VI. The War Against the Jews

This Chapter And You...

This chapter is not an attempt to teach you all about the Holocaust. For that you need to take a special class or course, or read extensively.

If we were to chart the progression of events that took place before and during the Holocaust, it would look like this:

• regulations
• isolation
• deportation
• GHETTOIZATIONS
• concentration"s"
• extermination

To the events listed above, the world of the Jew was constantlyconstricted. First, laws were enacted which limited the Jew's ability to be part of the society in which he lived. The Jew became isolated and a pariah. Second, the Jew's life was physically segregated and constricted, with the ghetto becoming his total world. Third, the narrowing of the life became almost total in the concentration camp. And finally, not only did death take away that life, but then the bodies were burnt to ashes, the final constriction.

You will be participating in the March of the Living in just a few short months. You will be confronted with a brief, yet terrifying chapter in Jewish history. This chapter in the Study Guide can only give you a peek into the time period of the Shoah. You will need to do your own reading to try to understand more fully the events of "yesterday". A selected reading list is in the introduction to this Study Guide. Choose a book or two and read them NOW. This chapter cannot substitute for your own search for knowledge.

As you have already read in previous chapters, the "War Against the Jews" had been in effect for hundreds of years before the Holocaust. The Shoah was when this war reached its height.

The "War" continues. In 1970 Arab terrorists hijacked three airplanes and after landing in Egypt, conducted their own "selection process," separating the Jews from the other passengers. In 1976 the same selection took place during the hijacking of a plane to Uganda.

The War Against the Jews continues to this day.

Your experience and understanding on the March will increase in direct proportion to the amount of your previous preparation.

Objectives

1. The March of the Living is a march back into history. You will need to know the history of the Shoah to fully participate in the March.

2. At the conclusion of this lesson, you should have a better and clearer picture of the history of the Holocaust.

3. A knowledge of the Shoah will help you understand the sights you will see. Your visit to Poland will be like pieces in a large jigsaw puzzle. Studying about them beforehand will help you place those pieces of the puzzle in their proper place.

4. This familiarity should make the entire experience of visiting Poland more meaningful.

Thou Shalt Not Murder

The Bible records the legend of Cain and Abel to show that murder is to be regarded as a terrible crime. Later, the prohibition is explained to Noah: "He that sheds the blood of a person, for that person his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God has God made man (Genesis 9-6)." This prohibition against murder is repeated in the Ten Commandments, where it is the first of the five commandments which apply to the ways in which people must treat one another. Of course, the Bible distinguishes between accidental murder (manslaughter) and intentional murder (Numbers 35:16-24), but the Jewish tradition clearly abhors any taking of human life.

Even capital punishment, the taking of the murderer's life in exchange for the life he has taken, was to be avoided wherever possible.

Hitler's War Against the Jews, Altshuler & Dawidowicz

"Fitness"

While the ultimate goal of the Final Solution was the destruction of all Jews, Hitler consistently singled out certain kinds of individuals for early annihilation on the grounds that they were particularly "unfit." The very young and very old, as well as those suffering from mental or physical illnesses, were regarded by the Nazis as persons of "little value." Against this immoral stance, Jewish tradition affirms the worth of all human beings, since each is created in the image of God. From the first day of life a child is legal heir to his parents' estate in the eyes of Halachah (Niddah 5:3), and even a dying person's words have legal force in business or inheritance matters (Baba Batra 9:6-7, Ketubot 48a, 103a). The rabbis recognized that newborn infants die of natural causes more often than children who are older, but they rightly say that anyone who kills a child even one day old is to be regarded as a murderer (Niddah 5:3).

Hitler's War Against the Jews, Altshuler & Dawidowicz

Reading #1

100 Year Chronology of Jewish Life in Poland

1881 First pogrom in Warsaw, condemned by Church and intellectuals

1881-1924 Peak of Jewish emigration to the United States

1905 Jewish workers' mass participation in the revolutionary movement

1918 Poland regains independence; pogrom in Lvov takes place in the wake of Polish-Ukrainian struggle for the city

1919 Poland signs Versailles treaty of minority rights; Jews elected to Polish parliament

1921 Polish constitution grants equal rights to Jews

1919-1939 Jewish religious, cultural and political life flourishes in Poland; many Jews assimilate to Polish culture, but face hostility that makes their integration difficult

1935-1937 Pogroms testify to the rise of anti-Semitism

1936 Prime Minister supports economic boycott of Jews

1938 Polish Jews living in Germany brutally expelled

1939 Poland partitioned by Germany and Russia

1940 Jews in Warsaw confined to specially-created ghetto

1941 Massacre of Jews by Germany begins in eastern Poland

1942 German extermination camps become fully operational; destruction of Warsaw ghetto; Polish resistance movement gathers strength

1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising

1945 More than 90% of Polish Jews perish; Poland liberated, Communistregime installed

1946 Kielce pogrom; mass emigration of Jews

1948 Poland becomes one of the first states to recognize Israel

1949 Zionist organizations dissolved

1957 Following liberalization, new mass emigration of Jews

1967 After Six-Days War, Poland breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel

1968 Government-sponsored campaign of anti-Semitism; final emigration of Jews

1981 Reappearance of anti-Semitism, condemned by Solidarity, Church, and intellectuals

Excerpts from Remnants, Last Jews of Poland

Questions

1. Circle those dates you consider to be important in the rise of anti-Semitism in Poland. Justify your answers. Why are they important?

2. Underline the dates which indicate a better atmosphere in which Jews in Poland could live. Why were those positive changes on those dates?

Reading #2

You are the product of many factors. So too was the war against the Jews. Your March experience is not happening in a vacuum. Neither did the Holocaust. You are affected by the world around you. So was the Holocaust. Remember this as you review these charts.

Getting Israel Together, "Holocaust" - World Zionist Organization - Edited Version

On the charts which begin on the next page it is particularly important to notice the juxtaposition of what is happening during the Shoah in and outside of Europe.

Questions:

1. What was the relationship of what Hitler decided to do to the Jews, to the responses outside of Europe?

2. Was the Jewish response related to what was happening in Germany?

3. Trace the growth of anti-Semitism and how these events could have allowed the Shoah to take place. Specifically highlight the ways in which Jews were dehumanized.

4. Trace the following periods of the Shoah:a. Legalization of anti-Semitism. Deportationc. Concentrationd. Extermination

Reading #3

The March has established its rules. So did Germany. What is the difference? (We know, it sounds ludicrous to ask that question. But think about it.) Would lawyers and judges today work with the government to create such laws? Read the following laws and think about that.

The Nuremberg Laws (1st set of anti-Semitic laws promulgated in Germany - excerpts)

Nuremberg Laws On Reich Citizenship, September 15, 1935

33

Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

SEPTEMBER 15, 1935

Moved by the understanding that purity of the German Blood is the essential condition for the continued existence of the German people, and inspired by the inflexible determination to ensure the existence of the German Nation for all time, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following Law, which is promulgated herewith:

Sec. 1

1) Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood are forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law.

2) Annulment proceedings can be initiated only by the State Prosecutor.

Sec. 2

Extramarital intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood is forbidden.

Sec. 3

Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of Germany or related blood who are under 45 years old.

Sec. 4

1) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or National flag or to display the Reich colors.

2) They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.

Sec. 5

1) Any person who violates the prohibition under Sec. 1 will be punished by a prison sentence with hard labor.

2) A male who violates the prohibition under Sec. 2 will be punished with a prison sentence with or without hard labor.

3) Any person violating the provisions under Secs. 3 or 4 will be punished with prison sentence of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other of these penalties.

Sec. 6

The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the Deputy of the Fuhrer and the Reich Minister of Justice, will issue the Legal and Administrative regulations required to implement and complete this Law.

Sec. 7

The Law takes effect on the day following promulgations except for Sec. 3, which goes into force on January 1, 1936.

Nuremberg, September 15, 1935at the Reich Party Congress of Freedom

The Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister of the Interior Frick

Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Gurtner

The Deputy of the Fuhrer R. Hess

Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 1935, pp. 1146-1147

34

First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship LawNovember 14, 1935

Sec. 4

1) A Jew cannot be a Reich citizen. He has no voting rights in political matters; he cannot occupy a public office.

2) Jewish officials will retire as of December 31, 1935

Sec. 5

1) A Jew is a person descended from at least three grandparents who are full Jews by race.

2) A Mischling who is a subject of the state is also considered a Jew if he is descended from two full Jewish grandparents.

a) who was a member of the Jewish Religious Community at the time of the promulgation of this Law, or was admitted to it subsequently;

b) who was married to a Jew at the time of the promulgation of this law, or subsequently married to a Jew;

c) who was born from a marriage with a Jew in accordance with paragraph 1, contracted subsequently to the promulgation of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of September 15, 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt 1, p. 1146);

d) who was born as the result of extramarital intercourse with a Jew in accordance with Paragraph 1, and was born illegitimately after July 31, 1936.

Reichegesetzblatt, I. 1935, p. 1333

52

REGULATION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF THE JEWS FROM THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF GERMANYNOVEMBER 12, 1938

On the basis of the regulation for the implementation of the Four Year Plan of October 18, 1936 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 887), the following is decreed:

Sec. 1

1) From January 1, 1939, Jews (Sec. 5 of the First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1333) are forbidden to operate retail stores, mail-order houses, or sales agencies, or to carry on a trade (craft) independently.

2)They are further forbidden, from the same day on, to offer for sale goods or services, to advertise these, or to accept orders at markets of all sorts, fairs or exhibitions.

3) Jewish trade enterprises (Third Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law of June 14, 1938 --Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 627) which violate this decree will be closed by police.

Sec. 2

1) From January 1, 1939, a Jew can no longer be the head of an enterprise within the meaning of the Law of January 20, 1934, for the Regulation of National Work (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 45).

2) Where a Jew is employed in an executive position in a commercial enterprise he may be given notice to leave in six weeks. At the expiration of the term of the notice all claims of the employee based on his contract, especially those concerning pension and compensation rights, become invalid.

Sec. 3

1) A Jew cannot be a member of a cooperative.

2) The membership of Jews in cooperatives expires on December 31, 1938. No special notice is required.

Sec. 4

The Reich Minister of Economy, in coordination with the Ministers concerned, is empowered to publish regulations for the implementation of this decree. He may permit exceptions under the Law if these are required as the result of the transfer of a Jewish enterprise to non-Jewish ownership, for the liquidation of a Jewish enterprise or, in special cases, to ensure essential supplies.

Berlin, November 12, 1938

Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Goring Field Marshal General

Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 1938, p. 1580

Questions:

1. What did the Nuremberg Laws do?

2. What would it feel like not being able to associate with your friends?

Reading #4

As the opening of this chapter implies, what started as "Laws" ended with annihilation, what started as simple racist slurs ended with extermination. The March can't teach you everything about the Holocaust, but this article does an amazing job in just three pages.

Holocaust History

After suffering military defeat in World War I, the German people lost their national pride. To restore Germany to greatness, Adolf Hitler developed a Fascist ideology proclaiming the superiority of the so-called "Aryan Race" over all others - in particular the Jews - and calling for Germany's total conquest of Europe and the world. In the late 1920's, Hitler established the National Socialist or "Nazi" Party in furtherance of his goals. On January 30, 1933, he was appointed Chancellor of a New Germany, the Third Reich, and his Nazi Party became the only legal political party in the land. All other political and ideological persuasions were outlawed.

To enforce their doctrine of superiority, the Nazis embarked on a deliberate program of anti-Semitic repression that would eventually lead to violence. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws were directed specifically against the German Jews, who until the 1930's lived life as secure and loyal German citizens. From 1935 on, all social, political and economic rights of German Jews were restricted. Jews were forbidden to enter into any relationships with the German population, and Germans were forbidden, under stiff penalty, to trade or socialize with Jews.

In July, 1937, the Buchenwald concentration camp was opened, where intellectual Jews and anti-Nazi dissidents were interned. This was the first in a web of such camps throughout Germany which would serve as detention points for "undesirable elements," including mostly Jews, invalids, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and enemies of Nazi ideology.

In March 1938, Hitler annexed Austria into the Third Reich, and in September 1938, England, France and Italy agreed to Germany's annexation of part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler was clearly on the move.

In his drive toward the "Aryanization" of Germany, Hitler ordered the confiscation of property owned by Jews, the removal of Jews from all public and professional positions, the closing of Jewish shops and other establishments, and the expulsion to Poland of 17,000 Jews holding Polish citizenship.

On the night of November 9, 1938, anti-Jewish violence openly erupted, both in Germany and in Austria. On that night, called "Kristallnacht," or night of broken glass, some 30,000 Jews were arrested without cause, 191 synagogues were destroyed, and over 7,000 shops and other businesses had their windows shattered and looted.

The year 1939 marked a period of barbarism unprecedented in all human history - the premeditated, systematic murder of millions of people, and more specifically, the planned total destruction of European Jewry by Nazi Germany. In March, Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia. In August, Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, and on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and thus World War II began. Two days later, England and France declared war on Germany, and two weeks thereafter the Soviet Army invaded Poland.

To deal with the "Jewish question," special organizational units called "Einsatzgruppen" were formed under the leadership of elite members of the Nazi Party's special police force or "SS." Members included the now infamous Himmler, Heidrich, and Eichmann. By October, 1939, the German General Government for Central Poland was fully in place, with Hans Frank as its Governor General.

Poland had 3,000,000 Jews and had been home to their ancestors for many generations. Hundreds of thousands more Jews lived in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Rumania, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, France, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. They were all to become a priority, often placed ahead of German military action. The unique Jewish culture, tradition, centuries of learning, and contributions to society were to be abruptly erased. In the worst human catastrophe in modern history, an entire people and their age-long culture were destined to become extinct.

Proclamations were issued whereby Jews were forced to leave their homes and their belongings and move to restricted areas, so-called "ghettos." The larger ghettos became dangerously overcrowded. Deprived of food and basic sanitation, masses of people died of starvation and sickness. Most of the large ghettos were walled in to prevent any contact with the outside. To distinguish Jews from the rest of the population, Jews were ordered to wear an arm band or badge bearing a Jewish star. Failure to comply was punishable by death. Nazi racist strategy against the Jews included forced labor without pay, rationed food at a very minimum, torture, deportations, and wanton execution without cause or excuse. Jews from throughout Europe were transported to the large ghettos of Poland.

To complete his plan to annihilate all European Jews, Hitler ordered the establishment of death camps. A special conference was convened on January 20, 1942 in Wannsee, Germany, at which the plan for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" was developed. It called for camps equipped with gas chambers and special crematoria, where Jewish men, women, and children would be put to death and disposed of.

German scientists and engineers were entrusted with designing the crematory ovens and inventing the formula for the deadly gas. Zyklon B would be the gas: One gallon was capable of killing over 1,000 people in minutes. On arriving at the death camps, the men, women and children were told to undress and enter a chamber "showers." Once inside, the doors were closed behind them and not water, but deadly gas sprayed their bodies. Minutes later, the corpses were removed to the ovens for burning. As by-products of this death factory, human bones were crushed to produce fertilizer, hair was used to manufacture military blankets, and soap was made from human fat!

The most notorious death camps in Poland were Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, Belzec and Chelmno. Among the death camps in Germany were Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, and Bergen-Belsen. Having concentrated all Jews in the Ghettos under strict armed control, the Nazis embarked on a program of so-called "actions," "selections," and deportations to the camps. Under the threat of death, the entire population of a Jewish ghetto was ordered to appear at a public square called the "Umschlagplatz," where Nazi SS officers arbitrarily selected those who would remain and those who would depart on a transport. The SS used trained police dogs to search out those who attempted to hide in houses, bunkers, and sewers. After each such "action," the selected Jews were locked into cattle cars - destination, Death Camp!

Fully aware by now of the Nazi atrocities, Jews organized a network of underground resistance units. With a bare minimum of resources, they developed cells of resistance in the ghettos and camps, and as partisan groups in the forests. The largest and most effective effort at resistance was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, on April 19, 1943. Led by young, inexperienced men and women under the leadership of Mordechai Anielewicz, the Ghetto fighters fought the best equipped German SS forces with makeshift weapons and home-made bombs. Their determination and heroism kept the Germans at bay for twenty-seven days - an astounding defense, considering that all of France fell to the Germans in just fourteen days.

By September 1942, over 300,000 Jews were sent from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Death Camp. By the end of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, on May 16, 1943, SS Brigadefuehrer Jurgen Stroop, in charge of liquidating the Warsaw Ghetto, reported to his fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, "Es Gibt Keinen Judischen Wohnbesirk in Warschau Mehr!" ("The Jewish District in Warsaw Exists No More!") All Jews had been eliminated, and the area was "Judenrein," clean of Jews.

The world at large was becoming aware of the German program to make Europe "Judenrein." In april 1943, the United States and England convened the Bermuda Conference to discuss the issue of the destruction of European Jewry and to address the problem of Jewish refugees. Unfortunately, no action was taken at the conference. It was fruitless and disappointing. In addition, many concerned individuals and organizations pleaded with the Allies to bomb the railroads leading to the death camps, but their cries went unheeded. Such action was considered inappropriate to the military engagements.

The Jewish underground fought valiantly in many areas. The revolt at Sobibor, for example, forced the closing of this camp. Yet the Nazis succeeded in killing over 6,000,000 Jews, including 1,500,000 Jewish children. Of the 6,000,000 dead, 2,000,000* Jewish men, women, and children perished in the Auschwitz death camp alone! As late as April 1944, when the world was fully aware of the Nazi atrocities, 380,000 Hungarian Jews and tens of thousands more Slovakian and Greek Jews were still brought to Auschwitz for annihilation.

At the end of 1944, the German Eastern front collapsed and the Germans retreated through Poland. The Soviet Red Army pressed the Germans westward, freeing Polish territories occupied by the Nazis. As part of their retreat, the Germans decided to evacuate Auschwitz, their largest death camp, forcing the prisoners to march on foot for many days and nights without food or sleep. Many froze to death and many more died along the way from total exhaustion. Survivors of this death march, who remembered it as a monstrously inhuman experience, were put in camps inside Germany, where many died of sickness and total debilitation. Those who lived long enough were at last liberated by the allied - American, British, and Russian soldiers, who upon entering the camps, faced a group of people many described as "living corpses."

Although the scourge of fascism and anti-semitism swept many European countries, some decent human beings resisted the evil. Among civilians who had shown decency and humanity in this dehumanizing period were many "Righteous Gentiles" who endangered their own lives to save some of their Jewish friends from certain death. These men and women are honored by the Jewish people and the State of Israel with a special monument to their heroism: The Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel's Official National Memorial to the Jewish Victims of the Holocaust.

In their madness, the Nazis wantonly killed many civilians, destroying much of the gypsy population and other people of various nationalities. Yet it was the Jewish people whom the Nazis singled out for total destruction. Although not all victims of the Holocaust were Jews, all Jews were its victims.

Thus, the Nazis almost achieved their goal, having succeeded in annihilating two-thirds of European Jewry, leaving behind millions of corpses,

While the World Watched...

While the World Listened...

and Remained Silent...

Prepared by Dr. Helen N. FaginHolocaust Memorial Committee Miami Beach, Florida * revised in 1991

Reading #5

Atlas of the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert

Look at the Jewish population of any five countries on the map and compare it to the Jewish population today. What can you learn from these numbers?Look at the Encyclopedia Judaica for answers.

Activity A

If you had been living in Europe during the early 1940's, and you had survived the Holocaust, chances are that over one-half of your family and friends would have died. Imagine what your life would be like today if all of a sudden your family tree was uprooted.

Questions:

1. What would your life be like today if all your family had perished?

2. Can you imagine going back to your home town in 1946 to find all the homes of your family and friends appropriated by your non-Jewish neighbors, and no place for you to live. What would you have done? Where would you have gone?

3. If you were the only person in your family to have survived, how would that change your life, your thinking, your plans, your ideals?

4. Imagine drawing a geneological chart with all the names below you dead, and you represent the new branch from which life goes on. What responsibilities might you feel?

The war against the Jews has not ended. In 1970, three separate aircraft were highjacked and flown to a desert airstrip in Egypt. Upon landing, the Arab terrorists segregated the Jewish passengers from the non-Jewish passengers, incongruously similar to the "selection process" used at the concentration camps.

On July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos attacked the Entebbe airfield in Uganda, liberating almost 100 Jewish passengers from an Arab terrorist attack, again one in which the Jews had been separated from the non-Jews.

The war against the Jews continues.