were hiding, or blackmailing Poles who protected Jews during the Nazi occupation
Scope of Bystander behavior
Bystanders as a whole represented by bell curve One side near perpetrators/collaborators Other side near people who were more willing to help (upstander, rescuers) Middle: passive Also victims
Sir Nicolas Winton
Instrumental in the Kindertransport 1938- smuggling jewish children out of Germany in the early stages of war 10-20,000 young jewish children rescued
Shmuel Zygelboym
Jewish-Polish socialist politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust.
Polish Bystanders
Town in Poland where half the neighbors murder other half (ON LIST?) Groess- the Poles were all at the same time: perpetrators, passive bystanders, upstanders, and victims Heterogenious nature of holocaust and complexity of basic categories
Le Chambon
the inhabitants of the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (population 5,000) and the villages on the surrounding plateau (population 24,000) provided refuge for an estimated 5,000 people.
2 Ways of Using holocaust memory
"Look what happened to us let's go help other people" Make sure it doesn't happen again Injustice and inequality don't run the world We will be at the forefront of these battles Completely self-less Emphasizes Jewish victimization Holocaust threatened jewish survival Ensure jewish survival at all costs Completely self interested possibility
Types of Bystanders
1. Individuals Everyone who lives in Nazi Europe and neither perpetrator or victim 2. European nations Primarily the governmental bodies of the states who are involved in the holocaust Two subcategories: Nazi Occupied Those that are not occupied, but enter into alliance with Nazi Germany 3. Nations and Gvmt bodies outside of Nazi Control Allies, question of the role of the vatican (catholic church and pope) The Jews of the World Major jewish community in U.S. Palestinian jews
"Night and Fog"
10 years after liberation of camp The documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. Night and Fog was made in collaboration with scriptwriter Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
Sugihara
1940 Lithuania- Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped between 10,000 and 40,000 Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas so that they could travel to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives.
"Judgement at Nuremberg"
1945-1946 Most famous war crime trial: US Tribunal in Germany: Group of captured Nazi war criminals put on trial in Nuremberg Before this there was no one word or term for it
Elie Wiesel/Night
1956 Appreciated for being a moving account of a survivor of Auschwitz Introduce people to subject of the Holocaust Personal journey through concentration camp Literature of testimony Purpose: to tell the world what actually happened First version: "And the World Remained Silent" Had to be revised and re-titled, was too bitter and accusatory for the Publisher
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
1980 United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It is dedicated to helping leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.
Allied Bombing of Auschwitz
A few Jewish leaders called for the bombing of the Auschwitz gas chambers; others opposed it. Like some Allied officials, both sides feared the death toll or the German propaganda that might exploit any bombing of the camp's prisoners. No one was certain of the results.
Adorno
Adorno: "to write poetry after the holocaust is barbaric" German philosopher, sociologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society. not a verdict intended to silence poets or artists. It was rearticulated a few times by Adorno—specifically in response to Celan's poetry—who calls for arts and culture to respond from within and in the face of an inescapable aporetic condition. Namely, to write poetry after Auschwitz means to write from within a differend—a radical chasm between the signifier and the signified that one neither ought nor could overcome via writing or aesthetic means in genera To persist, after Auschwitz, in the production of monuments of the very culture that produced Auschwitz (Adorno might have spoken of Strauss's Four Last Songs rather than generalized "poetry") is to participate by denial in the perpetuation of that barbaric culture
Otto Frank
Anne Frank's father Only one to survive Decided to publish her diary after he found it Became a father figure to many children that would write to him
Shoah Foundation
At USC archive of thousands of survivors Film them and have an answer to almost any question Interactive in order to hear first hand accounts of survival
Aliyah Bet
Britain: Aliyah Bet Period of illegal immigration despite the white paper code name given to illegal immigration by Jews to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British White Paper of 1939 restrictions, in the years 1934 to 1948
White Paper
Britain: White Paper (1939): limited Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 for a 5 year period Hopes to appease issues with arabs and maintain access to oil in arab countries
Evian Conference
Britian In the summer of 1938, delegates from thirty-two countries met at the French resort of Evian. Roosevelt chose not to send a high-level official, such as the secretary of state, to Evian; instead, Myron C. Taylor, a businessman and close friend of Roosevelt's, represented the US at the conference. During the nine-day meeting, delegate after delegate rose to express sympathy for the refugees. But most countries, including the United States and Britain, offered excuses for not letting in more refugees.
Bermuda Conference
Britian international conference between the United Kingdom and the United States held from April 19, 1943, through Aprisl 30, 1943, at Hamilton, Bermuda. The topic of discussion was the question of Jewish refugees who had been liberated by Allied forces and those who still remained in Nazi-occupied Europe. The only agreement made was that the war must be won against the Nazis.
Holocaust Denial/"Denial" (film)
Certain form of anti-semitism Prone to conspiracy theory One of principle areas in which scholars have found a new kind of anti-semitism It dramatises the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel. Professor of holocaust studies who gets a lawsuit again
Raoul Wallenberg
Famous Rescuer Swedish diplomat 1933 found his way into Budapest and through diplomatic means rescues many thousands of people Granted visas, organized hiding places
Vichy
French State (État français) headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. In particular, it represents the southern, unoccupied "Free Zone" (zone libre) that governed the southern part of the country.
War Refugee Board
From the U.S. Vrba-Wetzler Report April 1944 2 people that escaped for Auschwitz Maps of inter workings of the camp Given to head of war refugee board Nothing was done about it established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis powers.
Rabbi Joachim Prinz
German-American rabbi who was outspoken against Nazism and became a Zionist leader.[1] As a young rabbi in Berlin, he was forced to confront the rise of Nazism, and eventually emigrated to the United States in 1937.
Yom ha-Shoah
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its accessories, and for the Jewish resistance in that period.
Yad Vashem
Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to four main goals: preserving the memory of the dead, honouring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need, and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future.
"The Pawnbroker"
It was the first American film to deal with the Holocaust from the viewpoint of a survivor. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, Sol Nazerman (Steiger), a German-Jewish university professor, was dragged to a concentration camp along with his family Now he operates a pawnshop in East Harlem, while living in an anonymous Long Island apartment. Numbed by his experiences, he has worked hard not to experience emotions.
Jan Karski
Jan Karski Report 1942 Member of polish underground Pretends to be a catholic spy and goes into ghetto posing as a jew to collect info Brought info to London and America Karski telegram... "Believe the Unbelievable"
The St. Louis
On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. On the voyage were 937 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. The majority of the Jewish passengers had applied for US visas, and had planned to stay in Cuba only until they could enter the United States. But by the time the St. Louis sailed, there were signs that political conditions in Cuba might keep the passengers from landing there. The US State Department in Washington, the US consulate in Havana, some Jewish organizations, and refugee agencies were all aware of the situation. The passengers themselves were not informed; most were compelled to return to Europe.
"Shoah" (film by Claude Lanzmann)
Over nine hours long and 11 years in the making, the film presents Lanzmann's interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators during visits to German Holocaust sites across Poland, including extermination camps
Pope Pius XII
Phayer- Said he was praying daily, but never said anything about jews, Could have assisted the Zegota with money, could have supported rescue missions; he had a fear the vatican would be obliterated by aerial attacks; he wanted to play the peacemaker during the war so had to act as an independent state and neutral government
Haftling # 174517
Primo Levi's identification in the camp, his number, Haftling means prisoner "we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die"
Musselmen
Primo Levi, "decaying men", there was no life in their eyes, some stopped washing themselves and were just passively living not even trying to survive
Jedwabne
Source by Jan Gross- primary account of what happened: an atrocity committed on July 10, 1941, during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. Described as a massacre or a pogrom by postwar historians, it resulted in the death of at least 340 Polish Jews of all ages, locked in a barn later set on fire. A group of 23 Polish males was involved. Local hooligans not even the Nazi's or gestapo actually committed it
Righteous Gentile
Tec Article, courageous and not dependent on other's approvals but their own. Heterogenous group- 'Righteous Gentiles' is the phrase used for those Polish non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. At Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, over 11,000 'Righteous Gentiles' are honored; almost 5,000 are Polish.
Vrba- Wetzler Report
The Vrba-Wetzler report, also known as the Auschwitz Protocols, the Auschwitz Report and the Auschwitz notebook, is a 40-page document about the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust. Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, two Slovak Jews who escaped from Auschwitz on 10 April 1944, wrote the report by hand or dictated it The Allies had known since November 1942 that Jews were being killed en masse in Auschwitz.[1] The Vrba-Wetzler report was an early attempt to estimate the numbers and the most detailed description of the gas chambers to that point.
Forms of Holocaust Memory
War-Crime Trial Memoir Literature Holocaust Art Museums and Memorials Philosophical
Questions with Bystanders
What did they know? And When did they know it? What was the nature of that knowledge? What's the difference between information and truly understanding that information? - True knowledge requires a different engagement- somehow overcoming denial - Once you overcome denial, how do you begin to understand what is going on What were their options? What could/should they have done? - What is the nature of the responsibility of everyone else What was the role of anti-semitism for them? - To what degree, if at all, do anti-semitic ideas influence them
Meip Gies
Woman who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Anne's father's business premises during World War II. Saved her diary and gave it to her dad
Zegota (Council for Aid to Jews)
codename for the Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945. It operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota's express purpose was to aid the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where, throughout the war, there existed such a dedicated secret organization.