Hitler's Holcaust: Invasion

VIDEO

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

REVIEW

On June 22 1941 at 3:00 am the German army commenced their invasion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Codenamed Operation Barbarosa, the attack was one of extermination, of annihilation. Surprisingly, many of those living under Soviet rule welcomed the Germans. One man testifies in the opening minutes of the video that his father said to him that the Germans were OK – he knew them from the first war and they were a cultivated people. What was better than German culture? Unfortunately, the Germans were simultaneously telling their soldiers that the Slavs and the Jews who they were about to encounter were subhuman.

So begins the series “Hitler’s Holocaust”, a sweeping survey of the events of the Shoah in the years 1941-45. Using a combination of archival footage (some of it seen for the first time on these videos) and testimony from the people who lived through it, the series begins with the invasion of the USSR and gets right into the savagery of the attack. Early on the statement is made that the Soviet POW’s were a particularly hard-hit group; 30,000 men were allowed to starve in prison or were executed, and by war’s end approximately two million had perished. What an opportunity to emphasize to your students that while the Jews are often the focus of any study of the Holocaust (and rightfully so – they will be as such in this film series as well), we must keep in mind that a number falling between five and six million non-Jews also met their fate at the hands of the Germans.

The Nazi propaganda campaign had prepared their soldiers well. While the British and French were perceived as opponents, it was the Soviets, not even all Russians, who were perceived as enemies. And since Hitler was convinced that Jewish Bolsheviks led the Soviet Union, it was not only the Soviet intelligentsia that must die, but also all Jews. With plans to topple the Soviet empire by August, the Germans set about fulfilling their orders. An initial mandate to “inactivate” the Jews soon led to murder as the only option. One Lithuanian Jew comments that when the Germans arrived in 1941, it was the first time he had seen Jews murdered and not simply persecuted. It would get so much worse.

Many of the survivors interviewed for this project were children at the time, which is a major point for students who are viewing. One of the men quoted in several of the films is Samuel Pisar. The first time we meet him, he tells a story of a synagogue ablaze, and of seeing children thrown from the upper windows. Anyone caught outside was systematically machine-gunned. Pisar’s statement is followed by Ulrich Gunzert, who was in the German military and reports from the German perspective how a German soldier could only think of the enemy, of dealing with him. The German, he says, thought only about survival… There is, however, a story in the film of a lieutenant general who takes pity on 90 children who had been walled up in a building to starve. Informing his superior officer of his concerns, he was answered that since the Jew-clearing operation had already begun, it should be finished. The children were then murdered. Another child survivor, Irene Horowitz, was a victim during the three-day Lvov pogrom. She begins to break down as she speaks of blood on her face, brought about by the families of children with whom she formerly played, danced, and went to school. She says Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians had all been friends – now the Jews were not even people anymore, but only Jews.

The film continues to do a fantastic job of not only showing the issues Jews were beginning to face on an all-too-regular basis, but how it then affected Jewish young people. One lady comments on her father being taken from the family, and of her attempt the next day to get his coat to him. She approached a policeman and politely addressed the man and stated her desire. She was asked when her father had been taken; when she replied that it had been around 5:00 the afternoon before, she was told to keep the coat – her father would not need a coat anymore. Pisar recounts the time when his family had received their deportation papers, and they were in the home saying good-bye “to their surroundings”. He says he asked his father if he could take his bicycle – his father told him he was crazy. What about the ice skates? “Where will you use them?!” Pisar then asked about his stamp collection, and his father told him that yes, the stamp collection would be a good idea – perhaps later it could be exchanged with a German for bread. And then Pisar states, after the deportation, “We were alone, disarmed, with women, children, the old, and the sick – even then we didn’t conceive of how bad it would become.”

PASSAGE/QUOTE FOR CLASSROOM USAGE

In the first ten minutes of this video, a guard of a 1941 Lithuanian round-up of Jews comments:

There was no cry, no wailing. Jews were pushed forward toward the trucks without shouting. There was a deadly silence. It was oppressive.

Ask your students what it might have been like to observe this scene (please stay away from asking them, “What would it have been like to have been that guard?” Or, “Pretend you are those people waiting for the Nazis to give them orders.” Thankfully, your students have no point of reference for such a question, and to pose it would prove pointless) from afar. How would they feel as spectators? What choices would they have as watchers? What choices did the Jews have as they sat together? What choices had the guards already made, and what choices would face them as the war and the Holocaust wore on?

RATIONALE FOR USAGE/UNIT RELEVANCE

The series “Hitler’s Holocaust” is a survey of the events of the Shoah, beginning with the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22 1941. The six films in the series are organized into major themes: Invasion (of the USSR), Decision (the final plans for the Final Solution), Ghetto, Resistance, Mass Murder, and Final Toll (the end events – liberation, survivor testimony, etc.). These films will ably augment any survey of the Holocaust, whether one teaches literature or history.

CLASSROOM METHOD OF USAGE

This is the inaugural film in the series “Hitler’s Holocaust”. It is my professional opinion that all six of these videos should be shown in their entirety, but with many, many stoppages for commentary and questions. This is an excellent, comprehensive series of films, with testimony from people involved in all aspects of the Shoah. My students are very attentive when viewing this series, and are able to carry on discussions at a high level. Even if the teacher must split the showing of any of these movies over a multiple-day period – do it.

STUDY QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION GUIDE

Pass out the following worksheet for use during the film. Students should use this to take notes and/or record thoughts for later discussion in class. Before coming together in the large group, encourage small groups of students to get together and share their thoughts. If you are breaking the film into segments, or showing parts over a few class periods, this could be done after the day’s viewing.

Name ___________________________

On Society, Events Within the Peer Group, and Human Choice

Detail events mentioned in the film Hitler’s Holocaust: Invasion. Be prepared to share your answers later in class. You should fill this out as more of 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”.

Give examples of how the rules of society were turned upside down for someone in the film. Give specifics of their situation.

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Give examples of a person or persons who went along with the crowd, perhaps knowing that what they were doing was wrong.

Give examples of collaboration with the Germans. What were the circumstances of each incident?

Give examples of human loss (of property, possessions, and of loved ones).

Tell some things that made you sad.

Tell some things that made you mad.

Summarize what you’ve learned overall from watching Hitler’s Holocaust: Invasion.