United States Holocaust Museum

July 2.2014

Yesterday, our group started our journey at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC.  I was just there in December with my students, but I concentrated more on my students than the museum.  It’s still hard to conceive that most of them flew through the museum in under an hour.  They were more excited in getting a hot dog from across the street than exploring the countless artifacts of the Holocaust.  I chalked it up to being teenagers, but I still was disappointed.  That is not to say that some exceptional students didn’t soak in the knowledge.  Of course, I have those students, and I’m grateful for them everyday.  Maybe next year, I should do an interview process and select students who really want to go.  But the whole point of me teaching about the Holocaust is to reach all my students!  So, I’m not sure. 

We had over three hours to tour the museum on our own at our own pace.  I didn’t come close to finishing, and I rushed!  To do it justice, one would have to spend four days there.  I spent an entire hour on one floor.  There are four floors plus movies, documentaries, and extra displays! 

Here are some points and commentary I garnered at the museum:

In 1933, nine million Jews lived in Europe.  Two-thirds died within a dozen years.  President Von Hildenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor because he thought Hitler could be controlled.  The Nazi party only controlled 38% of the political parties.  Germany consisted of Communists, Social Democrats, and Nazis.  Big mistake on the President’s part since the Nazis were not yet in the majority but the decision paved the way for Hitler's rise to significant power.  Once Hitler was Chancellor, he controlled the government.  On Feb 27, 1933, the famous Reichstag Fire destroyed the parliament building.  Hitler blamed the Communists, and within six months, Hitler had total control. 

Himmler, in charge of the concentration camps, founded the Dachau Camp in Germany in March 1933, the first concentration camp.  This camp was not for Jews but for any political dissenters to the Nazi party.  

Gradually, under Hitler’s rule, the Jewish people, who prospered in Germany, started to feel Hitler’s wrath.  Persecution and discrimination were gradual.  Foreigners didn’t like this treatment and threatened to boycott German goods.  Hitler did not stand for this.  So he decided to turn the tables and use the Jews to get his revenge.  He said all Germans were to have a one-day boycott of all Jewish stores, restaurants, businesses, etc….While he would have liked this boycott to be forever, it would cause too many economic implications.  During a famous book burning of not just Jewish authors but anyone who opposed Nazism, Helen Keller said, “Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.” 

In order to spread his hate and lies, Hitler needed to persuade his audience to believe his ideas, especially that Jews were the enemy…Pay attention here, students.  We did a whole lesson on persuasive techniques with our Julius Caesar unit!  AP students also have a summer reading book on this!  Have you started yet??  Remember, you have two books to read, and you will be tested on it during the first week back…Ok…anyway….

No country ever has had a minister in charge of propaganda.  There’s a first for everything.  Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.  Notice how Hitler made the job sound positive by using the words “public enlightenment.”  He almost sounds like a hero for opening the Germans’ eyes.  Goebbels knew how to reach all walks of life with his techniques.  He made sure his messages were simplistic, emotional, repetitive, and uncompromising:  “One People, One Reich, One Leader.”

Hitler wanted a superior, pure race….survival of the fittest.  He believed the Germans and Nordics were superior, and the Slavs, Roma (Gypsies) and Blacks were inferior.  Jews didn’t even fall as inferior…They were sub-human because he felt they were parasites who lived off others.   In order to fulfill this purity ambition, in 1933-34, he established laws that forced sterilization of any German who didn't meet his definition of perfect.  This included people with mental disorders, epilepsy, and physical problems.  

The Protestant Church accepted this doctrine.  Guess what!  What makes me even more sick is that Hitler was not the first to introduce this “solution.”  THE UNITED STATES had a similar law beforehand in 28 states!   Can you imagine Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Marilyn Monroe, Steven Spielberg, and even the creator of Pokemon not being able to pass on their genes because they are on the autism spectrum?  This was practiced in the US until the 60s, including my current home state of North Carolina!

As I said before, the discrimination against the Jews was gradual.  Yes, Jews have always been a hated people by some.  If you ask me, jealousy breeds hate, but for a time, Jews were assimilated into European life, especially in Germany.  Twelve thousand Jewish men fought in World War I protecting their fatherland, Germany.  Most Western European Jews were secular and loyal to their homeland.  It was only until their rights were stripped and circumstances grew desperate that the Jewish community gained vitality and pride within themselves. 

In 1936, Germany was controlled by the Treaty of Versailles.  Because of the loss of WWI, Germany could not invade another country.  Hitler broke this pact by invading Austria followed by Czech.  Roosevelt proposed an international conference with 33 countries.  During this conference (Evian Conference), no one stopped Hitler.  The world thought that if they appeased him, maybe he would stop at just two countries.  Really??  They also decided that they wouldn’t increase their immigration quotas.  Most countries, including the US, were so afraid of inheriting "the Jewish problem" that they would not open their doors, even to innocent people who were being brutalized, persecuted, and even murdered.  At this point, Hitler was WILLING TO GIVE OVER THE JEWS.  When no one wanted them, he rationalized that the only pliable solution was the Final Solution:  extermination of all Jews.  The small, third-world country of the Dominican Republic was one of the few to open her doors.  So thank you!

A persistent myth is that Americans lacked information about the Nazi concentration camps. The exhibit shows otherwise, illustrating how news about the Nazi persecution of the Jews was reported in local, as well as national, newspapers and magazines, and in newsreels in the 1930s. On Time magazine’s July 10, 1933 cover , Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels appeared over the caption, “Say it in your dreams, ‘THE JEWS ARE TO BLAME’ ”

The turning point for the Jews occurred during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, in Nov 1938.  Hitler used this incident, like the Reichstag Fire, as the excuse to fan the flame of fire…literally.  A young Jewish boy was so tired of his family’s poor treatment that he retaliated by killing a German officer.  Bad move!  Hitler then demanded that the Jews’ businesses, synagogues, and residences be destroyed….Hence the name “The Night of the Broken Glass.”  Even worse, the Jews were then fined for the damage and made to clean up the mess.  It was after this event that Goring established the isolation of Jews into GHETTOS.

Hitler was not satisfied with just Austria and Czech.  He had his eyes set on Poland but feared France and Britain would protect her.  So he manipulated the Soviet Union to divide Poland with him.  Ironically, France and Britain never helped Poland when Hitler invaded, so he never really needed to ally with the Soviets.   He then went on to invade Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, northern France, Italy, Algeria , Morrocco, Libya, Romania, and Finland with no opposition. 

Many people, including myself, wondered why the Jews didn’t just leave!  While some were in denial hoping things would get better, others did try to leave!  But remember, you needed proper documentation to enter other countries.  You had to also pay a tax, which also burdened the Jews.  And last but not least, someone had to sponsor you.  Even if you passed these variables, the country had to lift her immigration quota!    By October 1941, the doors closed, and even if the Jews could leave, now it was forbidden. 

Well, Hitler “tried” to get rid of the Jewish problem by pawning them off to other nations, but when that didn’t work, it was time to implement his Final Solution.  The first gassings occurred at Chelmo on Dec 8, 1941.  Ghettos were already established in 1939, but instead of just separating from Non-Jews, the purpose of these places became  staying grounds for extermination.  There were over 400 ghettos, and the center of ghetto life was in Warsaw, Poland.  From this ghetto, they were transferred to the death camp Treblinka starting in 1942. 

Even though mass murder was already in effect with gas chambers and mass shootings in the Soviet Union, The Wannsee Conference in Jan 1942 under Reinhard Heydrich made it official.  In the most beautiful, luxurious setting, they put their feet up smoking cigars chatting about genocide.  They coded the policy of murder as “Resettlement to the East.”  God forbid, they called it what it really was!  Bastards!  Ironically, many attending the conference had doctorate degrees.  NICE!

Another nauseating shocker was that the UNITED STATES and GREAT BRITAIN had CONFIRMED reports that the concentration camps were running at full steam, and while they sympathized and gave the Nazis a public lashing, they didn’t act.  What’s the phrase….Actions speak louder than words…..Well, put your money where your mouth is!  After the dreadful Nazi riot against Jews in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, polls showed that Americans overwhelmingly disapproved of Nazi treatment of the Jews, but also showed that they did not want to allow more Jewish refugees to enter the United States. The numbers of refugees admitted were a fraction of those who applied.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the nation to war, but he did not take the lead on a rescue of the Jews, a decision still much debated. The exhibit does not alter the known facts of Mr. Roosevelt’s logic. The president met at the White House with the Polish underground member Jan Karski in 1943, who told him of the horrors suffered by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and in a transit camp. But the president remained focused on war-winning, not rescue.

The exhibit recounts some shocking government blunders, including the State Department’s inexcusable refusal in 1942 to pass on information from Gerhart Riegner, the World Jewish Congress’s representative in Switzerland, about a plan being formulated in Hitler’s headquarters to eliminate 3.5 million to 4 million Jews. “Do not send” is scrawled on the document. More can and should have been done to raise the alarm during the war. By the time of the D-Day landing, 5 million Jews had already perished.

That is NOT to say that all people were hypocrites.  There is an entire floor dedicated to rescuers.  Thank God for them, or I would not be here today.  Raoull Wallenburg, a Swiss Diplomat in Hungary, helped immensely.  The White Rose Society, an anti-Nazi group in Germany, said, “Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized people as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct.”  These youngsters had more common sense than the ones with masters and doctorate degrees.

After the war, there was even more disappointment.  The Nuremburg trials were supposed to issue justice!  How can that be when only 185 Nazis were brought to trial, and many were acquitted?  Those who were guilty, the Americans suspended more than half their sentences.  What is this world coming to?