Final essay Flashcards
How did the experiences of Jews and their chances of survival during the Holocaust vary across Europe and why? Provide specific examples from at least four countries, drawing from lecture, movies, discussion, and assigned readings.
Paragraph 1: Introduction Paragraph 2: Hungary Paragraph 3: France Paragraph 4: Italy Paragraph 5: Romania Paragraph 6: Closing
Italy and the Holocaust: Background
- before 1938, the government of Mussolini did not persecute Jews
- Jews were about 0.1 percent of the overall population and tended to be well assimilated (part of culture, not treated as minority)
Italy and the Holocaust: 1938
- forbade Jews and non Jews to be married or have sexual relations
- forbade Jews to teach in public schools
- eventual lround up and interning of foreign Jews
Italy and the Holocaust: Deportations and Results
- 40,000 Jews when war began
2. 8,000 Jews deported to Auschwits, 95 percent of the 8,000 died there
Italy and the Holocaust: Key Factors to the Italian Story
- occupation period is less than one year
- high level of assimilation
- timing of persecutions
- assistance to Jews tied to national pride and patriotism
- Italians brought forth gold in hopes of delaying deportations
- italian police in Rome refused to take part in round ups (SS were made to do it)
- as round ups happened, Italians would claim jewish kids as their own
- Convent and orphanages would take in young adults and children
- Italian soldiers would marry and adopt Jewish women and children to save them
Hungary’s policies toward Jews
- about 6 percent of population were Jews
- restricted number of Jews in each commercial enterprise (ex. lawyers to 20%)
- May 1938, Jews defined racially and excluded from professions
- August 1941: prohibited intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews
Hungary: Forced jewish labor and continued oppression
- July 1941: 20,000 Jews deported to Germany occupied Ukraine
- Winter 1942 formation of Jewish labor battalions
- 1942: expropriation of Jewish-owned property
Hungary: German Occupation- 19 March 1944
- Hungary was negotiating with Allies
- Refused to deport Jews up until point of occupation
- mass deportations after the arrival of Eichmann
- more than 140 trains, more than 440,000 Jews to Auschwitz
- Joel Brandt and Kastner Train
Results: Hungarian Jewry
- 60,000 Jews killed before March 1944
- 620,000 killed between March 1944 - Jan 1945
- 140,000 remained alive (16.5 percent)
- Massacre by Arrow Cross
Romania: Impact on Romanian Jews
- Iron Guard government (green/brown uniforms, swastika as symbol)
- attacks on and marking of Jewish businesses
- gov. cancelled citizenship 1940
- Aryanized businesses, authorized entry of jewish homes and confiscation of possessions
- Bucharest Pogrom
Romania: persecution turns to murder
- Ghettoization commences
- July 1942: agreement with Germany to deport Jews
- Queen mother, reneged on promise
- Romania became escape route to Palestine (13,000)
Romania: Results
- 57% of Jews in Romania survive Holocaust
- 2/3 of 43% that died died in summer 1941
- single, largest surviving community of Jews in Europe
France, Antisemitism, and the War
- in 1930’s, 30,000 Austrian and German Jewish refugees
- May 1938, interned (foreign) men ages 18-45
- revoked citizen ship from 15,000 newly French citizens, 40% of whom were Jewish
- Camps existed on French soil before Germany gets there
French Entry into War and Capitulation
- 1940: Nazi invasion, Paris falls, French capitulation
French measures taken against Jews
- Sept. 1940 - mandated Jewish census
- Oct. 1940 registered all French Jews and added “Jew” to their documentation; aryanization
- Feb 1941: enforced curfew for Jews; mandated the star of david; confiscated radios, telephones, cars
- blocked bank accounts
- deportations of male foreign Jews
- establishment of transit camps
- Spring Wind Up
