Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Jewish population worldwide:
1939: 16.5 million 1945: 11 million
1950: 11.4 million
1970: 12.6 million
1990: 12.9 million
2020: 12.9 million (projected)
If no Shoah:
1950: 17.9-18.5 million
1970: 19.8-25.2 million
1990: 20.3-30.0 million
2020: 20.3-35.1 million
How do they
figure these estimates? Why is there
such a large gap between the real and projected figures for 1990 and 2020? --
I think they looked at not only the natural growth that was occurring in the
early part of the 20th Century, but also factored in improvements in
healthcare, etc. over the second half of the 1900’s. Certainly, the Jews have had problems throughout their history with
pogroms, war, forced movement, etc. My
guess is that this was all considered, and that’s why you see the large
variance.
Why is zero
growth projected for 2020 from today? -- You have to understand a couple of
things. First, Judaism is not an evangelistic
religion, so there are not huge numbers of new converts coming in. Secondly, the population was so heavily
devastated that since 1945, many have left the faith entirely, and a number who
remain have chosen to have smaller families.
Marrying outside the faith creates a problem, too, in which parent the
children identify with religiously. And
let us certainly not forget that 1.5 million children were murdered during the
Shoah, which would have a powerful impact on these numbers.
Genocide: a successful
one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority deliberately intends
to destroy a group outside the universe of moral and social obligations of the
perpetrators as that group and membership in it are defined by the
perpetrators. The extermination may
take place directly (through murder) or indirectly (by creating conditions
which lead to the group’s destruction).
Can we tie
the Indian Removal unit we did earlier in with this definition? --
The “mass killing” phrase would present a problem here. In that many died, perhaps; but you’re
talking about over a tremendous amount of time – 400 years. I would also state in light of what we
learned about the provisions the Jackson administration was offering
(annuities, supplies, arms and ammunition, buildings, etc.) you have to look at
the death more as a by-product of the process rather than as a focused
initiative of the US government.
Then when
does an incident where a large number of people from a specific ethnic group
are killed/die become genocide? -- That was discussed at the 2002 Mandel
Fellow Institute I attended in Washington, DC.
The Committee on Conscience from the Museum spoke about the increased
tragedy when politicians get involved and start talking numbers. The human faces are forgotten, and numbers
are used to decide just when would be a good time to send aid, etc.
Holocaust: the
deliberate, intentional murder of 2/3 of European Jewry by the Nazis and their
collaborators in and before WWII.
Cannot be compared with nuclear war, slavery
Holocaust = a wholly-burnt offering or sacrifice
Does the
definition change when you substitute the homophone “holy” for “wholly”? --
I guess it changes the perspective, doesn’t it? That would certainly tend toward martyr status for the victims,
but think about this: in order to be a
martyr, doesn’t a person have to be able to choose to die? Or be willing to die?
Popularized by Elie Wiesel
SHOAH = Hebrew for catastrophe
Every
genocide has certain characteristics that define it; in that way each genocide
is unique. The Holocaust has the
following characteristics:
Holocaust
Took place in the heart of Western civilization
It was an international genocide
Took place in 22 countries in Europe and N. Africa
Does this
include neutral countries? -- No – although the neutral nations
(i.e. Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey) did lose Jews. We cannot say, though, that the Holocaust
took place in those countries. In some
cases, you have to understand, that just because a nation was not formally
allied with or opposed to the Axis does not mean they did not sell them
supplies, allow rail passage through their land, or in the case of the Swiss,
allow their banks to be used to store Nazi plunder.
There was an almost demonic obsession on the part of the
perpetrators
Wiesel: not all victims
were Jews, but all Jews were victims
What does this
refer to? -- It refers to the other
groups that were persecuted, like Gypsies.
The second half says that even if you lived in Europe and managed to
stay out of the camps, you knew someone who was there; you suffered the loss of
people you knew or loved ones.
June 9, 1944: round-up
on Greek island of Corfu of 1700 Jews while the Germans were battling the American/Canadians
in the West and the Russians in the East
June 29: arrival at
Auschwitz where most were killed
When was
D-Day? -- June 6th. So when the Nazis were fighting the Red Army
in the East and about to lose Paris in the West, this killing continued? Yes – demonic obsession in the face of
losing the war.
Irrationality of the ideology
Jews blamed for capitalism, communism, compassion, mercy,
pornography, etc.
What would
compassion and mercy and conscience have signified to the Nazis? -- Weakness.
Contradictions didn’t matter
In the 20th Century, evil doesn’t recognize itself
for what it is
Oct. 1943: Himmler
speech to SS commended troops for standing firm, becoming hard…
In the face of
all the killing, of SS men having to make old women and small children lie face
down on the ground so they could put a bullet in the back of their head, this
is the context of Himmler’s remarks.
Becoming hard in their work…
(The above two distinguish
the Holocaust from other genocides)
Implementation was with the utmost rationality
Industrialized, depersonalized, dehumanized mass killing
Nazis were pioneers at this
The elite of a modern, industrialized society cooperated
Judges, teachers, doctors, etc.
“Education is only worthwhile if it serves to make us more
humane”
Teachers,
particularly in schools for the deaf or other specialized settings, were very
instrumental in the sterilization of their students. School administrators as well identified children for sterilization
at the hospitals that participated in the T-4 program. -- But what were the parents told? Didn’t they have to give permission for
medical care? -- Not in most cases,
because the schools were entrusted with the care of the students, including
medical treatments in the absence of the parents. Often, the parents were alerted after the fact. This is true of the mentally
institutionalized as well. In those
cases, as time went on toward the killing of mental patients, family was often
sent a letter that their relative had passed on, due to some cause the
authorities had made up. Later, an urn
of ashes might even be sent. – Why
were they cremated? -- No evidence for
a family-authorized autopsy.
Holocaust represents the ultimate perversion of science and
technology, especially medical science
Nearly 50% of German doctors belonged to Nazi party
Some came to view the Holocaust as a health measure
Eugenics became “biological therapy”
Do you know who
led the world in forced sterilizations prior to the rise of the Nazis? -- The United States. Right – in fact, our neighbor Indiana
was one of the most active states in this.
The Americans tended to stay away from the killing that went on later in
Germany, however. But that is not to
absolve anyone of responsibility for the 60,000 forced sterilizations that took
place in the United States, into the 1970’s no less!
Didn’t the
Nazis do experiments on temperature and pressure extremes? What about different chemicals injected into
the body to see what it would do? -- Yes.
Often in the name of research for the German navy or air forces they
would do experiments, and again, you have to be careful with that word – it
usually entails there is a method, a control, etc. – these actions were not
always done with so much scientific care.
Anyway, they did extremes of heat and cold, air pressure, water
deprivation, confining a person in water for many days, how many blows to the
head with a rifle butt would it take to kill someone, different chemicals injected
into the bloodstream, sometimes the heart – all of this and more was done. – How did they get the people to go along
with this?? – There was no choice but to go along. Other experiments tended to be of a more
“racial” nature, as Mengele’s genetics experiments suggest…
Systematic dehumanization of its victims
Holocaust is the best-documented genocide
Simon Dubnow: “Brothers,
remember what you see; write it down”
We will speak
later on this as a form of resistance.
West German government, representing the perpetrators, admitted
guilt
Reparations were paid
Holocaust is best-studied and most-studied genocide
Survivors have written and spoken about it so we might know
Holocaust is a genocide that helped give birth to a modern
state: Israel
Myths
about the Holocaust:
About the event
The Holocaust never happened
Deniers are perpetrators because they seek to murder the
memories of the victims
The Holocaust is a Jewish problem
Raises questions for Western civilization, Christianity, and
humanity in general
About the perpetrators
Those who took part were coerced under threat of extreme penalty
Most who committed the crimes did so knowingly and not
under duress
“willing executioners”
There is a book
out in the last few years by Daniel Goldhagen, called Hitler’s Willing
Executioners. Take caution if you
come across it, as it tends to be a little over-the-top in the blame placed on
the German people, and the reasons for such blame. Many of the scholars I heard speak in Washington, as well as most
of the Museum personnel I encountered on the subject feel this way. That all
Germans participated is simply not true, and that all who did participate did
so for the reasons Goldhagen cites is probably not true, either. He has taken some heat recently for his
thesis. More often than not, Germans
stood by. Think about this – if I look
out the window and witness a deportation taking place, I may have many
feelings, from anger, to sadness, to entrapment by this government and its
programs. But, if I merely let the
curtain close and turn around, what do I see?
-- Your living room. Oh, if
someone turned their back, they could just pretend that life was normal for
them. – Right, for most Germans,
they put themselves in a position where they were unaffected by what was
happening to the Jews and other target groups.
Only Hitler and a few others carried out the genocide; the
German people knew little…
There were few people in Germany who knew nothing about
it
The best example
of this is a story I heard from Warren Marcus from the U.S. Holocaust
Museum. At a workshop he did at which I
was in attendance, he led the day with a photo of Jews boarding a freight train
for a deportation. He asked, “How many
people know about a train?” -- The workers on the docks, the workers who
ride the train, people in the government who work in transportation, factory
workers who might load it, people who live by tracks, or by rail stations,
people stopped in traffic… -- Right
-- a whole bunch of people. How about
this: the population of Germany in the
mid-‘30’s was around 60 million. Of
those people, 1 million were employed in some capacity by the railroad. There truly were few people who knew
nothing…
About the victims
Why didn’t the Jews resist more?
Wiesel: the question
should be – in the face of all the obstacles, how could so many find the
strength to resist?
Give me a list
of obstacles to resistance if you were Jewish at this time:
1. Secrecy
2. Types of and access to weapons – give me some examples of what you’re
referring to:
a. Pistols, rifles, and Molotov cocktails
against machine guns, hand grenades, tanks, and airplanes
3. Obsessiveness/hatred of the perpetrators
4. Dehumanization
5. Lack of organization – again, give me some examples:
a. Communication
b. National or language barriers (the language issue would depend on the
degree that some Jews were assimilated – most eastern Jews spoke Yiddish)
c. Leadership
6. Hope
The Jews cooperated in their own destruction
Nazis created a Judenrat wherever they went as a go-between
between the SS and the Jews
The Judenrat had
a very difficult job set before them.
In a sense, they were like a town or village board – they had to take
care of the day-to-day administration of the ghetto, under Nazi direction of
course. The height of their trouble,
and this is where many Jews have criticized them to the point of saying they
were collaborators, is that when the Nazis ordered a deportation, it was the
Judenrat who had to produce the quota.
Let’s say the Nazis said they needed 3000 Jews on a train next
Tuesday. What did that mean for the
Judenrat? -- They had to come up
with the Jews.
Right. Now think about that for a second. Your job is to come up with this list of
people, and not only record it, but what else?
-- You had to tell the people they were going.
Right. And what kind of people would you pick
first, knowing that your ultimate goal is the preservation of your people? -- Probably the old and the sick. What about the very young? Are they worth much at their present
age? Of course, we’re speaking in this
context… -- No, they would probably
have to go, too.
Right. Think of your family that will gather at a
summer family reunion, or for Thanksgiving. What if the pastor of your church
came to your door and said your grandparents and your little cousins or nephews
and nieces had to report to the train next Tuesday…
About the bystanders
Dutch Jews had a good chance of survival
Nearly 80% (110,000 of 140,000 were murdered) died
Myth grows out of the Diary of Anne Frank
How many of you
have read The Diary of a Young Girl?
There is another book recently out called Salvaged Pages. I would recommend either as primary sources
in diary form. Salvaged Pages covers
life in the ghettos, hiding, moving, etc.
The Nazis built the death camps in Poland because the Poles were
anti-Semitic
Most of the Jews were in Poland
The Nazis and
their collaborators killed around 3 million Polish Jews.
Poland was far enough away from Western and Southern Europe to
keep the genocide secret
This will prove
to be an important point as both the Holocaust and the war wear on.