CASE STUDY The Rise of Nazism and the Destruction of European Jewry
148 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 T 02 9360 7999 F 02 9331 4245 E [email protected] sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au Acknowledgements
Karen Finch, Education Officer Avril Alba, Director of Education Sophie Gelski, extract from Teaching the Holocaust Susi Brieger, Education Consultant
The contributors also wish to thank Dr Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian, Sydney Jewish Museum. Every effort has been made to contact or trace all copyright holders. The publishers will be grateful to be notified of any additions, errors or omissions that should be incorporated in the next edition. These materials were prepared by the Education Department of the Sydney Jewish Museum for use in the program, The Rise of Nazism and the Destruction of European Jewry. They may not be reproduced for other purposes without the express permission of the Sydney Jewish Museum. Copyright, Sydney Jewish Museum 2008. All rights reserved. Design by ignition point Dear Teacher
Please find enclosed pre visit materials, lesson plan and post visit materials for you to use in the classroom to support student learning at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM).
The Rise of Nazism and the Destruction of European Jewry program will introduce concepts from Option C: Germany 1919-1939, Part II: National Studies. The content and learning experiences are linked to syllabus outcomes.
Students will investigate ■ the nature and influence of racism
■ changes in society
■ the nature and impact of Nazism
Students will learn about ■ Nazi racial policy; antisemitism; policy and practice to 1939
At the Museum, your students will meet a Holocaust survivor or descendant and hear first hand experiences of the period. Engaging with documents and film extracts will provide students with a range of sources to enhance their knowledge and understanding of historiography. The visit will include an interactive session facilitated by a Museum educator.
Post visit materials will consolidate and extend your students’ learning. Included is a bibliography to assist students undertaking further research. All texts can be sourced in the SJM’s Library and Resource Centre.
The SJM has acquired the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive (established by Stephen Spielberg) with access to 2,500 testimonies of Holocaust Survivors and other witnesses videotaped by the Shoah Foundation Institute in Australia. Students and teachers are invited to return to the Museum to search the collection for testimonies with links to the topic area.
If you have any further questions, please contact our Education Department on 02 9360 7999 or email [email protected]
Best wishes SJM Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Case Study page 2
2 Pre Visit Materials page 3
3 Lesson Plan page 6
4 Museum Visit page 12
5 Bibliography page 13
6 Post Visit Materials page 14
7 Evaluation page 19
Sydney Jewish Museum 148 Darlinghurst Road Darlinghurst NSW 2010 MAJOR SPONSOR T 02 9360 7999 F 02 9331 4245 E [email protected] sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au with assistance from the © Copyright 2008 Haberman and Kulawicz Fund CASE STUDY
THE RISE OF NAZISM AND THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY
The Rise of Nazism and the Destruction of European Jewry provides students with the opportunity to study in depth the complex and tragic relationship between the rise of Nazism and the destruction of two thousand years of European Jewish life. The Case Study addresses the following topic within the Syllabus:
MODERN HISTORY — PART II — NATIONAL STUDIES OPTION C. GERMANY NATIONAL STUDY 1918-1939 Students learn about: The rise of the Nazi Party; Nazism in power; Nazi foreign policy. Students learn to: Describe and evaluate the role of key individuals, groups and events during the period; explain and evaluate the significance of forces contributing to change and continuity during the period. The following outcomes are taken into account: 1.1; 1.2; 2.1; 3.1; 4.1
OVERVIEW
Since the time of the second expulsion from the Ancient Near East by the Romans in 70CE, Jews have travelled to and settled in all corners of the world. In Europe, the origins of some of the oldest Jewish communities can be traced back to Roman times. Other communities came about due to subsequent migrations. Common to them all was a long history of developing rich cultural, religious and social lives in the places they settled and, despite periods of persecution, becoming largely integrated into local societies.
The rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 and the establishment of Hitler’s totalitarian regime, which led to the implementation of harsh discriminatory laws, spelled the beginning of the end of these communities. Ultimately, the intention of the Nazi regime was to annihilate the Jews in Europe and then the rest of the world. Of the estimated nine million Jews in Europe at the beginning of the war, only some three million survived. However, the loss of life and community was near total in its effect — at the end of World War II, two thousand years of European Jewish life and civilization had been destroyed forever.
page 2 PRE VISIT MATERIAL
ADOLF HITLER AND THE NAZI PARTY 1920-1933 It was a world in which there was no place for any group or Adolf Hitler, disenchanted by Germany’s loss in World individual defined as a political, social or racial enemy. The War I, joined the German Workers Party in 1920. It was Jew was regarded not only as the ‘cancer’ of the German renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party Volksgemeinschaft (‘national community’) but also the — shortened to the Nazi Party. source of all evil – as the Weltfeind (the ‘world enemy’). The Jew had to be removed and finally eliminated. Initially, Hitler was responsible for party propaganda, but in 1921 he became leader of the party. In 1923, he instigated THE JEWS OF GERMANY an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic, an event known as the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’. The attempt failed, the The earliest documents supporting a Jewish presence Nazi Party was outlawed and Hitler was gaoled. During his in Germany date from the Roman Empire. However, incarceration, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle). The there is no evidence to support a continuation of the Nazi Party was revived in 1925 and began to spread its community in Cologne after the end of the Empire. The next influence beyond its roots in Bavaria. Early elections documentation comes from the tenth century when Jewish throughout the 1920s saw the Nazi Party achieving a small merchants came from France and Italy to settle in Germany. percentage of the overall votes. However, between 1930 By the end of the Middle Ages, Jewish communities were and 1933, a series of successful campaigns lead to them firmly established in Germany and included great centres becoming the largest political party in Germany, achieving of Jewish learning and spiritual creativity. The Yiddish 37 percent of the vote in the 1933 elections — not a clear language of Ashkenazi (European) Jews developed from majority, but enough to hold the balance of power in the a fusion of medieval German and Hebrew and came to be Reichstag. spoken as the mama loshen (mother tongue) of Ashkenazi In January 1933, President Paul von Hindenberg appointed Jewish communities across central and eastern Europe. Jews Hitler as chancellor of Germany. In March 1933 the became prominent in trade and commerce but persecution ‘Enabling Act’ was passed, of Jews persisted in Germany, sometimes wiping out entire transferring legislative communities. The worst power to Hitler. Almost periods were during immediately, the Nazi the Crusades and the Party and its paramilitary period of the Black organisations, the SA Death (1348-1349). and the SS, seized all During the Reformation, government and public further difficulties arose institutions, turning with loss of status and Germany into a totalitarian expulsion from larger state. Many Germans cities being enforced by supported Adolf Hitler Church bodies. Most because they saw in him resettled in smaller a charismatic Führer communities, while (‘Leader’), who could those who left made their solve the severe problems way to larger centres of affecting the country. Jewish life developing in These problems included eastern Europe. the consequences of the The French Revolution military defeat in the First and subsequent period World War; the harsh of Enlightenment terms imposed by the Peace marked changes in Treaty of Versailles, political societies all over Europe. instability, social unrest, In parallel, the Jewish economic malaise and large- Enlightenment — the scale unemployment. Haskalah — embraced In Hitler’s vision, Germany, enlightenment values and with time the world, of equality and was to be remade along the citizenship. These lines of Nazi ideals – strong, rights and freedoms ‘Aryan’ and ‘racially pure’. were finally won for FRONT PAGE JEWISH NEWSPAPER, BERLIN, 1931 German Jewry when
page 3 Germany was unified in 1871. Jews were now able to live NAZI POLICIES AND THE CONSEQUENCES outside of their traditional communities, working and living In Hitler’s genocidal, racist ideology, Erlösung (the side by side with non-Jewish colleagues and neighbours. ‘redemption’) of the Germans and of ‘Aryan’ humanity Within Jewish communities, the changes had widespread depended on Endlösung (the ‘Final Solution’) of the ‘Jewish ramifications with the development of alternative, liberal Question’. streams of Judaism. These movements spread across Jewish communities of Europe, but in Germany the level Systematically, the Jews were excluded from German of assimilation and integration into urban German life was society. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were significantly stronger. Jews were prominent in the arts, proclaimed to ‘protect German blood and honour’ by the legal, medical and scientific professions, finance and banning marriages between Jews and Germans, and commerce, and politics. When the founder of the World by depriving Jews of their civil rights and citizenship. Zionist Organisation , Theodor Herzl, died in 1904, the Thousands of Jews fled Nazi Germany. This exodus headquarters of the organisation moved to Germany. prompted the United States of America to convene an international conference on refugees at Evian in July 1938. There were protests, both political and social, with the Very little however, was done to help the refugees. precursors of later right wing and nationalist parties mounting antisemitic campaigns. These were answered The Nazis continued to intensify their campaign against in part by Jewish political organisations who worked to the Jews. On the night of 9 November 1938, a massive counter such attacks and maintain the civil rights of Jews in pogrom was organised against Jews in Germany and Germany. Austria which became known as Kristallnacht — the ‘night of broken glass’. More than 1,000 synagogues were Antisemitism continued to increase up to and during razed and 7,500 Jewish-owned shops vandalized, leaving the First World War. However, there was no obstacle to streets covered with shards of glass. Nazis broke into Jewish Jewish men of army age serving in the armed forces, many homes, terrorizing families. Jews were murdered and of them doing so and being decorated as war heroes. The almost 30,000 Jewish establishment of the men were incarcerated democratic Weimar in concentration camps Republic after World in order to increase the War I included significant pressure on emigration. contributions from Jewish politicians. In the period Following Kristallnacht, between the wars, Jewish Nazi policy became politicians continued even more relentless. to hold posts within Jewish businesses, German democratic and assets and valuables socialist parties. However, were confiscated. Jews the instigators of rising were herded together in antisemitism launched specially segregated ‘Jew propaganda campaigns houses’ and deployed targeting Jews as one in forced labour. They of the main reasons for undertook feverish efforts Germany’s losses in to escape Nazi terror. World War I.
FRONT PAGE JEWISH NEWSPAPER, BERLIN JULY, 1932
page 4 BEYOND GERMANY On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, instigating units (Einsatzgruppen) followed the German front line World War II. The war sealed the fate of European Jewry. forces into the USSR, decimating Jewish communities The Jews found themselves trapped and defenceless against in mass shootings, sometimes referred to as ‘pit killings’. a powerful enemy bent on their total destruction, in a world Concurrently, the Nazis built, as part of a massive and largely indifferent to their fate. complex camp system, six ‘extermination camps’, the specific purpose of which was to expedite the so called In addition to heavy military and civilian losses for ‘Final Solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’ — the genocide of the Polish people, Poland’s Jews became victim to the European Jewry. systematic introduction of similarly restrictive laws and policies that the Nazis had effected against the Jews of The pattern of persecution of European Jewry had been set Germany, implemented with even greater brutality and in Germany from 1933-1938. It was enacted repeatedly as force. Poland, with the largest Jewish population in Europe, country after country was invaded by German forces, with became the dumping ground for Jews from western Europe increasing efficiency and brutality as the war continued. In as the German war machine advanced on new territories. an ultimate demonstration of this efficiency, some 450,000 Jews were rounded up and herded into ghettos all over Hungarian Jews were deported en masse over the period occupied Poland. With the invasion of the Soviet Union between 15 May and 9 July 1944 to the death camp of in the summer of 1941, Nazi policy toward local Jewish Auschwitz-Birkenau where the vast majority perished. populations was further radicalized. Mobile killing
page 5 LESSON PLAN
BACKGROUND ■ Circumstances in Germany following World War I, due to the reparations demanded by the Allies, created severe difficulties in all aspects of life, from industry through to small business. ■ The democratic Weimar republic was defeated by the Nazi Party largely because the Nazis promised change for Germany. Hitler’s totalitarian regime was dedicated to creating the Third Reich, a greater glorious Germany that was intended as a model of civilisation for the whole world. ■ One aim of the Nazi regime was to reconfigure the map of Europe along racial grounds. Those who opposed the regime or belonged to ‘undesirable’ racial groups were persecuted and, in the case of Jewish and Sinti/ Roma people, eventually marked for extermination. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. What was the Australian Government policy 1. Why were Jews among the target groups of the on the intake of German and German Jewish Nazi regime? refugees before the War? How is it different, or not, 2. What were some of the social conditions that made currently? it possible for the racial laws to be accepted by the German public? 3. Using the chronologies and the selection from the Nuremberg Laws, examine the concepts of civil liberties and restrictions. With your class, look at their expectations as citizens of Australia, now and as adults in the future. Points to consider: ■ Being able to say what you think ■ Reading books of your own choosing ■ Using public facilities – buses, trains, swimming pools, libraries, etc ■ Choosing your own friends and life partners ■ Practicing the religion of your choice ■ Being protected by the law ■ Having equal employment opportunities 4. Why was it so difficult to leave Germany? What were the documents people needed to be able to leave?
page 6 THE STORY OF LOTHAR PRAGER was the case with many German Jews, he applied to any country he could think of and was eventually rewarded by Lothar Prager was born 28 May 1902 in Rybnik, Upper receiving a visa for Paraguay in South America. Among the Silesia. He was the youngest child of Wanda and Wilheim documents he received was one that required he provide Prager, owners and proprietors of a fabric dyeing factory the German authorities with an itemised list of everything situated in Breslau, Germany, on the border with Poland. he was taking with him out of the country, including every Lothar had two siblings; Mary, the eldest, was much older piece of clothing in his luggage. but her date of birth is unknown. Rudolf, closest in age to He sailed from Hamburg on 31 August 1938. The ship him, was born in 1898. docked at Montevideo, Uruguay, where he was to disembark prior to the overland journey to Paraguay. However, finding he was warmly welcomed in Montevideo, he made the decision to stay. He found accommodation and a job, and with these as proof of his ability to support himself and his family, began to try and obtain permission for his parents to leave Germany and join him. His efforts were unsuccessful. Documents held by the family show that he was still in touch with them up to 1942 when they were picked up by the authorities and deported to Theresienstadt. His father, Wilheim, died just after arriving, and his mother, Wanda, died six months later. His older sister Mary, with her husband Erich Kohn, escaped from Germany to Holland. Earlier, in 1934, their son, Gerry, had emigrated to the United States of America. Returning
PRAGER FAMILY, PREWAR.
Lothar went to the local primary school and then the selective high school, studying mainly arts subjects. By the time he was sixteen, he was ready to leave school and wanted to enter the Silesian Border Patrol. Family documents show that he obtained a full school report for the end of that year enabling him to leave school and be admitted to the Patrol. He remained there for six months, when he decided that he didn’t want to stay and obtained his release. He went back to Breslau and made contact with textiles factories and shops. He was employed as an apprentice at Fabische & Co, learning all aspects of the business, including purchasing. He then became a travelling sales representative for a different garment business. With two cars, one driven by his model, he toured the countryside selling women’s blouses. By 1935, with the restrictions imposed by the Nazi Racial Laws, he was forced to stop travelling, and give up his apartment, moving in to share with a friend. In 1937, when it was clear that things were only going to continue to get worse, he began to apply for visas to leave Germany. As LOTHAR PRAGER, AGED 16, SILESIAN BORDER PATROL.
page 7 to Europe as an American soldier, he was unable to find out exactly what had happened to Mary and Erich. It is known from family documents that they were still in Amsterdam in late 1942. Lothar Prager received a telegram from them in Uruguay in January 1943 that had been sent in December. However, that was the last communication anyone in the family received from them. They were deported soon after. Subsequent searches by family members have found records that show Mary was incarcerated in Theresienstadt. From there she was sent to the death camp of Sobibor where she died in the gas chamber. It is not know when or where Erich perished. Lothar’s brother, Rudolf, was able to obtain a visa for Chile and left Germany. He married but had no children. He died there in April 1971. Lothar married Dina Weitser, another refugee from Germany, when he was 45 and she was 41. They had one son, Victor. Victor and his wife, Rita, migrated to Australia in 1992. Lothar Prager died in Montevideo in 1989.
RED CROSS VOUCHER WILHEIM PRAGER, FOR LOTHAR’S FATHER GERMAN ID TO LEAVE GERMANY.
TEACHING STRATEGIES ■ Using the Yad Vashem website – www.yadvashem.org – search the data base for members of the Prager family who perished. The data base holds records of about half of the estimated 6,000,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust. If you can’t find any of Lothar’s family members, search for people from the region in Germany where he was born. Try to reconstruct a simple timeline of one person’s life. ■ The story of Lothar Prager has been reconstructed by family members using documents that were saved from Germany. How important are documents like this? Ask your students to find documents that would help them reconstruct a picture of their own families.
page 8 CHRONOLOGY ■ 7 December — The United States of America enters the war. 1933 1942 ■ First anti-Semite laws passed in Germany in order to ■ 20 January — Wansee Conference was held in Berlin exclude Jews from all levels of society. to discuss and coordinate the implementation of the 1935 ‘Final Solution’. ■ 15 September — the Nuremberg Laws passed, defining ■ 11 July ‘Black Sabbath’ — 9,000 Jews publicly who was a Jew; German Jews had their citizenship terrorized in Salonika, Greece, by Nazi authorities. revoked; Jews were prohibited from marrying ‘Aryans’. ■ Beginning of mass deportations in Western Europe and 1938 the systematic gassings of Jews in the death camps. ■ Jewish identity papers were stamped with a ‘J’ to 1943 identify the Jewish populace. Jews were forced to adopt ■ Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Warsaw’s remaining Jews the names ‘Israel’ for men and ‘Sarah’ for women. hold off Nazi forces for a month before being defeated, ■ 13 March — Anschluss; Austrian Jewry fell under the ghetto razed to the ground. Only a handful survived, Nazi rule as the Anschluss was implemented. The anti escaping through the sewers to the Polish side. Jewish laws were now operating in Austria. 1944 ■ 9 & 10 November — Kristallnacht (Night of Broken ■ 450,000 Jews deported to Auschwitz from Hungary. Glass). Violent attacks against Jewish property, businesses and lives. ■ 6 June — ‘D-Day’; the Allied invasion of Normandy. 1939 ■ August — the last 65,000 Jews in the Lodz ghetto were deported to Auschwitz. ■ 1 September — Germany attacks Poland, outbreak of World War II. ■ Beginning of the death marches. ■ 3 September — Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. 1945 ■ 21 September — Under the direction of Security Police ■ Auschwitz, Chief Reinhardt Heydrich, Jews were expelled from Buchenwald, most regions of occupied Poland and forcibly resettled Bergen Belsen in concentrated areas — ghettos. Judenräte (Jewish and other camps Councils) consisting of community leaders were liberated. established to implement German orders. ■ ‘Unconditional ■ Jews were forced out of the economy — their food surrender’ of rations were cut and their property confiscated. Germany. ■ Compulsory labour for Jewish males between the ages of 14 and 60 was ordered. Later this was also extended to women. 1940 ■ 9 April — Germany invades Denmark and Norway. ■ 9 May — Germany invades France, Belgium and the Netherlands. GERMAN PASSPORT, MARKED ‘J’ FOR JEWISH ID. ■ 15 November — Warsaw Ghetto established, incarcerating 445,000 Jews. TEACHING STRATEGIES 1941 ■ Look at the sequence of events listed in the ■ 22 February — Germany raids the Chronology provided. How much of Lothar Prager’s ‘Jewish Quarter’ in Amsterdam. story can your students fit into that framework ■ 22 June — Germany invades the Soviet Union. between 1933 and 1939? The first wave of mass shootings of Jews signals the beginning of the ‘Final Solution’.
page 9 THE NUREMBERG LAWS 15 SEPTEMBER 1935
Law for the Protection of German Blood and German FOCUS QUESTIONS Honour. 1. What acts have been declared illegal by the Nazis? Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is 2. Why do you think the Nazis introduced these laws? essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to 3. How do you think German citizens reacted to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag these laws? has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is 4. Why? Refer to the German ‘race crimes’ section of the promulgated herewith: exhibition at the Sydney Jewish Museum. Section 1 5. How did German Jews react to these laws? Why? 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or 6. Why do you think the majority of German citizens kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in remained silent and/or indifferent to such examples defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of of persecution. evading this law, they were concluded abroad. 2. Only the Public Prosecutor may initiate proceedings TEACHING STRATEGIES for annulment. ■ Ask students to consider whether there are any basic freedoms that should be enjoyed by everyone. Make Section 2 sure that students can justify their choices. Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and ■ Discuss aspects of everyday life that were affected nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. by Nazi racial laws. Ask the students how they would feel if they were faced with similar Section 3 restrictions. Jews will be forbidden to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood as domestic servants.
Section 4 Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colours. IVAN ASCHER, AGED 2 On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish AND MOTHER, KAITLIN HUNGARY, 1944. colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.
Section 5 A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with hard labour. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with imprisonment of with hard labour. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Section 3 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.
page 10 RACISM IN ACTION – NAZI ASSAULT ON THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF GERMAN JEWS 1933-1943
1933 1938 ■ Jews were forced out of jobs in the civil service, ■ Jews had to have their passports stamped with a ‘J’. teaching, law and journalism. ■ On 9 November, the Nazis in Germany unleashed a ■ April boycott – Germans told to boycott Jewish shops, pogrom in which Jews were murdered, synagogues goods, doctors and lawyers. SA and SS guarded doors were burned, sacred objects were desecrated, Jewish of Jewish shops to deter entry by other Germans. shop windows were smashed and thousands of German Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 1935 were arrested and sent to concentration camps. ■ Marriage and sexual relations between Jews and ■ Jewish children were banned from attending school. ‘Aryans’ (pure-blooded Germans) were made illegal. Punishment for contravening this law was ■ Jews were excluded from cinemas, theatres, concerts, imprisonment or the death penalty. beaches and holiday resorts. ■ Jews were virtually excluded from parks, restaurants ■ Jewish publishing houses and bookshops were and swimming pools. closed down. 1936 1940 ■ Jews were prohibited from owning bicycles, ■ Jews were allowed to buy groceries only between 4pm typewriters or other electrical equipment. and 5pm. ■ Jews’ telephones were disconnected. 1941 JEWISH FORCED LABOUR GANG, ROAD-BUILDING, ■ Jews were only permitted to use public transport. HUNGARY. ■ All Jews over the age of six had to wear a yellow star with ‘Jew’ written on it. ■ Mass deportations of German Jews to ghettos located in Nazi-occupied Poland commenced. 1942 ■ All Jewish homes were marked with a yellow star. ■ Jews were prohibited from using public transport. ■ Jews were not permitted to have pets. ■ Jews were not to received eggs or fresh milk. ■ Jews were not allowed to buy newspapers, magazines or books. 1943 ■ May – Berlin was declared Judenrein (free of Jews).
page 11 MUSEUM VISIT
The Museum visit will include: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ■ 1. What were the laws which led to the loss of rights for Lecture and interactive session European Jews? with a Museum educator. 2. List ways that these laws affected people’s everyday ■ Viewing of DVD TThehe WWayay WWee LLivedived. lives. eg. Expulsions from schools, confiscation of businesses, ■ Interactive session with a loss of personal autonomy and possessions. Holocaust Survivor of Descendant. 3. How did the social and political climate in Germany contribute to the success of Nazi Racial policies? ■ Self guided tour of the Museum. 4. What were possible options for German Jews when the new laws were first implemented? What were some of the reasons that they may have chosen to stay rather than leave (see Lothar Prager’s story)?
page 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS VIDEOS Bankier, D. (Ed) Probing the Depths of German Antisemitism. German Reifenstahl, L. & Ruttmann, W. Triumph of the Will, Society and the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1939, New York/Oxford/ Das Dokument vom Reichsparteitag 1934, 1934. Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 2000. Bauer, Y. History of the Holocaust, Danbury, Conn, WEBSITES Franklin Watts, 2002. www.holocaust.com.au Brenner, M. & Penslar, D.J. (Eds), In Search of Jewish Communities. www.holocaust-history.org Jewish Identities in Germany and Austria 1918-1933, Bloomington, 1998. www.yadvashem.org Craig, G. Germany 1866-1945, Oxford University Press, www.ushmm.org New York, 1978. www.wiesenthal.com Friedländer, S. Nazi Germany and the Jews, Harper Collins, www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/maslin.html New York, 1997.
Gidal, N.T. Jews in Germany From Roman Times to the Weimar Republic, Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Köln, 1998. Gelski, S. Teaching the Holocaust, 2 vols, Years 6-9, Years 9-12, Sydney, Sydney Jewish Museum, 2003. Gutman, I. (Ed), Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Macmillan, New York, 1990. Hilberg, R. The Destruction of the European Jews, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003. Hilberg, R. Perpetrators Victims Bystanders. The Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945, New York, Harper Collins, 1992. Kaplan, M. Between Dignity and Despair. Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, New York/Oxford, 1998. Marrs, M.R. (Ed), The Nazi Holocaust. Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews, 9 vols, Westport, 1989. Shirer, W. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Bison, London, 1987. Spector, S. & Wigoder, G. (Eds) Encycolpedia of Jewish Life, 3 vols, New York, New York University Press, 2001. Yahil, L. The Holocaust. The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, Oxford University Press, 1990. Weiss, Y. Citizenship and Ethnicity, German Jews and Polish Jews, 1933-1940, Jerusalem, 2001.
page 13 POST VISIT MATERIALS
To leave or not to leave – the German Jews at the crossroads Konrad Kwiet
Decimated, cut off from the world, stripped of civil rights, support for Jewish emancipation. An additional worry deployed in forced labour, undernourished, freedom of was that any open Jewish resistance might precipitate movement severely restricted, branded with a large, yellow punitive sanctions and lead to further dangers for the Jewish star — this was the grim picture presented by a persecuted community. Their defensive struggle was shaped by another group in early October 1941. On the eve of the mass basic conviction: most Jews believed that the Nazi regime deportations, there were still some 164,000 Jews living in would be short-lived, an illusion shared with many non- Germany, and none had any premonition of what awaited Jews in Germany at the time. them after shipment to the east. Almost everywhere, Given this perspective, Jewish representatives were neither indications regarding organised mass murder were rejected prepared nor able to call upon the Jewish community to as ‘war propaganda’ among Jews and non-Jews, in Germany leave. “Each one must stick to his position”, was the slogan. and abroad. Later, efforts were made to arrange ‘orderly’ emigration. The architects and executors of the ‘Final Solution’ Palestine was the priority as the final destination. It soon maintained total secrecy. Thus, in October 1941, when became evident that there were numerous barriers blocking avenues for emigration were sealed and the first transports this path of flight, as all others. were sent east, virtually all Jews clung desperately to the No country opened its gates unconditionally to refugees. official proclamations of a program of ‘resettlement’ for Immigrant quotas and other restrictions served to restrict purposes of ‘labour deployment’. the influx of foreigners. In many countries, the refugees felt In 1933, some 500,000 Jews had experienced the loss of the brunt of xenophobia or were subjected to anti-Semitic Jewish-German fraternity. During the first few years of attacks. Few were fluent in the language of their prospective persecution, they were at the mercy of a National Socialist country. Generally, they were prohibited from practising regime that still allowed a choice — to lose status or to their former professions. They had to learn new trades, accept expulsion. A minority left immediately: those who look for new opportunities, or run the risk of opening new were in danger as a result of political affiliations, Zionists, businesses. Emigration meant loss of social status and and Jews. Yet the majority chose to stay. They felt unable required the emigre to revise his or her patterns of behaviour to leave a country they had lived in for generations and and ‘correct’ previously held attitudes. in which they felt at home. An organisation calling itself This call for adaptation was often made by Jewish the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland was set up communities in their destination countries. Mostly, soon after the Nazis took power. It made great efforts to these communities limited their assistance to calls for protect and maintain Jewish life and continued existence in contributions to aid new immigrants, then left it to welfare Germany. organisations to provide help for the new arrivals. Only later The possibility of militant resistance was rejected as did many emigres realise that German Jews themselves had illusory. Underlying that rejection was the recognition that not behaved any differently toward their fellow Jews from two key partners had vanished with the loss of liberalism Eastern Europe who had sought refuge in Germany before and the organised labour movement. These had been 1933. In the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic, the forces that formerly had played a major role in marshalling Ostjuden had encountered opposition and rejection because
page 14 they were different from German Jews in respect to origin, was introduced, aimed at shattering their existence, language, dress, religiosity, social position, and customary introducing forced labour, and implementing spatial and occupations. social segregation of Jews — ghettoization. Members of the various Jewish communities in Germany continually spoke After expulsion, Jews from Germany experienced what it out against the defamations, slander, and discrimination. meant to cope as a refugee. They remained isolated for a long Yet their protests fell on silent ears among the public and the time. But until the last, they maintained ties with those who authorities. had remained behind. The alarming news reports spurred them to try to persuade relatives and friends to leave the Jews by themselves were in no position to stem the course country. of National Socialist Jewish policy. They had to depend on the assistance of non-Jews. Their persecution and expulsion Emigration was expensive. The Nazi regime required were taking place before everyone’s eyes, yet did not trigger payment of a Reich ‘flight tax’ and other compulsory taxes opposition in the German public, with a few exceptions. (up to 1940, the Reich treasury had raised 900 million Outside Germany, people and governments preferred not to reichsmarks in flight tax revenues). Money was needed get involved. Their national and economic interests dictated to pay for travel and moving costs. Proof was required of the pursuit of a restrictive refugee policy. The outbreak of sufficient capital to obtain entry visas and to finance a new war then provided a lever for the closure of state borders. life in another land. Emigration pre-supposed compulsory Priority given to military war aims discounted the loss of the sale of apartments, businesses and other enterprises. Debts, Jews as unavoidable. The direction events would take was taxes, and fees were deducted from this sum, and only a already determined before 1939. fragment of original assets remained. Nazi seizure of ‘Jewish wealth’ led swiftly to financial ruin. In November 1938, numerous Germans looked on with dismay and fright at the ‘popular anger’, goaded by the Not until Jews experienced direct threats to their lives Nazis. Many voices were raised criticising destruction of did they finally recognise that their ties to and positions property or complaining about ‘illegal’ excesses. Yet few in Germany were no longer defensible. That occurred in were courageous enough to champion the persecuted. November 1938. They reacted with horror and despair Hardly any protest was voiced in public against to the wave of destruction that swept over synagogues, ghettoization. homes, and businesses, to the mistreatment, murders, mass arrests, and internments in concentration camps. Acts of The debate about whether or not to leave Germany faded in violence and terrorism, previously considered impossible the aftermath of the November pogrom (Kristallnacht). It in Germany, triggered a profound sense of shock in the was replaced by the slogan, “Save yourself if you can”. Mass German-Jewish community. The pogrom marked the flight from Germany began, and special rescue campaigns turning point in events. Most Jews now abandoned the were initiated in every Jewish community. Preference notion that they still had rights as citizens in their German was given to sending children and teenagers to Western homeland. There was no longer any reason to hope for countries. Jewish representatives now began to go outside better times. On the contrary, measure after measure the law. Contributions made to secret bank accounts
page 15 financed the mass exodus, and there was a flourishing black market in documents, genuine and counterfeit. The Reichsvertretung financed the release and emigration of Jews who had been detained by the authorities. Between 1938 and 1940, the business magnate Hans Walz made available 1.2 million reichsmarks to to save Jewish lives. The acceptance and utilisation of these funds constituted one of the few infringements of valid law by Reichsvertretung officials. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, the Reichsvertretung (under Jewish control) was transformed into Reichsvereinigung (under German control). They were compelled to assist in facilitating the ghettoization and ‘evacuation’ of Jews. There was still resistance to the first large deportation. When the approximately seven thousand Jews resident in Baden and the Saar Palatinate were arrested and deported to southern France in October 1940, the Reichsvereinigung became highly active. Staff members hurried to notify Jews away on trips and warn prospect of fulfilling entry requirements of the countries of them not to return home. The entire Reichsvereinigung refuge. Many had already taken leave of their children and staff threatened to resign and the foreign press was secretly grandchildren, whose decision to emigrate had been easier informed about what had transpired. A circular letter for — or, more accurately, had been made easier for them. was sent to all personnel urging them to observe a day of What remained were their memories and the consolation fasting and remembrance, to cancel all scheduled events of that they, at least, had found a refuge. the Jewish Cultural League for one week, and to pray and give sermons on behalf of the deportees on the upcoming More men emigrated than women. Often, immigration Sabbath. The SS forced the Reichsvereinigung leadership permits and transportation possibilities prevented entire to revoke its instructions. Julius Seligsohn, author of the families emigrating together. Many women allowed their letter, was arrested and put to death in Sachsenhausen. The husbands and children to go on ahead, hoping to be able Reichsvereinigung resistance was broken by means of these to follow them soon. Others refused to leave Germany. sanctions. Until its liquidation in 1943 the organisation Concern for aging parents or sick relatives kept them remained ensnared in the trap of legality. from leaving. A large number of the female staff of the Reichsvereinigung also stayed. By now, some 270,000 to 300,000 Jews had left Germany. In the period from mid-November 1938 to 1 September Children and teenagers were the smallest segment in the age 1939, 115,000 fled to safety. After the outbreak of the war, pyramid. In 1941, only 20,669 were under eighteen years 25,000 were able to flee to freedom. 30,000 emigres were of age — 13 percent. Rescue came too late for more than taken into custody once again in occupied territories. About 10,000 children that were still on the waiting lists of the 50 percent of German Jews were able to find refuge abroad. Reichsvereinigung and youngsters who had been gathered In 1933, three-fourths of all refugees had sought refuge in together in Jewish hachshara (training) centres to be given other European countries; by 1937, that percentage had agricultural training and Jewish education as preparation plummeted to one-quarter. Those who reached the United for emigration to Palestine. The others were deployed as States numbered 132,000, 55,000 settled in Palestine, and forced labourers in the factories. 40,000 found asylum in England. Brazil and Argentina Jewish youngsters still found strength to resist. A Zionist each accepted some 10,000. 9,000 reached the ‘open’ port youth group, Chug halutzi (Pioneer Circle), numbered some of Shanghai, 7,000 landed in Australia, and 5,000 found forty members; in 1942, together with its adult counselors refuge in South Africa. The remainder were spread across a Joachim Schwersenz and Edith Wolff, it disappeared into number of countries. the Berlin underground. The approximately fifty members Left behind were those whose family ties had largely of the Herbert Baum Group were recruited largely from dissolved. Women and the elderly were in the majority. Half the two Jewish sections of the Siemens plant in Berlin. of the 164,000 Jews remaining were fifty years of age or The spectacular, abortive sabotage attempt against the older, a third of them over sixty. With increasing age, there propagandistic hate exhibit ‘The Soviet Paradise’ in the was a decline in readiness and ability to break ties with their Lustgarten in Berlin in May 1942 represented the highpoint familiar surroundings. The aged, infirm, and sick had little of their resistance activity.
page 16 An additional circle of persons remained in Germany. They attempted suicides in the Third Reich; it is estimated to be were approximately 15,000 Jewish spouses living in so- about 10,000. Numbers rose during the ‘boycott of Jews’ called mixed marriages and who had had children the Nazis in April 1933, the Austrian Anschlus, and the November termed Mischlinge (persons of racially mixed background). 1938 pogrom. The curve peaked during the period of forced The classification ‘privileged mixed marriage’ did not deportation. These suicides were distinguished by two protect these families from abuse and discrimination, but characteristics: their advanced age and their high degree of promised the Jewish parent a chance to survive providing assimilation. Their average age was sixty-five. Almost all of there was no formal, or forced, divorce. them waited until the very last moment — when the orders for deportation arrived. In February 1943, the Gestapo struck a blow at another category of Jews who had been largely spared up to that Between 10,000 and 12,000 Jews found the strength to time, the so-called armaments Jews. Within the framework resist the orders for special marking and deportation. There of a massive planned operation, numerous Jews married were an estimated 5,000 Jews living in hiding in Berlin to non-Jewish spouses were also arrested. That wave of in 1943 — 7 percent of those registered in 1941. After the arrests triggered a unique protest demonstration. In Berlin, war, 1,402 Jews emerged from their hiding places: one can Aryan wives appeared in front of the assembly camp conclude that some 30 percent of Jews who had gone into and demanded the release of their husbands. Passers by hiding managed to survive. They had had to overcome joined in with their support. Alarmed by this spontaneous many factors in their struggle for survival in the heart of and massive resistance, the Gestapo released the Jewish the Reich. First, there was the network of surveillance spouses. This protest constituted the most vehement open and persecution that the Nazis had spun to entrap them. resistance to the persecution of the Jews in Germany. Its There were severe penalties for anyone attempting to success suggests that similar actions might have been able to avoid ‘registration’. Escaping that net also presupposed redirect the destructive course of National Socialist Jewish overcoming the Jewish bureaucratic measures. The policy into other directions. Reichsvereinigung and Jewish communities sent out notices and information sheets and were responsible for making Christians of Jewish origin recognised too late that the race sure that the marking of Jews and their transport were fanatics would not take religious convictions and firm carried out ‘in an orderly and proper manner’. They also roots in German society into account. Jews who had been issued sharp warnings against resisting official orders. baptized as Catholics and Protestants discovered that they could no longer expect protection from their churches. Another factor was fear of a form of existence that entailed a Toward the end of 1941, they were classified once again as radical change in one’s way of life and daily circumstances. Jews, then deported to the east. To go underground meant giving up ‘legal’ existence and to lead an ‘illegal’ life that promised no security or rescue, For the Jews remaining there were two options left to escape. holding out slim chances for survival. The decision to One was suicide, the other to go underground. There are risk certain mortal dangers was combined with hope no reliable statistics on the number of Jewish suicides and
page 17 that the persecution would soon come to an end. Going uncertainty was maintained by SS deception until the underground also meant finding non Jews who were last moment. Those selected were told that they had to prepared to take in the person for days, months, or even be ‘disinfected’ before going on to their new quarters. years. During the period of war and deportation, there Surrendering their baggage, they were led over a closed-off were still Germans, especially in Berlin, who were actively access path to disrobing rooms. Members of a Jewish special helping to rescue Jews. Relatives, old friends, and former unit were often on hand and had been instructed to pacify domestic servants often offered quarters where Jews could the victims. hide. Some Jewish forced labourers met friends at work The small number of German Jews who, because of their who assisted them in securing their illegal existence in the youth or presumed fitness to work, had been ordered underground. The danger of being discovered in these to the barracks or to labour detachments had just as circles was especially great since they were watched over by little opportunity to resist. Their murder had only been the Gestapo. postponed. For most prisoners, the path into organised Life underground demanded courage, tenacity, and a high resistance in the camps remained closed. In many cases, it degree of social adaptability. People had to learn to live was hopeless to try to overcome the barriers, animosities, with being alone. Since couples or small groups, strangers and antisemitism that emerged from other prisoners and and friends, men and women, children and the elderly all groups of inmates. Individual and open acts of resistance went into illegal hiding, group tensions were unavoidable. remained limited or were automatically ruled out because People had to suffer limitations in hygienic conditions; toilet they necessarily cancelled one’s ‘respite of time’ and any facilities were often inadequate or nonexistent. Illness had hope for continued survival in the camp. Only 8,000 of to be surmounted without medical assistance, since living in the 134,000 German Jews who were deported ultimately hiding generally precluded visits to the doctor or a hospital. survived. Anyone leaving their hiding place increased the risk of In 1945, those who had emigrated received news about discovery. Police and SS units patrolled the streets, and the deaths of their relatives and the destruction of inspectors searched the air-raid shelters seeking illegal Jews. their communities with shock and sadness, frequently Informers waited to fulfil their ‘duty as citizens’ by filing a intermingled with feelings of guilt because of their own report with the Gestapo — and then pocketing the reward. survival. Most emigres remained in their new countries of There were also a small number of German Jews who acted emigration. The old memories of Germany resurfaced only as Gestapo informers. These persons were dubbed grabbers in photo albums, letters, and conversations, especially in the (greifer, schnapper); in Berlin, they numbered fifteen to recollections of a happy childhood and schooldays, fondly twenty individuals. They enjoyed the privilege of being remembered times brought to an end by anti-Semitism. exempt from wearing the obligatory Jewish star and hoped Their attitudes toward Germany were marked by a clear to be exempted from deportation as well. sense of distance and often by a sharp feeling of rejection. Finally, living underground required money to fund a life in Most preferred to avoid Germans, particularly those in the illegality. Ration cards and false papers were indispensable. age group of the perpetrators and bystanders. They were sold for high prices on the black market, and Few emigres returned to the land of their birth. Their first demand for them increased steadily. As the war progressed, visits were limited to business trips or a brief, painful return increasing numbers of non-Jews went into hiding. These to former neighbourhoods, reunions with school friends, were resistance fighters, foreign forced labourers and POWs visits to the cemetery. As time passed, the numbers of those who had managed to escape from the camps. The Jews who willing to renew contacts with Germans, with the post war went into hiding did not have any financial reserves. Their generation, increased. The invitations and ‘organised visits’ helpers and rescuers had to come to their aid, providing arranged by West German cities for the former ‘Jewish funds for rent and clothing, food and false papers. friends and fellow citizens’, albeit late in coming, provided In the extermination camps, there was no possibility for one opportunity for such contacts. Yet many of their German and foreign Jews to resist annihilation. Behind children and grandchildren have broken all ties to Germany, them lay a long and harrowing journey. They had been totally and completely. arrested in Germany and occupied areas and were shipped in sealed boxcars from deportation assembly points, freight stations, Jewish transit camps, and forced ghettos directly Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet is Adjunct Professor for to the unloading ramps of the extermination sites. They Jewish Studies and Roth Lecturer in Holocaust Studies at the climbed off these freight cars exhausted and broken human University of Sydney. He is also Resident Historian at the beings. Sydney Jewish Museum. On the selection ramps, the aged stood side by side with This article was edited with Professor Kwiet’s children and women. Only a few were aware that death permission by Karen Finch. was awaiting them at the end of their short path. That
page 18 EVALUATION FORM THE RISE OF NAZISM AND THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY When using the evaluation scale of 1 to 5, please consider 1 = Excellent and 5 = Poor
1 On the scale below please rate the 5 On the scale below please rate the Education Pack overall: Museum visit overall:
Excellent Poor Excellent Poor 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
2 Which section was the most effective and 6 Which section was the most effective and engaging for your students? engaging for your students? Excellent Poor
Pre Visit Materials 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent Poor Lecture 1 2 3 4 5 Post Visit Materials 1 2 3 4 5 Exhibition 1 2 3 4 5 Lesson Plan 1 2 3 4 5 Document Study 1 2 3 4 5 Museum Visit Worksheets 1 2 3 4 5 Lothar Prager’s Story 1 2 3 4 5 Document Study 1 2 3 4 5 Video 1 2 3 4 5 Recommended Reading List 1 2 3 4 5 Museum Tour 1 2 3 4 5 Lothar Prager’s Story 1 2 3 4 5
7 Which section was the most effective and 3 Which section was the most effective and engaging for you as a teacher? engaging for you as a teacher?
Excellent Poor Excellent Poor Lecture 1 2 3 4 5 Pre Visit Notes 1 2 3 4 5 Exhibition 1 2 3 4 5 Post Visit Notes 1 2 3 4 5 Document Study 1 2 3 4 5 Lesson Plan 1 2 3 4 5 Lothar Prager’s Story 1 2 3 4 5 Museum Visit Worksheets 1 2 3 4 5 Video 1 2 3 4 5 Document Study 1 2 3 4 5 Museum Tour 1 2 3 4 5 Recommended Reading List 1 2 3 4 5
Lothar Prager’s Story 1 2 3 4 5 8 Free response We would welcome your further comments on the Museum 4 Free response visit and program. What should we do differently next time? We would welcome your further comments on the Education Pack. What should we do differently next time?
Thank you for your response. We hope to see you again for another visit to the Museum.
Sydney Jewish Museum T 02 9360 7999 F 02 9331 4245 148 Darlinghurst Road E [email protected] Darlinghurst NSW 2010 sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au
Sydney Jewish Museum 148 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 T 02 9360 7999 F 02 9331 4245 E [email protected] sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au