unit 1: characteristics and myths about the holocaust
DESCRIPTION
Jewish population worldwide : 1939: 16.5 million 1945: 11 million 1950: 11.4 million 1970: 12.6 million 1990: 12.9 million 2020: 12.9 million (projected) If no Shoah : 1950: 17.9-18.5 million 1970: 19.8-25.2 million 1990: 20.3-30.0 million - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Jewish population worldwide:
1939: 16.5 million 1945: 11 million1950: 11.4 million1970: 12.6 million1990: 12.9 million2020: 12.9 million
(projected)If no Shoah:
1950: 17.9-18.5 million1970: 19.8-25.2 million1990: 20.3-30.0 million2020: 20.3-35.1 million
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Genocide: a successful one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority deliberately intends to destroy a group outside the universe of moral and social obligations of the perpetrators as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrators. The extermination may take place directly (through murder) or indirectly (by creating conditions which lead to the group’s destruction).
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Holocaust: the deliberate, intentional murder of
2/3 of European Jewry by the Nazis and their collaborators in and before WWII.
Cannot be compared with nuclear war, slavery
Holocaust = a wholly-burnt offering or sacrifice
Popularized by Elie Wiesel
SHOAH = Hebrew for catastrophe
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Every genocide has certain characteristics that define it.
The Holocaust…
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Took place in the heart of Western civilization
It was an international genocideTook place in 22 countries in Europe and
N. Africa
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
There was a demonic obsessiveness on the part of the perpetrators
Wiesel: not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims
June 9, 1944: round-up on Greek island of 1700 Jews while the Germans were battling the Americans/Canadians in the West and the Russians in the East
June 29: arrival at Auschwitz where most were killed
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Irrationality of the ideologyJews blamed for capitalism, communism, compassion, mercy, pornography, etc.Contradictions didn’t matter
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Implementation was with the utmost rationality
Industrialized, depersonalized, dehumanized mass killing
Nazis were pioneers at this
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
The elite of society cooperatedJudges, teachers, doctors, etc.
The Holocaust represents the ultimate perversion of science and technology, especially medical science
Nearly 50% of German doctors belonged to Nazi party
Some came to view the Holocaust as a health measureEugenics became “biological therapy”
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
The Smoking Chimney at the Hadamar Hospital
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Systematic dehumanization of its victimsHolocaust is the best-documented genocide
Simon Dubnow: “Brothers, remember what you see; write it down.”The West German government, representing the perpetrators, admitted guilt
Reparations were paidHolocaust is best-studied and most-studied genocide
Survivors have written and spoken about it so we might knowThe Holocaust is a genocide which gave birth to a modern state: Israel
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Myths about the Holocaust:About the event
The Holocaust never happened
Deniers are perpetrators because they seek to murder the memories of the victims
The Holocaust is a Jewish problem
Raises questions for Western civilization, Christianity, and humanity in general
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
About the perpetrators
Those who took part were coerced under threat of extreme penalty
Most who committed the crimes did so knowingly and not under duress“willing executioners”
Only Hitler and a few others carried out the genocide; the German people knew little…
There were few people in Germany who knew nothing about it
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
Jews from the Lodz Ghetto board a train for deportation bound for Chelmno. C. 1942-44.
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
About the victimsWhy didn’t the Jews resist more?
Wiesel: the question should be – in the face of all the obstacles, how could so many find the strength to resist?
The Jews cooperated in their own destruction
Nazis created a Judenrat wherever they went as a go-between between the SS and the Jews
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
UNIT 1: Characteristics and Myths About the Holocaust
About the bystandersDutch Jews had a good chance of survival
80% (110,000 of 140,000 were murdered) diedmyth grows out of the Diary of Anne Frank
The Nazis built the death camps in Poland because the Poles were anti-Semitic
most of the Jews were in PolandPoland was far enough away from Western and Southern Europe to keep the genocide secret