World War II and the "Jewish Problem"

Paul Celan

1920-1970 Romanian poet. his parents were deported and killed. He had to do forced labor, managed to find scraps of paper and wrote on them, would mail the scraps.. After the war, he was troubled, in and out of pyschiatric hospital, eventually moved to France. He read Kafka's short stories, and in the margins he would write comments: "If only people could come, I could almost begin anew." He wrote poetry in German, which is very interesting given his situation/Jewish heritage (he called poetry "a message in a bottle, wash up on a heartland perhaps"), and in his poetry which we read in class ("Todesfuge" or "Death Fuge") he refers to the Shema Israel, which is the Holy prayer, said 3x a day and the last words on your lips before you die. In the end he committed suicide.

Father Patrick Desbois

A French priest who made it his mission to find eyewitnesses in order to locate the mass graves in Ukraine (estimated 1.2 million people died there, and there was not a single marking). (used archeology and geology tools to find some of these mass graves). Interested because his grandfather was a French soldier sent to concentration camp--became further interested when he studied at Yad-Vishem. The stories that Desbois found out through the interviews are important because they challenge our ideas about "bystanders"--he heard about young Ukrainian children who were forced to stand and keep watch over the Jews, even run over the bodies to push them down. Were they really bystanders, if they were scarred from these experiences? The Documentary about finding graves called, Holocaust by Bullets

Chelmno

First was a town in Poland, then chosen as a place for the first concentration camp (this is important, because for functionalists, Chelmno would be the modified solution to the growing Jewish problem, especially after the Nazis inherited all of the Polish Jews... Heydrich may finally implement his "final Solution"). Open from 1941-1945, built as a place to send the Jews from the Lodz ghetto. Estimated that 180,000 Jews were killed there.

Einsatzgruppen

German word meaning "task force." This group went into invaded areas (Poland especially) and went through town by town killing as many civilians as they could. They targeted priests and professors especially. Estimated that they killed 2 million people (1.3 million Jews). Began operations in Sept/Oct of 1939.

Wannsee Conference

Meeting of highest Nazi officials on Jan 20, 1942, called by Heydrich. This was NOT a policy setting meeting, because the mass killing had already begun. More of a meeting in order to coordinate, emphasize the fact that they do not want the strongest to survive, and that all of this must be done as quickly as possible. Title of the conference comes from the street that the house where the conference was held was located.

Margarete and Shulamith

Poem by Paul Celan who never recovered from his time at a Romanian camp. He only wrote in German about his Holocaust experience. Margareta has blond hair blue eyes while Shulamith (Hebrew bible name) has dark hair. Begins with "Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening." It was an attempt to represent non-stop killing.

Intentionalists

The idea that from the very beginning, the Nazis were determined to kill all of the Jews. Emphasizes Hitler's role as main guy. Theory supported by Lucy Dawidowicz. These theories and the confusion surrounding them stem from the fact that there is no "smoking gun" pointing to Hitler.

The Madagascar Plan

The idea that they way the Germans were killing Jews- in mass shootings, or in the backs of vans- wasted too many bullets and was too emotionally scarring. Therefore, plan was proposed in 1940 to relocate all of the Jews to Madagascar. Also in support of the functionlists idea, because it shows that the Nazi party was trying out lots of different methods for taking care of the "Jewish Problem."

Functionalists

This theory is what is more commonly thought to be true by historians today. De-emphasizes Hitler's role in the Holocaust, instead focuses on the Nazis' movement, how they kept their plans fluid regarding the "Jewish Problem." They did not start out with the idea that they were going to have concentration camps/mass killings. This theory supported by Hans Mommsen.

Lucy Dawidowicz

born in NY, not a religious Jew, but was fascinated by Jewish history in college. In 1939 she goes to Vilna and studies at YIVO, becoming good friends with the director. Luckily leaves in August, avoids German occupation. But a lot of her YIVO friends die in the war. In 1946 she travels back to Europe to collect as much of the Jewish history/letters as possible. She argues the INTENTIONALIST idea.

Lebensraum

the idea that a superior race needs lots of living space. Idea held by Nazis/ Germans, who wanted to expand their own territory (Germany) beyond the borders which were dictated by the Treaty of Versailles (big point for Hitler) and used it as reason for displacement and eventual extermination of the Jews.

Herschel Grynszpan

A Polish Jew, assassinated the Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath. He did this in response to the treatment of Jews--Poland very anti-semitic, wants to keep them out. Because of conditions, many Jews leave Poland and go to Germany to find work. But Germany doesn't want the Jews either, so they give them a deadline that they have to leave by. All these Jews rush to go back to Poland. But Polish leader nulls these Jews' citizenship, so they are stuck at the border between Poland and Germany, essentially with citizenship to neither, and no one wants them. Grynszpan's parents/family were one of these families held at the border, so he kills the Nazi for revenge. He wanted the whole world to know. But the Nazi leaders used this to extend/promote Jewish persecution, and was the cause of KRISTALNACHT.