Hitler's Holocaust: Decision

VIDEO

Hitler’s Holocaust: Decision. Videocassette. © MPR Film und Fernsch Produktion GmtH for the History Channel, 2000. Running Time: Approximately 50 minutes.

REVIEW

The second installment in the History Channel’s series “Hitler’s Holocaust” is named Decision and explores the steps that led to the Wannsee Conference, which was a top-level meeting of perpetrators and laid the final details for the mass murder of Europe’s Jews and other “undesirables”.

The early stages of the film describe measures the Nazis took to identify Jews. Starting with the order of September 15 1941, which required Jews in German lands to wear a yellow Star of David on their outer clothing, the video then heads back in time with a discussion of antisemitism in Europe in general, Germany in particular. One Jewish lady states in her testimony, “Christian antisemitism didn’t lead to Auschwitz, bit it sure made it a lot easier.” With Hitler claiming in the post-WWI years that the German defeat was the result of Jewish industrialists and financiers diverting capital into their own ventures and away from the war effort (leading to German defeat and the eventual Treaty of Versailles), Germans felt they could in the very least not be ashamed of their prejudices. That all came to a head on January 30 1933 when Hitler was named Reichschancellor, and antisemitism became official policy in Germany. The first test of his new subjects came only several weeks later, on April 1 with the boycott of Jewish businesses. Although the boycott was not terribly successful, one testimonial states that everyone just knew who was Jewish…

Some of the interviews included in this video offer feelings of unrest, of decisions that had to be made as to whether or not to leave Germany, and of family safety. One man tells of his grandfather, who felt no real threat – after all, “Nothing can happen to us; I have fought for the Fatherland.” How wrong he would be, as it became clear that no medals, no papers, no history of public service would spare the atrocities that were in the offing. With the annexation of Austria in March 1938, an additional 185,000 Jews came under Hitler’s power. We are told that there were beatings from the beginning; one man states that when walking down the street, it could become apparent that someone was being roughed up at a distance behind. He says, “If you turned around, you were involved – you couldn’t help, you couldn’t run away.” This is the mentality of the bystander, but it also speaks to the kinds of choices people in this place and time were faced with – whether or not to leave the known personal world and enter the world of the unknown, of the unpredictable – yet in the mind predictably scary.

The second half of the film gives many details on events of World War II. While most discussions on the Holocaust take place outside the context of the war, this particular film ties what was going on in Hitler’s larger war strategies to the tightening noose around the Jews. Hitler’s courtship of an alliance with Great Britain is discussed in detail, and Churchill’s meeting with Roosevelt to write and sign the Atlantic Charter is labeled as the event that ended that dream for Hitler. The invasion of the USSR is again dealt with (although not in any way as extensively as it was in the previous installment of this series, Invasion). The einsatzgruppen are discussed, and later the onslaught of the Russian winter, with the German troops dressed only in their summer uniforms. Of note in this segment is the story of Hitler’s August 1941 visit to the Ukraine, where he gave to Himmler the order to liquidate the camps should the Germans ultimately lose the war. Emphasis should be made here that this predates the massive killing in the death camps – in fact, the first killing center, Chelmno, would not be operational until December 8 1941. Heydrich’s Wannssee Conference would take place in January 1942 and the Final Solution would be implemented.

The final minutes of this video deal with issues concerning deportation and expropriation. A story is related of 1000 Jews from Stuttgart who were told to report to a camp. Only 28 would survive the war. Their luggage was confiscated – these Jews believed they were to be relocated, resettled in the east. In actuality, as they left, their homes were “reallocated”. This story becomes very real as a lady whose family moved into a home vacated by Jews tells her account. As a child, she had a conversation with the man who was leaving; he told her to take care of his piano, his most precious possession. She says she felt sad for the man; she didn’t want to move in. The narrator then tells how the man stood by as his piano was sold at auction. As the trains began running to the east, the order from the Wannssee Conference was followed that nothing should be left of the Jews and no evidence of their lives should remain. In fact, in some areas, bodies were exhumed from mass graves to be burned. Heydrich and his minions had marked for death 11 million Jews – in some cases, even their memories would be murdered.

Also included near the end of the program is an interview with Simon Wiesenthal, who tells the story that formed the crux of his book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. Wiesenthal discusses how, as an imprisoned Jew during the Holocaust he was taken from a work detail to the bedside of a dying German soldier. The soldier wanted to confess to a Jew (apparently any Jew would do…) his involvement in a horrific crime. By fate, Wiesenthal was that Jew. He left the man’s bed without speaking when asked for that forgiveness. The Sunflower goes into more detail, and includes a symposium of 53 authors commenting on Wiesenthal’s actions/inaction.

PASSAGE/QUOTE FOR CLASSROOM USAGE

On September 15 1941 the German government mandated that all Jews in Germany wear a yellow Star of David visibly on their clothing. At the beginning of this video, a man states that there was some trepidation in his household about this change. As his mother was sewing these patches onto the family clothes, his father announced to the rest of the kin that they would “wear it with pride”.

Before viewing the film, read the preceding paragraph ask your students what this would mean to them. How could an identifying badge (and you can take liberties with this idea of “badge” – do you want to carry this further to clothing styles, hairstyles, uniforms, etc.?) be a source of pride? Can they name identifiers in our culture that serve the wearer/bearer as a source of self-importance, and others that might serve as a reason for condemnation? Build a list on the chalkboard for large group discussion.

RATIONALE FOR USAGE/UNIT RELEVANCE

This particular installment in the series should accompany a class discussion on the Evian Conference, the Wannsee Conference, events leading up to the start of World War II, and events early in the war up to and perhaps including the invasion of the USSR.

CLASSROOM METHOD OF USAGE

As stated earlier, the film may be shown in its entirety or broken into segments for smaller blocks of discussion.

STUDY QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION GUIDE

This movie is well organized in a timeline format. Pass out the following viewing guide and have students comment on the significance of the dates, as far as major events or ideas, the meaning of the date in the history of the Holocaust, and if and/or how it served as a springboard for what would come next.

Name __________________________________

On the Road to Extermination: Key Dates In the March to Oblivion

Hitler’s Holocaust: Decision

Using the dates as your guide, detail key events (and testimonial comments) mentioned in the film Hitler’s Holocaust: Decision. Be prepared to share your answers later in class. You should fill this out as a note-taking assignment rather than a formal work – it is more important to get events down in a somewhat organized manner than it is to make your notes look “nice”. Dates are supplied to you in the order in which they are discussed in the film.

Sept 15 1941: __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jan 30 1933: ___________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mar 23 1933: __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Apr 1 1933: ___________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1935: ________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mar 1938: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

July 1938: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nov 9-10 1938: ________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jan 30 1939: ___________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sept 1939: ____________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oct 1939: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

June 22 1940: __________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mid ’40-early ’41: ______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

June 1941: ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

End July 1941: _________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aug 14 1941: __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aug 1941: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fall 1941: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sept 1941: ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oct 1941: _____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dec 7 1941: ___________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jan 1942: _____________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jan 30 1939, 1940, 1941: ________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Use the next several lines to summarize which two or three events you recorded were, in your opinion, the most important in the march toward the events of the Final Solution. Be sure to state why your feelings are such.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name KEY – possible answers

On the Road to Extermination: Key Dates In the March to Oblivion

Hitler’s Holocaust: Decision

Using the dates as your guide, detail key events (and testimonial comments) mentioned in the film Hitler’s Holocaust: Decision. Be prepared to share your answers later in class. You should fill this out as a note-taking assignment rather than a formal work – it is more important to get events down in a somewhat organized manner than it is to make it look “nice”. Dates are supplied to you in the order in which they are discussed in the film.

Sept 15 1941: Order for all German Jews to wear the yellow star

Jan 30 1933: Hitler named Reichschancellor – antisemitism became official policy in Germany

Mar 23 1933: Jews in New York marched in protest against the Nazi regime

Apr 1 1933: boycott of German Jewish businesses; many people didn’t participate, but few tried to stop it

1935: Nuremberg carnival – made it official that Jews were 2^nd-class citizens

Mar 1938: Austria annexed. 185,000 Jews came into Reich. There were beatings from the beginning…

July 1938: Evian Conference. Dominican Republic was only nation to offer to take German Jewish refugees

Nov 9-10 1938: Kristallnacht

Jan 30 1939: Invasion of Czechoslovakia planned

Sept 1939: Invasion of Poland. War crimes behind the front lines – in every town the intelligentsia was lined up and shot. “All murder is on order from above

Oct 1939: Poland defeated; Hitler spoke of peace with Britain

June 22 1940: French armistice after only a month of fighting; Britain unsuccessfully courted again

Mid ’40-early ’41: Luftwaffe bombed Britain

June 1941: Attack of USSR (Operation Barbarosa) – victory seemed imminent in 1^st few weeks. Hitler wouldn’t let generals plan for the winter. Special task forces (einsatzgruppen) murdered the intellectual elite, and mostly Jews

End July 1941: Advance halted due to disputes within the command

Aug 14 1941: Churchill/FDR summit at sea – Atlantic Charter; Hitler’s hope of British alliance was over

Aug 1941: Hitler visited the Ukraine; gave Himmler order to liquidate the camps if Germany should lose the war – but what to do with the Jews?

Fall 1941: at the burial of German victims of allied bombings, Nazi propaganda blamed Jews – “It was regarded as proven that Jews throughout the world stick together through Hell and high water. German Jews were puppets to American, British, and French Jews – who were pulling the strings

Sept 1941: Reinhardt Heydrich named the new governor of Prague – “extremely dangerous, ambitious, efficient; terribly able”

Sept 1941: More experiments with CO in Russia towns – on disabled adults; euthanasia experts arrived in Belzec to set up extermination camps

Oct 1941: systematic extermination policy underway in the East

Dec 7 1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Jan 1942: Wannssee Conference, chaired by Heydrich – final tally of Jews to be killed = 11 million (including Jews from Turkey and Britain). Nothing should be left of the Jews or of evidence – bodies exhumed from mass graves to be burned.

Jan 30 1939, 1940, 1941: Hitler had spoken repeatedly of the destruction of the Jews, on the anniversaries of his ascension to power

Answers will vary, but should be supported with details.