Chapter E - Jewish Resistance 7
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HOLOCAUST BOOK TWO Prepared By Ner Le'Elef HOLOCAUST BOOK TWO Prepared by Ner Le’Elef Publication date 27 January 2013 Permission is granted to reproduce in part or in whole. Profits may not be gained from any such reproductions. This book is updated with each edition and is produced several times a year. Other Ner Le’Elef Booklets currently available: AMERICAN SOCIETY BOOK OF QUOTATIONS EVOLUTION HILCHOS MASHPIAH JEWISH MEDICAL ETHICS JEWISH RESOURCES LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT ORAL LAW PROOFS QUESTION & ANSWERS SCIENCE AND JUDAISM SOURCES SUFFERING THE CHOSEN PEOPLE THIS WORLD & THE NEXT WOMEN'S ISSUES (Book One) WOMEN'S ISSUES (Book Two) For information on how to order additional booklets, please contact: Ner Le’Elef P.O. Box 14503 Jewish Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem 91145 E-mail: [email protected] Fax #: 972-02-653-6229 Tel #: 972-02-651-0825 Page 2 HOLOCAUST BOOK TWO CHAPTER E - JEWISH RESISTANCE 7 a. Those Not Interned........................................................................................................7 b. Those Interned...............................................................................................................9 What should the Jewish Response Have Been 14 c. World Jewry................................................................................................................15 Did They Go like Sheep to the Slaughter? 15 Kiddush Hashem – The Mitzvah & Its Application to the Hol 24 Kiddush Hashem – In Death 33 Chagim 39 Shabbat 45 Prayer, Study, Mitzvos 52 Resistance 59 Kapos, Judenraats, Secularists 65 J Rescue Efforts 68 J Orthodox Rescue Efforts 68 American Jewry 68 American Jewry 79 Page 3 CHAPTER F-JEWISH RESPONSES AFTER THE HOLOCAUST 85 What Faith Was Lost? 85 Can it be Regained? 87 What is the Appropriate Response to the Holocaust? 89 What was learned from the Holocaust? 91 Responses 99 Rebuilding 102 Teaching Our Children 103 Building Memorials; Holocaust Studies 110 i - Yom Hashoa 114 Holocaust Judaism 115 Can we forgive the Germans? 118 Holocaust Claims 119 APPENDIX C: 119 i - Reading List 119 d. Overview...................................................................................................................119 e. Hashkafa....................................................................................................................120 f. Heroism and Inspiration.............................................................................................120 g. What did the Jews know:..........................................................................................120 h. What did the Allies know?........................................................................................121 i. The Arabs and the Holocaust ....................................................................................121 j. What did The Germans know?...................................................................................121 k. What the Church Knew ............................................................................................122 l. Hungarian Jewry and the local population.................................................................122 Page 4 m. Web Sites.................................................................................................................122 CONTENTS OF BOOK ONE: THE HOLOCAUST – A SPEECH SUGGESTION CHAPTER A: NAZI GERMANY AND THE HOLOCAUST: A HISTORICAL SUMMARY i. History of the Holocaust a. 1933-1939 b. Nation and Race c. 1939-1945 ii. Children in the Holocaust iii. Changes in Holocaust Literature iv. Comparison of Nazi Decrees with Previous Era CHAPTER B: WAS THE HOLOCAUST UNIQUE? v. The Claim and its Critique vi. Studies of the Holocaust d. Because of the uniqueness of Anti-Semitism, Western scholarship cannot explain the Holocaust e. Why was there no comprehensive treatment of the Holocaust by Orthodoxy until recently? f. Should we be silent now? vii. The Nazis Understood the Uniqueness of the Jews g. Hitler's Vision for the World h. Nazism as a Function of Golus Anti-Semitism i. The Jew and the Nazi – Total Conflict j. Nazis Chosen Nation viii. The Jews – Not Subject to Usual Historical Forces Page 5 ix. The End of Edom – Uniqueness of Evil k. Were the Nazis Amalek? l. Anti-Semitism – The Evil of Edom m. The Holocaust as a preparation for the Messianic era x. The Question CHAPTER C: REASONS FOR THE HOLOCAUST CHAPTER D: WHERE WAS MAN? THE PLACE OF NAZISM IN EUROPEAN HISTORY xi. Did the Germans Suddenly Become Anti-Semitic? n. A Century of German Anti-Semitism Prior to WWII o. Social and Political Changes p. Freeing the Instincts q. The Decline of the West r. Social Darwinism, Racism and Nietzche s. The Supremacy of Nationalism xii. What Kind of People Were Involved? t. Intellectuals at the Forefront u. The Medical Profession v. The Legal Profession w. The Church xiii. How could ordinary people become murderers? x. Deep rooted Anti-Semitism y. Distancing and blurring of responsibility z. Division of Labor aa. Denial bb. Separating Duty From Personal Feelings cc. Loyalty, solidarity and Nationalism dd. Duty and Morality ee. Did the excuse "I was just following orders" hold any water? ff. Did the excuse "I didn’t know" hold any water? gg. Honesty hh. Morality of Toughness and Violence ii. Sense of Meaning Page 6 xiv. Responses of the Allies and Neutral Countries during and after the War jj. Would the Allies have taken in the Jews if they could have? kk. When did the Allies know? ll. What did the Allies do? mm. What did the Allies not do? nn. Bombing Auschwitz oo. The British pp. Helping non-Jews qq. How did the American Public React? rr. American Congress and Politicians ss. The genocide finally addressed – the Bermuda Conference saves 630 refugees tt. The American Military xv. Responses of the Church, the Axis and Other Countries uu. The Pope vv. Responses of Germany after the War ww. Austria a. Poland b. Italy c. Hungary d. Ukraine e. France f. Switzerland g. Holland h. Canada i. Belgium xvi. Righteous Gentiles xvii. Nuremberg & Other Post-War Responses a. The Nuremberg Trials b. A Crime Against the International Community c. Nations Take Stock CHAPTER E - JEWISH RESISTANCE a. Those Not Interned It was extremely difficult for anyone in Europe to know and believe the horrors of what the Nazis were doing. To show this, we take an example of responses by the leadership of Dutch Jewry. Page 7 From July 17 to August 1942, at least 10,000 of the total 15,760 deportees had perished in the gas chambers or from exposure and ill treatment. Those in faraway Amsterdam, which might as well have been on another planet, saw fit to record in their minutes: “Finally, the first report of a case of death in Auschwitz is received by the meeting.” Schmidt’s words had also suggested that many of the rest, and quite probably the majority, would return to the Netherlands after Germany’s defeat (as to which no one had the least doubt), though as early as January 1939 Hitler had spoken about the “extermination of the Jewish race in Europe” and there was hardly a Nazi leader who had not echoed these sentiments on many occasions. Thus on June 15, i.e., a good six weeks before his address of August 2, Schmidt was “loudly applauded” for declaring before a district assembly of the N.S.D.A.P and N.S.B. (the Dutch Nazi party) that the destruction of Jewry “will continue until the last Jew had disappeared” – but these and similar effusions were generally dismissed as mere figures of speech, as general declarations of hostility that might lead to humiliation, persecution, and ill-treatment but that did certainly not reflect a set determination to eradicate every Jew in person. This misconception might have been avoided had Jewish and Non-Jewish circles in the Netherlands not refused to give credence to the B.B.C Radio Oranje (the official Dutch Broadcasting service from London) when it reported the mass murder of Jews in Eastern Europe. On June 26, 1942, the B.B.C., and one day later Radio Oranje, basing themselves in the polish authorities, gave news of the killing of more than 700,000 Jews. A month later on July 29, Radio Olranje first mentioned the subject of gas chambers. It is true that many Dutchmen did not make it a regular habit to listen to broadcast from London; the Jews among them had been forced to hand in their radio receivers early in 1941. Moreover, at the time, the illegal newspaper – all of which gave prominence to the reports from London – still had much smaller circulations than they were to enjoy during the last phase of the war. Incidentally, the Communist underground paper De Warrheid which was read by thousands had anticipated the B.B.C. when, early in June, it published the news that in territories like the Ukraine where millions of Jews had lived only a few years earlier, “not a single one has survived – men, women, children and old people have been exterminated one and all.” When something, and perhaps a good deal, of all this percolated through to the leaders of the Jewish Council, they dismissed it all as mere exaggeration and as anti-German war propaganda. Their reactions did not change even six months later when, on December 17, 1942, the government of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union together with seven of their allies, including the Netherlands and the French National Committee, broadcast the following report on events in Eastern Europe: “In Poland, which the Germans have turned into their chief slaughterhouse, all Jews, with the exception of a few skilled hands needed for