X. The Silent World and the Righteous Few

This Chapter And You...

The actual March of the Living is a walk of several kilometers done by all participants, and it is done in silence. When we stand in the synagogue to recite the Sh'moneh Esrey, we do that in silence, for that prayer is often referred to as the silent devotional. There are times when silence is what is called for and is appropriate. There are other times when silence is not called for and can be devastating. The Holocaust was just such a time.

Yom Kippur, perhaps because it has an all day service, lends itself to story telling or Midrash by the rabbi. I remember the first time I heard a story, no, a prayer, which really made me think. It said something like, "Praise Me," says God, "and I will know that you love Me." "Curse Me," says God "and even then I will know that you love Me But if you sit entrenched in `I don't give a damn'; if you look at the stars and yawn; if you see suffering and don't cry out, then I created you in vain," says God.

Can you visualize God on the heavenly throne agonizing over His prize creation, mankind, despondent over man's inhumanity, dehumanization and destruction of his fellow man, and mourning over the creation who had the chance to do something, yet did nothing? Let's remember as we read this chapter that SILENCE and INACTION are screaming statements shouting commitments to DO NOTHING. In the story above, God admonishes us against each, yet during the Holocaust, the world as a whole did both.

Do you remember the old limerick that we used to sing when we were kids?

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Sticks and stones are hard on bones, If aimed with angry art, And words can sting like anything. But silence breaks the heart.

Silence breaks the heart. Silence hurts a thousand times more than sticks or stones or even angry words.

In the "Ethics of the Fathers" (I: 17), we are told that "it is not knowledge but practice which is of decisive importance." This is not to minimize knowledge, only to remind us that knowledge which doesn't lead to action is wasted. You must stand up! You must speak out! The March is all about standing up and speaking out. You must fight wrong and evil! You, who have been witness to the consequences of silence, have no choice!

As you read on, note BOTH what happened as a whole (in Readings 1-8) and the notable exceptions (in Readings 9-12) and then challenge yourself with the readings 13 and 14.

Objectives

1. You will learn for yourself the rationale/excuses given by the governments of a silent world for inaction at the time of the Holocaust.

2. You will reflect upon the silence of the leadership of the world clergy.

3. You will know who, how and why certain people and governments did react.

4. You will recognize and understand how apathy and indifference on any issue at any time opens the possibilities to other future tragedies.

5. You will learn the importance of speaking out in a time of crisis.

6. You should understand the three things for which a Jew is supposed to die for rather than commit: a) adultery, b) idolatry, c) murder

7. You will face simulated dilemmas and determine how you would respond to crisis decision making.

8. On the March you will meet some of the Righteous Gentiles. You will learn from your interaction with them that they didn't consider themselves heroes: simply people doing what they knew was right.

9. You will learn that one person can make a difference. You are one.

"Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exist because of their silent consent."

Bruno Jawienski (Yasensky)

"There is a time to keep silent and a time to speak out."

Ecclesiastes

"Silence implies consent."

Talmud Yevamot

"I am better able to retract what I did not say than what I said."

Ibn Gabirol

"In a place where there are no leaders strive to be that (missing) leader."

Pirke Avot 2, 6

Reading #1

Silence - in which events below was silence allowed? In which events was silence not tolerated? We will talk about silence a lot on the March.

Vocabulary

Evian Conference - Conference on refugee problems held at Evian-les-Bains in France in July, 1938, by representatives of 31 countries. Only agreement reached was that existing immigration quota systems in effect in the various countries would be upheld.

Kristallnacht - "Night of Broken Glass." Organized destruction of synagogues, Jewish houses, and shops accompanied by arrests of individual Jews, which took place in Germany and Austria under the Nazis, November 9-10, 1938.

The St. Louis Incident - Ship (St. Louis) left Germany in May, 1939, with 937 Jewish refugees seeking asylum in the Americas. Most denied asylum. 907 returned to Europe, many to die at the hands of the Nazis.

The British White Paper (1939) - Document which restricted only Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 over the next 5 years, and prohibited purchase of land by Jews there.

King Christian X of Denmark (1940)- King during Hitler's reign of terror. The King's policy was to save and protect all citizens of Denmark, including Jews.

Belgium - Italy (1941) - The Belgian police were largely uncooperative, losing and misplacing files on Jews, an effort that would be refined to new heights of noble inaction by the Italians. The Ministry of Justice gave substantial sums of money to the Jewish Defense Committee enabling thousands to buy false documents or survive in hiding. And in no other country did the clergy take such an active stance in leading their congregants to pursue resistance to the Nazis and the saving of the Jews.

Norway (1941) - Another mode of resistance developed in Norway when, in a move to promote anti-Semitism, the public school curriculum in history was changed to reflect the Nazi antisemitic view. All the history teachers in Norway refused to accept this change and, as a result, 1300 teachers were arrested.

Bermuda Conference on Refugees -- Anglo-American Conference on refugees held in Bermuda, April 19-30th, 1943. Failed in that it did not address itself to the particular Jewish refugee problem, but rather addressed itself to all World War II refugees.

Partisan - The partisans were composed of various sized fighting units which operated throughout Europe using guerrilla tactics. Their purpose was to agitate and disrupt enemy lines through assault and sabotage. Jews participated in partisan movements throughout all of occupied Europe, from Russia in the East, to France in the West, Greece in the South and Norway in the North.

Bombing of Railway Lines and Crematoria by Allies - Designed to crimp, slow down or prevent the mass murder of European Jewry. IT DID NOT HAPPEN!

Reading #2

Man and His Place in Society

Each person withdraws into himself, behaves as though he is a stranger in the destiny of all others. His children and his good friends constitute for him the whole of the human species. As for his transactions with his fellow citizens he may mix among them, but he sees them not, only touches them, but does not feel them, he exists only in himself and for himself alone. And if on these terms there remains in his mind a sense of family, there no longer remains a sense of society."

Alexis de Torqueville

Questions:

1. This was written 150 years ago by a French visitor to America. Is this still true of people today - in the 1990's? Why or why not?

2. What does the author mean when he says "he may mix among them, but he sees them not, he only touches them, but does not feel them?"

3. Are people today as caring for each other as you would like them to be? Explain.

The world is too dangerous to live in - not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen."

Albert Einstein

In extremist situations when human lives and dignity are at stake, neutrality is a sin. It helps the killers, not the victims."

Elie Wiesel

Questions:

1. Read the two quotations above. Are they saying the same thing?

2. What does each have to tell us about silence and the Holocaust?

3. What does each have to tell us about silence and the world today?

Reading #3

WHO KNEW WHAT, WHEN? While Six Million Died - by Arthur D. Morse

To answer the questions following this reading two types of information must be examined - materials published openly from 1933 to 1945 and government documents which originally were denied to the public.

Document #1

Telegram to the United States from Swedish Representative to the United States, August, 1942*:

Received alarming report that in Fuhrer's (Hitler's) headquarters, plan discussed and under consideration according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany should, after deportation and concentration in East, be exterminated at one blow to resolve once and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action reported planned for autumn. Methods under discussion including Prussic Acid. Informant stated to have close connections with highest German authorities and his reports generally speaking are reliable.

Document #2

Report sent to United States by Ernest Frischer, Czechoslovakian Government Official, August 1942*:

Weekly Consumption in Ounces:

Bread Meat Sugar Fats

German 8017-1/289-1/2

Pole 6295-1/22-1/4

Jew 144-1/21-3/4 9/10

Document #3

Report from United States Ambassador to Switzerland, Leland Harrison to the United States, September, 1942*:

Harrison cabled the United States that a Polish colleague had informed him that Jews in Warsaw (Poland) were being collected in lots of 5,000-10,000 and shipped east, "their whereabouts and fate unknown." On October 6, another message read: "Numerous reports which I have received from both Jewish and non-Jewish sources...indicate beyond doubt that Jews are being systematically evacuated from western European countries...ghettos of larger cities such as Warsaw are being cleared and that Jews evacuated from there have been sent eastward to an unknown fate." *revised 1991

Document #4

Report from the International Red Cross to the United States, October 29, 1942:

1. There exists an order of Hitler demanding the extermination of all Jews in Germany and in the occupied countries up to Dec. 31, 1942

2. The order is in the course of being executed (carried out)

3. Information on the order has come from two sources:

a) Official of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs

b) Official of the German Ministry of War

Document #5

Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, May 7, 1943:

The U.S. never changed its quotas and was unwilling even to allow other unfilled quotas to apply to Jews seeking refuge. Hull argued against bringing any refugees to the United States in excess (more than) of the immigration quota, since this "would be likely to result in throwing the whole refugee question into Congress, where there is a prevailing sentiment for even more curtailment (stopping) of immigration into this country... I cannot recommend that we open the question of relaxing our immigration laws... considering the generous quantity of refugees we have already received."

Document #6

Swedish Proposal to the United States, May, 1943:

Sweden was prepared to request that Germany release 20,000 Jewish children, who would be cared for in Sweden until the end of the war. The Swedish government inquired if the United States and England would share the cost of food and medicine for the children.

In October, the United States government responded in the negative, saying that "limiting the rescue program to Jewish children might antagonize the Germans."

Document #7

Texas House of Representatives:

"We must ignore the tears of sobbing sentimentalists and internationalists, and we must permanently close, lock and bar the gates of our country to immigration waves and then throw the key away."

Document #8

Catholic & Protestant Clergy Petition to President Roosevelt, January 9, 1939:

The petition called upon the United States to open its doors to German-Jewish children. Mrs. Roosevelt later explained her husband's position as he was trying to get half a billion dollars to expand the Air Corps and to construct naval bases and did not want to antagonize the Congress. "Franklin refrained from supporting causes in which he believed because of political realities."

Document #9

House and Senate Committee Meetings on Immigration April, 1939:

Witness, Mrs. Agnes Waters, from the Widows of World War I veterans: "This nation will be helpless to guarantee to our children their rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if this country is to become the dumping ground for the persecuted minorities of Europe."

Document #10

Presidents's Statement on Nazi Criminality, March 24, 1944:

"In one of the blackest crimes of all history, the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated (unstopped) every hour...We should again proclaim our determination that none who participate in these acts of savagery shall go unpunished..All who share the guilt shall share the punishment.

Hitler is committing these crimes against humanity in the name of the German people. I ask every German and every man everywhere under Nazi domination (control) to show the world by his action that in his heart he does not share these insane criminal desires. Let him hide these pursued victims, help them to get over their borders, and do what he can to save them from the Nazi hangman."

Questions:

1. What did the United States know about Nazi plans for the annihilation of the Jews?

2. What were the various reactions in the United States to this knowledge. Could we have done anything to prevent the murder of 6,000,000 men, women and children?

3. Which of the documents above do you consider the most serious indictment of the Silent World?

Reading #4

Railroad tracks enabled the Jews to be transported in huge numbers. Why weren't they bombed? When you cross the next set of tracks in your hometown, think how easy it would have been?

The Bombing Of Auschwitz (edited) - The Abandonment of the Jews - by David S. Wyman

A recurring question since World War II has been why the United States rejected requests to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz and the railroads leading to Auschwitz.

Such requests began to be numerous in spring 1944. At that time, three circumstances combined to make bombing the Auschwitz death machinery and the railways leading to it from Hungary critically important and militarily possible. In mid April, the Nazis started concentrating the Jews of Hungary for deportation to Auschwitz. Late in April, two escapees from Auschwitz revealed full details of the mass murder taking place there, thus laying bare the fate awaiting the Hungarian Jews. And by May the American Fifteenth Air Force, which had been operating from southern Italy since December 1943, reached full strength and started pounding Axis industrial complexes in Central and East Central Europe. For the first time, Allied bombers could strike Auschwitz, located in the southwestern corner of Poland. The rail lines to Auschwitz from Hungary were also within range.

The two escapees were young Slovak Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzel, who fled on April 10, 1944. Toward the end of April, they reached the Jewish underground in Slovakia and sounded the alarm that preparations were under way at Auschwitz for exterminating the Hungarian Jews. They dictated a thirty-page report on what they had learned about the killing center during their two years there. It detailed the camp's geographical layout, internal conditions, and gassing and cremation techniques, and offered a statistical record of the months of systematic slaughter. The thoroughness that characterized the report is seen in this passage describing the operation of one of the four large gas chambers:

"It holds 2,000 people...When everybody is inside, the heavy doors are closed. Then there is a short pause, presumably to allow the room temperature to rise to a certain level, after which SS men with gas masks climb on the roof, open the traps and shake down a preparation in powder form out of tin cans...a "cyanide" mixture of some sort which turns into gas at a certain temperature. After three minutes everyone in the chamber is dead...The chamber is then opened, aired, and the "special squad" (of slave laborers) carts the bodies on flat trucks to the furnace rooms where the burning takes place."

A copy of the Vrba-Wetzler statement, dispatched to the Hungarian Jewish leadership, was in Budapest by early May. By mid-June, the report had reached Switzerland, where it was passed to Roswell McClelland of the War Refugee Board. He found it consistent with earlier information that had filtered out concerning Auschwitz.

Some days earlier, about June 13, other copies of the escapees' reports had come via the Slovak underground to Jaromir Kopecky, a Czechoslovak diplomat in Geneva. He immediately showed them to Gerhardt Riegner of the World Jewish Congress. Riegner summarized them for delivery to the American and British Governments and the Czech exile government in London. To the summaries, Kopecky and Riegner added appeals for bombing the gas chambers and the rail lines from Hungary to Auschwitz.

Shortly afterward, one of the Sternbuch's pleas for railway bombing transmitted illegally through Polish diplomatic channels, circumvented American censorship and broke through the American Jewish circles. On June 18, Jacob Rosenheim of the New York office of Agudath Israel World Organization addressed letters to high American government officials, informing them of the ongoing deportations. He submitted that paralysis of the rail traffic from Hungary to Poland could at least slow the annihilation process, and implored them to take the immediate action to bomb the rail junctions of Kosice and Presov.

Rosenheim's appeals were relayed to the WRB. On June 21, Pehle transmitted the request to the War Department. Three days later, he discussed it with McCloy. Peale himself expressed doubts about the proposal but asked that the War Department explore the idea. McCloy agreed to look into it.

In fact, the War Department had started to process the matter the day before, and on Saturday afternoon, June 24, it arrived at the Operations Division (OPI), the arm of the War Department charged with strategic planning and direction of operations. On Monday, OPD ruled against the proposed bombing, stating that the suggestion was "impracticable" because "it could be executed only by diversion of considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations." Actually, the decision was not based on any analysis of current Air Force operations. The War Department did not consult Air Force commanders in Europe. Rather, the rejection was based on a confidential War Department policy determined in Washington nearly five months before.

In late January 1944, in one of its first steps, the WRB had requested British help in carrying out its program of rescue. The British government was reluctant to cooperate, partly because the presence of the secretary of war on the board implied that the armed forces would be used in rescuing refugees. The War Department moving to reassure the British on this count, set down the following policy:

"It is not contemplated that units of the armed forces will be employed for the purpose of rescuing victims of enemy oppression unless such rescues are the direct result of military operations conducted with the objective of defeating the armed forces of the enemy."

This policy effectively removed the War Department from participation in rescue efforts, except as they might arise incidental to regularly planned military operations.

Another of the WRB's earliest moves was to try to arrange for a degree of cooperation from U.S. military commanders in the war theaters. In late January 1944, the board proposed through McCoy that the War Department send a message to war theater commanders instructing them to do what was possible, consistent with the successful prosecution of the war, to assist the government's policy of rescue.

Although such cooperation was specifically mandated, the War Department's decision crystallized in February in an internal memorandum that maintained:

"We must constantly bear in mind, however, that the most effective relief which can be given victims of enemy persecution is to insure the speedy defeat of the Axis."

In concrete terms, this meant that the military had decided to avoid rescue or relief activities. The War Department simply claimed it had already considered such operations and decided they were unfeasible.

Calls for bombing the deportation rail lines continued to come to Washington. But starting early in July, appeals for Air Force action to impede the mass murders increasingly centered on destruction of the Auschwitz gas chambers. Even before the first of the proposals reached Washington, Benjamin Akzin of the WRB staff was arguing for strikes on Auschwitz. He held that destruction of the killing installations would, at least for a time, appreciably slow the slaughter. He also pointed out that Auschwitz could be bombed in conjunction with an attack on Katowice, an important industrial center only seventeen miles from the death camp.

The last attempt to persuade the War Department to bomb Auschwitz came in November. The full text of the Auschwitz escapees' reports finally reached Washington on November 1. The detailed chronicle of horror jolted the Board. Shocked, Pehle wrote a strong letter to McCloy urging destructions of the killing installations. He also pointed out the military advantages in simultaneously bombing industrial sites at Auschwitz.

Pehle's appeal went from McCloy's office to the Operations Division. It rejected the proposal on the grounds that air power should not be diverted from vital `industrial target systems' and Auschwitz was `not part of these target systems'. In reality, Auschwitz was definitely a part of those target systems. OPD was either uninformed or untruthful.

No further requests were made for bombing Auschwitz or the rail lines to it. Unknown to the outside world, Himmler in late November ordered the killing machinery destroyed. On January 27, 1945, the Russian army captured the camp.

From March, 1944 on, the Allies controlled the skies of Europe. Official U.S. Air Force historians have stated that "by 1, April 1944 the GAF (German air force) was a defeated force." Allied air power had "wrecked Hitler fighter (plane) force by the spring of 1944. After this...U.S. bombers were never deterred from bombing a target because of probable losses."

On September 13, 1944, a force of heavy bombers rained destruction on the factory areas of Auschwitz. The 96 Liberators encountered no German aircraft, but ground fire was heavy and brought three of them down. As before, no attempt was made to strike the killing installations, though two stray bombs hit nearby. One of them damaged the rail spur leading to the gas chambers.

It would be no exaggeration, therefore, to characterize the area around Auschwitz, including Auschwitz itself, as a hotbed of American bombing activity from August 7 to August 29. Yet, on August 14, the War Department could write that bombing Auschwitz would be possible only by diversion of air power from "decisive operations elsewhere".

But a further question remains: Would the proposed bombing raids have been, as the War Department maintained, of "doubtful efficacy"?

As it happened, on ten different days from July through October, a total of 2,700 bombers traveled along or within easy reach of both rail lines on the way to targets in the Blechhammer-Auschwitz region.

Could aerial bombing have been precise enough to knock out the mass-murder buildings? Definitely yes. The main obstacles to accurate bombing were clouds, smoke, extreme altitudes, enemy fighter opposition, and flak.

Weather conditions in the Auschwitz region were excellent for air operations throughout August and most of September; October was a time of poor weather. The August attack on Auschwitz ran into no smoke screening. Enemy fighter opposition was negligible. Flak resistance at Auschwitz was moderate and ineffective on August 20, but intense and accurate on September 13.

In sum, the only real obstacle to precision bombing of the death machinery would have been flak. Auschwitz had little flak defense until after the August raid. Only then were heavy guns added. In any case, the most likely operation would have combined a strike on the gas chambers with a regular attack on the industries. In that situation, the German guns would have concentrated on the aircraft over the factory area, five miles away from the planes assigned to the death installations.

One procedure would have been to arrange for some of the heavy bombers on one of the large Auschwitz strikes to swing over to the Birkenau side and blast the killing facilities. Heavy bombers flying at their normal altitude of 20,000 to 26,000 could have destroyed the buildings. But complete accuracy was rarely possible from such heights. Some of the bombs probably would have struck nearby Birkenau, itself a heavily populated concentration camp.

Jewish leaders in Europe and the United States, assuming the use of heavy bombers and the consequent death of some inmates wrestled with the moral problem involved. Most concluded that loss of life under the circumstances was justifiable. They were aware that about 90% of the Jews were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz. They also realized that most who were spared for the work camps struggled daily through a hellish, famished existence as slave laborers and were worn out in a matter of weeks. Once unfit for hard labor, they were dispatched to the gas chambers. The bombing might kill some of them, but it could halt or slow the mass production of murder.

An even more precise alternative would have been dive-bombing. A few Lightning (P-38) dive-bombers could have knocked out the murder buildings without danger to the inmates at Birkenau. P-38's proved they were capable of such a distant assignment.

The most effective means of all for destroying the killing installations would have been to dispatch about twenty British Mosquitos to Auschwitz, a project that should have been possible to arrange with the RAF. This fast fighter-bomber had ample range for the mission, and its technique of bombing at very low altitudes had proved extremely precise.

Without gas chambers and crematoria, the Nazis would have been forced to reassess the extermination program in light of the need to commit new and virtually nonexistent manpower resources to mass killing. Gas was a far more efficient means of mass murder than shooting, and it caused much less of a psychological problem to the killers. Operation of the gas chambers, which killed 2,000 people in less than half an hour, required only a limited number of SS men. Killing tens of thousands by gunfire would have tied down a military force. The Nazis would also have again faced the body disposal problem, an obstacle that had caused serious difficulty until the huge crematoria were built.

Incidentally, if the gas chambers had been destroyed on August 20 or earlier, Anne Frank might possibly have survived. Arrested on August 4, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz from a camp in Holland on September 2. They went on the last deportation train from Holland. Later, Anne and her sister were transferred to Bergen Belsen, where both died of typhus, Anne in March 1945. If the Auschwitz mass killing machinery had been destroyed by August 20, the train very likely would not have left Holland, because most of its passengers were bound for the Auschwitz gas chambers.

In the fall of 1944, Jewish women who worked at a munitions factory inside Auschwitz managed to smuggle a small amount of explosives to members of the camp underground. The material was relayed to male prisoners who worked in the gassing-crematoria area. Those few wretched Jews then attempted what the Allied powers, with their vast might, would not. On October 7, in a suicidal uprising, they blew up one of the crematorium buildings. (See chapter #IX "Living With Dignity in a World Gone Insane.")

Why?

Reading #5

"The Response of the Vatican" - Facing History & Ourselves - Strom & Parsons

The role of Pope Pius XII and the Vatican response to the events of this history are the subject of serious analysis and interpretation. When accounts of the "final solution" were reported to the Pope Pius, no strong statements were made, nor was Hitler excommunicated from the church. According to Abram Sachar:

"The consistent rationale offered for the silence was that it was necessary first to corroborate the reports. Under pressure, there was an annoyed response that "in order to avoid slightest appearance of partiality, His Holiness had imposed upon himself, in word and deed, the most delicate reserve." The "delicate reserve" was maintained even as Jews were being rounded up in Rome itself. Later, much later, a Papal spokesman indicated that "the Pontiff had decided, after many tears and many prayers, that a denunciation of the Nazis from the Vatican might further rouse the ferocity of the Nazis and result in more, rather than fewer, deaths." There were, of course, not too many left to worry about after six million had been murdered. Monsignor Montini, later to become Pole Paul VI, added: "The time may come when, in spite of such a grievous prospect the Holy Father will feel himself obliged to speak out." But that time never came. The duty to speak out was always counter balanced by the fear of weakening Germany and opening the way to the triumph of atheist communism."

USING READING

When students ask about those institutions that had the power to make a difference, it's important to consider the responses of the Vatican and its leadership before and during the deportation of Jews from Rome.

No protest was heard from Pius XII when, in 1935, Germany promulgated its own infamous statutes of racial purity in the Nuremberg Laws...The roundup of Jews by the Nazis began in Rome in the fall of 1943.

On October 18, over 1,000 Roman Jews, more than two-thirds of them women and children, were deported from the Eternal City to Auschwitz. On October 28, the German ambassador, Ernst Heinrich von Weizsacker, reported to Berlin: "Although under pressure from all sides the Pope (Pius XII) has not let himself be drawn into any demonstrative censure of the deportation of Jews from Rome."

Questions:

1. Elie Wiesel has stated: "The sincere Christian knows that what died in Auschwitz was not the Jewish people, but Christianity." What does this remark by Wiesel mean?

2. Respond to this statement: "If Jesus had been alive in Europe in the 1940s, he would have died in a gas chamber."

Reading #6

We remember movies like "The Net" and TV shows like "Nowhere Man," where individual identities are wiped out. Can you imagine this happening to an entire people?

The Holocaust: Life Unworthy of Life - Albert Post - How do people excuse inaction when action is called for?

SOME REASONS GIVEN FOR THE ALLIED RESPONSES:

1. War Propaganda: Newspapers like the Daily Telegraph had reported stories of German atrocities in World War I. These had been proven false. Reports of mass killings in World War II were considered a return of war atrocity propaganda.

2. Disbelief: Reports of mass killings, extermination camps, gas chambers, mass graves and crematoria were simply unbelievable. People found it impossible to accept that such inhuman behavior could occur on such a grand scale.

3. German Denials: The Germans denied the reports, and the Allies chose to believe the official denials.

4. Anti-semitism: In 1944, Adolf Eichmann, in charge of Jewish deportations, contacted the British and offered to exchange one million Jews for 10,000 Allied trucks. The Allies refused. When he was asked why he had refused to negotiate with Eichmann, Lord Moyne, British Deputy Minister of State, later responded: "What would I do with one million Jews? Where would I put them?" Statements like that of Lord Moyne indicate that there was anti-Semitism among the Allied leaders.

5. "Useless People": Some of the Allied officials seemed to have expressed the believe that the Jews were a "useless" people - they had no state, no political power and no military power.

The last reason is perhaps the most disturbing because it suggests that the morality of some Allied bureaucrats was not unlike the morality of German Bureaucrats

SOME REASONS GIVEN FOR THE VATICAN RESPONSES:

1. Fear of Reprisals: The Vatican feared Nazi reprisals against German Catholics and for that reason tried to preserve good diplomatic relations with Germany.

2. Fear for the Jews: Some scholars argue that Pope Pius XII believed that a formal protest from him would have caused more harm to the Jews and endangered Catholics as well. Vatican sources say he knew that Hitler would not have changed his anti-Jewish policies.

3. Catholic Lands: There was concern in the Vatican that the Nazi government would seize Catholic lands - including Vatican City - when the Germans occupied Italy in 1943

4. Anti-communism: The Catholic Church was strongly anti-Communist and anti-Socialist. The Vatican saw Hitler as a safeguard against Communism.

SOME REASONS WE GIVE TODAY: (FOR INACTION:)

1. It's not my responsibility

2. I have so much to do

3. I am doing all I can

4. What can one person do, anyway?

5. No one else is, why me?

6. The situation is probably exaggerated

7. I could get hurt personally

8. S/he's an outsider in this community

9. "My country, right or wrong"

10. Nobody asked me

11. I am just following orders.

Questions:

1. Are any of these rationalizations ever justified?

2. Are that any exceptions? Explain

3. Allied response #5 referred to Jews as a "useless people" and then defined the term. How would you respond to this declaration?

4. As you continue in this chapter you will read of some who didn't make excuses. Most responded with shock when they were labeled heroes - Most responded to the question "why?" by saying, "We just did it because it had to be done."Were they just modest? Were they heroes? Were they right?

5. How do we deal with the contrast between the negligent majority and the responsible few?

Reading #7

The Sounds Of Silence - a song by Paul Simon

One ever-present theme of our study is the effect of silence. Children grow up knowing that "silence is golden" and they learn to "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil." Tragically, many respond to the events of suffering in just this manner. We should ask why we so often choose the role of spectator. Paul Simon's classic, "The Sounds of Silence," comments on this indifference of people to what is happening all around them.

Hello, darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

left it seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sounds of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

'Neath a halo of a street lamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon

light

It split the night

And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

*People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never shared

No one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

Fools, said I, you do not know

*Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you

But my words like silent raindrops fell

And echoed the will of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

And the sign said:

The words of the prophets are

Written on the subway walls

And tenements halls

And whispered in the sound of silence

* emphasis relates to questions

Questions:

1. What is your reaction to the lines: "People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening?"

2. What is the "neon god" to which people pray?

3. Simon reminds us that "Silence like a cancer grows". Explain.

4. Imagine a conversation with Paul Simon in which you begin by saying, "You know I read the words to your song "Sounds of Silence" and it made me think of the Holocaust. It......(Finish the thought)

Reading #8

Is life a spectator sport? The March says no. What do you say? Could this incident happen today?

The Dying Girl that No One Helped - Loudon Wainwrightfrom Holocaust & Genocide by Harry Furman

In the 1960s, folk singer, Phil Ochs wrote a song called "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" with these lyrics:

"O look outside the window
There's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes
And now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends"

The lyrics were a reminder of the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964, an incident that began a national debate about the responsibility of the average citizen to come to the aid of people in danger. A young woman was brutally murdered in a New York residential area while at least 38 people watched. Ever since, professional students of human behavior and amateurs alike have attempted to explain why no one was willing to become involved. In this selection, Loudon Wainwright briefly records the feelings of some of those who saw Kitty Genovese killed.

To judge from the bitter example given us by the good folks of a respectable New York residential area, Samaritans are very scarce these days.

...if the reactions of the 38 witnesses to the murder of Catherine Genovese provide any true reflection of a national attitude toward our neighbors, we are becoming a callous, chicken-hearted and immoral people..An examination of the pitiful facts of Miss Genovese's terminal experience makes very necessary the ugly personal questions each of us must ask: "What would I have done?"

The story is simple and brutal. As she arrived home in the early morning darkness, Kitty Genovese, a decent, pretty young woman of 28, was stalked through the streets close to her Kew Gardens apartment and stabbed again and again by a man who had followed her home and then took almost a half hour to kill her. During that bloody little eternity...Kitty screamed and cried repeatedly for help..."Oh, my God!" she cried out at one point..."he stabbed me! Please help me! Someone help me!" Minutes later, before the murderer came back and attacked her for the final time, she screamed, "I'm dying! I'm dying!"

The reason the murderer's actions and his victim's calls are so well documented is that police were able to find 38 neighbors who admitted witnessing the awful event. They heard the screams and most understood her cry for help. Peeking out their windows, many saw enough of the killer to provide a good description of his appearance and clothing. A few saw him strike Kitty, and others saw her staggering down the sidewalk after she had been stabbed twice and was looking for a place to hide. One especially sharp-eyed person was able to report that the murderer was sucking his finger as he left the scene; he had cut himself during the attack. Another witness has the awful distinction of being the only person Kitty Genovese recognized in the audience, talking in her final moments. She looked at him and called to him by name. He did not reply.

No one really helped Kitty at all. Only one person shouted at the killer ("Let that girl alone!"), and the one phone call that was finally made to the police was placed after the murderer had got in his car and had driven off. For the most part the witnesses, crouching in darkened windows like watchers of a late show, looked on until the play had passed beyond their view. Then they went back to bed...

On the scene a few days after the killer had been caught and had confessed, Police Lieutenant Bernard Jacobs discussed the investigation. "The word we kept hearing from the witnesses later was `involved,'" Jacobs said..."People told us they just didn't want to get involved," Jacobs said to me. "They didn't want to be questioned or have to go to court." He pointed to an apartment house directly across the quiet street, "They looked down at this thing", he went on, "from four different floors of that building."..."It's a nice neighborhood, isn't it?" he went on. "Doesn't look like a jungle. Good, solid people. We don't expect anybody to come out into the street and fight this kind of bum. All we want is a phone call. We don't even need to know who's making it.

"You know what this man told us after we caught him?" Jacobs asked, "He said he figured nobody would do anything to help. He heard the windows go up and saw the lights go on. He just retreated for a while and when things quieted down, he came back to finish the job."

Later, in one of the apartment houses, a witness to part of Kitty Genovese's murder talked. His comments...indicate the price in bad conscience he and his neighbors are now paying. "I feel terrible about it," he said. "The thing keeps coming back in my mind. You just don't want to get involved. They might have picked me up as a suspect if I'd bounced right out there. I was getting ready, but my wife stopped me. She didn't want to be a hero's widow. I woke up about the third scream. I pulled the blind so hard it came off the window. The girl was on her knees struggling to get up. I didn't know if she was drunk or what. I never saw the man. She staggered a little when she walked, like she had a few drinks in her. I forgot the screen was there and I almost put my head through it trying to get a better look. I could see people with their heads out and heard windows going up and down all along the street."

...."Every time I look out here now," he said, "it's like looking out at a nightmare. How could so many of us have had the same idea that we didn't need to do anything? But that's not all that's wrong."  Now he sounded betrayed and he told what was really eating him. Those 38 witnesses had, at least, talked to the police after the murder. The man pointed to a nearby building. "There are people over there who saw everything," he said. "And there hasn't been a peep out of them yet. Not one peep."

Questions:

1. What were some of the reasons given by the spectators for not becoming involved? Do you blame the spectators for what they did not do?

2. Does this incident tell us anything about human nature?

3. Do you feel that there should be laws requiring citizens to come to another person's aid?

4. Does thinking that everybody would act as these 38 people did make it easier for the rest of us to be indifferent to the pain and danger experienced by others? Why?

5. How does this incident represent on a micro level, the macro issues raised by the Holocaust and the silent world?

Reading #9

Yes, some people helped. But so few... This circumstance makes those who did all the more meaningful. Readings #9 and #10 are some examples.

The Righteous Few

Although Europe's Jews faced the Holocaust largely without outside support which might have averted their destruction, there were nations and Christians of courage and principle who did whatever they could to shield Jews from Nazi savagery. Their deeds became known after W.W. II:

"These heroes (and heroines) were found in every country and came from every area of life; there were teachers, doctors, lawyers, clerics, laborers, housewives, politicians, even soldiers who hid, fed, smuggled Jews, or merely manifested their sympathy by small kindnesses. Many organized underground systems, even factories, to provide counterfeit visas, identity card, and ration books. This heartening story is a study in human ingenuity; indeed, no ruse was left untried to outwit the wily Nazi hunters." (Edward H. Flannery, THE ANGUISH OF THE JEWS. New York: Quest Books, The Macmillan Company, 1965, page 224)

1. The Garden of Righteous Gentiles:

The deeds of many compassionate Christians who helped the Jews during World War II are commemorated in The Garden of Righteous Gentiles, which is part of Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the 6,000,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

2. Courageous Clergy:

A number of priests, ministers, and nuns did everything in their power to stem the tide of Nazi slaughter. They were active in Germany, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Holland and Greece.

A pastoral letter by Cardinal Saliege of France, written during the Nazi occupation, stated:

"There is a Christian morality...that confers rights and imposes duties..Alas, it has been destined for us to witness the dreadful spectacle of children, women, and old men being treated like wild beasts; of families being torn apart and deported to unknown destinations..The Jews are our brethren. They belong to mankind. No Christian dare forget that!...France is not responsible for these horrors."

Many nuns risked their lives in daring operations to help Jews. Example: The Sisters of the Benedictine Convent of St. Catherine in Vilna, Poland, hid many Jews and supplied arms to the resistance fighters in the ghetto. The nuns were caught by the Nazis and shot.

3. Courageous Nations:

a) Bulgaria - Prevented its 50,000 Jews from being deported to Nazi death camps. Holland held protest strikes

b) Finland - Flatly rejected a request made by Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, to surrender its Jewish population.

c) Denmark - The German army invaded Denmark in 1940. For two years the Germans did not take stringent actions against the Jews because of the Danes' persistent resistance against Nazi anti-Jewish measures. It is reported that King Christian X, in a conversation with a German official who used the phrase "Jewish problem" replied, "There is no Jewish problem in this country. There is only my people." It is also told that when the German officials reproached King Christian for his "negligence in resolving the Jewish problem" he answered, "Gentlemen, since we have never considered ourselves inferior to the Jews, we have no such problem here." On another occasion, King Christian announced, "If the Germans want to introduce the yellow star in Denmark, I and my whole family will wear it as a sign of the highest distinction." When in August 1943 a Nazi order was issued to deport all Jews, the Danish population mobilized all its resources to rescue the Jews. They succeeded in "smuggling" some 7,000 Jews to neutral, unoccupied Sweden. No other occupied country has achieved the distinction of rescuing the major part of its population.

Reading #9a

Teaching About the Holocaust and Genocide - New York Department of Education

Map source: Maps from the Holocaust, by Martin Gilbert.

Reading #10

Some Persons Who Did Make A Difference - The Righteous Gentiles

There are hundreds of dramatic stories of individual rescuers and their heroic acts to save Jews during the Holocaust. Many of them have been acknowledged. The whereabouts of others are still being sought, but there are some who will never be known. Some Jews who were initially aided nevertheless died during the war and no one remains to give testimony. Some rescuers lost their lives along with the Jews they hid and others wish to remain anonymous. Fortunately, because of their individual efforts, many survived who would otherwise have been killed in the Nazi machinery of death. Almost all of those who survived through rescue have tried to locate the person or persons who helped them, to give thanks, offer support and to bring their name to light as an example to the rest of the world. The following are the stories of but a few of these courageous individuals.

Facing History & Ourselves - Strom & Parsons & Teaching About the Holocaust & Genocide - NY Dept. of Education

AMONG THE RIGHTEOUS

Eberhard Helmrich, Germany

THE OFFICIAL

Eberhard Helmrich, a ranking official of the Economic Department of the German Occupying Forces in East Galicia during 1941-44 used all his authority to save Jewish lives. The Jews of the Drohobycz ghetto were given aid as were the inmates from the labor camp of Hyrawka. Helmrich supplied food for the Jewish hospital at a time when most of the hospital patients died of malnutrition. Defying Nazi laws, Eberhard Helmrich aided in the escape of numerous Jewish women. There was Irene Miszel, daughter of a doctor at the hospital. Helmrich had her driven to a nearby town in his official car, knowing full well that she intended to hide out using forged Aryan papers. When Irene was discovered, again Eberhard came to her aid, driving her back to hide her for two weeks in his own office until he could arrange suitable papers which would not arouse Gestapo suspicion. His masterpiece, however, was to send household help from Drohobycz and Lvov to German families in German