Historic Encounters: The Holocaust (1933-1945)

Question 1

What led to the creation of the state of Israel?

Answer 1

The Holocaust

Question 2

What did the “Jewish Question” pave the way for?

Answer 2

The rise of the Jewish nationalism or Zionism.

Question 3

What is Zionism?

Answer 3

A political movement formally introduced by Austo-Hungarian journalist, Theodor Herzl.

Question 4

What happened after the first Zionist conger in Basel?

Answer 4

Herzl argued about the necessity of establishing an independent state for Jews as a means to end anti-Semitism

Question 5

What were some possible places where a Jewish state could be established?

Answer 5

Argentina, Australia, Uganda, Canada, and Palestine.

Question 6

Where did Herzl believe was the most suitable location for a Jewish State?

Answer 6

Palestine

Question 7

How long after the first Zionist congress in Basel was the new State of Israel established?

Answer 7

Half a century later (1948)

Question 8

Who was the ruling party in Germany at the time of the Holocaust?

Answer 8

Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi)

Question 9

What was Hitler’s “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question”?

Answer 9

Eradicating the vibrant Jewish culture established in Europe (Ashkenazim and Sephardic) over the last millennia.

Question 10

How many Jews were dead by the end of the second World War?

Answer 10

at least 6 million

Question 11

What is the Hebrew equivalent of the Holocaust name?

Answer 11

Shoah (catastrophe)

Question 12

What is Hitler’s Genocide program known as? What are its derivative?

Answer 12

Hitler’s genocide program is known as Holocaust (from the Greek “whole” and “burn”).

Question 13

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

Answer 13

• Germany’s defeat in the first World War in 1918 caused grim economic conditions at home.
• One of his political platforms was to place the blame for Germany’s defeat in the war squarely on Jews.

Question 14

How did Hitler gain so many followers?

Answer 14

Attempts to rebuild Germany attracted enthusiast supporters.

Question 15

Was Hitler the first to use the Jewish anti-semitism to win an election? If not, who else?

Answer 15

Hitler was not the first: In the 1890s Karl Lueger won the mayoralty of Vienna with his anti-Semitic campaigns.

Question 16

What conspiracy did Hitler recount in his book Mein Kampf (My Stories) published in 1925?

Answer 16

Hitler recounts how as a young man in Vienna before 1914, he learned about the Jewish conspiracy to infiltrate German politics in order to destroy the “Aryan” world.

Question 17

What is “Aryan”?

Answer 17

The term “Aryan” originally referred to the Indo-European family of languages. In the 19th century, it had been given a racial meaning and been used to argue the supremacy of Aryan people over Semitic people.

Question 18

What does Semitic refer to?

Answer 18

Languages e.g., Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic

Question 19

How was Hitler’s project given a theological dimension?

Answer 19

“In standing against the Jews, I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.”

Question 20

How is the Holocaust a Christian problem?

Answer 20

• Hitler claimed to be Christian
• Some argue that Hitler and the Nazis are not Christian
• How do we make sense of the actions committed by Nazis who claimed to be faithful Christians when Christianity is supposed to e a religion of universal love?

Question 21

What happened to the Jews when Hitler came into power in 1933?

Answer 21

• He enacted legislation to overturn the emancipation of German’s Jews, eliminated them from public, and strip them of their citizenship
• Jewish owned business and stores were boycotted and taken over by the locals
• Germans are not to enter a place marked “Jude” or with a star of David
• The government declared the “retirement” of all civil servants who were not Aryan
• University teachers were fired, quoting their works in academic projects was discouraged; accepted in only certain cases.
• Citizenships were revoked
• The German Boxing Association excluded all Jewish boxers.

Question 22

What was Hitler’s 1933 legislated known as?

Answer 22

The Nuremberg Law

Question 23

What was established in Manhattan New York by scholars expelled from Germany during the Holocaust period?

Answer 23

New School for Social Research

Question 24

Who was Hans Perelman?

Answer 24

One Jewish doctor who transfused his own blood to save the life of a non Jew who was charged with race defilement.

Question 25

When was the first synagogue burned?

Answer 25

1938

Question 26

What was the first year Jews were rounded up and placed in concentration camps?

Answer 26

1938

Question 27

What is the story of the SS St. Louis?

Answer 27

• In 1939, the German passenger ship St. Louis left Hamburg for Cuba with 936 Jews aboard seeing asylum from Nazi persecution
• Cuba refused entry either as tourist or refugee
• When Captain Gustav Schroder decided to sail to Florida, hoping the US would accept them, the US too rejected
• Some academics and clergy in Canada proposed the Canadian Prime Minister to accept them, only to be advised by Canadian Immigration the tCanada “had already done too much for Jews”
• The ship returned to Europe and arrived in Antwerp

Question 28

Why and when did the second World War begin?

Answer 28

On Friday, September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

Question 29

How long after the beginning of WWII were Polish Jews herded into Ghettos? What resulted?

Answer 29

• Within a month, Jews in Poland were being herded into ghettos
• Many did not survive the harsh condition in the ghettos

Question 30

What did the Nazis build to facilitate the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Problem”?

Answer 30

A network of large scale death camps in Poland.

Question 31

What was the largest of the death camps ?

Answer 31

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Question 32

When did the gassing of Jews using Zyklon B begin? Where did it begin?

Answer 32

Began in Chemo camp in December 1941

Question 33

In Auschwitz, up to how many Jews were gassed each day?

Answer 33

up to 7000

Question 34

How long did gassing continue until? When were Jews liberated from the camps?

Answer 34

• It continued until Winter 1944.

- Jews were liberated from the camp between April and May in 1945

Question 35

When and why did the UN vote to create a Jewish state in Palestine?

Answer 35

When the catastrophe against Jews in Europe finally came to light.

Question 36

What was the negative of the creation of a Jewish state?

Answer 36

It eventually created similar problems experienced by Jews for the indigenous Palestine aRabs lived in the region. The original plan was the create a partition land for the Jews and the aRabs. Disagreement over the land created tensions and war, immediately after the Jewish stat elf Israel came into being.

Question 37

What happened when the conflict over land with the Arabs had not been settled?

Answer 37

The state of Israel adopted the law of return in 1950, which granted “every Jew the right to immigrate to the country.”

Question 38

What was the background of the early Jews who migrated to Israel?

Answer 38

Ashkenazi European background

Question 39

When did the Mizrahi (Jews of the East/Middle Eastern origins) come to Israel?

Answer 39

1990s

Question 40

Jews from the former___were also well established in Israel with their own political party and media.

Answer 40

Soviet Union

Question 41

What are the Beta Israel?

Answer 41

Another significant groups of Jews are “Beta Israel” (House of Israel) from Ethiopia, many of who were evacuated to Israel after conflicts in Ethiopia.

Question 42

What do many scholars contemplate about the Holocaust and blame?

Answer 42

Many scholars contemplated whether Christianity was responsible for the Holocaust

Question 43

What were three long term negative effects of the Holocaust on Jewish beliefs?

Answer 43

• Many Jews contemplated if their Covenant had expired
• Some abandoned Judaism, raised their kids as non-Jew
• Some argued that the Holocaust was a divine punishment for the secular Zionist

Question 44

How did Jews cope with the tragedy?

Answer 44

Tikkun Olan…Jewish culture flourished (in some cases) after the Holocaust. Restoring the world. Expanding charity and humanitarian organization. Good reason to continue the covenant, to serve the world.

Question 45

What is the problem with Jerusalem and ownership?

Answer 45

Who does the city belong to…Christians, Jews, Muslims, or all three?