The Holocaust

Shaw 1 The Holocaust Interviewer: Stephanie Shaw Interviewee: Leon Merrick Instructor: Michael Chapper Date: February 22, 2010 Shaw 2 Table of Contents Interview Release Form 3 Statement of Purpose 4 Biography 5 Historical Contextualization: The Holocaust 7 Interview Transcription 19 Time Indexing Recording Log 80 Interview Analysis 82 Works Consulted 88 Shaw 3 Leave Blank: interviewee release form Shaw 4 Statement of Purpose This project serves to provide a better understanding of what caused the Holocaust and what happened during the Holocaust. This task will be accomplished through an interview with Leon Merrick, a Holocaust survivor, and through independent research. This unique perspective will help people gain a concrete understanding of the Holocaust. Shaw 5 Biography Leon Merrick was born in 1926 in Zgierz, Poland. He was very content living in Poland with his mother, father, and younger brother, but at age thirteen, the Nazis began to impact his life. In 1939, when Mr. Merrick was thirteen years old, he was no longer allowed to attend school and was forced to wear a Jewish star for identification. Late in 1939, Mr. Merrick and his family were transported to a ghetto in the city of Lodz. On May 1, 1940 the Germans decided to close the ghetto in Lodz. No one else was allowed in and many people were taken out; Mr. Merrick‟s family was able to stay there until 1944. During his time in the ghetto, Mr. Merrick worked in the post office. When Mr. Merrick was seventeen, he and many other boys were transferred to a working camp; he was forced to leave his family behind in order to work for the Germans. Later in 1944, the Nazis forced Mr. Merrick to move yet again, this time to a concentration camp called Buchenwald, near Weimar, Germany, where he was forced to Shaw 6 continue working. In 1945, the Nazis evacuated Buchenwald, and Mr. Merrick was relocated to another concentration camp in Germany. In 1945, the Russians liberated that concentration camp and Mr. Merrick was free. Mr. Merrick was never able to find his family after the war ended, although he tried looking online and in books. In 1949, Mr. Merrick came to America with the U.S. Army. After settling in America, Mr. Merrick met his wife, Nina, in America, and they have one daughter. They are now living in Silver Spring, Maryland. Shaw 7 Historical Contextualization: The Holocaust “‟The Holocaust refuses to go the way of most history…not only because of the magnitude of the destruction—the murder of six million Jews—but because the events surrounding it are in a very real sense incomprehensible‟” (Marrus 2). This statement by Holocaust historian, Nora Levin, expresses the essence of the event and its unique place in the study of the history of the Twentieth century. The Holocaust took place from 1933-1945 and throughout only 12 years, the German Nazis killed approximately six million Jewish people. Many people believe that no historian can truly understand how mass murder on such a great scale could have begun or possibly happened altogether (Marrus 2). During this period, the Nazis put into place a plan to seek out all Jewish people in Europe, no matter what race, gender, or age, and kill them. Ultimately, Jews had done nothing wrong to deserve this inconceivable fate. To understand the Holocaust, one must examine how it was started, who the leaders of the Nazi party were and what motivated them, and how Jews and other victims were treated. It is also valuable to gain a first-hand perspective from individuals who lived through it. Before the Nazis came into power, circumstances were quite different for Jewish people in Germany than they were in other European countries. In some countries, Jews suffered from poverty, discrimination, and hostility. In Germany, Jews were not treated as badly. For example, in the early twentieth century, there were no pogroms in Germany, unlike other countries. Pogroms were “riotous outbreaks against Jews in which public authorities often failed to intervene or even assisted the violent assaults upon Jews and the destruction of their property” (Marrus 9). The Nazis, however, brought anti-Semitism to Germany in the mid-1920s. After World War I, Germany was poverty-stricken, and the country was looking for somebody to Shaw 8 blame for the situation. Because the Jewish people were the largest German minority, they were an easy target for prejudice. In 1919, Adolf Hitler joined a group known as the German Workers‟ Party. He desired to become a leader, and in order to do so, Hitler took advantage of two powers: “The appeal of anti-Semitism and his own ability to speak and excite people” (Rossel). Hitler began to organize his own party known as the National Socialist German Workers‟ Party (Nazi for short). By speaking of Jews in prejudicial terms, Hitler was able to win over many votes (Rossel). He had a single-minded, unwavering focus on the inferior position of Jews. “Hitler relentlessly portrayed Jews as the most determined and menacing enemies of the Germans and all other nations as well” (Marrus 13). Nazis believed that Jews undermined a people‟s capacity for struggle, weakened racial purity, and corrupted people‟s positive qualities (Marrus 13). By 1921 anti-Semitism was raised to a new level called radical anti-Semitism (Marrus 11). Hitler was still working to improve his party by giving speeches, getting more people to join the party and winning votes. By 1930 the Nazis were the second largest party in Germany and by 1933 the Nazi party officially came to power (Rossel). The Nazis were considered to be “the most enthusiastic exponents of anti-Jewish ideology in electoral politics” (Marrus 12) primarily because of Hitler‟s ability to persuade people with his speaking, and his hatred of Jews. Hitler‟s detestation of Jews was embraced completely by the leaders of the Nazi party. The Nazis collectively worked together in an unwavering, ruthless and determined manner (Marrus 25). SS (Schutzstaffel which, translated literally, means Protective Squad) Boss Heinrich Himmler gave a speech to his fellow Nazis saying, “‟I am referring to the evacuation of the Jews, the annihilation of Jewish people. This is one of those things that are easily said. The Jewish people is going to be annihilated,‟ says every party member‟” (Marrus 26). Initially, the Shaw 9 Nazis proceeded slowly; they gradually banned Jews from certain things (Grant 18). In 1935, the Congress of the National Socialist Workers‟ Party assembled in Nuremberg, Germany on September 10th to discuss the next step on the Nazi agenda. The Nazis developed a new series of laws for several reasons. The first reason was to clarify the conditions of citizenship in the Third Reich. The second reason was to assure the purity of German blood and German honor. And the final reason was to elucidate the position of Jews in the Reich (Austin). One of the main Nuremberg Laws is the “Reich Citizenship Law”. This law states: Article 1 Section 1 A German subject is one who is a member of the protective union of the German Reich and is bound to it by special obligations… Section 2 1. A Reich citizen is that subject who is of German or related blood only and who through his behavior demonstrates that he is ready and able to serve faithfully the German people and Reich. 2. The right to citizenship of the Reich is acquired by the grant of citizenship papers. 3. A citizen of the Reich is the sole bearer of full political rights as provided by the law. (O‟Brien) These laws granted citizenship to those who were German blooded and fit all the requirements. If somebody was German but still Jewish, they would not be allowed to join the Reich. Because one of the main points of the Nuremberg Laws was to clarify the inferior position of Jews in the Third Reich, the laws took anti-Semitism to a new level. Jewish people had their property confiscated; government positions were taken away from Jews; Jews were forced to give up their positions as professionals; and many were pressured to leave Germany (Marrus 27). A subsequent law prohibited Jews from owning businesses. This law had a particularly severe impact because several Jews did own businesses, which provided their main source of income: Thus, less than a month after the Nuremberg „party day of freedom,‟ where the Jews were put beyond the political and social pale of the German people, the German Government announces its determination Shaw 10 to drive the Jews from their last preserve, on which they have been maintaining a precarious hold—namely, business. (Tolischus) The Nuremberg laws were put into effect immediately, and caused the lives of Jews to change dramatically. These laws made the mistreatment of Jews and their inferior position a political priority. From the beginning of the Holocaust in 1933, the Nazis lashed out at Jews by terrorizing and vandalizing them. Forcing the Jews to emigrate to other countries seemed logical to Hitler and eventually it became a goal of the party. During the second half of the 1930s, the Nazis supported the emigration of the Jews as long as they left their property behind. Over 200,000 Jews were able to flee before the Nazis became impatient and created a new law. They concluded that their tactics needed to be improved in order to ensure that their goal of destroying the Jewish race would be achieved. In 1941 the Nazis declared that Jews were no longer allowed to emigrate from Germany. This declaration had a significant impact and was one of the primary factors contributing to the Holocaust.

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