History of Holocaust final exam

Adolf Eichman

"desk murderer" of the final solution - become well known after WW2 was over - escaped to Argentina

first survivor to speak on US television Hanna Kohner

"this is your life" show randomly chooses someone from the audience ands special guests come - her town was first in Czech to get hit by the Germans - her husband went to American and she went to Amsterdam - her and her friend went to a concentration camp and then Auscwhitz together - met up with her brother under ground - worked in a factory - met a US soldier

The treaty of Trianon

- "loser of WW1" battle - Hungary looses its territory - many people blame Jews - have the mentality that they could repeat what Hitler did in their own country

Planned Memorial for Victims of mass shootings in Norway

- "the memory womb" - gash in the middle - something that is gone and can never be replaced

Schindler's list

- 1993 - tells the story of a German going to Poland trying to take advantage of Jews but changes his mind because of treatment - social and cultural phenomenon double perspective: empathy for the victims // moral choices of the bystander

Berlin: Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

- 2,007 stones, all uneven, on a not-flat surface - can walk through - disoriented, alienating feeling leaving people confused and not understanding

Martin Sanberger

- 30 y/o lawyer joined the S.S. - become a judge then an official - led security squads, he is also responsible for killing Jews in the Soviet Union - had connections through law so he did not get death sentence, but did serve jail time

A German Automobile Club has an event at the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds. (1955)

- Europe is divided (west is with he US) - in West Germany, people are willing to rebuild and move on - was a good year economically because of rebuilding

Wewelsburg Castle

- Himmler wanted it to be the center of the "SS" cult - wanted to make it a ritual place for the SS who died

Judenplatz, Vienna

- Holocaust memorial that is meant to be a library - book shelves are faced inwards, but cannot get inside building to place books in - a void that cannot be filled

Olga Lengyl

- Hungarian Jewish surviver - published book in french, first appeared in the US a year later about Hitler's ovens

9/11 memorial

- NYC - 2 reflective pools in each place of the twin towers - water cascades down into a hole that the bottom can not be seen - nothing to do about what caused 9/11 - made for those who lost their lives

1945 - Why are trials important to Jackson?

- Nazi crimes will be judged by the law - this will influence younger generations because forces still could rise again

Hans Globke

- Nazi-era lawyer who wrote important commentary on Nuremberg race laws

Jan Karski

- Polish diplomat - went into warsaw ghetto disguised to see what conditions were like - went into death camps disguised as a ukrainian soldier to se what was going on - came out and shared documents - tried to tell people what happened but too many people believed it was too difficult to

Josef Mengele

- SS officer and doctor, joined in 1938 - 1943 - become SS captain and physician of Auschwitz - unethical ways of treating people

De-Nazification

- US troops force Germans to walk by bodies of slave laborers murdered by the SS - ideology: shock neighbors back into civilization - propoganda/information: put up around Germany, billboards with pictures of corpses

9/11 memorial and memorial in Norway emphasize:

- absence and morn what has been lost - strongly influenced by Holocaust museums

Hoe did ordinary people play a role?

- anyone caught helping jews was subject to death - many people took advantage of German invasion and stole from jews (property and clothes) which was supported by the Germand - ideology that Jews were rich = they had nice things - locals also helped Germans by showing tracks like forest trails or things they have seen when farming

Monument to the Ghetto heroes:

- back side: oppression - front side: heroes / young man in the middle symbolizes liberation and a new beginning

"ordinary men"

- battalion consisted of mostly unexperienced, working class middle aged men - battalion mass murder began in Poland, when they were instructed to round up jews who were able to work and then shoot the remainder - would return and drink to try to forget what happened - were also involved in jew hunts - going in forrest to find those hiding (some chose not to, but those who did, their feelings have changed against jews - were now making jokes rather than being upset)

Elie Wiesel hated the miniseries because:

- believed the Holocaust was its own place in history - people could analyze, research, and read about it, but will never understand the of it - no way to communicate the horror of the camps - believes it "cheapens" the memory of the Holocaust because there are commercials and ads, but also can never be fully reproduced because of the horror that actually took place (actors will starve to death and will not see their children die to play a role) - worried that people would think the Holocaust was functional because of how inaccurate the film was

John Demjanjuk

- born Ukrain - people identify him as a guard from Treblinka - was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and was sent to Isreal for trial - had reasonable doubt, so he was released. - documents later revealed he was a guard in another camp, he died in Germany waiting for his appeal

Soviet War Memorial Treptower Park, Berlin

- central figure: soviet soldier holding a baby in 1 hand and crushing Nazi flag in another - top has quotes of Joseph Stalin - pays tribute to being Nazi's

Communist Era Memorial at Buchenwald Concentration Camp

- communists and socialists

lively debate about what America could and couldn't do to help the jews

- could they be more productive - should more information be publicized sooner? - could US bomb rail lines to Auschwitz

Samantha Power

- current US ambassador to the United Nations - says US should stop Genocide (moral duties beyond politics) - has the idea that genocide is a crime so destructive people should feel obligated to put a stop to it - if we dont stop, we are all accessories

Marine Corps War memorial

- either at battle sights or cemeteries to resemble heroes

The Central Committee of Jews in Poland

- established in 1944 to provide care and aid for all Polish Jews who served the Holocaust

Father Charles Coughlin

- first in the US discovering having a radio show based off of propaganda - he accuses banks of destroying empires - role model: Nazi Germany because they are powerful - blamed everything jews went through on them - racist and early opressed jews

Primo Levi

- forced laborer at Auchswitz then survived and went back to Italy - after publishing book: first major statement about experiences in camps

Hearing of Industrialists

- former Nazi party members in a line at a US military office, awaiting their "de-nazification" procedure - trial to see how much they believed in Nazism, and how they were involved in the party in the past

Zofia Kossak-Szczuczka

- founding member of Zegota - believed Jews had too much prominence - upset with countries for presenting bad morals - catholic contradictions: - "germans should be killed" - jews are still responsible for economic war

The fact that survivors were speaking in a court room and backed by law:

- gave survivors a platform of people who would actually listen and show interest in their stories - moral authority - power of their experiences - showed what they went through meant something

"The Era of the Witness" testimony of Ada Lichtman

- germans invaded where she lived - she ran after the trucks and into a forrest where they found dead bodies who have been shot - jews were pulled from their homes, old and sick were shot - saw germans drive to jew religious places and make the jews pray, while pouring kerosene on them and lighting them on fire - also saw them shoot a grandfather holding a child who could not yet walk

Anti-semitism in "Ordinary Men"

- had a bad impression of Jews, but no hatred enough to kill - tried to down play Nazi ideology and beliefs once Holocaust was over - Jews are still a threat and cause of war, Germany was just trying to think of ways to keep their country safe

Kurt Daluege

- head of order police - joined S.S. and was very loyal to hitler

Sheltering Jews difficulties:

- how does one maintain food for more people? (everyones food was rationed) and neighbors were watching - what happens if they got sick? - people are willing to rat on others to make themselves look better

Adlof Eichmann Trial

- in 1961, had 16 charges - in every account, he was "following orders" so he could not be found guilty - way he was found guilty: witnesses and survivors told stories during his trial - executed - emphasized Jew racism as a central feature - his case was used as a platform for survivors

Otto Ohlendorf

- in WW2 he was 30 - just finished his education - joined Nazi party and become and economic expert - wanted to figure out how Germany would be okay after the war - also commander of killing squads - killed 90,000 jews

Solution of Big legal problem in Victor's justice

- international law trumps national law -possible to obey your countries law with breaking international law

Berlin: Jewish Museum

- jagged edges on walls and ceilings = violence - inside - filled with empty spaces randomly that can not be filled - many rooms that make people feel uncomfortable and disturbed

Cover of "Der Speigel"

- magazine in 1979 - tried to personalize characters - miniseries had an emotional impact and locals were trying to figure out what happened in their town and to their families during the holocaust

Yizkor-bikher

- memorial books of destroyed Jewish communities in Eastern Europe - tried to describe how life was before Germans came

Bebelplatz, Berlin

- memorial to Nazi book burning - see through underground square of empty book shelves - always will be empty - constant reminder there is nothing you can do to replace these books - when seeing, can only think about why its empty

"global memory"

- memory that is core to people and the societies effected - meant to have a liberal set of values Germany is now a democracy -> Holocaust created civilized humans again - mandated to be taught in school because they believed it was crucial to formation of future generations

The S.S.

- political police - understood what their crimes were but fought them anyway because of Nazi ideology - had no restrictions - full of highly educated people who were chosen to apply big general concepts to small instances - discussed food supply and German economics

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise

- president of World Jewish congress - tried to spread info about the killing of 2 million jews - many did not believe him

"I am referring... to the extermination of the Jewish people. This... is easily said. ... Most of you men know what it is like to see 100 corpses side by side, or 500, or 1000. To have stood fast through this - and except for cases of human weakness - to have stayed decent - that has made us hard."

- quote from Himmler about murderous "objectivity" - decent = professional - no one argued Nazi ideology

The Order Police

- regular policemen before WW2 began - when SS came in, they would move the policemen and put them in different countries so they could maintain peace and order

Minsk: Pit

- remembrance of Jews, became a space to grieve and Mourn

President Jimmy Carter establishes U.S. Holocaust Commission (1979)

- results in the finding of the US memorial museum - goal of museum: tries to explain why and how it happened, to educate, but also to remember the victims

Henry Morgenthau Jr.

- secretary of treasury wants to be more active - reports that America is not doing enough - urged FDR that they have to take more aggressive action adjacent nazi's in january 1944 - FDR tried to negotiate but it was underfunded

Important part of Ada Lichtmans testimony:

- spoke in Yiddish, the language of the Holocaust - introduced another rupture - not only did she tell her survival story, but also how many others were killed

Reichskommissar Erick Kock

- top Nazi official in Ukraine - had very clear ideas about how Ukraines can work - though Ukraine only existed to help Germany with food and living space

Hungarian Fascistis

- tried to convince that Jews were from the outside - businesses should be owned by the Hungarian Christians - municipal orders discriminated against Jews

German police in Holocaust

- would go in Jews houses looking for contraband and resistance methods - were not trained to fight - older men from working class - did what they were asked because there would be punishment if not - if you killed on behalf of someone else, you were only an accessory

America was significant in the holocaust because:

1. American troops liberated camps and exposed truths 2. acknowledged that at the time, the US did not do as much as they could've

Architects of the Final Solution

1. Heinrich Himmler 2. Reinhard Heydrich

All Jews needed shelter for winter, 2 types:

1. actually leaving them in houses and 2. stereotypical factors (language and appearance)

Why was Yizkor-bikher not apart of Holocaust literature?

1. in order for there to be an understanding of history, audience has to understand what they're being told which did not exit until after 1945 because the activities were internal to Jews 2. no general audience for concentration camp survivors 3. most testimonies were written in Yiddish and killed by Nazi's

Star Trek holocaust episode:

1. racism was the central focus 2. important show on social media

Browns attempt to answer the question: "how to ordinary men create these crimes"

1. soldiers seek revenge on their enemy 2. dehumanizing jews became a routine

2 myths that motivated the German killers

1. the SS was made up of marginal (exceptionally twisted) people 2. ordinary Germans were simply following orders (wrong place wrong time, had to follow)

Refugees on the St. Louis

1st stop: Cuba - turned away 2nd stop: the kinder transport - after kristallnacht - arrival of jewish refugee children in London - recognize we London cannot provide for them, but there is a humanitarian problem - solution: compromise with Britain: America will take in only children so they won't need to take jobs 3rd stop: conference of Evian - FDR called to talk to France about refugees - US was more unwilling to take in refugees and did not have money for them

"The Era of the Witness"

3 phases in the evolution 1. testimonies from those who did not survive but somehow managed to record their experiences 2. Eichman trial 3. era of the witnesses - deepens our understanding of history of the holocaust

SS commandants of death camps

Auschwitz: Rudolph Hoess Treblinka: Franz Stangl

After was, how was the SS looked at?

Germans moved from praising S.S. to grouping them as different

Nazi plans for Ukraine after famine:

Germans though they finally had the chance to grow their empire - the center of Ukraine there would be plantations that slaves would maintain and farm

Holocaust memorials in Germany were placed in places where:

Germany could think about what they did and what they lost

top Hungarian collaborators:

Lazlo Endre, Andor Jaross - determined plans for Jews: how to schedule there deportation, rules they have to follow (ordered to wear yellow stars so they could be identified and were put into ghettos), took their property and valuables from inside the house

What did Miniseries represent and what did it open the floor to?

Mini series represented how the Holocaust happened and what it is // this opened the floor for Americans to speak about it

What side of Germany does US want as an ally and why?

West Germany - to fight communism

genocide

acts with intent to destroy

DEGOB

an organization to help Hungarian camp survivors

Szmalcownik

blackmails - people who threatened others to turn Jews into Germans for money

Big legal problem: Victor's Justice?

cannot be punished if they did not break a law - germany pointed out that at the time nothing was illegal

biggest problems with jewish immigration:

countries were not willing to take them - time period: 1930's - during the great depression 1. german jews would come into America and taking jobs - relates to high unemployment rates - "unamericans" were taking jobs from "real americans" 2. anti-semitism - even if they were assimilated, they were still foreign - jews would bring alien values 3. there were not a few americans who admired Hitler is a strong way - rebuilt army, through he was a good leader - didn't want jews to come in and cause unnecessary problems with Hitler - in everyone's best interest to keep the peace

The Horror of Collectivization

famine in Ukraine

Trawniki guards

guards who shot jews to get them on trains - possibility of moving up as a guard

Why was the SS attractive to young men?

joining meant putting your careers on a fast track and getting further in life easier

main thing SS does in front of citizens:

normalize dehumanization, show people that this is normal and okay

International Military Tribunal / trial against the "Highest criminals"

on trial with 4 judges and researchers from the 4 victorious powers - US helped 12 trials against people in the killing squads

Miniseries

plot: sees Jews planning Kristallnacht // civilians must take part to "express how they fee;" // no uniforms // police could not take part - starts right before the Nuremberg laws - many survivors came forward after mini series and told their stories because they were misinterpreted

Most dangerous activity for locals:

sheltering Jews

Themes of most memorials:

voids can not be replaced // reflection on how to think/talk/represent the Holocaust has ripple effect on how we memorialize

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." L.P. Hartley

what seemed normal once, is not normal now

"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana

when we see signs of genocide, we should notice and be able to prevent it