Exam 2 Short Answers Flashcards
Tripartite Pact
- Originally included Germany, Italy, and Japan
- Overtime expanded to include Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia
- Axis powers
- mutual assistance if any are attacked by nation not already involved in the war
- Meant to deter U.S. from entering conflict
- 27 Sept. 1940
U.S. Immigration Laws
- the Immigration Act of 1921
- the Immigration Act of 1924
- both extremely limited the amount of Jews able to immigrate to the U.S.
The Immigration Act of 1921
- no more than 3% of total number of immigrants from a specific country already living in U.S. in 1910 could migrate to America
- Emergency Quota Act signed the same day law passed
- restricted number of immigrants to 357,000 per year
- Many Americans feared that some immigrants wouldn’t fully assimilate
- believed increased numbers of immigrants would depress wages for Americans
The Immigration Act of 1924
quota allowed immigration of two percent of total number of people of each nationality in U.S. as of the 1890 national census
Antisemitism in the U.S.
- by the mid 1920s, the KKK claimed to have more members than there were Jews in the U.S.
- Henry Ford blamed Jewish Americans for nation’s ills in his newspaper (The Dearborn Independent)
- Many Americans believed the stereotypes that Jews were greedy and dishonest
- German American Bund formed in 1936 had tens of thousands of members
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
- signed 23 August 1939
- meant to be kept a secret until the invasion of Poland
- both agreed not to attack each other for 10 yrs
- Germany would take back Danzig (taken by Treaty of Ver.) and forcibly remove Jews and Poles
- Soviets would take eastern 40% Poland (territory lost after WWI)
Judenrate
- council of Jews to control Jews
- 12-24 members, depending on size of community
- wealthier, prominent, well known/well liked, male, older (less resistance), knowledgeable (rabbis)
- there weren’t enough Nazis to keep Jews in line
- Tasks: census, housing, food, jobs
- faced impossible moral dilemmas
Judgement Day
- 4 Sept 1942
- Chaim Rumkowski gives speech that Germans asked for 24,000 sacrifces, but he talked them down to 20,000
- “sacrificed” kids under 10 and elders (excluding himself)
Beginnings of T-4 Program
- Knauer writes letter to Hitler asking for help with his mentally and physically handicap son
- Hitler tasks Karl Brandt to find a way to convince public that society would be better without them
- Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditarily and Congenitally-Based Illness
- needed to ‘get rid of burden”
- started with kids -starved or injected with morpheme
T-4 Program expansions
- 3 doctors would view folder to determine if qualified
- “patients” would fold clothes nicely and tie shoelaces, those with gold fillings received mark on back -were ordered to shower - suffocated with CO2
- Doctors had to fill out death certificates, “tuberculosis” -burned bodies to cover tracks
- doctors used pseudo names
Opposition to the T-4 Program
- Bishop von Galen accuses Hitler of murdering people
- hospitals were under investigation, police reports filed
- Hitler “investigates,” program goes underground
Results of the T-4 Program
- expansion into Poland
- 200,000 murdered
- Richard Jenne murdered after war at 4 yrs old
Amidah
- taking a stand
2. ways jews engaged in resistance: political, religious/spiritual, economic, cultural, military
Military Amidah
- ghetto uprising
- rebellion in death camps
- partisan
Economic Amidah
- use money and valuables
- smuggle
- black market - access to food, shopping restrictions, housing
- information sharing -who to trust (smugglers, hiding)
Individual/societal Amidah
- hiding
- attempting to escape
- bunkers/attics
- passing off as different ethnicity
- polish ppl assisting Jews for money
Cultural/religious Amidah
- minyan, prayer
- education
- music
- lecture
- sports
Political Amidah
- use Nazi ideas
2. U.S. Jews lobby against Nazis
Oyneg Shabes
- Emmanuel Ringelbaum documents life in ghetto
- Warsaw Ghetto
- archive of Jewish view, docs translated to as many languages possible
- time capsule
- oral histories, documents (living conditions, ID docs, birth certificates), memoirs, diaries, letters, money, photographs
- resistance
Operation Barbarossa
- 22 June - 5 Dec. 1941
- planning began on 18 Dec. 1940
- Why attack
- Three-pronged
Operation Barbarossa - why attack
- Land
- GB won’t surrender
- iron, oil, food, money
- people - labor, farming, factories
- military/tech
- Russians were subhuman
- Russians were communists
Operation Barbarossa - three-pronged attack
- Leningrad (north)
- Moscow (center) - never overpowered
- Stalingrad (south) - four mil. German troops sent east, 1800 mile front
- Blitzkrieg fails, lack of airstrips/airforce, scorched earth (no food, no water, no villages), no railroad access
Hunger Plan: War and Mass Murder Intertwined
- German troops lived off the land in USSR and captured 3 million Soviet POW’s, which slowed them down
- Because of the Geneva convention, less than 1 percent of Western POWs were killed by German hands
- Superfluous population (extra, not needed), estimated 20-30 million
- Germans received 2,613 calories, Poles received 699 calories, Jews received 184 calories
- Didn’t want to put time/ammo into killing so they decided to starve while forcing labor
Hunger Plan: Results
- never fully implemented due to lack of German manpower and sabotage by civilians
- 4.2 million Soviets starved to death (1941-1944)
Commissar Decree
- 6 June 1941, issued by Himmler
- tells Keitel of Wehrmacht that killing civilians is not punishable because slaves and communists
- Reality: 5.5 million Jews in nearly conquered land (Nazis believe death camps are necessary now)
- movement toward stage three of final solution