Holocaust-Era Diaries Student Packet

Holocaust-era Diaries Student Packet TABLE OF CONTENTS TIMELINE……………………………………………………1 HOW TO READ A DIARY…………………………………..3 INTRODUCTION……………………………………….........4 ROBERT H. HARLAN……………………………………….6 HANS VOGEL………………………..…………………......10 MAX AND FRIEDA REINACH…………………………....19 SUSI HILSENRATH………………………………………...27 LUCIEN DREYFUS………………………………………...32 DR. AHARON PICK…………………………………....…..41 SZYFRA MAJRANC…………………………………...…..53 SELMA WIJNBERG ENGEL……………………………....65 MORRIS BREITBART…………………………………......75 DR. MARIA MADI………………………………………....82 CLARA LEFKOWITZ KEMPLER……………………..….95 CHARLES PHILLIP SHARP……………………………...102 WACŁAW GŁOUSZEK…………………………………...107 TIMELINE January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, is appointed chancellor of Germany. He soon became a dictator. April 1, 1933: The Nazi Party organized a nationwide boycott of businesses owned by Gerrmran Jews. April 7, 1933: The German government issued a law removing Jews and political opponents of the Nazi Party from teaching positions at schools and universities, and from government jobs. The German government soon issued a law forcing most Jewish students to leave public schools. September 15, 1935: The German government issued the Nuremberg Race Laws. The laws defined who was considered Jewish (defining Jews as a separate race from non-Jews), stated that Jewish people were no longer German citizens, and made romantic relationships between Jews and non-Jews illegal. March 12, 1938: Germany invaded and annexed Austria, incorporating the country into Germany. Jewish Austrians were immediately subjected to German antisemitic laws. A refugee crisis began as hundreds of thousands of Jews tried to find countries that would accept them as immigrants. August 17, 1938: The German government forced Jews to add new middle names to further identify them as Jewish. Men had to add the middle name “Israel” and women had to add the name “Sara.” November 9-10, 1938: Nazi supporters launched violent attacks on Jews and Jewish-owned businesses, burning synagogues and arresting 30,000 Jewish men and boys, imprisoning them in concentration camps. The Nazis called these attacks Kristallnacht. They released prisoners who promised to leave Germany as soon as possible. September 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II began. Jews in Poland were immediately in danger, and within months, German authorities began to round them up and imprison them in ghettos. May 10, 1940: Germany invaded western Europe. Within six weeks, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France surrendered. Jews in those countries were immediately in danger. June 22, 1941: Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. So-called “mobile killing squads” followed the German army, murdering Jews and other victims by mass shooting and gassing in mobile gas vans with the help of local collaborators. Approximately two million Jews died this way. Holocaust-era Diaries | 1 July 1941: Nazi Germany forces US consulates in Axis territory to close, cutting off most immigration to the United States. September 1, 1941: German authorities forced Jews in Germany to begin wearing a yellow star on their clothing. December 7, 1941: The Japanese military bombed the United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States declared war on Japan. Nazi Germany, which was allied with Japan, declared war on the United States. The United States officially entered World War II. January 20, 1942: German government officials and Nazi Party officials held a conference at the Wannsee Villa in a suburb of Berlin to discuss logistics of the “Final Solution” (the mass murder of European Jews). March 17, 1942: Operation Reinhard, the code name for the plan to murder Jews in German-occupied Poland, began. Nazis and their collaborators murdered at least 1.5 million Jews at three killing centers: Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. December 17, 1942: The governments of the Allied nations, including the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, issued a joint statement condemning the Nazis’ policy of “cold-blooded extermination.” April 19, 1943: In summer 1942, German authorities deported approximately 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto and murdered them in the Treblinka killing center. When German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport the remaining Jews, armed Jewish resistance fighters attacked. The resistance fighters used makeshift weapons to battle the Nazis for nearly a month before finally being defeated. March 19, 1944: Germany invaded and occupied Hungary, which had the largest Jewish population still in Europe. Within four months, German authorities and the Hungarian police deported approximately 440,000 Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and killing center where most were murdered in gas chambers. June 6, 1944: Allied forces invaded France, putting tremendous military pressure on Nazi Germany. By late August, the Allies had liberated Paris. January 27, 1945: Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where the Nazi-SS had murdered more than one million Jews. April 11, 1945: American troops liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp, one of many concentration camps liberated by the Allied troops in spring 1945. May 7, 1945: German forces surrendered to the Allies, officially ending World War II in Europe. Holocaust-era Diaries | 2 HOW TO READ A DIARY It was very common for people to keep diaries and journals in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum holds hundreds of personal diaries written by people who were persecuted by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II or who were witnesses to the persecution of others. This packet includes excerpts from some of these diaries. Students interested in viewing the original diaries or in reading full translations can find them via the Museum’s catalog. Spelling and punctuation has been largely kept as the diarist intended. People of all ages and from many different countries and backgrounds wrote diaries. Some diarists wrote on lined notebooks; others wrote on scraps of paper, on the backs of photographs, or even in the margins of printed books. They used their diaries to record daily life, to capture a specific time of their lives, compose poetry and songs, or remember favorite recipes. Some diarists picked up a pen once they realized they wanted to describe the terrible events happening around them, while others had kept diaries for years. Some diaries were very personal, intended just for the author, while others were meant for friends, children, or grandchildren. Diarists wrote in many different contexts. While some diarists were living openly in their homes, others wrote while in hiding places, in ghettos, or in concentration camps. Where a diarist lived, when they were writing, and what was happening in the world around them at the time are all important pieces of context to consider when reading a diary. Diaries are important historical sources because they are “immediate” documents: the diarist does not know what will happen to them next. Some diaries were written by people who survived the Holocaust; others were written by those who were murdered. They all provide a unique and intimate look into one person’s experiences during the Holocaust. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER ● Who wrote this diary? How old were they, and where did they live? ● What was the diarist’s family situation? Did they live with other family members? ● When was this diary written? What was happening at that time? ● Who is the audience for this diary? Was the diarist writing for themselves, or for others? ● What kind of language does the diarist use? Do they use any literary devices? ● What topics does the diarist write about? ● Is the diarist experiencing persecution, or are they a witness to the persecution of others? Or both? ● What can we learn about the Holocaust by reading this diary? Holocaust-era Diaries | 3 INTRODUCTION Read these entries and answer the questions below. Berlin, Thursday, July 21, 1932 Today is a very important day in my life because it is my eighteenth birthday, and I am starting to keep a diary, which I hope to continue. At the moment, I am sitting at my desk. It is in the evening. We hear the tumult and noise of a great city … my father and my sister Sonia (born May 30, 1928) are presently in Nordenei in Germany, which is a resort near the North Sea. My mother gave me thirty marks for my birthday, which I used to buy this diary and a photo album. With the rest of the money, I intend to buy a few small practical items. Berlin, Monday 10:00 p.m., December 19, 1932 Last night after closing the business and eating dinner, at around 9:00 p.m, I went out to the zoo. There I made a mistake in changing trains and I arrived at the Cafe Berlin at the zoo by 10:00 p.m., It was very crowded. I danced with different ladies but they were nothing special. Then I met Sonia Klein and I expect to meet her again on Friday, the first night of Hanukkah...Today my mother warned me to stop running around so much. She wants me to be home by midnight if I go out again. Now I am going to bed. Good night. Berlin, January 30, 1933 In politics, yesterday there were many troubles and pogroms in the streets. Today was the day that Adolf Hitler officially became the Reich Chancellor of Germany. All I can say is that I hope that the end shall be good for the people of the world, but I don't think it will be that way, it looks very bad. Berlin, Wednesday 10:45 p.m., February 1, 1933 Tonight after locking up the store, I went to English class at the club. I paid my dues of five marks. At 10 p.m. I heard on the radio the new Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

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