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Racism, Antisemitism and Denial

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Racism, Antisemitism and Denial Commission Nationale du Sénégal pour l’UNESCO Enseigner l’histoire des génocides et des violences de masse Un point d’entrée pour l’éducation à paix Racism, antisemitism and Denial Tali Nates Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre ‘Race’ and Racism Racism - the belief that all members of a group possess characteristics or qualities specific to their ‘race’, and that certain groups are superior or inferior to others - is a system constructed for ideological, social, political and economical reasons. There is no scientific basis for ‘race’. Nazi anti-black Propaganda "The result! A loss of racial pride." Who are the Jews? Jewish children and their teachers in a Bedzin kindergarten, 1930’s Johannesburg survivors… Collections Antisemitism Prejudice against or hatred of Jews as a religious or racial group has existed for over 2 000 years. The term antisemitism was coined in 1879 by German journalist Wilhelm Marr. Ecclesia et Synagoga Around 870 AD • In the ancient world the Jewish belief in one single god, monotheism, was not accepted and resulted in Jews being seen as “different” and “alien”. • Jews were collectively blamed for the death of Jesus and anti-Judaism became integral to early Christianity. During the Middle Ages and later, these hostile attitudes contributed to anti-Jewish stereotyping, persecutions and expulsions. Massacre of Jews, Woodcut 1493 • With the emergence of the new “racial” theories in the 19th century, Jews came to be defined in racial or genetic terms as ‘Semites’. • According to this racial thinking Jews behaved the way they did because of innate racial qualities that would not change. Antisemitic caricature by C. Léandre (France, 1898) showing Rothschild with the world in his hands Nazi Ideology Nazi ideology regarding race shaped national policy in Germany between 1933 and 1945 and was one of the major forces in the development of World War Two, ultimately leading to the genocide of the Jews of Europe. • The Nazis believed in a pure, superior, Germanic (Aryan) master race that would dominate the world. • Accordingly, all who were considered inferior, ‘racially impure’ or a threat to the master race had to be identified and excluded from the German people. Jews were especially targeted. Nazi antisemitic theories claimed that the Jewish ‘race’ was a biological threat and that there was a Jewish conspiracy to control the world. According to Nazi ideology, the survival of the Aryan race was dependent on its victory, in an apocalyptic struggle, against the forces of darkness and evil, the Jews. Poster of Nazi racial propaganda depicting the Jews as the ‘bastard sons’ of Asian and Negroid peoples. Nazi antisemitism In Nazi ideology "Jews" did not form a religious group, but a biological entity, a mixture of ‘alien races’. To justify the persecution and later the murder of Jews, the Nazis used racist negative stereotypes, denouncing all the Jews as communist subversives and war profiteers who posed danger to the country’s security because of their disloyalty and opposition to Germany. Use of Propaganda Caricature on the front page of the Nazi publication, Der Stürmer, depicting the Jew as the devil threatening Mother Europe. The caption reads, "Mother Europe, if I had to leave even one of my children to this devil it would be my death”. Eugenics “Survival of the Fittest” • The Nazi ideology of race drew from the ideas of the eugenics movement of the late 19th century, which refers to the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. • During the third Reich, an extreme antisemitic variation of the eugenic theory determined the course of state policy. Blood mixture was illegal. Procreation by inferior or alien races was discouraged, at first through forced sterilization and later by systematic murder (T-4). • The Nazis believed that the survival of the Aryan race depended on its ability to reproduce a pure gene pool and to accumulate living space (Lebensraum), which would provide vital space required to support and feed an expanding population. Eva Justin checking the 60,000 Reichsmarks is what this facial characteristics of a person suffering from a hereditary Romani woman as part of defect costs the People’s her "racial studies”. community during his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too. A depiction of the "pure Aryan" family on the cover of the 1938 calendar published by Neues Volk, the magazine of the Nazi Party's Race Political Office. The Ten Stages of Genocide By Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch Classification Symbolization Discrimination Dehumanization Organization Polarization Preparation Persecution Extermination Denial Genocide is a process that develops in ten stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Stages may occur simultaneously. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process..
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