5. Konference Ve Wannsee

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

5. Konference Ve Wannsee UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH V ĚD Institut politologických studií Jakub Hájek Vznik vyhlazovacích tábor ů nacistického N ěmecka 1941 – 1942 Bakalá řská práce Praha 2010 Autor práce: Jakub Hájek Vedoucí práce: PhDr. et Dipl.Pol. Martin Je řábek, Ph.D. Oponent práce: Datum obhajoby: červen 2010 Hodnocení: Bibliografický záznam HÁJEK, Jakub. Vznik vyhlazovacích tábor ů nacistického N ěmecka 1941 – 1942. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních v ěd, Institut politologických studií, 2010. 90 s. Vedoucí bakalá řské práce PhDr. et Dipl.Pol. Martin Je řábek, Ph.D. Anotace Bakalá řská práce „Vznik vyhlazovacích tábor ů nacistického N ěmecka 1941 – 1942“ se zabývá stup ňováním nacistické perzekuce Žid ů v období vymezeném útokem na Sov ětský svaz a konferencí ve Wannsee. Práce studuje rozhodující období pro osud Žid ů na území nacistického N ěmecka a hledá momenty vedoucí k postupnému stup ňování pronásledování Žid ů. Od po čáte čního hledání vhodného cíle deportací po vraždy vrcholící spušt ěním masového vyvraž ďování, skrytého pod pojmem „kone čné řešení“, v systému specieln ě budovaných vyhlazovacích tábor ů. D ůraz je kladen na distribuci rozkaz ů, řízení a koordinaci procesu z pohledu centrálních institucí bezpe čnostního aparátu a nacistické administrativy. Vznik systému řízení a postupná centrální organizace procesu hrají klí čovou roli pro pochopení zp ůsobu fungování hromadného zabíjení a jeho posunu od lokálních akcí k industrializovanému procesu, který postihl židovské obyvatelstvo celé Evropy. Klíčová slova Holokaust, holocaust, Židé, nacismus, zlo činy nacismu, genocida, koncentra ční tábory, druhá sv ětová válka, konference ve Wannsee (1942), N ěmecko. Annotation The bachelor thesis “The origin of the Nazi death camps 1941 – 1942” explores the escalation of the Jewish persecution in the period between the attack on the Soviet Union and the Wannsee Conference. The focus of this thesis lies in the cricial period for the destiny of the Jews in the Nazi Germany, with its stressing the most important points that led to the gradual escalation of the Jewish persecution. The killing starts with searching the most suitable destination for the deportations, and it proceeds to numerous murders in which there were the origins for the mass killings that followed. These were known as the “final solution” and they took place in a highly elaborated system of camps which were later called “death camps”. The main focus is therefore the distribution of the directions, control and coordination of the killings by the Nazi security institutions and administration. This is because the formation of the administration and progressive centralization of the Jewish persecution are the most important points for the understanding of how this mass killing could be so carefully controlled by the Nazis and how it could develop from such local activities to the massively industrialized killings of the Jews from the entire Europe. Key words Holocaust, Jews, Nazism, Nazi crimes, genocide, concentration camps, World War II, Wannsee Conference, Germany. Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem p ředkládanou práci zpracoval samostatn ě a použil jen níže uvedené prameny a literaturu. Zárove ň souhlasím s tím, aby práce byla zp řístupn ěna ve řejnosti pro ú čely výzkumu a studia. V Praze dne 1. kv ětna 2010 Jakub Hájek Poděkování Na tomto míst ě bych rád pod ěkoval vedoucímu bakalá řské práce PhDr. et Dipl.Pol. Martinu Je řábkovi, Ph.D., za cenné rady, doporu čení studijní literatury, p řipomínky a čas, který nad prací strávil. Dále bych rád pod ěkoval Alen ě Neubauerové a mým rodi čů m za pomoc p ři úpravách jazykové podoby práce. Jakub Hájek Obsah OBSAH ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 ÚVOD .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 METODA A CÍLE ..................................................................................................................................... 10 KRITIKA LITERATURY ............................................................................................................................ 11 1. N ĚMECKÝ ANTISEMITISMUS A PROTIŽIDOVSKÁ POLITIKA 1933 – 1941 .................... 14 2. NACISTICKÉ PLÁNY P ŘED ÚTOKEM NA SOV ĚTSKÝ SVAZ .............................................. 20 2.1 NOVÉ PLÁNY „KONE ČNÉHO ŘEŠENÍ “ NA ZA ČÁTKU ROKU 1941 ...................................................... 21 2.2 SPOLUPRÁCE WEHRMACHTU A RSHA ............................................................................................ 23 2.3 RADIKALIZACE PROTIŽIDOVSKÉ POLITIKY P ŘED ÚTOKEM NA SSSR ............................................... 27 3. ÚTOK NA SOV ĚTSKÝ SVAZ A JEHO VLIV NA RADIKALIZACI NACISTICKÉ PROTIŽIDOVSKÉ POLITIKY V ČERVENCI 1941 .......................................................................... 30 3.1 EINSATZGRUPPEN ........................................................................................................................... 31 3.2 ZDOKONALOVÁNÍ VRAŽEDNÝCH METOD ........................................................................................ 34 3.3 HLEDÁNÍ NOVÝCH ZP ŮSOB Ů VRAŽD ĚNÍ .......................................................................................... 37 4. POSLEDNÍ KROK KE SPUŠT ĚNÍ „KONE ČNÉHO ŘEŠENÍ“ .................................................. 41 4.1 VLIVY VEDOUCÍ K RADIKALIZACI (SRPEN – ZÁ ŘÍ 1941) .................................................................. 41 4.2 DEPORTACE Z ŘÍŠE DO GENERÁLNÍHO GOUVERNEMENTU .............................................................. 44 4.3 VÝSTAVBA VYHLAZOVACÍCH TÁBOR Ů ........................................................................................... 46 4.4 POČÁTKY PROGRAMOVÉHO VYHLAZOVÁNÍ .................................................................................... 51 5. KONFERENCE VE WANNSEE ...................................................................................................... 54 5.1 CÍLE KONFERENCE .......................................................................................................................... 55 5.2 PRŮBĚH JEDNÁNÍ VE WANNSEE ...................................................................................................... 56 5.3 DŮSLEDKY KONFERENCE VE WANNSEE .......................................................................................... 61 6. STRUKTURA A ORGANIZACE ŘÍZENÍ PRONÁSLEDOVÁNÍ ŽID Ů ................................... 63 6.1 ROZHODOVACÍ MECHANISMY ......................................................................................................... 64 6.2 ORGANIZACE „KONE ČNÉHO ŘEŠENÍ “ .............................................................................................. 67 6.3 EKONOMICKÉ ASPEKTY HOLOKAUSTU ............................................................................................ 72 ZÁV ĚR ..................................................................................................................................................... 77 SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................................. 82 SEZNAM ZKRATEK ............................................................................................................................. 84 POUŽITÁ LITERATURA A PRAMENY ............................................................................................. 85 8 Úvod Když 15. dubna 1945 britští vojáci osvobodili koncentra ční tábor v Bergen- Belsenu objevili n ěkolik desítek tisíc židovských v ězňů živo řících v ot řesných podmínkách. P řestože spojenci m ěli zprávy o nacistických koncentra čních táborech a masových vraždách, filmové záb ěry oblet ěly a šokovaly celý sv ět. Pochopit osud milion ů Žid ů1 bylo tém ěř nemožné, stejn ě tak jak mohli Němci tento zlo čin zp ůsobit. Tato práce si klade za cíl zjistit, kdy a jak došlo k zahájení „kone čného řešení židovské otázky“ 2 spo čívajícím v organizovaném fyzickém vražd ění p říslušník ů tohoto národa. Odsoudit viníky se pokusil Norimberský tribunál s hlavními vále čnými zlo činci. Avšak podobn ě jako o šestnáct let pozd ěji p ři procesu s Adolfem Eichmannem se ukázalo velmi obtížné dokázat porušení platného práva a to p řesto, že jen málokdo pochyboval o zodpov ědnosti zú častn ěných. Pro ú čely soudu byl definován nový typ zlo činu – zlo čin proti lidskosti, který nahrazoval porušení vyšších princip ů humanity. Podobn ě se v Jeruzalém ě vyjád řil i Eichmann ův obhájce: „Eichmann se cítí vinen před Bohem, nikoli p řed zákonem.“ 3 Obecnou vypovídací hodnotu má i jeho komentá ř k tomu, že se obžalovaný snažil d ělat jen to, „za co člov ěka vyznamenají, stane-li se vít ězem, a za co skon čí na šibenici, pokud prohraje.“ 4 Důraz na pln ění povinností plynoucí z vojenské p řísahy nebo řízení se Hitlerovými rozkazy, jejichž autoritu se v nacistickém Německu neopovážil nikdo zpochybnit, soud neuznal. Tribunál dal jasn ě najevo, že p řed slepým pln ěním rozkaz ů a v ůle mocných stojí nad řazené právo, které je nutné respektovat. Práv ě systém slepé poslušnosti a malých zdánliv ě bezvýznamných úkon ů, za které doty čný necítil zodpov ědnost, uvád ěl v činnost ohromné soukolí „kone čného řešení“. Množství jeho ob ětí p řekonalo nejhr ůzn ější zlo činy d ějin. D ěsivý je ale i po čet spolupachatel ů, kte ří se na holokaustu
Recommended publications
  • Lublin Ghetto
    Coordinates: 51°15′11″N 22°34′18″E Lublin Ghetto The Lublin Ghetto was a World War II ghetto created by Lublin Ghetto Nazi Germany in the city of Lublin on the territory of General Government in occupied Poland.[1] The ghetto inmates were mostly Polish Jews, although a number of Roma were also brought in.[2] Set up in March 1941, the Lublin Ghetto was one of the first Nazi-era ghettos slated for liquidation during the most deadly phase of the Holocaust in occupied Poland.[3] Between mid-March and mid-April 1942 over 30,000 Jews were delivered to their deaths in cattle trucks at the Bełżec extermination camp and additional 4,000 at Majdanek.[1][4] Two German soldiers in the Lublin Ghetto, May 1941 Contents Also known as German: Ghetto Lublin or Lublin Reservat History Liquidation of the Ghetto Location Lublin, German-occupied Poland See also Incident type Imprisonment, forced labor, References starvation, exile External links Organizations Nazi SS Camp deportations to Belzec extermination camp and Majdanek History Victims 34,000 Polish Jews Already in 1939–40, before the ghetto was officially pronounced, the SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik (the SS district commander who also ran the Jewish reservation), began to relocate the Lublin Jews further away from his staff headquarters at Spokojna Street,[5] and into a new city zone set up for this purpose. Meanwhile, the first 10,000 Jews had been expelled from Lublin to the rural surroundings of the city beginning in early March.[6] The Ghetto, referred to as the Jewish quarter (or Wohngebiet der Juden), was formally opened a year later on 24 March 1941.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology Evian Conference
    Fundamental Rights and Holocaust remembrance Chronology 7 April 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service The admission of lawyers of “non-Aryan” descent to the Bar is prohibited 8 May 1934 Reich Escape Tax is amended September 1935 Reich Citizenship Law and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor (Nuremberg Laws) March 1938 Nazi Germany annexes Austria, pogroms in Vienna April 1938 Decree on the Registration of Jewish Property 20 May 1938 The Nuremberg Laws are implemented in Austria June 1938 Jewish businesses registered since April are marked June 1938 “Operation June” – Mass arrests of Jews and so-called “work-shy people”; deportation to concentration camps 6-15 July 1938 Evian Conference 3 August 1938 Session of the new Intergovernmental Committee in London (efforts are sabotaged by the German authorities) August 1938 The Central Office for Jewish Emigration is founded by Adolf Eichmann in Vienna October 1938 17,000 Polish-Born Jews are expelled from Germany to Poland November 1938 Pogroms (so-called Crystal night or Night of the Broken Glass) Decree for the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life Atonement Tax on the Jews of German Nationality December 1938 Decree on the Utilization of Jewish Property (“Aryanization” of all Jewish businesses) February 1939 Limited Refugee bill proposed in US Congress (after several months of struggle defeated) May 1939 British government restricts immigration into Palestine September 1939 “Nisko Plan”: Until April 1940, the German Reich deports more than 95,000 Jews to the Lublin region. Many of the Jews in the so-called “Jewish reservation” die of starvation and diseases.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holocaust (Shoah) (1939-1945)
    The Holocaust (Shoah) (1939-1945) This essay is not meant to be comprehensive. Rather, this is a narrative summary of my presentation. Holocaust historian Karl Schleunes wrote about the “Twisted Road to Auschwitz” that explored how the Nazis ended up building camps of mass murder. It is a useful description as it allows us to blend together some of the myriad forces acting together to create a “perfect storm.” As survivor Emil Fackenheim writes, “The murder camp was not an accidental by-product of the Nazi empire. It was its essence.” Nazi Germany was on a trajectory of mass murder and atrocity from its onset. The unfolding of genocides in Europe is a complex phenomenon, but for our purposes we will focus on: Nazi “ideology” and the bureaucratic, competitive, feudal nature of the Nazi state; process and innovation; Hitler’s function as leader and individual initiatives of “working towards the Führer”; the influence of the unfolding wartime situation; and the influence of location, specifically Eastern Europe. Ideology is not something that can be imposed “from the top.” Rather, ideology is a packaged expression of cultural symbols, desires, and perspectives that “make sense” to a public at large. Holocaust historian Doris Bergen sums up Nazi ideology with the phrase, “Race and Space.” Nazism was rooted in racial theory that had become popular within professional circles by the turn of the twentieth century. For the Nazis, “racial” survivor was predicated on a social Darwinist view of natural competition and survival. Not only was it necessary to weed out “threatening” gene pools from the “Aryan” it was also necessary for the “Aryan” to find living space or lebensraum.
    [Show full text]
  • Lublin Ghetto and Ultimately Murdered.[6]
    343 VAHYA [FOREIGN] FILIP FALETOLU KAWATIRI O MAUI TE WAKA © All Rights Reserved AOTEAROA Lublin - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lublin Lublin LUBLIN Coordinates: 51°14′53″N 22°34′13″E From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lublin [ˈlublʲin] (Latin: Lublinum; English: /ˈlʌblᵻn/) is the ninth largest city in Poland and the second largest city of Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center Lublin of Lublin Voivodeship (province) with a population of 349,103 (March 2011). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River, and is located approximately 170 kilometres (106 miles) to the southeast of Warsaw by road. One of the events that greatly contributed to the city's development was the Polish- Lithuanian Union of Krewo in 1385. Lublin thrived as a centre of trade and commerce due to its strategic location on the route between Vilnius and Kraków; the inhabitants also had the privilege of free trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lublin Parliament session of 1569 led to the creation of a real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus creating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lublin also witnessed the early stages of Reformation in the 16th century. A Calvinist congregation was founded and certain groups of radical Arians also appeared in the city, making it an important global centre of Arianism. At the turn of the centuries, Lublin was also recognized for hosting a number of outstanding poets, writers and historians of the epoch.[2] Until the partitions at the end of the 18th century, Lublin was a royal city of the Left to right: Panorama of the Old Town · Mannerist Crown Kingdom of Poland.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jews of Nazi Vienna's Applications for Emigration
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: ANYWHERE BUT THE REICH: THE JEWS OF NAZI VIENNA’S APPLICATIONS FOR EMIGRATION AID, 1938-1940 Jennifer LeeAnne Wachtel, Master of Arts, 2021 Thesis Directed By: Dr. Marsha Rozenblit, History After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss in 1938, an immediate outpouring of antisemitic violence and legislation horrified the Jews of Vienna. Between 1938 and 1940, Viennese Jews applied to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community of Vienna or IKG) for financial aid to emigrate. Through a close examination of emigration questionnaires Viennese Jews submitted to the IKG, I demonstrate the harrowing effect of the Anschluss and Kristallnacht (November 1938 pogrom) on Jews from all social classes. By centering how individual families engaged with the emigration process, I argue that Viennese Jews immediately recognized the need to flee and exercised enormous creativity to escape. Desperate Viennese Jews were willing to emigrate anywhere and obtain any job outside the Reich. Viennese Jews also demonstrated resilience in the face of Nazi terror by applying for financial aid to flee the Reich even as potential havens shut their doors to Jewish refugees. ANYWHERE BUT THE REICH: THE JEWS OF NAZI VIENNA’S APPLICATIONS FOR EMIGRATION AID, 1938-1940 by Jennifer LeeAnne Wachtel Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2021 Advisory Committee: Dr. Marsha Rozenblit, Chair Dr. Jeffrey Herf Dr. Sarah Cameron © Copyright by Jennifer LeeAnne Wachtel 2021 Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my entire committee and especially my committee chair, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Quest for Global Justice
    Buffalo Human Rights Law Review Volume 8 Article 3 9-1-2002 Genocide: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Quest for Global Justice Matthew Lippman University of Illinois at Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/bhrlr Part of the International Law Commons, and the Military, War, and Peace Commons Recommended Citation Matthew Lippman, Genocide: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Quest for Global Justice, 8 Buff. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 45 (2002). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/bhrlr/vol8/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Buffalo Human Rights Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GENOCIDE: THE TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN AND THE QUEST FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE Matthew Lippman* INTRODUCTION This essay revisits the Israeli prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, a central architect of Nazi Germany's Final Solution of the Jewish question. The Eichmann trial stands as a seminal step in the development of interna- tional human rights and humanitarian law and presents the profound juris- prudential issue as to whether legal standards and procedures may be compromised in an effort to achieve a desired and deserved criminal conviction.' Professor Lon L. Fuller composed the hypothetical, The Problem Of The Grudge Informer, to highlight the central issues raised in Eichmann and in other post-World War H war crimes prosecutions.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Question" 1939-1941
    The Protectorate Government and the "Jewish Question" 1939-1941 Livia Rothkirchen Prior to the end of the war, while still in exile in London, Jaromír Smutný, chef de cabinet of President Dr. Eduard Beneš, already dwelt on the issue of "collaboration." In 1943, he wrote: "The problem of Hácha is as specific as are similar problems of Pétain, Laval, Darlan and other politicians." At the same time, he advised that the judgment should be left to a later date, when these issues could be examined in a broader context and "without passion." 1 Indeed, while the case of Emil Hácha, the Protectorate state president, is described in the historiography as "clear-cut collaboration," the stance of General Alois Eliáš, the premier of the Czech government, remains one of the most intriguing riddles in the history of World War II.2 His unique policy of retardation and "double game," as well his tragic fate are without parallel during the war. Eliáš was the only prime minister to be tried by the Nazis for high treason and executed. The American scholar Stanley Hoffmann, in his perceptive analysis "Self Ensnared, Collaboration with Nazi Germany,"3 discussing the stance of the wartime Vichy government, has come to some overriding conclusions. He distinguishes between two types of collaboration: (1) "State collaboration," i.e., safeguarding interests in interstate relationships between the defeated state and the victor; and (2) collaborationism with the Nazis, in an openly willful cooperation and imitation of the German regime [which in effect meant voluntary activity], either in a drive for career 1 This is a revised and expanded version of a paper delivered at an international conference in Ostrava in 1994; see "Motivy a zámĕr protektorátní vlády v řešení židovské otázky," in Ludmila Nesládková, ed., Nisko 1939/1940; The Case Nisko in the History of the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem," Proceedings, International Academic Conference (Nisko 1939/1940) (Ostrava: Facultas Philosophica Universitatis Ostraviensis, 1995), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Ordinary Killers, Extraordinary Crimes and Resettlement Policies in (Former) Poland
    Christopher R. Browning. Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xii + 185 pp. $21.99, paper, ISBN 978-0-521-77490-1. Reviewed by Joachim Lerchenmueller Published on H-Genocide (April, 2002) Ordinary Killers, Extraordinary Crimes and resettlement policies in (former) Poland. He This volume comprises six lectures delivered portrays Eichmann's autumn 1939 Nisko Plan for by Christoper R. Browning at Cambridge Universi‐ the expulsion and deportation of Jews and Gyp‐ ty in the Lent Term of 1999. Fortunately, author sies from Reich territory--both old and new--to the and publisher decided not to revise the format of Lublin district and Rademacher's Madagascar the original texts substantially. Hence the book as Plan of June 1940 as examples of "timely low-level a whole is very readable, with the individual lec‐ initiative[s] that offered a way to implement poli‐ tures being shining examples for concise and cy decisions just made at the top" (p. 17). Accord‐ clear argumentation. The lectures address three ing to Browning, both plans were abruptly halted pertinent issues of current Holocaust scholarship: when political circumstances changed without be‐ (a) decision and policy making with regard to the ing formally abandoned. Instead these plans "lin‐ Final Solution, (b) the role of economic considera‐ gered as the official policy until an alternative tions in these decision making processes, and (c) was proclaimed" (p. 17). Browning illustrates this the behaviour and mindset of those Germans who by referring to the sudden defeat of France and implemented Nazi policy on local level.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Protection of Universal Human Rights Under International Law
    HOUSTON JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW VOLUME 5 AUTUMN 1982 NUMBER 1 THE TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN AND THE PROTECTION OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Matthew L#ppman * On May 23, 1960, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion an- nounced to the Knesset that Adolf Eichmann had been apprehended. I have to inform the Knesset that a short time ago one of the greatest of the Nazi war criminals, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible together with the Nazi leaders for what they caled "the final solution of the Jewish question," . was found by Israel Security Services. [He is] already under arrest in Israel, and will shortly be put on trial under the [Na- zis and Nazi Collaborators Act].' The Eichmann trial has been referred to by one legal scholar as one of the great dramas of legal history.2 The trial is important not only because it involved the prosecution of one of the most infamous of Nazi war criminals, but because it is one of the few contemporary ef- forts to enforce serious human rights violations in a domestic court of law. This article describes and analyzes some of the legal issues raised by the Eichmann trial. Eichmann's role in the "Final Solution" is out- lined, and his escape, apprehension, and the diplomatic controversy * Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Denver; J.D., American Uni- versity; B.A., M.A., PhD., Northwestern University. 1. M. PEARLMAN, THE CAPTURE AND TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN 60 (1963). 2. Schwarzenberger, 7he Eichmann Judgment, 15 CURRENT LEGAL PROBLEMS 248 (1962).
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Flight from the Bohemian Lands, 1938-1941
    NETWORKS OF ESCAPE: JEWISH FLIGHT FROM THE BOHEMIAN LANDS, 1938-1941 Laura E. Brade A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Christopher R. Browning Chad Bryant Konrad Jarausch Donald Raleigh Susan Pennybacker Karen Auerbach © 2017 Laura E. Brade ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Laura E. Brade: Networks of Escape: Jewish Flight from the Bohemian Lands, 1938- 1941 (Under the direction of Christopher R. Browning and Chad Bryant) This dissertation tells the remarkable of a quarter of the Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia who managed to escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia between October 1938 and October 1941. Given all of the obstacles to emigration—an occupation government, a world war, international reluctance to grant visas, and extortionist Nazi emigration policies—this amounted to an extraordinary achievement. Czechoslovak Jews scattered across the globe, from Shanghai and India, to Madagascar and Ecuador. How did they accomplish this daunting task? The current scholarship has approached this question from the perspectives of governments, voluntary organizations, and individual refugees. However, by addressing the various actors in isolation, much of this research has focused either on condemning or heroizing these actors. As a result, the question of how Jewish refugees fled Europe has gone unanswered. Using the Bohemian Lands as a case study, I ask when and how rescue became possible. I make three major claims. First, I argue that a grassroots transnational network of escape facilitated leaving Nazi-occupied Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Nazi Extermination Process(Es) from a Micro to a Macro Scale of Action Ică, Antonia Silvia
    www.ssoar.info Localized final solutions: Nazi extermination process(es) from a micro to a macro scale of action Ică, Antonia Silvia Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Ică, A. S. (2013). Localized final solutions: Nazi extermination process(es) from a micro to a macro scale of action. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 13(3), 515-539. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168- ssoar-447345 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Localized Final Solutions 515 Localized Final Solutions Nazi Extermination Process(es) from a Micro to a Macro Scale of Action SILVIA ANTONIA ICĂ Fitting perfectly into the category of events that reshaped the humanistic perception of the ”good-evil” dichotomy, the Holocaust haunted the mind of historians since 1945. Undoubtedly regarded as the climax of the Second World War in terms of conflict escalation and celerity of results, this particular event constituted a fundamental element for the shaping of post-war societies, associated explicitly with the image of a stereotypical fascist movement characterized by violence, xenophobia and moral nihilism. In scientific terms, fascism is the most ambiguously formulated political concept of the last century, at the same time being charged with all sorts of encompassing meanings.
    [Show full text]
  • In the District Court of Jerusalem
    IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF JERUSALEM Criminal Case No. 40/61 Before His Honour JUDGE MOSHE LANDAU (Presiding) His Honour JUDGE BENJAMIN HALEVI His Honour JUDGE YITZCHAK RAVEH For the Prosecution: THE ATTORNEY GENERAL The Accused: ADOLF, son of Karl Adolf, EICHMANN J U D G M E N T The references in the Judgment are to the official record in Hebrew. Adolf Eichmann has been brought to trial in this Court on charges of unsurpassed gravity - charges of crimes against the Jewish People, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The period of the crimes ascribed to him, and their historical background, is that of the Hitler regime in Germany and in Europe, and the counts of the indictment encompass the catastrophe which befell the Jewish People during that period - a story of bloodshed and suffering which will be remembered to the end of time. This is not the first time that the Holocaust has been discussed in court proceedings. It was dealt with extensively at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg during the Trial of the Major War Criminals, and also at several of the trials which followed; but this time it has occupied the central place in the Court proceedings, and it is this fact which has distinguished this trial from those which preceded it. Hence also the trend noticed during and around the trial, to widen its range. The desire was felt - understandable in itself - to give, within the trial, a comprehensive and exhaustive historical description of events which occurred during the Holocaust, and in so doing, to emphasize also the inconceivable feats of heroism performed by ghetto-fighters, by those who mutinied in the camps, and by Jewish partisans.
    [Show full text]