Holocaust and Human Behavior Six-Week Unit Outline for Educators in Jewish Sttings
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Spencer Sunshine*
Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 9, 2019 (© 2019) ISSN: 2164-7100 Looking Left at Antisemitism Spencer Sunshine* The question of antisemitism inside of the Left—referred to as “left antisemitism”—is a stubborn and persistent problem. And while the Right exaggerates both its depth and scope, the Left has repeatedly refused to face the issue. It is entangled in scandals about antisemitism at an increasing rate. On the Western Left, some antisemitism manifests in the form of conspiracy theories, but there is also a hegemonic refusal to acknowledge antisemitism’s existence and presence. This, in turn, is part of a larger refusal to deal with Jewish issues in general, or to engage with the Jewish community as a real entity. Debates around left antisemitism have risen in tandem with the spread of anti-Zionism inside of the Left, especially since the Second Intifada. Anti-Zionism is not, by itself, antisemitism. One can call for the Right of Return, as well as dissolving Israel as a Jewish state, without being antisemitic. But there is a Venn diagram between anti- Zionism and antisemitism, and the overlap is both significant and has many shades of grey to it. One of the main reasons the Left can’t acknowledge problems with antisemitism is that Jews persistently trouble categories, and the Left would have to rethink many things—including how it approaches anti- imperialism, nationalism of the oppressed, anti-Zionism, identity politics, populism, conspiracy theories, and critiques of finance capital—if it was to truly struggle with the question. The Left understands that white supremacy isn’t just the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, but that it is part of the fabric of society, and there is no shortcut to unstitching it. -
Czech Republic Page 1 of 5
Czech Republic Page 1 of 5 Czech Republic International Religious Freedom Report 2008 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion. The Government generally respected religious freedom in practice. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the Government during the period covered by this report. There were some reports of societal discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. Occasional acts and expressions of anti-Semitism were reported among some elements of the population. The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights. Section I. Religious Demography The country has an area of 30,442 square miles and a population of 10.2 million. The population is largely homogeneous with a dominant Christian tradition. However, in part as a result of 40 years of communist rule between 1948 and 1989, the vast majority of citizens do not identify themselves as members of any organized religion. In a 2007 opinion poll sponsored by the Stredisko Empirickych Vyzkumu (STEM) agency, 28 percent of respondents claimed to believe in God, while 48 percent identified themselves as atheists. Only 18 percent of citizens under 29 professed a belief in God. Similarly, in a May 2007 poll by the Public Opinion Research Centre (Centrum pro vyzkum verejneho mineni, or CVVM), 55 percent of citizens voiced a mistrust of churches, while only 28 percent stated that they trust them. -
Opening of the Samuel Bak Museum
VILNA GAON STATE JEWISH MUSEUM 2017 / 2 5778 / 1 Dear friends of the Museum, Having bid farewell to the old year, we kindly invite you to recall the most important and interesting moments in the Museum’s life in the period from July to December 2017. We thank you for your friendship and hope that you will stay with us in the New Year 2018! All the best, Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum team OPENING OF THE SAMUEL BAK MUSEUM On 16 November 2017, the official grand opening of a new branch of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum – the Samuel Bak Museum – took place. The new museum exhibits 37 paintings by the world- famous artist Samuel Bak, which the artist donated to Lithuania. Samuel Bak was born in 1933 in Vilnius. At the age of just nine years he held his first exhibition of drawings. Samuel Bak miraculously survived the Nazi occupation and ended up at a displaced persons camp in Germany. Later the artist lived in Israel and Western Europe. In 1993 Samuel Bak settled down in the United States of America where he continues with his creative endeavours. The artist creates in an authentic style of allegoric realism and raises ever topical issues of the world’s fragile nature, search for human identity and ability to recover from a catastrophe. The opening ceremony of the Samuel Bak Museum was attended by over a hundred high-ranking state officials and public figures, foreign diplomats and guests, including the artist himself with his family. Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Markas Zingeris, head of the Samuel Bak Museum Ieva Šadzevičienė, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson, Mayor of Vilnius Remigijus Šimašius, Member of Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris, and Ambassador of the United States of America Anne Hall addressed the audience. -
'Kristallnacht' Commemoration
'Kristallnacht' Commemoration 9 November 2009 • International Day HATRED KILLS ‘Active Commemoration Hatred Kills: Protect your Environment in 49 European Countries’ from Right-wing Extremism! In the frame of the International Day Against Fascism and Why do we need to take care about something that belongs to Antisemitism, hundreds of organisations from Azerbaijan to history books? Surely, it is better to concentrate on the future Cyprus, from Belarus to Ireland got active to commemorate the rather than the past? But how do we know the past is a closed 9 November ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom Under the slogan ‘Hatred chapter? Can we be sure the events of 9 November 1938 are Kills - Protect your Environment from Right-Wing Extremism’ totally irrelevant to the present and the future? The answer is: a wide variety of activities took place in 49 different European no. The seemingly distant past is not distant at all; throughout countries. The campaign succeeded in raising consciousness Europe, violence against minorities happens every day. The of the history of racism and fascism and in making the public tragic lessons of history are not learnt by our societies, we aware of the dangers and consequences of prejudice, hatred, need to make sure the past is not forgotten. Even more im- ignorance and intolerance in our contemporary world. portantly, we must react against the rise of racism and intoler- Coordinated by the international secretariat of UNITED, ance here and now! Experience proves that Hatred Kills! the participating NGOs organised football games, concerts, marches and torchlight processions, to name only some 9 November Pogrom: A Short History activities. -
Van Der Linden, R: Women After War: Jewish
Women After War: Jewish Women as Displaced Persons in Belsen, 1945-50 By Riley van der Linden V00820139 Supervised by Dr. Kristin Semmens A Graduating Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements, in the Honours Programme For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of History University of Victoria 26 March 2018 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Chapter One: Displaced Persons Camps in Political and Cultural Context 5 Chapter Two: Jewish Displaced Persons at Belsen DP Camp 12 Chapter Three: The Multi-Faceted Role of Female Jewish DPs in Belsen 25 Conclusion 40 Bibliography 42 !1 Introduction The Third Reich and the Holocaust have been the subject of intense academic study since the end of the Second World War. How the Holocaust developed from prejudiced attitudes to the Final Solution, what occurred within the Nazi concentration (KZ) and death camps, and how the camps eventually came to be liberated have all been studied in great detail. However, the issue of displaced persons (DPs) in Europe in the immediate postwar period is often glossed over, or not discussed at all, in other studies and bodies of work written in English. In more general histories of Europe at this time, most texts will discuss World War II and the Holocaust up until liberation, and immediately begin discussing the post-war fallout in divided Germany in political and economic terms; rarely are the millions of DPs mentioned at all, and if they are, they are talked about in very broad terms. As well, in the few texts in English that do discuss the DP crisis in Europe, rarely is gender used as a category of analysis, nor are individual camps discussed in any great detail. -
Poland Study Guide Poland Study Guide
Poland Study Guide POLAND STUDY GUIDE POLAND STUDY GUIDE Table of Contents Why Poland? In 1939, following a nonaggression agreement between the Germany and the Soviet Union known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was again divided. That September, Why Poland Germany attacked Poland and conquered the western and central parts of Poland while the Page 3 Soviets took over the east. Part of Poland was directly annexed and governed as if it were Germany (that area would later include the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz- Birkenau). The remaining Polish territory, the “General Government,” was overseen by Hans Frank, and included many areas with large Jewish populations. For Nazi leadership, Map of Territories Annexed by Third Reich the occupation was an extension of the Nazi racial war and Poland was to be colonized. Page 4 Polish citizens were resettled, and Poles who the Nazis deemed to be a threat were arrested and shot. Polish priests and professors were shot. According to historian Richard Evans, “If the Poles were second-class citizens in the General Government, then the Jews scarcely Map of Concentration Camps in Poland qualified as human beings at all in the eyes of the German occupiers.” Jews were subject to humiliation and brutal violence as their property was destroyed or Page 5 looted. They were concentrated in ghettos or sent to work as slave laborers. But the large- scale systematic murder of Jews did not start until June 1941, when the Germans broke 2 the nonaggression pact with the Soviets, invaded the Soviet-held part of Poland, and sent 3 Chronology of the Holocaust special mobile units (the Einsatzgruppen) behind the fighting units to kill the Jews in nearby forests or pits. -
Holocaust Education Standards Grade 4 Standard 1: SS.4.HE.1
1 Proposed Holocaust Education Standards Grade 4 Standard 1: SS.4.HE.1. Foundations of Holocaust Education SS.4.HE.1.1 Compare and contrast Judaism to other major religions observed around the world, and in the United States and Florida. Grade 5 Standard 1: SS.5.HE.1. Foundations of Holocaust Education SS.5.HE.1.1 Define antisemitism as prejudice against or hatred of the Jewish people. Students will recognize the Holocaust as history’s most extreme example of antisemitism. Teachers will provide students with an age-appropriate definition of with the Holocaust. Grades 6-8 Standard 1: SS.68.HE.1. Foundations of Holocaust Education SS.68.HE.1.1 Define the Holocaust as the planned and systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Students will recognize the Holocaust as history’s most extreme example of antisemitism. Students will define antisemitism as prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people. Grades 9-12 Standard 1: SS.HE.912.1. Analyze the origins of antisemitism and its use by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi) regime. SS.912.HE.1.1 Define the terms Shoah and Holocaust. Students will distinguish how the terms are appropriately applied in different contexts. SS.912.HE.1.2 Explain the origins of antisemitism. Students will recognize that the political, social and economic applications of antisemitism led to the organized pogroms against Jewish people. Students will recognize that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a hoax and utilized as propaganda against Jewish people both in Europe and internationally. -
Kristallnacht- the Night of Broken Glass
Kristallnacht- The Night of Broken Glass From “America and the Holocaust”a film by American Experience On the night of November 9, 1938, the sounds of breaking glass shattered the air in cities throughout Germany while fires across the country devoured synagogues and Jewish institutions. By the end of the rampage, gangs of Nazi storm troopers had destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses, set fire to more than 900 synagogues, killed 91 Jews and deported some 30,000 Jewish men to concentration camps. In a report back to the State Department a few days later, a U.S official in Leipzig described what he saw of the atrocities. "Having demolished dwellings and hurled most of the moveable effects to the streets," he wrote, "the insatiably sadistic perpetrators threw many of the trembling inmates into a small stream that flows through the zoological park, commanding horrified spectators to spit at them, defile them with mud and jeer at their plight." An incident several days earlier had given the Nazi authorities an excuse to instigate the violence. On November 7th, a 17-year-old Polish Jewish student named Hershel Grynszpan had shot Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris. Grynszpan, enraged by the deportation of his parents to Poland from Hanover, Germany, where they had lived since 1914, hoped that his dramatic action would alert the world to the ominous plight of Europe's Jews. When the French police arrested Grynszpan, he sobbed: "Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on earth. -
Anti-Jewish Laws Timeline
Materials ANTI-JEWISH LAWS TIMELINE This Jewish storefront was vandalised during Kristallnacht in Magdeburg, Germany, November 9-10, 1938. (Montreal Holocaust Museum Collection) 1933 1935 1938 1939 1940 1941-1942 January 30, 1933 1935 April 26, 1938 November 9-10, 1938 September 1, 1939 May 20, 1940 June 1941 to January 1942 Adolf Hitler is appointed The Law for the Protection of Nazis force Jews to register Kristallnacht: A wave of Invasion of Poland: Germany The Auschwitz concentration camp Following the German invasion of the Chancellor of Germany. German Blood and Honour their assets, a first step toward state-organised attacks attacks Poland and World War II opens in occupied Poland. It will Soviet Union, four Einsatzgruppen and the German Citizenship total exclusion from the target Jewish businesses, begins. By the end of the month, eventually become a mixed camp (mobile killing units) massacre 1 February 28, 1933 Law are passed. Known German economy. synagogues, apartments Poland is divided between (concentration and death camp) million Jews. Using the Reichstag (German as the “Nuremberg Laws”, across Germany and Austria. Germany and the USSR. Jews where nearly 1 million Jews are parliament) fire as pretext, Hitler they prohibit marriage and July 25, 1938 Jews are forced to pay fines on the German side are almost murdered. issues emergency decrees sexual relationships between Jewish doctors are forbidden of over one billion German immediately subjected to anti- that mark the end of all basic Germans and Jews and state to treat ‘Aryan’ patients marks. Jewish measures. freedoms, including freedom of that only persons of “German speech, press, assembly and or related blood” can be August 17, 1938 November 15, 1938 October 28, 1939 citizens. -
Lithuania and the Jews the Holocaust Chapter
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES Lithuania and the Jews The Holocaust Chapter Symposium Presentations W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. Lithuania and the Jews The Holocaust Chapter Symposium Presentations CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM 2004 The assertions, opinions, and conclusions in this occasional paper are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council or of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. First printing, July 2005 Copyright © 2005 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Contents Foreword.......................................................................................................................................... i Paul A. Shapiro and Carl J. Rheins Lithuanian Collaboration in the “Final Solution”: Motivations and Case Studies........................1 Michael MacQueen Key Aspects of German Anti-Jewish Policy...................................................................................17 Jürgen Matthäus Jewish Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto .......................................................................................33 David G. Roskies Appendix: Biographies of Contributors.........................................................................................45 Foreword Centuries of intellectual, religious, and cultural achievements distinguished Lithuania as a uniquely important center of traditional Jewish arts and learning. The Jewish community -
Study Guide REFUGE
A Guide for Educators to the Film REFUGE: Stories of the Selfhelp Home Prepared by Dr. Elliot Lefkovitz This publication was generously funded by the Selfhelp Foundation. © 2013 Bensinger Global Media. All rights reserved. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements p. i Introduction to the study guide pp. ii-v Horst Abraham’s story Introduction-Kristallnacht pp. 1-8 Sought Learning Objectives and Key Questions pp. 8-9 Learning Activities pp. 9-10 Enrichment Activities Focusing on Kristallnacht pp. 11-18 Enrichment Activities Focusing on the Response of the Outside World pp. 18-24 and the Shanghai Ghetto Horst Abraham’s Timeline pp. 24-32 Maps-German and Austrian Refugees in Shanghai p. 32 Marietta Ryba’s Story Introduction-The Kindertransport pp. 33-39 Sought Learning Objectives and Key Questions p. 39 Learning Activities pp. 39-40 Enrichment Activities Focusing on Sir Nicholas Winton, Other Holocaust pp. 41-46 Rescuers and Rescue Efforts During the Holocaust Marietta Ryba’s Timeline pp. 46-49 Maps-Kindertransport travel routes p. 49 2 Hannah Messinger’s Story Introduction-Theresienstadt pp. 50-58 Sought Learning Objectives and Key Questions pp. 58-59 Learning Activities pp. 59-62 Enrichment Activities Focusing on The Holocaust in Czechoslovakia pp. 62-64 Hannah Messinger’s Timeline pp. 65-68 Maps-The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia p. 68 Edith Stern’s Story Introduction-Auschwitz pp. 69-77 Sought Learning Objectives and Key Questions p. 77 Learning Activities pp. 78-80 Enrichment Activities Focusing on Theresienstadt pp. 80-83 Enrichment Activities Focusing on Auschwitz pp. 83-86 Edith Stern’s Timeline pp. -
German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939–1943 Witold Wojciech Me¸Dykowski
Macht Arbeit Frei? German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939–1943 Witold Wojciech Me¸dykowski Boston 2018 Jews of Poland Series Editor ANTONY POLONSKY (Brandeis University) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: the bibliographic record for this title is available from the Library of Congress. © Academic Studies Press, 2018 ISBN 978-1-61811-596-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-61811-597-3 (electronic) Book design by Kryon Publishing Services (P) Ltd. www.kryonpublishing.com Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA P: (617)782-6290 F: (857)241-3149 [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com This publication is supported by An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-1-61811-907-0. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. To Luba, with special thanks and gratitude Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction vii Part One Chapter 1: The War against Poland and the Beginning of German Economic Policy in the Ocсupied Territory 1 Chapter 2: Forced Labor from the Period of Military Government until the Beginning of Ghettoization 18 Chapter 3: Forced Labor in the Ghettos and Labor Detachments 74 Chapter 4: Forced Labor in the Labor Camps 134 Part Two Chapter