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Tensions of the Transnational28th Feb-1st March 2014

Brunel University

Alison CarrolAstrid Swenson

Isambard Centre for Historical Research

Dear Reader,Welcome to the 4th edition of the TopHat. The History Society has been busy since our last issue and I hope most of you have got involved, whether it was the Blitz Party, the Ale Trail, or our talk from guest speaker John Dobai. We will still have plenty more events happening in the following weeks so please keep an eye out on our Facebook page.

Nominations have now also opened for committee positions. I urge people to get involved as it is a fantastic opportunity, to better yourselves and the society. If the society hasn’t been your cup of tea this year now is the chance to make a change! Log into Brunelstudents.com to find out more or please get in contact!

Georgina HillPresident of Brunel University History Society 2

Inside this IssuePage 4 Romani Genocide Panayiotis Antoniou

Page 5 Brunel’s Archival Gems

Joshua Connolly

Page 7 Old Testament Genocide: Part 1

Sam Aylett

Page 9 Euthansia Anon

Page 11 Old Testament Genocide: Part 2

Zander Oldring

Page 13 IBM & The Holocaust

Harry Ody

Page 15 Miss Holocaust Survivor

Georgina Hill

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Brunel University Politics and History

Seminar Series - Wednesday’s 16:00 GB239

05/02/2014Anarchy in the UK: Surveillance 1890-1900Mohamed Majothi (Brunel)

Iran So Far Away: Western Intelligence and the Overthrow of the ShahNeveen Abdalla (Brunel)

Accident or Design: Intelligence during the Malayan EmergencyRoger Arditti (Brunel)

19/02/2014Policy Positions of Elected Police and Crime CommissionersMartin Hansen (Brunel)

Can Public Policy build Social Capital?Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt (Brunel)

05/03/2014Writing Public HistoryLudmilla Jordanova (Durham)

19/03/2014The French Vision of the League of NationsPeter Jackson (University of Glasgow)

26/03/2014Robust, Pliable, Delicate: The Honours SystemPeter Galloway (Brunel University)

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The Romani Genocide

It is often forgotten or simply overlooked that the Jews were not the only ethnic group

who were subject to systematic killing by the Nazi war machine. The Romany people, scattered all over Europe, were also systematically targeted and exterminated on the grounds of their racial impurity. Historians estimate that between 220,000 and 1.5 million Roma were murdered during the course of the Final Solution and they were amongst the most persecuted groups after the Jews, with many forced to partake in the human experimentation which was commonplace in the death camps.

This persecution was also routine in countries which had not been taken over by the Germans. Romania, where Jews largely escaped the wrath of Hitler, regularly rounded up Roma citizens who were then shipped to death camps in Poland where they were then exterminated. This shows the extent to which the Roma were persecuted, when, in a country where Jews were allowed to live freely during the Second World War, they were still rounded up and sent to death camps. However, many other historians would argue that, although severe, the persecution of the Roma was nowhere near as widespread as that of the Jews. They cite the case of Denmark

where many Roma were, on the whole, allowed to live freely, despite being under Nazi occupation, a situation which would have been impossible in Nazi occupied territory had they been Jewish.

Indeed, they claim that this proves that the Jews were by far the most persecuted ethnic group during the course of the Second World War, with many arguing that the sheer number of Jewish fatalities puts the massacre on a different scale to the slaughter of the Roma. However, regardless of the number of fatalities which were inflicted to each ethnic group there is no denying that both were serious war crimes and part of the same goal of creating a pure, Aryan race.

It is because of this that all victims of the Holocaust should be remembered as a lesson to the future. This is especially true now with many Roma still facing persecution and being blamed for a number of crimes in Western Europe where many have emigrated since the relaxation of Romanian visas – the country where most descendants of surviving Roma now live. It is important to remember the deaths of their ancestors so that we do not discriminate against these people who sacrificed so much and so many during the defeat of Hitler’s Nazis and the struggle against fascism.

Panayiotis Antoniou

Archives are the treasure troves of information from which our entire

bureaucratic society would otherwise be lost without. They document the actions and activity of our history to the present day, and are the essential resource that allows our profession to exist. Tucked away in an old school house, Brunel University’s Archives use this building to continue providing knowledge to students, researchers and enthusiasts alike.

Its collections contain the records of the British Foreign Schools Society, Maria Grey

College, Shoreditch College, West London Institute of Education and Brunel University; a range that stretches back to the late 18th Century to the present day. It covers the history of education within the British Isles and beyond, with the BFSS being active in many countries in Europe, America and Africa.

It’s because of the unique role that archives have that I have spent the past 6 months working on placement with the Archives here at Brunel, working with a variety of documents from original 19th Century letters from South Africa to press

cuttings of Brunel University’s achievements. In that time, I’ve stumbled upon interesting pieces of history that showcase the intricate relationship that the BFSS and the institutes that follow in its footsteps had with so many different aspects of life here and abroad.

‘Round Robin Presented To the Committee of Stockwell College’

The roundel artefact comes from the BFSS Collection from their women-only teacher training college in Stockwell, 5

Brunel’s Archival Gems

Lambeth. It was presented to the governing body of the school by the students in protest of the shorter holidays they were given compared to Borough Road College, a men-only teacher training college also run by the BFSS. The date when this was presented, May 27th 1871, comes at a time when equal rights for women were becoming a much more fiercely debate topic, with suffragette societies being formed around this time.

The format of the letter is its most interesting feature. The term ‘round robin’, dates from the 17th-century French ruban rond or round ribbon, and was a novel way to express a protest by a large group. The signatures around the outside of the letter are not arranged in that way for decoration. Instead they were deliberately done so in order to conceal the leader of such a protest, as there would be no name at the top of signatories that would give that away.

One of the signatures on this document belongs to Tryphena Sparks, cousin and a speculated love interest of Thomas Hardy. She began attending the college in 1870, and it is around this time that the pair are believed to have begun courting. Her death in 1890 came to pain Hardy tremendously, leading him to

author the poem Thoughts of Phena at News of Her Death.

Brunel University Archives is located at the Old School House on Hillingdon Road. The Reading Room is available Monday-Friday between 9:30am and 2pm by appointment only. Appointments outside of this time and opportunities to volunteer may be available on request.

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Please contact:archivesandrecords@brunel.ac.uk

Joshua Connolly Archives Assistant Brunel University Archives

Old Testament Genocide: Part 1

I am hoping that despite not being able to boast originality that this article will provoke

thought and will be for some something new, and perhaps in this edition, something unexpected.

Before I begin I must state that this is not an attack on those who ‘believe’. Indeed, a good friend of mine is a progressive Christian; I hope he will forgive me that acolade. Rather, it is meant to provoke dialogue, as nothing should be beyond criticism. I am, and perhaps it will become clear if not already, an unbeliever…someone who enjoys dialogue, the Socratic Method and reason. I do not need to go on anymore as to my position in this particular matter.

There have been countless incidents of genocide in recent history, of course the most infamous, the Nazi Genocide which bore witness to the systematic extermination of the world Jewry. However, in this article I wish to focus on a different, albeit equally infamous genocide, the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 and the precipitation of it by those whose faith explicitly commands genocide, amongst other horrors, within the Old Testament.

The Rwandan Genocide in 1994 was sparked by the assassination of President Juvenal Habyariama by what was believed to be a Tutsi Rebel Force the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) after a long history of ethnic tension. This

is still a matter of contention, but what is fact is that in the following months some 800,000 Hutu moderates and Tutsi’s were murdered.

The roots of Rwanda’s ethnic tension can be traced back to the arrival of the Belgian Colonists in 1916, at which time the Belgians issued identity cards based on race. On top of which the Belgian colonists gave preferential treatment to the Tutsi’s seeing them to be superior, and afforded them better education and social status. This caused a strong ethnic divide and between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s and fostered amongst the Hutu hatred for the Tutsi’s. When in 1962 the Belgian’s relinquished their power the Hutu’s took their place and so began a turbulent history of conflict and toil amongst the two warring tribes.

Despite peace negotiations between the RPF and the Hutu leaders in 1993, violence continued which culminated in the assassination of Habyariama.But what of the Catholic Church, where do they fit into the picture? This is a more obscure, yet equally harrowing account. In 1987 the Bishop of Kigali, boasted of having visions of the apocalypse, and the return of Jesus. Which when

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investigated by the Catholic Church was verified to be ‘true’. Now it is important to know that at the time, I am not sure whether this is still the case, Rwanda was a deeply religious part of Africa with the highest percentage of churches per head and 65% of Rwandans professing Roman Catholicism.

When in 1994 the ‘apocalypse’ did indeed arrive, although not by divine providence, the Catholic Church and the Clergy were complicit in the atrocities. Often the Tutsi’s would seek refuge in churches, and would be met by the Interahamwe, which is why so many mass graves can be found on consecrated ground. It is also why so many of the clergy were in the docks during the Rwandan Genocide Trials of 1997-2012.

One need only look towards the Old Testament to understand why SOME ‘believers’ have the moral carte blanches or think they do to excuse such atrocities, or surrender their responsibility. It is a well known character of religious extremists to scape goat. Consider the extermination of the Canaanites. According to the Pentateuch, when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he ordered them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land (Deut. 7.1-2; 20.16-18). The destruction was to be complete (pay special attention to the word complete): every man, woman, and child

was to be killed.

Many more books, passages and verses in the Old Testament propagate similar behaviours, most bloodthirsty of all the book of Joshua. And it is with passages and instructions such as that of Deuteronomy afford those who offer their freedom of responsibility to a supernatural dictator can act at times without moral responsibility. Indeed morality cannot without good conscience or reason be commended to have been propagated by or founded upon the ‘good book’.

There is a lot more to this story and I have only began to sketch out a very narrow and perhaps slightly biased view, but I

encourage you to explore it for yourself. My purpose here isn’t to tar the whole Catholic Church or Christian Faith with the same brush, there is no doubt that the Christian faith does a lot of good in the world and there are many of whom that are kind, generous and loving. But there is history of the Christian Faith propagating death and destruction, and having its belief’s to back them up.

Sam AylettBA(Hone) History

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Spring Ale Trail

27th March

Euthanasia

The systematic murder

of the physically and

mentally disabled

in Nazi Germany resulted

in the deaths of around

200,000 between 1939 and

1945, in what was known as

the Aktion-T4 programme

or ‘euthanasia’. It included

all those suffering from so-

called ‘feeble-mindedness’,

schizophrenia, epilepsy,

blindness, deafness, physical

deformities and alcoholism.

It is too often forgotten or

neglected in the popular

consciousness that it was not

only European Jewry which

suffered during the Holocaust.

Disturbingly, the euthanasia

was carried out by professional

doctors, who, as argued by

historian Robert N Proctor,

“were never ordered to

murder psychiatric patients

and [the] handicapped … they

were empowered to do so,

and fulfilled their task without

protest”.

Before the Nazi rise to power,

all German doctors took an oath

which incorporated a number of

clauses. The most important

in this case was the ‘do no

harm’ clause, which prevented

treatment that had a higher

risk of causing more harm to a

patient than good.

Yet during the years 1933 to

1945, Nazi persecution of those

deemed ‘a burden on society’

certainly did cause harm to an

astonishingly large number

of people. Through lethal

injections, starvation and later

in the death camps, thousands

suffered such a fate by the

hands of ‘ordinary’ members

of society. They were neither

‘mercy killings’ nor euthanasia,

they were acts of murder.

“It is time to remember”

Although Holocaust Memorial

Day is set to mark the anniversary

of the liberation of Auschwitz-

Birkenau concentration camp, it

is a time to remember all those

who died under Nazi rule. The

often forgotten persecution

and genocide of the physically

and mentally handicapped

should also be preserved in our

memories as an infamous but

important part of the history of

the Holocaust.

Anon

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me’.

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

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hISTORY sOCIETY eLECTIONS

2014/15

rUN

vOTE

hELP

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I remember sitting and having coffee with a few Christian friends about a year ago to

find out that one objected to several films, TV series and other pieces of popular culture due to reasons of violence, sexual imagery and profanity.

At which point the other thought it an interesting task to see how many books of the bible she would be allowed to read had the same criteria been applied to the holy Christian text. It wasn’t many.

Indeed, sex, and profanity occur fairly regularly in the Old and New Testaments but what is perhaps most encapsulating

to many Christians – such as myself – and atheists is the notion of mass murder or genocide within Old Testament scripture. Indeed one major passage people point to is 1 Samuel 15:3 “Now go attack the Amalekites and destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, put to death men and women, children and infants…” which clearly shows intent for a total destruction of a people.

Whilst not professing to be an Old Testament scholar, nor wanting to endorse the claim that it is correct to initiate a mass murder, it is best to treat the bible as a historical document through which one

can deconstruct and analyse humanity.

The beauty of the bible is that it documents what would otherwise be possible unknown ancient events, in this case several large wars and the preceding or resulting mass violence. From a historians point of view the example of 1 Samuel 15 is not the only time that humanity has proclaimed that it is God’s will to liquidate a population.

From the salting of the ground at Carthage to the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo the evidence for attempted destruction of the other or scapegoat appears

Old Testament Genocide: Part 2

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evident. What, therefore, does the genocide reported in the bible tell us?

“It appears less about religion and more about the ability of a power to manipulate.”

Unfortunately that the process of mass murder and the ability for an authority to construct it is far too easy. In fact it appears less about religion and more about the ability of a power to manipulate and develop a rift through which the perceived superior group can assert terror onto the perceived inferior group.

The issue for the bible, though, is that an authority can easily manipulate it into mobilising Christian groups as seen in the genocides of Rwanda and Jasenovac. There is no denying that this did happen, and in the case of Jasenovac was one of the major motivating factors. The issue is not the text itself, as Rene Girard identifies the bible openly refutes the scapegoat mechanism that facilitates genocide, but the education and awareness of the individual and the populous.

This is something that the post-war western world claims as its mission. However, the issue is that the human

race is not restricted to the ‘educated and civilised world.’ If the development of further scapegoats is to be avoided education is need both internationally and more comprehensively. In particular an awareness of the process of fear and prejudice to murder is required.

Identifying religion as a cause of genocide is therefore a misconception. As I am sure my learned friend will admit to in

his other article the issue is the mobilisation and manipulation of religion, regardless which faith, by authority. It would only be sound to suggest that the role of religion within mass murder is to compound and exacerbate the situation.

Zander Oldring3rd Year Undergraduate

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Backed by extensive research in his explosive book, IBM and the

Holocaust, investigative journalist and controversial Holocaust expert, Edwin Black, reveals how one of the world’s largest multinational corporations helped facilitate Nazi Germany’s Final Solution.

The Third Reich wasn’t the first bureaucracy with a racially motivated ideology geared at the destruction of Jewry; tyrants,

tsars and regimes before Hitler came to power on January 30th 1933 had shared similar anti-Semitic beliefs. The Nazis, however, for the first time in history would have automation on their side. Black outlines the ways in which IBM’s technology helped to identify; organise the persecution of; and even audit the genocide of millions of European Jews.

Black begins by discussing IBM’s role in the NSDAP’s

conduction of a national census in 1933, a project providing a mechanism for the identification of Jews along with other ethnic groups the Nazis deemed undesirable. Black argues, through the use of Hollerith punch cards provided by IBM’s German subsidiary, Dehomag, the regime uncovered a higher Jewish population than previously estimated – an increase from ca. 400-600,000 to 2 million.

Historian, Peter W. Campbell states, “IBM had the technology through the use of punch card to identify every Jew down to the last detail of their existence. Even those who were no longer practising Jews were located and identified.”

Indeed, by cross-tabulating the data the machines could expose not only practicing Jews, but those of Jewish ancestry, regardless of intermarriage or conversion to Christianity. According to Black, operating at a rate of 64,000 cards per hour, the technological assistance provided by IBM helped the ghettoisation, deportation, and ultimately the extermination of Jews.

The Corporate Face of Killing

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Black’s case extends beyond the mere selling of punch-card technology to the Nazi regime. He maintains that Dehomag, with the knowledge of its New York headquarters, custom-designed the complex devices as an official undertaking. The efficiency of genocide was audited by IBM engineers consistently updating the Hollerith systems; printing up special forms; configuring the equipment; training Nazi personnel; along with selling the Nazis punch cards.

Although originally designed for census’ as a people identifier, Black suggests in his other book, Nazi Nexus, punch cards could also reveal data about anything that lent itself to statistics, tabulation, or tracking, like the trains used in

the deportation process.

According to Black, over 2,000 machines were set up in Germany, with every major concentration camp featuring a dehumanising Hollerith department that assigned prisoners a five-digit number and organised them by their skills through the use of punch-card technology. Over 400,000 Hollerith numbers were assigned to prisoners at the Auschwitz Complex, often by means of tattoo, which made the identification of prisoners easier and helped camp officials distinguish between methods of execution for different inmates.

Many consider IBM and the Holocaust a revelatory piece of historical scholarship, and in 2003 it won Best Non-

Fiction Book of the Year by the American Society of Journalists and Authors. IBM responded by questioning Black’s research methodology and conclusions, without directly contradicting the evidence. In a statement in 2001, IBM claimed it had little information about the period in question or the operations of its German subsidiaries, as most of the documents were either destroyed or lost during the war.

History and Politics undergraduates have the opportunity to study the Holocaust and Black’s theories with Thomas Linehan at Level 2.

Harry Ody3rd Year Undergraduate

January 27th 2014 marked the 69th anniversary of the liberation of

Auschwitz- Birkenau; it is a day of remembrance of Nazi persecution but also subsequent genocides. This year it drew upon the theme of Journeys, giving recognition to those displaced and forced to travel, as well as highlighting survivors who journeyed to start new lives, and to rebuild them. The Holocaust Memorial Day trust suggests yearly themes, but this is just guidance, remembrance is a personal thing.

I wrote this piece a year ago after stumbling across an unusual article that I felt challenged

the role of remembrance in the conventional sense. In June 2012, the Israeli charity Yad Ezer L’Haver (Helping Hand) held a “Miss Holocaust Survivor” pageant with 14 participants all of whom were Holocaust survivors. Deemed by organisers to be a ‘celebration of life,’ this article got me thinking about remembrance and the role it serves.

Instinctively my issue was with the word pageant, its definition being a ‘beauty contest.’ It evokes images of tacky American pageants, and unfortunately young individuals such as ‘Honey Boo-Boo,’ child beauty pageant stars who are mocked rather than respected.

Arguably organisers claimed only 10% of the scoring was down to the aesthetic element; contestants, as well as participating to the traditional nature of pageantry did tell their personal stories. However, is it appropriate to compete for the ‘winning’ story?

A year on, and after some reflection, I have overcome the difficult questions I had about this event and what it represented. It was a comment from Gena Turgel, who was filmed for Channel 4’s recent documentary Britain’s Holocaust Survivors, that I started to understand Miss Holocaust Survivor. Gena is a

Miss Holocaust Survivor

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very well kept lady who takes great pride in her appearance, something she credits to her time in a concentration camp.

Beauty to her is a way of overcoming the dehumanising experience of Nazi persecution; her freedom over her beauty was stripped from her, but not anymore.

She recalled the emotional story of having her hair cut off upon arrival and what this meant to her; she was stripped of her individuality and her appearance something she now has control over. Beauty and presentation, for Gena, is a way of overcoming the memories of persecution. Although undoubtedly very different people, Gena and Hava hold many similarities. 79 year old Hava Herschkovitz was titled Miss Holocaust Survivor 2012.

Having survived a Soviet Union detention camp in Transnistria, which was later closed down by the Germans in 1944, she began a new life in Israel. In interviews she defends the pageant and those who participated arguing “I wanted to show that I’ve put that past of suffering behind me, and that it doesn’t need to affect my future.”

Her decision to take part undoubtedly exemplifies strength of character, and she

should be proud, as with other survivors, that she has not let her terrible past rule her future. She has, along with other women overcome persecution. Miss Holocaust 2012 allowed individuals to be proud of their lives.

As an individual who has not suffered through such atrocities, it leaves me unable to comprehend the lives these women have had. In that respect what right do I have to question the ways individuals decide to remember the Holocaust and their personal experiences.

Once you overcome the connotations of a beauty pageant and look past the face value of the event I think it serves, although unconventional, to remember but also to celebrate. Miss Holocaust, while I would

not praise its role within the education of genocide, I do believe it goes above and beyond the role remembrance serves. Books have been written, and research has been done on the Holocaust, but for the women who were contestants in this pageant, it was not to give an academic overview of the Holocaust.

It served to remember their experiences through a lense of personal strength, individuality and the right to freedom; a factor sometimes forgotten through conventional means of remembrance.

Georgina HillPresident, BUHS

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With Thanks To:

Zander Oldring - ProducerWilliam Moss - Editor

Joshua Robinson - Logo Designer