Holocaust Packet/Notes Flashcards
Name of Hitler’s autobiography and political manifesto
Mein Kampf
Main thesis of Mein Kampf
“The Jewish Peril”
Where did ideas for Mein Kampf stem from?
Elders of Zion
Czar’s Russia
What did Hitler link?
Bolshevism and Judaism
Lebensraum
Future of Germany has to lie on the acquisition of the East at the expense of Russia
Problems of Weimar Republic
Hyperinflation
Lack of support for veterans
Defending need for brownshirts
Globalists
Historians that believe Hitler always wanted to rule the world
Continentalists
Historians that believe that Hitler only wanted to take over the continent of Europe
Intentionalists
Believe that in Mein Kampf, Hitler always panned on exterminating the Jews
Functionalists
Believe that the Holocaust is developing as events happen
Hitler’s 3 Goals for Stage 1
1) Strip German Jews of Citizenship
2) Harsh discrimination to force emigration
3) Expel by force if necessary
Ladder of Prejudice
starts with Speech
Moves through avoidance and discrimination
Ends with physical attacks and genocide
How does Hitler gain blind obedience?
Repairs the German economy
Organizes takeover of Jewish buisnesses
Established totalitarian state
How does Hitler repair the economy?
Rearranges it
Women and children not allowed to work so no longer listed as unemployed
Allows factories to produce weapons
Mandatory to serve in army
How is propaganda effective?
Establishes a totalitarian state
Prepares Germans to accept treatment of Jews
What happens in 1938 and how does it affect Jews?
Germany annexes Austria
Kristallnacht
Nuremberg Laws
German jews lost their citzenship
Immigrants into Germany not considered citizens
3 or 4 Jewish grandparents meant you were a Jew
Who was pardoned in Nuremberg Laws?
Veterans
What comes out of the Evian conference?
Not much
People do want to take Jews because of the Great Depression
Cooling off period
1934-1936
Things are not impacting Jews and they thought the worst of it was over
Why didn’t German Jews try to get out?
Family and businesses were there
Thought the worst was done
Thought they could always leave if they wanted to
Why does Hitler ramp everything up?
He realizes that other countries will not take the Jews and he needs to deal with them
Pogrom
Organized attack
Kristallnacht
Why did Kristallnacht happen
Young, Jewish man in France killed a Nazi Guard
Collective responsibility (all the Jews were punished)
How do Jews feel about Kristallnacht?
They think it is very personal since their neighbors and friends did nothing to stop it
Difference between concentration camps and death camps
Concentration camps: for political prisoners (work)
Death camps: for Jews (extermination)
What 3 disadvantages did Eastern Jews have?
1) Difference dress, language, and culture
2) Anti-seminism is prevalent which allows the citizens to willingly aid
3) Concentrated population (easy to group into Ghettos)
Where are Ghettos located?
Urban centers
Near railways (transport them later)
Judenrat
Highly respected Jews that were put in charge of Ghettos in order to discredit them
Positives and negatives of Judenrats
Pos: make gardens and community centers
Neg: have to make lists of who will die
Adam Czerniakow
Head of Warsaw Ghetto
Ended up killing himself because he did not want to give children to the Nazis
Martin Rumkowski
Head of Lodz Ghetto
Believed that work would set his people free
Organized people into manufactoring for Nazis
What did Rumkowski say?
“Give me your children”
What were Jews told when they were deported?
Told they were getting resettlement in the East
Law for Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases
Forced sterilization of all persons who suffered from disease
What diseases did the Nazis try to exterminate?
Intellectual disabilities
Deafness, blindness
Alcholism
Who was the Law for Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases targeted at?
All Germans
Was NOT targeted at Jews
Eugenic
false science
basis of Nazi radical policy
Euthanasia Centers importance
Prototypes of the extermination camps in Poland
How did Hitler get the idea for Euthanasia centers?
Parents asked Hitler to kill their mentally disabled son, so he would have a better way of life
Hitler saw this as a way to save money
What was significant about Hitler’s order of the Euthansia program?
It is the only piece of paper with Hitler’s signature
Bureau for Race and Politics
Takes over in science education at school
Tells lies about eugenics
Lebenborn
the pursuit of a pure German race
What did Lebenborn allow?
Girls to have marriage out of wedlock to make more soldiers
Shipped Polish kids with blond hair and blue eyes to create ideal race
Jewish Social Self-Help
Run by volunteers in Ghettos that provided medical care and planned cultural events
Created schools and soup kitchens
Compassionate Individuals in Ghettos
Janusz Korczak moved his orphanage for Jewish kids into the Ghetto
Irena Sendlerowa smuggles 2,500 children out of the Ghetto
Ringelblum
Documented life inside the Warsaw ghetto and buried documents underneath in milk cans
Ringelblum’s realization
Relief work is not going to save everyone
Show distribute food so that a couple survive instead of everyone dying
Who were smugglers in the Ghetto?
Children because they were small and fit through cracks in the wall
Passive and physical examples of resistance
Passive: making schools and orphanages and symphonies, denying Nazi orders
Physical: Warsaw ghetto uprising, armed revolt in Death camps, Jewish partisans
Literal meaning of Holocaust
Fire that causes total destruction
Semitic
Refers to a group of languages (not people)
Umbrella term of languages
Gentiles
Non-jews
Do the terms Jew and Aryan refer to race?
Jewish: refers to a religion
Aryan: refers to a family of languages
What was one of the first organized attacks on Jews under Hitler?
1933
The boycott of Jewish businesses
Three things that had to be accomplished before all out war on Jews
1) Restore economy
2) Takeover Jewish business
3) Prime the population through propaganda
Mischlinge
German with mixed blood
Considered second class citizens
Term created in Nuremberg laws
Why were Austrian Jews emigrated?
Eichmann threatened them with life imprisonment unless they left
Summarize the story of the St. Louis
Boat with Jewish refugees started out to Cuba and then was going to ultimately end up in the US
Halfway there Cuba had a change of heart and sent all but 30 passengers back to countries that would later be invaded by Germany
In what way did Eastern Jews have it better than Western Jews?
They had a lot of experience with violence so they were more conditioned to handle Nazis
Western Jews fell prey to depression and suicide
What did Ghettos provide for Germans?
Free workforce after decree declared all Jews slave laborers
Many factories set up near Ghettos
Einsatzgruppen
A separate army of killers assigned to zero in on Jews
These were the groups of firing squads prior to the Final Solution
Each member of the Einsatzgruppen had killed about 333 people
Wannsee Conference
Heydrich reveals his plan for the final the solution
Replaces Einsatzgruppen with Euthansia program
S-Trucks
Used in Russia (and later Eastern Europe)
Looked like normal vans but they actually exhaust poisonous gas on the inside
Sonderkammandos
Jewish and Polish camp prisoners forced to do the dirty work in the cleanup of the gassings
Moral dilemma
Who was in charge of moving the Jews? What was his official title?
Adolf Eichmann
Chief Engineer of the SS
What two factors contributed to how effectively the Final Solution worked in other countries?
1) The degree of control the Nazis had over the government of the occupied country
2) The way local populations felt about their Jews
Story of Albania summary
Merlika Kruja (PM) protected 350 Jewish families in his country by getting them fake passports
Story of Hungarian Jews summary
Last Jews to be sent to death camps
Germans were starting to loose the war, so they moved quickly and killed 400,000 Jews in 6 weeks
Gas chambers too full. Had to shoot some of them
Famous Auschwitz doctor and what did he study? Why?
Dr. Josef Mengele
Twins
Hitler wanted to be able to maximize the amount of Aryans (how do you make twins)
Kapos
Prison criminals in charge of units at concentration camps
Birkenhau
The death camp portion of Auschwitz
Why is Aushwitz the most famous?
People survived and escaped to tell about the horrors that took place there
Canada
Warehouse at Auschwitz that stored belongings of Jews
Also stored everyday commodities
Story of Zimetbaum and Galinski
Two lovers who were very smart and one got a SS guard uniform and snuck out of Auschwitz
They were eventually caught an`d publicly executed at Auschwitz
Why did US never bomb Auschwitz?
Policy of not mixing military and humanitarian efforts
Thought best way to save people was to win the war quickly``
What happened before Auschwitz fell?
Prisoners taken on death marches in order not to be found
War Refugee Board
Roosevelt’s only thing policy that really helped the Jews and did not come until 1944
Why did the free world wait so long to act when they clearly knew about the Holocaust?
1) Government leaders did not want to get involved in another countries internal affairs
2) Many people feared involvement in another world war
3) Readers believed that newspaper reports were highly exaggerated
4) Anti-semintic views
Heydrich
Helped create the final solution
Assainated and 3 death camps opened
World Zionist Organization
Created Israel in Palestine
World Zionist Organization
Created Israel in Palestine
International Military Tribune
Had to prepare case against the Nazis
Nuremberg Trials
Sets precedent that “I was just following orders” is not an excuse
