Unit II: READING #22
ABOUT THE flEW
Adolf Hitler
The Jewish people, despite all apparentintellectual qualities, is without any true
culture, and especially without any culture of its own.For what sham culture the Jew today possesses is theproperty of other peoples, and for the most part it isruined in his bands.
Thus, the Jew lacks those qualities whichdistinguish the races that are creative and henceculturally blessed.
The Jew never possessed a state with definiteterritorial limits and therefore never called a culturehis own...
He is, and remains, the typical parasite, asponger who like a noxious bacillus keeps spreading
DISCUSSION/QUESTIONS
as soon as a favorable medium invites him. And theeffect of his existence is also like that of spongers:wherever he appears, the host people dies out after ashorter or longer period.
Thus, the Jew of all times has lived in the statesof other peoples, and there formed his own state,which, to be sure, habitually sailed under thedisguise of âreligious communityâ as long as outwardcircumstances made a complete revelation of hisnature seem inadvisable. But as soon as he felt strongenough to do without the protective cloak, he alwaysdropped the veil and suddenly became what so manyof the others previously did not want to believe andsee: the Jew.
222 Learn about Hitler and his theories. The last document writen by the Fuhrer just before his death was a plea tothe German people to carry on the âstruggleâ against the Jews. The document that brought his philospophy tothe attention of the world twenty years earlier. Mein Kampf (my Struggle), also uses that term in its title. Why didHitler view the world in terms of struggle? What does that suggest about the individual? What were his racialtheories? How did he become convinced that the Jews were the source of all evil? Relate these theories to theconcept of scapegoating. What events in Hitlerâs own life may have created the need for a scapegoat?
Source: Chartock, Rose lIe and Jack Spencer Eds. The Holocaust Years: Society on Trial. New York: Bantam Books, 1978.
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit III: READING #21
V\/ I lAf THE NAZIS BELIEi ED
What was so attractive about Nazism? Before answering that,we must first understand what the Nazis believed.
As one author has stated, âNazism is an attitude towards life.â
1. The Nazis valued the community rather than the individual.
A. The overall goal was unity; as Hitler stated: âthe preservation and fostering of living beings who arephysically and mentally alike.â
B. As befits the term âtotalitarian,â the state would largely control the life of the citizen. As Robert Leyput it, âour state never releases the human being from the cradle to the grave.â Individuals were tobe measured by their usefulness to the state.
C. These values were supported by the words of others in German history. The philosopher Hegel hadsaid, âEverything that man is, he owes to the state ... all value which man has, all spiritual reality,he only has through the state.â
II. The Nazis valued authority and order.
A. Democracy as a workable system was dead. The people needed a mystical savior to lead them. Hitlerwas their charismatic salvation. He was âDer Fuhrer.â
B. When the Nazis went to the people, they gave âthe whole people an opportunity to demonstrate andproclaim its support of an aim announced by the Fuhrer.â The Fuhrer was infallible. He gave thelaws to Germany.
C. As one Nazi stated, âThe National Socialists believe in Hitler who embodies their will...Only what 315Adolf Hitler, our Fuhrer, allows or does not allow is our conscience.â âIn thy service is perfectfreedom
D. The Nazis quoted the German writer Goethe, âI would rather commit an injustice than enduredisorder.â Thus, the emphasis was placed on order, control, discipline, duty, and sacrifice. âThroughthe door of death we enter the door of true life.... He who does not risk his life to gain it ever anewis already dead, though he still breathes, eats, and drinks. Death is only a departure for the sake ofa higher life. We are born to die for Germany.â
E. To justify Hitlerâs decision making, the Nazis quoted Gerhart Hauptmann. âIf only life would demandno more solutions from us,â Since people did not want to make decisions. Hitler would do it forthem.
Ill. The Nazis valued the concept of a select race.
A. The Germans were a superior race, a group they called the Aryan race.B. Germany was destined to lead the world. Nature and fate would produce events to make this
happen. The Aryan people would need more territory in which to grow. This desire to expandGerman boundaries was called Lebensraum,
C. Only those of true German blood could be citizens. The Nazis called them the Volk. Concern for theVolk lead to a glorification of German âancestry.â Great Germans of the past, from Beethoven toWagner, were honored. The Nazis studied Teutonic mythology and took pride in the heroic exploitsof their ancestors. Praising the past led to an admiration for the medieval peasant. The peasantvirtues of simplicity, honesty, and physical labor were glorified.
D. As a result, Nazi education emphasized German history, biology, and physical education.E. One of the favorite images of the Nazis was the German painter Albrecht Durerâs âThe Knight,
Source: Furman, Harry, Ed. The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983.
Unit III: READING #21
Death, and The Devil.â The Nazis saw themselves as heroic, loyal, and racially pure knights of theRound Table searching for the Holy Grail.
F. The Aryans would produce a Golden Age, a millennium which they called the âThird Reich.â TheFirst Reich was the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick Barbarossa, the Second Reich was under Ottovon Bismarck. The Third Reich would last a thousand years.
IV. The Nazis saw politics as a religion.
A. Hitler was looked upon as someone greater than Jesus.B. Acts against the state would be immoral in almost a religious sense.C. Nazism became a mission: âThe Reich must direct the life of nations, individuals, and states. The
Reich signifies a mission.â
V. The Nazis valued emotion more than reason.
A. Thinking was criticized. A person should act spontaneously and directly.B. The Nazis referred to the educated middle class as âacrobats of the intellect,â âintelligent beasts with
paralysis of the spine,â and âhothouse plants incapable of achievement.â Hitler called them ârejectsof nature.â An SS paper stated that l.Q. was inversely proportional to male fertility. âIntellectualsvalidate their claim to existence within the community by a paucity of children.â
C. The Nazis emphasized physical force and strength. Sports were important to develop the body toserve the state. As one Nazi stated, âA young man who works with a spade for six months on thewestern fortifications has done more for Germany than an intellectual has done during his wholelife.â
D. War was the ultimate expression of manâs capacity for sacrifice, courage, and greatness. âThemeasure of the strength of a people is always and exclusively its readiness for military conflict.â
VI. The Nazis believed in the use of the âbig lieâ to manipulate people. As Hitler wrote, âA definitefactor in getting a lie believed is the size of the lie. The broad mass of the people, in the simplicity oftheir hearts, more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one.â
316 VII. The Nazis were strong nationalists.
A. The Nazis used incited appeals to German patriotism. Germany was a nation wronged by history.B. To return to its rightful place, Germany should disregard any sense of âmoralityâ in international
life. They opposed German participation in any peace organizations such as the League of Nations.C. The Nazis were critical of all people except those of the âVolk.â The Poles were -racial anti-typesâ; the
British were worshippers of Mammon. Of the United States, Hitler stated, âOne Beethoven symphonycontains more culture than America has produced in her whole history.â To Hitler, America was aPhilistine, mongrelized community descended from convicts and the unwanted dregs of society. TheRussians were just above the Jews.
VIII. The Nazis had a strong belief in the traditional family.
A. The family was âthe germ cell of the state.âB. Women were not equal to men. Their purpose: Kindersagen, to be blessed with children. Women
were encouraged not to wear make-up (which was considered a conspiracy of the Jews) or pants.C. Women were encouraged to have many children. The display of contraceptives and their
advertisement would be banned, and birth control clinics would be closed. Abortions were calledâacts of sabotage against Germanyâs racial future,â and strict penalties would be given to doctorsperforming them. Men were encouraged to be adulterous if their wives were barren.
D. The Nazis, like many in the early twentieth century, were interested in eugenics. To prevent thespread of âbad genes,â the Nazis would recommend the sterilization of those suffering from physicalmalformation, mental retardation, epilepsy, deafness, and blindness.
Source: Furman, Harry, Ed. The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983.
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit III: READING #21
Advocated by Nazis Opposed by Naziscommunity democracyunity equalitythe fuhrer individual freedommysticism Jewssalvation thinkingcharisma peaceorder internationalismdiscipline Marxism/Communismduty rationalismsacrifice a passive Jesusconformity modernityAryan birth controlblood integration of racesdestiny conscienceVolk intellectualLebensraum inquiryphysical labor abstract artheroismsense of missionstrengthwarpatriotism/nationalismSocial Darwinismmale dominanceforce/violenceeugenicscontrol
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
How do you feel about judging the value of someone by examining his or her usefulness to you?
2. What did the Nazis believe about the average personâs desire to make political decisions? Are theyright?
3. Why were the Nazis so critical of intellectuals? Is the development of the mind or the body moreimportant?
4. Do you think the values expressed by the Nazis were very unusual in their day? Discuss.
5. The following statement was made by Theodore Roosevelt in the early twentieth century:
Some day we wi11 realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizens of the right type isto leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type. The great problem of civilization is to secure a relative increase of thevaluable as compared with the less valuable or noxious elements in the population... The problem cannotbe met unless we give full consideration to the immense influence of heredity...! wish very much that thewrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people issufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feebleminded personsforbidden to leave off-spring behind them...The emphasis should be laid on getting desirable people tobreed.
What values are indicated by the statement? Do you agree with the statement?
6. What kind of society is created that downplays the role of morality and conscience?
Source: Furman, Harry, Ed. The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.New York: Anti.Defamation League, 1983.
Unit II: READING #21
(2ANONICAL AND NAZ][
ANTMEV\iISH MEASURES
Raul Hi/berg
Destruction of the European Jews
1â Canonical (Church) LawĂ· Nazi Measure
t Prohibition of intermarriage and of sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews, Synod of Elvira, 306Ă· Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, September 15, 1935
t Jews and Christians not permitted to eat together, Synod of Elvira, 306+ Jews barred from dining cars (Transport Minister to Interior Minister, December 30, 1939)
t Jews not allowed to hold public office, Synod of Clermont, 535+ Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service, April 7, 1933
t Jews not allowed to employ Christian servants or possess Christian slaves, 3d Synod of Orleans, 538Ă· Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, September 15, 1935
11â Jews not permitted to show themselves in the streets during Passion Week, 3d Synod of Orleans, 538 219+ Decree authorizing local authorities to bar Jews from the streets on certain days (i.e. Nazi holidays),
December 3, 1938
âiiâ Burning of the Talmud and other books, 12th Synod of Toledo, 681Ă· Book burnings in Nazi Germany
t Christians not permitted to patronize Jewish doctors, Trulanic Synod, 692-F Decree of July 25,1938
t Christians not permitted to live in Jewish homes, Synod of Narbonne, 1050+ Directive by Goring providing for concentration of Jews in houses, Dec. 28, 1938
1i Jews obliged to pay taxes for support of the Church to the same extent as Christians, Synod of Gerona,1073
-I- The âSozialausgleichsabgabeâ which provided that Jews pay a special income tax in lieu of donations forParty purposes imposed by Nazis, Dec. 24, 1940
t Jews not permitted to be plaintiffs, or witnesses against Christians in the Courts, 3d Lateran Council,1179
Ă· Proposal by the Party Chancellery that Jews not be permitted to institute civil suits, September 9, 1942
Source: Hilberg, Paul. âCanonical and Nazi Anti-Jewish Measures,â and âPre-Nazi and Nazi, Anti-Jewish Measures.â The Destruction oithe European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1985.
Unit II: READING #21
1â Jews not permitted to withhold inheritance from descendants who had accepted Christianity,
3d Lateran Council, 2179
+ Decree empowering the Justice Ministry to void wills offending the âsound judgment of the people,â
July 31, 1938
t The marking of Jewish clothes with a badge, 4th Lateran Council. 1215, Cason 68 (Copied from the
legislation by Caliph Omar 11(634-44), who had decreed that Christians wear blue belts and Jews,
yellow belts.)Ă· Decree of September 1, 1941
t Construction of new synagogues prohibited, Council of Oxford, 1722
+ Destruction of synagogues in entire Reich, November 10, 1938
t Christians not permitted to attend Jewish ceremonies, Synod of Vienna, 1267
+ Friendly relations with Jews prohibited, October 24, 1941
t Jews not permitted to dispute with simple Christian people about the tenets of the Catholic religion,
Synod of Vienna, 1267
Iiâ Compulsory ghettos, Synod of Breslau, 1267
-I- Order by Heydrich, September 21, 1939
1 Christians not permitted to sell or rent real estate to Jews, Synod of Ofen, 1279
Ă· Decree providing for compulsory sale of Jewish real estate, December 3, 1938
t Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion or return by a baptized Jew to the Jewish religion defined
as heresy, Synod of Mainz, 1310
Ă· Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion places him in jeopardy of being treated as a Jew, June 26,
220 1942
t Sale or transfer of Church articles to Jews prohibited, Synod of Lavour, 1368
t Jews not permitted to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians, especially
marriage contracts, Council of Basel, 1434
+ Decree of July 6, 1938, providing for liquidation of Jewish real estate agencies, brokerage agencies, and
marriage agencies to non-Jews.
t Jews not permitted to obtain academic degrees, Council of Basel, 1434
Ă· Law against overcrowding of German schools and universities, April 25,1 933
QUESTIONS:What does the comparison between Church Law and Nazi Measures help us understand?
2. Which laws do you think were the most damaging to the Jews? Why?3. At what point would you have realized that the Nazi Measures were getting to a serious level?
What would you have done? What would you do today?4. Which items in our Bill of Rights or in our Constitution protect us from these measures?
Source: Hilberg, Raul. âCanonical and Nazi Anti-Jewish Measures,â and âPre-Nazi and Nazi Anti-Jewish Measures.â The Destruction of
the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1985.
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit II: READING #21
PRiNA2I Ai\Tt
NAZI ANTH1EWISHr Aâiâ I\ fl1(
U 1J
PREâNAZI STATE DEVELOPMENT
Per capita protection tax (der goidne Opferplennig)
imposed upon Jews by King Ludwig the Bavarian,
13281337
NAZI MEASURE
221
The property of Jews slain in a German city 13th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law
considered as public property, âbecause the Jews providing that the property of a Jew be confiscated
with their possessions belong to the Reich after his death, July 1, 1943
chamber,â provision in the 14th-century code
Regu/aejuris âAddecusâ
Confiscation of Jewish claims against Christian 11th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law,
debtors at the end of the 14th-century in November 25, 1941
Nuremberg
âFinesâ: for example, the Regensburg fine for Decree for the âAtonement Paymentâ by the Jews,
âkilling Christian child,â 1421 November 12, 1938
Marking of documents and personal papers Decree providing for identification cards, July 23,
identifying possessor or bearer as a Jew 1938 (RGB I 1, 922.)
Decree providing for marking of passports, October
5, 1938
Marking of houses, special shopping hours, and Marking of Jewish apartments, April 17, 1942.
restrictions of movement, 1 7th century, Frankfurt Decree providing for movement restrictions,
September 1, 1941
Compulsory Jewish names in 19th-century Decree of January 5, 1937
bureaucratic practice Decree of August 17. 1938
Source: Furman Harry, Ed. The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students. New York: Anti-
Defamation League, 1983.
The Nuremberg Laws
A conference of ministers was held on August 20, 1935, to discuss the economic effectsof Party actions against Jews. Adolf Wagner, the Party representative at the conference,argued that such actions would cease, once the Government decided on a firm policyagainst the Jews.
Dr. Schacht, the Economics Minister, criticized arbitrary behavior by Party members asthis inhibited his policy of rebuilding Germanyâs economy. It made no economic sensesince Jews had certain entrepreneurial skills that could be usefully employed to furtherhis policies. Schacht made no moral condemnation of Jewish policy and advocated thepassing of legislation to clarify the situation.
The following month two measures were announced at the annual Party Rally inNuremberg, becoming known as the Nuremberg Laws. Both measures were hastilyimprovised (there was even a shortage of drafting paper so that menu cards had to beused) and Jewish experts from the Ministry of the Interior were ordered to Nuremberg byplane.
The first law, The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,prohibited marriages and extra-marital intercourse between âJews â (the name was nowofficially used in place of ânon-Aryans â) and âGermans â and also the employment ofâGerman â females under forty-five in Jewish households. The second law, The ReichCitizenship Law, stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a newdistinction between âReich citizens âand ânationals.â
The Nuremberg Laws by their general nature formalized the unofficial and particularmeasures taken against Jews up to 1935. The Nazi leaders made a point of stressing theconsistency of this legislation with the Party program which demanded that Jews shouldbe deprived of their rights as citizens.
The Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race:September 15, 1935
The Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
THE REICHSTAG HAS ADOPTED by unanimous vote the following law which isherewith promulgated.
ARTICLE 1.(1) A subject of the state is one who belongs to the protective union of the German Reich,and who, therefore, has specific obligations to the Reich.(2) The status of subject is to be acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reichand the state Citizenship Law.ARTICLE 2.(1) A citizen of the Reich may be only one who is of German or kindred blood, and who,
through his behavior, shows that he is both desirous and personally fit to serve loyally theGerman people and the Reich.(2) The right to citizenship is obtained by the grant of Reich citizenship papers.(3) Only the citizen of the Reich may enjoy full political rights in consonance with theprovisions of the laws.ARTICLE 3. The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to theFuehrer. will issue the required legal and administrative decrees for the implementationand amplification of this law.Promulgated: September 16, 1935. In force:
September 30, 1935.
First Supplementary Decree of November 14, 1935On the basis of Article III of the Reich Citizenship Law ofSeptember 15, 1935, the following is hereby decreed:
ARTICLE 1.(1) Until further provisions concerning citizenship papers, all subjects of German orkindred blood who possessed the right to vote in the Reichstag elections when theCitizenship Law came into effect, shall, for the present, possess the rights of Reichcitizens. The same shall be true of those upon whom the Reich Minister of the Interior,in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer shall confer citizenship.(2) The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer,may revoke citizenship.
ARTICLE 2.(1) The provisions of Article I shall apply also to subjects who are of mixed Jewishblood.(2) An individual of mixed Jewish blood is one who is descended from one or twograndparents who, racially, were full Jews, insofar that he is not a Jew according toSection 2 of Article 5. Full-blooded Jewish grandparents are those who belonged to theJewish religious community.ARTICLE 3. Only citizens of the Reich, as bearers of full political rights, can exercisethe right of voting in political matters, and have the right to hold public office. The ReichMinister of the Interior, or any agency he empowers, can make exceptions during thetransition period on the matter of holding public office. The measures do not apply tomatters concerning religious organizations.
ARTICLE 4.(1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote; hecannot hold public office.(2) Jewish officials will be retired as of December 31, 1935. In the event that suchofficials served at the front in the World War either for Germany or her allies, they shallreceive as pension. until they reach the age limit. the full salary last received, on the basisof which their pension would have been computed. They shall not, however, bepromoted according to their seniority in rank. When they reach the age limit, theirpension will be computed again, according to the salary last received on which their
pension was to be calculated.(3) These provisions do not concern the affairs of religious organizations.(4) The conditions regarding service of teachers in public Jewish schools remainsunchanged until the promulgation of new laws on the Jewish school system.
ARTICLE 5(1) A Jew is an individual who is descended from at least three grandparents who were,racially, full Jews...(2) A Jew is also an individual who is descended from two full-Jewish grandparents if:
(a) he was a member of the Jewish religious community when this law was issued, orjoined the community later;
(b) when the law was issued, he was married to a person who was a Jew, or wassubsequently married to a Jew;
(c) he is the issue from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, which wascontracted after the coming into effect of the Law for the Protection of German Bloodand Honor of September 15, 1935;
(d) he is the issue of an extramarital relationship with a Jew, in the sense of Section I,and was born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.
ARTICLE 6.(1) Insofar as there are, in the laws of the Reich or in the decrees of the National SocialistGerman Workersâ Party and its affiliates, certain requirements for the purity of Germanblood which extend beyond Article 5, the same remain untouched....
ARTICLE 7. The Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich is empowered to release anyonefrom the provisions of these administrative decrees.
Unit IV: READING #9
tFHF NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS
Gerald Green
On November 4 1938, Ernst Vom Roth, a member of the German Embassy in Paris, was assassinated
by Herschel Grynszpan, a young Polish Jew. Grynszpan had received a letter from his sister in which
she stated that the Grynszpan family, together with all Polish Jews living in Germany, had beenarrested and deported to Poland. Seeking revenge for the suffering of his family, Grynszpan, who was17 years old, bought a hand gun, went to the German Embassy, and shot Vom Rath, who later died.
Supposedly in retaliation, the Nazis determined that all places of Jewish worship in Germany andAustria were to be destroyed. In reality, plans for such a riot had been made long before, and only
awaited the appropriate moment for execution. Thus, on November 9. 1938, a âspontaneousâ
demonstration of anger was carried out. In fifteen hours, 101 synagogues were destroyed by fire, and
seventy-six others were demolished. Seventy-five hundred Jewish-owned stores were destroyed. The
streets were filled with broken glass; thus the name given to this event was Kristallnacht, or âThe Night
of Broken Glass.â Then the government decided that the Jews would have to pay an âatonement
paymentâ for having caused the damage. Millions of dollars had to be paid by the Jews and theirinsurance companies to the Nazi government. A new stage In the process of death had begun. Thefollowing selection is taken from the docunovel Holocaust by Gerald Green. Although the charactersmay be fictional, the story is true.
The world now knows it as Kristallnachtâthenight of broken glass. It marked the true
beginning of the destruction of our people. I saw it;I was in the midst of it..,
The cowardly bastards came down the street onwhich Grandpa had his bookstore. Smashedwindows. Burned merchandise. Beat up any Jew theycould lay their hands on. Two men who tried to fightback were beaten to death on the spot âMr. Cohen,the furrier, and Mr. Seligman, who ran a dry-goodsshop.
They broke the window with the gold lettering:H. PALITZ BOOKSTORE. Grandpa was a tough oldbird. Like my mother, he was convincedâeven at thislate date!âthat he was a better German than theywere, that his Iron Cross would protect him, thatsome miracle from Heaven would make them go away
So he came out of the store waving his cane,after the first brick had shattered the glass, andshouted at them to go away. The mob answered bythrowing his books into the streetârare editions, oldmaps, everythingâand setting them afire. They calledhim an old kike, knocked him down, beat his backwith canes.
He kept protesting that he was Captain HeinrichPalitz, formerly of the Second Berlin Machine GunRegiment. It made them angrier. My grandmother
looked from the window, screaming for the police.Three Berlin policemen stood on the far corner andwatched as the gang, seven or eight, knockedGrandpa down again and again, turned his head intoa bloody pulp, ripped his jacket off.
One of them made him get on all fours and rodehim, as if he were a horse.
Then he saw Heinz MuIIer...Factory worker,union man, he was some kind of minor official in thelocal Nazi Party now. He was in civilian clothing,leading a singing gang. As usual, the Horst Wesselsong. They wanted Jewish blood.
They dragged Grandpa to his feetâthe policewere still watching, smiling those flat, cold smilesâand Muller handed my grandfather a toy drum.
âYouâre such a fâ war hero, Palitz,â Muller said.âLead the parade. Beat the drum, you old Jew liar.â
Behind grandfather were a half-dozen otherJewish store owners. Their shops had been smashed,looted, burned. The street was ablaze.
That bastard Muller! My grandmother watched,weeping, terrified, as Grandpa began to beat thedrum, and the Jewish merchants, with signs readingJUDE hanging on their necks, were paraded down thestreet.
And no one lifted a finger.My grandmother called our house and told us
413
Source: Green, Gerald. âThe Night of Broken Glaus.â The Holocaust ond Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students,Hurry Furman, ed. New York: Anti.Defamation League, 1983 lout of printl.
Unit IV: READING #9
414 Martin Gilbert, with permission of Macmillan Publishing Company.
what was happening. We knew. We could hear glassshattering all over our neighborhood.
My parents stood frozen in the living room.âI shall call the police,â my father said. This is
intolerable. Yes, there are laws against us, but thiskind of violence...â
My fatherâs pathetic belief that there still wassome kind of justice in Germany almost made me cry.Being a just man, he could not believe otherwise.
âWe must wait...wait and pray,â my mother said.âIt canât last forever. What good can it do them?ââYou can wait.â I said. âIâm going out to get Grandpa.â
My mother grabbed my sleeve and tried to holdme back. She was used to having her way, forcing herchildren to bend to her will.
âI forbid it. Rudi! You canât fight them all!ââYes,â my father said. âThey are looking for
excuses to kill us! We mustnât fight back!ââTheyâve got all the excuses they need,âI pulled away from my mother and ran down the
stairs. As I was putting on my sweater. Anna camerunning after me.
The street was a wreck. Every store had beensmashed. Most were on fire. Mr. Goldbaum, a jeweler,was playing a fire hose against the remains of his
shop. Everything he owned had been stolen.A truck came rumbling by. I grabbed Anna and
we hid in an alley. It was an open truck...There weremen parading up and down with signs denouncingthe Jews. Mr. Seligman, from whom my mother usedto buy draperies and bed linen, was lying face downin a pool of blood and broken glass.
The truck stopped and the hoodlums jumpedoff...
Then we saw the parade. Grandpa, his headbloodied, one eye closed, was being forced to lead it,beating on the toy drum. Every few steps, he and theother storekeepers would be beaten with clubs andchains...
I stepped out of the alley. Beyond the street thesky was turning orange with fires. I could hearwomen wailing. And more glass breaking, as if theymeant to break every dewishowned window inBerlin.
The mob seemed to be getting weary of its game.Mullerâs gang began wandering off. Grandpa was stillstanding erect, refusing to cry, or beg, or plead.
I walked up to him and took his hands.âGrandpa. Itâs me. Rudi.â
Anna came running out and took his arm.
Source: Green, Gerald, âThe Night of Broken Gloss.â The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.Harry Furman, ed. New York: Anti.Defomation League, 1983 (out of print>.
Map 2. The destruction of synagogues throughout Austria and Germany was widespread. Reprinted from Atlas of the Holocaust by
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit IV: READING #9
At the rear of the column of Jews, a drunkenyoung man was rifling pockets â stealing wallets,pens, watches. Muller shouted at him. âHey. The partysays none of that. This is a patriotic demonstration,not a robbery.â
âThatâs what you think. Muller,â the man said.You obey orders.â Muller shouted. Then he
looked at me in the dim light and walked toward me.There was a moment of recognition, almost human,in his eyes, and I wonder now, could there have beensomething decent in this man, something that wascrushed? After all, he was not, like some of the SS, agangster or a tramp, a rootless troublemaker: he hada trade, he knew respectable people. What hadimpelled him to become a brute? Iâm not sure I knowyet: nor am I sure that it matters any more. Anhonorable man who turns criminal, especially if hemoralizes about it, is perhaps more to be hated thana habitual burglar or murderer,.
Muller asked if he knew me, and Grandpareplied that I was his grandson, Rudi Weiss. Inresponse, Muller slapped my grandfatherâs face andsaid. âShut up, you old kike.â
Heâs an old man,â I said. âYou want to fightsomeone, fight me. Not a mob, just you and me.Muller.â
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Five or six of them gathered around us. Annahugged Grandpa.
Muller rubbed his chin, glared at me throughthe haze of smoke. People were coughing, doubledover.
âOkay, Weiss. Beat it. Take the old sâ with you.Get off the street.â
I suppose I should have been grateful to him,and to Hans. But something was building up in me.I knew what. Revenge. Some day I wanted the sheerjoy of smashing their faces, shaming them, lettingthem know they could not do this to us.
We helped Grandpa to his house. He and mygrandmother lived in an apartment over thebookstore. Once he stopped and picked up a burnedfirst edition of Johnsonâs dictionary, then an earlyedition of Faust. He turned the charred pages sadly.
âHem rich, Heinrich,â my grandmother wept.âHow could they do this to an old man?â
He wiped blood from his forehead, stiffenedhis back. âIâll survive.â He looked at the burnedbooks again. âBut my books...â
âAnna and I will clean up,â I said. But I saw itwas useless. He would never sell a book or a printor a map again.
1. How do you react to Grynszpan and to his assassination of Vom Rath? Explain
2. What do the police do while the Grandfather is being attacked?
3. How do you think you would have reacted to this situation? Why?
415
Source: Green, Gerald. âThe Night of Broken Glass.â The Holocaust ond Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.Harry Furman, ed. New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983 (out of print>.
Unit IV: READING #1.9
THE EINfSATZGRJJPPEN
Qn June 22, 1941, the German army invadedSoviet territory. They did not enter aloneâ
small units of SS and police, some three thousandmen in all, were also dispatched on specialassignment. Their task to kill the Jews on the spotâJews, but not only Jews; communists, Gypsies,political leaders, and the intelligentsia were alsokilled. Order Police battalions, Waffen SS units, theHigher SS, and Police Leaders also carried out thesemass executions.
Their primary targets, Jews, were concentratedin the areas within easy reach of the German army.Almost nine in ten Jews were urbanized, living inlarge cities where the rapid advance of the army andthe swift action of the mobile killing units left themunaware of their fate, paralyzed, unable to act.
There were five stages to the killing. Theinvasion was followed immediately by the roundup ofJews and other intended victims. Those rounded upwere marched to the outskirts of the city where theywere shot. Their bodies were buried in mass gravesâlarge ditches were filled with bodies of people whohad been shot one by one and buried layer uponlayer
The residents of these cities could see what was 439happening. They could hear the shots and the Two Jewish women. 1941. Bilderdienst Suoâdeutscher Verlag.
victimsâ cries. Most often, they remained neutral,neither helping the killer nor offering solace to the victim. Yet neutrality helped the killer never his victim.
Frequently, local pogroms were encouraged by the Wehrmacht and the SS, especially in Lithuania andLatvia. Every Jew killed brought the Nazis closer to their goal.
Auxiliary police comprised of local natives became indispensable to the understaffed killing units. Localcollaborators volunteered.
Before this phase of the killing ended, more than 1.2 million Jews were killed. Their bodies were piledhigh in mass graves throughout occupied Soviet territories.
Later still, in 1942 and 1943, when the war had turned against the Germans, SS kommando soldiersreturned to these sites of infamy to unearth the graves and burn the bodies, thus leaving no trace of the crime.
The men who ran the mobile killing units that rounded up and murdered Jews were not German criminalsbut ordinary citizens. In scholarly literature, there is a current debate whether they were ordinary menâ orordinary âGermansâ imbued with a racist ideology that sanctified these killings. According to Raul Hilberg, thegreat majority of the officers of the Einsatzgruppen were professional men, who were in no sense hoodlums,delinquents, or sex maniacs; most were intellectuals most were educated at universities. They brought to theirnew task all the skills and training which, as men of thought, they were capable of contributing. These menbecame efficient killers.
A handful of men had requested to be relieved of their unconscionable assignment; nothing happened tothem. The rest went along performing a difficult and disciplined task. The killers drank heavily. Alcoholsomehow made it easier
They spoke in euphemisms, never quite saying what they were doing. Their language never spoke of murderand killing but of special actions, special treatment, executive measures, cleansing, resettlements, liquidation,finishing off, appropriate treatment.
Berenbaum, Michael. âThe Einsatzgrapper.â Witness to the Holocaust: An Illustrated Documentary History of the Holocaust in the Wordsof its Victims, Perpetrators and Bystanders. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. 1997. 112.116.
Unit IV: READING #19
The work of the Einsatzgruppen frightened the local inhabitants, Today itâs the Jews, tomorrow perhaps us.âIn the documents, we will read the memo of Reinhard Heydrich authorizing the killing. We will read the
Nuremberg Trial testimony of Otto Ohlendorf, commander of the Einsatzgruppe D, explaining the actions andmotivations of the killer. He offered a simple explanation: he was just following orders. Asked his instructions,Ohlendorf replied directly: The instructions were that in the Russian operational areas of the Einsatzgruppenthe Jews as well as the Soviet political commissars were to be liquidatedâ He later clarified the meaning. âYesI mean âkilled.â He detailed the confiscation process. Valuables were sent to Berlin, gold to the Ministry ofFinance. When asked how it was that the orders were carried out regardless of his personal scruples Ohlendortreplied: âBecause to me it is inconceivable that a subordinate leader should not carry out an order given by theleaders of state.â
Himmler personally witnessed executions at Minsk, As they proceeded, Himmler became moreuncomfortable. Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski then stepped in to press for mercy, not for the victims, but fortheir executioners. He pleaded for the killers. Himmler was told by one of his commanders, âlook at the eyes ofthe men in this kommando, how deeply shaken they are. These men are finished for the rest of their lives. Whatkind of followers are we training here? Either neurotics or savages.â
In part, it was to spare the perpetrators that a new and better form of killingâthe concentration camp andits killing centersâwas implemented.
440
eerenbaum, Michael. âThe Einsatzgrapper.â Witness to the Holocaust: An Illustrated Documentary History of the Holocaust in the Words
of its Victims, Perpetrators and Rystanders. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. 1997. 112-116.
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit 1V: READING #20
NAZI PAPERWORK OF THE
FINAL SOLUTION
0 RIG IN1S AND AUTI IENâFICAFION
OF TIlE WANUSEE PROTOCOL
Commentary and documents courtesy of Robert Wolfe, Director;
Captured Cermans Records Staff, Nationa/Archives,
Washington, tiC.
Reproduced microfilm frames follow this article.Original documents are located in the National Archives, Washington. DC
Qn January 20, 1942, fifteen German officials,most of them ranking roughly at the level of
an American Cabinet Undersecretary, participated forsome two hours in an interagency meeting held in avilla at Am Crosse Wannsee 56-58 on the westernoutskirts of Berlin. The meeting was convened byReinhardt Heydrich, Chief of Security Police, tocoordinate the âfinal solution of the Jewishquestion,â an attempted genocide already wellunderway.
A 15 page summary of the discussionâthe so-called Wannsee Protoko/Iâreceived from Heydrich bythe German Foreign Office on March 2, 1942, isnumbered 16,â the only surviving copy of thirtynumbered copies. Found in 1945 among thevoluminous records of the German Foreign Officecaptured by American troops at an evacuation site inthe Harz Mountains, this Wannsee summary is partof a two-folder file labeled EndlOsung derfudenfrage(Final Solution of the Jewish Question). These folderscontain 330 pages of documentation on that malignsubject, filed in approximate reverse chronologicalsequence from January 25, 1939 through November20, 1943. Extensive excerpts were entered intoevidence at some of the American-conducted warcrimes trials at Nuremberg under the documentdesignation NO 2685. The original records are nowdeposited in the German Foreign Office Archives inBonn.
In the immediate aftermath of the so-calledKristallnacht pogrom, Hermann Goring wasinstructed by Adolf Hitler to coordinate a program forâAryanization of the German economy.â A meeting tothat purpose involving a number of cabinet heads,for whom Heydrich of the Security Police served as
expert adviser, was held at Goringâs Reich AirMinistry on November 12, 1938. The minutes ofparts of that meeting were reconstructed in August1945 from the 1938 stenograph notes by Dr. FritzDorr, a Reichstag stenographer (NurembergDocument PS-1816, Prosecution Exhibit USA 261).
On January 24, 1939, GOring took the next step,just a week before Hitler threatened (in a wildlyapplauded Reichstag speech recorded on newsreelsimmediately available to audiences around theworld): âIf international finance Jewry...should againsucceed in plunging the peoples of Europe intoanother world war, the result will be.,.theannihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.â GOring, inhis capacity as head of the Four Year plan, wrote tothe Minister of Interior, the nominal head ofHimmlerâs police:
(microfilm frame 3721131)
âEmigration of Jews from Germany is to bepromoted with all means. (A) Reich Centralfor Jewish Emigration is to be established...Direction of the Reich Central is to beassumed by the Chief of Security Police(Heydrich).
...As Rademacherâs notation of 8/12 indicates,the meeting scheduled for December 9, 1941 waspostponed indefinitely. (Govemor.General HansFrank already knew on December 16 that themeeting would be convened sometime in January1942, as a speech to his staff in Cracow on that dayattests: Frank Diary, vol. 17, Nuremberg Document
441
Source: âNazi Paperwork of the âFinal Solutionâ: Origins and Authentication of the Wannsee Protocol.â 50 Years Ago: From Terror to
Systematic Murder. Washington, DC: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1991.
Unit IV: READING #20
2233). On January 5. 1942, Heydrich re-invited thesame officials for January 20. Signed copies, identicalexcept for annotations, of that invitation (andacceptances) are in both Lutherâs Foreign Office andHofmannâs Race and Resettlement Main Office files.Heydrichâs renewed invitation reads:
(mircofilm frame 372039)
âThe conference which had been scheduledfor December 9, 1941, concerning questionsrelated to the final solution of the Jewishquestion. I had to cancel at the last minutebecause of suddenly announced events andthe related preoccupation of some of theinvited gentlemen.
Since the questions to be considered permitno further delay. I therefore invite you anewto a discussion followed by brunch on 20January 1942 at 12 oâclock.
Berlin, Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58.
The circle of invited gentlemen listed in mylast letter of invitation remains unchanged.
Heil HitlerYour
[signed] Heydrichâ
This copy bears a Foreign Office incomingcorrespondence stamp dated January 12, and anannotation in ink by Luther indicating it was to go toRademacher and be placed before Luther on themorning of January 13 (âJanuary 18â crossed out).On the bottom is a notation dated January 21, theday after the Wannsee meeting, in what appears tobe Rademacherâs hand: âProtocol of the meeting isstill to be received. To the files.â
On the evidence of the foregoing contemporaryNazi paperwork surviving in the files of two fullyseparate Third Reich agencies, there can be no doubtthat the January 20, 1942, meeting at Am GrosseWannsee 56-58 did take place. Copy 16 of the 15page summary of the discussion, received by theGerman Foreign Office on March 2. 1942, wastransmated under a covering letter, dated February26, 1942:
(microfilm frame 372023)
âDear Party Comrade LutherlAnnexed, I send you the protocol of thediscussion which took place on January 20.1942. Now that the base lines in respect tothe practical execution of the final solution to
the Jewish question have been gratifyinglyconfirmed and full agreement reign thereinon the part of the participating agencies,may I request you delegate your subjectadviser (Sachreferent) to the necessarydetailed discussions for the purpose ofreadying the draft wished by the ReichMarshal in which are to be listed theorganizational, technical, and materialprerequisites for taking in hand the tasks ofthe (final) solution.
The first discussion of this kind I intend to haveheld on March 6, 1942, 10:30 oâclock, inBerlin. Kurfurstenstrasse 116. May I ask youto cause your agent to get in touch with myassigned specialist, SS Lt. Col.(Sturmbannfiihrer Adolf) Eichmann.
Heil Hitler
I Annex l
Your[signed] Heydrichâ
This covering letter bears a handwrittenannotation;
âParty Comrade RademacherPlease reply in writing that you are thedesignee and will attend.(initialed in purple pencil) Lu[ther]â
Shown are reproductions of two of the fifteenpages of the Wannsee Protocol listing the attendees[pages 1 and 2; microfilm frames 372024-51.
Among those attending were Heydrich, whopresided: Adolf Eichmann, who purportedly took thenotes from which the summary protocol was derived;the head of the Gestapo. Heinrich Muller; LutherHofmann; and Roland Freisler, the fanatic presidingjudge of the Peoplesâ Court (the latterâs rantings, atthe trial of military and civilian participants in theJuly 20, 1944, attempted assassination of Hitler, arefrequently shown in television documentaries). Notshown here are pages 5, 9, and 10, from which thefollowing translations are excerpted:
(page 5, microfilm frame 372028)
âIn view of the dangers of wartimeemigration and...the potentialities of the east,the Reich Leader SS and Chief of GermanPolice (Himmler) has prohibited the
Source: âNazi Paperwork of the âFinal Solutionâ: Origins and Authentication of the Wannsee Protocol.â 50 Years Ago: From Terror to
Systematic Murder. Washington, DC: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1991.
442
emigration of Jews..This is henceforthreplaced, as a further potential solution, after
New Jersey Commtssion on Holocaust Education
Unit IV: READING #20
appropriate prior sanction from the Fuhrer,by the evacuation of the Jews to the east.These actions are, however! only to beaddressed as alternative possibilities, buthere already will be accumulated thosepractical experiences, which in view of thecoming final solution of the Jewish questionare of weighty significance...Around 11million Jews come under considerationdivided among individual countries asfollows.â
(statsticaI chart, page 6, frame 372029)(page 7, frame 3720301
âJews shall be assigned to work in a suitableway in the ceast. In large work gangs,separated by sex. Jews capable of work willbe put into road construction, wherebyundoubtedly a major part will fall out throughnatural attrition.â
(page 8, frame 372031)
âThe eventually surviving remainder, becausethey undoubtedly will be the part with themost resistance, will have to be handledaccordingly, since they represent a naturalselection which, if turned loose, wouldprovide the nucleus of a new Jewishbuildup...Europe will be combed out fromwest to east.. .the evacuated Jews will first bebrought group by group into transit ghettos,from there to be transported to the east.â
Robert WolfeNational Archives October 11, 1990
443
Source: âNazi Paperwork of the âFinal Solutionâ: Origins and Authentication of the Wannsee Protocol.â 50 Years Ago: From Terror to
Systematic Murder. Washington, DC: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1991.
Unit IV: READiNG #25
ART OF TRIP: OAI\/HP INMATES
Jt should not be surprising that the highest...Lexpression of human beings, their ability tocreate, is not deterred even by the most harsh ofcircumstances. Despite the worst of materials, someconcentration camp artists produced creative workwhich served as both consciously-drawn history ofwhat was happening but also as an expression of thespirit that remained unblunted by even theseconditions. Thus, this art is often considered anexample of spiritual resistance. The following are buta few examples of the art of camp inmatesâbothduring and after their Holocaust experiences.
Born in what is now Czechoslovakia in 1893,David Friedman became a sign painter and then aprofessional artist. He survived Auschwitz becausethe Nazis had him paint their portraits. After the war,he lived in Israel and then the United States where hepainted billboards and created hundreds of drawings,paintings, and etchings on his Holocaust experiences.
Felix Nussbaum was born into a comfortablemiddle-class family in 1904, studied painting inGermany, and migrated in 1933. During the Naziinvasion of Belgium, he was arrested in Brussels anddeported. He was sent to Gurs, a transit camp in thefoothills of the Pyrenees (in France) in which 15,000internees were held in 1940. He escaped, but wasrecaptured and sent to Auschwitz where he isbelieved to have died.
David Ludwig Bloch was born in Germany in1910, studied art, was expelled from the AcademicArt Institute in 1938, and was sent to Dachau.Released in 1940, he fled to Shanghai. The two worksshown here. âThe March,â and âThe Righteous,â weremade after the war.
Karl Schwesig was an out spoken non-Jewishanti-Nazi who drew posters during the Spanish civilwar, moved to the Pyrenees in 1938, and was laterarrested and interned in Gurs. The drawingpresented here, âLiberte, Egalite, Fraternite,â wasdrawn in the margins of stamps sent from Gurs. It isa wry comment on the contradiction between thefamous French motto and the real policy of theFrench government in collaborating with the Nazis inrounding up Jews.
1. What feelings does Nussbaum try to convey in his drawing? What common objects can you see
portrayed?2. Look closely at Blochâs âThe Righteous.â What is the artist saying? How do you think camp inmates dealt
with these feelings in the camps?3. What is the irony expressed in Schwesigâs mock postage stamps? Consider the difference between what
we sometimes say and what we do. Why would anyone in a camp try to convey a message in the form
of a postage stamp?4. There has been a good deal of recent debate about whether recently published Holocaust art books
really express the meaning of that experience to the contemporary viewer. How do you react to this
criticism? What is it about a work of art that makes it âpowerfulâ? Which of these do you think is the most
powerful? The most poignant? The angriest? The most moving? How do you respond to them as works of
art?5. How do you react to Frittaâs birthday card to his son, Tommy?
Source:Furman, Harry, ed. âArt of the Camp Inmates.â The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.
New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983 (out-of-print).
456
David Friedman, âTwo Prisoners in K2, âoriginal etching.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit 1V: READING #25
Bedrich Fritta was a Czech painter and graphicartist born in 1907. He went to Theresienstadt inDecember. 1941 Three years later he was arrestedwith other artists and eventually deported toAuschwitz where he died.
Finally, Max Lingner was born in Leipzig in1889. A soldier in World War 1, he was severely
wounded. He later participated in the GermanRevolution of November 1918. As a dedicatedsocialist, Lingner was arrested in 1939 and spent fiveyears in various internment camps and eventuallyGurs. Many of his Gurs paintings carry optimisticmessages at the bottom.
Bedrich Fritta, âTo Tommy on his third birthday in TheresienstadtâJanuary 22, 1941.â One of
ten drawings the artist made for his sonâs birthday while they were both in Theresienstadt.
Three years later Fritta was transferred to Auschwitz where he died. Tommy was later adopted
by artistsurvivor Leo Haas.
457
1941.Max Lingner, âThree Women Behind Barbed Wire Fence,â Ours, David Ludwig Bloch, âThe March.â
Source:Furman, Harry, ed. âArt of the Camp Inmates.â The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.
New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983 (out-of-print).
Unit IV: READING #25
458
Karl Schwesig, âLiberty, Equality, Fraternityâ Mockpostage stamps from Curs, March, 1941. Indian andcolored inks on perforated stamp margins. 1 1/2â x 1
David Ludwig Bloch, âThe RighteOus.â
1,
Felix Nussbaum, âCamp Curs,â 1940.
Source:Furmcrn, Harry, ed. âArt of the Camp Inmates.â The Holocaust and Genocide: A Search for ConscienceâAn Anthology for Students.
New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1983 (out-of-print).
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New jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit IV: READING #25
Source: Be1er,
HOLOGAUST PAINTINGS
}N]D DRAWINGS
/tzchak Belier
459
f
I
4
A birthday present for the camp commanderâs 10 year old son. Jewish babies are thrown into
the air, and he shoots them.
K1
hâ:: â:â-
-- -
2 9*:-L_
To save gas the villains invented new ways to commit mass maurder
ltzchak. The Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings (Excerpts). Israel: Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, Ghettos Fightersâ House, Hakibbutz
Unit IV: READING #25
460
Source: heifer, Itzchak. The Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings (Excerpts). Israel: Bell Lohamei Haghetaot, Ghettos Fightersâ House,
Hakibbutz Homeuchad Publishing House, 1995.
The most horrible acts of cruelty were performed by men whose beitbuckle caption read:
âGod is with us.â
âHereâs where you live, eat, and sleep. Here you will die.â With these words we are shown to our bunk.
Thereâs a dirty blanket for six of us sharing a space. The block is engulfed in near-darkness. Narrow
aisles separate the bunks. We are in the wonien âs camp at Birkenau, near Auschwitz.
New jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Unit IV: READING #25
461
They were taken to thepolitical section, to Sergeant-Major Bogger An interrogation by him meanttortureâtheir breasts weresinged, their fingernailsextracted. They know what toexpect; they would soon befree.
A dirty, rusty bowl of indefinable watery fiquid, called âsoup, âmust suffice for 4 prisoners.
Whoever swallows quickly will get more than her companions. The tin pot and the wooden ladles
rattle and pound, the precious liquid spills in the pandemonium. Later, in the Ravensbruck
Concentration Camp, we got soup at 3 a.m. They put a keg of soup on the middle of the room,
everybody pounced on it at once, the keg often overturned and the soup spilled. Everyone started
lapping it up off the floor The guard stood aside laughing heartily
Source: Belfer, Itzchak. The Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings (Excerpts). Israel: Belt Lohamei Haghetaot, Ghettos Fightersâ House,
Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, 1995.
Unit IV: READING #25
462
One of the most âpopularâ methodsfor executing Jews throughoutEurope was by having them dig amass grave and then shooting themas they walked across a plank laidover the grave. Many were onlywounded, and there was movementin the grave for many hours.
Helpless and terrified, old Jews are dragged outinto the streets and their beards cruelly plucked. Iremember my brotherâs school principal, RabbiDr. Munk, having his beard plucked on a Berlinstreet in the middle of the day. He went to thesynagogue with a bandaged face, and prayed. Thebeard was a symbol of a Jewâs piety. If theintention was to humiliate him and hurt him tothe depths of his soul, they succeeded.
Source: Belier, ltzchak, The Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings (Excerpts). Israel: Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, Ghettos Fightersâ House,
Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, 1995.
New Jersey Cornnsissiors on Holocaust Education
Unit IV: READING #25
Sosnowitz, 1942. The maternity ward. Theinfants are wrapped in pillow cases and thrownout of the window Their mothers are leddownstairs to a black death-car. The doctorsand nurses wash the blood off tables andfloors.
Another kind of entertainmentâloosing fierce dogs on people.
463
Source: Belfer, Itzchak. The Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings (Excerpts). Israel: Beit lohamei Haghetaot, Ghettos Fightersâ House,
Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, 1995.