Holocaust Midterm Review Flashcards
1
Q
Define the Holocaust
A
- the holocaust was a systematic, industrialized killing of the Jews and others (mentally disabeled, Gypises, homosexuals, etc.) by the Nazi regime
- state sponsored, systematic, persecution, and annihilation of European Jewry and other victims of racial and political discrimination carried out by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1939 - 1945
- While there was a lead up to genocide as Lemkin defines it, the most intense period was during 1939 - 1945 which coincides with WWII which Doris Bergen claims it would not have happened without it
- the location was in Europe and the goal was more living space and having the racially pure race
- was considered industrialized because after the Nazis expanded their territories, they would ship a lot of the Jews to the Poland region where they were either sent to concentration camps or killing camps
2
Q
Origins of the Holocaust
A
- antisemitism
- weimar republic
- Hitler’s rise to power
- WW1
- important events/decrees
NOT AN EXHUASTIVE LIST
3
Q
antisemitism in Europe
A
- had been in Europe for a long time (Bavarian petition opposing equality for Jews in 1850)
- some people blamed for WW1
- pogroms against Jews had been going on for a long time in Russia
- idea that Jews were conspiring to take over the world, against Christians
- Jews fault for WW1 on the home front, not Germans in the battlefield
- there was also anti-communist rhetoric that was spread along with this (they were also one of the groups that were persecuted)
4
Q
Weimar Republic
A
- genocides don’t happen in democratic regimes
- was set to fail in a way but was successful initially
- large deb from WW1, partly blamed for losing the war
- Hitler was able to work his way through the system (lack of consensus of the country, able to appeal to farmers in rural land and Center Catholic Party)
5
Q
Hitler’s rise to power
A
- was born in Austria, got rejected from an art school
- after participating in WW1, came back and joined the German Worker’s Party in 1919
- in 1923 was the Beer Hall Putsch which failed to overthrow the current government; taught Hitler and the Nazi party that the only way he and the Nazi party could overthrow was legally basically
- then went to jail where wrote “Mein Kampf”
- Hitler was named vice chacellor by Fronz von Papen in 1933, thought would be able to control him
- rose through the ranks, able to appeal to the people
6
Q
Important Decrees
A
- idea of consolidation of power in 6 months in 1933 (turned in one party system, Hitler essentially kills democracy)
- have the Reichstag Fire where the Parliament building is burned down
- have the enabling law that allowed Hitler to enact new laws without interference from the president or the German parliament for four years
- legalization of eugenic sterilization
- introduced the process of coordination (political control, alignment of organizations like youth programs, and censorships/propo)
- have night of long knives in 1934 where Hitler kills the head of SS and roughly 100+ members of the SS
- 1935 Reich Citizenship Law defined what a Jew was for the first time
- 1935 Law of Protection of German Blood and Honor (prohibited inter-race major, increased social discrimination, reinforced negative stereotypes about the Jews)
- 1936 head of the SS and concentration camps was now in charge of all police forces in Germany
- 1938: Evian Conference (this is where 32 nations from around the world came together to discuss what they were going to do with the Jews in Germany and Austria since they didn’t want them; a lot of countries didn’t say anything but some took a few Jews such as Dominican Republic and Shanghai)
- 1938: Kristallnacht (night of broken glass); German diplomat was assassinated and then this happenned, fireman came but also to protect “Aryan” properties, attacked Jewish businesses, afterward made Jews pay for destruction
- 1939: Kindertransport (10,000 Jewish refugee children were sent to GB and forced to leave their parents)
6
Q
WW1
A
- was the cheapening of human life, also a part of WW2
- normalization of violence
- resentment surrounding loosing the war
7
Q
Stages of the Holocaust
A
- Stage 1: Segregation, Pauperization, Pogroms (1933 - 1939)
- Stage 2: WW2 (Indirect Destruction, Reservation, Ghettoization, 1939 - 1940)
- Stage 3: Onset of Killing, Mass Gassings, and Shootings (1941)
- Stage 4: Industrialized Mass Murder (1942 - 1944)
- Stage 5: Death Marches, Liberation (1945)
- Stage 6: Aftermath, 1945 - present (trials, reparations, memorials, histography)
8
Q
spanned multiple continents
A
- Nazi Party originated in Germany with Hitler’s rule but expanded with the first invasion being in Poland, marking the start of WW2
- Ended up technically spanning 3 continents (North Africa, Europe, and Asia)
- Hitler had global ambitions so he wasn’t even really close to his goal
9
Q
significant features of the holocaust
A
- spanned multiple countries
- propaganda by the Nazi
- empire inside an empire with the SS and concentration camps
- T4 program
- social death of the German Jews
- self-policing society
- ghettos
10
Q
propaganda by the Nazi
A
- could be considered the first modern genocide, had a lot of mass media
- was heavy use of film and cinema coupled with Hitler’s charisma
- overplayed Jewish stereotypes with noice, propaganda of violence (spreading lies about them)
- Ministry of Propaganda, under Goebelle’s restricted, no freedom of speech
- dehumanizing the Jews, isolating them with this idea of “social death” using the decrees from the Reich document we talked about in class (legal and civil exclusion, social segregation, cultural isolation, economic isolation with no jobs)
11
Q
empire inside empire with these concentration and killing camps
A
- distinction between the camps
- were close to 30,000 of camps
- camps were very functional in a way
- Dachau was the model camp and it was the first one opened; it was mostly a concentration camp but only started gassing at the end
- beyond just Jews, communists, and gypsies, homosexuals (were also those that were atypical in society like prostitutes)
- functionalist vs. internationalist
- Architects of Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler, head of SS
- prisoners on prisoners so that Germans did not have to do the dirty work
12
Q
T4 program
A
- this is where they experimented on the mentally and physically disabled
- 1939: combination of the judiciary and the medical fields start identifying who has facial defects, the start of this indoctrination
- Dec 1939: in their newly conquered territories, clearing out asylums and shooting/killing the patients
- there were also public outcrys that started happening against the crime, started hiding it better
- driven by this want of just having the “Aryan race” in Germany, eugenics, racially pure state
13
Q
social death of the German Jews
A
- how the Nazis were able to make 50,000 Jews disappear from society
- this made it easier on the rest of the population to forget about them
- removal from the workplace, schools, public places, etc.
- Germans were more open to this policy as it benefited them; premise of them being take to camp themselves, self-interested through business opportunities, Hitler also started youth camps for the younger generation
14
Q
self policing society
A
- aspects of terror/ surveillance/fear
- would tell on their own neighbors and people would rat each other out if thought they were hiding Jews, etc.
