Speak up Speak Out

Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Events

Speak Up Speak Out

Teachers’ Resource Pack

Monday 1st February to Thursday 4th February 2010 2014 Edition

‘.. and the bush was burned with fire Photograph courtesy of Weiner Library, London but was not consumed’

Exodus 3:2 NHMDENHMDE Resistance Resistance and and Rescuers Rescuers in in the the Holocaust Holocaust

ContentsContents

•• President President Barak Barak Obama’s Obama’s Holocaust Holocaust Memorial Memorial DayDay address address In In Washington, Washington, 2009 2009

•• Notes Notes for for Teachers Teachers

•• PowerPoint PowerPoint Presentation; Presentation; Resistance Resistance and and RescuersRescuers in in the the Holocaust Holocaust

•• Lesson Lesson plans: plans: •• around around Rescuers Rescuers •• student student research research project project on on Resistance Resistance in in the the Holocaust Holocaust

•• Significant Significant datesdates in in the the HolocaustHolocaust

•• Glossary Glossary

•• Websites Websites

•• Acknowledgements Acknowledgements

WeWe hope hope this this pack pack will will enable enable your your students students to to prepare prepare for for their their visitvisit to to this this event. event. If If you you wish wish to to download download further further copies copies of of this this materialmaterial please please visit visit www.northwoodhmd.org.uk. www.northwoodhmd.org.uk. If If you you have have further further questionsquestions please please call call tel: tel: 08456 08456 448 448 006 006 fax: fax: 01923 01923 820357. 820357. WeWe look look forward forward to to seeing seeing you you and and your your students students .in in 2010. 2010.

0845608456 448006 448006 www.northwoodhmd.org.uk www.northwoodhmd.org.uk [email protected] [email protected] ©© ©2012/13 2009 2009 NHMDE NHMDE NorthwoodNorthwood Holocaust Holocaust Memorial MemorialDay Events Day 2010 Events 2010

PresidentPresident Obama’s Obama’s 2009 2009Holocaust Holocaust MemorialMemorial Day Address Day Address

That is theThat question is the questionof the of the righteousrighteous – those who – those would who would do extraordinarydo extraordinary good at good at extraordinaryextraordinary risk not for risk not for affirmationaffirmation or acclaim or oracclaim to or to advance theiradvance own their interests, own interests,but but because itbecause is what itmust is what be done.must be done. They remindThey us remind that no us one that is no one is born a saviorborn or a saviora murderer or a murderer– – these arethese choices are we choices each havewe each have the powerthe to powermake. toThey make. teach They teach us that nous one that can no makeone can us intomake us into bystandersbystanders without our without consent, our consent,and that weand are that never we are truly never alone truly – alone – that if we thathave if thewe couragehave the tocourage heed that to heed “still, that small “still, voice” small within voice” us, within us, we can formwe cana minyan form afor minyan righteousness for righteousness that can spanthat cana village, span aeven village, a even a nation. nation. Their legacyTheir is legacyour inheritance. is our inheritance. And the question And the questionis how do is we how honor do we honor and preserveand preserveit? How do it? we How ensure do we that ensure “never that again” “never isn’t again” an empty isn’t an empty slogan, orslogan, merely or an merely aspiration, an aspiration, but also abut call also to action? a call to action?

I believeI believe we start we by start doing by doing what wewhat are wedoing are todaydoing –today by – by bearingbearing witness, witness, by fighting by fighting the silencethe silence that is thatevil’s is evil’s greatestgreatest co-conspirator. co-conspirator.

Notes for teachers

It is important when teaching the Holocaust to give accurate information about this catastrophe, which saw the annihilation of 10 million innocent people, including up to 2 million children Last year the Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Events programme encouraged students to look at Kristallnacht and think about the effect this had on the Jewish communities in Germany. We wanted the students to “Pass on” the personal testimony they had heard from a Survivor and to tell their friends and family about the horrors of this dark period in history. Our pack looked at life for all Holocaust victims in pre war Europe and how Jews and Gypsies were targetted for destruction, whilst many other groups were killed because they did not fit Hitler’s view of an Aryan race. This year we are looking at the Holocaust from the point of view which includes understanding the thinking and background behind the Perpetrators, Bystanders and Rescuers. We want students to Ask, Answer and Act about what they have heard and learnt and understand about their own personal responsibility.

The effectiveness of both political and spiritual resistance by Jews during the Holocaust is little understood. The general belief is that Jews did little to resist but the evidence shows just the opposite. The Jews resisted in considerable numbers and resisted against a regime dedicated to their destruction. Jews in the undergrounds and partisan communities demonstrated enormous courage under almost impossible odds. Spiritual resistance, as well, tells a story of unarmed, defenseless Jews unwilling to give up their faith, refusing to allow their will to be broken by German aggression. While spiritual resistance saved few lives, it still enabled Jews to sustain an identity and courage in the midst of the horror of mass shootings, gas chambers and crematoria.

Rescuers are those who, at great personal risk, actively helped members of persecuted groups, primarily Jews, during the Holocaust in defiance of Third Reich policy. They were ordinary people who became extraordinary people because they acted in accordance with their own belief systems while living in an immoral society. Thousands survived the Holocaust because of the daring of these rescuers. Although in total, their number is statistically small, Rescuers were all colossal people and held the conviction that what one person did could make a difference Whether they saved a thousand people or a single life, those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust demonstrated the possibility of individual choice, even in extreme circumstances. However, these and other acts of conscience and courage saved only a tiny percentage of those targetted for destruction. The vast majority of the world’s citizens stood by and did nothing.

NHMDE Resistance and Rescuers in the Holocaust 1

Power Point Presentation:

Resistance and Rescuers in the Holocaust

Jewish partisans in Naliboki Forest, near Novogrudok. Poland, 1942 or 1943.

Europe on the eve of war, 1939

Rescue

The only country to save every Jew and every Gypsy, was Bulgaria. The citizens of Bulgaria did not exclude people because of their religion or ethnicity. Bulgaria was alone in this concept although the Danes saved most of their Jews. The Nazis could not have carried out their plans without the collusion of the citizens of the countries they invaded. The historian Yitzhak Arad wrote; “A big segment of the local public was animated by anti-Semitism, profited by illicit gains from abandoned Jewish property and favoured or was apathetic toward the extermination of the Jewish community. Those who might have been ready to assist the Jews were intimidated by the likelihood of punishment . Very few overcame their fears and extended help.”

Rescuers Rescuers came from every religious and ethnic background: Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, atheist, Jewish or Buddhist. Some European churches, orphanages, and families provided hiding places for Jews, and in some cases, individuals aided Jews already in hiding (such as Anne Frank and her family in the Netherlands. In France, Belgium, and Italy, underground networks, run by Catholic clergy and lay Catholics saved thousands of Jews. Such networks were especially active both in southern France, where Jews were hidden and smuggled to safety to Switzerland and Spain, and in northern Italy, where many Jews went into hiding after Germans occupied Italy in September 1943.

Nicholas Winton Some individuals saved hundreds of people. Nicholas Winton, a 30-year-old clerk at the London stock exchange, visited Prague, in late 1938 and saw that children needed to be rescued. He managed to set up the organization for the Czech Kindertransport in Prague in early 1939, before returning to London, where he persuaded the Home Office to let the children in. For each child, he had to find a foster parent and a £50 guarantee, which in those days was a small fortune. He also had to raise money to help pay for the transports when contributions by the children’s parents couldn’t cover the costs. In nine months of campaigning as the war crept closer, Nicholas Winton managed to arrange for 669 children to get out on eight trains, from Prague to London. The last train never made it, as war was declared and all borders were closed. No-one knew his story until 1988 when his wife discovered documents in the attic. He was knighted by the Queen in 2002 but remains very modest about his humanitarian efforts.

Refik Veseli In the fall of 1943, Refik Veseli, a sixteen-year-old Albanian photography student, received permission from his parents to hide Mosa Mandil and his family, Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia, in the Veseli home in the mountain village of Kruja. From November 1943 until the liberation of Albania in October 1944, the Mandils received shelter and avoided deportation. During this time, the Mandil children lived openly as Muslim villagers while their parents remained hidden in a room in a barn. With the war’s end, the Mandils left Kruja and re-opened their photo studio in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Refik Veseli followed the family to Novi Sad where he completed his professional photography training, living with them until their emigration to Israel in 1948.

Frank Foley Frank Foley was another rescuer who saved many people. In the 1930’s, he worked for the Foreign Office and became Head of the British Passport Control Office in Germany. Eyewitnesses recall Mr. Foley as an unassuming hero - a small, slightly overweight man with round glasses. However, Foley was in fact Britain’s most senior spy in Berlin. During his time in Berlin, Foley is known to have saved an estimated 10,000 German Jews after Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power, by providing them with false passports. During his lifetime, Foley received no recognition or honour for his actions in the UK. In 1999 though, Foley’s actions resulted in his being recognized as “Righteous Amongst the Nations” at Yad Vashem in Israel.

Irena Sendler In Europe, a Catholic woman named Irena Sendler joined a group called Zegota, which saved the lives of 2,500 Polish Jews “I was taught that if you see a person drowning,” she said, “you must jump into the water to save them, whether you can swim or not.” When the Nazis occupying Poland, began rounding up Jews in 1940 and sending them to the Warsaw ghetto, Sendler plunged in. The children were taken into Roman Catholic convents, orphanages and homes and given non-Jewish aliases. Sendler recorded their true names on thin rolls of paper in the hope that she could reunite them with their families later. She preserved the precious scraps in jars and buried them in a friend’s garden. She told American students, who brought her story to light in 1999, “You cannot separate people based on their race or religion. You can only separate people by good and evil. The good will always triumph.”

Leopold Socha In another part of Poland in 1944, Leopold Socha, chief supervisor of all of Lvov’s sewers, protected 20 Jews by hiding them in the sewer, for payment. He brought whatever food he could each day, as well as pages of newspapers and he took their clothes home to clean each week. On Passover, the Jewish festival, he provided potatoes. Over time the 20 hidden Jews shrank to ten. Some died. After living under inhuman conditions for several months, some left out of sheer madness. They finally ran out of money but Socha continued to protect them. This small group of Jews struggled to maintain some semblance of Jewish life in their underground hiding place. Yaakov Berestycki, their religious leader, found a relatively clean place each morning to pray. Socha brought candles into the sewers so that every Friday, they could be lit for Shabbat.

Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara When Nazi armies invaded Poland, a wave of Jewish refugees streamed into Lithuania, who knew their only escape path lay to the east. The Japanese Consul was General Chiune Sugihar and he knew that a Japanese transit visa, would enable the refugees to cross Russia to freedom. He needed permission from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo and this was denied. He was a career diplomat, who suddenly had to make a very difficult choice. On the one hand, he was bound by the traditional obedience he had been taught all his life. On the other hand, he was a Samurai, who had been told to help those who were in need. He knew that if he defied the orders of his superiors, he might be fired and disgraced and would probably never work for the Japanese government again.

Chiune and his wife Yukiko even feared for their lives and the lives of their children, but in the end, could only follow their consciences. For 29 days, from July 31 to August 28, 1940, Mr. and Mrs. Sugihara sat for endless hours writing and signing visas by hand. They wrote over 300 visas a day As many as six thousand refugees made their way to Japan, China and other countries in the following months.

Group Rescuers – Kindertransport In November 1938, a few days after Kristallnacht, when synagogues were burnt in Germany, a delegation of British Jewish leaders appealed in person to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain. Among other measures, they requested that the British government permit the temporary admission of Jewish children and teenagers who would later re-emigrate. The Jewish community promised to pay guarantees for the refugee children. Kindertransport was the name given to the organization which saved 10,000 children. Even though some of these children were babies, they all had to say a final goodbye to their parents, brothers and sisters and make the long train journey to England. The majority of them were never reunited with their families, who were murdered in concentration camps.

Villagers of Le Chambon sur Lignon, France During the Holocaust in France, in a tiny mountain, Huguenot village, 350 miles from Paris called Le Chambon-sur-lignon, 5,000 Jews, mostly children, found shelter with 50,000 Christians, almost the entire population of the village. Ordinary people, often poverty-stricken themselves, protected the Jews at the peril of their own lives. They took the Jews into their homes, fed and protected them, right under the noses of the Gestapo. Defying the Nazi regime and the French government that was collaborating with the Nazis, the villagers of the area of Le Chambon provided a safe haven throughout the war for the Jews. Every home hid strangers, not for days, but for years. So deep was their humanity that no resident of Le Chambon ever turned away, denounced, or betrayed a single Jewish refugee.

Jewish Parents Perhaps the largest and bravest of group rescuers were Jewish parents who sent their children into the arms of strangers, with the sure knowledge that they would never see them again. They sent them on trains to England, handed them over to strangers whose religion was strange to them, or hid them with old friends, who they prayed would have the strength to take care of their children, in the face of enormous danger. “There was a requirement that we not wave goodbye out of the window when departing because Jews were not allowed to give the Hitler salute and waving might be mistaken for one.” So said Robert Braun, one of the more than 1,000 Jewish children rescued by Kindertransport from soon-to-be-Hitler-controlled Europe, in the late 1930 and early ‘40s,

Resistance Organized armed resistance was the most forceful form of Jewish opposition to Nazi policies in German-occupied Europe. Jewish civilians offered armed resistance in over 100 ghettos in occupied Poland and the Soviet Union. Spiritual resistance refers to attempts by individuals to maintain their humanity, personal integrity, dignity, and sense of civilization in the face of Nazi attempts to dehumanize and degrade them. Most generally, spiritual resistance may refer to the refusal to have one’s spirit broken in the midst of the most horrible degradation. Cultural and educational activities, maintenance of community documentation, and clandestine religious observances are three examples. Survival became a form of resistance to the Nazis. Jews adopted a determination to survive the obvious policy to slowly kill off the ghetto population through starvation, disease and work. People continued to smuggle, to learn, to pray and to plan for the future.

Jewish partisans, survivors of the Warsaaw ghetto uprising, at a family camp in Wyszkow forest. Poland 1944

Gypsy Families On May 15, 1944, prisoners in the Auschwitz Birkenau Gypsy family camp learned that the camp administration intended to gas the 6,000 remaining Gypsy prisoners the next day. When SS guards armed with machine guns surrounded the camp and attempted to begin the transport to the gas chambers, they met armed resistance. After stealing scraps of sheet metal, prisoners sharpened the metal into crudely fashioned knives. With these improvised weapons, and iron pipes, clubs, and stones, the Gypsies defended themselves. Guards shot some resisters. The final liquidation of the camp occurred in early August when guards moved 2,897 men, women, and children to the gas chambers in the dead of night.

Cultural Resistance The Warsaw ghetto, where the Nazis forced up to 500,000 Jewish people to live, was established in 1940. Surrounded by walls and fences it was cut off from the rest of society. A large group of people was set up to record the details of life and conditions behind ghetto walls. The group represented a wide spectrum of the imprisoned society and included academics, artists, teachers, journalists, religious believers, secretaries and young people The documents were buried in milk churns and In 1943 the Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated. Much of the hidden archive was uncovered in 1946, but some is still missing. The Nazis may have succeeded in exterminating millions of Polish Jews but, due to the determined efforts of the group they failed to destroy their history.

Religious Resistance The Germans forbade religious services in most ghettos, so many Jews prayed and held ceremonies in secret - in cellars, attics, and back rooms - as others stood guard. In Warsaw alone, in 1940, 600 Jewish prayer groups existed. Prayer helped sustain morale, reaffirmed a cultural and religious identity, and supplied spiritual comfort. Many Orthodox Jews who opposed the use of physical force viewed prayer and religious Jewish children celebrating Purim in secret in the Lodz observances as the truest form of resistance. Ghetto, Poland

Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to obey Nazi laws which went against their conscience and beliefs, as they believed that it was wrong to swear unconditional loyalty and obedience to any State. Therefore, they found it impossible to obey all Nazi rules or to make the Heil Hitler salute. Simone Arnold, born in 1930, was expelled from one school and became the target of bullies in another but the teachers did nothing to help.. In July 1943 she was sent to a reform school in Konstanz, given a number to sew onto her clothes and told she must use a new name, Maria. School was a place where nothing was allowed “no friendship, no talking, no books, no drawing and no hobbies.” Every day consisted of silence, work and physical punishment. Simone was told that if she made the Heil Hitler salute and signed a paper giving up her religious beliefs and promising to be loyal to the State then she would be free. She refused.

German Resistance Groups A few small pockets of Jewish resistance did develop in Germany. In 1937 Herbert and Marianne Baum founded a clandestine group, composed of young people, primarily Jewish Zionist members of the Communist party. Members distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, painted slogans on walls, published a six-page newspaper and sabotaged armaments being produced at the Siemens electrical motor plant, where most members worked, as forced laborers. On May 18, 1942, the group set fire to an anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition in Berlin. Most of the members were denounced, tried, and executed between July 1942 and June 1943. In reprisal, the police also seized 500 other Jews not engaged in political activity. Firing Marianne Baum squads executed 250 of them on the Berlin SS airfield, and officials sent the rest to the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The White Rose Group In 1942 Hans Scholl, a medical student at the University of Munich and his sister Sophie founded the “White German group that spoke out against Nazi genocidal policies. Nazi tyranny and the apathy of German citizens in the face of the regime’s “abominable crimes” outraged idealistic “White Rose” members.

The regime executed Hans and Sophie Scholl and Sophie Scholl at the Munich Christoph Probst on February 22nd,1943. Officials also railroad station, prior to the men’s departure to the Eastern Front eventually arrested and executed philosophy professor Kurt Huber, who had guided the movement, and the rest of the” White Rose” members.

The Cost It is estimated that less than 1% of the population was prepared to help the victims of the Holocaust. Racism and anti Semitism were rife throughout Europe and America and most people, at best, turned a blind eye to the plight of Jews and Gypsies. Many people colluded with the Nazis, as first the possessions of victims, then their homes and finally their human rights were stripped away and they were rounded up in ghettos or sent to concentration camps. By the end of the war over 10,00,000 victims had been annihilated by the Nazis.

Ideas for Lesson Plans around Rescuers

Whosoever saves a single life... The Holocaust is a history of overwhelming horror and enduring sorrow. Sometimes it seems as though there is no spark of human concern or kindness, no act of humanity, to lighten that dark history. Yet there were acts of courage and kindness during the Holocaust which can offer us some hope for our past and for our future. Archives, such as those of the United States Holocaust Museum, contain records of rescues and survivors; Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem has honored more than 20,000 rescuers, and many additional cases await their consideration. Individuals, groups, and in the case of Bulgaria, an entire country, reached out. Denmark was also active in protecting its Jewish population. People like Andre Trocmé, the minister and spiritual leader of the village of Le Chambon-sur- Lignon, a village in France, probably fit most closely to our stereotypes of those who will help. Trocmé was clearly motivated by ethical and religious convictions. Yet many others, who could have been expected to hold similar beliefs, failed to act. Less expected is Oskar Schindler, the opportunistic businessman who made a fortune using Jewish slave labour - and spent that fortune again to save the lives of those in his factory. What did they have in common? What was it that lead some people to reach out and help others, to become rescuers, while most of the population around them did not? What was it, about individuals and societies, which led them to act on behalf of strangers? Perhaps, if we can begin to understand this, we can begin to build societies in which such actions are more likely to happen, and in which genocide is less likely to occur.

Jean Phillipe (born 1905) held various positions in the army and the police. Shortly after the collaborationist government of Vichy France signed an armistice with Germany, Phillipe joined the resistance movement and became a leading member of the Alliance network. In late 1942 he was named chief of police in the 7th arrondissement of Toulouse, the capital of the department of Haute-Garonne. He used his position to prevent the arrest of many Resistance fighters and to provide false papers to Jews. Lucien David Fayman, a member of the Jewish underground network “La Sixième”, testified after the war that police chief Jean Phillipe had helped him obtain forged identity papers with authentic police seals for delivery to young Jews whom “La Sixième” smuggled to Switzerland or placed in hiding places in France. In January 1943, when Phillipe was ordered to submit to the Germans a list of all Jews in his precinct, he categorically refused and tendered a letter of resignation. Phillipe went underground and continued his resistance activity. An imprudent move on the part of his colleagues led to his arrest by the Gestapo on January 28, 1943. He was interrogated, tortured, imprisoned in Karlsruhe in Germany, and executed on March 1, 1944.

Discussion Questions/Research Topics • View the movie Schindler’s list and describe his acts of heroism. • Who would you consider responsible for Nazi crimes, those who made the laws of persecution, those who carried them out or those who were bystanders? • Discuss the following question: “Do you think that a bystander is guilty of the crime s/he stands by and lets happen?” • Identify the risks of helping or even being associated with someone considered “undesirable” by Nazi policy. • Analyze the dilemma of the bystander in Nazi Europe. • Many Jewish children were sent to England during World War II to be kept safe. Research the Kindertransport and use evidence to explain if the program was, in your opinion, a good solution to the problem. • Discuss the irony in Raoul Wallenberg’s life story and mysterious disappearance. • What role did Nazi resistance fighters play in aiding victims of persecution?

Activities 1. Ask students who their heroes are and what attributes these people have. 2. Introduce concepts of altruism, conscience and moral judgment. 3. Give out passports (teacher created) to students. They can read about a rescuer or survivor during the Holocaust. Students are not to look at last page that states consequences of actions. 4. Overview of the Holocaust using lecture, CD ROM, posters, and excerpts from videos about rescuers. Discussion of what these people had in common, examples of altruism, etc. 5. Virtual tour of Yad Vashem the Holocaust Museum in Israel Hand out criteria for becoming a Righteous Gentile. Students compare this list to their own heroes and to the people portrayed in the videos. (At this point, students do not know if any of the rescuers have been designated Righteous Gentiles.) 6. Teacher provides excerpts from books about Rescuers. Students determine if these rescuers would qualify to be a Righteous Gentile. 7. Teacher/Librarian gives book talks about rescuers and reviews an annotated list of rescuers that students may research. Assignments are explained. Students choose their topics with teacher approval. Assignment templates/requirements are handed out. 8. Students complete research template using library and internet sources.

9. Students go to computer lab to continue research and create their PowerPoint presentation. A PowerPoint template or storyboard must be completed before students proceed to create the PowerPoint 10. Students present PowerPoint to class. 11. Teacher and students debrief assignments, evaluate what they have learned. Students look at last page of passport and compare personal opinion with actual results.

The Bishop of Assisi, Monsignor Giuseppe Placido Nicolini, who ordered Father Aldo Brunacci to head the rescue operation of Jews and to arrange sheltering places in some 26 monasteries and convents around Asissi. Looking back on that period after the war, Brunacci remarked: “In all about 200 Jews had been entrusted to us by Divine Providence with God’s help and through the intercession of St. Francis. Not one of them fell into the hands of their persecutors…. Jews and Christians venerate the same book, the Bible, whose opening chapter reminds us that we were created in God’s image and likeness. God is our father and we are all brothers and sisters.” we were created in God’s image and likeness.

Individual Responsibility and Resistance during the Holocaust

Aims Of Lesson This lesson aims to engage students in an understanding of the nature of resistance during the Holocaust. Many students approach this history with misconceptions: that the Jews went like “sheep to slaughter”; that resistance means solely physical resistance; and that the Nazis were so powerful no one could resist them. These misconceptions must be addressed so students may gain a meaningful and accurate understanding. The lesson encourages students to think about what obstacles hinder resistance, what types of resistance are possible and how different individuals resisted Nazi oppression. The project gives students the opportunity to research the actions of an individual who resisted and made a difference—whether a man or a woman, a Jew in a ghetto or a German college student. It prompts students to deal with and appreciate the broad scope of the history and to raise serious questions about the actions of individuals and groups, whose roles were not minor.

Goals For Student Understanding • Students will develop an understanding of what resistance is and the different forms it can take. They will become “experts” on their individual and his or her role in the resistance during World War II. • Students will develop an understanding that history is made of individual stories, and that individuals do make a difference.

What Students Will Do To Build Their Understanding • Students will become experts on an individual who resisted during the Holocaust, learning about his or her role and the form of his or her resistance. • Students will identify and collect information from various sources about resistance and individuals who resisted. Students will analyze the information for specific details. • In small groups, students will create and present a brief report on resistance and their individual. They will self-assess and peer-assess the presentations.

Significant Dates in the Holocaust supplied by Beth Shalom Holocaust Web Centre

There were hundreds of important events during the Holocaust. These are some of the main ones:

1923 9 November: The Nazis make an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Bavaria. This becomes known as the ‘Munich Putsch.’ 1933 30 January: Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. 21 February: The Reichstag (the German parliament building) is burned down. 24 March: The Enabling Act is passed, giving Hitler almost complete control over Germany. I April: A one-day, nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses is held in Germany. Gypsies sterilized under the law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring 1934 26 January: Germany and Poland sign a ten-year non-aggression pact. 30 June: ‘Night of the Long Knives’; Hitler orders the 55, under Himmler, to wipe out the SA leadership. 2 August: German President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Hitler combines the offices of Chancellor and President and declares himself Reichsführer or Fuhrer.

1935 13 January: The Saarland returns to German control. 15 September: The Nuremberg Laws are issued, defining who is to be considered a Jew or a Gypsy. 1936 7 March: German forces march into the Rhineland.

1938 13 March: The Anschluss; Hitler annexes Austria to the greater German Reich. 6-15 July: The Evian Conference is held. Representatives from 32 nations, including Britain, discuss the problem of Jewish refugees, but no action is taken. 17 August: All Jewish men in Germany are required to add ‘Israel’ to their names, and all Jewish women, ‘Sara’. 29 September: The Munich Conference is held by Neville Chamberlain, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Eduard Daladier. 9-10 November: The ‘ Kristallnacht pogrom takes place in Germany and Austria.

1939 14 March: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia. I September: German forces invade Poland. 3 September: Britain and France declare war on Germany and WW2 begins

1940 April - June: German forces invade Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. 10 May: Neville Chamberlain resigns and Winston Churchill becomes the new British Prime Minister. 27 April: Heinrich Himmler orders the establishment of a concentration camp near the small town of Oswiecim in southern Poland. Its German name is Auschwitz.

1941 22 June: The German Army invades the Soviet Union. Mobile killing squads, Einsatzgruppen begin murdering Jews and other ‘enemies of the state’ in Soviet territory. 19 September: Jews in the Reich are ordered to wear the yellow star in public. 29-30 Sept: More than 32,000 Jews from Kiev are murdered at the Babi Yar ravine.

1942 10 January: The Wannsee Conference is held by top Nazi officials. The Nazi plan for the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’ is outlined. 29 April: Jews in Holland are ordered to wear the yellow star. 20 July: Treblinka extermination camp begins operation.

1943 2 February: The German Sixth Army surrenders at Stalingrad. 19 April - 16 May: The Warsaw ghetto uprising occurs.

1944 19 March: German forces occupy Hungary. 5 April: Jews in Hungary are required to wear the yellow star. 6 June: D-Day. Allied forces land at Normandy. 24 July: Majdanek death camp is liberated by Soviet forces.

Winter 1944 - 45: The SS force thousands of Jewish prisoners on ‘death marches’ as they flee from the advancing Allied armies.

1945 27 January: The Soviet (Russian) Army liberates Auschwitz. 13th April: US forces liberate Buchenwald. 15 April: British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen. 29 April: US troops liberate Dachau. 30 April: Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker. 8 May: VE Day. The war in Europe ends with the unconditional surrender of the German Army to Allied* forces.

Glossary supplied by Beth Shalom Holocaust Web Centre

Allied Forces (or Allies) A collective term for the nations which joined forces to fight against Hitler and his allies. Anti-Semitism Hostility towards Jewish people because they are Jewish. Aryan A term adopted by the Nazis and used to refer to a group of white Europeans (including Germans) considered by the Nazis to be a superior race. Auschwitz-Birkenau The largest and most notorious of all the camps. Established in 1940 as a concentration camp, it also became a death camp in early 1942, with most new arrivals going directly to their deaths in the gas chambers of Birkenau. A vast series of labour camps was also established as part of the Auschwitz complex, where prisoners were used as slave labour for German industry and the Nazi war effort. Bystander A term often used to describe an individual who did not actively harm the Jews under Nazi rule, but did not do anything to help them either. Concentration Camps Prison camps established by the Nazis where individuals considered to be enemies of the German government, such as Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents, were gathered or “concentrated” against their will and treated brutally. Crematoria Ovens or furnaces where camp prisoners’ bodies were burned after they had been gassed or had died from other causes. Deportation The forced removal of Jews from Nazi-occupied lands under the pretence of “resettlement.” Einsatzgruppen Mobile killing units that followed the German armies into the Soviet Union in June, 1941. Their victims, primarily Jews, were shot and buried in mass graves. Euthanasia In late 1939, Hitler commissioned doctors to begin a programme of murdering the mentally and physically handicapped using lethal injections and gas. The programme was officially halted in 1941 due to public protest, after 70,000 people had been murdered. It continued in secret, however, until the end of the war. Extermination Camps (also known as Death Camps) Camps built for the specific purpose of mass murder. There were six extermination camps: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

The Final Solution Term used by the Nazis for their plan to exterminate all European Jews. The full term was “The Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Gas Chambers Rooms often disguised as shower facilities, where large numbers of Jews and other victims were murdered using poisonous gas. Genocide The deliberate and systematic killing of a whole ethnic group. Gestapo The Nazi secret police, responsible for finding, arresting and destroying opponents of the Nazi regime. Ghetto An enclosed and restricted area of a city where Jews were required to live. All ghettos were eventually liquidated as the Jews and Gypsies in them were deported to extermination camps. Gypsies Members of the Roma and Sinti peoples. Holocaust The systematic, planned extermination of approximately six million European Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Many non-Jews perished in the Holocaust, but only the Jews were marked for complete annihilation. Labour Camp A prison camp where the inmates were used as slave labour for German industry and the support of the German war effort. Nationalism Excessive patriotism, placing national interests above all other concerns. Nazi Party (NSDAP) Short for the Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or ‘National Socialist German Workers’ Party’. Founded in 1919, it became a powerful force under Hitler. The Nazis preached hatred of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others who did not fit into their idea of the German nation. Nuremberg Laws “Reich Citizenship Laws,” passed on 15 September, 1935. These laws defined who was to be considered a Jew. All persons of Jewish ancestry were excluded from possessing German citizenship. Perpetrator An individual who perpetrates a crime. In the context of the Holocaust, a perpetrator is an individual who took part in carrying out the Nazi genocide. Pogrom An organized mass attack, against the Jews. The term was coined in Eastern Europe well before the Holocaust, where such attacks were common.

Prejudice An opinion formed without reference to all the relevant facts, based instead on suspicion, ignorance, fear and hatred of other individuals, races, religions, or nationalities. Propaganda The promotion of specific ideas or policies, usually through the mass media, to gain support for a particular cause or person. Racism A philosophy or programme of discrimination, segregation, and persecution based on the idea that one race is superior to others. Resistance Actions taken by people in Nazi-occupied Europe against the Nazis. SA The initials stand for Sturmabteilung, or ‘Storm Troops’. Essentially, the SA were Nazi thugs in uniform. Due to the colour of their uniforms, they were sometimes also called ‘Brownshirts’, They helped Hitler to power through the use of street violence and political intimidation. Scapegoat A person or group that is blamed for the mistakes or crimes of others. SD The Sicherheitsdienst, or ‘Security Service’. A branch of the SS responsible for protecting Nazi Germany’s national security. The SD was involved with running the death camps and was responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazis’ mobile killing units. Selection The sorting of prisoners in death camps into two groups: those judged able to work, and those who were to be killed. SS The Schutzstaffel, or ‘Defense Corps’. Hitler’s elite force, which controlled the concentration, labour and death camps, and was involved in almost every aspect of the ‘Final Solution.’ Star of David The six pointed star that is one of the main symbols of Judaism. The Star of David, often made of yellow cloth and sewn to the clothing of European Jews, was used by the Nazis as a means of easy identification. Stereotype A fixed image or idea of a person or group. Stereotyping often involves the exaggeration and generalization of characteristics observed in just a few members of a particular group. Sometimes, however, stereotypes do not even have this much basis. Stereotyping is linked with prejudice. Swastika An ancient religious emblem, taken by the Nazis as their party symbol. Victim An individual being hurt by something; in the context of the Holocaust, member’s of groups persecuted by the Nazis.

The Jewish Museum London www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

The Holocaust Educational Trust www.het.org.uk

Association of Jewish Refugees www.ajr.org.uk

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust www.hmd.org.uk

Holocaust S urvivors www.holocaustsurvivors.org

Imperial War Museum www.iwm.org.uk

Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre www.bethshalom.com/

Anne Frank Trust www.annefrank.org.uk

Yad Vashem www1.yadvashem.org/education/yomEn2009/index.asp

History in Focus www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Holocaust/websites.html

All About the Holocaust www.suelebeau.com/holocaust.htm

Holocaust Related websites www.fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/website.htm

The Florida Center for Instructional Technology www.fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum www.ushmm.org

League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada www.bnaibrith.ca/league/hh-teachers/guide06.html

Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies University of Minnesota www.remember.org/educate

Yivo Institute for Jewish research www.yivoinstitute.org

USHMM symposium on Roma and Sinti www.ushmm.org/research/center/symposia/#symposia

University of Minnesota centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/victims/romaSinti/index.html www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/victims/romaSinti/extermination.html

Visualizing others—Roma and Sinti. Ian Hancock’s website www.utexas.edu/features/archive/20

Holocaust Lessons for Children www.mindspring.com/~cleanccl/holocaustlessonplans.html

The Aegis Trust, www.aegistrust.com

PresidentAcknowledgements Obama’s 2009 Holocaust Memorial Day Address This pack was prepared using ideas and worksheets from; HMD That is the question of the USHMM Florida Centre for Instructional Technologyrighteous – those who would Yad Vashem do extraordinary good at extraordinary risk not for Our sincere thanks to Anne Jefford for the time and dedication in preparing this resource for We would like to thank Anne Jefford foraffirmation preparing this pack or acclaimand Hertfordshire or to Children, Schools theand schools Families that Religious attend Education our event Fund advancefor its support their in funding own theinterests, production but of it. because it is what must be done. The pack was designed by; They remind us that no one is Artica Design Services born a savior or a murderer – 25 South Street these are choices we each have Eastbourne the power to make. They teach East Sussex BN21 4UP us that no one can make us into bystanders01323 without 419844 our consent, and that we are never truly alone – that if we www.artica.co.ukhave the courage to heed that “still, small voice” within us, we can form a minyan for righteousness that can span a village, even a nation. We would also like to thank all the committee members, volunteers, organizations and private businesses who have given so generously of their time and resources. Their legacy is our inheritance. And the question is how do we honor and preserve it? How do we ensure that “never again” isn’t an empty Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Events slogan, orPO merely Box 288 an aspiration, but also a call to action? Northwood HA69BT

T: 08456 448 006 (general enquiries)I believe we start by doing F: 01923 820357 what we are doing today – by E: [email protected] witness, by fighting www.northwoodhmd.org.uk the silence that is evil’s greatest co-conspirator.