21522 HIST Lecture PDF

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History of Holocaust--in class lectures. Beginning of Holocaust...

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Where to Go? The Possibility of Escape (February 15th, 2022)

Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution  Leave?  Stay and fight or endure?  Significance of past Jewish experiences in different places o Germany o Austria o Poland o USSR  1933: Reich representation of German Jews, headed by Rabbi Leo Baeck o Was forced into existence by Nazis to have one organization that would disseminate Nazi policy and keep members in line o Main German Jewish organization organized:  Financial aid  Nazis are working on pushing German Jews out of economy  Healthcare  Job retraining  Nazis are working on pushing German Jews out of economy  Schools  Emigration o Relations with Jewish organizations abroad and with Nazis

 Role of Jewish organizations in Holocaust o Forced into a position of collaboration with Nazis o Victims, Perpetrators, and Bystanders  important question when evaluating these groups Nazism and Zionism  Zionism—belief that Jews need their own state due to safety—during this time, Palestine was seen as a potential home.  Suddenly popular among German speaking Jews (not just in Germany) o Language o Job retraining—especially in farm work and agriculture  Nazi’s opinion on Zionism o Seemed to encourage Jews to emigrate and 60,000 left (GOOD) o Putting all Jews in one country smacked of global conspiracy (Protocols of the Elders of Zion—claimed Jews conspired to control world via media and finance) (BAD)  August 1933: o Ha’avara  Transfer agreement with Jewish authority in Palestine, allowing Jews to bring percentage of their assets and to purchase industrial goods for Palestine (100 million marks’ worth!) Central European Jews  Germany o 1933: 525,000 Jews o 1933-1938: 130,000 emigrated o 1938-1939: 118,00 emigrated o 1939: 185,000 remaining and 2/3 of the population was over 65

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 Austria o March 1938: 206,000 Jews total  Hitler takes over in 1938 o 1939: 77,000 remaining  Czechoslovakia o March 1939: 118,000 Jews total  Hitler takes over by 1939 o September 1939: 103,000 remaining East European Jews (Poland and Romania)  1921-1931: 395,000 + Polish Jews emigrated  1937: 3,100,000 Jews still in Poland—too poor to organize funds to immigrate o Boycotts and Pogroms o Polish suggestion 1937: Try to resettle in Madagascar (!)  1938: Poland and Romania deny their Jews citizenship—now what? o Palestine? NO Brits’ close immigration to eastern European Jews  ALL OF THIS HAPPENS WITHOUT NAZI INFLUENCE Polish Jews  Why didn’t European Jews unite? o Political, class, religious divisions splintered the Jewish community  Politics: o Bund  Socialist  Provided services  Supported schools

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o Agudas Yisroel  Orthodox  Wanted to work with government on religious freedom o Other Parties:  Zionist, etc.  Religious divisions: o Orthodoxy o Hassidism o Reform o Assimilated Jews  Mutual Distrust—no united front Western Europe  1920s o Close—easy access o Liberal—easy entry  1930s o Depression worsened conditions  Belgium o 65,000-75,000 Jews  Mostly Ostjuden (Jews from the East—not good terminology) who came from 1925-1931  Antisemitism prominent 1936-1937—Flemish Fascist  Searches for illegal Jewish immigrants  Riots in Antwerp in 1939

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 France o Increased suspicion of refugees o 1937-1939: tightened regulation, but Jews got in anyway  Netherlands/Holland o Even Dutch Jews were hostile to refugees o 30% unemployment o Refugees had to live in camps or institutions The Americas  United States: o 1924 Johnson-Reed Act  Immigration quotas: Eastern Europe and Southern Europe  Tightened during Depression: public support o 1930s  “Public charge”—policy for State Department employees issuing visas—used to keep out anyone not economically self-sufficient, even if relatives in US offered support— employees were able to decide for themselves  FDR changed interpretation after 1936  Forced increase German-Austrian quota (was only filled in 1939)—let folks on visitors’ visas stay after Kristallnacht after 1938  Law didn’t change, although number of immigrants increased o 300,000 sought entry and only 92,000 got in  FDR created War Board to get around antisemitic WASPs who ran State Department

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 Canada o No help o 1930-1931: Only Jews involved in agriculture were allowed to immigrate o 1938: allowed 23 German/Austrian refugees  Mexico o “Pais Refugio” or country of refuge—for Spaniards, also took in political enemies o 1941-1945: 1800-6,000 Central European Jews  Bolivia o 1938-1944: 20,000 Jews, some as agricultural settlers  The Jewish Express o Most Jews who come to Latin America leave before end of war  Argentina o 251,000 Jews before Depression  Tremendous European immigration 1880-1914 o Rise of nationalist, antisemitic, hard-right military leaders o 1934: requirements for re-entry documents o Large numbers came illegally and got to stay (border guards were not paid well)  Took most of Jews of ANY country in the Western Hemisphere  Brazil o Reasonably open immigration policy o 1920s-1930s: Jews were considered Europeans—could “whiten” Brazilian population

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o Right-wing populism under Getulio Vargas o 1937: Estado Novo: relatively little antisemitism but few Jews made it to Brazil League of Nations  Minorities Treaties: o Poland o Romania o 5 other states o Supposedly guaranteed cultural and linguistic autonomy  Full civil rights to countries’ minorities o BUT: No enforcement ability  Unable to assume financial responsibility for refugees o 1933:  High Commission for Refugees Coming from Germany  1st president: James G. MacDonald o No financial contributions o 1933-1935: No changes in immigration laws Jewish Organizations: 1933-1935  Central British Fund for German Jewry o Zionist: Hoped to help German Jews emigrate even though British government didn’t want them in Palestine  British Jews offering money to Jews but did not encourage them to come to Britain—endemic global antisemitism o Limited income  American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC)—AKA “The Joint” o Founded in 1914 to help eastern European Jews during WWI

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o Massive budget—but Depression cut it o Jews in the US faced wholesale social discrimination World Jewish Congress  Established in 1936—permanent international organization  HQ in Paris  Leaders o Rabbi Stephen Wise (US—Zionist) o Nadum Goldmann (Eastern European—German)  Goal o To make the “Jewish Question” a human question o Keep plight of world’s Jews visible o Meet with leaders (especially FDR)  FDR’s New Deal was called the “Jew Deal” by Americans o Coordinate protests 1938: March to War (And Escape?)  Un-doing of Treaty of Versailles  Germany pulled out of League of Nations  Background: *SYSTEMATIC DISMANTLING OF TREATY OF VERSAILLES o 1935: Saar Valley plebiscite  Germany gets the Saar Valley back after 15 years (between Germany and France)  High in coal mining  Referendum on re-joining Germany or stay a part of France —voted YES  Nazis agitated the vote with propaganda

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o 1935: Conscription of armed forces  Germany reintroduced the Draft  Germany’s army was not to exceed 100,000  International community did not have a reaction to this  What was the rest of the world focused on?  What would their choices have been? o 1936: Rhineland (80 miles from Paris)  Were supposed to be demilitarized zones was to remain continually accessible to other countries  Germans march a legion into the Rhineland  Nothing happened because of Nazi’s command of news calendar (if it was done on a Friday afternoon—reporting would be slow) o March 1938: Anschluss (Austria)  Austria had symbolic value—Hitler was from here—TIME and LIFE magazine covered this  Had foreign currency reserves—had money that Germany needed to increase military  “Homegrown Christian fascists”—also in Romania, Chile, Argentina  Bringing Austria “home into the Reich”—noise from Hitler  People wanted this but governmental officials did not  Referendum was scheduled for joining Germany  Hitler invaded March 11th—Annexation “a swallowing”

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 Citizens were on side of road with flowers while tanks rolling by o Summer/Fall 1938: Sudetenland, appeasement  Hitler makes noise about German speakers in Czechoslovakia in Sudetenland  Germans must be protected from evil Czechs  Appeasement—general term for allowing a dictator to do what he wants—satisfy some needs of complaining party o September 29th, 1938: Munich Diktat  Hitler signed Munich Diktat  Gives Hitler the Sudetenland—Czechs weren’t in the room  French, Italians, Britain, and the Germans o Trying to appease Hitler o November 9-10th, 1938: Kristallnacht  Night of Broken Glass—a pogrom (state sponsored massacre of minorities) against Jews  Background:  About 130,000 (25%) had already left  Ostjuden and their children were left in the country  Concern in Poland and Romania that after Anschluss, Jews living in Austria would try to come home o Caused revocation of citizenship o Nazi feared that they were “stuck” with Ostjuden  Germany’s first forced deportation o Rounded up 18,000 Polish Jews and dumped them over the Polish border at Zbaszyn

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 Son of deportees, Herschel Grynszpan, living in Paris, shot a minor Nazi diplomat at Paris embassy— desperate kid, isolated incident o Provided excuse for loosely coordinated plunder and violence, SA, SS, onlookers  Humiliation: elderly—cut off their beards in public and harming, children, arson o International opinion was HORROR  Goal was still emigration—penniless, having surrendered property  Jews forced to pay 1 billion marks for “provocation” of violence  Goebbels instigates an empire-wide pogrom  First organized explosion of violence against all Jews that Nazi’s can reach  A lot resist—but didn’t slow things down  Nazi thugs broke into homes, businesses and molest and rape women, arson, firefighters are instructed to put out flames if reaching Christian properties  Insurance claims are given but Nazi’s take funds o AFTER K’nacht:  Jews expelled from economy  Businesses Aryanized  Savings blocked  Forbidden from parks, beaches, movies, zoos, libraries  Jewish synagogue records confiscated  Jews not allowed drivers’ licenses  UTTER ISOLATION AND EMISERATION

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 As Hitler is taking these regions, more Jews come under govern of Hitler and Nuremburg Laws Amid All That: Evian Conference  Post-Anschluss (March 1938) o Bureaucratic nightmare to emigrate o Borders of neighboring states closing  FDR bypassed League of Nations and State Department o Called for conference to address Jewish refugee problem o July 1938  Switzerland refused to host conference—was held in Evian  Just about all refused to help o Only Dominican Republic opened its doors: Sosua  Wanted to whiten the population of Dominican Republic— was not a benevolent action  6000 settled in Sosua Kindertransport  December 1938-1939: o 10,000 German Jewish children accepted for resettlement in England—alone with no family o Opened Australian doors also  7,200 S.S. St. Louis  May 13-June 14th, 1939: Portrayed as “voyage of the damned”  New research: FDR and Undersecretary of State Sumer Welles worked to get Latin American countries, especially Cuba, to open doors  FDR lowered sugar tariffs and offered economic and technological assistance to Fulgencio Batista

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 FDR’s cabinent members monitored ship, intervened on its behalf  2/3 of passengers survived the war o 5,000-6,000 German Jews came to Cuba What Else  Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Panama, Venezuela turned ships away  Shanghai’s International Settlement district: o War between Japan and China 1937 o Borders were unpoliced o Journey was expensive and conditions were unappealing o 17,000 Jews in Shanghai by May 1940 The Vatican  Resisted 1920s efforts to change liturgy to minimize antisemitism (NOT DONE UNTIL 2008)  Eugenio Pacelli, papal nuncio, Pope Pius XII (1939) o Anti-nazi but was concerned about German Catholics o Anticommunist and so were Nazi’s o Concordat July 1933:  Through Nazi actions 1936 and 1937 o Pius XI:  Concern about Mussolini’s race laws in September 1938— but died day before speech was to be given against Nazi antisemitism and Pacelli burned the text o NO PUBLUC PROTEST AGAINST NAZI RACIALISM Summary  Almost nowhere to go

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 Almost no real sources of help outside of Europe o None inside Europe  Even those who managed to get out faced having to recreate their lives in a new place, language, professional context  Hundreds of thousands did get out during the 1930s  Those left were young, elderly, and the sick

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