Warning and Hope: The Nazi Murder of European Jewry : a Survivor's Account 0853034877

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The Library of Holocaust Testimonies Editors: Antony Polonsky, Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, Aubrey Newman, Raphael F. Scharf, Ben Helfgott MBE

Under the auspices of the Yad Vashem Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Centre for Holocaust Studies, University of Leicester My Lost World by Sara Rosen From Dachau to Dunkirk by Fred Pelican Breathe Deeply, My Son by Henry Wermuth My Private War by Jacob Gerstenfeld-Maltiel A Cat Called Adolf by Trude Levi An End to Childhood by Miriam Akavia A Child Alone by Martha Blend The Children Accuse by Maria Hochberg-Marianska and Noe Gruss / Light a Candle by Gena Turgel My Heart in a Suitcase by Anne L. Fox Memoirs from Occupied Warsaw, 1942-1945 by Helena Szereszewska Have You Seen My Little Sister? by Janina Fischler-Martinho Surviving the Nazis, Exile and Siberia by Edith Sekules Out of the Ghetto by Jack Klajman with Ed Klajman From Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Back by Erika Myriam Kounio Amariglio Translated by Theresa Sundt I Was No. 20832 at Auschwitz by Eva Tichauer Translated by Colette Levy and Nicki Rensten My Child is Back! by Ursula Pawel Wartime Experiences in Lithuania by Rivka Lozansky Bogomolnaya Translated by Miriam Beckerman Who Are You, Mr Grymek? by Natan Gross Translated by William Brand A Life Sentence of Memories by Issy Hahn, Foreword by Theo Richmond An Englishman in Auschwitz by Leon Greenman For Love of Life by Leah Iglinsky-Goodman No Place to Run: A True Story by Tim Shortridge and Michael D. Frounfelter A Little House oh Mount Carmel by Alexandre Blumstein From Germany to England Via the Kindertransports by Peter Prager By a Twist of History: The Three Lives of a Polish Jew by Mietek Sieradzki The Jews of Poznan by Zbigniew Pakula Lessons in Fear bv Henryk Vogler

Warning and Hope The Nazi Murder of European Jewry A Survivor's Account

WILLIAM SAMELSON

VALLENTINE MITCHELL LONDON • PORTLAND, OR

First published in 2003 in Great Britain by VALLENTINE MITCHELL Crown House, 47 Chase Side, Southgate London N14 5BP and in the United States of America by VALLENTINE MITCHELL c/o ISBS, 5824 N.E. Hassalo Street Portland, Oregon, 97213-3644 Website: www.vmbooks.com

Copyright © 2003 William Samelson

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Samelson, William Warning and hope: the Nazi murder of European Jewry: a survivor's account. - (The library of Holocaust testimonies) 1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Causes I. Title 940.5'31811

ISBN 0-85303-462-1 (paper) ISBN 0-85303^187-7 (cloth) ISSN 1363-3759

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Samelson, William, 1928Warning and hope: the Nazi murder of European Jewry: a survivor's account / William Samelson. p. cm. - (Library of Holocaust testimonies, ISSN 1363-3759) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-85303-462-1 (pbk.) 1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)-Causes. 2. AntisemitismEurope-History-20th century. 3. Ideology-Germany-History -20th century. 4. Jews-Persecutions-Germany. 5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)-Moral and ethical aspects. 1. Title. II. Series.

D804.3 .526 2003 940.53'18-dc21

2002032765

All rights reserved. No f>art of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval si/sleoi or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.

Typeset by Frank Cass Publishers Ltd Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Victoria Square, Bodmin, Cornwall

hi memory of those countless voices

Silenced by tyrants everywhere And in tribute to the indomitable

Human spirit that withstood the Temptation of evil... As a guidepost from the past

For future generations...

Remembering the children whose Lives have been snuffed out by

Merciless assassins prematurely. And for those yet to be born...

William Samelson

14 March 2001

ALSO BY WILLIAM SAMELSON A Critical Profile Dcr Sinn Des Lesens

AU Lie in Wait

Let's Begin Let’s Converse

Let's Read Let's Write

Let's Continue

Instructor's Handbook Near and Distant El Legado Sefaradi

Otte Bridge to Life

Contents

List of Illustrations

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

Glossary of Foreign Terms

xiii

Nazi Euphemisms

xvi

The Library of Holocaust Testimonies by Sir Martin Gilbert

xvii

1

Retrospectives

Introduction: Remembering Things Past

PART 1:

20

WARNING: EARLY HISTORY TO POST-WORLD WAR ONE

1

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

33

2

Political Racism and Social Darwinism

60

3

The Physical and Political Aspects of Post-World War One Germany

68

PART 2: THE PRICE OF APATHY: HITLER'S ASCENT TO POWER AND WORLD WAR TWO

4

Hitler and his Ideology

5

The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem

85 134

PART 3:

DAYS OF DISGRACE AND REDEMPTION: 1439-1445

6 Collaborators, Bystanders, Resistors, Deniers, Non-Jewish Victims and the Righteous Gentiles 221 7 Children during the Holocaust PART 4:

335

HOPE: 1445 AND AFTER

8 The Fall of the Third Reich and the Trials for Crimes against Humanity 9 Genocide: God's Will or Man's Doing?

369 388

10 Xenophobiii Revisited: ThePolitics of Hatred and Blame

411

Legacy and Conclusions

473

Appendices

517

Select Bibliography

531

Index

545

List of Illustrations Between pp. 238 and 239.

1. A typical ghetto: the ghettoization of Jews in the German-occupied territory of Poland (Generalgouvernement). The first ghetto was established in Piotrkow Trybunalski

2. An Orthodox Jew (Hasid). The Nazis humiliated and tormented the Hasidim, who were easily identified because of their dress and physical appearance. 3. The Star of David armbands had to be worn by ghetto inhabitants at all times as a means of identification. Non-compliance was punished by death. 4. The Judenrat (Jewish Council) served as the governing body of the ghetto. Its members carried out the commands of the Nazi administration. 5. Jews humiliated by being forced to scrub the pavement of a street.

6. Umsiedlung (resettlement) of the Jews from the ghettos to the extermination camps. 7. Hitler reviewing his Storm Troops (the SS) during a Party rally in Nuremberg. 8. Die Geissel Gottes (The Scourge, or Plague, of God) was a propaganda concept of the stereotypical Jew popularized by the Nazis. 9. Jews were murdered by Einsatzkoinmandos (action commandos) and buried in mass graves. The victims had to dig their own graves and sort out clothing and belongings before being shot.

10. Jewish women had to undress before being murdered and buried in mass graves.

11. Jewish victims digging their own graves before being murdered by the Einsatzkonnnando unit.

12. Arrival at the concentration or labor camp.

13. Appell (assembly) in Buchenwald concentration camp. 14. Buchenwald concentration camp sleeping arrangements. 15. The quarry at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

16. Women in a concentration camp. 17. Children readied for 'medical experiments' at the Auschwitz death camp. 18. Crematories were used as instruments of mass murder. Prior to being cremated, the victims were gassed.

Acknowledgements

My chief debt is to my parents, Henryk and Balbina Samelson, who have instilled in me early in my childhood an awareness of pursuing the things I love with perseverance and utmost dedication. I am also indebted to a number of distinguished scholars who have helped along the laborious road in the completion of the book. To my dear friend, the distinguished Professor Norman Sherry, who read the first few chapters critically and hastened to express his encouragement. He was present during the genesis of my labors. To my friend and colleague, Professor Bill Spinks, who checked the very first copy of the typescript from the initial sentence to the last and made many helpful suggestions of an encouraging nature. I must express my profound gratitude to my dear friend, Professor Gerald Fleming, who gave selflessly of his time, spending long hours reading the final typescript. His support and valuable suggestions resulted in a greatly improved text. I offer my undying gratitude to my dear friend, Ben Helfgott, mbe, companion of those dark times we had languished in the Piotrkow Ghetto, a fellow survivor. It is due to his selfless support and untiring efforts that this book has experienced its publication. Also, I must thank my publisher, Frank Cass and his able editors, Sally Green and Georgina Clark-Mazo, as well as their staff for facilitating my tasks in the preparation of the final details essential in the production of this book. I am thankful to my children for their love, understanding and tolerance in having shared me with my passion for writing during this long term of labor. Words fail me in expressing my gratitude to my darling wife, Jenny Mai Phuong, for her manifold help and encouragement during the tedious and seemingly unending hours of my endeavor. It is her love and devotion that kept me going and which I thankfully reciprocate.

William Samelson Boerne, Texas 2002

Glossary of Foreign Terms ABBREVIATIONS: (F) French, (G) German, (H) Hebrew, (I) Italian, (L) Latin, (P) Polish, (R) Russian, (Y) Yiddish, (ON) Old Norse

Al Kiddush hashem (H) also (G) Appell (G) Appellplatz Arbeitslager (G) arme Teufel (G) Artnja Krajowa-A.K. (P) Bar Mitzvah (H) bashaert Bekanntmachung (G) begraben (G) bleib stehen! (G) Blockalteste (G) Brigadefilhrer (G) B'rith Mila (H) Bruderschaft (G) brudny zydzie (P) capo (1) challa chamotzi cholent Cohanim (H) dayenu (H) Deutschland liber alles (G)

din Torah (H) droshke (Y) Entlausungsraum (G) euch (G) Feuer! (G) Fragenbogen Fuhrerprinzip (G) gabah (Y) ganev (Y) Gauleiter (G) Gefreiter (G) Gemara (H)

died for the sanctification of His Name then, now then roll call assembly yard labor camp poor devils the resistance movement consisting of rightist elements; freely translated 'Home Army' confirmation of a 13-year-old boy into manhood destined announcement bury Stand still! Halt! the barrack cadre SS rank equal to Major General (literally 'brigade leader') the ceremony of circumcision brotherhood dirty Jew surrogate Nazi thug braided bread prayer for the sanctification of bread potatoes and spices (Sabbath dessert) priests enough Germany above all else (national anthem of the Third Reich) litigation a horse-drawn taxi delousing area you Fire! Questionnaire (post-World War Two) vindicating Nazis total power confined to a single leader the keeper of the temple; beadle thief District Governor Private First Class (Pfc.), lance corporal Discussion of Jewish Law, based on the Mishnah; both together constitute the Talmud

xiv golem (Y) goluth (H) goy (Y) Gruppenfiihrer(G)

hakham (H) Haskalah (H) Hasid (H) Hausbursche (G) Heimuvhr (G) herein (G) Herrenvolk (G) Hevrah Kadishah (H) HJ-Hitler-lugend (G) hozon (H) Humash (H) Hund (G) jawohl (G) Judenfrage (G) Judenfrei (G) Judenrat (G) Judenstadt (G) Judenreinigung (G) Jude verrecke! (G) lugend (G) Kaddish (H) kashrut kcheder (H) Kiddush (H) Knochenmiihle (G) koved (H) Kriegsgefangene (G) Kristallnacht (G) Kultur (G) Kulturverwalter (G) Kunst (G) Lagerkommandant (G) Lebensraum (G) le boche sen va (F) leiten (G) Liebchen (G) Maarev makher (Y) ntalpo (Y) mam'loshn tnamzehr (Y) Mazal tov (Y) melammed (Y) mikvah (Y) minyan (Y)

Mischling (G) nachas (Y) niggun

Warning and Hope idiot, factotum exile gentile GS rank, equivalent to Lieutenant General (literally 'group leader') literally 'wise one,' also rabbi reform assimilation movement orthodox Jew (literally 'follower of the Rabbi') orderly home guard enter master race holy burial society Hitler Youth cantor literally 'a fifth', i.e. the Pentateuch dog yes, Sir the Jewish question without Jews; free of... Jewish Council Jewish City liquidation, cleansing, of Jews Jew, die! youth mourner's prayer Jewish dietary laws Hebrew religious school sanctification of wine on Sabbath bone-grinder prestige, glory; respect prisoners of war Night of the Broken Glass culture culture administrator art Camp Commandant living space the German flees lead, take dear one, darling evening prayers wheeler-dealer monkey mother tongue (Yiddish) a product of adultery or incest, bastard good luck teacher ritual bath a quorum of 10 men over 13 years of age constituting a congregation for public worship Hybrid, half-Jew a deep, quiet joy melody

xv

Glossary of Foreign Terms Obersturmbannfiihrer (G) Panzerfaust (G) pney Polizeiausweis (G) rachmones Rassenschande (G)

Raus zum Appell! (G) Realgymnasium (G) Reichskanzlei (G) Rollkommando (G) Rosh Hashanah (H) SA-Sturm Abteilung (G) Scharftihrer (G) Schweinehund (G) shadelmacher shaygets (Y) shekhinah shikseh (Y) shivah (H) shmadnik (Y) shnorre Shoah shohet (Y) shteebl shtetl (Y) shut (Y) Sonderkommando (G) Straflager (G) Sturmbannfilhrer (G) tallit (H) Torah (H) t'fillin (H) tsaddik (H) tseddakah (H) Unteroffizier (G) Vaterland (G) Verfluchtes Gesindel (G) Volkisch (G) Vblksdeutscher (G) Volksturm (G) Waffen SS Wehrmacht (G) Yekke (Y) Yiddishkeit yokel Yom Hadin (H) Yom Kippur (H)

SS rank equal to Lieutenant Colonel bazooka the people police identification papers compassion defilement of race by sexual intercourse between Aryan and non-Aryan Out, for roll call! secondary school with scientific bias State Chancellery raiding party New Year literally 'attack detachment'; Stormtroopers SS rank equal to Company CO lit. 'dog pig', scum wig-maker Gentile boy Divine presence Gentile girl mourning convert beggar Hebrew designation for Holocaust butcher place of worship a small town temple, synagogue special unit (assassination squad) punitive camp SS rank equal to major prayer shawl the Law (Bible scroll) phylacteries righteous person good (virtuous) deed, charity corporal, noncommissioned officer motherland (lit. fatherland) damned rabble native of German soil, of Germanic blood German national home guard combat formation SS the German army assimilated German Jew Jewishness tramp the Final Day of Judgment the Day of Atonement

Nazi Euphemisms

In their game of deceit and the Big Lie, the Nazis invented an array of euphemisms, a kind of cynical lexicon, of which I cite only a few of the more prominent ones which were used to disguise their true intentions: Word

Meaning

Euphemism

Aktion

action

Appell

roll call

Ausrotten

exterminate (vermin)

Capo

head

Desinfektioii Endlosung Entlausung Gasungskeller Judenrein Musselmann

disinfecting Final Solution to a problem delousing cellar used for disinfecting cleansed of Jews corpselike inmate

Nacht und Nebel

night and fog

Spitzel Umsiedlung Untermensch

point man resettlement sub-human

operation involving deportation or killing of Jews means of torture and headcount dehumanization of Jews before their murder inmate enforcer of Nazi demands gassing of inmates Judeocide ruse used to gas inmates gassing Jews Jews exterminated inmate who has given up the will to live term designating transports to death camps informer transports to the death camps objects for extermination

The Library of Holocaust Testimonies It is greatly to the credit of Frank Cass that this series of survivors' testimonies is being published in Britain. The need for such a series has been long apparent here, where many survivors made their homes. Since the end of the war in 1945 the terrible events of the Nazi destruction of European Jewry have cast a pall over our time. Six million Jews were murdered within a short period; the few survivors have had to carry in their memories whatever remains of the know­ ledge of Jewish life in more than a dozen countries, in several thousand towns, in tens of thousands of villages, and in innumerable families. The precious gift of recollection has been the sole memorial for millions of people whose lives were suddenly and brutally cut off. For many years, individual survivors have published their testi­ monies. But many more have been reluctant to do so, often because they could not believe that they would find a publisher for their efforts. In my own work over the past two decades I have been approached by many survivors who had set down their memories in writing, but who did not know how to have them published. I also realized, as I read many dozens of such accounts, how important each account was, in its own way, in recounting aspects of the story that had not been told before, and adding to our understanding of the wide range of human suffering, struggle and aspiration. With so many people and so many places involved, including many hundreds of camps, it was inevitable that the historians and students of the Holocaust should find it difficult at times to grasp the scale and range of events. The publication of memoirs is therefore an indispensable part of the extension of knowledge, and of public awareness of the crimes that had been committed against a whole people. Sir Martin Gilbert Merton College, Oxford

Retrospectives Note to Posterity Even now, years after the unspeakable events took place, I fear that my testimony will fail to sound a warning. Human nature prompts me to believe that my efforts will, for the most part, have been in vain. It is, then, my hope that the reaction of the few, the brave, who will heed my warnings and, thereby, recognize the signposts of impending crises arising from human folly, will sound the alarm, thus saving the species yet for another day ...

Question: Why must I speak the unspeakable?

Not so long ago, my name was Wilek. No, not really. That was the name by which I was known to my family and friends. To the enemy who occupied my homeland Poland, I was inmate no. 116420. I am a survivor of Nazi extermination camps during World War Two. Between the years 1933 and 1945 1 experienced first-hand the rise and fall of the Nazi regime in such places as Piotrkow, Czestochowa, Radom, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Colditz, from where the US Army liberated me on May 1, 1945. By that time I had reached the age of 17. Thus my childhood and early teens were spent for the most part in involuntary confinement, with the exception of five months during the spring and summer of 1942, when I was part of a partisan group in the area of Podole, Poland, behind the Nazi front lines. You might have heard of these places from various sources; rela­ tives or friends, perhaps teachers in classrooms. Needless to say, during those years I was pitched headlong into life's lowest depths, struggling each day against all odds to survive. Now, I belong to the fast-dwindling ranks of individuals called 'The Survivors of the Holocaust'. We were in our teens at the war's end. In a matter of a rela­ tively brief span of time, perhaps another decade or two, we, the last survivors, will all have passed into history, and the Holocaust will no longer be part of living memory; it, too, will become a segment of history. When this happens, it will be kept alive as both nightmare and warning only by those who tell and retell it to the children at home and as part of the learning process in educational institutions. Thus, the tale will become part and parcel of pop culture, trans­ mitted from generation to generation through oral tradition. It will

2

Warning and Hope

be kept alive, in order to filter history through story, as life is taught through art, to make it all comprehensible, emotionally meaningful and, maybe, just maybe, permanent. Experience tells me, however, that, with the absence of eyewit­ nesses to this darkest, most horrifying, period in the evolution of Homo sapiens, posterity might be carried along by the slow, steady swindle of 'revisionist, deconstructionist, historians'. I fear the dese­ cration of the memory of millions of innocent victims of Nazi horrors, caused by the stroke of a biased pen, a false voice; result of 'conve­ nient' memory. Some of those alleged 'historians' already claim that the Holocaust never happened, and I can only respond to such absurd allegations simply: I sincerely wish it hadn't happened. Much of the suffering and many needless deaths would have been prevented, including those of my mother, my little sister, and most of my family. As it was, my family tree was cut down by the assassin's axe, while its branches were still in full blossom and very much alive. I am also motivated to write this testimonial by recent polls taken of adults in the United States, which state '22 percent of the adults polled said it seemed possible that the Holocaust never happened; an additional 12 percent said they did not know whether it was possible' (New York Times, April 30,1993, Michiko Kakutani, 'When History and Memory are Casualties: Holocaust Denial'). If this can be happening now, half a century since my liberation from the Nazi death camps, 1 can well imagine the extent of the damage a further lapse of time will do to our collective memory. There are increasingly fewer survivors around to give first-hand testimony about what they experienced and witnessed. With the passing of time, people who feel uncomfortable with reminders of an embarrassing nature, relegate facts to fictitious history, sanitizing them to suit their own particular persuasion. These individuals thereby become the 'assassins of memory' as much as their prede­ cessors, the Nazis, were assassins of innocent people. It is, therefore, incumbent on each of us to erect a memorial to thoughts and feelings in our hearts and souls. It is our duty to accept the true and living history. Because otherwise our conclusions will be inaccurate and will not do justice to the immensity of the problems seen in the renunciation of individual freedom and responsibility; conclusions that need to be drawn from history for the present if we are not to follow the pitfalls of the past. The Hitler regime, after all, was a mockery of all moral precepts. It was evidence of man's inhu­ manity to man. We must remember, because to forget is to abandon history, and a people that abandons history forsakes itself. Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Maidanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Dachau, and countless other places of infamy shall always remind us of un­ speakable suffering, humiliation, degradation and the agonizing

Retrospectives

3

deaths of numberless innocent victims; not forgetting that the murder of 1,300,000 Jewish children was part of the process. These children were unmercifully cut down by willing assassins simply because they were born of Jewish mothers. For no other reasons than that, let these be warning examples of history. And to those who argue that we have now done enough retrospection, and should be looking forward, 1 say that they fail to recognize that the Jewish people live from their history, and they were more intensely affected by it in the twentieth century than ever before. We must learn that evil is ever present and thus live in its company and learn from it; one must learn how to address the very idea of evil. Learn how the best qualities in us can form a buffer against evil - how the ordinary human qualities of love, friendship, or simple tolerance of others can counterbalance evil or, at least, keep it at bay. Thus it must also be told that even in the midst of the horrors, in that historic twilight of the human species, there were some shining lights, though all too few, that reflected from those persons we now come to call 'the righteous'. Be they Christian or Jew, Nazi or anti­ Nazi, ordinary men and women reached into the depths of their souls and found therein compassion for their fellow humans. And now, when asked why they laid their own lives on the line to help those in need, their answer is a simple one: 'I did what any one would do.' But not everyone did the 'right' thing, for it was a time when cruelty was the norm of human behavior and kindness was the rare exception. Hence, the deeds of the 'righteous' were sufficient cause for the redemption of all people. Hardly any country has in its history remained free from blame for war and violence. The genocide of the Jews by the Nazis is, however, unparalleled in history. As a survivor of this horrific event, I feel compelled to address this issue, and as only an eyewitness can, try to prevent a recurrence of such a universal terror. 'Why must I speak the unspeakable?' I speak because I am deeply inclined to believe that I was spared for this purpose, to tell it as it was, without embellishment, to serve as a memory capsule, to guard this period in Jewish history from trivialization and revisionism. I realize full well that the task of maintaining an awareness of history and living with it cannot be left up to the Jews alone. We all live in and with history. None of us can escape this fact. Of course, we can desensitize ourselves to it. Still, this attempt at desensitization is nothing other than a renewed subterfuge aimed at renouncing the freedom of decision. If we are unable to agree that the relinquishing of individual freedom and the obligation to moral responsibility preceded the martyrdom and subsequent deaths of millions of persons, then all my efforts here will be meaningless.

4

Warning and Hope

I consider it my duty to assume a warning role whenever there is reason to fear a lack of sympathetic regard to this salient question, and I feel that negligence, thoughtlessness and the loss of historical awareness have obscured people's perception of the past. Freedom and responsibility are inseparable. The young people of today are not responsible for what occurred in the past, but they are indeed responsible for what becomes of past experience in the future. It is important to feel concern as a result of past turmoil. It is equally important to reject superficial statements and worn plati­ tudes. The young must not spare their parents and grandparents critical questions, exposing to the light of day that darkest period of 'civilized' history, despite all those who feel that suppressing the truth is their salvation. The young should never relax their efforts, never accept evasive answers. None of them as yet has been given an answer as to why it was enough, in occupied Nazi territories, to be the child of a Jewish mother to lose the right to respect for human dignity. By asking these important questions, the young will give them­ selves and us cause for reflection. By asking this, they will refer us to history and to the fact that we must seize the moment, accept our responsibility and act accordingly. Hence, if we remember that the Third Reich was possible in the midst of an ostensibly civilized society, we will be better able to serve as the conscience of all people in the years to come - to warn of impending disaster - to serve as a beacon of hope. If we remember how people were put to death because of their religious background, we will not be blind to the suffering of those around us who are persecuted for those same reasons. If we remember that mentally and physically disabled people were put to death in the Third Reich, we will be more sensitive to the needs of such people within our own society and act more respon­ sibly toward them. If we remember how often people sought refuge and protection from persecution, yet they stood before closed doors, we will not close our borders to those that are truly persecuted and seek our protection and sanctuary. If we reflect on the great sacrifices paid by those who believed in free thinking under the rule of totalitarian tyranny, we will protect the right of everyone to express new ideas and be critical, however much that criticism might be directed against ourselves. Finally, if we recall the price this world has paid by living a lie, giving credence to prejudice and inciting enmity and hatred of other people, be they Jews, Russians, Armenians, Blacks, Whites or Orientals, to name only a few, we must conclude that it is important to live with and not against each other.

Retrospectives

5

Remembrance is one of the main aspects of human development, just as vengeance and hatred are inadequate reasons for survival. Only to live, as a reminder of those dismal happenings, seems reason for preventing their recurrence. Charity, love, hope, and faith suddenly become the most important basic values to live by. Let us not dwell excessively on the dark side of history, but search for a glimmer of light in a persistent yearning for meaning in our existence. It is our obligation to give evidence in a truly biblical sense, and to create the type of world in which our children's children can flourish as sensitive, concerned persons, and in which a recurrence of this vile evil will be impossible. It is my hope that the chapters that follow will have explained, at least partially, the 'what', 'how', and 'when' of World War Two's destruction of European Jewry by the Nazi regime of the Third Reich, in response to the many questions asked of me in the class­ room and in lecture halls.

Third-generation inquiries The following third-generation inquiries as well as countless other student observations have inspired a personal introspective into the very essence of this puzzling historical event called 'Holocaust'. My efforts in trying to unravel the inexplicable resulted in this book.

Student: Kim Schworn, 13/9/1993

Coming from a fairly strong German background (my greatgrandparents came over from Germany), I have always been puzzled by what I know about the Holocaust. My dad's side of the family refuses to discuss Germany's checkered past and while I know that they abhor what their people did, I think a part of them is still conditioned into believing that they (the Jews?) deserved it. I see their prejudices manifested in other ways, toward other people, and I want it to stop with me. The Holocaust demonstrates a tragic and historical period from which we can all learn. I'm glad I have the opportunity to take this class, because it is rare to have lived through a major histor­ ical nightmare and to be able to articulate the experience well. Finally, I do not think human nature has changed so much in 50 years that something like the Holocaust could not recur.

Student: Stephen Chipman, 13/9/1993 I know about the history of the Holocaust - the so-called what,

Warning and Hope

6

how, and when questions. However, I have never been able to fully grasp the why questions. I would like to try to understand why Germans allowed someone like Hitler to come to power and why they turned their backs on their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters (Germans). I would also like to know how important the advent of modern technology was to the success of the Final Solution.

Student: Jay Cullender, 13/9/1993 I wanted to take this class because I have always been shocked by the events of the Holocaust. I want to better understand how the world could have stood by while a race was systematically exterminated, and how a man like Hitler could inspire such blind devotion in an entire nation. In addition. I'm also curious as to Hitler's life before he rose to power. Student: Jim Rather, 14/9/1993

Three years ago while I was in Munich I visited Dachau. To say that my experience awakened me to the tragedy of the Holocaust would be to underestimate its impact on my life. 1 honestly expect a lot from the class and myself this semester. I would like to learn about the social and historical events which took place prior to and during the Holocaust. But most of all I'm interested in hearing your personal struggle with the Nazis during your youth. As a philosophy major, I'm concerned about both the moral/ethical implications of the Holocaust as well as the strength and human spirit of the Jews, something I caught glimpses of in Dachau.

Student: Shanna McCormick, 14/9/1993 I hope to gain a multidimensional understanding of the Holocaust. As a Jew I have learned a lot about this topic in the past, but from a particular perspective. I hope that by taking a broader look at the subject I can understand more fully how and why this happened.

Student: Brandon Price, 13/9/1993

I have lived in Texas all my life with a Christian background. As I have known few Jews, I know little about the Holocaust. I

Retrospectives

7

hope that this class will show me some of the spirit of the Jewish people as well as that of the German people. 1 want to see both sides of this tragedy. I would also like to hear about Hitler himself and how he started his 'trains of death' against an entire group of people. Student: Erika Kirwen, 14/9/1993

I hope to understand more fully the causes of the Holocaust. I hope to learn how to get rid of my own prejudices toward Germany/Germans as being the ones who 'caused' the Holocaust. By taking an academic, historical perspective on what happened instead of using a personal judgment of the German people today, I hope to do this. I hope to learn enough about the Holocaust so that 1 can help remind people in future generations what really happened as well as help future generations (including my own) avoid any situation similar to the Holocaust. From the Jewish perspective, I would like to learn about survivors. I would like to know how they survived, how they felt after the war ended, and how they cope today. How does the Holocaust affect Judaism today? How do survivors feel about using medical research information collected by the Nazis in concentration camps? How do the trials of today of accused Nazi criminals affect Jews? Does it help make up for what happened, and is this what most Jews want done?

Life in the shtetl At the time of the Black Death (ca. 1347 ce), Jewish refugees from Germany wandered eastward to Poland at the invitation of the enlightened Polish king Cazimir the Great. It happened during a time when all the other countries of western Europe persecuted the Jewish people. In Poland, they had found a sanctuary in which to raise families, work, study, and prosper through the years. (Hassidic scholars seeking to unravel the profound mysteries of the Kabbalah found allusions in names of towns and countries. One of those was in the name of Poland, which is said to derive from two Hebrew words, Po-lin, 'here abide', which was allegedly inscribed on a note fallen from heaven, hence the fateful journey eastward of the perse­ cuted Jews.) As far back as I can remember, my parents and grandparents instilled in me a certain sense of pride in my national belonging. Though we differed in many cultural aspects from our compatriots,

8

Warning and Hope

such as religion, traditional values, and observances, I should remember that I was a Polish Jew and not a Jewish Pole. Over the years, life in the shtetl assumed its own independence from the influences of the world surrounding it. Its inhabitants, the Jews of eastern Europe, adhered to their own traditions, followed their religious observances, and spoke their own, unique language; Yiddish. The shtetl language was as unpretentious as were its inhab­ itants; no erudite treaties were written, only commentaries on the Talmud, some stories about indigenous life and, quite frequently theater productions were presented that mostly dealt with elements of daily life. Indeed, if the shtetl inhabitants kept abreast of the situa­ tion outside their own life or had any great concern or anxieties, they didn't let on in the least. Though their lives followed a certain pattern, they were by no means rigid and displayed a certain vitality, which allowed them flex­ ibility to enrich their customs from generation to generation. The shtetl Jews sang. They sang at weddings and at funerals as well as at all other rituals. They sang when they recited the sacred words from the Torah, and they sang while they studied the Talmud. The artisans sang at their tasks, and homes were filled with song as well. Though no day passed without a song, there was much weeping in the shtetl. Awareness of anti-Jewish feelings was very much alive. If only because Jewish boys were constantly being attacked by Christian boys, and the gulf between Jew and Goy seemed insur­ mountable, there was much grief in the shtetl and not much cause for false rejoicing. Thus, the Jew had learned to cry when he was sad and anguished, but tears came to his eyes at moments of rejoicing, in a burst of happiness, as if a precautionary voice's warning against overindulgence. Every piece of liturgy owned its unique chant; its characteristic melody or niggun accompanied every ceremony. Though the shtetl Jews lived in isolation from the outside, in a predominantly Jewish environment, they reflected a wide spectrum of religious, political, and cultural life. There existed every strand of Hasidic life, each with its own shteebl (place of worship), character­ ized by the followers of many renowned rabbis. The Zionist organizations were amply represented and the Yiddish theater was a virile ongoing activity - one that has spilled over into the daily life of the American Jewish community even to the present day - rescued from tsarist and other persecution through timely emigration. Out of the pney (the people) of the shtetl, a place of honor was always given to the mokum Jews, who used to wander about the streets with their sharp tongues, discussing world problems as well as shtetl matters with equal enthusiasm. There were also the ShabbatYidn (Sabbath-Jews), in their satin gabardines and the Vochendike-Yidn

Retrospectives

9

(every-day Jews), in their work clothes. (Not to be forgotten is the Shabbat-Goy (Sabbath-Gentile), who is paid to do the chores forbidden by Law to the Jew; kindling the fire on the stove, engaging the light switch, and other mundane quotidian requisites.) The shtetl Jews were studious people. Almost every home, even the humblest and most impoverished, had its shelves filled with books. These were not there for display, but were a signal of profound spiritual strength and enrichment. Much time was spent in study; either private or within a study circle, groups of Hasidim gath­ ering in the shteebl for the purpose of studying the Talmud or other branches of rabbinical literature. The shtetl was a place where all the common folk as well as the scholars studied the Torah; where young and old gathered around wise men to listen to their discourse on the great books and their re­ interpretations of the Scriptures. It was a place where on the Sabbath and other holidays people congregated in their synagogues and shteebls to worship their living God and listen to sermons that were to inspire them for the rest of the week, and by which the poor were comforted and the wealthy would find cause for rachmones (compas­ sion) and the dispensation of tzeddakah (charity). Prayer was a daily occurrence. It was commonly preceded by read­ ings from the Torah. It was not uncommon to spend an hour or so after morning prayers with a good read before starting out for work. The shtetl was a place from which no one in need was turned away, especially those who spoke mam'loshn (the mother tongue, Yiddish). In the shtetl, the Jews took care of their own, from the cradle to the grave, through charity in life, and the hevra hadishah (burial society) in death. It must be noted that, though there were varying levels of intellect among the shtetl inhabitants, a strong thirst for knowledge pervaded all, rich or poor, and respect for learning and the acquisition of knowledge was taught at the cradle and carried on throughout one's lifelong endeavors. Even those who were unable to commit to the study of the Torah because of economic strains did all they could to support the student. Not every Jew in the shtetl could afford the luxury to devote their time to the Torah in the service of God. Thus while there were a good number of Hasidim and some men of substantial means, the shtetl had its fair share of yokels (tramps) and shnorres (beggars). The latter lived in abject poverty, driven by constant worry to solicit aid from the community, which abounded in sympathy for all afflicted people. What the poor had in common was desperate poverty. I will always remember little boys and girls, shoeless, dresses in tatters, going around begging, with the hope of nothing more than a crust of bread. And though there were plenty of taverns where one could drown one's worries with spirits, seldom were

10

Warning and Hope

drunkards seen among shtetl Jews, neither was a pronounced criminal element present. The Torah study sessions at my grandfather's home imprinted on my memory the vision of the Hasidim, as they sat around the solid oak dining-room table, their happy faces reflecting an abiding passion for intellectual activity, whether their sing-song delivery argued tenets of the Law, some obscure passages in Maimonides or, simply, sought solutions to everyday life. Time and again, grand­ father would admonish, 'The Torah must not be the instrument of selfishness and greed; it must quench the thirst for the living God.' He expressed the conviction he and his fellow Hasidim lived day by day, as if they were on a mission from God. It was from my grandfather I had learned that people were supe­ rior to the angels. For, he explained, God predetermines angels' actions; therefore, they have no freedom of action, nor do they have a sense of self-sacrifice. The angels do not have to overcome obsta­ cles, and their nature is stationary, unlike that of humans who cannot remain in one place, but move either upward or downward. Thus people have a choice, was grandfather's conclusion, they can become participants in the act of creation or they can choose a nonproduc­ tive, stationary life. 'You must choose the first, Welvele,' he cautioned. When the Hasidim were gathered together, they felt a kindred spirit; the light of the Messiah illumined them as contemporary holy men. As they sat around the Sabbath table, it was as if they deliber­ ately closed themselves off from the outside world, to purify their souls and to perfect their likeness of God. Life in the bygone world of the shtetl was simple. I recall visions of a boisterous family gathered around the table, festively laden with food to greet the arrival of the Sabbath. All kinds of fragrances permeated the room. Prior to gathering for the Sabbath dinner, my brother Roman (or Reuben, in Yiddish) and I had some errands to fulfill in preparation. Everywhere we went, we sensed the fragrance of Jewishness, Yiddishkeit. From the bakery came the scent of freshly baked challah (the Sabbath bread). Children of all ages waited their turn to fetch their challah, which was to be used for the consecration of the food. On our way home, we were tempted to taste a minuscule pinch of the steaming bread, but abandoned the thought for fear we might be discovered. We would wait till grandfather intoned the chamotzi, a prayer for the sanctification of food. No fragrance could be compared to the smell of freshly baked cholent (a combination of potatoes and spices, carefully prepared bv grandmother on Friday, to be delivered to the baker's on the same

Retrospectives

11

day before sundown. The pot cover was snugly tucked in by wrap­ ping paper (or newspaper) to ensure even temperature throughout. On Sabbath morning, after a night spent in the oven, we would fetch the cholent from the bakery, ready for the men returning from the services at noon. The smell of it undoubtedly enhanced the quality of Jewish life in the shtetl. Grandmother, a shadelmacher (wig-maker), wore her most festive wig, adorned by a beautifully crocheted white headscarf. She intoned the blessing for the Sabbath candles, and while she lit them the palms of her hands simulated an embrace of the holy flames. And though from that moment on she was relegated to serving the festive Sabbath meal and only hummed along with the men, her soft, reso­ nant voice filled our home with music during festivities and ordinary days alike. It was a natural flow of words that issued forth in her songs, delivered from the Bible, the hymns, and the rich Jewish tradi­ tion. The melodies were psalm-like, typical of Hasidic women. In the preparation of foodstuffs, strict observance of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) was practiced. The most elaborate preparations by far were made for the Sabbath under the keen eye of my grand­ mother. Fish had to be cooked, chicken prepared, the table linen and silver put in their proper order. (The Sabbath is spoken of among the Hasidim in Jewish tradition as a bride of the Almighty, the Shekhinah, Divine presence, and it is the duty of every Jew to welcome her in grand style.) The children played a special role in shtetl life. They were the fulfillment of today, the promise of tomorrow. Utmost care was devoted to their education, secular as well as religious. Though the shtetl Jews had access to public schools, they preferred to keep their children under the care of the local melammed (teacher). Hence, from the tender age of 3, boys would attend a shtetl kcheder (religious school), where they were introduced to the study of the Torah. But life wasn't all study for the shtetl children. Like their counter­ parts elsewhere, they enjoyed games, such as hide-and-seek, follow the leader, hopscotch, and many others. Most enjoyable were games played at holiday observances, especially those during the Festival of Lights, as Hanukkah was called, as well as during Purim. Both these holidays fit into the rich tapestry of celebrations commemorating liberation from the yoke of oppression. Children would dress up as the brothers Makkabi during the festival of Hanukkah, and girls vied for the honor of portraying the beautiful Queen Esther, who was remembered on Purim for having freed the Jews from the scourge of Haman the Amalekite. As I contemplate those days in retrospect, the piety of the elders, their devotion to the family, the carefree pursuits of the shtetl chil­ dren, I can fathom the immense loss of an entire culture, snuffed out

12

Warning and Hope

of existence in its cradle by a contemporary personification of the ruthless Amalek named Adolf Hitler. (Many nations have attacked the Jewish people throughout history, yet for some reason, Amalek is singled out as their arch enemy. It was Amalek who was intent on destroying the newly freed Egyptian slaves as they journeyed through the wilderness upon leaving Egypt. The Amalekites were defeated by the Israelites under Joshua's leadership.) It was not the first time the Jewish people were decimated by persecution. (It may not be the last.) Yet their deep core of tradition, their sense of justice in faith, had lent them the resilience to resist and the perseverance to restore their confidence in their unique destiny. Nevertheless, sad reality indicates that Hitler's war against the Jewish people culminated in complete eradication of the shtetl culture in eastern Europe. The shtetl and its rich traditions of learning and teaching, of musing and singing, of serving the living God through daily tasks, experiences gathered through millennia, exam­ ples of civilized decorum, all these have been muted. A day in my life at Buchenwald Concentration Camp

In the night I wake, turn from one side to the other on the hard wooden surface of my bunk 'bed' to relieve the pain and increase circulation. During those moments of waking, 1 am aware of fleeting thoughts and fragments of memory that dissi­ pate swiftly. My stomach is empty, and I suffer intermittent moments of hunger cramps. Waking or sleeping, I dream: I am a child again, in my mother's arms, while she holds me close to her and caresses the painful bruise on my forehead. I fell on the pavement on my way from my violin lesson, while being chased by some Gentile ruffians who yelled at the top of their lungs, 'Filthy Jew, go to Palestine!' They yelled many other insults, but I don't remember all of them. I was so frightened for my violin and myself. Thank God, I held on to the violin case firmly. Nothing happened to the instrument. 'Now, now, Wilusiek, don't fret,' my mother whispers. 'This too will heal before you turn 25.' I cannot cry, while my mother's soothing voice comforts me. I smile faintly. 'Why do they hate us so, Mama?' I ask, but she is silent for a long moment, as if trying to find an answer. 'Wish I could tell you, Wilusiek,' she finally speaks, and I know she would tell me the truth, if she knew herself. 'Now, don't concern yourself with these foolish questions. Go play with Roman and Felusia,' my mother says, 'they've taken Beauty for a walk in the park.' Roman is my elder brother. He is

Retrospectives

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13. Felusia is my little sister. She is 6 years old. Beauty is our 3year-old collie. Before I leave, 1 question my mother: 'Why did these boys call me "filthy Jew" and tell me to go to Palestine? Am I not Polish like them? Is this not my homeland?' She looks me in the eyes for a long while before she speaks: Don't be concerned with their wicked behavior, Wilusiek.' Her eyes glaze over. 'Only next time, stay out of their way, and they won't have an opportunity to be mean to you.' My mother's cheerfulness is contagious. Instead of joining my siblings in the park, 1 go to my room. There, I immerse myself in my music. I must practice the new piece, a Mozart violin concerto, I am to play with the chamber orchestra soon. The window is open, and the sounds of music fill the modest courtyard below, where people visit, play chess or dominoes, and listen. I finish. They applaud and shout 'Bravo, bravo, bis.' I peer shyly from behind the curtain. They want more. I am pleased and go on playing. All is forgotten except the present. All's well with the world. It is March 1943 now. This is my second year in Buchenwald; third year since they'd taken my mother and Felusia to Treblinka. It might be Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I don't really know. I have lost all sense of time. I miss my violin. There's an orchestra in camp I could have joined. Better food. Tolerable conditions. But 1 didn't reveal my skill to anyone. I feared being separated from my brother Roman; the only family 1 have left. Dawn casts a pale twilight on the wooden barracks, on their drab surroundings, and on that ominous barbed wire fence carrying 4,500 volts. All that constitutes part of my existence; I am part of it, not by choice but by Nazi design. Up until recently, I used to contemplate my future, when this is over, when I'm free again. But those thoughts have somehow evapo­ rated with the last vestiges of hope. Now, I can hardly visualize freedom. Wouldn't know what to do with it, if it happened. Grateful for the breath left in me with which to hate the enemy, I lay aside for the moment all illusions of happiness. Abruptly, I am fully awake to the shrill voice of our barracks capo, calling to roll call, in German, 'Appell!'; and I know my night's musings and sleep are over. My comrade on my left has already risen and climbed down to the floor. Lying stiffly immo­ bile beneath the worn blanket is the man next to me on my right. He does not stir when the capo's dreaded voice resounds. He no longer fears it. He now answers another caller. As all mornings before the Appell, we empty the barracks of the dead. Hundreds of men spend nights on five-tier boarded lairs, the lowest being the floor, the topmost near the ceiling.

14

Warning and Hope

Neither bathroom nor running water is available. 1 wait until after the Appell to wash my face with the turnip 'soup/ which is part of our daily nourishment. Periodic disinfections by immersion in a formaldehyde solution take care of my bodily hygiene. We carry out the casualties of the previous night, undress them, and deposit their skeletal remains unceremoni­ ously on a pile at the front entry. The crematory commandos that come around with their lorries will pick them up later. Soon, the wind carries the smell of burning flesh our way as we make ready for another day at work. The uniforms of the dead are returned to the receiving area, where they will be recycled for the newly arrived. I run to the Appell. There are severe repercussions for those who join their ranks late. The capo is eager to impress his supe­ riors, the SS. I mustn't be late. Letting the capo and the SS wait is a cardinal offense. I shift from foot to foot to keep warm. A chilly wind is blowing from the mountains in the north, and the inmate's uniform offers little if any shelter from the cold. Only the lice seem to resist the cold in the seams of the tattered uniform. My feet are frozen, I wear Dutch wooden clogs on bare skin. All the while, I listen for my number to be called out. If I should miss it, there's no telling what the punishment will be. 1 recall the capo's warning the day I arrived in the Lager: 'We're going to get along fine, as long as you follow the rules. We obey the law here. I am the law!' A small, battered container is tied to the rope around my waist. The same rope holds up my trousers. It cost me a small part of my daily ration of bread, but without it, what would hold up my pants? The container is the only eating implement I have for personal use. All numbers are called. Mine is 116420. I have no name. SS shepherd dogs have names. Inmates are numbers. After the Appell, we all line up for the daily food rations. The container is half filled with lukewarm turnip water. I also get 100 grams of bread, about the size of a thin slice. My finger searches for some occasional dog bones in the broth. There aren't any this morning. I place the container to my lips, trying hard to imagine that it isn't what it is. The liquid is hard to swallow, even after so many tries. It still tastes foul and bitter, and I spit out the first gulp as soon as it reaches my tongue. I drift off in thought again. The family photos are gone. I am forgetting the faces of my loved ones; even immediate family. 1 fear I'll forget them altogether soon. 1 try hard to imagine some of their features: Mama's shiny hair, her brilliant voice; Papa's serious attitude toward life, expressed in his always stern voice; Felusia's innocent smile on her pretty face; uncles and aunts;

Retrospectives my grandparents. All of them, decent people; gone on their terminal journeys. The rest of the liquid I swallow quickly, without allowing it to linger in my mouth to taste the acrid flavor. I finish a few crumbs of bread, the rest I tuck under my jacket, which is secured into the pants. By now, I have a nice supply of bread, gathered over a week. I guard it with my life, for it took a great deal of self-discipline to collect over the days. My only worry is that someone might steal it during the brief intervals of slumber in the night. The loss of one day's ration can never be recov­ ered; it means certain starvation. I look around me and listen to the angry voices of our keepers shouting orders. My ears have grown accustomed to the hostile sounds, and I take them now for granted, though I still long for a friendly face among the inmates. In their struggle for survival, they have grown callous toward one another, and their language, emulating that of our masters, has gradually been transformed into inarticulate sounding growls, animal-like, meant to keep the other at bay. 'Shit!' 'Move! Vermin!' 'Scum!' 'Schweinehund!' - 'Pig-dog!' Every moment in Buchenwald is a new experience. There isn't much time. Within half an hour we're off to our daily tasks, some at the munitions factory, others to the limestone quarry or unloading endless supplies of gas; always under the watchful eye of the capo. 'Latrine time!' our capo yells, and we line up at the timber-built, elongated structure at the end of the barracks and somewhat isolated. I remember the capo chuckling as he announced, 'Each morning you'll take a crap before you're off to work. That's if you have anything in your gut to crap with!' The crap shack has no walls. We look at one another with questioning eyes. The enemy has stripped us of our belongings; destroyed our families and what little humor we possessed. Hope was gone. At last, he had chipped away at our native dignity, until there was none left. I do not feel like a human being; 1 do not feel like a beast of burden; I feel like an object. Though the latrine is not an enclosed area, the stench is incredibly intense. Two six-by-six planks had been placed over a ditch fifteen feet in length and three feet wide. Perched on one of the planks, I look down, afraid to guess the depth of the human waste inside the trench. Fat white worms crawl lazily on the discolored surface. 1 squat on the now befouled beam, trying to relieve myself, observing the disgusting worms

15

16

Warning and Hope

beneath and the swarms of huge green flies buzzing ominously close. I have dysentery, a common malady among those who dine on garbage. 1 feel nausea coming on, as my bowels explode with a sudden force. 'Merciful God in heaven,' I think silently. 'What if I lose my balance and fall in? No one will pull me to safety. And if they do, there's no water to wash the shit off me. One way or another, 1 am done for.' Only the fat white worms continue on their endless journey beneath me, reminding me of my own, sense­ less existence. 'I mustn't look down.' I tell myself. 'The trick is not to look down.' I am assigned to the nearby LG. Farben munitions factory. The section where I work is called 'jaundice detail'. We fill huge shells with phosphorus powder, to make incendiary bombs. For this purpose, we have to work at low temperatures to prevent the volatile substance from igniting. My only safeguard is a neckerchief, which I place over my mouth and nose. I am already yellow from tip to toe. I try not to think that no one survives this type of labor longer than three months. It doesn't matter to the Nazis. They want to get rid of us anyhow. Why not first use us up? We're bound to drop any time now, if not from malnutrition and exhaustion then from the poisonous powder. Their purpose will be crowned with success whichever way it happens. In addition, our clothing is infested with lice and filth, we fear epidemics. Many have already died of typhus, cholera, or dysentery. There's no mirror in which to see myself. Maybe it's better this way, I guess. I wouldn't want to look at the haggard face, the hollow eyes, protruding cheekbones. I am a reflection of those other mussulmans around me. I have never quite figured out why they call us mussulmans. I am the size of an 11-yearold; the age I was when all this started. And I haven't grown since. A little fellow, but then where's the harm in being small, I ask myself and I want to chuckle, but the energy is lacking. I wonder: would I have grown tall and strong in that 'other' life? Who knows? Not likely, judging by my ancestral tree. Still, physical growth is part of the matter, apart from those other things I am denied. My teeth; are they still white and sound? I guess they must be. There's no pain in them. Working at the SS kitchen, I've had occasion to rummage through the garbage, where I'd find handfuls of eggshells. That's the calcium I need for my teeth. But my dark-brown eyes, once brilliantly sharp, are blurred, like eyes caught out of focus. I squint into the distance. Don't know if I could see to read; could I read at all? Haven't read much

Retrospectives

17

more than the few warning signs here and there in the Lager. It's been so long since my fingers caressed the pages of a book. Could I write? My name? No, perhaps only my inmate number: 1-1-6-4-2-O. But I mustn't think, these thoughts. Must develop that special hardness of heart and shed all sentimentality. Can I? Never in a hundred years. Only in my mind, 1 play my music and find in it my consolation. This is the only way, the best way I know, how to remain pure of the beast within. Buchenwald boasts its very own anthem. Lyrics and marching music by two anonymous inmates, we sing, barely dragging our weary bones to and from work.. Lungs bursting, we sing as best we can, with fear in our hearts, always expecting the unexpected. We sing, and our overseers shout insults and laugh wickedly: Wenn der Tag erwacht ...

When the day awakens. Before the sun can smile. Our columns march to the daily toil Into the twilight of the dawn ... The forest is black, but the sky is red. And we carry along scarcely little bread. And deep in our hearts there's much worry ... Oh, Buchenwald, 1 cannot forget you, For you are my destiny!

Only he who has left you can understand How wonderful 'tis to be free. Oh, Buchenwald, we don't bewail or cry. No matter what our fate may be: Despite all that, we will say 'yes' to life, Because the day will come when we'll be free! We will say 'yes' to life, Because the day will come when we'll be free!

The night is hot and my girl is far, And the wind sings softly how much 1 love her, If only she remained faithful to me! The rock is hard, but firm is our step, And we carry along our picks and spades, And deep in our hearts there's love.

Oh, Buchenwald ... [refrain]

Warning and Hope

18

Yet the nights are short, and the days are long And a song resounds that was sung at home: No one shall take our courage away! Fear not, and be in step, my friend, For we carry the will to live With what blood is left in our veins, And deep in our hearts there's faith!

Oh, Buchenwald ... [refrain] An eerie chorus of discordant voices, breathlessly we shout the words as we pass in 'review' before the assembled capos and SS. They all seem to derive a kind of weird pleasure out of this bizarre spectacle, shouting insults at the marching ranks of the living dead. In their zeal to torment us, little do they know that their sport is a true source of strength and hope for many of us. Today, I count myself among the fortunate. Instead of work at I.G. Farben, I am assigned to the quarry detail. Rumors have it that Allied bombs rendered the factory temporarily out of use. There are so many rumors going around, we no longer know what to believe. Of course, everyone is pinning their hopes on the Allies' coming to our aid, though it is long overdue. Still, we have a day's reprieve from the stench of the phosphorus and its poisonous effects. I have forgotten how to smile. 'Whatever happens, keep your head down, and keep on digging,' one of my comrades warns. 'They're just waiting for their next victim.' 'They' means the capos who supervise our work. We dig the ground with picks for large rocks, which are then carted by wheelbarrow to a distant shack, where they are hewn into smaller squares, sorted and placed in orderly 6-foot cubes. Each six-man group must produce six such cubes by day's end; one cube per man. Judging by the progress we make, I doubt we can accomplish this Herculean task. 'If we don't make it by sundown,' my comrade whispers, his eyes always on his work, 'we stay through the night.' I can't help but think of the labor our ancestors had performed for the Pharaoh during their bondage in Egypt millennia ago. But, at least the Egyptians knew the value of slave labor and took proper care to keep their slaves alive. Our Nazi masters want us dead one way or another. 'Are the Nazis building pyramids?' I ask my comrade. 'Never mind that. Keep your eyes on your work, and we ll make it to the barracks by day's end.' My hands have calluses inside calluses. Some of them bleed,

Retrospectives

19

but there's nothing 1 can do to stop the bleeding. In time, my anemic condition takes care of that as well, and the bleeding stops on its own. As the day progresses, 1 feel my hands getting tough, my back is arched but holding its own, my mind's made up to meet the allotted quota of rock cubes. I mustn't feel weary. One more rock; another strike with my pick; another rock. The sun is sinking on the horizon. A red aura envelops the valley below, but I cannot stand in awe of its beauty, lest 1 be tempted to drop my guard, become soft again, and hope of survival. I have learned to ignore the sun and the stars, as I have accepted the absence of flowers and forgotten their fragrance. Only on rare occasions do I still wonder whether these things exist on the 'outside'. We make the quota and stand in formation, ready to march back to our barracks, to sing our anthem again as we enter the gates beneath a rod-iron arch bearing the inscription 'Arbeit Macht Frei', (Work Makes You Free). I touch the 'reserve' crumbs of bread under my jacket. They're still there. They're tough by now, but I can at least be assured of not going to sleep on an 'empty' stomach. Every comfort counts. In this constant worry about survival, my life had assumed the trappings of loneliness. It must be so. I am lonely among the masses of the doomed, in a land of the dead. I am aware that all this was meant for me, it was destined, bashaert, as my Hasidic Grandfather Srulko would have said. I had collaborated with destiny. I look around me, and everywhere there is gravel and dirt. Nothing can grow in the Lager. The ground is so poisonous that nothing will ever be able to grow there; only die. It is all evil, created by an evil mind, embodied in Hitler, whose very exis­ tence reminds us that monsters, after all, are real. I stick to life amidst corpses whose faces bear the marks of their last agonies. I recall Grandfather's words of admonish­ ment, as he lay dying in my arms, felled by a Nazi bullet: 'Revere life and personal dignity. You must never forsake these!' Through this vale of suffering and the agony of dying survives a passion for life; the seed is planted for a new day.

On January 20, 1942, the Nazi leadership convened a secret meeting at a villa in Wannsee, on the outskirts of Berlin, to plan the mass killing of Europe's Jews and other minorities.

Introduction Remembering Things Past Memory is at once a shield against recurrent evil and a recollection of life's bounties. Remembrance becomes a guide and a warning signal against the pitfalls of the past as well as a tribute to things well done. As individuals, we owe it to our moral conscience to contribute to the collective memory of society at large, as the alternative might plunge us into the abyss of collec­ tive amnesia, a journey of no return, a fate of recurring nightmares.

For want of a better expression, the dreadful events which took place during that short span of time between 1933 and 1945 have been called: 'Holocaust'. Our inner harmony is disturbed whenever this word comes to mind. The voices of millions cry out to us from their mass graves, begging not to be forgotten. Hence, when we make an effort to remember and bear witness, we not only pay homage to the memory of innocent victims, but also take the first steps in searching for some signals of meaning in their tragic deaths and the legacy they have left us. How can all this make sense to us as people, for, as the poet Pablo Neruda says in one of his poems, trapped in our hearts 'are the woes and furies' of humanity. How can we make certain that the coming generations will never again produce a Hitler? To understand the Holocaust, we must address three different but intersecting histories and experiences: • the history of the Jews interacting with their host countries • the more recent history of the Germans, their allies and collab­ orators, and • the history of western civilization

Moreover, we must try to understand the experience of the victims, the apparatus and ideology of the perpetrators, and the deeds of the bystanders. Therefore, we must deal with a variety of disciplines that illuminate these histories and experiences.

Remembering Things Past

21

While survival, heroism, and resistance are woven into the fabric of the Holocaust, it is the annihilation of a people that is its very substance. Nothing drives that point home more than the plight of the children. Because they were born of Jewish mothers, they were beaten, tortured, starved, and ultimately put into gas chambers more than 1.3 million of them perished at the hands of the Nazi tech­ nocrats of genocide. When Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Fuhrer (leader), first appeared on the horizon of the European power struggle, he made threats that were quite startling. The underlying theme of his threats was the global annihilation of the Jewish people. The world community saw in Hitler a demagogic buffoon, and dismissed his threats as mere 'letting-off of steam'. Still, the question on everyone's mind was: 'Will he do it?' He kept his promise; therefore others can do it in future generations. The experiences that we, the survivors of Nazi KZ Lagers (concen­ tration camps) carry within us are strange to the new western generation. They become even stranger as the years go by. For the young people of the fifties and the sixties these were events connected with their own parents; they were discussed in the family circle; memories of them still preserved the freshness of things seen and weathered by the narrator. For the young people of the eighties and the nineties, they are matters associated with their grandparents; distant, blurred, distorted, 'historical'. The twenty-first century will, by its very distance from those tragic events, produce a romantic aura of improbability about them, as it will also provide an opportunity for historical revisionism. Thus, the further people are distanced from unpleasant happenings, the easier it becomes to embellish them; deny them; reject them. Above and beyond their personal experiences, the survivors of the Holocaust have collectively witnessed a fundamental, unexpected event - fundamental precisely because it was unexpected. Incredibly, it happened that an ostensibly civilized people - the Germans - just emerged from an exemplary cultural flowering of the Weimar Republic, followed a demagogue - Adolf Hitler - whose appearance to­ day should inspire laughter and derision; his political goals, contempt. Yet Hitler was blindly followed by the Germans, adulated at home and abroad right up to the catastrophic end. Adopting the crudest perversion of the familiar Darwinian view, Hitler saw history as a great arena in which peoples forever engage in a ruthless struggle for power. He had become the architect of the Third Reich, the most horrible, inhumane government in recorded history. Thus, we must conclude from our experience, it happened, therefore it can happen again! This is the essence of what we have to say: it can happen, and it can happen everywhere and anyivhere.

22

Warning and Hope

It is not likely that all of the factors which unleashed the Nazi madness will occur simultaneously, but some existing signs urge us to special vigilance. Violence, 'useful' or 'useless', appears through sporadic or private episodes or government lawlessness in what we call the first, second, and third worlds. The world stage is set to expect the appearance of a new demagogue; there is no lack of candi­ dates. He or she would organize it, legalize it, declare it necessary and mandatory, and so contaminate the world anew; spawning clones of new demagogues. Few countries can be considered immune to a future tide of violence generated by intolerance, lust for power, economic difficul­ ties, and racialist theories, to name a few contributing factors. Who could have imagined some forty years ago that within the next generation the Nazi war against the Jews might generate so much controversy and inspire scholars of every field of endeavor in the arts and sciences to reach into new depths in their attempt to place that darkest event in the history of people under the micro­ scopic scrutiny of their observation. Likewise, who could have guessed that the spirit of Hitler would march again through the streets of a united Germany in the form of neo-Nazi resurgence, shouting time-worn slogans and spewing hatred based on renewed scapegoating and racialist theories. Some intellectualize: 'Let's place this event among the totality of universal history - let's look at the larger picture rather than at its very uniqueness.' It would be childish and immature to make comparisons of one's pain, as if one were comparing the size and extent of one's injuries with those of another person, while insisting that one pain goes deeper than another. Nevertheless, the differences must be noted. The disaster of World War Two had been orchestrated by an ostensibly cultured society; a society that used all its resources, intellectual as well as material, in its endeavor of mass assassination. The single most persecuted group were the Jews; others had ample recourse - not so the Jews. The Nazis regarded the Jews as nonhuman vermin, an antirace; they were 'different' and considered a 'danger' to the Nazi State. We must each struggle with our conscience, for we are each of our own contextual time-slice, finite in our being and ever mindful of a meaningful relationship. In some sense, we remain prisoners of ourselves, unable to ever fully share that which is within us. We cannot receive, and thus we do not ask for, the intervention of another; one who would, with warm and reassuring hand share our concerns and anguish. Each person is destined to console the texture of his or her self; to harmonize the discord we carry deep within us. Yet, we do not attain

Remembering Things Past

23

a state wherein we are completely unaffected by the lot of others. Though we are of a sad and solitary heart, our self reaches out, is able to extend beyond itself; our heart, it loves. Moreover, this being with and for others is the requisite of our guilt. If we did not share this being with others, guilt would be but a nonsensical play word. What, then, is our guilt? What do we seek to atone? The answer is hatred. Hatred is the guilt of the Holocaust; our ever-present Holocaust. We must be aware of this shadow of man, for it lurks ever near; it follows us even into the most enlightened of times. Hatred is within each of us and, given a chance, it may unleash its fury in the vilest acts of which we are capable. Thus our promise lies in the over­ coming of hatred and in receiving love; therein lies our redemption, our only hope and promise. We must deny any abstraction of the Holocaust as well as an abstraction of hatred. Such suffering must not be cheapened and diminished for in abstraction we face the most common of all phenomena; the trivialization of horror. It is only by denying such distance, by decrying any such pathos of abstraction that we can dis­ allow the recurrence of hatred; the eventuality of another Holocaust. The following is a letter from a Stanley B. of Akron, Ohio, who visited Germany on his holidays: Munich, Germany, August 1988 Today is our last day in Germany, and we'll be returning home on a mid-day flight tomorrow. I must say, this country is impressive. We were astonished at the miraculous economic recovery, the restored, modern cities, the wellto-do citizenry, the schools and the universities of great academic repute, and the progress in science and technology that have raised the level of comfort for all. Hard to think that only half a century ago a madman called Hitler led this nation to utmost destruction. I want to tell you briefly about my impres­ sions while visiting one of the concentration camps that were established under his rule. Yesterday, we visited Dachau. It is the oldest of all the concentration camps, founded not far from Munich in the year 1933. It quickly became the proving ground for Hitler's elite SS troops who had been given total control over the political, racial and religious prisoners of the state. The object of SS training was to toughen the individual so that he could perform his duties for the state in the most efficient manner. One of the prime efforts of each man was trying to outdo the other in all manner of cruelty while showing the least possible regard for the victim. Dachau is what I want to talk about. The first thing I remember is the entrance gate. It was made of wrought iron, on top of which there was - also made of wrought iron - the slogan 'Arbeit Macht Frei,' built into the bars of the gate. Freely translated into English, it means, 'Work makes you free.'

24

Warning and Hope

The rest of the exterior was made up of concrete, barbed wire, and guard towers. The compound was drab and foreboding. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the gates read, 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.' The crematories (ovens in which countless of innocent people were cremated after having been gassed) made me feel like vomiting. The memorial sculpture depicting abstract and mutilated bodies caused me unspeakable pain in my heart. The message I received at Dachau was that the world must never forget, and the horror must never be repeated. In the concentration camps of Nazi Germany over 12 million people died. Almost half of those were Jews, and 1,300,000 of them were children. Millions of Christians from the Nazi-occupied territories had been victim­ ized. The Nazi assassins killed many dissenting Germans. In conclusion, 1 must say that I don't have any answers to these burning questions. What I have are questions. I am not even sure that there are any answers, all I know is that the feelings I've experienced on visiting Dachau will not go away. Sincerely, Stanley B., Akron, Ohio

Now, let me take you on my personal journey through the land of despair and the triumph of the indomitable human spirit. It will be offered here as a multiplicity of perspectives in a complexity of voices.

Look back, and see all of those countless, frightened expressions in the faces of grown-ups and children, accented by silent cries of anguish - terrified to utter a sound - lest they be punished with torture and death. Trying to remember can be hard. Thirty years ago, I looked at the lovely face of my little daughter, Regina Faye, and I was sure I saw the eyes and cheeks of my sister Felusia on that last day before they took her on her last journey - the Nazis had called it Umsiedlung, relocation or resettlement, hoping the euphemism might conceal the purpose of those transports to killing factories - as she was urged on by our mother to be on her best behavior. She had tried so hard to be taller, to stretch her neck and walk on tiptoes in order to reach the requisite measurements for the labor 'selection'. It was all in vain. She was too small to be selected for slave labor. The assassin's index finger pointed to the left. I looked in the mirror, and I saw the face of my dear mother; her premature wrinkles, the graying hair, the trembling hands caressing the little, frightened girl, trying to quiet her fears, my fears and my brother's, moments before she had joined our sister as they traveled to their untimely deaths.

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Now, in the autumn of my life, 1 look in the mirror and I see the features of my grandparents; gentle, loving people, as they all continue to live inside me, as I know not where or when they were laid to rest in some mass grave or whether they had all dissipated in a cloud of sweet-smelling grayish smoke in the Polish, Nazi-occupied countryside. We carry on, with the images of our loved ones, remembering shared moments of joy and sadness, of successes and failures, all those things that comprise that intricate tapestry we call life. I remember the many innocent people who were tortured, humili­ ated, degraded, and dehumanized, only to be ultimately driven to their deaths in extermination camps or through being worked to death in countless labor camps administered by the Nazi technocrats of the Third Reich. The Hitler regime was a mockery of all moral precepts. We must remember this, and in our hearts and souls we must each erect a memorial to those countless victims. Today, we not only mourn the millions of Jews, grown-ups and children, workers and intellectuals, who were murdered by the Nazi assassins. We want to commemorate the Sinti and Romany Gypsies, the homosexuals, and the handicapped; the people who died for their religious or political beliefs while opposing the immoral Nazi doctrine, Christian or atheist. We remember the hostages who were executed without due process, and we honor the brave resistance fighters of all enslaved nations, including Germany. At the root of Nazi tyranny was Hitler's immeasurable hatred of the Jews. He made no secret of his feelings, and made an entire nation an accomplice and a tool of it. Hardly any country has in its history remained free of blame for war and violence. The genocide of the Jews is, however, unparalleled. In order to perpetrate this heinous crime, the assassins first subjected their victims to humiliation with the Star of David as a burning iden­ tity mark, then plundered and burned synagogues, then deprived populations of their human rights and undertook ceaseless violations of human dignity. Jean Amery noted in his book At the Mind's Limits that he felt the death threat for the first time with complete clarity while reading the Nuremberg Laws. Included was a reference he recalled as the methodical 'degradation' of the Jews by the Nazis. Formulated differently, the denial of human rights sounded the death threat. In Nazi Germany, for years on end, Jews could read and hear that they were lazy, ugly, evil, capable only of misdeed, clever only to the extent that they pulled one over on others. Jews were incapable of founding a state, but also were by no means suited to assimilation by host nations. 'We were not worthy of love and thus also not of life,' Amery said. 'Our sole right, our sole duty was to disappear from the face of the earth.'

26

Warning and Hope

The Nazi had now set the stage for the Final Solution, but not before inflicting unspeakable dehumanization upon their victims, decent and gentle people who were shocked at the capacity for cruelty in their fellow humans. Always hoping for that miracle, trusting the will of God and the mercy of the outside world, families walked to their final destination, deceived by the assassin's promises of 'resettlement' and 'better conditions' elsewhere, while there was love and the hope of surviving together. Thus they robbed the assas­ sins of their sadistic pleasure in a stubborn refusal to plead for mercy, knowing it would be denied nonetheless. But the world was silent and the time ran out while most of the victims were now too weak to resist. It must be told, however, that even in the midst of the horrors in that historic twilight of all mankind, there were some shining lights, though all too few, that reflected from those wonderful persons we now call the 'Righteous'. Be they Christian or Jew or nonbeliever, simple men and women somehow were able to reach into the depths of their souls and find there the underpinnings of humanity: compassion, the virtue of all virtues, dictating acts of great heroism and self-sacrifice in the pursuit of mercy and justice for their fellow humans. That in itself is sufficient cause for the redemption of humanity. The memory of the 'Righteous' shall serve as a bright light of hope for humanity's future. Much time has gone by since those fateful events, but 1 keep returning to them in spoken and written word, and each time I do, the pain and the anguish are there of that walk through hell. It burns like a raging fire in my heart and soul; the pain of those terrible losses of dear lives, of unfulfilled dreams and of doubts and questions still unanswered. Why do I go through this torment voluntarily? The answer is simple: I have dedicated my new life to this task, because I am compelled to believe that I was spared for this purpose; to tell it like it was; to serve as a memory capsule; and to guard this period in Jewish history from impiety through revisionism. This I must do for as long as there is breath left in my lungs, a drop of blood in my veins. Now, let us look at the significant fallout derived from the Nazi legacy: • it ushered in an era of unprecedented global lawlessness • it caused human callousness toward violence and cruelty • it has denied the second generation of survivors the joy of experiencing normal family relations; an absence of ancestral presence during formative years, grandparents on their mother's or father's side or on both sides having been killed

Remembering Things Past

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• it has caused the total destruction of the Jewish tradition in Germany and eastern Europe, the ancient centers of Jewish Talmudic learning

These are but a few of the tragedies that had resulted from the dominance of the Nazi Third Reich. We must regard the year 1933, Hitler's ascendancy to power, as the date marking the beginnings of human perversion on an unprecedented scale. It was signaled by a total disregard of human dignity. However, without first considering the period leading up to the 12 years of Nazi dictatorship, it is impossible to explain the rapid breakdown of civilization and the equally swift renunciation of the moral principles and individual responsibilities that had been recog­ nized up to that point as the benchmark of civilized behavior. A terrible virus must have been incubating over a period of many years without clear recognition of its sources and pathological causes. Suffice it to say, history has shown us what happens when an individual arrogates unto himself the power of law, abuses others in their abstinence from freedom, fascinates them with his excesses, deprives them of individual responsibility without significant resis­ tance being offered, finally taking steps to degrade them to mere vassals and blind followers. It is society's moral obligation to accept the true and living history, because otherwise our conclusions will be inaccurate and will not do justice to the immensity of the problems seen in the renunciation of individual freedom and responsibility. These conclusions need to be drawn from history for the present if we are not to follow the pitfalls of the past. Acceptance of faithfully recorded history - without giving credence to revisionist ideas - is first of all an individual process. It is something demanded of the individual, a requisite accepted of one's own free will, to shape it anew and, in doing so, to begin with oneself. If we are to remain responsible agents, we commit ourselves to the risks involved in exercising our freedom, just as it had happened those many years ago on the European continent. The Jews have experienced the abysmal despair caused by that situation more profoundly and more painfully than others. For the first time in human history, a government (the Third Reich) had based its very existence on the total destruction of the Jewish people. For the first time, too, that government enlisted the services of all sectors, from industry to transportation, its military might as well as its academic community and scientific and technological resources, to speed up its goals. Since then, Jews in particular, not just the survivors of the exter­ mination KZ Lagers, not just those who were persecuted and had to

28

Warning and Hope

flee, but all Jews have an obligation to keep history present whenever it is rejected, forgotten, or fabricated by others. They must remain mindful of the fact that they were not persecuted and tormented for any specific transgressions against society, but rather simply because they were Jews. No matter what they thought or did, nothing made a difference. In this task, the Jew ought to be aided by all people of righteous character, so that together they might serve as the moral conscience of humanity everywhere; the signposts of justice for all, for peace and love on earth. However, the task of maintaining an awareness of history and living with it cannot be left up to those who were directly or indirectly affected by the Holocaust. We all live in and with history. None of us can escape this fact. Of course, we can try to desensitize ourselves to it. Still, this attempt at desensitization is nothing other than a renewed self-deception aimed at renouncing freedom from decision-making. This callousness is demonstrated in society's fear of and discomfort with the most heinous of crimes: genocide. Hence, if we are unable to agree that the martyrdom and subsequent death of millions of persons was preceded by the relinquishing of individual freedom and the obligation to moral responsibility, then our task is all in vain. I believe we can agree that our actions must reflect our moral prin­ ciples. We cannot choose the moment in time like we choose the day to buy new clothes and throw away the old ones that have begun to annoy us, and then live under the delusion that we have changed more than only our outer skin. A new beginning is a constant challenge. It is a mandate not only for the moment but also for all time; something we should neither miss nor pass on to the next generation, for this would mean that we have missed the point. After all, we have seen all too well what happens when the moment is not seized upon, and when decisions are left to others or postponed to an uncertain future. We now know how rapidly such failures may move us in the direction of the sources wherein evil thrives. The forces responsible for the inferno caused by World War Two, the National Socialist regime of the Third Reich, jolted and changed the world. Not only the Jews of Europe, but people everywhere are no longer able to live and act like they used to prior to that cata­ clysmic event; as if nothing happened. We now view with great concern tendencies aimed at treating the years of ideological insanity as a closed chapter in history, to be relegated to the reference rooms of libraries. We must consider it our duty to assume a warning role whenever we have reason to fear a decline in sensitivity to this salient question and we feel that negligence, thoughtlessness and the loss of historical awareness have blurred people's perception of the past.

Remembering Things Past

29

Jefferson's dictum: 'The price of freedom is eternal vigilance', rings as true now as it did when it was uttered for the first time. Freedom and responsibility are inseparable. Important are the young people who feel concern as a result of past unrest and who are not satisfied with superficial statements and platitudes. We salute a young genera­ tion that does not spare its parents and grandparents critical questions, exposing to the light of day the darkest period of civilized history, despite all those who felt that suppressing it was their salvation. We call upon this young generation not to relax its efforts and not to accept evasive answers. None of them as yet has been given an answer as to why it was enough, in Nazi-occupied territories, to be the child of a Jewish mother and to lose the right to respect and human dignity, not to speak of the hallowed 'pursuit of life, liberty and happiness'. By asking this, they will give themselves and the world cause for reflection. By asking this, they will refer us to history and to the fact that we must seize the moment, accept our responsibility and act accordingly. In the Proverbs it is written: 'You are not obliged to complete this task but, at the same time, neither are you free to withdraw yourself from it' (Ethics of the Fathers, Ch. 2.). The vast majority of today's population were either children then, or had not been born. But whether they accept it or not, all of them are affected by the consequences of the past. Therefore, we must all accept the past; young and old, we must help each other to under­ stand it. Let no person be elevated to the state of omnipotence, and let not the principles of faith be used for the profanity of human misinter­ pretation. Remembrance is one of the main aspects of human development. I recall the time of physical and mental torment in the many KZ Lagers of the Third Reich, which 1 had been forced to expe­ rience. Then came that day when fear entered our hearts because we thought we would wake up one morning and forget our loved ones. From that day on, my brother Rubin - who was my companion throughout - and I made up imaginary games in which we would take turns describing those precious persons who had left our lives, never to return. We remembered, and through memory there was love; love gave us the sustenance we needed to survive the horrors, in the hope of better days. Through all that havoc I continued to search for the meaning of life. Quickly, all of the principles of the painful past faded; vengeance and hatred were inadequate reasons for survival. Only to live as a reminder of those dismal events seemed a justification for our exis­ tence. Charity, love, faith and hope suddenly became the most basic values of life.

30

Warning and Hope

Above all, we had pledged not to dwell on the dark side of history, but instead to search and to find a glimmer of light. Though the Holocaust created a crisis in the human condition of such dimension that all of the guidance mechanisms of society - its institutions of law, religion, and education - proved impotent in combating it, our main challenge must be the future. We must forge it in accordance with our moral and ethical tradition. It is our obligation to create that kind of world in which future gener­ ations of children can flourish as sensitive, concerned human beings, and in which a recurrence of this most vile evil will be impossible.

PART ONE

Warning Early History to Post-World War One

The Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Third Reich, each professed a dogma of its own truths, all of them to the detriment of humanity-

1

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism Question: What are the reasons some people create systems in which other people have no right to live?

Religious anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism is an extremely complex subject. It comprises reli­ gious, philosophical, social, national, and ethnic aspects. Of these, the religious aspects of anti-Semitism are the oldest and deepest. The roots of religious anti-Semitism or, more appropriately, anti-Judaism, are found in the early years of the Christian era. In that context, it is necessary to examine their competitive ideological factors and the concept of deicide and their roles in the beginnings of religious anti­ Judaism. Long before Adolf Hitler placed a gun to his head and ended his life in the year 1945, he had successfully eradicated Jewish cultural life on the European continent. Though Hitler was unable to win the war against the Allies, this fact makes it abundantly clear that he came close to fulfilling his program of the Final Solution to the global Jewish Problem. Because the Fuhrer was so successful, one is compelled to wonder about the reasons of his success. Hitler could not have murdered so many people single-handedly, even if the victims had willingly lined up to be killed; obviously, it required help. The help came from virtually the entire German state; the ruling National Socialist Workers Party enlisted all segments of the German society to participate in that invidious enterprise. For the first time in the history of civilized societies, the political future of a country had been made dependent upon the annihilation of ethnic minorities. The military industrial complex of the Third Reich as well as the scientific community, transportation entities, businesses, academicians, youth movements as well as the citizenry at large, all joined in the monumental undertaking.

34

Warning and Hope

How were so many people capable of committing such atrocities with seemingly little sensitivity for human suffering and for the loss of lives? For this purpose, we must examine the tradition of antiSemitism in European history. A thorough analysis of the events will not only help us understand what had occurred in the German Third Reich, but will also shed light on similar genocidal occurrences in other places of the world. Rubenstein and Roth, in their book Approaches to Auschwitz, claim that racial anti-Semitism leading to ultimate extermination was a logical outcome of the original causes of anti-Semitism. It was the fight for hegemony between Christianity and Judaism and the resul­ tant economic struggle between them. With the dispersion of the Jews after the Roman conquest of Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the years 68-70 of the Common Era (CE), and as Christianity grew in power, the Jews were relegated to the position of foreigners, forced to work outside the normal modes of living. They had to enter into commerce, then the only profession open to them. As commerce became more acceptable, Jews were forced out of their merchant positions due to jealousy and competition. Often religious reasons were given to justify this action, just as it had previously been used to force the Jews into commerce in the first place. This cycle continued until there was no longer any area in society into which the Jew could be pushed. At that point, physical elimination, culmi­ nating in extermination, had become the only logical and, indeed, necessary solution. In the Roman world of the first two centuries CE, mainly up to the rule of Constantine, there was a fierce competition between the Jews and the growing Christian sect both for followers and for status under Roman rule. From as early as the time of the writing of the Gospels onward, Christian leaders wanted to draw clear lines between Christianity and Judaism to fully establish themselves as more than merely a Jewish sect. The disaster of the Judeo-Roman war and the catastrophe this wrought on the Jewish people must have increased this desire in the early Christians to put some distance between themselves and the Jews. This savage rivalry and the desire to differentiate themselves from the Jews developed into an ideological contempt for the Jews as opponents. Jules Isaac (Jesus and Israel, trans. Sally Gran, New York: 1971) characterizes this as the 'Teaching of Contempt'. This contempt was to have been further exacerbated by the accelerating Christian trend toward conversion of Gentiles rather than Jews only. As Christianity moved from Jerusalem to Rome and conversion from Jew to Gentile, any positive common cultural bonds between Jews and Christians were quickly left behind.

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

35

Now, although the Jews dedicated themselves to pleasing their God, speaking through His prophets, God spoke mostly of His displeasure - acting as an insatiable superego - that translated into guilt. Thus, early Christian anti-Judaism is explained largely by the Jew's contempt for Gentile gods and values, and by their continued insistence that they had a monopoly on the true God, and had been chosen by means of a special covenant. As we have seen, it is all right to love one's God; it is dangerous, however, to assert that the gods worshipped by others are false; espe­ cially when speaking from the weakened position of a minority. When expressed by a small and powerless people, such as the Jews, such ideas lead to hostility and ridicule - when held by a dominant group, such ideas can lead to, or be used for, all evils of militant, even violent racism. This is what eventually happened. But in addition to the historical relationship of hostility, Christian anti-Judaism was overdetermined. Many other elements entered into it; economic, religious, political or psychological - each of these might in itself be sufficient cause for anti-Judaism. Take, for example, the accusation that the Jews have slain the Christian God. The Romans carried out the crucifixion - Jews did not crucify anyone - in the Roman manner, by Roman troops that occu­ pied Jerusalem at the time. It was carried out probably because the Romans thought Jesus to be a potential troublemaker, a dangerous subversive who might stir up the people against Rome. The Gospel tales - written long after the events - have the arrest made and the sentence carried out at the behest of the Sanhedrin, which is scarcely plausible from a historical viewpoint.1 The writers knew that they were not making much headway among the Jews, whereas the number of Gentile converts, particu­ larly the Romans, was steadily mounting. It would have been undiplomatic, therefore, to saddle the Romans with deicide. Accusing the Jews of hating the new god who came from their midst was to make that god more acceptable to the Romans. Of course, the Jewish authorities of the day did not greatly oppose the antisubversive measures of the Romans. They, no less than the Romans, were opposed to whatever might have stirred up the people and lead them to attempt armed rebellion. (History proved that such rebellion was quite hopeless, as reflected in the dismal failure of the zealot uprising, which culminated in the collective murder-suicide at the fortress Massada.) The psychological genesis of anti-Judaism has its roots in the accu­ sation that the Jews killed God. Actually, the hostility toward them may be based on having given birth to him. The new Messiah was a demanding and moral God who exacted sacrifices undreamed of before Christianity. Those making those sacrifices may have turned

36

Warning and Hope

their unconscious resentment not against the Savior, but against his progenitors and relatives. After all, these relatives mistreated the Savior, and murdered him, which rationalizes any amount of hostility. Thus, the Jews, faithful to their old God repudiated His Son. Theirs remained a Father religion, the Christians', on the other hand, a Son religion. Sigmund Freud speculated that the Jews probably murdered not the Son but the Father - as symbolized by Moses - and his grave was never found. Thus, the Jews never overcame their guilt feelings and became zealous and obedient sons to the Father they had slain.2 Even if Freud's speculation is no more than Freud's own fantasy, it seems to be a fantasy that meets, articulates, and explains, if not facts, the conscious as well as the unconscious fantasies of all people and, certainly the Jews. The idea of parricide, and the expia­ tion by the guilt-ridden sons through sacrifice of one of their own was widespread among Oriental peoples, and quite popularly accepted among the Romans at the time of the Gospels. The Christians, acknowledging their sins against God the Father, were purified and made acceptable to Him, they thought, by accepting His Son's sacrifice. But the people who allegedly killed the Son, according to the Gospels, did not accept their Oedipal guilt, nor the expiatory sacrifice of Jesus. They refused purification and maintained that Jesus was a false Messiah. In Christian eyes, the Jews became representatives of the offended, vengeful, and unappeased Father. Unwittingly, the Jews repeated the same phenomenon in the Christian world that had caused the ancient world to hate them. They told the Christians that they had fallen for a phony Messiah, just as they had told the ancients that they worshipped false gods. That is chutzpah to the utmost degree. The Jews cast doubts on the most cherished belief of the Christians: salvation and promise of life everlasting - paradise. It is not surprising, then, that the Jews were treated as one is always tempted to treat those who arouse doubts about one's own most cherished beliefs. (Paul proceeded to baptize without the necessity of first becoming a Jew, by circumcision, and made salvation universal. The Jews were then totally rejected by the Gentiles because of their refusal to accept redemption and the alleged slaying of Jesus who came to redeem humankind.) The very existence of the Jews became a thorn in the side of Christianity. A useful thorn, as it was. For the Jews, by attracting hostility to themselves, solidified the identification of Christians with each other. The equation was formed: Jew = the eternal enemy = galvanizes internal solidarity among Christians. To the enemy, the group can attribute whatever it fears or detests in itself. Against him it can unite and discharge hostility. 0ust as the chastity of the nineteenth century women required prostitutes, so

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

37

the purity of Christian faith required Jews.) From then on, it had really become a Gentile problem and would remain such until they, themselves, might one day solve it. There would be only one thing the Jew could do, and this is illustrated by the following tale. A Nazi official in occupied Austria had advised a Jew to leave the country, whereupon the Jew responded that the consulate of no country would grant him a visa. As the Jew put it: 'Not for me a home by the Seine, or by the Thames, by the Vistula or the Hudson River.' To which the Nazi official replied: 'The way to the Danube is open.' Anti-Judaism, therefore, did not come into being because some Jews, or even because all of the Jews, were dislikeable. Its original grounds were religious, not personal, then they became social, economic, and, finally, political. Judaism had become the 'disconforming other', the foil the Christian faith worked against. The competing religions were discon­ firming in the sense that they held contradictory views on the fundamental tenets of their respective faiths. The very presence of people who hold beliefs contradictory to one's own can be discon­ certing. Contempt for opposing religious views is a natural consequence when one has the feeling of holding The Truth within one's grasp. Any acknowledgment of or respect for opposing views may be regarded as compromising, especially in questions of faith. In addition, the common theological roots that Judaism and Christianity had shared in the books of the Old Testament created in each - but especially in Christianity as 'the new kid on the block' - a sort of neurosis or inferiority complex. Rubenstein and Roth (in Approaches to Auschwitz) call this state 'cognitive dissonance'. This neurosis manifests itself as another kind of competition. To early Christian leaders discrediting (or as Rubenstein and Roth point out, eliminating) Judaism served as a sort of confirmation of their own faith because of the question Judaism presented about Christianity's fundamental beliefs. Thus the self-esteem of the one faith had become dependent to a great extent on total victory over the other. (At first, both Judaism and Christianity coexisted side by side under the Romans. However, when proselytizing Christianity began to make headway, things changed. To attract converts, differences had to be emphasized, Christians had to be 'protected' from the influences of the old covenant that had been at once fulfilled and annulled by the new.) The existence of Judaism as Christianity's 'disconfirming other' was both an annoyance and a lever for the early Christians. It was a problem in the sense that the presence of the Jews as competitors for status and followers was a dissonant disconfirmation of their faith in Jesus as Christ. On the other hand, Judaism gave the Christians a lever by which they could raise themselves up in their own esteem as

38

Warning and Hope

well as in that of the world. If tools were the operative metaphor, then anti-Judaism was the lever and the Jews served as a kind of fulcrum for the struggling Christianity. With an attitude of anti-Judaism, the Christians viewed the Jews in a unique way. According to the Christian Old Testament, the Jews had once been God's favored children. However, with their rejection of Jesus as a Savior, that favored status was taken from them and bestowed upon the Christians. In its very essence, this was antiJudaism because, henceforth, every Jewish catastrophe would be interpreted as a Christian victory. The Christians could now capitalize on every misfortune to befall the Jews as a clear confirmation of the 'correctness' of their own faith and the relative evil of Judaism. History attests to it that Jewish misfortunes have been more than plentiful. This brings us back again to the notion of competitive engage­ ment and the neurosis of 'cognitive dissonance'. It becomes obvious how tragic misfortunes, such as the destruction of Jerusalem and its great Temple in the year 70 CE, followed by massacres of innocent victims and subsequent Jewish exile into the Diaspora, would have served to satisfy the Christian neurosis and reduce the 'cognitive dissonance', which the very existence of the Jews afforded the Christians. Viewing history from an anti-Jewish perspective, Christians could translate the suffering of the Jewish people as the natural consequence of their failure to accept Christ as the Lord. The fact that God was punishing the Jews was indicative of Christianity's legitimacy. Its view that it had now taken the place of God's chosen people had now gained credibility, while the Jewish claim was discredited with every misfortune they had endured. In his book Anti-Semite and the Jew, Jean Paul Sartre makes a play on Descartes, saying: 'If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.' Though he said it in a slightly different context, what Sartre expressed applies here as well in a very real sense; the Christian needed the Jew, whose suffering rendered the early church an important confirmation of having inherited the mantle of God's favor. This psychological boost more than compensated for any dissonance a Jewish presence could cause. Indeed, religious anti-Judaism continued throughout church history, providing leverage to the Christian ideology. As paraphrased by Rubenstein and Roth, Augustine writes that 'By permitting their (the Jews') continued existence, however, God's grace to all Christians was all the more evident, for the Jews dispersed remained as a witness people.' Even after the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust, this same insidious idea was brought up. And even though the comparison was not explicitly made, the fact that it was the Jewish people who had suffered implied the idea, or at least the question, of Christian primogeniture. The result is a cycle of exaltation on the one

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

39

hand and degradation on the other, caused by such issues as primo­ geniture. Emphasizing its favor in God's eyes, the Christian anti-Jewish view also underscored the position of the Jew as fallen from God's grace. This idea of having been cast out from God's favor holds, by its very assumption, negative implications. It is comparable to that of the 'fallen angel'. Closely related to the above concepts is the issue of deicide; the idea that the Jews as a people are responsible for the death of Jesus the Christ, the Christian Messiah and God. The concept of deicide goes back to the early centuries of the Christian Church and is a result of the religious competitiveness discussed earlier. The idea that the suffering of the Jewish people is divine retribu­ tion for the murder of Christ ties into the previously discussed notion that the Jews must be punished as a consequence of nonbelief. There is a real difference, however, between the two notions. While the latter is compatible with human nature, the former exalts the Christian in a comparative relationship with the errant Jew: 'Those Jewish people must have had their Temple sacked because they worshipped the wrong gods. They are not under God's protection like I am,' the Christian would most likely say. The deicidal notion, on the other hand, rather than establish a self-exalting relationship, would tend to incite a blatant hatred for an unforgivable transgression. The idea of divine retribution for the deicide makes the Jews' exclusion from divine favor take on an absolutely negative aspect. In these terms, not only are the Jews no longer under God's protection, God Himself is now singling them out for persecution. It is this idea that remains the single most lasting, and the most insidious aspect of religious anti-Judaism. This train of thought clearly leads to the most disturbing conclusions: the exclusion of the Jews as a favored people draws a direct parallel to the banishment of and identification with Satan, the 'fallen Angel'. In the Gospel of John 8:44, Jesus addresses the Jews in the following manner: 'You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.' This identification of the Jews with the devil does far more than merely teach contempt. It incites a hatred that removes the Jewish people from the realm of human rights, within which one is bound by certain ethical as well as moral principles. Thus the deicidal aspect of religious anti-Judaism strips the Jews of all humanity and legitimates persecution, paving the way to a Final Solution. These are the central tenets of religious anti-Judaism. Though there is a difference between the competitive and deicidal aspects of religious anti-Judaism, there exists, nevertheless, a definite common­ ality. Anti-Judaism is a phenomenon fundamentally related to hatred. Religious anti-Judaism is only one segment of a wide spec­ trum of hate. A clear insight into the meaning of religious

40

Warning and Hope

anti-Judaism offers an initial step leading to an understanding of bias toward other religious groups as well. To understand aspects of prej­ udice and bigotry directed specifically against the Jewish people, we need to discuss further the development of a phenomenon we shall call sociopolitical anti-Judaism. Throughout the history of anti-Judaism, the line of attack has changed perpetually. When religion counted less in the life of the western world, discrimination against the Jews was on the grounds that they confined themselves to trade and commerce and showed no aptitude for the professions - from which they had been rigor­ ously excluded for centuries. There has always existed an inconsistency in anti-Judaism. The pretext for it changes not only from time to time, but also from place to place. As we shall show, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Russia was massacring Jews in the name of the Holy Church. At the same time, German anti-Semites were virulently protesting against the Jews in the professions; the French were inveighing against Jewish importance in world finance. And in England, at the same time, certain labor leaders accused Jews of sweated labor. There is absolutely no consistency or logic in those mutually contradictory reproaches! Other than in the state of Israel, the Jews constitute a minority in every country in which they live. This is to say they are in one sense or another Different. Being different is a breeding ground for Prejudice. There have been other minorities, of course, through the years. However, they have successfully assimilated. Take the Huguenots, who at the time of Louis XIV in his repeal of the Edict of Nantes had been persecuted in France. On coming to England they were accused of the same attributes as the Jews, but managed to assimilate into English society with relative success. The Jews refused to surrender their identity in most instances. Hence, the Jews combine all the qualifications for misfortune. Not only are they a minority. They are simultaneously a religious minority and an ethnic minority, as well as a political minority.

Sociopolitical anti-Judaism RUSSIA AND POLAND

The Middle Ages in general, and fifteenth-century Spain in particular, were only a dress rehearsal for the modern anti-Jewish sentiments that grew to dangerous proportions in the latter half of nineteenth­ century Europe. Though none were as ferocious as the Third Reich, they urged conversion, in saying 'You cannot live among us as Jews'. But it was Christian Spain that ultimately declared 'you cannot live

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

41

among us'. It was Hitler and his Third Reich that later dropped the words 'among us', to state categorically 'You cannot live'! Following their economic ruin, the western European Jewish communities crowded into the ghettos of Poland and Russia. At first, the Jew was tolerated. In time, however, a politics of paranoia brought reprisals against the Jews, culminating in random persecu­ tions and government-sanctioned pogroms. The ploy of the Jew as a religious reprobate was proven to be effective in secular form, where he or she was regarded as some insidious enemy of the state. Once this lesson had been learned, popular violence against the Jew as a displacement of sociopolitical or economic crises never ceased. Both Roland and tsarist Russia had been precursors to the process of government-sanctioned anti-Judaism, though in different degrees. Their own particular brand of prejudice and bigotry depended largely upon the sociopolitical environment prevalent at certain periods in the history of their nations. It is, therefore, important to study how each of these countries' historical perspectives placed emphasis either on economics or religious conviction in order to justify the persecution of the Jewish citizens living in their midst. Tsarist Russia, along with Romania, were the two eastern European countries to have pioneered the adoption of an official, government-sponsored policy against their Jewish minority prior to World War One. Such a policy was based upon an intense religious conviction promulgated by the Tzar. His subjects viewed the Tzar himself as God's viceroy on earth. His great power and influence over religious thought in the Russian Orthodox Church and its followers was much like that of the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church. The Tzar was affectionately called 'little father'. Because of his semi-divine position, he was able to play on the ignorance of his subjects to propagate anti-Judaism. It was an interesting characteristic of the Tzars that they, for their part, believed themselves to be responsible for the religious health of their 'constituency'. Consequently, they felt it was their duty to avenge Christ and punish the Jews for his murder. While some Tzars expressed genuine sorrow for the plight of the Jews, especially after the widespread use of pogroms, they also felt that it was only just that the Jews suffered for their 'heinous crime'. As early as the year 1772, Catherine II (the Great) made an attempt at equalizing the rights for Russia's Jews. This was in part due to her liberal stance vis-a-vis human rights and the fact that a large number of Jews had entered Russia after the partition of Poland. Their sheer numbers would no longer afford the perpetrators anonymity, there­ fore curtailing those brutal acts that had been successful under the rule of Elizabeth Petronova. Nevertheless, Catherine's benign rule had caused the seeds of economic prejudice to be sowed against the

42

Warning and Hope

Jewish people. The Russian nobility, fearful that the Jews, under relaxed rules, would try to enter their privileged circles, forced Catherine to recant. She bowed to their wishes, further placing the Jewish people in restricted settlements (ghettos), to appease the demands of the 'guardians of social purity'. Although economic sanctions had not reached the magnitude that they did in Poland, they were still a real part of Russian anti-Judaism. Tzars Alexander 1 and Nicholas 1 were committed to saving the souls of the Jews. They believed that assimilation was the key to their salvation. Under Tzar Alexander I taxes had been levied for the wearing of traditional earlocks and the yarmulke (skull-cap) among the orthodox Jews (the Hasidim); public schools and gymnasiums had been opened to Jewish attendance; and Jews were permitted to open their own schools, provided they taught Russian and Polish or German. Jews had also been encouraged to renounce Judaism, and special awards were bestowed upon those who had brought a certain number of converts into the Russian Orthodox Church. Nicholas 1 had hoped to break the isolation of the Jews through forced conscription into military service. It was the sovereign's hope that greater contact with members of the church would cause the Jews to recognize the error of their ways and bring them into the 'true' faith. Unfortunately, neither Tzar met with much success. Religious prejudice and hatred of the Jews among the Christians was all too well entrenched to allow the Jews to embrace Christianity. The Jews, on their part, clung to their own faith with great tenacity, thus making conversion a moot issue. Alexander II had tried to follow the example of Catherine I and relaxed many of the anti-Jewish policies of his government. His attempt was met with a surprising increase in virulent social antiJudaism. The people, in the form of pogroms, filled the resulting void left by Alexander II. Most Russians believed that the Tzar and, there­ fore, God desired such actions. Often members of the Tzar's government 'unofficially' aided the success of the pogroms, although the Tzar himself had never announced their legality. When Alexander III ascended to the throne of Russia, the govern­ ment once again assumed its anti-Jewish role. As Roman Vishniak points out, 'government anti-Semitism assumed the functions and the tasks of the unofficial social anti-Semitism and made the latter unnecessary' (Vanished World, New York: 1986). Thus there was no rise in intellectual anti-Judaism like that occurring at that time in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and France. The waning years of the tsarist regime had brought a change in emphasis on the roots of anti-Judaism in Russia. Political pressure by anarchists, socialists, and the budding communists had forced the Tzar to seek a scapegoat that could be blamed for the unrest in the

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

43

land. The logical targets, of course, were once again the Jews. They were easier to locate, since they had been relegated to live in their shtetls. They were easy to spot as well because of their traditional dress. It took less effort to build animosity against an old enemy than to pit Russian against another Russian. It could be expected that the actions directed against the Jews would help divert attention from the real problems of political instability and economic stagnation. To be sure, there was an element of the absurd present in the persecution of the Jews in tsarist Russia. Where Jewish agriculturists had flourished under the old regime, the May Laws of 1882 uprooted them from their holdings. As capriciously as they had been barred from ownership and cultivation of the land, they were also accused of not being capable of pursuing the tasks of agriculture. Fueling the existing anti-Jewish allegations was the emergence of a document prepared by the Imperial Russian secret police, entitled 'Protocols', which dealt with a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The original text of the 'Protocols' appeared in 1868 in the first volume of a German novel, Biarritz, by Herrmann Goedsche, who wrote under the pseudonym Sir John Retcliffe. In it he describes a clandestinely witnessed scene during which the representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with the Wandering Jew, met secretly in the Jewish cemetery of Prague in 1860 (as they did once every century), there to plot subversion of the dominant order by taking over international finance and supporting all liberal and progressive causes. The title of the scene had become known as 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. Thus, the figment of an author's imagination, a piece of a sensational novel, had become a hoax of fatal magnitude, adding to the already existing absurdities regarding the Jewish people. This inconsistency of anti-Jewish sentiment can best be exemplified by an old Talmudic tale about a certain Roman emperor who one day ordered a Jewish peasant to be executed for not having saluted the monarch and, thus, was accused of disloyalty. The next day, the same emperor ordered another Jewish peasant, who had saluted him, to be executed for effrontery. A shift in the roots of anti-Judaism in Russia from the religious to the economic did not gain full force until after the third partition of Poland and the last major influx of Jews from Poland into Russia. However, this shift was not due to the increased economic activity of the Jews on the original frontiers of Russia, but rather because of the deep roots of Polish anti-Jewish feelings and their influence on the policies of the tsarist government. The annexation of Poland had brought with it an economic struggle between Jew and Christian. Since the number of Jews in Russia had grown considerably, the Tzars had been unable to ignore their greater influence in the economy of the land. The fact remained, however, that even though economics had played a significant role

44

Warning and Hope

in Russia's anti-Judaism before and after the partition of Poland, reli­ gion was still the dominant factor. Poland was late to embrace Christianity. For some time after its advent into Poland the Roman Catholic Church still had a tenuous hold on the people. Here again, as a consequence of its shaky foun­ dations among the neophytes, and fearful that Judaism might take advantage of its weakness, the Church resorted to spreading the principles of anti-Judaism. In truth, however, it was its very weak­ ness that had kept the Church from becoming a powerful motivating force in developing social norms and attitudes. Religious convictions could hardly become a basis for anti-Judaism in Poland. Early on, the Jewish people had been made to feel welcome in Poland. They had provided the capital needed for the expansion of agriculture as well as the encouragement toward the growth of the municipalities. Consequently, the Jews had been given government protection and unrestricted trading rights. Up until the middle of the fourteenth century, the number of attacks on Jews was negligible and may not have even been anti-Jewish in nature. The fourteenth century saw a gradual rise in a Christian merchant class in Poland. The fledgling group came up against a wellentrenched Jewish merchant enclave in its bid to control part of Poland's economic structure. It was at this point that popular antiJudaism first emerged in Polish history. However, a curious phenomenon could be noted in Poland: the more economically retarded a region had been, the later the arrival of anti-Judaism. Thus in eastern Poland, anti-Jewish sentiments appeared at a much later period than in western Poland. Economics, along with fierce competition, thus formed the basis for Polish anti-Judaism. Violence in the form of pogroms had also occurred there but, as Raphael Mahler points out (Hasidim and the Jewish Enlightenment, New York: 1994), pogroms were succeeded by 'voluntary' limitations on Jewish commercial privileges; thus religious motivation for persecution was at best secondary to economic reasons. During the eighteenth century, there occurred a wave of religious fanaticism in the Polish countryside, but even that had seemed to be more of a cover for the real economic reasons for anti-Jewish violence. One might suggest that it was nobler to fight the Jews on religious rather than economic grounds. And as the Christian merchants exerted pressure on the government (which in itself was weak), Jews were forced out of commerce into handicrafts, and finally, into innkeeping and stewarding for the nobilities breweries, distilleries, and farms. An interesting similarity between conditions in Russia and Poland was the attitude of the nobility toward the Jews. Both hated the Jews for religious reasons, but attempted to protect them, though for divergent reasons; the Russians tried to maintain

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

45

the stability of the faltering regime, which had been threatened by the recurring pogroms; the Polish nobility tried to safeguard the Jews' well-being because its economic livelihood was linked to the Jews' continued security. Mahler points out that the Polish nobility was particularly anxious for the Jews to settle in their towns to promote commerce and the handicrafts. The Polish peasants held no deep-rooted anti-Jewish feelings. For them, the Jew was no better nor worse than any other city merchant. The attacks against the Jews were primarily a response to the peas­ ants' socioeconomic position rather than anything else. In contrast, Russia had no real middle class. The peasants carried out the bulk of anti-Jewish attacks. Here, too, new myths had been created to fuel the sentiment of anti-Judaism: Jews allegedly killed Christian boys and drank their blood on Passover holidays; Jews violated Christian sacraments; they poisoned wells, creating all kinds of plagues and always threatened the welfare of the peasants. These and similar tales created a tradition of pogroms in Poland from the mid-nineteenth to the turn of the twentieth century. Even if a Jew converted to Christianity, new laws had been enacted, excluding him or her from holding offices in government and admis­ sion to Polish society on a purely racist basis, reminiscent of the conditions in ancient and medieval Spain. (The Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany would later copy those of Spain as well. Genealogy was to play an important part in deter­ mining whether 'Jewish blood' had blemished any office holder in the Third Reich. These were the so-called laws of 'Pure Blood', enacted by the Nazis upon their ascent to power.) Thus any prosperity or power the Jew (even the convert to Christianity), might have gained in society was regarded as an affront to Christendom (in the Third Reich to the Aryan pure breed!'), an implicit challenge to Christian faith and Aryan 'superiority'. This ploy also proved to be effective in a secular form, as it provided a displace­ ment of judgment from one's own internal flaw upon some 'insidious' enemy, typified by the Jew; a ploy commonly called 'scapegoating'. The core of anti-Judaism in Poland, then, was the petty nobility and the merchant class, which had been the foundation of the future middle class. The petty nobility was envious of the Jew's position on the large estates, and the merchants found it difficult to compete against the Jews in the market place. This same pattern continued into the eighteenth century. Although the nobility, faced with increasing economic pressure from the middle class during that century, passed economic sanctions curbing Jewish commercial activity, in reality nothing had changed. Mahler states that the nobility were afraid of losing their generous loans from the Jews, if the latter were forced out of their traditional occupations. They even

46

Warning and Hope

considered giving some 'token' rights of citizenship to Jews and permitting them entrance into the trade guilds. Nothing came of this, however, because of the threat of violence by the middle class. As in tsarist Russia, the basis for anti-Judaism in Poland under­ went a transformation. With its proximity to central and western Europe, Poland experienced an influx of anti-Jewish attitudes based on race. Hence, Poland had begun to enforce racial as well as economic discrimination upon the Jews. Anti-Judaism is a familiar phenomenon, unfortunately, throughout most of the world. In general, anti-Judaism or other types of prejudice and bigotry find their roots in economic hard times or stem from religious convictions. However, each country and/or community has its own brand of prejudice that mixes, to various degrees, all of the triggering ingredients. Poland and tsarist Russia followed similar paths of modernization, laying the founda­ tion of capitalism much later than western and central Europe, coming into their own industrial age at a much later stage of devel­ opment. It was curious to note, however, how these developmental similarities did not carry over into their conduct towards their respective Jewish communities. Poland and tsarist Russia had verv different reasons for pursuing anti-Jewish policies. They were at opposite extremes in regard to the origins of anti-Judaism, although the elements of both aspects (economic repression or religious preju­ dice), had been apparent in each country. Sadly, the results were just as devastating to the Jewish people. Before we go on to Germany and the Third Reich, a word about the origin of prejudice and bigotry is warranted. To ancient people, prejudice meant a judgment based on previous decisions and expe­ riences. Later, it was expanded to mean a judgment formed before due examination and consideration of facts - a premature or hasty judgment.3 In modern times, prejudice has acquired an emotional aspect of favorableness or un-favorableness that affects both small and large groups of people. Prejudicial views are most often cultivated in the innocent minds of young children. In The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport suggests that prejudices develop in two stages. The first stage, termed pregen­ eralized learning, consists of children observing their parents' preferences. Upon discovering what their parents find acceptable, children behave in order to conform to those likes and dislikes. At this stage, the child does not really understand what a Black or what a Jew is, but he or she recognizes his or her parents' attitudes toward these groups. An important part of the initial learning of prejudice is the use of linguistic tags such as 'Nigger', or 'Jew boy', or 'Kike', and the like. According to Allport, the tags 'stand for adult abstractions, for logical

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

47

generalizations of the sort that mature adults accept'/ The child learns and uses these tags before he or she is ready to place them in adult categories. After the generalized stage, children move into the second period of prejudice known as total rejection. When children learn to catego­ rize groups as adults do, they are able to detect minor differences in people. For example, they are able to distinguish Blacks from darkskinned Mexicans or Italians. Once these distinctions are made, the child applies linguistic tags and other information to the proper adult categories. While total rejection starts around the age of seven or eight, it appears to reach its peak in early puberty. In first and second grade, children often sit beside or play with children of different race or ethnicity. Around fifth grade, however, this friendliness may disappear. As children grow older, they tend to move from the stage of total rejection to a stage of differentiation. The individual uses escape clauses in order to make his or her attitude more rational and accept­ able. One might say, 'Some of my best friends are Jews',5 without realizing it is the beginning of true prejudice. A child who is just learning categories of rejection does not make such exceptions. The first six to eight years of life are spent learning total rejection; modi­ fications occur in the next six years. As modifications occur, children learn the importance of democ­ racy and equality. They assign some good qualities to minority groups and somehow justify any remaining disapproval. In general, younger children tend to talk in a rather prejudicial manner while their behavior is relatively democratic. As they get older, however, children display verbal acceptance and behavioral rejection of minorities. By the age of 15, most individuals are quite adept at imitating adult actions. Prejudiced and democratic talk is used for appropriate occasions, and rationalizations are always available. Double-dealing and ethnocentrism become ingrained throughout adolescence and lay the foundation for prejudices that will influence individuals for the rest of their lives. Clearly, prejudice affects daily communication between people. Following Allport's development pattern, one can understand how individual prejudices evolve. More puzzling, however, is the ability of one person to influence a large group or even a whole nation with prejudicial ideas that result in virulent hatred. Hitler's persecution and destruction of the European Jews shows how one man's irra­ tional hatred caused the death of millions of innocent people with few Germans objecting. Prejudice is the formation of beliefs and attitudes about certain groups in society without having sufficient evidence. Allport points

48

Warning and Hope

out, 'The net effect of prejudice, thus defined, is to place the object of prejudice at some disadvantage not merited by his own miscon­ duct.'" This disadvantage may be on many levels, progressing from idle talk, avoidance, and discrimination, to the far extreme of phys­ ical violence and extermination. It is also shocking to find that any activity on one level makes it all the easier to progress to a higher level of violence.7 Calling names may seem to be of little significance; however, this is precisely what began the process that helped Hitler to single out the Jews so successfully as targets of his hatred and demonization processes. Since society must deal with so many different situations, it is advantageous to form generalizations to help us comprehend the big picture. One bite from a dog will teach us to be more careful in petting all dogs or any strange animal for that matter. Obviously, our overgeneralizations are not always accurate. Not all animals bite and it would be a shame to avoid all of them from one limited experience. Fortunately, not all generalizations develop into prejudices. Miscon­ ceptions, where information is organized wrongly, are not instances of prejudice, rather they only become such when one refuses to change one's attitudes and beliefs in the face of new evidence/ Refusal to change attitudes signifies true prejudice. Occasionally, however, there arise doubt and guilt for having such negative attitudes. Among any population there are relatively few persons who have prejudices without compunction. Prejudices in themselves set a double standard. Notice that it is compelling to fashion evidence (beliefs) to support our feelings (attitudes). Allport mentions an example, 'Every rational voice within me says the black is as good, as decent, as sincere, and manly as the white, but I cannot help noticing a split between my reason and prejudice.'M This partic­ ular person is having difficulty shaping his beliefs around his attitudes. His rationale is lacking, but his attitudes and negative feel­ ings remain. We live with an inner turmoil agitated by our conscience. Allport suggests that people 'put brakes on their prejudice'.1" Because they are shamed by prejudices, it may help limit the escalation of discrim­ ination. One may feel free to make ethnic jokes, but not feel compelled to participate in discriminating in the workplace. These emotional barriers do not, however, help to solve the problem. There still remains the dilemma of dealing with these inconsistencies. How does one go about defending prejudices? A method of enabling the conscience to circumvent the conflict is not to admit to oneself that it exists. Allport makes an insightful comment that to admit prejudice is to accuse oneself of being uneth­ ical and irrational." No one wants to admit that they are directly responsible for their negative feelings and actions. Further still,

The Roofs and Nature of Anti-Semitism

49

to admit the capacity for violence against another human being is unthinkable. Perhaps a far better defense is rationalization by finding a conve­ nient means to justify discrimination. For instance, one might select the evidence that supports only what one wants to believe. In addi­ tion, it is also easy to admit prejudices when we convince ourselves that everyone else has them. Since everyone has prejudices, a ques­ tion of guilt is no longer so important. Monika, a child of Nazi parents, wrote that her father could never see the good in criminals, but neither did he consider himself as a criminal for working in the SS.12 He refused to be blamed for his actions because he was following orders just like everyone else. Another diversionary tactic is to shift the blame to the accuser. The accuser then appears as 'playing high and mighty'; preaching from a moral pedestal. Rallying evidence and diverting and scathing questions that come up are only the beginning of rationalization. Other methods include trying to discern differences in 'out­ groups' themselves. For example, a common defense is to separate the minority group into 'good and bad' segments. Such accusations as 'I have no problem with Black persons, but it's the Niggers that I hate,' are entirely illogical. This supposition is not based on the merit of the individual, rather the 'bad group' embodies the group that most intimidates us. Our claim is at best subjective. Furthermore, by making exclusions, one may continue to condemn the rest of the group. A typical argument might state: 'My best friend is not a typical Jew or Black but 1 feel uncomfortable around most Jews and Blacks.' Rationalization is an effective attempt to defend our prejudices; however, what is still more disturbing is that many live with open compromises. It is disquieting that society frequently expects us to live in compromise. Conformity is expected to occur in contradictory ways. In certain situations, one may take on certain attitudes, while completely changing in others. A good example might be the tolerant attitudes in church and how these might change among a large group of opinionated, rowdy friends. Compromise may also be used as an excuse for not resolving the conflict. Moreover, to gradually give up prejudices seems only to be a sly means of either putting off resolu­ tion or to hide behind the inability to accomplish reconciliation at all. True resolution to finally face prejudices with honesty and to decide how to resolve them all at once is perhaps the best way to get rid of inconsistency. In Sichrovsky's penetrating study, Born Guilty, Stephan, a Nazi's son, had to come to terms with his relatives who 'spewed only contempt and hatred'.'' His relatives gave him a model of what he did not want to become. However, Monika 'tried to see both the good and bad in people, and this desperate search for the evil

50

Warning and Hope

that lies buried in the good, but also for the good within the evil'.M The realization that every person has good and evil personality traits eliminates any great expectations for a totally good or evil person. Such a mature attitude, once achieved, is essential to avoiding the traps of stereotypical judgments in the future. A strong commitment to eliminating prejudices is the only way to stabilize moral integrity and end the shame. And now, let us look at Germany's and the Third Reich's attitudes toward the Jews. GERMANY AND THE THIRD REICH 'Die Juden sind unser Ungluck' (The Jews are our misfortune) Der Sturmer (Yad Vashem, The Holocaust, Jerusalem: 1975, p.16)

Anti-Judaism in Germany was not something new in the early part of the twentieth century; it had prevailed in the country for centuries. The Jew had always been irrationally condemned among the people in host communities whose hospitality was at best grudgingly granted, as he was blamed for almost any problem which might have occurred in the country, whether it was caused by natural phenomena or perpetrated by humans. Hence, even though the orig­ inal hatred of the Jew was brought about by the myth of 'deicide', as time went by, more irrational stereotypes had begun to emerge. During economic hard times, the Jew was portrayed as a miser who would allow his fellow humans to starve rather than part with his money. Allegedly, all Jews were wealthy, and they made certain that their wealth remained in their families and among their people. Word got around that the Jew was incapable of patriotism, since his religion came before any national loyalty and, therefore, in times of national crises the Jew could never be trusted. The above stereotypes seem to imply that the Jewish people had been discriminated against because of their isolationist, elitist nature. But, ironically, in the Third Reich, the Jew was considered to be less than human (in the Nazi vernacular Untermensch or subhuman). In the minds of many Germans, the Jews were subordinate to the Aryans on every level and were to be treated as such - by definition. Aryan was a racial not a religious phenomenon. Thus a Jew could by conversion become a Christian, but never an Aryan - coupled with long-standing myths and false accusations of plotting the takeover of the world, the stage was being set for a racial disaster of radical proportions. Persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich cannot be defined simply by reference to traditional anti-Judaism. By the time World War Two had fully ravaged the European continent, it had become obvious that anti-communism was not the sole purpose of the Nazi

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

51

philosophy; anti-Judaism of the worst kind was, and because it was based on racial bigotry and narrow prejudice, it had taken its toll in millions of innocent lives. The catalyst of this disaster came in the form of the Chancellor and Fuhrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. He had been raised to believe in many of the aforementioned stereotypes about the Jews, and he was convinced that Germany's defeat in World War One had been caused by the Jewish 'back-stabbers'. Hitler believed that all of Germany's problems had their roots in German Jewry. He was deter­ mined to solve these problems by eliminating what he believed to be their source. In his book Mein Kampf(My Struggle), Hitler outlined his plan for the extermination of all German Jews, as well as those else­ where in the world, and he built his Nazi party around this notion. But in order for his plan to succeed, he had to first gain the support of the German people and then concentrate their efforts toward that end. Hitler and his party did not believe that the Germans would implement his plan for genocide without his coaxing. As a result, he launched a massive propaganda campaign that would last until the end of World War Two and rival all of his war efforts. J.W Baird claims: 'Nazi propaganda was unique in the way it merged the prac­ tical and political with the mythical.' Mythical Jewish stereotypes had been used as 'factual' information to explain political and economic problems. The Nazis didn't offer any new ideology; instead, they focused on age-old opinions that already enjoyed considerable popularity. This method facilitated communicating with the German populace on that level. As William Shirer points out,15 for Hitler, the Great Depression that spread over the world in the late 1920s provided an opportunity to 'rescue' Germany from a disastrous predicament. As the German government, based on a coalition of democratic parties, began to dissolve, Hitler wrote:

Never in my life have I been so well disposed and inwardly contented as in these days. For hard reality has opened the eyes of millions of Germans to the unprecedented swindles, lies and betrayals of the Marxist Jew deceivers of the people.

Far from sympathizing with the German people, Hitler immediately began transforming the situation into political support for his personal ambitions. The desperate people wanted a way out of their awful predica­ ment. Millions of unemployed wanted jobs. Shop owners wanted help. Many youths wanted a future with bright prospects for making a decent living. To these people, Hitler offered hope. He vowed to make Germany strong again: refusing to pay reparations, repudi­ ating the Versailles treaty, stamping out corruption, bringing money

52

Warning and Hope

barons to heel and seeing to it that every person had a job and bread."’ After convincing the German people of his ability to turn the country around, Hitler gradually, through massive propaganda efforts, began his persecution of the Jews. The Nazis presented World War Two not as a struggle between nations, but as a fight to the finish pitting Aryan against the Jew. Hitler commissioned 'documentary' films to be made, such as The Eternal Jew (Der Ewige Jude), which depicted the Jew as a parasite of society, devoid of a soul, and driven by the lust for money and the flesh. Anti-Jewish pamphlets and posters were distributed; articles popularized in the state-supported newspaper Der Stunner (The Stormtrooper), all under the able guidance of the Jew-baiter Julius Streicher; mass-distributed and all portraying the Jews as barbaric, self-centered animals who would destroy the German State. School children were taught from the earliest age to recognize the Jew's physical characteristics, quite similar to those drawn in the cartoons of Streicher's Stiirmer, but here based on 'scientific' research: low forehead, small, dark eyes, thick lips, and the typical large aquiline nose. These Jews had frequently been displayed on posters, showing them marching with signs that stated in large letters I RAPED A CHRISTIAN GIRL or 1 USED CHRISTIAN BLOOD IN RELI­ GIOUS RITUAL. Commonplace were books written about the Jew as a seducer and criminal. Children's books written by one Elvira Bauer, for example, presented the Jews as dirty, conniving, subhuman beings who could never be trusted and who were incapable of compassion. The illustrations in these books and on all posters portrayed the Jew with features that were drastically out of propor­ tion, giving the impression of inherent evil. These materials had been distributed everywhere, and from the early 1930s until the end of World War Two, there was not a place one could go in the Third Reich without being exposed to an anti-Jewish poster, pamphlet, or book. Now, the average person who lacked the abilities to excel in everyday life could easily be persuaded that all of his obstacles were external. One could, under such circumstances, fall victim to jealousy, which, in turn, developed into hostility that manifested itself in hatred and racism. The qualities inherent in racism, then, are indeed destructive and frightening forces, ever threatening the stability of civilization. The average person also might relent when thinking of reprisals. It was therefore expedient to the governing Nazis to incite group action, which included people of all walks of life, persuasions and professions, in the persecution of the Jewish minority. When the blame can be placed on a group as a whole, acting on orders of a supreme authority (the Fuhrer), anonymity takes hold, lending the necessary 'courage' to individuals who might otherwise refuse to act

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

53

out their hostilities. The reassurance of the individual through group support gives him or her the necessary resolve to carry out the group's deeds and demonstrate their ignorance without feeling accountable. The Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda campaign proved to be quite successful. As the German people continued to be barraged by it, they became convinced that the myths were in fact truths. The Nazi party swelled in numbers and, as Hitler's policies had begun to improve the economy (though at a high price), more and more people placed their trust in him and allowed Nazi stereotypes to replace their own reason. By the time World War Two had begun, the vast majority of the German people agreed, at least publicly, with Hitler's analysis of the Jewish problem. While the propaganda campaign continued to escalate as the war progressed, most Germans became more anti-Jewish until the bitter end. While it is true that ancient racist attitudes and Nazi propaganda successfully blended to instill a sense that the Jew should be hated, these two factors alone do not explain fully why the majority of the German people could actually help murder 6 million Jews. To hate is one thing, but to kill on such a large scale is quite another. How could normal, sane human beings with the moral underpinnings of enlightened Christianity, contribute actively or passively to such a catastrophic cause? I must confess, that even after years of research, I am still not sure of the answer myself, but I do believe certain factors can be isolated to shed some light on this great puzzle. Extreme mass hatred of the Jew cannot explain the Holocaust. Hate can be satiated over time, as evidenced by the gradual lessening of Church enmity toward the Jews, despite their continual, stubborn rejection of Christ as the Savior. Instead, as Joel E. Dimsdale writes (Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators), thorough, comprehensive, exhaus­ tive murder required the replacement of the mob with a bureaucracy, and the replacement of shared rage with obedience to authority. Hitler, through propaganda, had been successful in gaining legiti­ macy for his views, but he needed to create a 'machine' that could actually facilitate the implementation of his Final Solution which, in this case, meant total extermination. For the first time in recorded history a political party was able to enlist all segments of society in its service. The Nazis created a tech­ nocracy with an organizational complexity that was unrivaled by any other nation. Thousands of people, from all walks of life, performed their jobs routinely within the hierarchical structure, even though the end result of their actions was murder. They attained anonymity by reducing the victims to statistics, while desensitizing the assassins with well-chosen euphemisms depicting their activities. Jews had become numbers, without names or human back­ ground, and each victim had become a statistic, as the Nazis recorded

54

Warning and Hope

individual deaths, thus keeping accurate records concerning the number of 'objects terminated'. Every time a Jew was herded into 'resettlement', his or her possessions were liquidated, catalogued, and stored. Many recyclable items, such as clothing, spectacles, gold fillings, human hair, the fat residue from the incinerated victims, and so on were used in the Nazi war effort. Memorabilia that were of no use to the Nazi economy were collected as well, so that museums of an 'extinct' race could be created - such as the one situated in the ancient synagogue of the Czech capital city, Prague - each having its own record keepers who maintained meticulous records of every confiscated item, no matter how insignificant. The victims had been reduced to numbers on an accountant's ledger. They were not living individuals, but mere items to be recorded. There were, indeed, so many 'terminated objects and their possessions' that the task of keeping records had become so extensive as to overwhelm those doing the work, until they had lost sight of what their jobs really comprised. They convinced themselves that they were simply doing their 'duty'; giving it their best possible effort, as demanded by their Fuhrer. Thus the killing of the Jewish people had truly turned into a state sponsored enterprise; the raison d'etre for the Third Reich's existence. This demented 'work ethic' was nowhere more strongly felt than in the many death camps themselves. The existing bureaucratic chain of command handed down hundreds of memos, which suggested changes that would improve efficiency - put out for competitive bidding to the private industry - and each memo used language that would euphemize the directive. In Treblinka (a killing factory near Warsaw, Poland), for instance, Yitzhak Arad tells us that the superiors were most urgently concerned about the need to increase the absorptive capacity of the gas chambers (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka). Consequently, one of Commandant Stangl's first actions upon taking control of the camp was to order the construction of new gas chambers. The plans for the new buildings were carefully laid out with specific dimensions outlining the most efficient 'liquidation' of the Jews - competitively, again, each supported by cost-cutting, efficiency based, enhance­ ments - by professional engineers from the industry, in a proper, business-like manner. At another camp, a memo was written, inquiring whether or not the light should be left on in the boxcars which transported the Jews to their final destination before gas was injected. These memos, in their very detail, illustrate that killing was no longer regarded as an immoral act but that it had, instead, become a science; a technolog­ ical achievement of sorts. Planners worked to design the most efficient machines, which would perform a task that they refused to

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

55

acknowledge by its proper name: mass murder. In consequence, terms such as 'murder' and 'human being' were left out of the memos, only to be replaced by such euphemisms as 'liquidation' and 'cargo'. This depersonalized the policy of racial genocide and enabled upper level bureaucracy as well as its subordinates at all levels to ignore the nature of their endeavor. In western Europe, as in Germany, anti-Jewish sentiments were on the decline at the turn of the twentieth century. Assimilation and integration of the Jews was desired and proceeded in full swing. But Hitler changed all that. 'Because they (the Jews) are different,' he states in his Mein Kampf, 'they have to be removed.'17 Anti-Judaism had assumed new heights of refinement in the Third Reich. It was no longer based on religious bias; no longer considered just punishment for 'deicide'. The Third Reich, to succeed in its plan of total eradication of world Jewry, had embarked on a course of racial anti-Judaism. Hitler's anti-Judaism was an east European plant; it had become endemic and murderous; directed not toward assimilation and inte­ gration, but liquidation and extermination. In other words, the real bedrock of Hitler's racial philosophy was not a fusion of nationalism and socialism, but of nationalism and virulent anti-Judaism. To accomplish its goals, the Third Reich painted the Jew as the full­ blown devil, complete with horns and tail, and a peculiar stench. It spread the propaganda of Jewish exploitation of the masses in what had become the politics of paranoia. Moreover, the Jews were depicted as some sort of treacherous enemy of the state, endangering its very existence - alien creatures of a radically destructive nature therefore in need of eradication lest they devour the Third Reich. The indoctrination of the masses had begun at elementary school levels, with children as the willing 'victims'. Under the guise of legit­ imacy, textbooks presented a picture of the Jews commensurate with their characterization by the propaganda ministry as well as popular Nazi Party dissemination of misinformation. One point in case is a text by the prominent racialist, Dr Jakob Graf, for middle and high school children titled appropriately for the instruction of biology, Biologic fur Oberschule und Gymnasium. Sanctioned by the party, it deals exhaustively with human origins, anatomy, composition of bone and blood, and so on, all legitimate material taught in biology classes. The book's purpose becomes apparent when one arrives at chapters dealing with people's kinship with one another or consan­ guinity, as well as their race. Some illustrations subtitled 'Nordic Boldness (intrepidity)' grace the initial pages commenting on race relations. In a chapter entitled 'The Jew as Merchant, Nomad, Parasite and Destroyer of Culture', Dr Graf presents an illustration of a 'typical Jew' with the subscript 'Jew from Germany. Negroid Roots.'

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Warning and Hope

The Teamed' scientist proceeds to describe his 'typical Jew' sample in the following manner:

The Jew is, like the rest of the people, a racial mixture. The near Asiatic and the Oriental races supplied the primary components of his blood. According to the blood composi­ tion, race research differentiates between Eastern Jews and Southern Jews. Even today, there are in many Jews to be observed such characteristics as kinky hair, puffy lips and protruding denture (which) are evidence of Negroid blood ... (Biologie fiir Oberschule und Gymnasium, 141; Translation mine throughout.)

Further, in a chapter entitled The 'Jew in Professional Life,' Graf enlightens the learner by presenting statistical data that reveal the Jew's aptitude in everyday occupations when he states: 'Jews are, above all, merchants. They have a special liking for money lending at the bank, stock markets, and retail trade. The Jews avoid hard physical work' (143). In the chapter entitled 'The Jew as Destroyer of Good Customs (Morals) and Harmony Among Peoples' the author asserts the following: 'Equally disastrous as in the economical arena was the influence of Jews in politics [emphasis mine]. In all of Europe and America, the press was, for the most part, under Jewish influence. The founder of international Socialism was the Jew Marx, for whom was named the entire heresy of Marxism.' Here, Dr Graf chooses conveniently to forget not only that Karl Marx had denounced Judaism early in his life and had become an avowed atheist, but also that Adolf Hitler himself founded his ideal of National Socialism on the principles of the Marxist-socialist doctrine. Summarizing his findings, in a typically biased and stereotypical manner, Herr Dr Jakob Graf concludes: 1. The natural law, which determines the Jew's behavior, is called parasitism. This is the law according to which he had begun. He must remain this way. He cannot escape it. The Jew is and remains a Nomad, a parasite, even as a convert to Christianity or having relocated to another country. 2. The Nordic-Germanic person who is, by nature, a solid settler, presents the greatest contrast to the Jew ... the union of blood and soil [author's italic] is the grand law that dominates his nature and determines his whole existence.

The question one must ask oneself here is: How did the leaders of the Third Reich make the people follow their bidding? And the reply that comes to mind is manifold: first, they had identified the individual

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

57

Reich citizens with the entity of the state; then, they had given them a common goal and, lastly, provided them with powerful motivation. They had exhorted the German people to perform their 'job', further legitimizing their action with Hitler's signing of the Nuremberg Laws, which comforted their collective consciences. Murder had been implicitly legalized in the Third Reich, and was actually demanded by the leaders of the state, thus making it possible for all levels of tech­ nocrats to accept 'duty' at the expense of morality. Here we might quote Dr Werner Best (Heydrich's number two in the RSHA during a crucial period. Best wrote an essay in Zcitschrift fuer Politik, Heft 6, June 1942, under the title 'Grossraumordnung und Grossraumverwaltung', where we read on page 407: 'Vernichtung und Verdradngung fremden Volkstums widerspricht nach geschicht lichen Erfahrungen den Lebensgesetzen nicht, wenn sie volstadndig geschiet' (The destruction and removal of inferior people is not at variance with the laws of nature in historical practice when it is executed to completion). If the actions of those not directly involved in the murders can be explained by some strange work ethic and dehumanizing language, then how does one account for the actions of the actual executioners? They could not help but see first hand the human destruction that the killings entailed, and yet they executed Hitler's plan even more effi­ ciently than he himself would have dreamed possible. The question, then, is why? During his trial in Jerusalem, as Hannah Arendt tells us in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, the accused Adolf Eichmann had offered as an excuse for his acts against humanity that he, too, like many others, was merely doing his job and following orders from above. And while this seems unusual, there may be something to it. This apparent tendency of human beings to follow the lead of an authority figure provides at least a partial explanation as to why the Nazi SS as well as other military units and people from the private sector had been able to kill so many people on the xenophobic pretext of saving the country. After all, one absolute authority or another had throughout history ruled the German people, except for the brief period of democratization during the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933. Therefore, one may assume, they were open to the influence of an authoritarian figure under proper circumstances. They may also have been able to remove themselves more easily from the reality of their actions because they had abdicated their individuality in favor of their supreme leader. And even though the German people rationalized their immoral actions while transferring their guilt onto their leader(s), they cannot remain free from blame for the abhorrent toll on human lives exerted by racial anti-Judaism in the Third Reich. Clearly, an individual must be held responsible for his or her actions, even if he or she acts on orders of a superior and, therefore,

58

Warning and Hope

does not feel responsible. It is obvious that Nazi technocrats and their military, para-military, and civilian associates had ignored this reality. Upon closer scrutiny of the perpetrators' characteristics during the destruction of the European Jews, it becomes increasingly clear how such an event could have taken place. In vesting their leader Adolf Hitler with the supreme authority of a Fuhrer, the German people had abdicated all of their individual rights, freedoms and responsibilities. Their leader, for his part, took advantage of his role, fanning the passions of ancient anti-Jewish attitudes and imple­ menting a massive propaganda campaign that was designed not only to instill a hatred of the Jews but also dehumanized and demo­ nized them as well, in preparation for mass murder. It was significant that Hermann Goering, in addressing the Prussian prosecutors on July 12, 1934, stated, 'the law and the will of the Fuhrer are one'.1* As the Third Reich had begun to prosper, the Nazis who had occu­ pied positions in the Reich's technocracy became wrapped up in their work to the point that they could no longer recognize the fruit of their labor as being the murder of innocent people. Furthermore, by insisting on keeping an exhaustive record of the entire 'under­ taking', the Nazis succeeded in reducing the casualties of their murderous enterprise to anonymous statistics, enabling them to focus their energies on ways to improve the 'system' and maximize its efficiency. The Law of the Land and the highest authority of the Fuhrer after all, sanctioned all of the people's efforts. Therefore, in their own minds, the technocrats were able to pursue their own brand of racial anti-Judaism with a total clarity of purpose. In fact, they had convinced themselves that their actions were prompted by motives of self-preservation, since the Jew had been imprinted in their minds as an 'enemy of the state'. Morality was thus dictated from above and, even though it was terribly distorted, the German people had persuaded themselves to live and act according to the moral princi­ ples of their leaders. Later on they would place all blame on Hitler as the tempter, the devil incarnate, who had made them act in such abominable ways, thus freeing them of responsibility for their geno­ cidal acts; a magical feat of guilt-cleansing, indeed, a sleight of hand with monstrous consequences. In the chapters that follow, we shall attempt to shed some light in more detail on the many issues that were discussed in this portion. The Holocaust cannot be explained by rational thought, nor should it be. If an explanation exists at all, it is also quite problematic. For one thing, while most people in Nazi Germany complied with Hitler's policies, some did not, even at high personal peril. As a consequence of their compassion, there were many acts of mercy in spite of the risks facing the righteous. Therefore, there are some fundamental

The Roots and Nature of Anti-Semitism

59

problems with the notion that basic human nature was to blame for the catastrophe. For another thing, there were many instances of acts of terror and persecution that were not performed in the name of efficiency. The Jews were not only killed, but they were also tortured, starved, raped, and abused before being put to death. If the Nazi bureaucracy had been truly concerned only with the completion of its genocidal plan as efficiently as possible, then why were those acts that prolonged the agony of the condemned condoned and, indeed, encouraged? In a final analysis, the Holocaust must not be rationally 'explained', for to do so would be to free those responsible from blame. If the entire event can be understood by methodical analysis, then inevitable factors such as basic human nature, bureaucratic anonymity, and the dehumanizing propaganda come under fire as the 'real' causes of the event. In that case, the actual perpetrators are reduced merely to involuntary actors not responsible for the role they played so well. This idea is dangerously wrong, tempting though it may be, for all human beings have freedom of choice, and that includes the Germans who lived under Hitler's rule, youth included. They could have reached deep into the reservoir of their ancient tradition of high moral values - as some did - and resisted the ideas of the absurd dema­ gogue. Therefore, those who pledged their blind obedience to the Fuhrer, the bystanders and collaborators as well, must come under the microscope of historical judgment and are ultimately responsible for the greatest atrocity of the modern world, regardless of the circum­ stances surrounding them. NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

Gospel According to Matthew, 27f (King James version used throughout). S. Freud, Cii’ilization and its Discontents, 28f. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice, 6. Ibid., 308. Ibid., 309. Ibid. Ibid., 14. Ibid., 9. Ibid., 327. Ibid., 332. Ibid., 334. Sichrovsky, Born Guilty, 101. Ibid., 104. Ibid., 100. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 136. Ibid.,137. Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Manheim, 104. Shirer, Rise and Fall oj the Third Reich, 268.

The state is a racial organism and not an economic organization ... Life is only preserved because other things perish through struggle. In this struggle, the stronger and more able will win ... The stronger must dominate the weak ... (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 150-3) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal ... The Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson)

2

Political Racism and Social Darwinism

Question: How should the individual react to the state's moral bankruptcy?

Nazi ideology and the Final Solution Natural selection, variation, fitness, inheritance, struggle for exis­ tence; all these terms have come to symbolize the theories and ideas surrounding the concept of evolution. Since the 1859 publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, the concept of evolution has been under close scrutiny. Some have found it illogical. Others say it denies the existence of God. Some see it as a natural process. Still others have used it as an excuse to take advantage of fellow human beings. All understand the power that is inherent in such a concept. Evolution implies the change in an organism over time, through the process of natural selection. These changes are dependent on certain factors. Darwin termed these principles variation, struggle for existence, fitness, and inheritance. Variation is the principle that every organism is different in some way, including those of the same species. The struggle for existence shows how every organism is in competition with other organisms. To this end, there is variation in fitness. This shows that organisms differ in ways that affect their competitive abilities. Finally, the principle of inheritance shows that all organisms transmit a large portion of their characteristics to their descendants. Evolution through natural selection takes place when an organism displays characteristics that help it during its struggle

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for existence. These characteristics are passed on to future genera­ tions and may ultimately change the species. All this brings forth the following question: if the process is natural, how can people use it to take advantage of others? During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there arose a movement that used some of the principles of evolution to explain society. The advocates of this theory came to be known as Social Darwinists, and, as Helmut Krausnick and Martin Broszat tell us, 'as disciples of the modern creed of "natural forces" in their polit­ ical outlook, [they] held that human society was also more or less a biological organism, and concluded, therefore, that the biological factor was the one absolute in all spheres of life.'1 There were two strains of Social Darwinism. The first strain wished to challenge static societies with the idea of change. They did not believe that the elites of society were the fittest, and so they wanted everyone to be on an equal level. In this more 'natural' setting, they claimed, it would be easier for everyone to realize and reach their true potential. The second strain stressed struggle and competition and saw in the Darwinian concept of natural selection of the fittest justification for a hierarchical society. Alfred Kelly writes: Tn this view, the economic struggle had selected the fittest, who were rich and powerful, and left the less fit behind. If the suffering of the less fit masses were regrettable in the short term, they were nonethe­ less natural and necessary, and any attempt to alleviate them through social welfare would only contribute to the degeneration of the race.'2 This second strain, taken to its full interpretation, could, in the final analysis, lead to eugenics or racial hygiene. In other words, it could help nature improve the race by speeding up the natural selec­ tion in a desired direction. This brings us to an interesting question: could this have been the reasoning behind Hitler's Final Solution? Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was swept by the radical theories of Social Darwinism. Coupled with the pagan rituals of romantic mythology and fueled by the sentimentality of primitive Teutonic mythos, the nation was ready to accept the teach­ ings of such men as the Frenchman Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau and the count's ardent admirer and follower, the English scion of nobility Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Both these men were to become vital players in the formulation of the National Socialist credo. Gobineau, in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Race, asserts that 'the racial question dominates all of the other problems of history ... the inequality of races suffices to explain the whole unfolding of the destiny of peoples.' Of the three principal races, he claimed, the white was the superior: 'History shows that all civiliza­

62

Warning and Hope

tion flows from the white race that no civilization can exist without the co-operation of this race.' The jewel of the white race was, according to Gobineau, the Aryan, whose origin he traced back to central Asia. To him, the Germans, or at least the West Germans, were probably the best of all the Aryans, and the Nazis later on hailed this discovery. Houston Stewart Chamberlain expounded the Gobineau racist doctrine in Germany, though he was a native of England. During his early studies in Switzerland, he had visited Germany on several occa­ sions, became enamored of its language, and was a frequent visitor at the home of Richard Wagner, whose son-in-law he later became, having married the composer's daughter Eva. It was Chamberlain who advanced the theory that Jesus was not a Jew after all, but an Aryan. He then concluded that it was natural for Christ to become 'the God of the young Indo-European peoples overflowing with life, and above all the God of the Teuton'.' Among such spiritual mentors as Alfred Rosenberg, at best a mediocre pseudo-philosopher of East Prussian origin, and Dietrich Eckart, Hitler's drunken poet friend, it is likely that the aspiring Fuhrer incorporated many of Chamberlain's ideas into his own book Mein Kampf. Thus, he later states: 'The folkish state ... must set race in the center of all life. It must take care to keep it pure ... It must see to it that only the healthy beget children; that there is only one disgrace: despite one's own sickness and deficiencies, to bring chil­ dren into the world; one's highest honor: to renounce doing so. And conversely it must be considered reprehensible to withhold healthy children from the nation.'4 The Fuhrer had a 'mystical sense of his personal mission on earth', writes Shirer/ quoting from Mein Kampf: 'From millions of men ... one man must step forward.' And, in the twilight of his career, as he contemplates suicide moments before the Russians overrun his Berlin bunker, the mad Fuhrer enters the fatal sentence in his Black Book: 'there are only two possibilities: either victory of the Aryan or annihilation of the Aryan and victory of the Jew.'6 Biologist August Weismann made an attempt at altering the Fuhrer's extreme doctrine when he theorized that the environment had no influence over inheritance. Instead, he claimed, life was a continuous stream of germ plasma, unaffected by outside influences. The German Social Darwinists took Weismann's theory, combined it with their own, and concluded that 'man was a prisoner of heredity. Each individual was seen as a prepackaged given, whose life was predetermined by his innate talents and limitations ... No longer was there any reason to improve society; all effort had to go into preserving the "best" germ plasma.'7 Moreover, they argued that the community needed to be reorganized in order to release the

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beneficial powers of nature. To that end, the state's attention should be focused on encouraging the healthy, strong, and biologically valu­ able elements in society. In doing so, it should not protect the weak and 'incapable' elements. This idea soon evolved into 'socially hygienic control'. Wilhelm Schallmayer, a moderate Social Darwinist, saw the usefulness of forbidding the 'unfit' to marry in order to eliminate physical and mental weaknesses. This 'preservation of the species' was soon amplified to apply to the foreign policy of the Third Reich. It was argued that by implementing this guideline, the state could ensure its permanent 'viability'. The radical Social Darwinists expanded the theory further, to the realm of the needs of humanity itself. Alexander Tille championed 'the right of the stronger races to destroy the weaker; those who could not hold their ground should resign themselves to annihila­ tion'." The impact that this type of thought had on Hitler and his party ideologies was staggering. The German people had always been romantic nationalists and to this end a Germanic mythology was created, which governed and rationalized their actions. This volkish ideology started out as a romantic notion of overcoming the evils of the world and resisting everyday temptations. That kind of mindset held in the highest esteem temporary technological advancements rather than the creative, timeless cultural accom­ plishments. As time went on, romantic ideologies gave way to patriotic fervor, which became the rationale behind Germany's imperialist expansionism. With the advent of Social Darwinism, this ideology soon evolved into an attempt to answer all 'social ques­ tions', to deal with and unite certain segments of society. It would eventually view all those who were outside the Volk as contaminants of society. Roderick Stackelberg points out that 'The Volk by definition embraced only the healthy, undefiled members of the community ... This fixation on ideological purity led, in an age that increasingly believed in the hereditary basis of human culture, to a definition of Volk in racial terms. Thus deviation from the volkish consensus came to signify contamination by foreign (usually Semitic or Latin) blood.'“ Thus, the stage was set for the development of Hitler's National Socialism. The National Socialist movement embraced Social Darwinism as a valid rationale for the elimination of the 'unwanted' elements in the Third Reich: communists, labor unions, Jews, the feeble-minded, and homosexuals, the Gypsies, and all other 'impure' ethnics. It was Hitler's aim to convince the German people of the existing 'struggle between the strong and the weak'; one that was destined to end with the victory of the stronger over the weaker. The humanity of individuals was to be replaced by the humanity of

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nature, whose laws decree the destruction of the weak to make way for the strong. To this end, the Nazis had begun to weed out those who were not suitable material for Hitler's Germany; a plan that was carried out as the biological will of the German people; executed in the defense of the very existence of the Third Reich from outside infection. The Jews had the unique distinction of having been designated not only as impure, but also as enemy of the state. Such an approach left no alter­ natives; the preservation of the Third Reich depended on the total annihilation of the Jews. If Nazi Germany were to preserve its natural strength, it would have to cut out the infection of Judaism. In doing this, the Nazis destroyed their competitors and acquired goods 'to which the stronger had perfect rights'. In the words of the German historian Hans Buchheim: 'The end product of this policy would be a new, biologically sensible, wellordered European community .... This program would be carried through by means of euthanasia, deportation, Germanization and, last but not least, the extirpation of all those classes of people consid­ ered to be worthless or dangerous.'1" The theory behind Social Darwinism was pure and simple racism. When used in extreme, it lent authority to the assumption that a stronger group of people has the right to exploit and drive to extinc­ tion the weaker one. At least, that is what the Nazis believed. They purported to protect their country, the Third Reich, from unwanted elements. They dreamed of expanding their country's frontiers at the expense of their neighbors, envisioned in Hitler's ambitious Lebensraum (living space) demands. The Nazis made claim to the immortality of their race. The Third Reich would live forever or, at least, for a thousand years. Hence the purposes and aims of the policies of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) - as outlined in Hitler's Mein Kampf - were to denationalize all conquered territories and then absorb only those people considered to be of 'Nordic' (Aryan) blood. All others (regarded by the Nazis as 'subhumans') were to have their institutions of learning shut down, their leadership decimated, their language and national culture erased, their religious institutions stripped, and their people subjected to extermination, either by forced slave labor or in killing factories, where the frequency and haste of their death hung solely on the will of their masters, the Nazis. It was later, from these policies and their subsequent execution, that we derived the terms 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity'. Using the theories of Social Darwinism, twisting them radically to suit their own plans, the Nazis set in motion a process of mass murder, which came under the title of the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. The universe had thus become a jungle in which

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nations struggle for survival; the strong would win; the weak would submit to the former's supremacy or be killed in the process of that competition. The law of the jungle applied specifically to the Jews, since they were on the top of the list of the Untermenschen and, above all else, were enemies of the state. As Joseph Tenenbaum states: 'On this assumption, what greater moral mission could there be than the extermination of the Jews? The syllogism was closed - the gas cham­ bers were opened.'" In that darkest hour of recorded history, a modern state and an ostensibly cultured, civilized people were seduced to apply their total energy, technology, and organizational skills to an ideological program of mass murder. This remains a part of our past that must not be compromised in transmission to future generations. For when a nation succeeds in translating hatred and prejudice into racism and then into organized political activity, as did the Third Reich, then human values and the very structure of civilization stand in mortal peril.

Hitler's racial theories In what way is anti-Judaism seen as the central tenet of Hitler's formulation of Nazi ideology? The key lies with Hitler himself. There is little doubt about the centrality of anti-Jewish commitment in his own worldview. Adapting the crudest perversion of Social Darwinism, Hitler saw history as a great arena in which peoples forever engage in ruthless competition. Nations, like individuals or primitive organisms, are, by their very nature, compelled to struggle desperately for their very existence. Within the larger picture of Hitler's racist portrayal of the universe, the Jew played a significant role. He was depicted as the most determined of sinister enemies of the German state as well as other nations. Jews were not a race, Hitler claimed, but an antirace that had no culture of their own. Instead, they taught such doctrines as democracy and parliamentarism, which perverted or degenerated previously sound societies. That was the reason Jews were constantly mingling with other cultures, while seeking to dissolve their struc­ tures and their institutions. In Hitler's view, Marxism was but one additional means by which world Jewry conducted its relentless assault upon the societies and peoples of the world. Capitalism was another means. Hitler concluded that in a world dominated by struggle, the Jews could be fiendishly successful and were a perpetual threat to the existence of healthy societies. Hitler identified three major factors that were essential to a people's racial value: nationalism, the Fuhrer principle, and

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militarism. On these three principles he had based his ability to conduct the inescapable struggle for existence. The Jews had given Hitler the opportunity to campaign against the three foes of these qualities: internationalism, democracy, and pacifism. He did not lack the courage to implement radically in practice the conclusions he had drawn theoretically. What aided Hitler in succeeding in his quest for power were the many Germans who shared his view that Germany's World War One defeat was a consequence of the November 1918 revolution. By the time Hitler entered politics, his political platform was almost complete. His first resolution was 'never again November 1918' - a vow to make future revolutions impossible. Therefore, he was deter­ mined to bring about only once more a political situation of utter anarchy, caused by conflicting forces that would warrant his ultimate revolution, during which he would assume power and never relin­ quish it again. During the first half of the 1920s came the idea of planning a new war, under new, more favorable conditions. Which meant the resump­ tion of the war that was lost - because, in Hitler's view, it was prematurely discontinued - but not admittedly so. Thus it was to be resumed on the basis of a domestic constitution in which there were no potentially revolutionary forces. This would lead to the abolition of all left-wing parties and, while one was at it, why not all parties? Hence, what had its humble origins as the National Socialist Party of the early twenties, had become the National Socialist German Workers Party, with the inclusion of the 'workers' element. This was done in order to steal the thunder of the Communist Party, which previously claimed to be the sole representation of the working class. With that addition, Hitler was telling the German worker, in effect, 'You don't have to vote for Stalin. 1 am for the workers, too, but I am a National Socialist.' It is noteworthy that, since one could not abolish the people behind the left-wing parties - the workers - they would have to be politically won over to nationalism. They were offered socialism, in fact national socialism. Their former faith - Marxism - had to be uprooted, which meant the physical removal of the Marxist intellectuals and politicians who, unfortunately, included a lot of Jews. Seizing on this reality, Hitler was quick to manufacture Marxism into a synonym of Judaism. Thus, his oldest wish had come closer to being fulfilled. In the exter­ mination of the Marxist elements, he would exterminate all of the Jews. Finally, in order to achieve the power to realize his goals, he had arrived at what was probably the greatest and most revolutionary decision of his political life; the decision to become the Fuhrer. As the Fuhrer of the Germans, Adolf Hitler probably exerted more direct personal power than any ruler in history. He was able to create

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and implement his own political theory; a government that could not exist without him; he set standards for art, music, medicine, science, and poetry; and his whim became national law. Even the Junker (aris­ tocratic) officer corps that meant to dominate the 'upstart corporal' had become subservient to the Fuhrer, their absolute ruler. NOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Krausnick and Broszat, Anatomy of the SS State, 27-35. Kelly, The Descent of Darvin, 100-22. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 107. Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Manheim, 402ff. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 109. Hitler, Black Book, 22. Mein Kampf, 105f. Ibid., 29. Stackelberg, Idealism Debased, 4f. Mein Kampf, 31. Tenenbaum, Race and Reich, 210f.

May the hand wither that signs this treaty ... Philip Scheidemann (quoted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, p. 57)

3

The Physical and Political Aspects of Post-World War One Germany Question: Was the socio-economic crisis a factor that made the German people favor Hitler's ideology and, if so, is that type of genocide peculiar to this kind of crisis or could it happen elsewhere under different circumstances?

The Paris settlement of World War One consisted of five separate treaties between the victorious and the vanquished nations. In 1919 the 'Big Four' powers of Great Britain, the United States, France, and Italy, went to Versailles with idealistic hopes of a 'peace without victors' and 'open covenants openly arrived at'. These dreams rapidly gave way when the Soviet Union and Germany were excluded from the peace talks and 'open covenants'. Thus the confer­ ences had become closed sessions in which the United States, Great Britain, and France made unilateral arrangements. In fact, the United States and Great Britain permitted France - as the country most directly grieved by that war - to dictate the terms of the treaty. They were later to regret their decision. The Germans were presented with a treaty and compelled to sign it under the threat of an Allied invasion. Acting out of fear of Germany, France insisted on certain territo­ rial provisions whose purpose was to leave Germany debilitated. France would occupy Alsace-Lorraine and have the right to work the coalmines of the Saar for 50 years. Germany west of the Rhine and 50 kilometers east of it was to be a demilitarized zone, and Allied troops could stay on the west bank for 15 years. In addition, Germany's

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eastern borders were moved westward, causing the loss of more valued land and the displacement of hundreds of German families. Furthermore, the Treaty guaranteed British and American aid to France in the event of a German attack. Such an occurrence was made even more unlikely by the permanent disarmament of Germany. The treaty limited Germany's army to 100,000 men on long-term service. Germany's fleet was all but eliminated, and she was forbidden to have warplanes, submarines, tanks, heavy artillery, or poison gas. As long as these conditions were met, France believed itself to be safe. The Treaty of Versailles was composed of many constructs that rendered an uprising by the Germans potential, if not inevitable. The aim of the French representation at the Paris Conference was to cripple Germany far into the future. The French prime minister, Clemenceau, had stated: 'A peace of magnanimity or of fair and equal treatment ... could only have an effect of shortening the interval of Germany's recovery and hastening the day when she will once again hurl at France her greater numbers and superior resources and tech­ nical skill.'1 Prior to World War One, Germany's economic system largely depended on overseas commerce, the exploitation of coal and iron reserves, and on transport and traffic systems. The treaty contained sanctions that sought to destroy all three of these. The treaty forced Germany to give over its naval and mercantile ships to the Allies. Also, all of Imperial Germany's colonial territories were distributed among other nations, and all privately owned German property overseas was confiscated. As a consequence, the great potential of Germany's foreign trade was eliminated. Likewise, it sought to destroy the German coal industry. Germany was forced to give France exclusive rights of exploration to the coalmines in the Saar basin; Poland had been given the rights to Upper Silesia coalfields, which had been providing 23 percent of Germany's production of hard coal. Still, Germany had to supply coal to France, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg respectively as payment for war damage. In terms of the transport and tariff system, the treaty required Germany to register most-favored-status on imports and freight rates on goods from Allied or associated states for five years. This might not seam unfair, but Germany's exports did not receive reciprocal treatment. Germany was forced to make enormous economic conces­ sions without having equal trading status, thereby rendering it unable to successfully carry the burdens placed upon it by the treaty and to proceed effectively with its own economic recovery. These were severe limitations to Germany's postwar recovery, but the most debated portion of the peace settlement dealt with repara­

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tions - the 'war-guilt clause' - for the damages incurred by the Allied nations during the fighting. The treaty ratified the defeat of and dealt humiliation to Germany. Before the armistice, Germany had agreed to pay for the damages inflicted on the civilian population of the Allies and on their property. The Americans judged this to be in the area of $15-$25 billion and believed that the Germans would be able to pay. However, the French and the British, worried about their repayment of the war debt to the United States, were eager to have Germany pav the full cost of the war. However, there was general agreement that Germany could not pay such a sum, whatever it might be, and there was no definite sum set at the conference. In the meantime, Germany was to pay $5 billion annually until the year 1921. At that time a final figure would be set, which Germany would have to pay off in 30 years. Once again, France was pleased with the outcome. Either Germany would pay and be bled into impotence, or she would refuse to pay and face French intervention. The Germans, of course, did not believe that they were solely responsible for the war and bitterly resented the assertion of clause 231 that, among others, held Germany 'and her allies responsible for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies'. Criticism of the treaty reached past German shores. John Maynard Keynes, a noted economist, condemned the treaty in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. He called it a 'Carthaginian peace' - referring to the total destruction of Carthage by Rome after the Third Punic War. Keynes argued that such a peace would result in the economic ruin of Germany and would bring war to Europe, rather than the peace it sought. He warned that the treaty should be repudiated in order to prevent such devastation to Europe. Germany was, indeed, left facing ruin. The newly formed Weimar Republic, formed of the Social Democrats and the Catholic Center Party - whose representatives signed the treaty - never overcame the stigma of accepting the Treaty of Versailles. It was President Wilson of the United States who argued with the French and British allies about the severity of the treaty in his cele­ brated Fourteen Points. On seeing his counsel rejected, however, he withdrew from the scene, though not from the alliance, disap­ pointed. Friedrich Ebert, the provisional president of the newlv formed Weimar Republic, denounced the treaty as 'unrealizable and unbearable'.2 The situation in Germany was grim. Money quite literally was not worth the paper it was printed on. Inflation mounted daily and dayto-day survival became a struggle. The moral and social values of thrift and prudence were thoroughly undermined. The security of

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middle-class savings was wiped out. This economic disaster was one more trauma coming on the heels of the military defeat and the peace treaty. The atmosphere in Germany was ripe for a scapegoat, a national leader, and a party to which people could turn for security. The NSDAR better known as the Nazis, with Hitler as the leader, would soon answer the call. The aftermath of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles left Germany a house divided. The ensuing social and economic chaos left the population despondent and longing for order and stability. The citizens' willingness to pay any price for that security can be understood. In 1919, a young man by the name of Adolf Hitler was moving to the forefront of a party that called itself the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). In 1920, the Nazi Party had issued a platform of Twenty-Five Points. Among these was the demand for repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles, the exclusion of Jews from German citizenship, confiscation of war profits, and agrarian reform. Soon after the proclamation of these points, the Stormtroopers, or SA (Sturm Abteilung), were organized. The SA became the chief Nazi instrument of terror and intimidation before the party took control of government. In 1923, because of his great oratorical skill and organizational abilities, Hitler had risen to dominance in the Nazi Party. On November 9,1923 he and a band of followers attempted a putsch at a beer hall in Munich. Local authorities foiled the uprising - and sixteen Nazis died for their efforts. Hitler and General Ludendorff were arrested and tried for treason. Hitler used the trial as an oppor­ tunity to rise to national prominence. In his defense he condemned the Weimar Republic, the Treaty of Versailles, the Jews, and Germany's weakened condition. While Ludendorff was acquitted, Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. He actually served only a few months of his sentence, during which time he was assigned relatively comfortable prison quarters and with the help of his trusted cronies he wrote Mein Kampf His prison stay also convinced Hitler that in the future he and his party must use legal means to seize political power in Germany. As a result of the Great Depression, the coalition of parties that had governed Germany in 1928 dissolved, its partners sharply disagreeing on economic policy. To resolve the parliamentary dead­ lock, President von Hindenburg appointed Heinrich Bruening as chancellor. Lacking a majority in the Reichstag, the new chancellor governed through emergency presidential decrees, as authorized by article 48 of the Constitution. In this fashion, the Weimar Republic was transformed into a presidential dictatorship. German unemployment rose from 2,258,000 in March 1930 to over 6,000,000 in 1932. The magnitude and duration of the economic

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downturn was the greatest Germany had ever experienced. In the election of 1930, the Nazis' power was bolstered when they won 107 seats in the Reichstag, compared to 77 held by the communists. The power of the Nazi Party on the streets was also on the rise. Unemployment fed thousands of men into the SA, whose ranks swelled from 100,000 in 1930 to almost 1 million in 1933. The Nazi Party planned to capture power through instruments of terror and intimidation as well as through legal elections. Political civility vanished, replaced by insidious tactics with the goal of gaining power. The Nazis held rallies that resembled religious revivals; they paraded through the German streets and countryside. They also gleaned support from newspapermen, businessmen, the military, and some sympathetic intellectuals at home and abroad. They were able to transform the discipline inherent in these fields of endeavor into an enthusiasm for the party. Such support was born of economic despair. The Nazis channeled the frustration of the nation into impressive electoral results. Adolf Hitler and the party manipulated the anxiety, frustration, and anger of the people into power over them. Nazi power became a symbol of strength for a severely depressed and unsteady nation. Ultimately, Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power through legal means, winning the elections of 1932 by plurality. Their first mission immediately thereafter was to destroy the system that had brought them to power. Thus, the German people imposed the Nazi dictator­ ship upon themselves, as it all proceeded with the consent of the governed. Hitler took undisputed power as president and chancellor in 1933. Thereafter he began to consolidate it, and would eventually turn the German people into mindless followers. What had begun in Paris in 1919 as the ultimate peace treaty, led to the installation of Hitler as Fuhrer of the Third Reich and prelude to another world war, more devastating than the first. Throughout the 1920s, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party never ceased denouncing Versailles as the source of all Germany's trouble, and the economic woes of the early 1930s seemed to bear them out. Nationalism and attention to the social question along with party discipline had become the source of Nazi success. In 1919, the Weimar Constitution was passed. From all outward appearances it seemed to be the most liberal and democratic docu­ ment of its kind that the twentieth century had seen, proclaiming that All Germans are equal before the law.'3 The idea of cabinet government was borrowed from England and France, of a strong popular president from the United States, of the referendum from Switzerland. A complicated system of representation and voting was established in order to prevent the wasting of votes and to give small

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minorities a voice in Parliament. However, before the Constitution had even been ratified, the Treaty of Versailles cast a shadow of doom over it and the republic that it was to establish. For the most part, both the citizens and the provisional govern­ ment at Weimar were against accepting the terms of the Versailles Diktat (Dictate).4 However, fearing an Allied attack from the west (which it was concluded the German military would not be able to withstand), the army was compelled to accept the treaty. Taking final responsibility, the army's leaders convinced the provisional presi­ dent of the Republic, and the National Assembly, to approve the signing of the peace treaty. On June 28,1919 the treaty was signed in the Palace of Versailles. From that day on, Germany became 'a house divided'.5 The conservatives (who held the economic power) would accept neither the treaty nor the Republic which had ratified it. Nor in the long run would the army, which began to circumvent the military restrictions of the peace treaty almost immediately. Small though it was, it became a state within a state and exerted an influence on the nation's foreign and domestic policies; the time would come when the Republic's survival depended upon the will of the traditional officer corps. As a state within a state, the army maintained its independence of the national government, although under the Weimar Constitution it should have been subordinated to the cabinet and to Parliament, like the military establishments of the other western democracies. The officer corps also retained its monarchist, anti-republican frame of mind. The failure of the government to ensure that the army was faithful to its democratic spirit, and to subordinate it to the ruling cabinet, eventually proved to be a fatal mistake. The failure to clean out the judiciary was another grave error, because it had become one of the centers of the counterrevolution. After the Kapp putsch in the year 1920, several hundred people had been charged with high treason; however only one received a sentence, which turned out to be very mild. On the other hand, many German liberals had been sentenced to long prison terms for similar charges, because they revealed in the press or in speeches the army's constant violations of the treaty. The treason laws were ruth­ lessly applied to supporters of the Republic, while those on the right of the political spectrum who had tried to destroy it got off free or with minimal sentences. The mild-mannered socialists, aided by the democrats and the Catholic centrists, were the ones to carry on with the governance of the unstable Republic, while bearing the hatred and abuse of their opponents, who were growing in number and resolve. Adolf Hitler had grasped the might of the nationalist, anti-democratic, anti­ republican tide and was starting to ride it.

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He was greatly aided by circumstances. Two aspects in particular were in his favor: one was the fall of the German currency, and the other was the French occupation of the Ruhr. Both blows to the German economy helped fuse a united people more effectively than all of the speeches of political demagogues. Because the German mark had become totally worthless and its purchasing power reduced to zero (1929-1930), it had wiped out all middle-class savings, and the people had lost faith in the economic structure of German society. In their desperation, they made the Republic a scapegoat for all their misery and hopelessness, and now looked to Adolf Hitler to lead them out of the morass. Germany's experience during World War One and its aftermath were of vital importance to Hitler's rise to power. The German people were totally unprepared for the sudden news of defeat in 1918. Patriots spread the story that the army had never really been defeated in the field. Rather, they said, the fatherland had been betrayed and dealt a 'stab in the back' (Dolchstoss), by the 'November Criminals' - that is by traitorous Jews and other revolutionaries at home. The story was a big lie; but as it happens the big lie is often believed to be true. Hitler took the stand. 'No - not down with France, but down with the November criminals! That must be our slogan.'h The party unleashed a propaganda campaign, making the slogan an effective tool in their climb to power. Hitler had now become a member of the triumvirate within the German Fighting Union (Kantpfbund), which met in Nuremberg in September 1923. Most of the fascist groups in southern Germany were represented at this meeting, and Hitler received something of an ovation after his violent speech against the national government. During this meeting, the official objectives of the Kampfbund were openly stated: 'the overthrow of the Republic and the tearing up of the Treaty of Versailles.'7 In the fall of 1923, the German Republic and the state of Bavaria had reached a point of crisis. Subsequently, the chancellor announced an end to passive resistance in the Ruhr and the resump­ tion of the German reparation payments. This was done under the assumption that if Germany were to be saved, united and made strong again, it must temporarily accept the Republic, come to terms with the Allies, and obtain a period of tranquillity in which to regain its economic strength. To drift any further would only end in civil war and, perhaps, in the final destruction of the nation. The abandonment of resistance to the French in the Ruhr and the resumption of the burden of reparations touched off an outburst of anger and hysteria among the German nationalists as well as the communists, both of whom had been growing in strength. From September 26,1923 until February 1924 executive power in Germany

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under the Emergency Act was placed in the hands of the Minister of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, making the general and his army virtual dictators of the Reich. Bavaria was in no mood to accept such a solution, and its cabinet proclaimed its own state of emergency on September 26 by naming a right-wing monar­ chist and former premier as State Commissioner vested with dictatorial powers at first, and later coming under the control of a triumvirate. Meanwhile, in Berlin it was feared that Bavaria might secede from the Reich, restore the Wittelsbach monarchy and, perhaps, form a south-German union with Austria. Although a warning had been issued to the Bavarian triumvirate, to Hitler, and to the armed forces that any rebellion on their part would be met with force, Hitler, with his fanatical ideas for a strong, nationalist, unified Reich was unable to stem the tide. He became increasingly suspicious that either the triumvirate was losing heart or that it was planning a separatist coup without him in order to detach Bavaria from the Reich. Recklessness seemed to be called for, so Hitler decided to kidnap the triumvirate and force them to use their power at his bidding. In November 1923, in what was to be remembered as the 'Beer Hall Putsch', Hitler and his Stormtrooper thugs surrounded the beer hall where the triumvirate had held a meeting and proclaimed: 'The National Revolution has begun!'8 To the crowd that gathered, Hitler deceptively announced that the Bavarian ministry had been removed, whereupon the mob swore loyalty to the new regime. However, Hitler's triumph was short-lived, when he realized that he still lacked the support of institutions such as the army, the police, and the political party in power. The only logical solution seemed a daring march to the center of the city and a takeover of the armory. The attempted putsch ended disastrously for Hitler. The police blocked his passage, shots were exchanged, and blood was spilled. Thereupon, the party was dissolved and National Socialism was to all appearances dead, while Hitler's career seemed in serious jeopardy, with him on trial for treason. Though he was found guilty and sentenced to five years' impris­ onment, Hitler was able to turn the court proceedings into a spectacle and a forum for his diatribes against the state. This made him instantly a national figure and in the eyes of many a patriot and a hero. Nazi propaganda soon transformed the event into a farce and Hitler into one of the great legends of the movement. During the summer of 1924, in the old fortress of Landsberg, Adolf Hitler, who was treated as an honored guest with a room of his own, cleared out the visitors who had flocked to pay him homage and began to dictate chapter after chapter of a book he was to call Mein Kampf. In it he

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charted his political future and bound his own destiny to that of the German nation and its people. The Nazi destruction of the Weimar Constitution and of political opposition meant that German foreign policy lay almost entirely in Hitler's own hands. He desired a revision of Germany's eastern boundaries, elimination of the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and, to make the Third Reich the greatest power in the world, atone­ ment for the humiliation of the treaty. Furthermore, Hitler envisioned the entire Germanic people (Volk) under a single nation, which would include all of the parts of the former Habsburg Empire, including Austria. The new Germany would, without doubt, require more living space (Lebensraum), which would be taken, if necessary by force, from the Slavs, an inferior race (Untermenschen) fit only for servitude. Moreover, the removal of the Jews and other impure, subhuman groups of people, as outlined in Mein Kampf, would purify Germany. Under the plan, Poland as well as the Ukraine had to be conquered to provide for the settlement of the Germans and the provision of badly needed food. Hitler would from then on never lose sight of his goals, which were to lead, inevitably, to another war. When Hitler assumed leadership of the German nation, the country was far too weak to permit him to take the direct approach in realizing his goals. His first step was to shake off the chains of the treaty - as was the goal of the Weimar Republic before him - and to make Germany seem powerful again. Even though the demands of the treaty on Germany were unrealistic, Germany was left intact, thus giving it the potential to become the power it once was. In October 1933, Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations claiming that, as the other powers had not disarmed as promised, it was wrong to keep Germany helpless. In March 1935 he formally renounced the disarmament provisions of the treaty and began to build an air force, reinstating conscription, which aimed at an army of half a million men. Mounting evidence that the League of Nations was ineffective as a device for keeping the peace, and that collective security was a myth, facilitated Hitler's task. When Japan invaded Manchuria, China appealed to the League of Nations. The latter condemned Japan for its aggressive act, but refused to impose sanctions. Japan withdrew from the League, but kept Manchuria. Similarly, when Hitler announced his decision to rearm Germany, the League formally condemned his action, but took no steps to prevent her rearmament. A series of desperate appeasements by the French and the British began in February 1935. Although the two powers were hostile toward the Third Reich, they did not feel they could retaliate, as they had not carried out their own promises to disarm. The British,

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desperate to retain their naval superiority, even at the expense of French security needs, made a separate naval agreement with Hitler, allowing him to rebuild the German fleet up to 35 percent of the British navy. Hitler had taken a major step toward fulfilling his goals without provoking serious opposition. On March 7, 1936 he took a greater risk by moving a small Wehrmacht detachment into the demilitarized Rhineland. This was yet another direct breach of the treaty and of the Locarno Agreements, which Germany had signed voluntarily. It also removed one of the most important elements of French security. In retrospect, it appears that the Allies lost a great opportunity to stop Hitler before he became a serious menace to world peace. Public opinion in Britain, however, would not allow any support for France. The French themselves were paralyzed because of internal division and by a military policy that had focused primarily on defensive strategy rather than on taking the offensive initiative. France and Britain as well as the United States were further weakened by a growing pacifism. Neither country did anything more than make a feeble protest to the League of Nations. The rapidly rearming Germany and her new defensible western frontiers provided new problems for the Allies. They responded with a policy of appeasement. It was founded on the assumption that Germany had legitimate grievances, that Hitler's goals were limited and ultimately acceptable, and that the correct attitude was to bring about revision by means of diplomacy, negotiation, and concession before a crisis could arise leading to an armed conflict. One of the effects of the Versailles Treaty was that the conserva­ tive forces in Germany continued to own most German industries, large estates, and most of the country's capital. Now they chose to use their wealth to support political parties that would undermine the Republic. It was from these sectors that Hitler drew most of his financial support, since they approved his plans for the new Germany. The army lent its support, continuing to circumvent the military restrictions of the treaty, while maintaining the Old Prussian traditions. It had become the real center of political power in the Third Reich. In addition, the judiciary became one of the centers for the coun­ terrevolution, perverting justice for reactionary political ends. What had developed in the Third Reich was a criminal government in which political behavior that was previously thought of as unaccept­ able became commonplace. No doubt this subversion of the law became a primary factor in alleviating the Reich's staggering legal problems as well as improving the chances of exerting its revenge. Compounding the administrative and governmental problems was the fall of the German currency. As previously mentioned, sky­

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rocketing inflation reduced consumer purchasing power virtually to zero. Life savings were wiped out, but more important was the destruction of the people's faith in the economic structure of German society. People began to wonder what good were the standards and practices of a society that encouraged savings and investment with a promise of safe returns, only to default in the end. This was theft, plain and simple. What with the takeover of Russia by Bolshevism, and the spread of communism beyond her borders, there were those in the west who considered Hitler and his Reich an effective barrier to stem a rising tide. Especially helpful to Hitler's efforts to rearm the Reich was the industrial community. In fact, it eventually became the major source of Hitler's rise and stay in power. Without the chemical cartel called LG. Farben, its immense produc­ tion facilities, its far-reaching research, varied technical experience, and overall concentration of economic power, Hitler would not have been in a position to start his policy of aggression in the year 1938. The source of LG. Farben's enormous potential is little known. In the year 1924 an American Wall Street banker by the name of Charles Dawes arranged a series of foreign loans totaling $800 million to consol-idate gigantic chemical and steel combinations into cartels (i.e. Krupp, Siemens, Daimler Benz, Dynamit Nobel, and others of lesser weight), one of which was LG. Farben. Carroll Quigley terms the Dawes Plan 'largely a JP Morgan production' (Tragedy and Hope, New York: 1966, pp.60f and 953). It is also a well-known fact that Hitler gained the sympathy and admiration as well as the support of many influential Americans, among them Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh. In 1934, Hitler began his gradual Anschluss of Austria. The Nazi Party in that country assassinated its prime minister and tried to seize power. Mussolini, not yet allied with Hitler and unsure of the Reich's intentions, moved an army into the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy. Hitler relented. In the year 1938, Hitler tried again, seemingly believing he could achieve his goal by bullying and propaganda, but the Austrian prime minister, Kurt von Schuschnigg, refused to collapse. On March 12, 1938, Hitler moved an army into Austria, fearing the outcome of a plebiscite the prime minister had scheduled for the following day. The outcome of this action was both peaceful and fortunate for Hitler. The Austrian Army was far from ready for combat. The Anschluss, or joining of Austria and the Third Reich, was another clear violation of the Versailles treaty, but the latter was by now dead. For obvious reasons, this latest act of Hitler aggression evoked no reaction from the international community. Besides, Austria had welcomed its native son, Adolf Hitler, and its unification with the Reich enthusiastically.

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Strategically, this left the Reich in a good position with regard to its forthcoming demands on Czechoslovakia, one of France's bulwarks of security. The Reich's union with Austria left Czechoslovakia surrounded on three of its frontiers. Its mere exis­ tence had become an irritation to Hitler. It had been created after World War One as a check on Germany, was allied with both France and the Soviet Union, and was pro-western. Most important, it contained about 3.5 million native Germans who lived in the Sudetenland near the Reich's southeastern border. Tension mounted as the Czechs prepared for the Nazi invasion. British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, made several trips to Germany in an attempt to appease Hitler at Czechoslovakia's expense and thus to avoid war. On September 15,1938, Chamberlain accepted the separation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. One week later, Hitler raised his demands to cession of the Sudetenland to the Reich in three days and immediate occupation of the area by his army. (All the while, in his prepared peace talks [Priedengeprdche], Hitler claimed as his only interest that of main­ taining peace and balance of power on the European continent.) Chamberlain returned home, thinking he had failed, but at the last moment Mussolini proposed a conference of Germany, Italy, France, and Britain. They met on September 29 in Munich, when Hitler received almost everything he had demanded, including the Sudetenland. This key to Czech security became part of the Third Reich, thus depriving the Czechs of any chance of self-defense. In exchange, Hitler promised - once again - that he had no more demands to make on Europe. Chamberlain returned home triumphantly, waving a piece of paper as he descended the aero­ plane, and proclaiming that he had brought 'Peace with honor ... 1 believe it is peace in our time.' It was not to be. On March 15,1939, Hitler's armies occupied Prague, thus putting an end to the Republic of Czechoslovakia as well as to all illusions that his only goal was to bring back the Sudetenland Germans to the Vaterland ('native' land, motherland). Though he spoke of peace in his periodic peace talks to Parliament (the Reichstag), in reality he had planned the enslavement of the east as far back as the 1920s. In fact, he reveals the plan of Nazi conquest in Mein Kampf. Hence his invasion of Czechoslovakia and its subsequent conquest by the Nazis was a foregone conclusion. The West ruined its chances of an alliance with the Soviet Union which was excluded from the Munich Conference. This set the stage for Hitler's subsequent treaty with the Soviets. It had become apparent that Poland was to be next on Hitler's shopping list. On March 31, 1939, Chamberlain announced a Franco-British guarantee of Polish independence. By then, Hitler had come to hold

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the threats of the west in contempt and he expected a war with Poland but not with its alleged allies. The only way to defend Poland against Nazi takeover was to enlist the Soviet Union into the alliance against Hitler. But suspicions and bad feelings ran deep at the time. The Russians feared that the western powers intended for them to bear the burdens of war against the Third Reich and, as a result, they opened negotiations with Hitler. The fate of Poland was sealed when, on August 23, 1939 a Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact was signed by the foreign ministers of the Reich and the Soviet Union respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov. The pact guaranteed war, as Poland was now virtually assured an invasion, and Britain and France were treaty-bound to aid Poland in that event. On September 1, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Two days later, France and England declared war on the Reich. World War Two had begun. It has been argued that the progression along the path to war began in the year 1919 in France, when the treaty 'to end all wars' was signed at Versailles. Ironically, it catapulted the world into the most debilitating armed conflict of recorded history. In a way, the treaty negotiated a peace with no victors. It only meant to render impotent a once proud nation; to bring it to its knees. In retrospect, it is clear that the war had never really stopped; it merely took a 20year respite to catch its breath. The Treaty of Revenge spawned the monster called Adolf Hitler, who proceeded to convince the German people that the content of a treaty - Diktat, as it was called - based on fear, with no provisions for Germany's economic recovery, presented issues which could only be solved by war. It was easy for Hitler to place blame, at first on the Social Democrats, then on the Jews, for signing the treaty. By restoring the army's honor, he gained an important ally for the execution of his plans. We may conclude that the myopic demands of the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the political chaos and economic ruin of the Weimar Republic, contributed to the rise of a man like Hitler. This happened when an otherwise law-abiding, cultured people had been persuaded to believe that only a leader's ruthless and uncompro­ mising nature could bring them out of the morass of the postwar years. Only he could restore national pride and respect for the nation within the community of nations. The dark consequences of their blind trust will be discussed in detail in the chapter that follows.

The Physical and Political Aspects of Post-World War One Germany NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Quoted Bennett, Germany and the Diplomacy of the Financial Crisis of 1931, 34. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 57. Ibid., 89. Ibid., 91. Ibid., 93. Mein Kampf, 205f. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 98. Ibid., 105.

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PART TWO

The Price of Apathy Hitler's Ascent to Power and World War Two

There are only two possibilities: either victory of the Aryan or annihilation of the Aryan and victory of the Jew.

(Hitler, Black Bwk, p. 22)

4

Hitler and his Ideology

Question: Can people accept ideas based on lies if they are not exposed for what they are?

Psycho-history: anatomy of a mass killer ROOTS

When we hear of serial killers on the news or read about them in the papers, we are instantly appalled by the atrocious acts committed by the murderer. It is only later, when we reflect in solitude, that we think about the person who committed these acts. We wonder was he abused as a child or was he not loved? What, we ask ourselves, could have made him kill so many? Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions. We often hear in graphic detail of his systematic annihilation of 6 million Jews. We are told of the tortuous acts inflicted on people, inmates of concentration camps and other detention centers. What we often do not hear about is Adolf Hitler, the person. What were the early influ­ ences that shaped his personality? As a man responsible for unspeakable atrocities, it is important to reconstruct Hitler's psycho­ logical state. Why did he harbor a venomous hatred for Jews and why was an entire nation of ostensibly highly civilized people led to believe the Jews were responsible for Germany's misfortune? To probe these and other questions, it is necessary to go back to Hitler's ancestral roots, in the hope that the answers to his adult acts lie concealed in the secrets of his early life and development. Hitler's childhood was full of aberrant sexual behavior. He felt a strong affection for his mother, but none for his stern father. From a very early age he spent an inordinate amount of time with the former, attending to her needs during her long illness, later leaving

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his position with the government to nurse her. His strong attachment to his mother was in stark opposition to his feelings for his father. It seems as though from an early age Adolf was influenced by the rumors of the illegitimacy of his father's birth. Rumor had it that his grandmother Maria Anna Schicklgrubei gave birth to Alois (Hitler's father) while allegedly in the service of a Jewish family (the Jacob Frankenbergers). It seems the Jew paid for her support until the boy was 14 years old. Later in his life, Hitler did not deny that his grandmother received money from a Jew, but insisted she had told him that the Jew was not his grandfather. (The theory of his Jewish background has not been borne out by research.) But the more important question is a different one: did Hitler think he might have Jewish blood? His behavior as an adult seems to indi­ cate this was so. Adolf Hitler lived with the suspicion that his grandfather was a Jew, and that the Jewish blood had poisoned him as well. This suspi­ cion constituted a psychological reality for him. It helped to shape his personality and determine public policy during his years in power as the Fuhrer of the Third Reich. He was obsessively concerned with blood - the poisoning of German blood had become the 'original sin' - which led to a treatise Hitler wrote in the year 1935 on The Laie for the Protection of the Blood (Blutschutzgesetz), which was incorporated into the Nuremberg Racial Laws. After the Anschluss, the question of his ancestry prompted his decision to designate the birthplace of his father, Dbllersheim, Austria, as an artillery range, to be ultimately obliterated in subsequent maneuvers. Adolf's father, Alois, was a respectable official of the Austrian bureaucracy. He was man of settled habits, a stern disciplinarian and extremely demanding. He would punish the boy frequently, beating him severely on occasions of drunkenness and fits of meanness. Adolf's mother, Klara, was the exact opposite. She was soft-spoken and affectionate toward her little Adi, at the expense of his siblings. On those occasions of fatherly discipline she would place herself between them to absorb some of the blows meant for her son. It was during these episodes that Adolf's attachment to his mother grew. He also learned to avoid his father and seek the presence of his mother. In turn, she indulged her favorite child on every occasion. CHILDHOOD

Adolf was born in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889. His father was always on the move and had extramarital affairs. One of them, his 16-year-old niece Klara Polzl, became Adolf's mother. Alois married Klara after his first wife Fanni died. Klara was a tragic figure - all her life she was pushed about, trying to accommodate others.

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She was the third wife of Alois when she gave birth to Adolf. Two of her previous children had died. To her final moments, she bore guilt feelings about her relationship with her uncle. The father-son relationship was ambivalent, Oedipal, respectful but defiant. Alois did not share his son's views nor did he approve of his behavior, and Adolf felt that he needed to save his mother from the claws of his father. He had grown to hate Alois and became a mama's boy, Muttersohnchen, one of those who (as Robert Payne states in The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, p.17) 'are incurably devoted to their mothers and therefore capable of latent and sometimes open hostility to the father.' The almost incestuous/Oedipal feelings toward his mother ulti­ mately developed into even stronger incestuous feelings toward other relatives. The mother-son relationship was symbiotic in that they had a strong need for each other. She wanted to prove to herself that she was a virtuous, adoring mother whom God still loved; he to proclaim his unconditional love for his mother. She died after a long illness in the year 1907. EARLY YOUTH

As a boy, Adolf read the novels by the German nineteenth-century writer, ex-convict Karl May. The writer was a chronicler of an imagi­ nary Native American dynasty, and carried this leitmotif with a major emphasis on the superiority of men possessing will power. After reading such fantastic musings, Adolf was afraid to be left alone at night for fear of the darkness. He felt a special fascination for the hero of the stories, Old Shatterhand, chief of the Apache Indians. The chief's name derived from his unique ability to shatter the spinal cord of his captives with one blow of his mighty hand to the back of the neck. He especially delighted in killing the wily Ogellullah warriors, whom he considered an 'inferior' species. It is curious to note that Old Shatterhand displayed paranoid tendencies, and justi­ fied his butchery by claiming the right to exterminate those who were inferior to the noble tribe of the Apache. Though Karl May never traveled outside Germany, he was able to fascinate an entire generation of Germans with his imaginary geographic descriptions of countries he had never visited. It was this early influence, exerted on the impressionable Adi, that led him to say: 'I owe to Karl May my first ideas in geography, and the fact that he opened my eyes to the world.' And even during his Operation Barbarossa campaign against the Soviet Union, Hitler continued to read his beloved author and often alluded to the Russians as 'those Redskins'. Hitler's personal immaturity found later expression in the government, as the Third Reich was in many ways the historic

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actualization of perverse childhood fantasies. (The solutions Hitler found to complex political and moral problems were often childishly and cruelly simple.) His father died when Adolf was 14 years old, and he quickly moved to Vienna, where he became a bohemian, some­ thing his father would abhor. Adolf's aunt and her daughter, Geli Raubal, were two women for whom he had strong feelings. In fact, he mentioned that '[Geli] was the one person ... whom he could ever think of marrying.' (Bullock, Hitler and Stalin, p.377). His sexual fantasies were also fed by porno­ graphic material which he read frequently. These perversions were, most likely, the cause of the suicides of some of the women (among them Geli Raubal) who had been involved with him romantically. He would frequently ask them to whip him and/or urinate and defecate on him, in the manner of sadomasochism. ADOLESCENCE

Adolf Hitler developed a great measure of self-doubt early on in his life. He questioned everything about himself, from his masculinity to his will power. He felt inadequate and was concerned that it was evident to those around him. His attempt to eliminate doubt among his followers was reflected in his later speeches. He insisted that he had 'nerves of steel', and was the 'strongest man in Germany'. His hatred of his father was primarily due to his father's ques­ tionable birth. The mystery of Adolf's ancestry began with the birth of his father Alois. Alois' mother was Anna Maria Schikelgruber, a peasant woman from the small hamlet of Strones on the Kamp River, in central Austria. Alois was described in the birth register of Dbllersheim as 'Catholic, male, illegitimate'. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler, Alois' uncle, married his mother. However, shortly thereafter the boy became the ward of Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, Georg's brother. It has been suggested that Johann Nepomuk was the boy's father. It is possible, however, that even Anna Maria herself wasn't sure who the father was. At one point, letters to her from the Jewish Frankenberger family of Graz were found, including evidence of periodic payments. These payments continued for the first 14 years of Alois' life. His mother had been in the Frankenberger service for some time prior to Alois' birth, and the payments could have been construed as a kind of 'retirement pension'. Nevertheless, gossip had it that Alois' father may have been the Frankenbergers' 19-year-old son, and the payments were made under duress to compensate the single mother. Despite all the rumors, it has not been proven beyond a shadow of doubt that Hitler's ancestry was Jewish. Nonetheless, plagued by

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doubts, paranoia, and an inherent shame of his alleged ancestry, Hitler took precautions. What is clear is the fact that it was these concerns which prompted Hitler to submit to periodic application of leeches or blood transfusions to replace the 'tainted' blood with Aryan blood, even as he reached the height of his power. INFLUENCES

Having laid the foundation of Hitler's psychological state, it is appro­ priate to take a glance at what became his characteristic trait; a trait that takes his anomalies and makes them into the horror of the later Fuhrer, one that came about as a result of his intellectual influences. It was around this influence that he organized his thoughts, forged them into plans and schemed to carry them out in the future. Furthermore, it is also here that all of his childhood dreams and adolescent intrigues became a reality. Two anti-Jewish journalists, Guido List and Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels, influenced Hitler. It was through their writings that Adolf Hitler became a fully converted Jew hater. The two journalists ex­ pounded a racial theory, separating people into two distinct classes: the superior Aryans and the lesser Mongrels. The Jews, belonging to the latter, they claimed, must become extinct as a race. This was only the beginning of Hitler's interest in racial theories. While in Vienna, he read material and listened to lectures on the Jewish subject. He then seized upon the idea of making the Jews the scapegoat for his own inadequacies; to be further exploited in later years in blaming them for Germany's post-World War One problems and her humiliating defeat at the hands of the Allies. By focusing on this idea, Hitler created the platform from which to launch himself in his political career and, ultimately, to the heights of power unknown to any tyrant in history before him. We know Hitler was a man possessed by myriad self-doubts. What is more important, however, is that his inordinate personal power had given him the opportunity to vent his inadequacies against whomever he pleased. So why the Jews? Psychologists who have studied Hitler label his behavior as projectionism. This means that in his attempts to eliminate his own fears he took the things he hated about himself and assigned them to someone else. Thus, he attributed his sexual aberrations to the Jews. He often talked to his friends about the strange and horrible sexual habits of the Jews. He also projected his own self-doubts relative to his ancestry by later including the statute 'for the protection of Aryan blood' into the Nuremberg Laws. How, then, was Hitler able to persuade a nation of law-abiding, literate, and ostensibly civilized citizens to endorse his theories and aid

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him in carrying out his plans? The answer to this question was intro­ duced earlier (see ch. 3). It was no surprise that, as a defeated people, the Germans were ready to seek a scapegoat who would be respon­ sible for their humiliation at the hands of the Allies. They were ready to listen to Hitler's demagogic diatribes. With his amazing oratorical skills, he easily convinced the citizens that it was the Jews who had betrayed Germany and, therefore, should be punished for their perfidy. In addition to this skill, Hitler was also endowed with charis­ matic charm and a genius for politics that he did not hesitate to apply at every occasion. He also lied about almost everything. It may be assumed that he was not even conscious of his lying, since most of his lies were dressed up in a semblance of truths. But he lied to please, to manipulate the masses, to get what he wanted. The amazing thing was, everybody knew that he was lying all the time about every promise he made, but nobody seemed to mind. When Hitler addressed a Party rally, the rapt audience listened, as it were, to their own thoughts. Hence they agreed with everything he said. But, strangely, after the Fuhrer ranted and stomped his feet in endless diatribe, after his speech was over, no one was able to remember exactly what he had said. Hitler's intellectual mentors only furnished the confirmed Jew hater with reasons for his planned action. Mention has already been made of the pseudo-philosopher, Alfred Rosenberg, who laid the foundation for future conquests; then, there was Dietrich Eckart (one of the original eight founders of the NSDAP), the drunken poet, who fed Hitler ideas of racialism, justifying the extermination of minori­ ties, which the Fuhrer was to put into practice. Hitler read the philosopher Johann Fichte, who had preached nationalism after Prussia's defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as the romantic G.W.F. Hegel, who declared that 'the state is all'. These thinkers further inflamed his zeal for pan-Germanism. His admira­ tion for Heinrich von Treitschke, who glorified the state and made the individual subservient to it, was also crucial. It is no surprise, therefore, that Hitler developed an almost fanat­ ical admiration for the composer Richard Wagner's music as well as for his virulent anti-Judaism. He also fell under the spell of Wagner's son-in-law, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, whose work on racial inequality, Basis for Civilization; Race Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1898) rivaled that of his French mentor Gobineau. HITLER, THE ORATOR

Armed with his amazing oratory skills, Hitler set out to convince the German people that it was in fact the Jews who were responsible for all the ills of the nation. The Fuhrer cast a spell over millions of

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Germans desperately seeking reassurance at a time of unprece­ dented crises, a spell which, for many of them, was not broken until the Allied armies swept into the Third Reich in 1945. By any objective standard, Hitler must rank as one of the signifi­ cant orators of the twentieth century. Others have surpassed him by the brilliance of their verbal dialectics; many by the originality of their arguments, and nearly all by the humanity of their message. 'Yet surely no one ever mastered the art of public speaking so thor­ oughly or exploited the shifting moods of audiences with greater skill than Hitler.'1 Sophistication in the use of the techniques of public speaking and care in the preparation of speeches were the hallmarks of his oratory. In public, he spoke always by design and rarely by accident. His speeches, like those of his great antagonist Winston Churchill, were always well structured and thought out in considerable detail. Yet, unlike his predecessors, Hitler did not read out his speeches word for word. Since he customarily put across a common idea, he spoke from memory, conveying an impression of spontaneity and freshness, however long he spoke for. Hitler's earliest oratorical triumphs were achieved with a minimum of pageantry. In the early days, when he was struggling for recognition, a tabletop in a beer hall was his only platform. He addressed his audience in quiet tones at first, developing his chosen theme, then culminating his speech in a high-pitched voice with appropriate accompanying gestures. On many occasions the speech would turn into an inarticulate harangue against his real or imagined enemy. Though it may have been difficult to recognize individual words, the speech was nonetheless effective, because at that moment the audience found itself in the same state of 'patriotic' fervor as the speaker, acknowledging his remarks with shouts of 'Sieg! Heil!' and drowning out all reason. THE USE OF PROPAGANDA

Hitler worked tirelessly at publicizing the Party. Once the Party was in power, Hitler's speeches became part of the great rallies. The pageantry grew more impressive and ostentatious. The drama of the rallies was enacted against the backdrop of magnificent settings, such as the medieval town of Nuremberg, with all of the sophisticated paraphernalia of mass propaganda at the organizers' disposal. Tens of thousands of party members gathered in the evening by torchlight to await their Fuhrer. To the roar of applause and illuminated by a circle of 100 searchlights, the Fuhrer would enter the vast arena. When at last silence fell, thousands of Nazi banners moved forward through the ranks, while searchlights picked out the golden eagles

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clutching the black swastikas against the red of the standards; a superbly impressive setting for the Fuhrer's speech that was to follow. Adolf Hitler had made a giant leap from the bar table in Munich to the small platform in Nuremberg. (This was effectively portrayed in the propaganda film Triumph des Widens (Triumph of the Will), directed by Leni Riefenstahl (see below).) Hitler's power of persuasion defies precise analysis. Clearly, he had become successful by defying humanity and by persuasively speaking in such inhumane terms as death through invasion, aggres­ sive violence, and extermination. His aim was to arouse and mobilize the emotions of his audience as a means of bringing the Nazi Party to absolute power. Once this was achieved, he focused on keeping up the party's faith. In this, he was successful. Walter C. Langer offers a psychoanalytical solution as to whv Hitler easily convinced the Germans. In his book The Mind of Adolf Hitler, he says that among German men there is 'a strong feminine­ masochist tendency', of which Hitler himself was much more fully aware than his listeners. By simply calling on the feelings of his early childhood, on ambition and success, he was able to arouse the same hatreds and fears among the Germans. Langer states: 'It was Hitler's ability to play upon the unconscious tendencies of the German people and to act as their spokesman that enabled him to mobilize their energies and direct them into the same channels through which he believed he had found a solution to his own personal conflicts.'2 Whether or not it is possible to faithfully reconstruct the psycho­ logical history of a man, let alone a nation, is debatable. It is easy to draw false conclusions from otherwise normal behavior under certain circumstances. However, the behavior exhibited by Adolf Hitler can in many ways be compared to a serial killer stalking his or her prey, though Hitler selected his victims and killed them system­ atically. If we can find similarities, then what is concluded from Hitler's past cannot be far from the truth. The masses of people are not intelligent. Their understanding is feeble. They more readily fall victim to the big lie than the small lie ... The grossly impu­ dent lie. A bold lie always leaves traces behind it, even when it is nailed down. (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 252)

The Big Lie: the use of propaganda Question: Is a lie expressed loudly more convincing than the truth spoken softly?

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During Hitler's struggle for power, a campaign was launched to discredit the Weimar Republic and all its institutions by alleging that they were totally controlled by Jews. It was a complete falsehood, but it was effective. It introduced a new method in the pursuit of power: the Big Lie. In the higher branches of the civil service, out of some 22,500 government employees, only 371 were of German Jewish origin or descendants of Jews. This amounted to little more than 1.5 percent. Schoolteachers of Jewish origin numbered 0.84 percent or less than 1 in 100. This figure was exaggerated by Nazi fabrication in that they disregarded the position of the decimal altogether, which resulted in the figure 84 percent. From 1919 to 1933 when the Weimar Republic fell, Germany had 20 cabinets, comprising some 200 cabinet ministers. Of these, 7 were of Jewish background. It is important to note that there was nothing foreign or alien about the German Jew, which might have stimulated some vulgar xeno­ phobic sentiment and jealousy of the stranger. Thus, since there were not enough foreign Jews to stimulate mob hatred, they had to be invented. The state propaganda was turned against some 76,000 eastern European Jews, who had mostly been drafted in by the military authorities during World War One to perform work of national importance or were refugees from Bolshevism. This did not matter. The lie was set in circulation and by frequent repetition received universal credence. Having been placed in camps on the eastern border of Germany, these laborers expected extradition to Poland. Poland refused them entry, thus forcing the refugees to live in no man's territory, without the means to survive nor the hope of change for the better. It was a letter from the parents of Herschel Grynspan, then a 17year-old university student in Paris, describing their plight in one of the detention camps, that prompted the youth to walk into the German Embassy and shoot and fatally wound Ernst vom Rath, a secretary. The incident provided the Nazi regime with a pretext for an orgy of terror against German Jews two days later, on November 9, 1938. The events of that night of plunder, arson and murder of innocent victims are known as Kristallnacht - Night of Broken Glass. The propaganda ministry seized the opportunity to paint all Jews as assassins, out to kill decent Germans and, therefore, a danger to the state. Following Kristallnacht, the stage was set for the destruction of the Jews. Nazi propaganda had begun as early as 1924, but developed to its full potential with the burning of the Reichstag in February 1933. Blame for the arson - which was deliberately set by the Nazis - was

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attributed to the communists and Jews. Soon after, laws were passed that would curtail the civil rights of the minorities - Jews, Gypsies, gays, mentally handicapped, and other 'enemies of the state' - justi­ fied by the Party, for 'the protection of the people and the state'. In March 1933 the Reichstag passed the so-called Enabling Act; laws that would provide the constitutional foundation for Hitler's Leader State, to make his whims and decisions into law. This law had given Hitler the legislative authority he needed to make decisions and enact them. Although the Act expired on April 1, 1937, the Nazi regime was by then well entrenched. Law now estab­ lished the Nazis as the only legitimate party in Germany. In 1933, German Jews had hoped that the National Socialists might be sobered up by the responsibilities of office; that they would be content with restoring the few restrictions that had prevailed before 1914: the exclusion of the Jews from the civil service; and exclusion from university chairs. But certain factors made this impossible. In the first place, there was expediency. Hitler and his propaganda ministry had promised the unhappy Germans a new heaven and a new earth, coupled with the persecution of the Jews. Unfortunately, a new heaven and earth cannot be manufactured to order, but a persecution of the Jews can. Here, again, the propaganda ministry had to depict this action as though it were a victory over overwhelming forces. Hence, one of the first measures of the new regime was to begin to remove the Jews from their posts and to destroy their social, political, and economic position. Incidentally, for every Jew dismissed there was created a vacancy for some hungry Nazi, and so far as that individual was concerned, the promised millennium had arrived punctually. It is well worth noting that throughout Nazi rule, every setback they suffered was succeeded by a renewed drive against the Jews as well as a propa­ ganda campaign to justify it. In a country where every mode of expression was controlled by the state, it constituted an ideal method of converting defeat into victory. March 1933 saw the beginning of the so-called Cold Pogrom in Nazi Germany. It was one of the most astonishing episodes in the history of persecution. It was something like a competitive examina­ tion, except that here the successful competitors, instead of earning appointments to positions, were thrown out, and those who had failed were given positions. It was also in the year 1933 that the Nazis established the first concentration camps 'for political enemies', soon to encompass a primarily Jewish population. With the establishment of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, the Nazis declared that Jews were no longer citizens of the Reich. They were unwelcome guests in their host country. Marriage and sexual

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relations between Jew and Gentile were also prohibited and were punishable by death. The propaganda ministry had received a new mandate to promote the anti-Jewish statutes. All Jews had now become Israel or Sarah, designations to be printed in their identity documents next to their proper names. Hitler became Der Fuhrer, having absolutized his nation-state within his own persona by proclaiming himself supreme leader, the personification of a hallowed trinity which embodied one empire, one people, one leader; 'ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Fuhrer'. The Party was the only bearer of the true tradition. It was the ideal of the new culture, 'Kultur', and thus the proper instrument of sole power in the state; the sacra­ mental power embodiment of both the people/culture as well as the Party personified in Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer. Hence the Fuhrer became the embodiment of the ideal, giving birth to the Fuhrer Prinzip (leader principle). Hitler proceeded to establish a new culture, traced from the mytho­ logical beginnings (the Nibelungen - die Walkuren) which had been his childhood imaginings of Germanic/romantic roots. This was also a characteristic feature of fascism, but the Nazis added the ingredient of their mystical biology of racial superiority. Germany reverted to the precedent of the Middle Ages - town after town ridding itself of its Jews and boasting on signboards at the entrance that it was 'Judenrein' (cleansed of Jews). Since intermarriages were forbidden, determined attempts were made to break up mixed marriages, but a good many outlasted Hitler. However, the children of mixed marriages were legally vindicated on condition that they renounced their parents. A campaign was launched to discredit all books by Jewish authors. None could be printed. None of the Jewish authors or poets was to be included in any of the anthologies of German literature or used in schools or universities. (Ironically, Heinrich Heine's poem Die Lorelei had already entered too deeply into the people's conscious­ ness, thus it was ascribed to an 'anonymous' poet. In his first speech as the Chancellor of Germany, Hitler attacked the 14-year reign of communism and Marxism, ergo Judaism. He proclaimed that the political system of communism brought Germany to her knees. Communism had wounded the heart of Germany, and the red flag of destruction had been hoisted. On the night of February 1, 1933 Hitler promised that within four years unemployment would be cured and trade revived. He did not tell the German people how this would be done, and nobody asked questions concerning the price. These changes were to occur due to the destruction of communism. To Hitler, the communists were destined to become the slaves of the Reich. Hence, the later invasion of the Soviet Union was to establish vast agrarian resources for the Third Reich and provide laborers for the dominant Aryans.

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Because of the success of Hitler's economic and political programs between the years 1933 and 1941, the German people readily began to accept his views of Jewish inferiority, as portrayed by the many cartoon stereotype figures of Julius Streicher's Der Stunner, the most powerful propaganda daily newsheet of the Third Reich. Not only were the Jews depicted as vermin, they were also endowed with the habit of drinking the blood of Christian children and with a notoriety for defiling German maidenhood. Thus, most of the German people grew to hate the Jews, as Hitler had intended. They had begun to believe in the superiority of their pure blood, as fantasized by their deranged leader. Every decent German household owned a copy of Mein Kampf, wherein Hitler detailed his racial theories as well as his long-term political objectives. It is filled with a wide range of ideas, from the destruction of the Jewish people to Aryan blood purification and world domination. Each household displayed the book with much pride on the living room coffee tables and in other conspicuous places, to be noticed by visitors at all times. Mein Kampf was the food that nourished the Nazi Party and quickly became a potent propa­ ganda organ in and of itself. The troops were routinely brainwashed through daily readings, and ordinary citizens displayed their knowl­ edge of the Fuhrer's 'struggle'. Mein Kampf had eventually become the Bible of the Third Reich. It certainly surpassed the Bible in alltime sales in Germany. In view of the above, it is inconceivable to believe that any citizen of the Third Reich could have claimed ignorance concerning Hitler's plans and ideas. They were explicitly stated and theorized. His radi­ cally unorthodox views were painted precisely and with graphic detail, to startle the unsuspecting reader. Only a madman was capable of propagating such ethnocentric drivel as the following statement regarding blood diffusion: Any crossing of the two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents... The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher develop­ ment of organic living beings would be unthinkable.’

Of the above, one should keep in mind that Hitler had neither the authority of the geneticist nor the education of a physical anthropol­ ogist to substantiate his theory. Thus, his ideas were pure fabrication of the propaganda category. A madman has no need for accuracy or legitimate support for his views; a mad politician is a rare individual with the license to commit acts of total irrationality with enviable impunity.

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In the final analysis, it was Hitler's maniacal planning that brought his reign of terror to an end. His disregard for the truth caught up with him not only on the front line but at home as well. His 1,000-Year Reich was nothing but a figment of his perverted imagination, to which he adhered until his violent death on April 30, 1945. His psychopathic dreams met their just end through his own perverted military strategy. He ended his political career as he had begun it; with a pack of lies.

Film and broadcast as propaganda Joseph Goebbels once said, 'Propaganda has nothing to do with the truth. We serve the truth by serving the German victory' (Der Angriff, May 30, 1935). This is perhaps the only honest statement that Goebbels uttered. He characterized propaganda perfectly in this statement. He further stated that it should do three basic things in order to be successful: (1) appeal to the uneducated masses; (2) appeal always to the emotions and not to reason; and (3) use simple catchy themes that crowds will remember easily. Goebbels was a master at getting the crowds excited with statements that were far from the truth. The huge rallies gave the Nazi followers the illusion of popular politics. Yet behind the facade of 'a chicken in the pot' and mass entertainment lurked a brutal terrorist regime that used all of its technological resources for propagandizing its doctrines and elimi­ nating its opposition. The Nazi 'societal utopia' was far removed from featuring the democratic participation of free citizens and the exchange of ideas in the political arena. About the only similarity to the American-style mass-consumption society was Hitler's aim to offer a mass-produced 'people's' car, the Volkswagen, to every household in the Third Reich. By far the most popular means to influence and manipulate people's minds, which the Nazis used to their best advantage, was the Third Reich's film industry. Within that medium, no movie director had rendered Hitler greater service in the name of deception than the erstwhile athlete and Hitler's frequent companion Leni Riefenstahl. Propaganda minister Goebbels recognized early on the value of the cinema and broadcast media in pursuing his goals. He had no trouble in persuading Hitler of the advantages of establishing units within the Ministry of Propaganda to deal with both film production and censorship. Hitler understood, as few others did, the basic prin­ ciples of mass persuasion. As a result of his meticulous studies in the field of communication, he was able to manipulate huge throngs with persuasive oratory. How much more effectively could he spread the word with the aid of technology! He, therefore, mandated his

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propaganda instrument, Herr Doktor Goebbels, to spare no effort and material in perfecting and utilizing every possible filmic propa­ ganda technique during his years in power. The most spectacular and astonishing propaganda spectacle was to become known as the Nuremberg Reich Party Rally. It was here that every subtle art of deception and contrivance was employed to impress upon the spectators and participants the message that Nazism was the only true religion, and Hitler its god. It is here that propaganda reached its height of utility. Not all the Nazi rallies were held in Nuremberg. In fact, the first was held in Munich and the third in Weimar. Nuremberg, however, was the scene of the most spectacular rallies, and none of the others carried greater significance. The city of Nuremberg lent itself to this purpose. It was conveniently located at the junction of seven railway lines, along which at the appropriate times trains would transport the various units - the SS troops, the Labor Battalions, the Storm­ troopers, Hitler Youth (both male and female) - and, of course, the great multitudes of sympathizers. For the filming, Hitler was the last arrival, his plane coming into view majestically through the afternoon clouds, to the adulation of the devoted masses beneath, shouting 'Sieg! Heil! Sieg! Heil!' The sun's rays broke through to illuminate his landing. Hitler's arrival put in motion the frenzied organization of pageants, which entailed the feeding of thousands of participants, equipping them with the appropriate tools, banners and party paraphernalia, followed by an orderly dispersal as the celebrations ended. From the year 1933 to his demise, propaganda motion pictures directed by Leni Riefenstahl were made only about Hitler and the Nazi movement. The most prominent of the propaganda films was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), produced in 1935 by Ufa-Filmkunst GmbH and directed by Riefenstahl. It immediately became compul­ sory showing in all movie theaters and schools. And while it was euphemistically billed as a 'supporting feature', its viewing was tantamount to owning a copy of Mein Kampf, in that citizens proudly displayed the ticket stub with the film's name imprint, lest someone doubted their party loyalty. Triumph des Willens expressed through visual ingenuity the ideo­ logical context of Mein Kampf. Opening footage focuses on Hitler's changing facial expression. Subsequently, the camera catches the rhythmically pounding SS troopers' jackboots (viewed from ground level). Next, the viewer experiences the consecration of the Blood Banner and the Strength Through Joy. All of this was a display of pagan pageantry that played to the emotions of the multitude of the faithful as well as sympathizers abroad. Films such as the above depicted moments of Hitler's success, and there were many during

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his tenure as the Fuhrer of the Third Reich. Gradually, however, Hitler's appetite for conquests increased. Germany found itself involved in military operations in many corners of the globe. The year 1945 offered Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda a special challenge: the massive military defeats on all fronts. As Nazi Germany began to lose the war for the first time, propaganda was seen as the tool that could save her from destruction. New ways were sought in an attempt to raise the morale of the German people, who had by then grown weary of war and sacrifices. A new propaganda theme was sounded: 'the Fuhrer will lead the Volk into a new epoch; the goals of the Third Reich are nearly achieved; therefore, we must fight harder!' As foreign invaders moved into Germany, intensified propaganda was unleashed about the heroic defense of each city captured by the enemy. The defense of Breslau and Grandenz was sensationalized on film, to be shown in movie theaters, in order to inspire citizens to bravely defend their own cities. The superiority of the Nazi ideology and the structure of the state were stressed on placards and became the focal topics of Hitler's speeches as well as those of other Nazi leaders: 'Let us Force the Turning Point! We Can Do It!' Victory was thus assured, for a variety of reasons: (1) the Reich's leadership was the strongest the world had ever known; (2) Germany had a racial unity like no other state; and (3) with Germany's 2000-year-long fighting tradition, success was guaranteed. Propagandists also faced the task of legitimizing the drastic measures the Fuhrer implemented to remedy the desperate situation in which Germany found itself. Hitler began sending young boys and old men to the front as reinforcements; mothers were furious. Propaganda was thus circulated that the defense of the Third Reich is the role of all citizens, and Hitler began awarding medals to young soldiers at gala photo sessions in his chancellery office. As defeatism grew among Goebbels' own lieutenants, he addressed them: 'The great hour has arrived for German propaganda, for only in hard times could good leadership be proven. Doubters must hear plain talk, not slogans.' The Allied invasion had caused many technical problems for the Ministry of Propaganda. Telephone and teletype lines were often down, and couriers had to be relied on to maintain communication. Word of mouth was increasingly used as a propaganda tool. Goebbels started a Whisper Propaganda Campaign that capitalized on verbal delivery. Two propaganda agents, one dressed as a soldier and the other as a civilian, would move into a crowd of people congregating in a streetcar, subway, town square or bomb shelter. The two would then engage in an enthusiastic conversation expressing their optimism and faith in the Fuhrer and the Third Reich. They

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would also counter the defeatism of those who were weary of war and looked forward to surrender. Morale was at its lowest ebb, and desperate propaganda measures were called for. The 1943 Yalta Conference of the Allied leaders Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill had given the Reich's propagandists much to talk about. The conference, held February 7-12, was of the utmost interest to the German people. In his broadcasts, Goebbels emphasized that the meeting was held to determine the Soviet atrocities, but warned that the Allies bowed to Soviet demands. Yalta had proclaimed, Goebbels asserted, that all Germans taken captive on the western front would be turned over to the Soviets. Fighting to the death was the only alternative left. Resistance to the Soviets was quickly becoming a major propaganda theme, as the Russians advanced deeper into the Reich. In Goebbels' article on the Third Reich, enti­ tled 'The Year 2000', the importance of the defense of the Third Reich was outlined. If German resistance stopped, Goebbels claimed, Russia would annex eastern and southeastern Europe as well as a good portion of eastern Germany. Each day, on the Reich radio, soldiers recounted their experiences of Soviet atrocities. The molestation of women and girls was a favorite topic of propaganda, playing on the masculinity of the German men. Not only would such atrocities continue on surrender, Goebbels warned, but also it was the goal of the Allies to exterminate the German race. Such massive propaganda drives carried detrimental effects. Some Party leaders complained to the Minister that the people's nerves were already at breaking point, and it was dangerous to continue frightening them with exaggerated accounts of atrocities. Ultimately, Goebbels wished to get away from the subject of atroc­ ities against the German people and decided to give a national speech. His speech played on the heroic German history and likened the Allied invasion to that of the Mongols in the sixteenth century, alluding to the German defeat of the invaders. He pleaded that the people support their Fuhrer as much as the Prussian citizens gave their support to Frederick the Great. He also warned that surrender was worse than hell, so fighting to the death was called for. However, as much as Goebbels had tried to inspire the Germans with his address, it was found to be greatly depressing, and many referred to it in jest as the 'graveside address'. After the July 20, 1944, abortive attempt on the Fuhrer's life at his east Prussian headquarters, Hitler emerged alive, with a slight limp, but otherwise unharmed. An immense manhunt yielded thousands of victims, both conspirators and those merely suspected of collabo­ ration. Once again, circumstances lent themselves to a propaganda campaign, claiming that Hitler's life was spared by the grace of God and for the glory and salvation of the Reich.

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As the situation grew increasingly critical, crueler forms of propa­ ganda were used. Threats were issued to those who wanted to lay down their arms, and there were daily reports of executions of 'traitors'. On April 21, 1945, Goebbels addressed the city of Berlin which, by then, lay in complete ruin, in a radio broadcast titled 'Defenders of Berlin: The eyes of your women, your mothers, and your children are fixed upon you. They have entrusted to you their lives, their happiness, and their future. You are now aware of your task... the hour of the supreme test has come.' Goebbels claimed that Germany would soon enjoy the fruits of her sacrifices, but all would be lost if its Volk did not defend her. The message stressed the idea of the Allied invasion being a challenge whose reward was the realiza­ tion of Nazi promises. On Hitler's last birthday, Goebbels proclaimed, 'I am convinced that fate will award the laurel wreath to him [Hitler], and his people after the last hard test.' As a last resort, to curtail desertion, 'traitors' were hung from lampposts bearing notes that read: T, Corporal ... [name] was too cowardly to defend my wife and my children.' Even these makeshift gallows were used as scare tactics to make the people fight. The time of inspirational propaganda had passed, and the crudest aspects of Nazism were used as the last-ditch attempt at rousing the waning spirit of the Volk and keeping the people fighting. On April 29,1945, Hitler named Goebbels Chancellor of the Reich and made Naumann Minister of Propaganda. The Fuhrer and his new bride, Eva Braun, then committed suicide. In the days that followed, as Soviet soldiers knocked down the bunker's doors, Goebbels and his entire family (wife and seven children) committed suicide as well. Even in their deaths, the propagandists eulogized Hitler and his henchmen. On May 1, 1945, the German people hastened to their radios to listen to what was heralded as a message of 'utmost importance'. Wagner's music set the mood for the announcement to come, after which the adagio of Bruckner's Third Symphony was played. Only then did the Germans learn of their Fuhrer's 'heroic death', as he fought the 'Jewish Bolsheviks'. Three drum rolls, the German national anthem, and the Horst Wessel song followed, after which Hitler's prominent friends eulogized the Fuhrer, calling for more desperate fighting in memory and vindica­ tion of the fallen leader. Less than a week later, the Third Reich surrendered to the Allies unconditionally. But even in these last days the true pettiness of its leaders emerged. The Fuhrer himself felt that he had been betrayed by a nation of 'weaklings' and, therefore, called for the destruction of Germany. 'If we are going to lose the war,' Hitler said to Albert Speer in the last hour, 'the nation, too, will perish. The outcome is inevitable. It is not necessary to worry about the minimum needs of

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the people and how they are to live later at subsistence level. On the contrary, it will be better for us to destroy these things ourselves. For this nation will have proved itself to be the weaker.'* Goebbels, the eternal egoist, spoke not of his hopes for Germany and its people, but expressed his concern that his actions be seen as noble and heroic by future generations. The Third Reich lay smol­ dering in ruins, far short of its thousand-year goal, and the German people found that their mass murder had been planned. Goebbels' propaganda ploys could not overcome the Allies' superior strength, though they had drained the German people's minds.

The youth movement: making little Nazis My pedagogy is hard. The weak must be chiseled away ... young people will grow up who will frighten the world. I want a violent, arrogant, unafraid youth, who must be able to suffer pain. Nothing weak or tender must be left in them. Their eyes must bespeak, once again, the free, magnificent beast of prey ... Thus will I face the pure and noble raw material ... 1 do not want an intellectual education. With knowledge I will spoil the young. I would vastly prefer them to learn only what they absorbed voluntarily as they followed their play instinct. They shall learn to overcome the fear of death through the most arduous tests. This is the [historic] state of heroic youth?

Nazism and its ideology permeated every aspect of life in the Third Reich between the years 1933 and 1945. Adolf Hitler's dream was to create a 'thousand-year Reich'. Thus, in order for it to survive that long, one of Hitler's most important aims was the indoctrination of children and young people to his beliefs. He knew that the future growth and perpetuation of Nazi ideals could only happen if the younger generation stood solidly behind him in his quest to make Germany the greatest nation in the world. The Nazis approached the problem of converting children in two ways: first the creation of the Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth (HJ), and the Bund Deutscher Model or League of German Girls (BDM); secondly, the restructuring of the educational system to suit their needs. Stated in the bylaws for the Hitler Youth, December 1,1936, is the dependence on the youth to carry on with the Reich: 'The future of the German Volk depends on youth. The whole German youth must, therefore, be prepared for its duties.'1’ To understand the full impact of Hitler Youth on Germany - as well as its later impact on the war effort - a brief review of the youth movement in Germany, which had its beginnings in the early 1900s, is called for. At the time of Hitler's ascension to power, the middle-class family lacked a working relationship with the youth. Diminishing family

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influence had shaken up the fundamental rules of family sanctity. They reinforced the idea of the older generation's ineptitude. In fact, many young people joined the Hitler Youth programs as part of a personal vendetta against their parents. The older generation was without political ideals that are commonly the key to adolescent development. Having no model, nor the direction for political under­ standing, the German youth had become detached from their elders. Thoroughly disillusioned with their elders, the young welcomed the opportunity of an offer to live away from home without having to feel guilty about it. Scapegoating of the Jews was an especially effec­ tive way of bringing together primitive urges of hate, attack, and destroy. The Fuhrer's anti-Jewish feelings appealed to the Youth Cohort because they provided a way to lessen guilt feelings for having abandoned traditional Christian teachings. Youth seeks some sort of faith and commitment. In that dismal era of national humiliation, resentment, and the Versailles Diktat, thou­ sands of young Germans found Christianity irrelevant to their needs. They embraced hatred and revenge as alternatives, not love and reconciliation. They also carried a deep resentment toward the older generation for having brought dishonor upon them. What better way to gain youth's loyalty than to give them the freedom to roam (Wanderslust) without paternal supervision and discipline, and a sense of self-worth in return for blind obedience to the Fuhrer. The young people were disenchanted with the increasingly mate­ rialistic, urban, and competitive adult world. The rigid and formal world that they would soon enter was not attractive to them, but it was an alternative they were willing to risk in escaping the hypocrisy of the family circle. 'The youth world sought the countryside, was adventurous, and served no purpose beyond itself.'7 Thus, without the proper guidance of their elders, the young were a lost generation with no direction whatsoever. In general, a major task of growing up is seeking and finding explanations for the surrounding environ­ ment. But the Hitler Youth were not interested in the adult world, nor did they seek strength in family love and care. Hitler Youth became the vehicle that met these needs: to be accepted by peers; to find self-esteem; to acquire a good self-image; to learn about the world around; to discover one's role in the general scheme of life. It provided an opportunity for the youth to act on what they were learning about life itself, and it created a national mindset that would be henceforth ingrained in the German Youth's psyche. This was affected through classroom instruction, confer­ ences, movies, songfests, and through the peer groups. Basically, the Hitler Youth was responsive to the deepest needs of the German youth? As early as his Mein Kanipf musings, Hitler had revealed his most important concepts and attitudes in teaching the youth of Germany.

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The three areas of training he stressed were: (1) physical condi­ tioning, (2) spiritual conditioning; and (3), intellectual conditioning. He wanted to build endurance in the youth of Germany, for he believed that a well-conditioned body could serve his cause better than a weak one. Hitler also thought that learning military drills was not only the task of the army, but that youths ought to familiarize themselves with military skills before conscription (Mein Kampf, p.413). Spiritual conditioning dealt with long range plans for the creation of the thousand-year Reich, and not with the importance of God. Eventually, all German children saw Hitler as their god. The head of the youth movement, von Schirach, stated: 'Whoever serves Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, serves Germany, and whoever serves Germany, serves God/'' The concept of a youth movement attached to the Nazis began early on. The Hitlerjugend was started in the year 1922 and took its place among the many German youth and student groups active during the Weimar Republic. By 1928, Bund Deutscher Miidel was established. Later on, organizations for different age groups included the League of Nazi Students, and the German Young Volk, for those ten years or older.'” Although HJ itself was a product of Hitler's belief and faith in chil­ dren, the most important reason for its existence was its development into an appendage of the Party in order to create adherents to Nazism. By beginning young, the Nazis hoped to build a lasting affinity for their beliefs among the German youth. Like many of the youth groups in existence before 1933, the HJ had a reputation for vehement protest against the Republic, which the Nazis greatly encouraged. Members of the Party who dealt with the HJ empha­ sized the natural rebellion of the young by denouncing the Weimar democracy as a failed creation of their elders, and by offering an alternative to what many young people saw as failed capitalism. To this end, the HJ put forward German socialism as a solution to the nation's ills much more frequently than did other branches of the Nazi movement." While the HJ was one of many youth organizations before 1933, after the Hitler takeover it gained many new members and became the prime youth group of the new regime. Initially, the pressure to join the HJ caused other groups, especially those connected to the Catholic Church, to resist joining and to advocate their own groups instead of the Nazi youth movement. This caused an eventual prohi­ bition of youth groups other than the HJ. By the year 1934, six million children belonged to the H) or one of its affiliates.12 German opinion of the value of the H] ran the gamut from official praise to dirty puns on the BDM. Nevertheless, once the influx of members began, chil­ dren had lost interest in any group except the HJ. It had become so

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popular that to be a member was merely to be normal." In this way, the natural impulse of a child to fit in and to be accepted helped the Nazis by adding peer pressure to party pressure. The pressure to conform continued within the HJ itself. The orga­ nization was militaristic in character and emphasized physical fitness and sports far more than formal education or development of the mind. The requirements for a boy to enter the Jungvolk (Young People), the organization for ages ten to fourteen, included memo­ rization of Nazi doctrine, war-game activities, a timed running exercise, and an overnight hiking trip. The BDM required attendance at camps, knowledge of German and Nazi history, running, weight throwing, elementary gymnastics, and swimming.14 In addition to physical activities, boys in the HJ were given weapons' training from the age of ten, and those who exhibited leadership talents were given training in both leadership and doctrine. Ironically, while teenagers often had access to weapons of various sorts in the H], Nazi ordi­ nances concerning proper conduct did not allow HJ members in public places, such as dance halls or movie theaters, without an accompanying adult.15 The HJ's emphasis on things military made for strong ties with the military branch of the Party, the SS. Graduates of the HJ were encour­ aged to join the SS, which offered a number of incentives. A HJ often had 'the same unit number as his father' in the SS."1 This emphasis on militarism served to instil conformity and create a nationalistic spirit, which continued throughout the war. Many members of the HI became active participants in the crimes against humanity during the war years, while younger members took part in defending the Reich against the onslaught of the Allies. Children, usually considered noncombatants during a war, became part of the Nazi war machinery. The main purpose of HJ activities, of course, was to inculcate the youths with Nazi ideology. This included the role of the individual in relation to a group, the concept of duty, the role of the female in Nazi society, and the worship of Hitler. According to HJ ideals, social standing within the organization was determined by whether one was truly German and by how well one served the state. Baldur von Schirach, the Reichsfuhrer of the HJ from 1931 to 1940, defined this value with the remark that 'the uniform of the HJ is the outward expression of an attitude that does not ask about class or occupation, but only about duty and achievement'.17 Blind obedience to authority also took root during H] functions. In contrast to the 1920s, when the HJ, like other youth organizations, had protested against the government, HJ members during the years of Nazi power were taught to obey without question the orders of their superiors. A kind of hero worship of Hitler and, by extension, any authority figure, was inculcated even in the very young children.

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Stephen Roberts, a foreigner who lived in Germany for some time during the 1930s, soon found that the wide-eyed adulation of chil­ dren for anyone who had actually seen or talked to Hitler was almost painful in its intensity. Children learned to accept an order or a doctrine 'because the Fuhrer wills it',11' not because it was explained to them or because they had made their own choice. A kind of mass ethic replaced the individualistic view common in western civiliza­ tion. The Nazis cultivated a group identity with their emphasis on sports, especially team sports, and in smaller ways, such as outings, during which food brought from home was combined and everyone given an equal share.14 Although the Nazis were successful in their efforts to convert chil­ dren to Nazism through the HJ, Nazi indoctrination did not stop with activities designed to fill up a child's free time. The arm of the Nazis also extended into the classroom. The belief, readily apparent in 1938 was that 'if National Socialism [was] to survive, it [had to be) so thoroughly drilled into everyone that no alternative [would] so much as even occur to them'.21' Thus, the expressed intention of German education during the Nazi era was to 'incorporate German youth in Home, Folk, and State by the awakening of sound racial forces and the cultivation of them with political goals consciously in mind'.21 In order to accomplish this aim, a law passed on April 25, 1933 stated that only a small number of non-Aryans could register in German schools, public or private.22 This was merely the first step toward eliminating non-Aryans from the schools altogether, one of the first links in the chain, which would serve the double purpose of making Jews and other minorities into outcasts and teaching racial theory by example. The power of administration increased dramati­ cally under the Nazis, to the extent that most of the legal safeguards protecting a teacher's or a student's position at school were removed. Administration had the power to change the faculty member's or student's status at will, whether by promotion or firing, for political reasons. In addition, student organizations at universities assumed the power to denounce professors who were Jewish or who did not espouse the Nazi ideology. (Reporting on the 'unfaithful' had reached its height of absurdity when children were urged [and complied] to denounce their own parents to their unit leaders for lack of national socialist zeal or for uttering criticisms aimed at the Fuhrer or the Reich.) The Nazis required all private and religious schools to adhere to the new politics under threat of closing their doors. Requirements for admission to a university included 'proof of ancestry' and a certifi­ cate of good conduct from local authorities, while anyone being considered for a professional license had to prove they were of Aryan blood.21

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The changes in administration and laws which accompanied the Nazi rise to power caused corresponding changes in the teaching profession. Teachers with anti-Nazi leanings were fired, as were Jewish teachers, while those wishing to keep their jobs began to promote Nazism. Virtually all teachers in the Third Reich belonged to the Nazi affiliate organization for teachers, the National Socialist Teacher's League, which numbered over 400,OOO.24 Estimates of how many teachers formally joined the Nazi Party itself vary, from slightly more than 20 percent to 32 percent, but in general, teachers in rural areas were more represented in the Party than urban teachers.25 Considering the kind of pressure brought to bear on teachers from both the school administration and the Party itself, it is small wonder that education became so entrenched on the side of the Nazis. Teachers at all levels were forced to weigh their principles against their continued livelihood, unless, of course, they were true believers in National Socialism. The Nazi classroom was characterized by an extensive array of Nazi subjects and principles. Most of the ideals of western society, such as freedom of speech, religion, and democratic institutions were presented as evil and undermining the strength of Germany while they operated during the Weimar Republic. Religious education, a staple of German education for generations, was gradually eased out of school time. Instead, students learned to revere totalitarian government and to look upon Hitler as the embodiment of all desir­ able ideals. The cult of the demigod Hitler replaced religious schooling. Other subjects included math, languages, hard sciences racial hygiene inclusive - community activities, civics, physical education, the glorification of war, and German racial history?’ Indoctrination began early, couched in innocent activities. 'He counts up Stormtroopers, he sews crude figures of Black Guards, he is told fairy stories of the Nazi knights who saved the civilized maiden from the Russian gnomes, he makes flags and swastikas,' remarked an observer in 1938. Children applied their classroom instruction in various ways, such as altering the standard Cowboys and Indians game into Aryans versus Jews, complete with heroic Nazis who always won over the evil Jews.27 Like the HI, schools in the Nazi era placed much more emphasis on physical fitness than on academics, with team sports being the most prominent. Students who failed the minimum physical test could be expelled, regardless of the quality of their academic performance? The physical toughening was neces­ sary, students were told, because of the supreme value and importance of the army, which many students would eventually join, as the enforcer of Hitler's will? While the boys were learning how to be good Nazi soldiers, educa­ tion for girls was limited to home economics or languages. Very little

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math or science was presented to girls after grammar school, which virtually shut young women out of universities. Young girls learned that higher education was unfeminine and unnecessary, since their role in German society was to stay at home and raise children for the Nazi cause. Their supreme value, they were told, lay in becoming wives and mothers for the Reich.'1 The Nazis believed education was wasted on women because women did not belong in public life, thus they wasted as little effort as possible on female children. Two of the most important subjects under the Nazi regime were history and biology; both pertained to Nazi 'racial theory classes', began at age six and taught that the German race was pure and unpolluted by any other ethnicity. Every other race, Jews in partic­ ular, was corrupt and inferior. Biology became politically motivated and characterized by measuring the heads of students in order to prove their Aryan ancestry.'11 As far as history was concerned, every­ thing worth knowing happened because of German action or influence. Mein Katnpf replaced other standard history texts. Students were taught that the Greeks and the Romans owed their civilizations to the Nordic invasions, and famous German battles and events were rewritten in order to glorify Germany (Mosse, Nazi Culture, pp.278-9). The new history taught children that 'all great men were connected with Germany in some way or another ... all life-giving streams of civilization were due to the penetration of German blood or influence, all German history has been a struggle against encir­ cling enemies, and never more than since brutal Imperialists forced her into a war of self-defense in 1914 and diabolically ground her to the dust. All world history since the war [World War One] has meaning only as bearing on the rise of Adolf Hitler.'12 Such drastic historical revisionism accomplished many Nazi goals. Teaching that everything good came from Germany fostered the idea of racial purity and German nationalism, while the emphasis on World War One instilled a sense of victimization by 'other, impure', races and a determination to prove their superiority to the world. These feelings would be useful in keeping up morale during the war years and negated the question of Germany's involvement in World War One. The logical' consequences of racial theory, for example the extermina­ tion of the Jews and other allegedly inferior peoples, were somehow glossed over or never mentioned at all in school biology lessons. The other more immediate results of education under the Nazis were somewhat less expected. For instance, the HI and the schools often came into conflict with one another over the Nazi deemphasis of the intellect to the point that H] activities often took precedence over attending classes. Because the H] so often won out, and because the schools themselves were no longer teaching the basic subjects, many recruits to the army did not have a basic education including

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reading, spelling, math, and other subjects necessary to most tasks in the armed forces. In addition, the introverted method of teaching produced students who did not know or care for anything outside the borders of their country.'1 By 1945 Germany was running out of steam. The H] were being mobilized for battle on the front as well as the defense of their Vaterland borders. The opportunity to die for their Fuhrer was at hand. Hitler turned out to be a prophet of doom, predicting that the youth of the Reich would be the last witness to the total collapse of their country. The time had come. Adolf Hitler had utilized the youth resources of Germany to the end. At the Nuremberg trials, Baldur von Schirach confessed:

I educated this generation in faith and loyalty to Hitler. The youth movement that I built up bore his name. I believed that 1 was serving a leader who would make our people and the youth of our country great and happy and free. Millions of young people believed this, together with me, and saw their ulti­ mate ideal in National Socialism. Many died for it. Before God, before the German nation, and before my German people, I alone bear the guilt of having trained our young people for a man whom 1 for many long years had consid­ ered unimpeachable, both as a leader and the Head of the State ... The guilt is mine that educated the youth of Germany for a man who murdered millions/ Indoctrinated at a young age, the children of the Nazi era learned lessons that lasted well beyond the fall of the Third Reich. Years later, nationalism and the belief that Hitler could do no wrong was still so strongly ingrained that many were unable to admit their complicity in the crimes of the Nazis. The children of these children, as a result, were made to feel victimized by the unrelenting attitudes of their parents. Many among this second generation now feel the guilt that their parents refused to admit." By approaching child-rearing in these two different ways, Germany succeeded in bringing up a generation that was almost totally adherent to the beliefs and goals of the Nazis. The disillusion­ ment following the war would have serious consequences. Their insulated upbringing left them unable to conceive of the downfall of their beloved Fuhrer and of the consequences of applying Nazi ideology. The Fuhrer was infallible, superhuman, yet he died. Germany was the greatest nation in the world, yet it lost the war. Jews, Russians, Gypsies, gays, the mentally disadvantaged, were all subhuman and did not deserve to live, yet after the end of the war adults and children alike could no longer deny the catastrophic effects of this belief, counted in the cost of human lives. By the end of the war, many of those who had been of grammar school age in the year 1933 had grown up to join the army or the SS, and had them­

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selves taken part in the slaughter of innocent people. Many others, not yet adult, had been killed or maimed while fighting in the last months of the war; and others still, too young to participate, would grow up in a world that considered them criminals. They, in their turn, would pass a legacy of collective guilt, resentment, and disillu­ sionment on to their children. One way to raise a generation of dedicated followers was the Lebcnsborn program. The Nazis carried out the program with partic­ ular zeal in Poland. Blond, blue-eyed children of Polish parents were kidnapped and sent to German couples for adoption. Other Nazi occupied countries were also subject to this abomination, which affected several hundred thousand children. Furthermore, all over Germany and the occupied territories the Nazis opened up special 'homes' (in effect, brothels), in which a select group of 'typically Aryan' SS and other servicemen would be able to 'rest and recreate' during the time of their military leave. For this purpose, young girls had been selected, mostly from the ranks of the BDM, also 'typically Aryan', preferably blonde and blue eyed, to perform the desired 'services'. It should be noted that a vast majority of those state whores' offered themselves voluntarily to serve the Vaterland and the Fuhrer. Children who were born as a result of these random encoun­ ters were destined to serve the Fuhrer as wards of the Reich, without ever learning the whereabouts of their biological parents. Thus, in addition to his most infamous legacy of the Holocaust itself, counted among Hitler's crimes must be the mental handicaps of the German children who grew up under his tutelage.

The banished intellectual: literature, architecture, education, music, and art during Nazi rule Works of art that cannot be understood but need a swollen set of instructions to prove their right to exist and find their way to neurotics who are recep­ tive to such stupid or insolent nonsense will no longer reach the German nation. Let no one have illusions! National Socialism has set out to purge the German Reich and our people of all those influences threatening its exis­ tence and character. (Adolf Hitler, 1937; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p.337)

From 1933 to the late 1940s a large number of intellectuals fled the Third Reich, though there were those who had made their escape from the continent before the Nazi occupation. The predominant, though not exclusive, religion of the emigres was Jewish. In order to gain control over their respective states, Hitler, Mussolini, and the other European dictators found it essential to quell dissent of any form, emanating chiefly from artistic circles and the academe. Those

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'dissenters' who were able to escape from persecution fled to the US and other free nations; their respective governments silenced those who stayed and continued their rebellion in various ways. As evidenced by this mass exodus of creative talent, it is clear that total­ itarian regimes such as Hitler's Third Reich destroy culture in the process of their formation. Throughout the late nineteenth century and up to World War One, high culture was enshrined in the mentality of the rapidly growing middle classes of the more advanced European nations; Germany was one of the more prominent among them. Over the decades, this segment of the population grew in size, in wealth, and in appreciation and support of academic and artistic pursuits. This produced a great outpouring of scholarly and cultural activity, but also caused the middle class to isolate itself as a distinct entity from the remainder of society. Bourgeois society contributed greatly to cultural development, but it tended to shun involvement in politics and other facets of public life. This rather idyllic state of affairs was shattered with the onset of World War One. In addition to the economic and political chaos the war inflicted on European society, it had also forced the middle class to see just how vulnerable its fragile world had become. The 1920s then, were a period of great instability and readjustment for Europeans, especially for the bourgeoisie. Intellectual discussions now tended to center less on the glorification of romanticism and more on the fate of man and the implications of Freudian psychology. Free thought and speculation on the nature of society presented dangerous obstacles to totalitarian movements. As a result, Hitler found it necessary to silence dissent as much as possible. In the first five years of the Reich, for example, Hitler had terminated the posi­ tions of 1,678 lecturers and professors - for the most part Jews - in German universities and public schools.''’ This was an easier task to accomplish than most Americans may think possible, for most European institutions of higher learning were owned, funded, and operated by the state. Hitler's actions, therefore, while deplorable, were absolutely legal. On the Fuhrer's orders, there were to be no public exhibits of Jewish artists or sculptors. No music by Jewish composers was to be publicly performed by Aryans. (As an example, for the traditional performance of Mendelssohn's music for the Midsummer Night's Dream, an Aryan substitute had to be found.) Ironically, there was little resistance to the Reich's stifling of intel­ lectual dissent, even at the beginning. In fact, students themselves participated enthusiastically in the public book burning staged by the Nazi Party. On May 10, 1933 around 5,000 students assisted in the destruction of thousands of books in Berlin alone, including works of

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Albert Einstein, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Marx, Engels, Zweig, Toller, as well as those of such American authors as Helen Keller and Upton Sinclair. It is also noteworthy that books by great non-Jewish Germans had been put to the torch, notably Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe as well as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, their only heresy being the advocacy of tolerance and free human spirit. One wonders whether a German student of the time would have been able to recognize the value and substance of these works if they had taken the time and read them before they threw them onto the pyre. Given this iconoclastic milieu, it is hardly surprising that scores of teachers, professors, authors, and composers tried to escape this arid intellectual climate. Those intellectuals who had been lucky enough to land positions in United States colleges and universities were, for the most part, happy with their new-found environment. They were impressed with the high level of scholarly thought in America, though disap­ pointed in the discovery that American professors enjoyed a lower economic standing and social position than did their European coun­ terparts. Some, however, had a difficult time adjusting, and others refused to compromise their traditions and beliefs at all. The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg is an example of a displaced intellectual who was greatly disillusioned when he had realized that he was not as highly esteemed in the United States as he had been in Europe. In a letter to Otto Klemperer on November 8, 1934, Schoenberg writes: 'I consider it unspeakable that these people [California's patrons of the arts], who have been suppressing my works in this part of the world for the last 25 years, now want to use me as a decoration, to give me a walking-on part to play on this occasion because I simply happen, entirely at my own pleasure, to be here.'37 Others fared worse in American society than Schoenberg did. Hungarian composer Bela Bartok died in the year 1945 in a New York hospital, unnoticed and unappreciated by the American public. Writers Ernst Toller and Stefan Zweig committed suicide in the early 1940s, as did psychologist Karl Duncker and biochemist Rudolf Schoenheimer. They were victims of Hitler's intellectual cleansing of the Third Reich. The impact that Hitler's actions had on the European continent was widespread. While the Jewish community felt its wrath the most, other areas of European society did also. In particular, the German and European art world suffered great damage from his reign. Not only did the Fuhrer determine the nature of Germanic (Aryan) art, he and his associates in high positions looted the German and European countryside, confiscating great works of art for personal gain. His trusted lieutenants followed their Fuhrer's example with

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impunity, victimizing not only state museums of the conquered nations but also private collections. Countless valuable art works in Jewish possession were 'liberated' from their owners by Nazi thugs. Hence, Jews facing 'resettlement' tried desperately to sell their valuable collections to reputable art dealers who, in turn, profited by those transactions immensely, selling their booty to the highest bidders. Even at the time of writing, many of these 'lost' art objects are being returned to their rightful owners or their heirs. Regrettably, by far the greater part of the looted art will remain in the hands of those who came by it illegally because the Nazis left no heirs to pursue justice and murdered the rightful owners. Hitler's ambition was to realize his dream of a world center of German and European art; Aryan art. It was his visit to Vienna in September 1907 that became the focal point of his animosity toward that city and its prominence in the art world. Hitler had left his hometown of Linz for Vienna, the city that once dazzled him with its beauty and vitality. The meager sum he had received from his mother for the journey was to sustain him until he had gained prominence as an artist. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts, but failed the entrance examination and was rejected. The reason for his rejection was his obvious lack of sensitivity for human nature; his drawings were void of human figures. Hitler was advised to take up architecture, for the sketches he presented to his examiners showed some promise in that direction. He was terribly disillusioned and embittered toward the head of the school, who happened to be a Jew. Hitler remained in Vienna for several years, drawing street sketches and attempting to sell them to passers by or peddling his products in local inns and taverns. In the year 1913, Hitler left Vienna for Munich in order to avoid being drafted into the Austrian Army. Strong was his dislike for Vienna, the city of wealth and luxury in his dreams, but of slums and vagrancy in his daily reality. The years that followed served to strengthen his hatreds and prejudices. Growing within him were the deeply seated frustrations resulting from his failure as an artist and an architect. The way to conquer these frustrations, in his eyes, was to create a new art world, one in which he would be lord and master. After the Nazi rallies at Nuremberg in the early 1930s, Hitler ordered the erection of a huge arena, doing the first sketches himself and later letting the chosen architects fill in the details.1' Here, at Nuremberg, he planned to link the old city with the new towers of the Third Reich by a concrete highway across the Nuremberg ponds, thus linking the romantic, Teutonic, past with the pagan-like Nazi present. Not only did he envision changing the city skyline, but altering the countryside in the process as well. In a sense, he thought of himself as the master-builder of the new Europe. Hitler's ideas on

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urbanization focused on presenting cities not as centers of a rich and growing cultural and socio-economic diversity, but as places in which to erect gigantic public buildings and other symbols of Nazi power designed to intimidate and subdue the people. This concept of a master-builder was extended by his desire to transform Linz, his hometown, into the artistic Mecca of his newly envisioned Europe and, further down his conquests, the globe. The provincial capital would escalate into a modern metropolis, with the center being a large array of buildings erected to the memory of Hitler, Fuhrer and maker of destiny. Filling these buildings would be the artistic treasures he would loot from all the Nazi occupied terri­ tories of the continent. The buildings would form an inter-related square, the Ftihrertnuseum being the largest and housing a collection of unprecedented size. Armor would be housed in another building. Over 250,000 rare books and manuscripts were to be stored in a library. There would be a separate museum to house sculpture; other museums would be stocked with furniture, tapestries, rare coins, and objets d'art. The square would be completed by the addition of an enormous theater, surpassing in size that of Napoleon's Tomb in Paris. Thus, Linz would flourish as the artistic capital, while Vienna would suffer the irreplaceable losses.” When a political party rises to governing power, it must utilize all possible resources to influence the ideas, opinions, and attitudes of the masses, in order to gain and maintain its support. While propa­ ganda is the most visible method of influence, other less explicit tactics exist to serve the same purpose. The Nazi Party manipulated every possible medium to persuade the public into its camp. One of the most extensive yet little recognized means of influence was the creation of an architectural movement specifically designed to subju­ gate the German people. Influence of the mind was the fundamental principle behind the National Socialist architecture of the period. The idea of a characteristically 'Germanic', or 'Aryan' and 'National Socialistic' style of architecture arose from the thoughts of Adolf Hitler and the right wing of the Party. Their nationalism, coupled with the volkish concept of the Germanic, romantic essence formed the basis for an architectural program that would benefit the Nazi Party. Under this program, buildings were now specifically designed to appeal to the heroic perception of the masses. Their style reflected the nationalist values and symbolized in its massive, giant­ like structures the immense strength of a unified racial community. Many people believed Germany was undergoing a revival process through traditional and nationalistic ideologies rather than revolu­ tionary pathways. The movement received full support from Hitler, who had displayed some talent in architectural design, though he never

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pursued the profession seriously. He believed that the buildings in which people lived and worked influenced their spiritual and psychological condition. Therefore he would employ architecture to improve these areas of the people's lives. Furthermore, appropriately designed buildings could help rid the German community of the humiliation suffered after World War One and invoke a greater patri­ otic spirit. Hitler defined the ultimate goal for Nazi architecture as the ability of the Volk to express and glorify itself. This task could be achieved through the construction of'community' buildings, erected under the assumption that they would remain standing forever. All 'community' structures possessed two common characteristics: a sense of monumentality and elements of general neoclassicism. Hitler's 'community' architecture was designed with the intent of easing the chore of controlling the masses, and the buildings acted as tools for the implementation of his power and authority. To achieve his goals, Hitler appointed the talented young archi­ tect, Albert Speer, as his principal collaborator. It was Speer who spawned the idea of using slave labor - especially the Jews, much like the function they fulfilled during their bondage in Egypt thousands of years earlier - while German manpower was being utilized on the front lines. The slave laborers were used up, ill nourished and maltreated, and attrition in lives was as rampant as intended. Under the Nazi regime, not only was the German state to be built up and reinforced, but all aspects of German life were to be fused to form a communal whole. Each city was to incorporate like aspects and then be connected by a network of autobahns. Now cities would be linked with the countryside and Germany would be unified. The Third Reich could prepare to march east and west on roads ideally built for the purpose of transporting heavy military equipment and necessary personnel. 'Community' architecture, moreover, symbolized the collective will of the common people and represented the power and determi­ nation of the Volk state. Its basic aim included the elevation of community above the individual through the magnificence of the structures themselves, especially those in which great multitudes could gather. Many of the 'community' buildings were actually designed to outwardly express the power and authority of the Nazi state, synonymous with that of the Fuhrer. They instilled the feeling of a glorious oneness between the Fuhrer and his people. The Nazi Party slogan, 'The Common Good before the Individual Good', served as a general basis for the concept of 'community' architecture. The popular belief justifying the erection of all these structures held that the state represented the will of the Volk in a form of democracy, therefore the buildings being commissioned by the government were actually ordered by the people.

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Thus new stadiums were erected, Volkhallen or people's halls, for mass rallies and parade avenues and squares to support mass reviews of troops and folk pageantry. Though these structures were meant to serve as unification symbols for the people, they also func­ tioned as political, nationalist tools to firm up the hold of the Party. The Nazis believed the ideal community to be well ordered and closely bonded. Hence the construction of new military buildings, monuments to national heroes and battles, to be celebrated and revered by the masses. These structures would provide the desired disciplined order and unity, as they would instill in the new genera­ tion militaristic and patriotic qualities. Thus, much of the architecture of the period reflected the values of a highly regimented and mili­ taristic society. Ironically, however, the troubled times Germany faced during the brief reign of the Weimar Republic also served as the backdrop for the explosion of creativity for which that decade had been called the 'Golden Twenties'. Despite the Republic's struggle for survival or, perhaps, because of it, the arts flourished. The visual arts in particular were not only used to express bitterness and rage toward the recently ended world war, but the works of the artists at this time also responded to the hardships experienced during the Weimar years. While many artists, such as Otto Dix and George Gross, made scathing attacks on the social and political problems of the Weimar Republic, one artist chose to turn her efforts to the representation of true human suffering experienced during the 1920s and 1930s. The artist Kathe Kollwitz produced primarily black and white drawings and prints, the subjects of which were the raw emotions of the working class. The despair after the great loss of life in World War One and the pain and hunger which haunted its survivors in the following decades are evident in the faces of the people she drew. Her art reflects the problems which faced Germans in the Weimar Republic and later under the Third Reich. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 there began a rush to create a new Germany that included an attempt to invent something which could be called by their definition 'true German art'. In doing so, artists such as Kathe Kollwitz were declared 'degenerate'. However, in comparison with the art the Nazi regime sought to depict as 'ideal', Kollwitz' art reflects the time in which she lived and speaks for the people who lost their voices in the 1930s. The art of the Nazis did not ring of truth like Kollwitz' work did. Instead, it created pictures of an incredibly cheerful world. In doing so, however, it also mirrored its time, as this art seemed forced and phony; a Germany the Nazis attempted to create for themselves. Three common themes of Kollwitz can be examined in order to show how her works were the antithesis of the Nazi treatment of the

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same subjects. These three themes (with which Kollwitz frequently dealt) were the sufferings of war, hunger and poverty, and the plight of the worker. Hunger and poverty were frequent subjects for Kollwitz. During the Weimar Republic, the people of Germany underwent two severe depressions. The first began in the early 1920s, as inflation became astronomical. In 1922, 4 Deutschemark were equal to $1.00. Over the next few years the value of the mark dropped so dramatically that by 1923 it was basically worthless; 4,200,000,000 DMs to $1/' Even though this inflation was eventually repaired, it left a deep scar on the people of Germany. The former middle and working classes were now reduced to a proletariat condition. Many had lost their entire life savings, because wages had been unable to keep up with the mark as it plummeted. Later in that same decade, Germany reentered depression. The economic troubles of the Weimar Republic were reflected in Kollwitz' work through her simple drawings of the children who fell victim of poverty. In her famous poster, Deutschland, Kinder Hungern! (Germany, Children are Starving) from 1924, children beg achingly for their empty bowls to be filled. The desperation of every mother unable to feed her crying child is portrayed in Brot! (Bread!) from the same year. The woman bent with fatigue is unable to face her gaunt children or the viewer. Both these works record the true horror of poverty: the pain of the children and the torture for those who must tell them there is no more to eat. Another aspect of the difficult economic times in Weimar Germany, which Kollwitz depicted, was the suffering of the worker and the unemployed. Her Arbeiter (Worker) from 1921-23 shows the resignation of an undernourished man who looks old beyond his years. He is much like the worker in some of her earlier works, such as Pfliiger und Weib (Plower and Woman). With heads bent, these laborers expend all their energy in pulling the plow steered by an equally exhausted woman. The condition of the Germans during the 1920s is mirrored in these forms, as it is presaged for the Third Reich during World War Two. Another common theme in Kollwitz' work is the shadow which hung over Weimar Germany; the loss of a generation of young men in World War One. This, too, was a foreboding of things to come under the Nazi regime. Many of her works in the following years deal with a woman's loss of a son, a brother or a husband to war. From 1921, Im Kriege Gefallen (Killed in Action), tells of the mother's or widow's grief. Much like the mother in Bread!, this woman cannot bear to face the world or her remaining children with the news of her loss. Her children again cling to her desperately in face of a crisis that their mother herself is unprepared to handle. Other than portraying

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the pain the war survivors felt, Kollwitz used her talent to support the antiwar movement. A poster, commissioned by the Leipzig SDR Nie Wieder Krieg! (Never Again War!), depicts a young man who calls to his country to not repeat the killings of the year before. Through the choice of such subjects Kathe Kollwitz was able to capture the true face of the Germans in these times. She also became popular and beloved with the German masses, as they saw in her art a sincere representation of their feelings and hopes. Thus, even though this freedom to express the pain she had witnessed was halted for many others during the next decade as Germany fell under Nazi rule, she remained unmolested - though under house arrest - by Hitler and his goons. As the Nazis attempted to create a new Germany, they also invented a new 'national art' through denouncing major works and removing them from the history of German art, while recreating new art based on Nazi ideals. Through the process of attempting to recreate German art, many artists in Germany who were considered 'degenerate' perished in concentration camps. Most modern art was attacked and displayed in the Nazi National Gallery in 1937 under the title of 'Degenerate Art'. Hitler and Goebbels personally selected the works for this exhi­ bition, as the art of disgustingly sick minds, including such painters as Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. This attack on legitimate art was no doubt a result of Hitler's own frustration at his own failure as an artist/1 To the Nazis, the only acceptable art was that which expressed the beauty of the landscape and it fruitfulness. Country life was portrayed only through the cheerful farmers who worked the land. The family was only seen as hard-working and contented. Views of the war were rendered through heroic scenes of victory and the ideal German soldiers, who often looked as if they had been modeled after ancient statues of Greek gods. Flattering portraits of the Fuhrer were, of course, encouraged.42 By contrasting some of these works with those of Kollwitz, who handled the same themes, it becomes apparent that these works, which were created by the artists of the Third Reich, lack truth. In a painting by Ferdinand Andri, Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child), a large plain-faced woman gazes blankly at her baby boy, who stands in her lap. This boy is amazingly rotund and muscular for a child of his age. In comparison to the mother and children in Kollwitz' Bread!, Andri's picture seems to lose credibility. Only in some ideal world of super-nourished peasants could such a scene be possible. The same 'ideal' is portrayed in the depiction of the worker. Heinrich Berran's Haymaker shows a man climbing mountains with an impossibly heavy and cumbersome load on his back. However, he maneuvers easily and shows no strain. In comparison to the Kollwitz

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plowers, this man's work seems to be no chore at all. Although Berran's scene may be majestic, it too is altogether unrealistic. In contrast to Kollwitz' focus on the victims of war, the Third Reich concentrated on its glory. War was not to be portrayed as having any repercussions. Elk Eber's Dispatch Courier from the year 1938-39 shows the brave and excited soldier on a mission. Without fear or hesitation, the soldiers in such paintings race forward. Again, although the ideal soldier would be fearless, it is hard to believe this was a representative norm. If artists of the Third Reich were restricted to such themes as family, work and war heroes, without being allowed to show death, sickness or pain, they could not accurately reflect the truth of their times. Although they were confined to certain subjects, which could only be portrayed in a positive light, they show much through what cannot be shown. The works considered 'ideal' by the Nazis reveal quite a lot about the suppression and dishonesty of the Third Reich, by what they do not or could not reveal. By seeming forced and lacking in honesty, these works better reflect the circumstances of the artist who was often forced into conformity. These paintings lack the sincerity of truth, but there was little hope for the survival of truth during the time in which the artists lived and worked. Kathe Kollwitz, whose Death Recognized as Friend is a warning for those who wish to wage war, wrote in her diary in 1926: 'Tonight I dreamed there would be another war; another war threatening to break out. And in the dream I imagined that if 1 dropped the other work entirely and together with others devoted all my strength to speaking against the war, we could prevent it.'43 Although she had been threatened often with arrest and being thrown into a concen­ tration camp, neither happened. Kollwitz represented too great a figure for the working class. She was able to use her position to provide inspiration for more suppressed artists and intellectuals of all persuasions and continued to capture the imagination of the people. During the time Hitler ruled the Third Reich she continued in her inimitable style, yet her works took a much sadder turn, with much more morbid themes such as Death Recognized as a Friend. During World War Two, her grandson and husband died; she followed shortly after, in 1945, only eight days before Hitler took his own life.44 In contrast to the truth of Kollwitz's work, that of the artists who painted what the Nazis dictated is only propaganda. Their works, mirroring the circumstances under which they were created, were rewarded with a display in the Nazi National Museum of Art. Hence, the art worthy of exhibition in the national galleries was based entirely on Hitler's ideas of nationalism and racialism. He strongly disliked the French Impressionists, thus they were banned entirely. He tolerated the masters of the past, but condemned modern art

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entirely. His tastes seemed rooted in the pre-1800 era, favoring such artists as Hans Griitzner, who specialized in scenes of nineteenth­ century monks, Albrecht Durer, with his naturalist engravings, and the Lucas Cranach portraits. Hitler approved of the Flemish master Pieter Brueghel (1525-1609), but he held most regard for the German and Austrian painters, in particular those who had come from the Academy in Vienna. Many of the works confiscated fit into the cate­ gory labeled 'pure Nordic German art'.45 In the year 1930, with the first Nazi electoral success came the first assault on the arts. Dr Hans Frick became the Minister for Education, and his target was the Weimar Castle Museum and its extensive collec­ tion. The museum curator was dismissed, and a Nazi adviser replaced him, urging the removal of all 'degenerate' art from the premises. This included works by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Dix, Emile Nolde, and many others, all accused of representing a racially inferior humanity.* Three years later, Hitler became Chancellor and Fuhrer, and with his new power denounced the 'inter­ nationalization' of the arts, claiming its removal was to be effected in the Third Reich only. Thus, one German museum after another suffered losses far greater than that of any other country. During the 1940s, the Nazis engaged seriously in the sacking of priceless art. Adolf Ziegler was appointed as judge of all paintings and was in charge of confiscating all 'degenerate' art produced since 1910. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering also aided in the confiscation of artworks47, corrupting those in charge of collection operations and pulling aside those works he wished to place in his private collection. Berlin galleries quickly learned of the new 'commission' being sent out to 'review' the works in their possession, and returned any modern paintings on loan to their owners. Due to this quick action by the National Gallery, many priceless works by Picasso, Braque, Munch, and others were saved. According to Nazi records, about 16,500 valuable paintings and sculptures labeled as 'degenerate' were pillaged from over 100 German and foreign museums. In the years to follow, Hitler would loot Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland as well as Holland, Italy, and France. With the unification with Austria came the confiscation of Jewish and other private collec­ tions. By August 1938 the confiscations alone were valued at well over 93 billion reichsmarks. In Poland, the National Museum in Krakow, the private collections of Polish aristocrats, and the collec­ tions of churches and monasteries were robbed of many canvasses and tapestries. The capture of Paris was a personal victory for Hitler; in that capturing Europe's foremost capital of the art world would clear the pathway to the realization of his 'New Europe'. During the invasion, all confiscated art works were stored in various underground shelters and mines. By the year 1944, Hitler's

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collection was so vast that the crowded shelters could house no more, and the overflow was taken elsewhere. One of his most important shelters was at the salt mines at Alt Aussee. First discov­ ered by the Viennese as a safe repository, the mines were difficult to reach, and in a sparsely populated area with a rather low humidity. From May to October 1944, 1,788 art treasures were shifted from a previous location at Fiihrerbau to Alt Aussee. This consisted of 1,687 paintings and 101 other items, including sculptures, mosaics, tapes­ tries, and objets d’art. Eventually, 10,000 art works would be stored here, of which Hitler claimed almost 7,000 for his private collection.** In the year 1945 the approach of the Allied forces brought an end to Hitler's dream. As Allied armies advanced, information as to the whereabouts of hidden treasures was received. An Allied expedi­ tionary force (known as the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archival Officers - MFA&A) was formed to reclaim these hidden objects. Huge amounts of art treasures were rescued from destruction. At today's values, the total worth of the art looted by the Nazis is incalculable. It was only in the 1990s that the world became cognizant of the complicity of other countries - some among them 'neutral' - in that great Nazi robbery of Jewish material wealth. This makes it abun­ dantly clear that neither Nazi ideology nor political expediency had anything to do with the systematic murder of European Jewry. Instead, it was pure and simple, the looter's greed. Their behavior, at least at top levels of the Nazi hierarchy, was curiously reminiscent of the age-old custom of the impoverished aristocracy throughout Europe who, unwilling to repay loans acquired from Jewish money lenders, incited peasants to rioting and plunder of Jewish property, which culminated in state-sanctioned pogroms in tsarist Russia during the nineteenth century at the cost of many lives. The enormity of the Nazi plunder makes it impossible to close this chapter of history. And the passage of time, rather than permitting memories to fade, has opened up troves of long-hidden, ignored documents, both in America and Europe. The chief banks of Switzerland are known to have obstructed the efforts of survivors of murdered Jews to reclaim bank accounts after the war. The Swiss knowingly laundered assets stolen by the Nazis from their victims during the war. Were it not for the efforts of organizations that infil­ trated the secretive Swiss banking sector, Nazi assets and plunder, and the Swiss banks' collaboration, might have never come to light. Thanks to these efforts, such criminal activities have also been evidenced in French, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Dutch and Finnish banks. Nevertheless, what is truly irreplaceable, in addition to the estab­ lished genius of the many artists, writers, musicians, and

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intellectuals, are the losses in human potential caused by the indis­ criminate Nazi murder of millions of innocent children, whose genius was not allowed to fully blossom. Their dreams were cut down before maturing, to the detriment of the world community. To what extent progress had been retarded by destroying the chances for the development of those potential thinkers, probers and scien­ tists, only the future may reveal.

Music for murderers 'Don't cry, Mama, please don't cry.' I kissed her many times. 'We'll take care. I promise. Please don't cry, dearest Mama.' It was my turn now to wipe the tears off her face. Suddenly, Sturmbannfiihrer Doerings pointed at my violin case. 'What have you got in there, Jew?' He asked, and I under­ stood what had caught his attention a moment ago and saved my mother from a severe beating. 1 spied a spark of hope in her eyes now. The great miracle she's been praying for was about to happen. She remembered the German's love of music. Surely, if I played for them, they'd let us remain together as a family. 'A violin, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer.' I replied in German, and he was impressed with my command of his language. 1 opened the case, to alleviate his suspicions that it held anything but a violin. The Nazi hesitated, as if to change his mind, then came the terse order: 'Spiel, Jude! Mach los!' Play Jew! Go ahead!' He barked for me to perform. 'Play for your miserable life, swine!' He added, and I suddenly thought that my virtuosity might be able to save us all. I looked at the angry faces of the SS and the Gestapo around me, and I realized that I had no time to lose. The chinboard held firmly under my chin, the tightened bow caressed its strings with the deftness and ease I had acquired over the years of study and practice. 1 was transported to another place, another time. It was now the year 1937, and I was a 9-year-old prodigy performing my first solo with the Warsaw Philharmonic, under the direction of my Uncle Mihas Stybel, my mother's oldest brother. He raised the baton, there was a total silence in the hall, and the sound of violins resounded, softly intoning the accom­ paniment to Schumann's famous piece, Trdumerei... In the midst of a hapless throng of family and friends, in the brief moments of reprieve, 1 played my beloved instrument as 1 had never played before. First, it was Schumann, then Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven, which was followed by J.S. Bach and

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then Schumann once again. In complete silence, everyone listened, Nazi and Jew alike, entranced by the universal language of music. After all, this young Jew was playing their music; all was well with the world. Harmony prevailed. The magic sounds granted us all that moment of the absolute miracle of peace. I hadn't noticed, but the Nazi butchers stood round me chanting the melodies they knew from their child­ hood memories; their mother's or grandmother's chants, some wiping a tear from their cheek as I intoned the melody of Brahms' haunting lullaby 'Guteii Abend, Gute Nacht' - 'Good evening and good night.' I felt the violin being ripped from under my chin violently, with a sudden jerk. I was caught by surprise, the bow still in the air, ready to extract another melody, the metal clamp of the chin­ board dug deep into my skin and produced an ugly gash. I touched my chin. There was blood on my hand. My mother quickly applied her kerchief to stop the bleeding. 'Please, oh please, don't destroy it!' she cried, and it was only then I noticed that Doerings had raised the violin high above his head; it came smashing against my skull with great force. The instrument exploded into a thousand fragments flying in every direction. It seemed as if God had decided to render me mute, though He had granted me the gift to sound His praises in the language most pleasing to His ears. I told myself to stay calm, but my heart was filled with such great intensity of hatred, I wished Doerings had taken a bite of it there and then; the venom inside would have surely struck him dead on the spot. 'Enough! Get going, pigs! Los!' The SS man shouted an order, his polished jackboot landing a powerful kick onto my mother's thigh. She let go of my embrace and doubled up with terrible pain. I knew then that for a brief illusory moment I was playing the fool, unable to understand the true nature of man. It was a kind of terrible childishness, which I was as yet not willing to renounce. I knew that children, too, have the desire for power, the will to hurt and to destroy. And I longed with all of my senses to do just that. I'll kill him, when I'm given the chance. 1 thought to myself. Him and his likes, I swear, as long as there's blood in my veins! My eyes were full of hatred as I fixed them on Sturmbannfiihrer Doerings, my arms trying to protect my mother. Until then, my whole life was filled with the sound of music. If anyone had told me I'd ever have to live without its enjoy­ ment, deprived of my violin, I would have found it hard to believe. Now, it had come to pass ... Fear would not let me take

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hold of a violin. Experience cautioned against revealing my skill to the assassins. I was a 12-year-old boy with the mind of an old man. The only profit of my brief existence was the time granted me to know and love them all; now they were gone; gone, too, was my beloved violin. I wasn't sure I'd see any of them ever again. Anguished by a thousand unanswerable questions, I was a child who carried the burdens of a man ripe for his grave. How easy, I thought in silence, would it be to end all this once and for all. Nowhere was the hypocrisy of the Nazi establishment as blatant as in their use (and abuse) of human entertainment to satisfy their whimsy. The Nuremberg Laws branded Jews 'impure', prohibiting any self-respecting Aryan to enter into any form of relationship with the subhuman Jew. Yet on numerous occasions the SS and other Nazi 'aristocrats' would select from among the female slave workers and candidates for extermination those who were pleasing to the eye to become their concubines. Those of gay persuasion (usually capos), were known to keep in privileged status boys not yet in their teens. Promiscuity was the norm among the assassins, and 'used-up' lovers were commonly relegated to the crematories. Music, and its avid appreciation, was another sentimentality char­ acteristic of the murderers in SS uniforms. It is hard to imagine a bandstand at the intersection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentra­ tion camps. Even more of a mental strain is to picture 20 or so waiflike creatures, heads roughly shaven, bodies, although adequately dressed, hunched with hunger, milking a variety of musical instru­ ments in an attempt to produce a loud, parade-like march. Who was their audience? Hundreds of even more debilitated ghosts, who staggered back and forth from their slave labor sites at dawn and dusk. Some using their haunting, sunken eyes to sear the faces of those musicians who dared to look up from their musical scores, others expressing their scorn and jealousy with words: 'Quitters, bitches, traitors!'49 Some dragged their half-dead bodies silently, as if deaf to the Arbeitsmarsch (labor march), and there were those few who offered the trace of an understanding smile. An important, unrecognizable fact: although their bodies were robbed of feminine characteristics, the musicians were women. Those assembled at the bandstand each morning and evening were part of the 47-member orchestra at the Birkenau extermination camp. Although there were prisoner-run orchestras at various concentra­ tion camps - most notably the famous men's orchestras at Auschwitz and at the 'model camp' of Theresienstadt - the one at Birkenau was unique in that it was the only female orchestra that existed in any of

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the women's camps. Few outside of the survivors of these camps seem to know that such diversions existed among the death and drudgery. Even fewer choose to write about them, resulting in a surprising lack of information about a subject so absurd in its context, yet altogether fascinating to those outside its realm. What could possibly necessitate the existence of an orchestra in an extermination camp? The female orchestra was initiated by Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of the camp at Auschwitz, to play marching songs for the hordes of women departing from Birkenau each morning to work at LG. Farben and returning at night. 'Hoess must have thought it would make a good impression on the bosses when they visited,' explained one member of the orchestra to a newcomer. Another observed, 'The SS probably thought that the stirring power of those booming drums, backed by the jangle of the cymbals, would have made the very dead march in time.'5" Aside from impressing the higher-ups during their occasional visits, the orchestra performed for the SS themselves, usually several times a week. As frivolous as it sounds, the orchestra was in fact a desperate, life­ perpetuating tool, sometimes the saving grace of a prisoner about to be pushed through death's door. Yet, amidst the luxury of life their musical skill granted them, the players who furthered the orchestra's odd existence were prey to a variety of ethical questions and confusing glimpses of human nature involving other camp prisoners, fellow musicians, their conductor, and the unpredictable SS. Fania Fenelon, a French Jewess who was a famous singer/pianist before the war, was banished to the dreaded quarantine block in Birkenau when it was discovered that she knew how to sing arias from the opera Madame Butterfly, a score of melodies that the chief of the women's section of the camp, Lagerfiihrerin Mandel, desired to hear. She was immediately taken to the orchestra block where she auditioned before Mandel, highly aware that she was singing for her life. Fenelon recalls, 'If she didn't like my interpretation, didn't share my view of the piece, I'd be back where I came from.'51 The living conditions at the orchestra block were unquestionably an upgrade from the rest of the camp. The women were given more than a rag to cover themselves, indeed, they were treated to slips, underwear, dresses, coats, woolen stockings and boots, even though they spent the majority of their hours inside with a stove to warm them. The block was clean, and each woman had a bed to herself, with a mattress, a sheet and a blanket - unheard-of luxuries. The bedrooms of the conductor and the blockowa (from the Polish language, meaning barrack head) even had electricity! The orchestra women did not receive much more than the common prisoners by way of food. But they did have the opportunity to barter with the Poles who ran 'Canada', the name given to the large hut where other

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privileged inmates sorted through the clothing, foodstuffs, valuables, souvenirs, and toiletries found in the confiscated luggage of the camp newcomers. And most unbelievable of all, the women were ordered to take lukewarm showers every morning and even had a scrap of soap and a towel to accompany this dream. The showers were deemed a necessity by the SS for any of the 'camp aristocrats' who had to be near the SS - the orchestra women, the girls who ran 'Canada', the runners, interpreters, etc. Needless to say, these privileges earned the women the hatred and jealousy of a great many women who daily were soaked to the skin digging trenches in the dead of winter. Watching the prisoners stumble out of the camps one chilling morning, accompanied by the band, Fenelon came upon a realization:

It was only now that I began to grasp the insanity of the place I was in. Here, in the icy air of this winter morning, in this geometrical landscape of squat, stumpy sheds with barbed wire above them, the watchtowers, without a single tree on the horizon, 1 became aware of the extermination camp of Birkenau, and of the farcical nature of this orchestra conducted by this elegant woman, these comfortably dressed girls sitting on chairs playing to these virtual skeletons, shadows showing us faces that were faces no longer. In the early morning light so peculiarly sinister, the Arbeitskommandos set off towards their regenerating work, work through joy! They were simply going to hasten their deaths. They, who had so much difficulty in moving, were required to give their steps a military gait. And, painfully, I realized that we were there to hasten their martyrdom.52 This and other conscience-tugging scenarios existed for the orchestra women, although most of the players, aware that one did anything to stay alive, brushed the few tinges of guilt easily away. However, several conflicts arose for those in the orchestra that made their lives a constant question of right and wrong and caused them to ponder on the confusing human nature of their conductor, their fellow musicians, and the SS. First and foremost was the upsetting fact that the orchestra women spent 17 hours a day plus 'night work' (impromptu concerts initiated by the SS at any evening hour) practicing and playing for the pleasure of murderers. The Germans' love of music is well known and the SS were no exception. The fact that the Germans had knowledge of music was a catalyst for the orchestra to constantly try to improve the quality of their playing, to widen their repertoire of pieces, however difficult this was in an extermination camp. 'Commandant Kramer and Mandel know about music, and if they don't like our playing, they can disband our group,' warned one musician. 'We were a product of caprice and we could vanish in the same way! We have to

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vary the repertoire, renew it, and how can you do that without new orchestrations? Furthermore, they couldn't even send scores for us from Berlin; no composer in the world has written music for an orchestra with our combination of instruments!'51 The SS could appear at any time to demand a night concert, and they usually appeared after a Blocksperre (barrack blockade), a time when 'selections' of who was to die were made. These selections usually occurred at night when people were half-asleep because 'it's all more efficient. People are half-asleep, there's less shouting, less fuss.'54 Explained one musician, 'When it's all over, after that they've done, they [the SS] all want to do something else. Perhaps they want to forget, not be alone with themselves? Or perhaps they get drunk to complete the pleasure of killing, to celebrate it. Or, they come here to listen to music.'55 Another woman added, 'The SS often come here just before the end of the Blocksperres. Work is over for them and they come here to relax with us.'56 On one such occasion, Mandel came to the orchestra block at 3 a.m. to hear Fenelon sing Madame Butterfly, the song that saved her life. 'Mandel had removed her cape and sat down, looking dreamy. Could it be that she regarded herself as a sentimental geisha? I hated myself at the thought of giving her pleasure. Despite all the wise lectures 1 gave myself, having entertained that SS woman after a selection filled me with utmost disgust.'57 This disgust was not entirely reserved for the SS - on the contrary, some of the musicians, such as Fenelon, despised themselves for the sort of betrayal they felt in pleasing their tormentors. Some tried to think of it in terms of saving their own lives as opposed to bringing joy to the SS, but others simply could not and were constantly tormented by this fact. It seems strange how radically the SS were able to change their expressions upon entering the orchestra block. One would hardly see them as killers when they requested certain musical pieces with soft voices and dreamy eyes. Said Fenelon of Josef Kramer, commandant of Birkenau,

The face he showed us when he came to listen to the orchestra was certainly not known to the other men and the women of the camp. He loved music, and it was he, with Mandel, who kept us alive; we depended on him. He always behaved correctly with us, but a Polish comrade who worked in the infirmary [said] he was not immune to the collective hysteria that seized the SS when they loaded their trucks for the crematoria. On occasion he could be as wild as the rest of them, not hesitating to shatter a woman's skull with a blow of his club.55

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Kramer regularly strode in to the orchestra to hear music, graciously addressing the women, 'Now, a moment's respite for all of us. We are going to hear some music'. (This was a typical activity which allowed him, as it did other Nazi assassins, to divide his life into 'work time' and 'free time', during which he pursued other unre­ lated activities. It also allowed him to eliminate emotion from work.) He then requested Schumann's Reverie, calling it a marvelous and heart-rending piece. Upon watching him settle into his chair for a brief moment of deliverance from his 'hard day's work', one could marvel at how strongly the assassins were moved by music, and how odd it was that something like notes pouring forth from inanimate instruments could have such a profound effect on someone who witnessed and contributed to brutal deaths of thousands of living, breathing humans, who had aspirations, who possessed thoughts and emotions of their own. Did it ever occur to Kramer that they, too, might have shared this love of music? Thus, the women in the orchestra daily battled with their thoughts. In playing the music so beloved by the SS, they were, in a sense, helping the SS purge themselves of a 'hard day's work' - in essence, that meant, of killing thousands of the musicians' fellow Jews. But what, short of giving up their own lives, could these 47 women do? Fenelon, for one, reasoned that as an orchestra member, isolated from the outdoor elements, and the beatings and killings at the whim of the SS, she had a greater chance of survival than the other Lager inmates. Thus, her resolve, to which she clung in moments of utmost incredulity, was never to forget everything she had seen, heard, and felt during her 11 months as a member of the orchestra. Every Sunday there was a scheduled concert for the SS, with each concert bringing in additional audiences. These concerts caused the women musicians even more pangs of guilt, as the orchestra often knew their audience's fate before the other inmates themselves had realized it. Fenelon recounts the strange hierarchy of the Lager, visible at one of these concerts:

Seated on perfectly aligned chairs, there they were the ladies and gentlemen of the SS, wrapped stiffly in their heavy greatcoats, some with an enviable fur collar. A little farther back, on roughly made steps, were seated the aristocrats of the camp, marked with the black triangle of the asocial; those delicate beings had unshaven hair and sat at ease in comfortable clothes. Regarded as degenerate, they were being punished and not exterminated. Set apart, another group: the nurses and doctors and, with them, a few sick people whose eyes, too large for their monkey-like faces, betrayed obscure alarm at being there. An SS officer had turned round and his gaze fell on the group from the Revier [hospital]. He said something to his

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neighbor, who looked at them in his turn; then they both nodded their heads, dearly satisfied. It was indeed satisfying that sick people should be present at these Sunday concerts. And tomorrow, with the same striking logic, they would consider these wrecks as superfluous and would gas them. Farther back still, isolated and penned like cattle, at the obligatory posi­ tion of attention, the gray troupe of deportees was half-sunk in shadow. I couldn't bear to look at them. Then suddenly something amazing happened: in the deportees' group, some women began humming. It was so inconceivable that the girls in the orchestra craned their necks to look; some officers, stiff-necked, chins lifted, turned too, presumably scandalized that they dared sing. But no! They had deigned this slightest of gestures not to punish the gray mass that had dared to hum, but to reward them with a glance. Not able to pick up anyone in particular, they bestowed this proof of their satisfaction on all: approvingly, the SS smiled at the deportees. How right Little Irene was when she said: 'You see, they're pleased. At last they've been given credit: they did something for the prisoners and the prisoners appreciated it! " Another tough performance was the day when the orchestra was ordered to play in the infirmary. Since it was the first time that Fenelon had played surrounded by the sick and insane, she was happily but innocently anticipating bringing a moment of joy to those in intense physical and mental anguish. She quickly found out why she was the only member of the orchestra smiling when Florette, another musician brutally interrupted, 'We play in the morning, and they'll be gassed in the afternoon.''11 Yet, despite these mind-twisting situations, the orchestra women did not have the time to analyze the psyche of the SS, as there were problems within their own troupe that needed untangling. One such difficulty was the relationship of the orchestra's conductor, Alma Rose, a German Jewess, with the rest of the musicians. Rose, a fine violinist herself, was the daughter of the former first violinist in the Berlin Opera orchestra and the niece of composer Gustav Mahler. Members of the orchestra described Alma as:

Very serious. A real German. Only music counts for her. You can imagine how she feels about working with us. Here you can count the real professional musicians on the your fingers of one hand. But we re the material that inspired Alma to produce music. And 1 must say, her arrival changed every­ thing. Kramer, the camp commandant, and Mandel, must have said to one another: 'We'U have real concerts with this virtuoso.' To please the SS, Alma really goes to town on it all and gets up hopping mad. And furthermore, because of her claims, we're in danger of extinction from one day to the next.62

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It was Alma's strict love of music and the seriousness with which she revered it that provided almost a daily conflict between her and the other musicians. Clearly her superiority in her knowledge of music as well as her demeanor, enjoying credibility with the SS, which sparked a number of the conflicts. The struggle had not been a result of jealousy on the part of the other women. It was, instead, an unavoidable conflict, arising from their desire to simply survive, which collided with Alma's unattainable wish for perfection. While it is obvious that the women musicians' lives hinged on the quality of music they produced, Alma tended to take things a bit farther than was deemed necessary - a characteristic common among the capos and other persons in supervisory positions within the Lager who had, at times, surpassed their SS masters in cruelty - so obsessive was her desire to please and succeed. Although she had a great deal of influence with the SS, she often refused to take advantage of it, if she thought the women had performed badly in their concert. Every wrong note played in front of the SS was seen by Alma as a personal attack on her ability to conduct, a chip out of her rigid ego. When she was asked if she could request an extra ration of food from Frau Mandel - when the SS woman asked Alma if her musicians needed anything - she replied abruptly, 'No! I refuse to ask for anything for them. They spoilt my concert last Sunday; I'd be ashamed.'"1 It was as if Alma was unable to smell the burning corpses of the thousands of fellow Jews that were shoved into the gas chambers and then into the ovens daily to the sweet strains of music played in three-quarter time to the twitching of her baton. Cloaked in the memory of her father and uncle Gustav, Alma seemed blind to the horrors around her. To her, an extra crust of bread was not life, but a reward for playing well, for causing a trace of a smile to dance upon the lips of the SS during a performance, as applauding a bunch of Untermenschen was forbidden to any decent Nazi. Alma was not reluctant to use corporal punishment in the form of slaps or having the dreaded baton thrown at one's head. While she claimed that all good German conductors employed this type of discipline, it often led to the breaking point of the mentally ravaged musician in question, causing shrieking, sobbing, or both. The level of her discipline seemed excessively cruel, and one day when Fenelon questioned it, Alma explained her beginnings as a conductor of the orchestra: It was horrifying, frightful. Most couldn't sight-read, there were only four professionals, and the rest weren't even poor amateurs; and 1 had to create an orchestra out of this incongruous bunch. My life and theirs were at stake. I decided that strict discipline was the answer - they had dared claim to be musicians and they must prove it! I wouldn't let them massacre music! She

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said, eyes blazing, 'With me, you won't rifle with music. That I cannot tolerate. It's as if you were spitting in my eye, trampling on my soul. I've given my life to music and it's never let me down. Have you ever wondered whether I might not prefer to sit with you, to chat, not to be so isolated? Only, if I'd done that; I'd never be able to keep order. The conductor must keep his distance; he's destined to stand alone. He must be respected?1 After hearing her story, Fenelon questioned herself, 'Was she [Alma] more German than Jewish?'"5 These two warring parts of her character seemed to be the source of Alma's inner conflict. A few months later, when Heinrich Himmler, the inventor of the killing factories, came to visit Birkenau, Alma practically went insane in preparation for the arrival of what she called 'An absolutely toprank man. I want a really conscientious performance. He is one of the most important men in Germany. He's very interested in us; the orchestra is known about even in Berlin. It must be faultless. I will not stand for even the slightest mistake.' Shockingly, Alma failed to realize the horror of her words. Thought Fenelon in disgust, 'The executioner was coming to gloat over his victims! Alma had forgotten everything; camp, setting, gas chambers. Her concert had to be perfect. She was German. Himmler was one of the greatest leaders of her country. She was proud to play for him. We all shared Florette's view: "But my God - what would she do for Hitler?'""" Increasing the practice hours to 20-hour stretches at a time, Alma's pride led her to put her status as conducting the unusual group of women musicians above the welfare of those very players who brought her approval. After all, one cannot conduct an empty room. One musician lamented, 'If only Alma were aiming at getting better food for us, we might understand it, but not at all. It's just for her, to get a good mark, like a child, a compliment. It's pathetic!' Fenelon had to agree: 'It was true that Alma had dreamed of receiving a compliment from Himmler. The stupidity, the childishness of it all when one thought of the millions he murdered.'67 There were a few light moments amidst the catering to killers. Several times, Fenelon orchestrated music to be played for the SS that was composed by a Jew, unbeknown to their SS audience, who loved music but didn't know a great deal about it. This silent joke brought pride and joy to the musicians and the other prisoners who recog­ nized the soaring melodies of the songs. Another time, Fenelon refused to sing the word 'smile' (liicheln) in the German song Ein Paar Trdnen, which was requested by the SS. In a verbal stand-off with Alma, Fenelon claimed that having to say the word 'smile' to her captors was 'the ultimate indecency'. It was then decided that at the point in the song when the offensive word emerged, the orchestra was to play extra loudly to cover the wordless gap - another silent (literally!) victory over the SS.

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But unfortunately, these small moments of triumph were few and far between. Yes, their places as musicians in the orchestra did save the lives of the 47 women musicians, copyists, singers, and conduc­ tors who composed the music everywhere. But theirs, although a privileged existence at extermination camps, was not a joyous one. The mental struggles that their position had brought to them almost canceled out their joy at being alive, for what is life, if all one does is constantly witness pain and suffering? Near the end of her 11 months in the orchestra, Fenelon concluded: 'At Birkenau, music was indeed the best and worst of things. The best, because it filled in time and brought us oblivion, like a drug; we emerged from it deadened, exhausted. The worst, because our public consisted of the assassins and the victims; and in the hands of the assassins, it was almost as though we too were made execu­ tioners.'6" Almost, but not quite. According to Fenelon's accounts, life was always better than death, and despite the suffering they witnessed, while it may have seemed to cancel out their joy of living, they still clung to their lives. Most importantly, whenever the sweet strains of Madame Butterfly or any other piece from their mismatched repertoire is heard, the survivors, wherever they are, will remember. NOTES Carr, Hiller: a Study in Personality and Politics, 43. Langer, Mind of Adolf Hitler, 243. Mein Kampf, 327. Vogt, Burden of Guilt, 243. Ibid., 163. Walker, Hitler Youth and Catholic Youth, 1933-36, 64. Ibid., 3. Ibid., 33. Stachura, German Youth Movement, 1900-1945, 121. Axmann, Hitler-jugend, 37. Stachura, German Youth Movement, 157II. Ibid. Grunberger, Twelve-Year Reich, 279. Axmann, Hitler-Jugend, 43. Grunberger, Twelve-Year Reich, 273-82. Rempel, Hitler 's Children, 26. Stachura, German Youth Movement, 160f. Roberts, House that Hitler Built, 205ff. Rowan-Robinson, 'Training of the Nazi Leaders of the Future,' 233-50. Ibid., 236. Ibid. Beard, 'Education Under the Nazis,' 437-52. Ibid., 440-50. Ibid. Jarausch and Arminger, 'German Teaching Profession and Nazi Party Membership.' 197-225. 26. Beard, 'Education Under the Nazis,' 442ff.-49. 27. Rowan-Robinson, 'Training of the Nazi Leaders of the Future,' 254f. 28. Roberts, House That Hitler Built, 235ff. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Hitler and his Ideology 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.

Beard, 'Education Under the Nazis,' 444f. Rowan-Robinson, 'Training of the Nazi Leaders of the Future,' 286. G. L. Mosse, Nazi Culture, 283f. Rowan-Robinson, 'Training of the Nazi Leaders of the Future,' 255 Ibid., 291f. Rempel, Hitler’s Children, 183f. Sichrovsky, Born Guilty, 11-40. Fermi, Illustrious Immigrants, 52. Stein, Schoenberg's Letters, 192. Roxan and Wanstall, The Rape of Art, 7. Ibid., 9. Passant, A Short History of Germany, 156. Adam, Art of the Third Reich, 122. Ibid., 129. Kollwitz, ed.. Diary and Letters of Kdthe Kollwitz, 166. Hinz, Kdthe Kollwitz, 134. DeJaeger, Linz File, 23. Ibid., 28. Ibid., 31. Adam. Art of the Third Reich, 55. Fenelon, Playing for Time, 46. Ibid. Ibid., 31. Ibid., 47. Ibid., 39. Ibid., 58. Ibid., 60. Ibid., 62. Ibid. Ibid., 91. Ibid., 99. Ibid., 128. Ibid., 39. Ibid., 103. Ibid., 120. Ibid., 121. Ibid., 183. Ibid., 184. Ibid., 125. Ibid., 126,127.

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Anti-Semitism is the same as delousing: getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology, it is a matter of cleanliness.

Heinrich Himmler (quoted Felix Kersten, Reichsfuehrer SS, Heinrich Himmler Memoirs, London: 1956)

5

The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem Question: What is Genocide? Reply: Genocide is a deliberate, organized effort, motivated by a national ideology, to liquidate physically and spiritually a distinct group of people.

The road to the Final Solution: lessons in genocide Question: What enabled ordinary men and women to ruthlessly put to death millions of ordinary, noncombatant people: the Jews? As the stories of mass killings that occurred in the Nazi death camps during World War Two seeped out to the rest of the world, everyone became horrified. This genocide, which we have come to call the great evil of the twentieth century, stirred many to probe deep into the great mystery of the human mind, in an attempt to at least skirt the question of how people are capable of committing such blind mass carnage. It is not as if the Nazi event were the first of its kind. Stories describing endless accounts of sickening slaughters fill the history books. What really churns the mind is that twenty-first-century society no longer regarded itself as akin to these 'barbaric' civilizations of the past, but considered itself a sophisticated, 'civilized' society of the present. Nevertheless, through all the experiences of the past, men and women have not been able to learn from their mistakes, and continue to devastate innocent lives with horrific success. The time is here, and we must look into the dark inner self and attempt to discover the nature of the evil in a person that allows for these excesses of cruelty At the root of evil is the destruction of life. Still, it is actually not a deliberate and actual intention to do evil and to kill that drives

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genocide, but rather the desire to create for oneself a 'better world'. In an attempt to build this improved environment, humans tend to ignore the sanctity of people's lives as they improve their own liveli­ hood. And so, from the outset, it is clear that genocide can easily be carried out by an ordinary, so called 'normal', person that desires not actually to harm others, but to achieve his or her own maximal degree of happiness. In his essays in Civilization and its Discontents, on an individual level, much of what Freud speaks of applies to the human capability to destroy itself. This internal aggression that lives within each person catalyzes the whole genocidal process. Man, Freud believes, is caught in a web between his duty to obey his natural selfish instinct and his duty toward civilization to follow the moral, ethical codes of conduct. No doubt, it is true that people must give up some of their freedom of expression - both physical and spiritual - in exchange for protection. Thus Freud poses the question of whether man would not be happier without civilization and the restrictions it imposes on his conduct. For it is this internal struggle that causes immense prob­ lems: 'Primitive man was better off in knowing no restrictions of instinct.'1 Sadly, each person's internal frustrations must have an outlet somewhere along the journey of existence and, in most situa­ tions, each person vents these internal resentments upon another. 'It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, as long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness.'2 Although each isolated individual has the potential to exert a rather important effect on his or her environment, it is largely groups of people united in a cause that make the most lasting impression. Reinhold Niebuhr (in The Nature and Destiny of Man) holds a completely different view from that of Freud on the basis of individ­ uality, but agrees that human beings acting in unison can be motivated by a selfish pursuit of power and self-interest. Although masses as well as individuals are capable of inflicting great harm, groups are able to form values and institutions that promote codes and ethics for the others to follow. Single individuals with a strong potential for evil might be influenced in their pursuits by the demeanor of the social environment. The question remains: Who is to inhibit the group from acting out its sinister fantasies and desires? Still, one individual, Adolf Hitler, was able to set off nationwide an intense hatred for the Jews and to legally sanction their murder. One might ask, then, how was this solitary individual capable of initiating and carrying out to a foul fruition this heinous act against an ethnic group of people? We are aware that the majority of the Germans were uphappy with the economic and living conditions of the day. Their demeanor was troubled by complex internal struggles; a

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combination of lost national pride and pent-up feelings of aggres­ sion. Hitler, a dynamically persuasive, fanatical man, was able to channel those mixed emotions and utter frustration of a people into anger directed towards one specific minority. Through skillful demo­ nization of the Jews, he was able to alienate them from their legitimate society, dehumanize the victim and perpetrator alike, culminating in the mass murder of a defenseless minority. Thus, at the root of the Holocaust lay Hitler's ideology of hatred. He managed to convince the German people that the Jews were their enemies in particular and were enemies of the entire world in general. Another justification for such carnage was the excuse that the Jews took up German space, ate German food, earned salaries which were meant for the Germans, and - as Hitler put it - defiled German society. Jews were seen in Nazi propaganda as 'agents of Satan, diabolical forces bent on weakening the master race'.1 Even in recent history, this kind of stereotypization has been used, such as the United States' description of the Soviets during the Cold War years as 'fiendishly clever, militarily superior, and able to conquer the world'.4 While objectifying the Jews, the Nazis had, in some way, to desen­ sitize themselves. In so doing the murderers were able to disengage themselves from their true feelings and emotions. How else could one stare in the face of an innocent child and pull the trigger of the gun that killed? Images of the KZ Lager guards taking a smoking break next to a trench filled with recently killed victims tells all. These guards had lost all of their natural emotions, and in their place stood apathy and indifference. Richard Barnet refers to the activity of random killing as the 'bureaucratization of homicide', and says that 'Those people who plan do not kill, and those who kill do not plan.'1 Under such circumstances, no one could clearly be the main agent in the crime; no one had to take responsibility for his or her actions. In the end, all were guilty, for they were aware of the results of their willingness to act as executors of their leader's mandates. The excuse that most Nazi criminals used in the postwar trials, such as the 'Doctor's Trial' at Nuremberg or the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, was that they were ordered to commit their crimes against humanity; it was their duty to follow the orders of superiors. This typifies blind obedience to commit murder and, in some respects, shows how ordinary people can be induced to follow orders. Some people may even go as far as to completely give up any personal intuitions and literally become 'blind' followers, which is called the agentic mode of human behavior. Although the agentic mode was a factor that played an important role in the Nazi bureaucracy, 'The motivation to obey often comes from a desire to follow a leader, to be a good member of a group, to show respect for authority.''’ The Nazi regime gained power when

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Germany was at a 'down time'. The general overall conditions in the country were unfavorable. The mood of a vanquished people was depressed from the losses in World War One. Hence, when the Nazis promised jobs for the younger generation of Aryan men and women in return for unquestioning loyalty, few refused to join the efforts of Judeocide. These people chose to sacrifice their moral beliefs in order to better their living conditions. With the exception of a few who spoke out against the corrupt establishment, the great majority of Germans lacked the moral fortitude with which to face the reality of the evil of which they were becoming a part. Their moral conscience was blinded by the 'virtual reality' of the Nazi Third Reich. The term the Final Solution refers to what became known as the Jewish Problem in Nazi Germany. The problem is not easy to identify. What one must do, perhaps, is to try and see how the Jewish people came to be the object of that terrible human quality, hatred. Further, to define clearly how this became the cause of unspeakable acts of terror against them, culminating in an almost total destruction of an entire ethnicity and its flourishing culture in Europe. There were three deliberate phases in the Nazis' plan to murder the Jews of Europe: (1) definition or identification; (2) concentration; and, finally (3) extermination. DEFINITION OR IDENTIFICATION

To reach their goal, the Nazis followed the Fuhrer's genocidal plan, well defined in his Mein Kampf, to systematically murder the European Jews. In this task they succeeded undeterred from their many ambitious pursuits, such as military or Lebensraum conquests, or by the setbacks they had suffered on the many front lines. Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish Question, the extermination of European Jewry, can be explained in a multitude of ways. For example, the historical anti-Jewish feelings, anger and despair over Germany's defeat in World War One, and what we could call groupthink. All of these constituted conditions prevalent in the discrimination against and persecution of the Jews. However, the first two describe charac­ teristics limited to certain geographic areas, whereas the latter depicts an overall climate, which was instrumental in contributing either actively or passively to the extermination of the Jews. Chapter 1 outlined how the Jews of eastern Europe had always been perceived as a threat because of their uniqueness of religion, customs, appearance, and language since Christianity began. AntiJewish feelings were later fueled by Martin Luther's condemnation of the Jews during the seventeenth century. Continually 'evicted' from host countries, they finally settled in eastern Europe during the mid-1800s. There, they survived in relative peace, except for a few

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minor outbursts, until the year 1919, when Simon Petrula's followers in the Ukraine murdered 1,700 Jews. (Petrula was killed by Shalom Schwarzbard in Paris on May 25,1926, as he wrote to his relatives, 'to avenge all the pogroms, the blood.'7) From this moment on, there were outbreaks of violence against the Jews until the end of World War Two. Western Europe held a less hostile attitude towards the Jews before the 1930s - with the exception of the overt anti-Semitism demonstrated during the French prosecution of Captain Dreyfus. By 1935, however, acts of violence against the Jews had become commonplace in the Third Reich, with Hitler's rise to power. Relying on the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Europeans, Hitler marked the Jews as the cause for Germany's ills. The Jews' inferiority, Hitler declared, hurt the nation. The Jew undermined the German people by intermarriage and by imitation. As the Jews intermarry into the Aryan culture, they erode the nationalism and the culture of the race. The Aryans lose their purity and the children of these unions reflect the status of both parents and form a new 'middle' culture. The people in this culture are less than Aryans and therefore cannot succeed where the Aryans as a pure race can. This is what happened in World War One. And this is why Germany was defeated. The Jew also weakens the state because he has no state of his own. Therefore, 'he is and remains the typical parasite, a sponger who, like a harmful bacillus, spreads out more and more if only a favorable medium invites him to do so'." Hitler emphasized that the Aryan race had already been considerably weakened by Jewish integration and would eventually die out if the true Germans did not act to eliminate that possibility. Using these two arguments, Hitler proclaimed the Jews as the cause of Germany's economic decline and systematically began their persecution, which led to their extermination. Even though eastern European anti-Semitism and Hitler's ratio­ nale contributed to the persecution of the Jews, it is quite possible that a major cause of the Jewish extermination was groupthink. Groupthink is a form of thinking which 'makes unanimity its goal rather than the best decision or solution to a problem'.'' The group is characterized by cohesion, leader promotion of a preferred indi­ vidual, and insulation from an expert opinion. Altogether, there arise eight symptoms in groupthink: invulnerability, rationality, morality, stereotyping, peer pressure, self-censorship, unanimity, and mind­ guards. Because of their unanimity, the group shares the illusions of invulnerability, rationality, and morality. The group is invincible and the enemy is stereotyped as stupid and weak. The rightness of their actions is promoted through peer pressure, self-censorship (where each censors his or her own deviant thoughts), and morality (the group has its own set of morals). 'If everyone is doing it then 1 will

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do it' is the prevailing mindset. The mind-guards protect all in the group from any outside influence that might cause them to think differently.1" Why did people let groupthink take control? What happened to cause them to give up their uniqueness as individuals? It is easier to commit outrages when shielded by group anonymity. However, when we strive to achieve individual independence, as unique persons, we gradually realize the weight of responsibility resting on our shoulders and become more sensitive to the deeds committed. Such was not the case during the Nazi era in the Third Reich and in Nazi-occupied territories. Groupthink gained control through the anti-Judaism of eastern Europe, through Hitler's ideology of community, and through the army. As discussed earlier, the majority of eastern Europeans believed Jews to be the cause of all their problems. By the time Hitler's armies invaded Poland in 1939, groupthink dominated eastern Europe. Hitler already enjoyed the support of many Germans who looked upon him as their deliverer, who turned the defeat of World War One into victory by turning things around and, therefore, who would accept his ideology without questioning his motives. To strengthen the economy, Hitler advocated the predomi­ nance of the community as a means to improve and safeguard the cultural superiority of the Aryans. He believed this was best accom­ plished when the individual 'renounces representing his personal opinion and his interests and sacrifices both in favor of a majority of people'.11 Only pure Aryans could take part in a community without Jews, Hitler said, because he saw the Jews as sources of 'bacilli (which touch) off new infection. Once there were no more Jews in Europe there would be nothing to interfere with the unification of the European nations.'i: Goebbels elaborated as to what should be done with the Jews. 'They should either be concentrated in a ghetto and left to themselves or be liquidated, for otherwise they will infect the populations of civilized nations.'11 Thus, the military complex became the most effective vehicle to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Groupthink controlled all military organizations: the armed forces as well as the SS, the state police and the Gestapo. The SS, specifically, took over with other related branches the task of rounding up the Jews, finding leaders for these groups, moving them to ghettos and prison camps, feeding them the little they did, stripping them of all their belongings, and exterminating them. In addition, they humili­ ated and degraded the Jews, treated them worse than animals, and killed them without mercy. This can be attributed partly to group­ think. The military was not individualistic. They came together and acted as one. They were unanimous in their beliefs and actions. Hitler's solution to the economy and to Jewish 'problems' gave the

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army a rationale behind the persecutions and exterminations. The army had a moral reason to cause such pain and unnecessary waste under Hitler. A sense of invulnerability was applied to the army. They carried out the law: they were the law. No one could tell them it was wrong except they themselves, and whenever that happened self­ censorship stopped any thought of digressing from the mainstream. If anyone could not bear the thought of these mass killings, peer pressure and mind-guards were applied. Adolf Eichmann, the officer in charge of the department IV-D-4 of the Reichssicherheits Hauptamt, the central security department of the Reich, was initially forced to look upon the executions of many people by one of his colleagues, Lieutenant-Colonel Friedrich Suhr. When Eichmann expressed mild opposition to the killings, Suhr insisted that '"The shootings are carried out here, too - do you wish to see for yourself?" I said "No, I do not want to see." Eichmann testified. And he said: "We shall see whether you wish to or not, because it is on our way.'"14 People were not allowed their individualism and Eichmann was granted no reprieve from the mass-murder sites. The collaborators in Nazi-occupied countries attacked the Jews, too, based on their antipathy and hatred toward them. They followed the Nuremberg Laws and went, in many instances, a step further. Jews were not only ostracized, but were beaten in the streets. By 1941 the beatings had gradually grown to the proportions of pogroms, and some Jewish communities had been annihilated even before the advancing Nazi armies had reached them. These collabo­ rators believed that to terminate the Jewish minority was to end all of their own troubles. The German people had listened to Hitler for eight years by that time, and it was an identical refrain: the Jews were the cause of all the problems because their language and religion differed from everyone else's. These divisive factors were expounded upon again and again, because Hitler saw them as a way to point out the Jews' inferiority and an opportunity to promote violence against them. What happened to individualism? Human compassion? It was swept away by groupthink. Groupthink legitimized the anger, the beatings, the reign of terror, and the killings. The rationale was that the Jews were harmful to the Reich and, therefore, did not deserve to live. Morality was abandoned, even though some soldiers - quite limited in number - who partook in the activities were unable to cope with mass killings of noncombatant victims and became alco­ holics or, on rare occasions, committed suicide. By Hitler's standards, killing the subhuman Jews was the moral obligation of every true Aryan. Through the newly established laws, the Nazis were able to convince the army it was doing the right thing and, thereby, becoming invincible. Self-censorship and peer

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pressure, unanimity and mind-guarding, as well as the constant stereotypization of the Jews closed off all alternatives for the army. The symptoms of groupthink were prevalent throughout. In retro­ spect, we may be led to believe that without groupthink, the murder of the Jews might have been substantially lessened. 'JUSTICE' IN NAZI GERMANY

Pierre Sauvage, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi KZ Lagers, warned that if the world failed to learn its lesson regarding the tragedy of the Holocaust, 'we will be responsible for producing in due time a world devoid of humanity - literally'.15 Sadly, while many people today recall the events with horror, 'the Third Reich's system of concentra­ tion camps, murder squadrons, and killing centers took more than 15 million defenseless human lives'.1" Noteworthy are the findings of the eminent Holocaust scholar, Gerald Fleming, who gained access to a closed Moscow archive following the thaw in East-West relations. He writes in his Hitler and the Final Solution: In reflecting the historical implications of the homicidal gassing of a million innocent human beings in Auschwitz- Birkenau during World War Two, we must ask ourselves whether, in allowing life to be extinguished in modern factories of death during the war, the leaders of the Third Reich made a deci­ sive and irreversible move toward dehumanization, or whether humanity will draw back from this ultimate obscenity, afraid of creating a greater hell on earth in which we could be consumed by our own evil, (p.215) Still, people overall have overwhelmingly failed to grasp the vital lessons of history. Many American citizens, for instance, deny that an event even vaguely resembling the Holocaust could ever take place in the United States or elsewhere on earth, given what we know now. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself daily, even as I write this book; genocidal warfare is carried out around the globe, and neo­ Nazism is enjoying a brisk revival in a number of countries (see chapter 9). To begin with, let us take a look at the dehumanization of minority groups, effected via a rewriting of the laws of the state in order to label such people as subhuman expendables. We must also examine the two enemies the world faces in addressing the injustices committed against certain groups of people: legal positivism and public apathy. Two of the most frightening aspects of Nazi genocidal behavior against innocent victims were: none of the actions taken by the assas­ sins were against the written law; and the perpetrators were allegedly normal, ordinary people from all walks of life. The execu­

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tioners acted in accordance with the laws of the state to achieve Hitler's Final Solution. However, one must recognize that the legality of the Third Reich's actions can only be attributed to the Nazis' exten­ sive rewriting of the laws, which disenfranchised and stripped the Jews of their humanity. To those people who live under the system of representative democracy, which guarantees just laws for all citizens, who claim that excesses against individual rights would be unthinkable, let it be said: written agreements and laws are of limited value, given the volatile nature of national/global politics and the sinister designs of ambitious demagogues. This much is certain: judging from recorded history, laws written by people can be, likewise, rewritten by others to suit their purposes and designs. It is important, then, to examine the laws that were passed under Hitler's reign, the so-called Nuremberg Laws, to see how these laws were used to dehumanize the Jews, thus preparing them for mass murder. As William Shirer notes in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 'To Hitler ... the Jews were not Germans ... he issued laws excluding them from public service, the universities and the professions. And on April 1,1933, he proclaimed a national boycott of Jewish shops.'17 Hitler's boycott of Jewish shops was one of the Third Reich's initial offensives taken against German citizens of Jewish faith. The effects of the boycott, as Shirer explains, were devastating:

In many a town the Jew found it difficult if not impossible to purchase food. Over the doors of the grocery and butcher shops, the bakeries and the dairies, were signs, Jews Not Admitted. In many communities Jews could not procure milk even for their young children. Pharmacies would not sell them drugs or medicine. Hotels would not give them a night's lodging. And always, wherever they went, were the taunting signs lews Strictly Forbidden in This Town or Jews Enter This Place at Their Own Risk.'" Thus, the national boycott of Jewish businesses, coupled with other anti-Jewish laws passed by the Reich, encouraged Germans to treat the Jews neither as fellow citizens nor as human beings. In this rewriting of the laws, the Third Reich's Nuremberg Laws as well as most subsequent decrees represented another important step towards the dehumanization of the Jews. As Shirer notes: The so-called Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935, deprived the Jews of German citizenship, confining them to the status of 'subjects.' It also forbade marriage between Jews and Aryans as well as extramarital relations between them, and it prohibited Jews from employing female Aryan servants under 35 years of age. In the next few years some 13 decrees supplementing the Nuremberg Laws would outlaw the Jew completely.1"

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Indeed, the laws that were passed by the Third Reich under Hitler 'degraded Jews to nonhuman status'?1 Having identified the Jew for dehumanization and demonization, the Reich succeeded in carrying out its primary objective, which was to lead ultimately to 'the system­ atic, state-sponsored total annihilation'21 of the Jews. It is difficult to imagine such a horrific event as the Nazi murder of European Jews in today's world. Or is it? It is especially incom­ prehensible to people who live in societies that enjoy constitutional rights and privileges and where the laws of the state apply equally to each individual citizen. It is, therefore, imperative that one keeps in mind the two enemies that have played an important role in allowing the Nazi Holocaust to occur. The first enemy is a philosophy known as legal positivism. According to positivism', writes Theodore Benditt of Stanford University, 'first of all, there is a morally neutral test for determining what the law is. And second, whatever (and only whatever) satisfies this test is law and is thus binding on both citizens and legal officials - including, and especially, judges'? A legal positivist, says Benditt, believes 'that a legal theory must identify the criteria for something's being law, and ... Such criteria are never moral ones' (emphasis mine)?1 Herein lies the central problem with legal positivism: its attempt to separate law from morality. Unfortunately, legal positivism comprised the dominant direction in the philosophy of the Third Reich. Thus, while the Third Reich continued to pass anti-Jewish legisla­ tion that was clearly immoral, most Germans chose not to oppose it, saying that it was the law. As one Nazi war criminal rationalized, 'The jurists in Berlin told us that this was a legal matter ... quite legal.'21 Thus, in Nazi Germany the prevalent legal positivist philosophy allowed for immoral laws to be passed and discouraged opposition to those laws, paving the way to the Final Solution. Since legal positivism accepts laws to be sound without applying moral criteria to them, society will invoke the laws as a rationaliza­ tion for behavior that is clearly immoral. (An added incentive for the average citizen in the Third Reich to look the 'other way' was the fact that the Jews' misfortune was, in most cases, their own good fortune. For example, the confiscated or discontinued medical or legal prac­ tices of Jewish doctors and lawyers were 'appropriated' to Aryan professionals in recognition of their loyalty to the Party. Goods pillaged from Jewish stores were handed out to mobs of participants in the boycott. Jewish property confiscated by the state enriched the coffers of the Party and its minions.) An appropriate alternative to legal positivism is a theory known as natural law. According to this theory, there exists a law of nature by which all persons possess a general knowledge of right and wrong. Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Lazos of England,

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explained this concept rather well: 'This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all coun­ tries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately from this original.'25 Since every person possesses the general knowledge that taking the life of another is immoral, one can state that the Nuremberg Laws lacked validity according to the natural law model. The natural law theory provides people with a moral criterion with which all laws must comply. (Rumor had it that Hitler had made a comment regarding moral conscience: 'Das Gewissen ist eine jiidische Erfindung’ [Conscience is a Jewish invention]. Had natural law been as wide­ spread a theory as legal positivism in the Third Reich prior to the Holocaust, then many lives might have been spared.) The second enemy that played a key role in aiding the Nazis in achieving their goals was the apathy of some and the willingness of many ordinary citizens to exploit the situation for personal gain. Surely, most of the German civilians must have been aware of the existence and purpose of the death camps and concentration camps. Though most of the death camps were situated in the occupied terri­ tories, there were concentration camps near well-populated industrial cities in Germany proper. Workers in those industries were familiar with the fate of the slave laborers. The perpetrators of the process, their relatives and friends knew. The Nazi government tried to prevent knowledge of their geno­ cidal activities reaching the German public. That was precisely why concentration (KZ) and labor camps (Arbeitsldger) located within the boundaries of the Third Reich were hidden behind the curtains of masonry walls. This very fact attests to the Nazis' belief that ordinary citizens would not approve of their criminal activities. Needless to say, their fears were allayed by the German public's indifference. On the contrary, the ordinary German citizen's greedy and exploitative nature in view of their Jewish compatriots' misfortune buoyed the Nazis' criminal enterprise. While a number of noteworthy individuals opposed the Third Reich's activities and its anti-Jewish legislation (see chapter 6), most Germans chose not to take a stand against the injustices that were being committed by the Hitler regime. For most of these people, the cost of opposing Hitler - whether it was the threat of loss of life, loss of employment, or imprisonment - seemed too high a price to pay. As one former Nazi functionary expressed it in conversation with my friend and colleague, Gerald Fleming: 'Wit schwimmt schon gerne gegen den Strom, und wer will ein Held sein?' (Who, after all, enjoys swimming upstream, and who wants to be a hero?) For many, personal material

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gains as well as climbing the ladder of success in the Nazi hierarchy were an added incentive and an easy way out. It helped them to abandon any attempt at honesty, rational thought, compassion or pangs of moral conscience when dealing with the disadvantaged, persecuted minorities.

The Nazi as an individual Added emphasis ought to be placed on the fact that the characteristics of the Nazis as individuals were, for the most part, neither extreme nor extravagant. They were not an assembly of crazed, mad people. It was not sadism or the release of base instincts that inspired this singular operation of mass killings. Most of the assassins were educated men and women and apparently ordinary members of human society. They led normal daily and family lives. What enabled them to ruthlessly put to death 6 million people, plus millions of non-Jewish innocent victims? Qose examination of the mechanisms that make human destruction by humans possible forces us to consider whether all individuals have the potential to torture and kill fellow human beings. Briefly, let us look at the forces that allow a normal person to carry out unmerciful, violent acts toward other people. When a murder is committed in the height of passion, the killing is attributed to a climax of rage and violence manifesting itself in a single instant. Genocide, however, involves deliberation in the systematic extermination of helpless people over an extended period of time.26 How is it possible for a normal human being to act with emotion, compassion, and love towards relatives, friends, and even the occasional stranger in need of help and, at the same time, become an agent of massive human extermination on a daily basis or even just once? This question will remain one of great significance, since the forces that make this evil act possible must be diagnosed before the evil can be prevented. Through the examination of the 'genocidor's' behavior, it becomes evident that there are two mechanisms built into humans that explain man's inhumanity to man. The first is dehumanization. The process of dehumanization has proved to be a powerful political tool, one that has played an instrumental role in the mass killings (genocide) carried out by the Third Reich as well as many other perpetrators of violence throughout recorded history. It provides the rationale for destruction. To dehumanize means to redefine. This mechanism takes away the qualities inherent in an individual and replaces them with labels that devalue life. There are three main vehicles through which this process is achieved: ideology; bureaucracy; and technology. All three factors combined are the instruments that facilitate the killing of individuals by distancing the victims from the perpetrators, both emotionally and morally.

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Dehumanization of individuals involves the removal of two important aspects of their personality: identity and community. The unique qualities of each victim as a person are ignored. Individuals are viewed as members of a group with which certain distinct char­ acteristics are associated. The emphasis is placed on some subhuman, collective elements rather than on the individual. According to Eric Markusen, 'Among the most important forms of ideological justifica­ tion for mass killing is the dehumanization of the victims.'2' They might be equated with life-threatening animals or inanimate objects in an effort to destroy their identities. The central idea lies in perceiving the victim as being different from the perpetrator. Throughout history, it seems as if this end was more easily achieved when the targeted group was of a different religion or ethnicity. This makes the victim more readily identifiable. The force that motivated the Nazis and dictated the execution of crime without parallel in history sprang from Nazi ideology, which succeeded in inculcating in the German people the conviction that every Jew was an eternal and powerful enemy of the Third Reich in particular and global society in general. Thus, it afforded the Nazi assassins the mindset that enabled them to carry out the program of genocide with fanatical zeal and cruel precision. To illustrate this total removal of humanity from the victims, let us examine a Nazi official's request for 'improved facilities' and equip­ ment with which to carry out the gruesome task. The document comes to us through the archives at Yad Vashem:

Geheime Reichssache (Secret Reich Matter) Berlin, June 5,1942 Changes for special vehicles now in service at Kulmhof (Chelmno) and for those now being built. Since December of 1941, ninety-seven thousand have been processed [verarbeitet in German] by the three vehicles in service, with no major incidents. In the light of observations made so far, however, the following technical changes are needed: 1. The vans' normal load is usually nine per square yard. In Saurer vehi­ cles, which are very spacious, maximum use of space is impossible, not because of any possible overload, but because loading to full capacity would affect the vehicle's stability. So reduction of the load space seems necessary. It must absolutely be reduced by a yard, instead of trying to solve the problem, as hitherto, by reducing the number of pieces loaded. Besides, this extends the operating time, as the empty void must also be filled with carbon monoxide. On the other hand, if the load space is reduced, and the vehicle is packed solid, the operating time can be considerably shortened. The manufacturers told us during a discussion that reducing the size of the van's rear would throw it badly off balance. The front axle, they claim, would be overloaded. In fact, the balance is automatically restored, because

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the merchandise aboard displays during the operation a natural tendency to rush to the rear doors, and is mainly found lying there at the end of the operation. So the front axle is not overloaded. 2. The lighting must be better protected than now. The lamps must be enclosed in a steel grid to prevent their being damaged. Lights could be eliminated, since they apparently are never used. However, it has been observed that when the doors are shut, the load always presses hard against them (against the doors) as soon as darkness sets in. This is because the load naturally rushes toward the light when darkness sets in, which makes closing the doors difficult. Also, because of the alarming nature of darkness, screaming always occurs when the doors are closed. It would therefore be useful to light the lamp before and during the first moments of the opera­ tion. 3. For easy cleaning of the vehicle, there must be a sealed drain in the middle of the floor. The drainage hole's cover, eight to twelve inches in diameter, would be equipped with a slanting trap, so that fluid liquids can drain off during the operation. During cleaning, the drain can be used to evacuate large pieces of dirt. The aforementioned technical changes are to be made to vehicles in service only when they come in for repairs. As for the ten vehicles ordered from Saurer, they must be equipped with all innova­ tions and changes shown by use experience to be necessary. Submitted for decision to Gruppenleiter II D, SS-Obersturmbannfiihrer Walter Rauff. Signed: Just

In referring to their victims as 'pieces' and 'merchandise', the agents of genocide manage to feel superior and removed from their victims. (As they desensitize themselves from the victim's humanity, the perpetrators, too, become dehumanized.) By this very token, the genocidor becomes an agent who has regard neither for human dignity nor for life itself. For just as animals do not kill members of their own species, humans do not murder those they view as equals. The mindset or ideology of the genocidor legitimates the actions of the group that holds power. This process facilitates the murder of other human beings by removing all traces of guilt and remorse, and alleviating other psychological effects that would normally be expe­ rienced by performing such an act. In fact, the word extermination (Ausrottung), which is used when referring to the act of genocide, implies the killing of something that is not human. It is usually used in the context of killing insects and rodents - two of the common analogies often used by Hitler's propaganda ministry and himself when referring the Jews - and incites disgust and indifference toward the victims of brutal crimes. Thus, the devaluation of human life becomes the common denominator of racial persecution, experimentation on human

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beings, and genocide. This was how the Nazis disassociated their acts from murder: describing the killings as elimination, evacuation, resettlement or removal of 'pieces of merchandise'. It is much easier to kill an 'object' than someone identifiable as a person, just as it is much easier to eliminate millions of vile, repugnant nonhumans than to murder millions of Jews. Hence, dehumanization becomes a bridge to human destruction by humans. The danger signal appears when evil activities are sanctioned by the state to serve a moral purpose, and when the state refers to its minorities in nonhuman terms. It is through definition and isolation that it becomes morally accepted to murder people. In fact, the agents of genocide do not intend to do evil. They believe that their actions serve a rational purpose. Knowing that the act of dehuman­ ization has the power to manipulate and captivate the minds of everyday, caring people, it becomes evident that Homo sapiens will retain the ability to treat others brutally as long as devaluing defini­ tions seduce the minds of ordinary people. Furthermore, ideology and propaganda portray the other as inher­ ently evil, just because he or she belongs to a certain group. The significance of this process is such that it creates a sense of danger and a fear of the victim; it makes it easier to hurt people by creating hostility toward them. The result is a reversal of the situation in the minds of the aggressors. In other words, if they can convince them­ selves that the targeted group is evil and, somehow, out to cause them harm, they can actually justify their own wrongs as acts of defense. The disease metaphor has been used to achieve a similar end. By associating the victims with a serious illness, such as cancer or bacteria, the next step becomes the elimination (surgical, if neces­ sary!) of the source of the malady. This method calls for extreme measures, and again has the effect of turning the act of killing to one of self-defense. The idea is conveyed that the disease must be killed in order to save society. (This played into Hitler's view that the state is a biological rather than a political entity.) It also allowed the perpe­ trators to avoid the question of the victims' innocence. Naturally, it is difficult to feel sympathy or remorse for the elements of disease. The Nazis used medical imagery extensively, for they killed in the name of healing. Doctors were brought in to oversee the operations, which were carried out in the killing factories. The medical profes­ sion itself, because of its respectable status, was used to legitimize the killings. By performing such acts in the name of science, the killers became emotionally separated from the victims as well as from their own consciences. After all, doctors come into contact with death as part of their job; hence it was not as difficult for them to experience it on such a widespread scale. This rationale served to facilitate the

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performance of medical experiments on unwilling victims (see below). Religion as ideology further contributed to the act of genocide. It seems as though the extent of the killing which has been committed in the name of religion throughout the ages, is greater than that ascribed to any other factors. Even now, this type of activity is rampant in many parts of the globe. To try and explain it, certain aspects of religious ideology will have to be examined. To begin with, most religions are founded on the principle that their god is the only true one and supe­ rior to all others. Many use derogatory stereotypes about the other deities, which are built into the religious dogma, its writings and teachings. There are many Christians today who sincerely believe that all other people (they remain the others') who do not share their views and beliefs, are damned to spend eternity in hell. STEREOTYPIZATION AND SCAPEGOATING

First, let me explain the term scapegoat. The story is well known of a prince of the royal blood line who was never punished by his tutor for he was too sacred for that - but instead a whipping boy was assigned for that purpose, upon whose unoffending posterior the prince 'suffered' vicarious punishment. The function of the Jew is not unlike that of the surrogate 'prince'. In a manner of speaking, the Jew could be called the whipping boy of history. People in general need some external cause to explain their own failures. We have seen that during the troublesome times of post­ World War One Germany, Hitler and his fledgling Nazi Party found a perfect whipping boy in the Jew, in their plan to motivate the German people. Thus, the Nazis made the Jews the scapegoat for all the Vaterland's problems. Psychologically, scapegoats are helpful in alleviating feelings of inadequacy, self-hatred, and guilt. Conse­ quently, the more the German feelings of guilt increased, the more the Jewish scapegoat was made to suffer. Similarly, the failures of the Nazi enterprise were marked by reprisals against their victims. The latter were always proportionate to the magnitude of the failure. Maurice Samuel has suggested in his The Great Hatred that anti­ Judaism was a kind of displaced hatred of Christianity, a way of decreasing guilt feelings by attacking the traditional enemy of Christianity, the Jew. Thus, the Oberammergau passion plays of the period emphasized hate of the Jews (until modern-day revisions), for the Jews killed Jesus. Hence, Hitler's anti-Judaism provided the official rehabilitation of hatred'.2" Adolf Hitler's entire political career focused on the superiority of the Aryans and the inferiority of the 'subhuman' Jews. Sadly, the

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German people as a whole shared the cruel and perverted goals of Hitler and Nazism. The German majority demonstrated their support of Hitler through their lack of political involvement. The absence of the majority opened the way to an authoritarian govern­ ment that mercilessly persecuted a small minority. The Nazis were able to inspire love for the Aryan race on the one hand and feed intense hatred for the Jews on the other. Though the Jews had for centuries been persecuted for holding on to their reli­ gion, but not for reasons of race, they were now regarded as a threat to the Aryan race and, as such, to the German nation. Such ideas can carry dangerous implications for the treatment of those who are different from us. Nazi ideology contained several of these quasi-religious justifications, since it was based largely on racism and the alleged purity of Aryan blood. It also lent itself to the demonization of the other, which lead to stereotyping and scapegoating. As Eugen Weber writes, 'Societies produce stereotypes (which is the height of artifice), and consume them as commonplace (which is the height of naturalness).'2" By establishing stereotypes as accepted concepts of the Jew, the Nazis were able to deny the Jew any trace of individuality. The Germans confronted the Jew as a myth, rather than as a real person. The question remains, though, as to the nature of the myths and stereotypes surrounding the Jews. From what sources did those stereotypes arise? How and why did the Nazis incorporate these stereotypes into their policies regarding the Jews? In attempting to answer this question, it is enlightening to study the history of the persecution of the Jewish people and its effects upon modern times. Recorded in the Book of Exodus is the following: And He said unto his people, 'Behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we': Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithon and Raamses: And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, 'Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

The subsequent record of persecution is the year 722 bce, when the Assyrians captured Samaria, the capital of Israel. Following that, King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army destroyed the city of Jerusalem in the year 597 bce, taking many of the vanquished Israelites into Babylonian captivity. The year 581 bce marked an important date for

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the Israelites, for in that year a civil war broke out in the land of Judah against the Babylonian oppression. The uprising was crushed and the Hebrew nation came to an end. Although a segment of the Jewish population was left in the land, the Babylonian conqueror established colonies throughout Judea to safeguard his dominance. As in the year 597, many among the vanquished were taken into captivity. But there were those who managed to flee into Egypt and, eventually, spread through the whole of the Mediterranean: the latter became known as the Jews of the diaspora or Dispersion. Thus, several enduring images of the Jewish people originated centuries before Hitler ever gained control of the Third Reich. In the year 70 ce, following the fall of Jerusalem at the end of the JudeoRoman War, the Jews had been exiled from their homeland again and were thus destined to live in the diaspora, seeking entry among a variety of host nations, where they constituted a guest minority. They roamed from country to country, never really feeling at home. As outsiders, they were forced to do 'work which complemented that of the indigenous majority'." They had the literate and mathematical competency to serve as middlemen in poorly developed systems of commerce. Thus, they fulfilled the needs of merchants, traders, tax collectors, and moneylenders. While these professions were neces­ sary components of the local economy - and the Jews rendered their highly valued services on behalf of wealthy, but anonymous, employers - in the eyes of the taxed and the debtors the Jew assumed the role of the usurer and enforcer of unpopular acts. He became known for his relentless pursuit of material wealth and a gross disre­ gard of emotional considerations. Furthermore, because finance was not altogether well understood by the majority in most areas, those who engaged in business practices were looked upon with suspi­ cion?2 Thus the Jews were often regarded as impersonal, greedy outsiders, and were viewed with distrust. England expelled the Jews as early as the year 1290, yet they had been persecuted in that country even before that date. By the decree of Pope Innocent, the Jews were made to wear special badges in all Catholic-dominated countries, to set them apart from the rest of the people. France expelled them in the years 1306, 1322, and 1394. The Jews were blamed for the Black Death, the horrible plague that swept throughout Europe during the fourteenth century. Nowhere were the Jewish people granted citizenship. With the Inquisition, the Jews were expelled from the Spanish Peninsula in the year 1492, leaving all their possessions there and marking the beginning of a Second Exodus. Curiously, though Casimir the Great of Poland invited the persecuted Jews of England, France, and Spain to settle in his country, not more than a century later another ruler chose to perse­ cute them.

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What evolved among the Jewish people over the centuries of wandering in exile was a profound feeling of indebtedness toward host nations and their people; a feeling that translated into an inflated sense of gratitude (when treated decently), the need for accommodation, and the fear of victimization, all at once. The Jews paid tribute to their hosts for centuries, all the while feeling them­ selves cheated of their place as rightful citizens. For that very reason, they later stood by quietly while the Nazis harvested wagonful after wagonful of their brethren, lacking self-reliance and the initiative to look reality in the face. Anesthetized by false hope and easily fooled by Nazi chicanery, doublespeak and constant lying, they continued to delude themselves about their own safety, until their turn came to march into the ovens of the killing factories or be it the primitive, makeshift, trenches of the Polish countryside, where they paid the ultimate price for their naivete. This was nothing new. It was a replay of the most potent psycho­ logical forces in a people whose history - since the Exodus from their homeland - can be seen as one long, futile search for salvation from the dark forces following them wherever they sought shelter: victims of history, seeking redemption. The latter was hard to find in a world where spiritual properties were absent; where hatred and supersti­ tion replaced communities of conscience. It seems sadism does not wish to lose its victim; the biblical story of the Exodus was the first recorded instance of this curious interplay of two opposite passions: one longing to exterminate the hated breed, the other determined to prevent their departure. Afraid that the Israelites might join forces with the enemies of Egypt, its rulers were anxious both to retain the Jews and, at the same time, to deci­ mate and eventually destroy them through forced labor (Hitler chose the latter). Stereotypes surrounding the Jewish people did not diminish with the passing of time and the alleged enlightenment of peoples. On the contrary, fueled by ideological differences and an unwillingness of the clerical sector to intercede on the Jews' behalf, fierce belief in antiJewish stereotypes grew beyond rational thought. During the seventeenth century's Protestant Reformation in Germany, Martin Luther, the great reformer, professed virulent anti-Jewish feelings, which gave rise to violent mob action against the Jewish communi­ ties throughout the land. Although he initially intended to convert the Jews, he eventually abandoned the difficult task and viewed the Hebrews with great hostility. This because the Jews' stubborn refusal to accept Jesus as the Savior and Messiah as well as their interpreta­ tion of the Scriptures, which directly opposes that of Christians, threatened the very foundation of Christian belief, that is, faith in Christ's redemption.

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Luther's treatise On Jews and their Lies attempted to discredit Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures by examining Jewish misfor­ tune: 'Had the Jews understood God's revelation and conformed to the divine will, none of their terrible sufferings would have taken place.'13 Luther went so far as to identify the Jews as the very epitome of evil, accusing them of conspiring against the entire non-Jewish world. Thus the myth of the Jew as the untrustworthy, avaricious enemy of the Christian world was continually being reinforced. In his treatise Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud observes: 'The meaning of the evolution of civilisation is clear. It must present the struggle between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species.'34 And, again: 'In this respect, the Jewish people, scattered everywhere, have rendered most useful services to the civilizations of the countries that have been their hosts; but unfortunately all the massacres of the Jews in the Middle Ages did not suffice to make the period more peaceful and secure for their Christian fellows ... Neither was it an unac­ countable chance that the dream of a Germanic world dominion called for antisemitism as its complement. ',5 In the post-revolutionary, enlightened France of 1894, the issue once again emerged with the celebrated Dreyfus Affair. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish officer on the French General Staff, was accused of selling confidential military information to the Germans. He was arrested on doubtful grounds, and the French intelligence bureau discovered no concrete evidence against him, despite a thorough inquiry. However, the press gained access to the story, and the ensuing adverse publicity practically guaranteed a court-martial.* After considering evidence fabricated by two promi­ nent members of the General Staff, the court sentenced Dreyfus to life imprisonment for treason. Anti-Jewish newspapers, including the Catholic publication La Croix and Edouard Drumont's La Libre Parole, immediately identified Dreyfus with Judas, and the affair exploded into an indictment of the entire French Jewish community. Indeed, much of France - the nobility, the Catholic clergy, the peasantry, and even the French left - had been expressing hostility toward the Jews ever since their emancipation after the French Revolution. Because the Jews had little experience in agriculture and were unwelcome in the urban labor force, they had become involved in the only fields opened up to them by modernization of industry: finance as well as banking. In France's developing economy, these fields offered the most visible success. Thus people who suffered economically from and were frustrated socially by modernization, 'tended to see the Jews as both responsible for and profiting from what they regarded as illegitimate social order'.17

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The Dreyfus Affair therefore provided the ideal opportunity for the resentful French to vent their frustrations on the Jewish commu­ nity. Denouncing Dreyfus as a traitor whose greed had led him to betray France, the anti-Jewish French reinforced the Judas myth that 'the Jews can never be trusted even when they appear trustworthy'.* And even though Dreyfus was later cleared of all charges, the antiJewish elements still identified the Dreyfus Affair as evidence of the Jewish conspiracy to undermine the economic and political order of France. In any case, the reinforcement of the image of the Jew as potential traitor, as well as the tendency to hold the Jew responsible for all society's ills, served to create a 'climate in which genocide became an acceptable political policy'.39 When the Nazis came to power, they were quick to reevaluate the old stereotypes of the Jew within the context of post-World War One Germany. Never accepting Germany's defeat in that war, Hitler continued to foster the idea that Germany had been stabbed in the back. By whom? Obviously the only one capable of such perfidy was the Jew. Hitler also blamed the Jews for bringing Bolshevism to Germany. Although a number of left-wing Jews had been active in the abortive socialist revolution in Bavaria, their efforts were unsuc­ cessful and represented the attitude of a small portion of the Jewish community. Nevertheless, Hitler capitalized on this event, portraying the Jews as the ultimate anti-German conspirators. With this image of the Jews in mind, the German people found it easy to use the Jewish community as a scapegoat for the economic and social ills brought on by Germany's defeat in the war and its subsequently depressed economic condition. As in the past, the Jews, though a minority, were concentrated in highly visible, urban profes­ sions. Thus, the German people, under the stress of economic recession, directed their wrath against this easy target. According to Hitler, the Jews were corrupting Germany's economy, in addition to denying the 'real' Germans the wealth they deserved. The first step in solving the problem, therefore, was the elimination of the Jews from the German economy; ergo, the aforementioned boycott. Beginning in the year 1933, the Nazis excluded the Jews, by law and by terror, from public office, civil service, communication and teaching, law, and medicine; by 1936, over one half of Germany's Jews were without a source of livelihood.*1 As Raul Hilberg asserts, for the Nazis, the elimination of the Jews was simply a matter of physical and political hygiene/1 alluding to Himmler's statement at the beginning of this chapter. Due to the success of Hitler's economic and political reforms as chancellor, the German people readily began to accept his views of Jewish inferiority. The Germans grew to hate the Jew among them, as Hitler had dictated. Soon, a whole nation was subject to the night­

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mare fantasies of their Fuhrer. Those that opposed Hitler, or were an obstacle to his plans, were removed. Defining the Jew within certain dehumanized stereotypes was essential to the success of the Nazis' extermination program, for it allowed the killers to justify their actions, at least to themselves. The negative images surrounding the Jew - the traitor Judas, the corrupt businessman, the conspirator, the seducer of Aryan maidenhood helped the Nazi to justify the killings. They could kill the Jew, because the Jew was evil. That was how 'bad faith could pass for good conscience'.42 Thus, by believing in the many stereotypes that depicted the Jew, the German people were able to participate in the mass murder of the Jewish population with a relatively clear conscience. BLIND OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY

Another mechanism that allows a person to treat another in a savage manner is obedience to authority. Genocide can only be effective when each agent makes a conscious, daily choice to obey commands that result in human destruction. It is vitally important to realize that people choose to obey. No one can be forced into obedience against his or her will! Jean-Paul Sartre described freedom as a condition to which a person is condemned by birth, in that one who is free is within the circle of his/her own situations, must make deci­ sions, whether he/she wants to or not, for everyone else when he/she chooses for him/herself. That is to say that everyone is condemned or forced to reason, condemned to existing, and thus, condemned to being free. Whatever one's particular choice may be in a given situation will be iden­ tical, in essence, to the choice and situation of everyone else.42

A recent study, the Milgram Experiment, helps to show why ordi­ nary people choose to obey unethical commands. In the experiment, the subject is told to administer electrical shock - increasing its inten­ sity with each added error - to a person who fails to show mastery of certain material. As the voltage increases, the victim protests in pain, eventually to the point of begging and shouting for mercy. The victim's pleas fall on deaf ears, as the experiment continues. The general conclusion resulting from this experiment is that indi­ viduals from varied socio-economic levels possess a willingness to obey orders that harm other individuals. Some argued that the high level of obedience one might expect to occur in a laboratory would have affected the results.44 However, this contention is not strong enough to discount the findings and their significance in explaining the Nazi Holocaust, since there prevailed also a high level of obedi­ ence in the military and paramilitary organizations. Furthermore, in

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the absence of an authoritative command, 32 percent of the partici­ pants still administered the shock. Thus, one-fourth of the participants deliberately inflicted pain upon their victims.45 Keeping in mind the inescapable freedom of choice, why is it that people choose to be obedient even to the command to commit murder? The explanation may lie in the fact that they do not feel morally responsible for their actions. An administrative rather than a moral outlook dominates genocide perpetrators. They grow obsessed with completing their jobs, and accept only technical responsibility for carrying out an order. Instead of associating their actions with the consequences of their deeds, they view them as dependent upon the legitimacy of those in command.4*’ This dependency allows the perpetrators to allocate responsibility for their actions to someone higher in command. Thus, by displacing responsibility, they avoid accountability for their actions; they can go on performing unscrupu­ lous acts against others. Ultimately, this manner of behavior in the Third Reich led to one person being accountable for the murder of millions; in the case of the Nazis, their Fuhrer. It is true that the leadership role is crucial in bringing people together to execute acts. However, a central authority ought not to relieve individuals of personal responsibility. Genocide could not be possible without the consent of the perpetra­ tors.47 This theory of responsibility - an extremely dangerous one, because it implies that the potential to brutally kill other human beings rests with only a few people - thus tends to excuse the perpe­ trators from being accountable for their conduct. As a result, there is no change in behavior, and there are no prohibitive actions. It is easier to commit outrages when shielded by group anonymity - however, when we strive to achieve individual independence as unique persons, we gradually realize the weight of responsibility on our shoulders and become more sensitive to the deeds committed. In the end, we must acknowledge that each person has to be accountable for the choices he or she makes. As long as redefined characteristics of people are acceptable and responsibility is denied, the potential for a person to behave inhumanely will exist; the behavior of the citizens of the Third Reich cautions us to an aware­ ness that the ability of one person to kill another must never be underestimated. Every source of inhumanity ought to be identified and isolated to allow for examination, in the hope of, ultimately, preventing genocidal behavior. POINT OF NO RETURN: KRISTALLNACHT, GENESIS OF GENOCIDE

On the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938, the countdown to the Final Solution began. The Third Reich turned into a seething

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cauldron of hate and destruction. With the proclamation made by Dr Goebbels himself and with the go-ahead from Field Marshal Goering, the SA brownshirts, the SS and mobs of angry citizens began to roam the streets of many German cities. Their intent was clear: get the Jews! Destroy their places of business and sack their synagogues. Fed by the immediacy and the lunacy of the moment, the mobs smashed the windows of Jewish stores and torched their places of worship. This action led to the name of the event: Kristallnacht, or 'The Night of Broken Glass' (it is also known as the November Pogrom). By the time the riots were over, thousands of German and Austrian Jews had been sent to concentration camps; hundreds of shops had been demolished; and a great number of synagogues were razed. Most important however, were the event's far-reaching consequences for European Jews. It was the beginning of the end for European Jewry. The event, although horrifying in itself, is even more shocking when one traces its causes. For all practical purposes, the tragedy began on October 28, 1938, when Poland, itself virulently anti-Jewish, deprived thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany of their citizenship. The Third Reich, in turn, initiated their deportation. Roughly 17,000 Polish Jews were driven out of their homes and were deposited in a no-man's territory between Germany and Poland.4" Most of the deportees were left stranded at the little border town of Zbaszyn and kept there in appalling conditions. Among those unwanted refugees were Sendel and Rifka Grynszpan, who had lived in Hanover since 1914. Their names would have long been forgotten, two victims of the Nazis, was it not for their son, Herschel. Herschel Grynszpan, after hearing about the plight of his parents, decided that the time for action against the Nazis had come. On November 7, 1938, the emotionally tormented and half-crazed 17-year-old youth entered the German Embassy in Paris. He asked to see the German ambassador, at the time Count Johannes von Welczeck. Instead, a low level bureaucrat, Ernst vom Rath, who was in charge of handling such minor guests to the embassy, came forward. Grynszpan pretended to be delivering some important papers for the ambassador. Vom Rath asked the guest to show him the papers. Grynszpan lost his composure, pulled a revolver from his pocket and, screaming 'sale boche' (filthy kraut), and 'here, in the name of twelve thousand persecuted Jews, is your document!,'4'' aimed at vom Rath and fired. Not being a very good shot, most of his bullets missed vom Rath, but a couple found their intended target. Under normal circum­ stances, this incident might have received scant news coverage and Would have been quickly forgotten. However, what might have been regarded as a minor event was for the Nazis the opportunity they sought to launch their ultimate campaign against the Jews.

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Shortly after receiving the news, an inflammatory article appeared in the Nazi mouthpiece, Volkischcr Beobachter. The article's headline glared for all to see: 'Jewish murder attempt in Paris MEMBER OF THE GERMAN EMBASSY CRITICALLY WOUNDED BY SHOTS - THE

A 17-year-old JEW'.” A new wave of anti-Jewish sentiment was put in motion. The report went on to say: 'it is an impossible situation that within our frontiers hundreds of thousands of Jews should control our shopping streets, places of entertainment, and as foreign landlords pocket the money of German tenants, while their racial comrades outside call for war against Germany and shoot down German officials'.51 A seed had now been planted in the minds of angry citizens. They were now convinced that the attempted assassination by this vermin, this Jew, was an attack against their beloved Fatherland. Surely, the Jews among them would follow the dastardly example. The thought inspired fear and stirred them to action. But what could they do? Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi expert propagandist, gave them their answer. 'From this vile deed arises the imperative demand for immediate action against the Jews, with the most severe consequences.'52 His call to action was echoed in every province of Germany. Now was the time to strike back. It started quietly. At first, sporadic anti-Jewish rioting began to take place all over Germany. The retaliation against the Jews had begun on November 8,1938 with the first news report that vom Rath had been seriously wounded. Everywhere, town meetings had been organized, at which party leaders and local mayors aroused such a fever among the assemblage that blood and destruction was in everyone's eyes. By nightfall, November 8, a pattern had developed in the riots. The mobs headed for the streets, setting fire to local synagogues, destroy­ ing Jewish businesses and homes, and manhandling Jews everywhere. Herr Otto tells one account of how the riots were organized: MURDERING knave,

All members of the SS were asked to meet in the square behind the town hall (in Sonderburg), sympathizers were also called out to the meeting. About a hundred men were there. Dansk said that the provocation from the Jews was no longer going to be tolerated, we are going to teach them a lesson, tonight we are going to show them who is boss. Then he and his assistants divided the crowd into groups of five, and each group was told to go to a certain number of houses with instructions to destroy everything.51

The furor began to increase in its intensity as the night wore on. More and more Jewish stores were destroyed. More and more syna­ gogues, some of which were hundreds of years old, were engulfed in flames. Yet damage was still fairly limited. Unfortunately that would soon change.

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Early in the evening of November 9, the newly declared martyr of the Vaterland, Ernst vom Rath, died as a consequence of the wounds he had sustained in the assassination attempt. The news of his demise brought on a whole new wave of terror against the Jews. Coincidentally, on that very evening, Party leaders were meeting in the old town hall in Munich for the anniversary celebration of the Munich Putsch. Hitler dined there on this occasion, in the company of his inseparable comrade and future propaganda czar, Herr Doktor Goebbels. Hitler would usually deliver the main address to the Party faithful on that occasion. But this evening he left early. Goebbels proceeded to deliver an inflammatory speech to the assembly, calling for 'spon­ taneous' demonstrations directed against the treacherous Jews. He advocated mob violence, proposing as a vehicle a pogrom of major proportions. That night, fires were ignited all over the Third Reich, and the shattered plate glass that littered the streets of German towns and cities was to give the pogrom its name. Large-scale riots followed all over Germany. No longer content with merely smashing the windows of Jewish businesses, mobs began to plunder the stores and beat up Jews who tried to run away. Nazi officials encouraged the mobs and supported their actions as just revenge for the death of vom Rath.M The delirium reached fever pitch by evening. One British correspondent reported, 'Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable, middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the "fun."'55 The senseless mayhem continued into the next day, until it suddenly, inexplicably, stopped. The damage caused by Germany's first organized pogrom since the Middle Ages was great. At least 7,500 Jewish-owned stores, 29 warehouses, and 171 houses were destroyed; 191 synagogues were burned to the ground and an additional 76 were physically damaged; 11 Jewish community centers, cemetery chapels, and similar buildings were torched and another three were gutted by fire.56 In addition, at least 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and thrown into concentration camps, which would soon be crammed with Jews and other 'vermin'. Nearly 100 Jews were killed and thou­ sands more subjected to beatings, humiliation, and sadistic torments. Those arrested were incarcerated in Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, where hundreds perished soon after their arrival. Throughout that memorable night, pillaging and looting continued, as the bright moon shone on the broken glass below, and with the sunrise on another winter's dawn, the crystal-like twinkle of the shards lit up the entire countryside.

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In the early hours of November 10, Reinhard Heydrich issued a series of orders to all state police stations with instructions to deal ruthlessly with all looters, to guard against the spread of fires from burning Jewish buildings to non-Jewish property, and to see to it that foreigners, including Jews, were not molested. These orders also included instructions for the arrest in all districts of as many ablebodied male Jews, 'especially wealthy ones', as could be accom­ modated in the space available, 'to be placed in protective custody'. These concentration camp internees would have to buy their freedom by emigrating from the Third Reich immediately upon release. However, the Nazis were not about to let the memory of Kristallnacht die. Three days later, Goering called a meeting of top Nazi leaders to assess the damage done during the night and place responsibility for it. The elimination of the Jews altogether from the German economy was the chief topic of discussion. Goebbels proposed that Jews be barred from all public places and Jewish chil­ dren expelled from German schools. It was decided that the Jews would have to pay for the damage they had 'provoked'. A 1 billion Reichsmark fine was levied against the Jews for the slaying of vom Rath, and 6 million marks as reparations for the damage caused by the incidents. Jewish business owners were also required to 'restore the appearance of the streets' and were denied their entitled money from their insurance claims.57 The Jews, who had nothing to do with the destruction, were blamed for the damage caused. In an orgy of cynicism, the Nazis ordered the Jewish commu­ nity to 'pay for the losses suffered by the community'. Insurance claims due them 'were confiscated by the State. Moreover, they were subjected, collectively to a fine of one billion marks as punishment, as Goering put it, for their abominable crimes, etc.'’8 That same afternoon, Goering issued the Decree of Eliminating the Jews from German Economic Life, which excluded the Jews from retailing, export mail order firms, the calling of independent craftsmen; from selling any goods or services anywhere; from serving as executive or manager of any firm; and from memberships in cooperatives. Hitler himself never mentioned a word publicly about the vom Rath assassination or the events of Kristallnacht. Yet the events could not have occurred without his express approval. He received no political reprimand, though the incidents of that darkest of all nights and its aftermath generated unfavorable worldwide publicity for the Nazi regime. At that moment of German history, with war fever running high and the Jews clearly identified as enemies, the rank and file National Socialists were eager for a little action of their own. The NSDAP had bridled their anti-Jewish enthusiasm in the interests of broader goals. These goals would eventually lead to World War

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Two for the Third Reich and the killing factories for the Jewish victims. One question that is often raised in trying to understand Kristallnacht is how it was organized and what role did the upper echelons of the Nazi Party play in it? Although there has been evidence that the event was carefully staged and prepared by high Nazi officials, this argument is generally now considered to be incor­ rect. Yet, there is no doubt that Hitler and his henchmen knew what was going to occur due to the statements made in various Nazi publi­ cations about it. Hermann Graml stated that 'whether pushy local party leaders took the lead, as it generally happened, or whether it was one of those rare incidents which can be attributed as much to popular agitation as to party initiative, the spur to action was invari­ ably the press and radio propaganda'.w However, there is evidence that there were no clear instructions by senior Nazi officials. It can be argued that if the Nazi hierarchy had organized the event, it would have been much more of a coherent action rather than the series of outbursts it became. In fact, Kristallnacht was somewhat of an embar­ rassment to the Nazis. The pogrom would be the last event organized by lower party officials. From now on, high party officials only would implement activities against the Jews.'" So what was Kristallnacht? Was it the spontaneous outburst over the assassination of a low-level bureaucrat, as the Nazis claimed? Or was it a predetermined, carefully executed plan against the Jews? Pterhaps it was both. Uwe Dietrich Adam, in his essay 'How Spontaneous Was the Pogrom?', characterizes it as a 'conscious, clev­ erly staged, and unscrupulously implemented exploitation of a situation that had presented itself unexpectedly - an action that, by utilizing a chance opportunity, served to open further perspectives for the future'. Yet, regardless of how it was staged and executed, the aftermath of Kristallnacht is immeasurable. It was the harbinger for the systematic destruction of an entire ethnic group of people. The euphemistic name 'Night of the Broken Glass' is not enough to fully understand the impact of the event. A more appropriate name might be 'Countdown to Genocide'. PARTNERS IN CRIME: THE TECHNOCRATS AND THE ETHICS OF SURVIVAL

A vital factor in the mass killings was the pervasiveness of the bureaucratic, political, and social organization which was character­ istic of the Nazi system. The structure of bureaucracies has the effect of putting space between the victim and the perpetrator, making it easier to complete unpleasant tasks. There are several reasons for this.

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First of all, there is a lack of personal accountability. With all the 'red tape', it becomes difficult to establish who is responsible for the planning and execution. This is especially prevalent in the military, where each member is trained to follow orders and never to question authority. As Markusen pointed out (in Genocidal Mentality), for every individual who was directly involved with the mass killing (e.g. oper­ ating the gas chamber or serving as crew on a bomber), there were many others who had to decide and promulgate the policy; design, build, and service the necessary machinery; coordinate the logistics of transport and supply; generate, distribute, and file paperwork; monitor and evaluate. Another factor is the division of labor which can be found in a bureaucracy. By dividing the operation into small tasks, the workers may lose perspective of the overall damaging effects of their work. Jobs may become so fragmented that the meaning and realization of what is being done becomes lost to the individual. Lower-level jobs become routinized. Therefore, perpetrators become emotionally distanced from the people they harm. The structure of bureaucracy itself has a great deal to do with the dehumanization of the victims. Bureaucrats find it easier to divorce themselves from the work they do, walking away at the end of the day. Their lives are divided into work-time and free-time, during which they pursue other unrelated activities (for example, listening to music). This aspect is different for doctors and other professionals who, by their very titles, are more often identified by what they do. This tends to eliminate human emotion from work. In fact, the goals of bureaucratic organizations may also become blurred and unreflective of the overall objectives. A good illustration of this is that though engaged in mass murder on a gigantic scale, the vast Nazi bureau­ cratic apparatus showed concern for correct procedure, for the niceties of precise definition, for the minutiae of bureaucratic regula­ tions, and for compliance with the law. The focus is thus shifted from the end result of the action to the procedures that must be followed. The law often dictates what will be done, instead of taking into account the effects it will have on the victims. The emphasis is placed on efficiency. A powerful contributing factor - if not the most powerful - which facilitates the act of genocide is technological advancement; similar in effect to putting distance between the murderer and the victim. The ever-increasing capacity for large-scale killing allows the perpetrator to murder without having to watch the agony of the victim. The killer escapes his or her crime without having to suffer the psycho­ logical effects he or she would normally engender from such acts. Indeed, this was the Nazis' concern in the early stages of their perse­ cution of the Jews. Apparently, a large number of the SS, SD, and

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Gestapo, who actually did the killing, experienced some psycholog­ ical side effects. It happened during the training of guards for duty in the concentration camps - the first experimental laboratory was Dachau - as well as those who had been involved in the early method of face-to-face murder. Technological devices (e.g. gas chambers) made killing anony­ mous. They afforded the murderer physical and emotional separation from the victim, and eroded all moral barriers which would normally have restrained humans from committing violent acts against other humans. Technology reduced the act of violence to a standardized procedure, which was, in most cases, almost as simple as pressing an appropriate switch, or introducing Zyklon B gas through an opening in the ceiling of the chamber. When the assassins do not see the victims, hear their cries of anguish, and feel the suffering caused, the act loses for them a great deal of its seriousness and meaning. Technology played a crucial role in at least two ways. First, the killers utilized existing technology to facilitate their tasks. For example, communications technology enabled them to coordinate a killing project that involved millions of intended victims scattered throughout Europe, and transportation technology was exploited to ship the Jews and other victims from their faraway homes to the killing centers. Second, new technologies of killing and corpse disposal were developed in order to increase the daily output. These technological innovations allowed for the efficient and large-scale destruction of life with little or no remorse on the part of the perpetrators. All conditions taken into account, the perpetrators carried out their horrible acts desensitized to the suffering of others and without feeling personally responsible for their role in the larger scheme. All of the factors combined - ideology, bureaucracy, and tech­ nology - carried terrifying implications for the reality of genocide. Constructed to dehumanize the objects of their wrath, once the process of dehumanization was complete, the possibility for geno­ cide and mass destruction of human lives was greatly enhanced. As the bureaucracy grew, it developed a vested interest in stability. It resisted any change in technique, form, or loyalty. It was committed to the state and the usual way of doing things. In essence, the bureaucracy became conservative and rigid. In turn, this conser­ vatism and rigidity created a sense of isolation. Trends did not affect bureaucracy inasmuch as the trends did not try to change it. So long as the bureaucrats were allowed to do their work as they had always done, the end product of that work was unimportant and irrelevant. What was important was that they did a good job and were recog­ nized for their excellence. The bureaucrats' duty to the state

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remained constant and unbending, as long as the state remained true to the bureaucrats. This isolation has both positive and negative aspects. On the plus side, the bureaucratic detachment insulates the bureaucracy from the chaos and ignorance of elective officials. It ensures that a semblance of order will prevail. However, on the minus side, this disengagement can lead to systematic destruction under the guise of order. A final characteristic of the permanent bureaucracy has already been alluded to. Even without guidance from above, bureaucracy pursues its tasks. As a swing will continue in its motion long after the hand has ceased to push it, so does bureaucracy. It has its own will to survive. It is self-perpetuating. Again, there are two sides to the issue: it provides a sense of continuity to a state and its people, yet it may also continue to enforce obsolete and dangerous laws. Bureaucracy in pre-Nazi Germany was much like it was else­ where. It was, perhaps, more conservative and legalistic, having been born under the Hohenzollern monarchy and trained in law. Thus, when Hitler came to power, he found a well-oiled, dedicated, bureaucratic machine. While some members of that bureaucracy may not have been thrilled about Hitler the man, his message of peace and stability grabbed at the heart of any good, conservative official. Hitler endeared himself to the bureaucrats by making only minimal changes in personnel or work habits. For all intents and purposes, everything remained the same and it was 'business as usual'. Perhaps, the most obvious reason German bureaucrats had for becoming willing participants in the Nazi genocide was that such action went 'beyond concerns about security and survival ... there were careers to advance, honors to win, and profits to extract'?1 Here is the perfect example of an egocentric system in which maximization of personal pleasure and gain obeys any master. Indeed, frequently vague commands from their superiors had left the bureaucrats to their own devices, allowing them to initiate action that would, often­ times, surpass in cruelty the intended results. Nevertheless, participation in the destruction of human lives must go beyond this level. The most difficult thing to accept about the Holocaust would be if it occurred without the perpetrators' need to rationalize their actions. Rationalization implies some conscience, some element of good struggling with evil. Without it there is no good. The perpetrators seemed like 'decent, hard-working, incor­ ruptible men'.62 They all had their 'good Jews', whom they helped when they could. Indeed, this emphasis on their goodness reiterates the point that these people were on one plane decent human beings. However, a single good act does not balance or outweigh a multitude of evil ones.

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These bureaucrats could not go on to claim ignorance in justifying their participation in the crime. Even though attempts were made to hide the details of the killings, there is no doubt that practically everyone knew of the Jews' fate. Thus these officials were 'decent' people who knew they were party to an unpardonable crime. A new problem arose for them: how to soothe their conscience without losing their jobs or lives in the process. In other words, they wanted to have their cake and eat it, too. In order to do this, a series of ratio­ nalizations arose, many of which were espoused by the state. To some degree, a bureaucrat (civil or military) embraced one or more of the following: • He was just obeying orders. According to Raul Hilberg, 'a clear order was like absolution. Armed with such an order, a perpe­ trator felt that he could pass his responsibility and his conscience upward.'"' • He was just doing his duty and had no personal ill will. Tn the mind of the bureaucrat, duty was an assigned path; it was his "fate." The Nazi bureaucrat made a sharp distinction between duty and personal feelings. He insisted that he did not "hate" the Jews, and sometimes went out of his way to perform "good deeds" ... the "good deeds" performed an important psycho­ logical function. They separated "duty" from personal feeling. They preserved a sense of decency.'"4 • His own activity was not criminal, but the person's above him was. • He was powerless. 'No man alone can build a bridge and no man alone can destroy the Jews ... No matter where he looked, he was one among thousands. His own importance was dimin­ ished and he felt that he was replaceable, perhaps even dispensable. In such reflective moments the perpetrator quieted his conscience with the thought that he was part of a tide and that there was very little a drop of water could do in such a wave.’"'1 • He believed in the jungle theory. 'The Jews were out to destroy German civilization so it was either destroy or be destroyed.'1*

Of all the rationalizations available to the bureaucrats, the latter was probably easiest to believe. The jungle theory struck at their central concern: survival. This instinct preyed on their minds and became the motivation of their lives. Survival is easy to rationalize and requires very little rational thinking. None of these rationalizations solved the moral problem experi­ enced by these bureaucrats. Behind the newspeak of the Endlosung (Final Solution), the murder of the Jews continued. No matter how

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much the bureaucrats wanted to believe differently or, at least, believe in their innocence, the fact remained that the killings still continued, in part thanks to their dedicated efforts and their obliga­ tion to duty. Innocent they could not be. The assassins reconciled and justified their actions in their own minds. They were able to convince themselves that what they were doing was acceptable; even the right thing to do. In the process of dehumanizing the victims they, too, became dehumanized, which afforded them insensitivity to the gravity of their crimes. The calcu­ lated dehumanization of an ethnic minority has been, and remains, an extremely powerful political weapon, often used as a motivation for evil. It is common to every case of mass killing. Most importantly, it ought to be taken as a warning that the possibility for widespread violence against a particular group of people is ever-present. The Jews generally reacted to Nazi oppression by making an effort to avoid provocation. 'Don't make waves' was the attitude, and the justification was simply that if public disturbances or confronta­ tions could be minimized, this could deprive the Nazis of excuses for further anti-Jewish action. Unfortunately, the appeasing nature of the Jews led to their tendency to blend into the background. Their desire to withdraw from impending trouble only made it easier for the Nazis to ignore their personalities and individual rights. In seeking seclusion, the Jews themselves planted the seeds of anonymity, which the Nazis would then use to destroy them. It is generally believed that the Jews themselves, as ghetto or KZ Lager inmates, lacked empathy with their own people. Yet struggles among the inmates were somehow few. This 'outsider's' view places a degree of blame on the Jews for their lack of collective reaction to the horrors within the camps. It does not consider the possibility that the victims were confronted with extreme conditions which prevented them from behaving according to the values to which one would normally adhere. In the face of the severe oppression they encountered daily, and with the question of survival paramount in their minds, the ends justify the means; morality and ethics begin and end with the concern for the next meal. Inmates were more concerned with the survival of the body than with that of the soul. Their appreciation of nature and aesthetic beauty - essential under normal living conditions - had gradually disappeared, for there was no longer time nor inclination to admire the flora - nonexistent in the Lager - or even smell the freshness of the falling rain or marvel at the miracle of a snowflake. Weather, too, blended into the concerns of survival, for extreme cold meant increased suffering for lack of proper clothing, and rain brought with it the discomfort of external conditions as well as much sickness.

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Those who lived within the extermination camps were a small minority. That is, the greater percentage of incoming inmates did not survive the first 'selection', for they were exterminated upon arrival. Few of the factors that determined who would pass first selection were ones which the individual could control. For example, gender, age, and health could be determining factors. In addition, special skills could be beneficial in that they might enable the individual to survive the first selection and avoid the toll of hard labor, provided his or her skills were needed. Excluding these skilled professionals, the lucky or unlucky ones, depending on how one chose to regard it, were only the strongest and healthiest of the internees, those who the Nazis felt would best survive their purpose for extremely demanding labor. Once past the initial selection process, the Jews again faced many factors which were beyond their control and yet critical for their survival. Work assignments were often completely arbitrary. They depended on the type of satellite camp to which one was sent upon arrival in the main Lager. Work could be indoors or outdoors, heavy or light. The capos could be brutal or benign. There might have existed opportunities to steal some extra food. And, finally, would the inmate be capable of fighting off disease? All these factors were crit­ ical to the survival chances of the inmate. Sadly, they were all random circumstances. The life expectancy of these 'lucky' inmates was seldom more than three months, and the chances for survival were about 1 in 28.1’7 With this grim reality in mind, it is apparent how bleak the possibili­ ties for the Jews really were. Though many had heard terrible stories of life in the Lagers, the newly arriving prisoners could not have fully anticipated the horrors that awaited them. The initial reaction to the unthinkably painful reality was one of shock and fright. Newly arriving prisoners were people who, over a relatively short period of time, had experienced a dramatic change in social status. Even before the rise of the Third Reich, the Jews had endured many social preju­ dices against them, but it was not until Hitler assumed power that they faced total annihilation. It can be said that the victims as well as the killers had much to do with making the death count what it was. But how are the victims' roles to be described? Jews suffered as victims of Nazism. Unfortunately, this victimization held Jewish survivors captive to the moral and ethical decisions they made or failed to make during the Holocaust. Were they coerced into deeds beyond their control? Did they have choices in the face of oppression? These are questions that will be addressed as their answers contribute to the moral myths and truths surrounding the Jewish Holocaust. Mass murder, torture, and injury of every kind is objectively nothing but chains of physical events, describable in the formalized

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language of the natural sciences. They are facts within a physical system, not deeds within a moral system. The crimes of national socialism had no moral quality for the doer, who always trusted in the norm, the system of his Fuhrer and his Reich. The monster that is not chained by his conscience to his deed sees it from his viewpoint only as an objectification of the will, not as a moral event.** But what of the Jewish victim - the survivor? Jean Amery was convinced that the degradation of the Jew was identical with the death threat that existed long before Auschwitz. In this regard in 1946 Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book Anti-Semite and Jew, had already offered a few perceptions that are still valid today. There is no 'Jewish Problem', he said, only a problem of anti-Semitism; the anti-Semite forced the Jew into a situation in which he permitted his enemy to stamp him with a self-image. In the years of the Third Reich the Jew stood with his back to the wall, and it, too, was hostile. There was no way out.'* The degradations directed against the Jews, which began with the decree of the Nuremberg Laws, resulted in the dehumanization of every camp inmate. The so-called Musselmdnner, as camp language termed the inmate who was giving up or was given up by his comrades, no longer had room in his consciousness for the contrasts of good or bad, noble or base, intellectual or unintellectual. He was a staggering corpse, a bundle of physical functions in its last convul­ sions.7" Was this to be the fate of all camp inmates? What survival chances existed for those who entered the Nazi camp? Two things which did make one's chances of survival better (or worse) were one's country of origin and when during the war one became a Nazi target. For those caught in the Nazi machinery, physical resistance was never a substantial impediment to death, quite the contrary; but beyond the requisite minimum of physical strength and health, certain qualities of spirit and character that enabled people to cope with extreme stress were also a factor. Hourly, the physical world delivered proof that its insufferable­ ness could be coped with only through means inherent in that world. In other words, nowhere else in the world did reality have as much effective power as in the Lager, nowhere else was reality so real. In no other place did the attempt to transcend it prove so hopeless and so shoddy.71 Not only was rational-analytic thinking in the camp of no help, it tragically led to self-destruction. Inmates had difficulty adjusting to the realities of the camp, because there was too sharp a contrast with everything that was regarded until then as possible and humanly acceptable. Life can become unbearable, emotionally disengaged, so that one no longer can, or cares to, struggle. Withdrawn and detached from

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their own lives, Musselmanner went through the motions of living until their weak, emaciated bodies ceased functioning altogether or until they were selected for the gas. Prisoners learned to discern the look of those who had in effect passed beyond and given up strug­ gling to live on. Those who retained that drive could never be sure that experience would not push them to breaking point. Even less could they count on their will to live as an insurance policy to guar­ antee survival. The functional significance of this trait meant an unusual sensitivity and constant alertness to capitalize on any oppor­ tunity that might better one's chance for life. Adherence to the codes of conventional morality was a luxury that camp life did not usually afford. Inmates sometimes stole from each other as well as from Nazi storehouses. At times they killed each other and collaborated with their captors. There are some reports of cannibalism, too. The Nazis intended camp life to be degrading, and it was. The SS was employing a logic of destruction that in itself operated just as consistently as the logic of life preservation did in the outside world. You always had to be clean-shaven, but it was strictly forbidden to possess a razor or scissors, and you went to the barber only once every two weeks. On threat of punishment, no button could be missing on the striped inmate suit, but if you lost one at work, which was unavoidable, there was practically no chance to replace it. You had to be strong, but you were systematically weak­ ened. Upon entrance to the camp everything was taken from you, but then the robbers derided you because you owned nothing.72 If a person did not go straight to the gas chamber, survival in the Lagers was possible only if one could adapt - physically, psychologi­ cally, and above all quickly - to rationally organized savagery. Overwork, malnutrition, and despair often took their heaviest toll during the first few weeks. The first reaction to the camps upon arrival was one of extreme fright. At the initial selection, more than 80 percent of the new arrivals at Auschwitz were driven to the gas chambers. Thus, in addition to the necessity of adjusting to a radi­ cally dehumanized environment, the surviving inmates were usually compelled to cope with the sudden loss of all family members. The trauma of arrival was commonly followed by a state of acute detach­ ment in which the prisoners saw themselves as disinterested observers in a terrible drama over which they had little control.7’ The rejection of the SS logic, the revolt that turned inward, the muted murmuring of such incantations as: 'But that is not possible', did not last long. After a certain time there inevitably appeared some­ thing that was more than mere resignation and that may be designated as acceptance not only of the SS logic, but also of the SS system of values. The capitulation became entirely unavoidable when there was no visible opposition to the hostile force. Although

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outside, gigantic armies might do battle with the villain, in the camp one heard of it only from afar and was really unable to believe it. The power structure of the SS state towered up before the prisoner monstrously and indomitably, an invincible power, a reality that could not be escaped and that therefore finally had to seem reason­ able. The Nazi logic of destruction, inspired by the Fuhrer himself, was aimed at Jewish self-destruction. From the Nazi point of view, the ideal solution of the 'Jewish Problem' was mass Jewish suicide, but only if preceded and motivated by Jewish self-loathing. It had to be extreme enough to lead to Jewish suicide. Its acceptance set the tone for Auschwitz. Hitler's ideal 'solution' of the 'Jewish Problem' was hampered less by insufficient zeal on the part of his operators than by recalcitrance on the part of his Jewish victims. Jews sick with self-hatred rarely reacted to the point of suicide. Jews committing suicide did so far less frequently out of self-loathing than out of despair or self-respect. Most serious of all, so long as they were still able to choose at all, they chose life much rather than death, and loathed (or despised) their persecutors rather than themselves. From the Nazi point of view, this was one obstacle to the ideal goal. Still more serious was another: Jewish babies, like all babies, are incapable of either self-loathing or suicide. In their case, the ideal Nazi 'solution' of the 'Jewish Problem' was impossible.74 If self-loathing would not drive Jews to commit suicide, the next best thing was to drive them to death. Perhaps this Nazi point of view proved the most successful. In any case, one characteristic action of the Holocaust world was the most painful possible murder of Jewish babies, conducted, whenever possible, in the hearing or sight of their mothers. This was evidenced in the testimony of a Ravensbruck survivor. She reports: 'In 1942 the medical service of the Review were required to perform abortions on all pregnant women. If a child happened to be born alive, it would be smothered or drowned in a bucket in front of the mother. Given a newborn child's natural resistance to drowning, a baby's agony might last for twenty or thirty minutes.' Thus, in the case of Jewish babies and their mothers, was the Nazi solution of the Jewish Problem approximated most closely to the Nazi ideal, if not expressing it perfectly. However, in regard to adults, there was greater variety, as well as greater room for ingenuity. To follow one line of thought, if one could not make Jews destroy themselves, one could, perhaps, make them destroy each other. By making some Jews rule over others, one could achieve this aim by using the base as well as the noble. Base Jewish rulers would destroy the Jews ruled by them, so as to save themselves. Noble Jews

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would sacrifice some Jews they ruled so as to save others. Neither type of Jewish ruler, of course, would himself be spared. The base would not long survive their victims. The noble, in addition, would not wish to survive them, for - so they thought - their own souls were already destroyed. Either way, the assassins received their pound of flesh. Tadeusz Borowski, a survivor who wrote This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, described several truckloads of women pleading for rescue as they were being driven to the gas chambers. He said, 'not one of us made a move, not one of us lifted a hand'. He expressed the male survivor's guilt about failing to protect, although inaction and thus possible survival was the less terrible choice in an irrational world.75 The Nazis organized the camps so that prisoners themselves carried out most of the work of torture and killing (very brutal pris­ oner officials could count on SS approval and hoped thus to ensure their own survival).71’ Inmates had to modify their behavior and morality to struggle against the conditions. While rape seems to have affected only a small minority of women in Lagers, other forms of sexual control and abuse were more frequent. The presence of prostitution among pris­ oners in ghettos and camps to varying degrees is simply evidence of the overwhelming reality of starvation for most prisoners and the existence of privileged prisoner functionaries as well as the SS, who could provide extra food for sex. While the SS set up brothels in some camps staffed by female prisoners, these affected only a small number of inmates.

On the second day of Passover, the president of the Council was again summoned to appear at the Bureau Headquarters. Shlomo Popiawski accompanied Warszawski on that occasion, and it was from him that we had later learned the details. Doerings sat behind his massive desk, his hands folded piously in front of him. Two burly Gestapo guards, automatic weapons at the ready, flanked him. 'I have summoned you today in a most urgent and delicate matter,' Doerings began unceremoniously. '1 want to share this with you in all confidence. May 1 count on your absolute discre­ tion?' The two Jews were silent. He did not wait long for their response. Patience was not one of Doerings' virtues. 'As you know,' he continued, 'we have in Piotrkow a large garrison of young, healthy men.' He paused to observe their reaction. There was none. They looked intensely at the enemy and he was forced to lower his eyes and look at his

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folded hands on the desktop. He continued. 'These young, healthy men unfortunately suffer from lack of sexual gratifica­ tion.' Doerings hesitated again. 'Occasionally, they find relief with women of the street. The result is an unfortunate rise of venereal cases. This situation cannot be tolerated. If we permit it to continue, our war effort in this entire area will suffer a setback.' The two Jews had begun to anticipate the purpose of their visit. Why else would this messenger from Berlin share such intimate knowledge with them? Doerings went on. 'By order of the territorial Director, you are to submit a list of young women from your community suitable to form the beginnings of what someday might become a home for conva­ lescent soldiers.' 'What you want, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer,' Warszawski dared interject, 'put in our own language, is that I should become a common pimp. You're assigning me the responsibility for the establishment of a whore house.' 'I have not used that word,' Doerings emphasized with visible annoyance, 'the interpretation is entirely your own.' 'Are you serious or do you intend to amuse yourself at mv expense?' Warszawski asked, hoping the enemy might see the absurdity of his demand. 'Our task allows us no time for joking.' Doerings continued formally. 'You will report to this office on Saturday ... ' 'Herr Sturmbannfiihrer, please, not on Sabbath.' 'Very well, then, on Monday at one o'clock sharp. You will have the list with you. You must not be concerned. The persons in question will be well taken care of. The home will be arranged quite comfortably and in keeping with strict sanitary proce­ dures.' He might have continued in his enthusiasm, but Warszawski dared to interrupt once again. A sudden burst of courage had become apparent as he dared to shout at the enemv: 'You believe in God, Doerings?' The omission of the official title was sufficient cause for punishment, but it was mira­ culously overlooked by the demi-god, perhaps because a Higher Being had been mentioned now. 'There you go catching at words, Jew.' T asked you a question, Sir.' 'I ... 1 believe ... well ... there is a divine soul in things ...' 'Then don't you forget what there is in the soul of the Jew that is also divine - and that's resignation. Respect that in your arrogant nature and know that you can't press a man too far with a rope around his neck. What do you think we are?'

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'You are taking it altogether too tragically, my good man,' Doerings condescended to cordial familiarity. 'After all, you are a man yourself and you can understand the needs of other men. Can't you?' 'You have imposed monetary taxation on us, and we have complied with your orders. You have blackmailed, robbed, humiliated and even killed some of us in the worst manner, and we have tried to adjust to our suffering ...' 'Please, Rav Haskel ...' Shlomo pleaded. 'Don't give him a pretext ...' 'Let him talk,' Doerings said with a cynical smile. 'This may be his own funeral oration.' 'Whatever the consequences,' Warszawski went on, 'I am resigned. It is God's will, not yours, Herr SturmbannfiihreP. You ask of us now that we offer our wives and daughters to you, so that you can use them as common whores! I can tell you, your order will not be carried out! You can destroy us all, but we will not become accomplices to this shameful act!' He threw himself full length in front of the desk, his forehead touching the floor, his eyes shut close and he lay there perfectly motionless and silent. Not even the sound of his breathing could be heard. The dead silence in the room remained undisturbed until Doerings' voice spoke gloomily: 'Look at your own Bible, it is filled with brothels.' 'We have come a long way since the biblical days, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer.' Warszawski responded, still prostrate. 'Come now, Jew, be realistic,' Doerings continued, 'this is war, and in situations such as these all principles and theories die. Well?' 'May I tell you something?' Shlomo inquired timidly. 'By all means.' Doerings nodded toward the old man on the floor. 'But get this man off the floor.' Warszawski stirred. He got up slowly and spoke very calmly, ignoring Shlomo's signs begging his silence: 'Now let me first tell you, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer, we will not be here on Monday with the list you have requested. Not on Monday or any other time!' He concluded completely out of breath. 'How dare you?! You impudent Semitic swine! Do you realize what is going to happen to all of you? You have a responsibility as the head of the JudenraP. Carry it out, Jew!' Doerings shouted at the top of his voice. He paused. Somewhat calmer, he continued, 'Think of your people, if you're incapable to think of your own welfare, your children!' 'May I have my say, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer?' Shlomo asked again.

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'Go on, Jew, and I hope you'll make more sense than your Council president!' Doerings yelled. 'I am not going to speak for anyone but myself, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer.' Shlomo spoke slowly, placing emphasis on each word. 'How can you order us to deliver our women to your soldiers? And how can we speak for the women? It is one thing when your troops rape and ravage them each day, and an altogether different issue when you tell us that they must become willing partners in comforting your sex-hungry "healthy young men," as you put it.' 'Then you refuse?' Doerings paused. 'You ... you dare to disobey me?! A representative of the Reich? You ... you ... filthy vermin?' He was beside himself with rage, but did well to control it. The two men stood before their enemy, at his mercy, and they expected the worst. Doerings rose abruptly. It was evident he had made up his mind. 'Be here on Monday at one o'clock with the list, swine! No more discussion!' The choices presented to prisoners were extremely difficult, and in the context of starvation and death, some women found that tradi­ tional dignity had to be sacrificed on occasion.77 What was it that enabled submission to a system in which the individual becomes dulled and loses the vital capacity to choose good or evil in an effort to remain alive? Dr Elie Cohen's writing reflects many survivors' difficulty in expressing powerful feelings for themselves. Time has allowed him to express his anger; his outrage at what had happened to European Jewry, and his own guilt at his participation at the selection of the victims. Yet, Cohen claims, there is a vast difference between the actions of the inmate doctors who fought for survival, and the actions of the German SS doctors, who chose to participate in cruel and senseless experiments (see Human Behavior in the Concentration Camps). Though I respect the anguish Cohen experiences from his feelings of remorse and guilt for his actions of willful collaboration with the Nazi henchmen, I see him as one of the assassins, regardless of his rationalizations. Now many years later, free from danger, Cohen realizes that he did dirty work for the SS. The price was too high, Cohen besmeared his occupation and his conscience; he should have drawn the line at his willingness to collaborate. Though he now feels that he went across that line, he rationalizes that he was also able to help many inmates because of his position. Nonetheless, he is not sure if he would act differently if exposed to the same circumstances again. At which point does the will to live surpass moral conscience? Books, movies, television programs are filled with stories of heroes

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who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for their family, friends, a lover, or even a religious belief. The truth is, however, that many people would not be so brave. For them, the instinct for survival is much stronger than any moral belief or tie to family or friend. Hence, there were occasional Jews who aided the Nazi assassins in their endeavors against other Jews. When faced with the choice of death or collaboration, there were those who chose the latter. At the other extreme is an account of moral victory over the Nazi executioners. For instance, the rabbi of the small Polish village of Jadova preached to his flock that their moral obligation dictated resistance to the Nazis with courage and commitment. The Gestapo called for his immediate surrender. The alternative offered was the taking of Jewish hostages in his place. The rabbi put on his festive clothes, walked over to the Gestapo headquarters, and turned himself in. Before his execution, he spoke his last words, telling his murderers exactly what he thought of them. A pistol shot silenced him before he could finish. What is it that causes one group of people to stand firm in their religious and moral convictions, while others are quite willing to sacrifice their friends, loved ones, and their own conscience in return for safety or survival? It seems as though the will to live and a moral/religious conscience are two sides of the same coin. At a toss it might land on either side. The struggle to understand these two opposed positions will remain in the forefront of future inquiries, as it has been on the minds of philosophers throughout history. One thing remains clear: The KZ Lager was not the most appropriate place to test one's moral fortitude. Arrival at Lagers such as Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidanek, and Dachau, provided an instant realization of impending horror. The illusions still held by some of the prisoners were quickly destroyed. Almost immediately, families and friends found themselves saying goodbye for the last time. The selection was one of the first experiences of the arrivals. The emaciated bodies of the existing inmates, the gas chambers, crematoriums, the shouted commands of the armed guards and capos, the growling sentry dogs, and the barbed wire fences provided an atmosphere that propelled the arrivals into a state of severe shock, hopelessness, and anguish. Several weeks or more of experiencing constant self-degradation, torture, and the death of loved ones and friends as well as enduring inhuman living conditions, produced a change in the mental and emotional makeup of most of the new Lager inmates. This change can be referred to as a detachment from the self. In the second phase of Lager life, the feelings and emotions of the inmates became blunted. This method of self-defense or protection can be viewed as a blessing, in that it relieved us of an emotional strain so severe that it would have surely destroyed us.

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Compassion, horror, pity, were emotions which could no longer be felt, if the inmates wished to remain 'detached'. No longer could the pain of their fellow inmates move them, pain which moved them so severely during the first few weeks after their arrival at the Lager. They had, indeed, come to live in an environment where cruelty was the norm and kindness the exception. 'Where the willful destruction of life is the norm, the grandeur of death dissolves.'7" Suffering and death had become so commonplace during the first few' weeks of Lager life that they could no longer move the inmates. By means of this apathy, the inmates soon surrounded themselves entirely with a necessary protective shell against the insensibility of the atrocities they encountered. The truth of the notion that each person should fend only for himself or herself in order to secure the best chance for survival is evident in the words of those who did return. The instinct to live was a vital factor in survival. This instinct did not exclude total abandon­ ment of one's existing value system. 'Adherence to conventional codes of morality was a luxury that camp life did not usually afford.' ’ Others suggest that survival 'was possible only if one could adapt physically, psychologically, and above all quickly, to rationally orga­ nized savagery'."11 Included in this adaptation was a quick adjustment of the value system, so that its primary concern was only the self, irrespective of moral considerations. On average, only those inmates could survive who, after years of transfers from Lager to Lager, lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of family and friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, as a result of many lucky chances or miracles, whatever one may choose to call us, we know; the meek among us did not return. While this opinion may be an overgeneralization, many who returned support the message in it. For those lacking firsthand experience of Lager existence, it is easy to get a false impression of it; one mixed with sentiment and pity. Little does the uninitiated know of the constant struggle for existence that raged among the inmates. This was an unrelenting struggle for daily food, which meant life itself, for one's own sake or for that of a relative or a dear friend. Life for the individual often came at the expense of another, or so it seemed. Beyond the minimum strength requirement to pass the initial selection, and to bear the physical demands of labor, certain qualities of spirit and character that enabled the inmates to cope with the stress of everyday life were essential factors in survival. Overwork, malnutrition, and grief took the heaviest toll during the first few weeks of Lager life. Maintaining spirit and character in the face of

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such conditions was a chore that the inmates struggled with on a daily basis. Viktor Frankl, a fellow survivor and colleague, provides an excel­ lent account of this struggle: Everything that was not connected with the immediate task of keeping oneself and one's closest friends alive lost its value. Everything was sacri­ ficed to this end. A man's character became involved to the point that he was caught in a mental turmoil, which threatened all the values he held and threw them into doubt. Under the influence of a world which no longer recognized the value of a human life and human dignity, which had robbed man of his will and had made him an object to be exterminated (having planned to make full use of him first), under this influence the personal ego finally suffered a loss of values. If the man in the concentration camp did not struggle against this in a last effort to save his self respect, he lost the feeling of being an individual, a being with a mind, with inner freedom and personal value."1

Inmates who lost their inner strength and character often gave up their will to live. The burden of life under such extreme conditions was overwhelming for some. Inmates seen smiling, for instance, were known to have given up their will to live, because, for them, cigarettes could be exchanged for needed nourishment. These inmates usually died shortly thereafter from emaciation. The other inmates were reminded by this that their own will to live was not necessarily permanent, and that they needed to continue their efforts to maintain their inner strength and will to live. A well-spent youth in the midst of a loving family and memorable friendships, in many cases, provided the inner strength and moral fiber needed to overcome the Lager adversity, allowing inmates the luxury of remembering the warmth and affection which they had experienced not so long ago. The Nazis intended Lager life to be degrading, and it was. Existence in the Lagers 'descended to the level of animal life, driven together then apart, like sheep, who thought two things only - how to evade the bad dogs and how to get a little food'."2 Dreams were often of food, a primitive desire reflecting the individual's inner life reduced to a primitive state. The process of degrading the person took place in many ways, but was especially apparent in the tortuous random beatings of the inmates by the sadistic capos. Effects of the severe degradation and beatings were many, and the Nazis undoubt­ edly derived satisfaction at the results. Cannibalism, theft and murder among the inmates and, on rare occasions, collaboration with the captors, were committed out of animal-like selfishness, a selfish­ ness achieved, perhaps, by an animal-like instinct to survive.

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Most inmates cannot be held responsible for their immoral actions' within the Lager; however there are exceptions. These excep­ tions began already with the ghetto Judenrat and its enforcing arm; the Jewish Militia. These people, though not the inhuman brutes that some capos were, betrayed their own people by being responsible for the initial selections, as the first transports had been dispatched to the extermination camps. Positions on the Judenrat and Militia were coveted, and often 'bought' by well-to-do Jews. Their activity bought them and their families temporary reprieve - though they harbored illusions of permanence - from the fate of those delivered by them to the captors. Not all members of the Judenrat or the Militia abandoned their own people in order to get better treatment. Indeed, some members of the Judenrat thought they were helping their people by placating the captors. In the Vilna ghetto, for example, the chief of the Militia participated in the round-ups, justifying his deeds with the following words: 'I cast my accounts with Jewish blood and not with Jewish respect. If they ask me for a thousand Jews, I give them, because if the Germans themselves came, they would take with violence not a thousand but thousands and thousands and the whole ghetto would be finished.'81 Some of the Lager capos were Jews chosen by the Nazis to serve as 'supervisors'. In their zeal, they became much like their masters, the SS, their wardens. The capos were chosen only from among the prisoners whose character was suited for sadistic and brutal proce­ dures. (Customarily, they wore the green triangle patch on their coat, identifying a habitual criminal.) Often in their attempt to please their masters, the capos were harder on the inmates than were the SS. It can be argued that the actions of many of these individuals went far beyond what was necessary for survival, and therefore cannot be justified or condoned. They contributed to the Nazi cause, what­ ever their motivation. When a person betrayed another, either to the captors or by stealing someone's food, they were aiding their survival through negative means. They survived, but at what cost to their souls? Since the Jews were ignored by the outside world, they aban­ doned any hope that someone would come to their aid. It is, therefore, safe to say that the Jews were left with no alternative but to fend for themselves. In an ideal world, the individual will seldom have to make a choice concerning the issue of survival, or how to accomplish a victory over death. These are not thoughts that occupy a major part of a person's time or constantly preoccupy their thoughts. Most of us do not worry where the next meal will come from or whether or not we can find shelter from the cold of the night. For the fortunate, the maintenance of life is routine; it is taken for

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granted that our needs will be met, that our freedoms will be preserved, and the pursuit of happiness guaranteed. However, the patterns of history are such that at one time or another segments of populations have been ravaged by natural disasters or destroyed by other oppressive forces. During the Middle Ages, for instance, the Black Death (bubonic plague) (1348-1349) carried off one-third of Europe's population, and starvation has killed many around the globe. Perhaps even more tragic are the crimes against humanity, carried out in the name of nationalism or for the acquisition and preserva­ tion of power. In ancient times the Egyptians slaughtered the Jews, and the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition destroyed them as well as a multitude of other 'infidels' in the name of a god. In more recent times, genocide appears to have become a convenient, if not morally acceptable means by the powerful to eliminate undesired peoples. Few countries can claim innocence: the Americans, during their westward expansion - Manifest Destiny - committed crimes against the native American Indians; the Turks slaughtered and almost destroyed the Armenians; Idi Amin of Uganda stored the skulls of his political enemies in refrigeration; the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia killed millions of their countrypeople, as did Mao in China and Stalin in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Most of these assaults on humanity were political in nature, a feeble regime attempting to tighten its grip over a people. The Nazis' war against the Jews stands apart, however. During its six-year duration, more than 6 million Jews were murdered because of their religious heritage. Not a mere massacre or a purge, the Holocaust was the systematic, state-legalized, bureaucratic killing of millions deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime of the Third Reich. In spite of the appalling KZ Lager conditions, however, some of the former inmates, like myself, managed to survive and tell their stories. Inevitably, the Holocaust has scarred the lives of the survivors, changing the way they view the world, God, and society. They are not heroes in the traditional sense of the word, yet they could well be regarded as such. The basic foundation of liberal governments is to ensure the rights of the individual, the protection of one against the many; weak against strong; underprivileged against privileged. Unfortunately, it did not work in the Germany of the thirties. Governments as organi­ zations are capable of committing great harm, because bureaucracies can distance themselves from the rest of humanity. We must be ever vigilant against the infringement of human rights, especially those of vulnerable minorities. When a population is considered expendable, another genocide can occur, and the individual will be confronted by the problems of survival. As for those that have survived the ordeal of such extreme times, we can learn from their testimonies, their

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value of life, and their personal strength to overcome difficulties, rather than to judge their actions in light of modern-day ethics and morals. What, then, are the ethics of survival? Are any methods used to overcome adversity and to survive justifiable? Frankly, there is no simple answer to these question. Does one have the right to survive at the expense of another? Not if one believes in the tenets of western philosophical thought or religious theologies. This philosophy is fine in most situations, when there is a glimmer of hope for rescue or change. For example, people stranded on a lifeboat face the decision about the distribution of their water supplies. Obviously, a single person has a better chance of surviving if he or she refuses to share the water. Yet such an action would be met with great revulsion, especially if there is a reasonable hope for rescue. When there is hope, the choices seem more clear cut, the options more defined. But in the more hopeless situations, when rescue seems but a remote possibility, the contrast becomes hazy; right and wrong are harder to distinguish. There can, therefore, be no absolute right or wrong when seeking survival. People in the Lagers were crit­ icized for accepting the role of capos, or for serving on Sonderkommandos (assassination squads), thus becoming useful tools of the captors and less expendable. In doing this, however, they aided the Nazi killing machine. These people had few options. The choices were to die now, die a little later, or maybe by some fluke outlive the oppressors. Who can really judge and condemn their actions who hasn't been in their place? All they really wanted was to live a little longer. Thus, unless faced with that decision under similar circumstances, it is impossible to know what one would do at that moment. When debating the ethics of survival, perhaps it is not appropriate to apply the terms right or wrong. Some managed to survive better than others, in the sense that they were able to escape with their spiritual as well as physical self more or less intact. To understand what surviving 'better' means, it is necessary to understand what its opposite is. The opposite would mean that a person was compelled to abandon humanness, one's personal dignity, in order to survive. Surviving with honor and dignity intact was not easy. Nonetheless, people did manage to survive without resorting to negative means. Random acts of kind­ ness occurred quite frequently among the inmates. Food was shared, people would lie to protect the ill, small efforts were made to alleviate the misery of oppression. Through these acts, people were helped to survive, and in turn they would also render help where necessary; thus both helper and helped managed to keep their spirits high and their humanity intact.

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The choice to survive is hard, as it is much easier to give up the will to live and die. For some, death was a welcome relief from the misery of their existence. The foolish or the brave - depending on one's outlook - tried to survive, while refusing to give in entirely to oppression. That was the true beauty of survival; the determination not to give the oppressor the final victory. Survival meant resistance - for it made a mockery of the Nazi attempt to eliminate an entire people. It meant the ability to live with enormous physical and mental anguish, and still remain whole. To judge those who survived is, at best, difficult, no matter how they survived. Is it better to die bravely or to live a life secured through unethical methods? Who can tell? The hero of the Mexican uprising against the French, Emiliano Zapata, declared: 'I would rather die on my feet than go on living on my knees.' The martyred dead have not given any answers. And the living still cling to life, trying to find good in existence and enjoy its sweetness. For the Nazis, however, survival meant that the idea of shared humanity disappeared altogether. There was no feeling of guilt for them, because there was no need for it in the situation as they saw it. Technology plus bureaucracy yielded an equation resulting in tech­ nocracy. We must ask ourselves: What was this flaw that allowed a people, who were otherwise supposedly decent human beings, to commit such atrocities? What was it about the Nazis that allowed them to murder other humans with such relentless brutality? Randolph Braham contends that the Nazis were able to commit murder because they had a 'genocidal self, a self that is involved in genocide where there is "doubling," or the capacity for disassocia­ tion, the formation of a second self, an Auschwitz self, in connection with which one could kill while still maintaining one's prior self in visiting one's wife or children outside of Auschwitz'.*4 Robert Lifton carries the theory of the 'double self' even further by stating that 'the doubling process resulted in a change in moral consciousness wherein guilt feelings could be avoided in the situation of mass killing'.'4'4 The argument for the need for disassociation is frightening, because it shows that the Nazis knew they were doing wrong and realized they needed to protect themselves from the horrors they were committing. The easiest way to protect themselves was to focus on scientific technology, coupled with bureaucratic adherence to duty. Once the victims became mere numbers, anonymous entities, they were easy to kill. The Final Solution was not a decision derived at hastily, nor was it poorly carried out. Instead, the killing force of the Third Reich was the epitome of an organized and efficient technocratic machine finely tuned for genocide. Without the mass German technocracy, the Final Solution could never have been realized. As I have shown,

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this technocracy was vast and essentially anonymous. Code words and euphemistic phrases made up the language of the SS State (see below). Official documents contained these doublespeak words, which spelled death for all 'enemies' of the Reich. The persecution of the Jews was an ordered escalation. Each more extreme step was derived 'rationally' from the last. The order found in the extermina­ tion process portrays the facility of the dehumanization of the perpetrators to such a level that genocide was a foregone conclusion; an easy solution to accomplish. Hitler, from the beginning, main­ tained a preference for 'rational' rather than 'emotional' anti-Judaism. This 'rational' approach sought to use governmental as well as private machinery of the Third Reich to carry out its aims, instead of gang attacks or pogroms typical of the emotional approach. There were many carefully planned ways in which the technocracy advanced upon the extermination of the European Jews. In the Lagers, the inmates were never known by name, but by number. Heads were completely shaved, and all of the surviving slave laborers wore striped uniforms. If they all looked the same, then they were all Jews, subhumans and not individuals. No personal contact was allowed between the guards and the inmates though many an SS found a pretty Jewess irresistible - and distance was the best weapon against guilt. The eastern front was without direct communication to the west and, therefore, the Reich found it easy to conduct there its covert oper­ ations. Also, as a result of the inherent Polish anti-Jewish feelings, the Nazis found willing bystanders, if not allies, in their sinister operations. The territory in which the drama of killing the Jews was played out was called Generalgouvernement (German-occupied central and southern Poland). An old party member and Hitler crony, Hans Frank, his earlier loyal advisor, was in charge as the Supreme governor. Four Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squad, of approximately 2,500 SS) moved into the territory on the heels of the advancing Wehrmacht, following the invasion of Poland. They were in charge of setting up the ghettos and establishing the Judenrats in each. The Einsatzgruppen gunned down thousands of Jewish men, women, and children in rural areas where their population was sparse, and buried their victims in mass graves - dug by the victims - but not before relieving them of all their belongings (see illustrations 9-11). To make for lighter consciences of the perpetrators, a more effi­ cient way of killing was developed. Greater numbers of Jews were falling under Nazi control, and they were 'resettled' in the rapidly increasing number of territorial ghettos. The Nazis felt that feeding such parasites and vermin seemed foolish, when the war effort required maximum provisions for their armed forces. A simple way to rid the world of the Jews was starvation and disease, which spread

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throughout the overcrowded ghettos. But this process was too slow toplease the planners. A better, more efficient way was in the works. The Wannsee conference on January 20, 1942 was the official beginning of the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. It was several months since the invasion of the Soviet Union - Operation Barbarossa - and the Nazi armies were immobi­ lized by severe weather conditions. The reversals on the eastern front made them realize that the killing of the Jews had to move more rapidly if the plan conceived at the conference was to succeed. The Occupied and Interior Territories Gauleiters, Foreign Ministry offi­ cials, Party hierarchy, Reichsfuhrer SS, RHSA (Race and Resettlement Office), the SS and SD as well as many others attended the confer­ ence. The responsibility for the overseeing of all activities relating to the Final Solution of the Jewish Question was left to the Reichsfuhrer SS, Himmler. The most important element of the plan was forcing the Jews out of various areas of private and public life and removing them from the living space (Lebensrauni) of the German people. To do this was to take measures in preparation for the increased resettlement of the Jews, to direct the flow of resettlement, and to speed up emigration in individual cases. Accurate estimates were given of the numbers of Jews in each territory, in order to establish the manpower and facili­ ties needed for the movement. The first step was to take the Jews to transit camps for transfer to the east. Officials postulated estimates for the facility or difficulty in the relocation. 'In Slovakia and Croatia the matter is no longer too difficult as the most essential central prob­ lems in this respect have already been brought to a solution there' (Grobman and Landes, Genocide, p.446). The conference was a simple board meeting of the Nazi hierarchy for the purpose of solving logis­ tical problems: 'Secretary of State, Buehler, put on record that the Government-General would welcome it if the Final Solution [emphasis mine] of this problem was begun in the GovernmentGeneral as ... it played no major role and consideration of labor supply. Furthermore, of approximately two and a half million Jews under consideration, the majority were unfit for work.'"'1 Curiously, 'What became known in Nazi circles as the Fiihrer Order on the Final Solution, apparently was never committed to paper ... evidence shows that it was most probably given verbally to Goering, Himmler and Heydrich, who passed it down during the summer and fall of 1941 ... Hans Lammers ... chief of the Reichs Chancellery, said during the Nuremberg Trials: "I knew that a Fuhrer order was trans­ mitted by Goering to Heydrich ... this order was called The Final Solution of the Jewish Problem."'''7 (emphasis mine). Every region of the Reich, as well as most occupied territories, clamored to be the first to be Judenrein (clean of Jews). The killings by

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carbon monoxide were started in Chelmno in December 1941. The assassins used vans with the exhaust directed internally, and the results pleased everybody; except for the unloading of the bodies. People were loaded into the vans and killed while being driven to the grave sites. Jewish prisoners would unload the bodies, collect valu­ ables, and bury the victims. All this was done in the name of efficient killing. Soon, it was seen that the vans were not 'cost efficient'. Some of the victims would still be alive and would run off or the assassins would have to start the process again or shoot the prisoners. The need for a better procedure was evident. With gassing on their minds, the leaders chose an even more efficient way of killing, which they had favored earlier during the euthanasia program of mental patients and genetic undesirables: cyanide gassings. This time, it would be on a much larger scale. A place was found for the teams of experts who had been active in the 'mercy killings' of genetic undesirables. A network of camps or KZ Lagers was established. First there were the concentration camps, such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Mauthausen, and others, called Arbeitsliiger (labor camps), which were established in the Third Reich and Austria. These quickly attracted the Reich's industry (l.G. Farben, Siemens, Krupp, Volkswagen), which had obtained easy access to slave labor through negotiations with the SS. The enterprise proved so profitable that labor camps cropped up all over the Reich in order to provide a boost to industry. Then, there were the Vernichtungsldger (extermination camps or killing factories), in which most of the progress was made toward the Final Solution. These camps - Belzec, Maidanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, and others - were all situated in the territory of the Generalgouvernement of Poland. The first gas chamber was established in Belzec on March 17, 1942, with a killing capacity of 5,000 people per day (see Tregenza, Belzec, p.17). The rest followed within a few months, with even bigger capacities for destruction. It was assembly line killing. Railroads were used to get the Jews to the camps - frequently at the cost of substantial delay of troops and material for the Eastern front. Trains would run during off hours not used by regular transports, so there would be little delay in reaching their destination. The more people who died in transport, the easier the assassin's job. The cargo of the still living was quickly unloaded, made to undress, valuables confiscated, then gassed. Jewish special commandos then either cremated or buried the bodies. It is important to note that, regardless of available technology, the atrocities would, nevertheless, have continued unabated; at a slower pace, perhaps, but continue they would. Technology was not the sole culprit, but merely a fraction of the tools used by the willing assas­

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sins. Technology is neutral. It is people who perpetrate evil and destruction. To blame technology is to ignore the true cause of the Holocaust. The question arises how these killings could be rationalized by all those responsible. It is inconceivable that all of the Nazis who carried out the plans for the Final Solution were sadistic killers. The euphemisms used in official documents serve to illustrate the point. It was much easier to turn killing into technical jargon, doublespeak and numerical statistics, than to kill human beings with individual faces grimacing in anguish. Code words, such as special treatment, resettlement, deportation, transport, respective operations, selection, and evacuation, were all synonymous with killing. The letter 'L' (liquidiert) was used after a name for those who had been liquidated, and an 'SB' (Sonderbehandlung) for those sent to the gas chambers. People were referred to as 'baggage' and 'loads'. Statistical data of those killed were impeccably kept up. Killing had become a prof­ itable enterprise. Anonymity of language and the ethics of Nazi medical research ANONYMITY OF LANGUAGE

In depersonalizing the operations, and facilitating the killing process, the Nazis developed newspeak - ambiguous and contradictory language - in the best Orwellian tradition. An excellent example of the language the Nazis used to disassociate themselves from the act and depersonalize the Jews was the 'SS euthanasia "specialist" who assisted Nazi doctors and nurses in special hospitals'."" The words 'specialist' and 'mercy death' were euphemistic terms that helped the Nazis cope with their vile deeds. The words 'effi­ ciency' and 'resource conservation' are evidence of the Nazi attempt to accept their cruelties by viewing the Jews as anonymous objects and not as humans. 'It was the practice to fill the gas chambers to capacity, another expression of the Nazi attempt at efficiency and resource conservation.'"'1 Hence, while concentrating on technology, the Nazis could permit themselves to ignore their own actions. Braham submits evidence showing the use of technological terms to insulate the perpetrator from moral conscience in the following: If one speaks of medicalized killing, one might think of the notion of surgical killing: that is, for instance, the sequence and technology from direct face-toface killing in the East by the Einsatzgruppen to the gas chambers - a higher technology. It is more 'surgical' in the sense that it was developed partly in order to minimize the harmful psychological effects on the perpetrators, as the Nazi documents demonstrate.

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At the Nuremberg Trials, Sir Shawcross Hartley presented one such instance that describes the effects face-to-face killings had on some of the executioners. He read from a letter by an eyewitness of a mass execution, a member of one of Himmler's Einsatzkommanndos: Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells, and waited for a sign from another SS man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. During the 15 minutes that I stood near I heard no complaint or plea for mercy. I watched a family of about eight persons, a man and a woman both about 50, with their children of about one, eight and ten, and two grown-up daughters of about 20-24. And an old woman with snow-white hair was holding the one-year-old child and singing to it and tickling it. The child was cooing with delight. The couple was looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about ten years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed to the sky, stroked his head and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the SS man at the pit shouted something to his comrade. The latter counted off about 20 persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound. Among them was the family, which I have mentioned. 1 well remember a girl, slim and with black hair who, as she passed close to me, pointed to herself and said, '23'. 1 walked around the mound and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave. People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. Some of the people shot were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it already contained about 1,000 people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an SS man, who sat on the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette. The people, completely naked, went down some steps, which were cut in the clay wall of the pit and clambered over the heads of the people, lying there, to the place to which the SS man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or injured people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then 1 heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or the heads lying motionless on top of the bodies which lay before them. Blood was running from their necks.

Justification for killing is seen in one Nazi doctor's statement. He maintained that the Jews were like a 'gangrenous appendix that must be removed'.91 Another doctor involved in the killing of chil­ dren in pediatrics wards had dissociated himself to such a degree that he later said: 'It didn't seem so much like murder as it did a putting to sleep.'*2 Doctors had dissociated themselves from their

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actions in order to perform their gruesome duties, and in the process they had dehumanized the Jews. In their own eyes, the Nazi doctors were not murdering people but 'putting animals to sleep' and disposing of diseased flesh. Jews no longer had identities; they were nameless masses of tissue. Evidence shows that for many Nazi doctors 'what took place was a mutual, desolate isolation of things. Even while alive, the patient-experimentee was dead for the Nazi doctor; the physician's role was already that of coroner.'91 It is clear the Nazi doctors saw their living Jewish victims as 'dead objects' and not as human beings. Besides the medico-scientific side of technology, the Nazis also utilized the mechanics to achieve their sinister goals. 'Technology aims to produce more "things" more efficiently, that is, more cheaply and in less time than other forms of production.'94 The Nazi tech­ nocrats referred to the Jews as objects in order to make individuals anonymous. If the Jews were objects, they were not people and the Nazis could murder them without committing murder. The euphemistic language disguised the fact that technology enabled the Nazis to be superior killers. The evil side of technology was that the disciplined planning and modern technological knowhow, the specialization and the concern for efficiency, were all being used to commit murder. The concepts of staying on schedule, meeting production quotas, and cost-effective rationality were all being utilized to destroy human beings. Rather than manufacturing a toy or a watch, the Nazis manufactured corpses. It is of utmost importance to note that the German people of all sectors, and not only the military or the police, worked as a team to get the killing job done. The implementation of the Party's orders affecting the Jews required the active or passive consent and cooper­ ation of virtually the entire adult German population. Everything functioned as if it were an act of national will. The war Hitler waged against the Jews was a success. He even made the world think 'the Jews must have done something to arouse the treatment given them by the German government'.95 Thus, the Nazis easily accomplished the first duty of a bureaucracy; they made sure that everyone in the system agreed with the 'company's' philosophy. 'Only in such groups composed of young Aryans could the herd instinct be propa­ gated which guaranteed unity of action.'96 Frighteningly, as previously discussed, Hitler's Germans were not an unusual people. They were ordinary individuals. Something besides the ability to develop a 'double self' and group thought must have been functioning to allow them to commit such atrocities. Hitler's ideology was highly effective in achieving the goal of group thought. In fact, the Party saw to it that 'German adults were so completely indoctrinated ... as to produce a loyal subject who never

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questioned the aims of the state and was always avidly in favor of its goals.'77 Once a group is cohesive, it is easy to manipulate. The Nazi ideology, which emphasized group responsibility, enabled its members to believe that the 'vastness of the operation rendered one powerless to intervene effectively.'7" Set in motion, a rationally ordered system of officialdom continued by its own momentum to function smoothly no matter what the actions of that system were even if it committed murder. After all, the Nazi enterprise discovered that genocide had some­ thing in it for everyone. Thus rationalized, victimization of the Jews and their slavery created nothing less than a new form of human society. It was predicated on using people up for personal profit - not unlike sandpaper - economically sound and operationally viable, for political gain and economic profit'.77 Hence, we can state that killing Jews was a Nazi business enterprise. Bureaucracy, then, assisted tech­ nology, which told a Nazi it was not a person he was killing. Bureaucracy had told him that even if it were a person, he had to kill that person, because it was his job assignment. In fact, the assassins often claimed that they did not hate the Jews but were merely doing their duty. They were acting on orders from invisible superiors, which removed the burden of guilt the killers might have felt. The system created a 'huge network of desk-bound personnel who destroyed people by composing memoranda 'The "desk­ killer" mentality, the disjunction of science and technology from ethical and cultural criticism, made the Holocaust possible,' state Rosenberg and Meyers.1"1 Nazi ideology used bureaucracy and tech­ nology to usurp individual conscience. Technocracy was able to make people anonymous. Individuals, both victim and perpetrator, lost their identities and became faceless entities. Once a person becomes an object you can do anything to it. It no longer matters. The End of the Piotrkow Ghetto

What follows is an eyewitness account of events.

Saturday's early morning hours were filled with repeated small arms fire, authoritative shouts, cries and lamentations. We got up frightened shortly before dawn. It was that bewitching period of transition when the moon claims the universe from the sun, scarcely leaving sufficient time for man to surmise that he stands alone. Loudspeakers blared for all to hear: 'Abandon your homes! Everybody out! Assemble on the street! Schnell? The Jewish militia carried out the Gestapo orders to the letter, and with utmost discretion. But despite all the secrecy, word had leaked about the mysterious preparations. We harbored no

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illusions about the approaching events. Deep inside, each of us was preparing for the worst. As people lined the streets, truckloads of mercenaries Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Estonian - arrived supple­ mented by the Polish militia. They took charge of the disorderly crowds, shoving and beating them into submission and a semblance of order. Mothers anxiously clutched their small children as the multi­ tudes were herded toward the market square, now as bright as daytime. The newly installed lights worked well. Searching for their families or friends, people shouted names and ran in all directions, only to be beaten back. 'Leave your belongings in your homes!' The voice in the bull­ horn sounded almost cheerful. 'You shall return to them soon!' In a desperate attempt to comply with orders, people ran back into their homes to leave their bundles, but there, too, they ran into rifle butts. My mother carried an overnight bag in one hand and held on to Felusia with the other. A guard abruptly tore the bag from her hand, throwing its contents onto the pavement. Some cosmetic articles hit the ground and broke into small fragments. My mother's face looked anguished, but she did not voice her pain. More important things were on her mind. The mercenary laughed derisively: 'You won't need these where you're going, Jewish bitch!' He shouted vulgarities, but my mother silently hurried us on. 'Goodbye and good riddance,' the Lithuanians shouted cynically after us. A search was going on for those who remained in their homes. Men, women, and children were hunted down in cellars and attics; shouts of pain mingled with curses and entreaties resounded everywhere. The shooting went on. The entire world seemed terribly confusing and confused. Only after our arrival on the Adolf Hitler Platz did the magni­ tude of the enemy's enterprise become clear. On this unprecedented occasion, the combined SS and Gestapo Commands, the two competing service branches of the Fuhrer's elite fighting units, worked in harmony. Schroder and Doerings shouted commands, whipping people into a semblance of disciplined ranks. Wherever an older person faltered or stopped or a woman cradling her children looked around desperately seeking aid, blow upon blow followed. It was strictly forbidden to offer assistance of any kind, and those who tried were punished alongside those whom they attempted to help. Once again the bullhorn:

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Warning and Hi 'No one is to interfere in the proceedings! Everyone must follow orders! The penalty for any violation of this order will be death!'

We listened and obeyed. What we learned much later was that the Poles, encouraged by the SS, started plundering the entire ghetto soon after we had left the premises. The looters went up and down the stairs of the apartment houses and in and out of Jewish homes, all under the pretext of 'looking for stragglers.' They soon came out with bags stuffed full of things, their greed showing on their faces. 'They didn't have the common decency to let the body cool,' someone remarked. Obersturmbannfiihrer Helmut Schirmeck was brought in from the Gauleiter's office in Krakow. He stood apart from the crowd, dispensing terse orders to his aides, when necessary. The Lithuanian SS had cordoned off the market square tightly toward early afternoon, and nearly the entire ghetto Jewish population had been herded into that small cobblestoned area facing the city hall on the right and the town church on the left. Behind us was the railroad depot. I looked at my mother anxiously, but her face did not betray her emotions. 'Don't let go of your belongings,' she urged. Each one of us carried a small bundle. I embraced my violin case. My nine-year-old sister Felusia was on her exemplary behavior. She followed my mother and did not complain or cry. Nora looked brave, and so did Hayim and Roman. I promised myself, come what may, 1 wasn't going to break down and cry. I wasn't going to let my mother down. After all, 1 was 15 years old now, and men don't cry. 1 had been told. By early evening, only small groups of people were still being herded into the square. By dawn, the Gestapo had rounded up all the Piotrkow Jews, and the 'selection' was about to begin. We sat around in the open and waited through the night. I don't know of anyone that rested, except the small children, who slept in the arms of their parents with unconcerned innocence. 'What's going to happen, Mama?,' 1 whispered. 'We're embarking on a journey, Vilusiek, you mustn't worry. We'll be all right.' She tried to reassure me, but I sensed anxiety even though her eyes were hidden by darkness. 'Where will they take us, Mama?,' I asked, trying desperately to force my mother to talk. Sensing that this might be the last chance I'd have to hear her lovely voice, to squeeze her precious hand. She, too, sensed the urgency of the moment, and we kept on talking until sunrise; my mother, Roman, and 1.

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We welcomed dawn with mixed emotions. Nature was going to provide us with a lovely day. Would people do the same? Obersturmbannfiihrer Schirmeck appeared at exactly six o'clock, as though the time had been predetermined. He observed the multitude, a cynical smile on his face. A few orders to his aides and the process was set in motion. Once more the bullhorn: 'All able-bodied Jews from the age of 13 to 55 will line up on the right. All others, on the left.' Thus the 'selection' began. No one paid heed to the announcement. Families clutched on to each other. Blows followed. An impatient sentry shot an old woman. She was the first casualty. As the people passed in front of the Gestapo chief, he motioned with his index finger to the left or to the right. He no longer smiled. This was serious work. It wasn't long before the masses had fully grasped the nature of the exercise. The young were being separated from the old; the weak from the strong. The pattern was all too obvious. 'Look at them to our left,' someone whispered close by. 'Do you think they're fit for work?' - 'And they're trying to tell us we're all going to labor camps, and we'll return home soon,' another voice spoke. 'Fat chance, we'll return!' 'We mustn't follow to the left!,' someone shouted suddenly. 'The left means death!' Pandemonium broke out. A wave of humanity swayed powerfully toward the right side of the market square. Women dragged their small children along. Men carried their elderly and disabled parents or supported those who were still able to walk. Those who fell to the ground were trampled underfoot. Cries for help resounded, but they touched on deaf ears; suddenly, it was everyone for himself. It took only a moment for the Gestapo and the SS to estimate the gravity of the situation. Crisp orders were barked, and shots were fired into the moving mass of humanity. 1 saw people falling next to me, then getting up and trying to run again, falling to the ground again, to remain there motionless. The sight of blood became nauseating, and I felt I would retch at any moment. People kept on running, desperately trying to escape the vigilant guards. I asked myself where are they running to, but I could not answer my own question. There was nowhere to go. Like a stampeding herd of cattle, the Jews turned round and came to a halt. The shooting subsided. Loud lamentations were evidence of the many lives lost. The plaintive sounds now mingled with the cold cadence of the eerie ritual ... Helmut Schirmeck's voice carried on: ' ... rechts ... rcchts ... links ... links ... right...right...left...left...'

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It was almost our turn. We approached the area where the Gestapo had set up their 'measuring stations.' Not until we came close to one of the guards holding the measuring rod did 1 notice signs of desperate worry in my mother's eyes. They placed a rod 1.20 meters in height in front of Schirmeck. Children who would pass under the rod were taken away to the left. Some parents chose to go with them. Others had made the decision to go to the right. There wasn't time for much deliber­ ation; the overseer's whip finding its mark, discouraging hesitation. 'You must try, my darling,' my mother whispered imploring to my little sister. 'Please, Felusia, try to stand tall, like a grand lady, shoulders straight, head high. Be on your toes, dearest,’ she pleaded with the little one. As if she understood the urgency of our mother's plea, Felusia seemed to grow to the occasion. She stretched her slender neck gracefully, and holding her head up proudly, she stepped in front of the crude measuring device, on her toes, like a ballerina turning in the most important performance of her lifetime. I looked at my mother helplessly. Her lips were moving in silent prayer. She prayed for a miracle, but in spite of all her efforts, Felusia did not meet the expected height requisites. By a desperate few centimeters, she was short of joining those who were destined to go to the right. At that moment, a Jewish militiaman approached and pointed at Felusia. 'The child must go to the left.' My mother wouldn't let go of Felusia's hand. 'To the left! Did you hear?,' he shouted. 'You must go to the right with the others!' Still no response from my mother. 'You'll get us all into trouble if you don't follow orders!' My mother stood firm. He turned to Roman and me. 'You go on to the right. Have your Meldekartcn ready for inspection.' We displayed our identity cards. 'How about you, woman?,' he addressed my mother again. 'Make up your mind!' He was growing impatient. He tried to pull Felusia from my mother's grip, and the little one began to cry. There were large tears rolling down Felusia's cheeks, and I could not understand how anyone could not be moved by her distress. 'You'll be better off without the kid, woman.' The militiaman tried to sound sympa­ thetic, but his words had a hollow effect. Now, my mother knelt holding Felusia firmly in her embrace. She wiped the tears from Felusia's cheeks with a clean white kerchief. 'What's the matter with you, Schweinll,' Doerings yelled at my mother. 'Can't you see you're holding up the others?!' He

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was about to kick her, but something caught his attention and he hesitated. My mother released Felusia long enough to embrace Roman and me. 'Be brave, my darlings. Don't worry. Felusia and 1 will be fine. And we'll see you soon, when all's well.' She wept now, for the first time allowing herself the luxury of tears. 'Don't cry, Mama, please don't cry.' I kissed her repeatedly. 'We'll take care. Please, dearest Mama, don’t cry.' It was my turn now to wipe the tears from her face. 'Enough! Get going, pigs!' Doerings shouted an order and landed a powerful kick to my mother's thigh. She let go of my embrace and doubled up with terrible pain. I knew then that for a brief moment I was playing the fool, unable to understand the true nature of man. It was a kind of terrible childishness, which I was not willing to renounce. I knew that children, too, have the desire for power, the will to hurt and to destroy. And I longed with all my senses to do just that. I'll kill him when I'm given the chance. I thought to myself. Him and his likes, I swear, as long as there's blood in my veins! My eyes were full of hatred as I fixed them on Sturmbannfuhrer Doerings, my arms trying to protect my mother. 'Get moving, woman!,' the militiaman shouted. 'You'll get us all in trouble!' Another quick embrace followed for each of us, and she was ready. 'Nora, my sweet girl,' my mother cried, Felusia in tow - the little one now on her best behavior so as not to antagonize the SS - as she pushed forward and away from us. 'Be brave, my dear girl, and God bless all of you!' The guards hurried the two of them to the left side of the marketplace, where they soon disappeared within the moving mass of the aged and the very young. 'We must go now,' our 17-year-old cousin Nora sobbed, lead­ ing us further toward the right perimeter of the marketplace. From there, we observed the loading of the boxcars and the sort­ ing of the remaining people. In the great confusion, I spotted Felix and a couple of my friends, sitting dejectedly near their belong­ ings. What will happen to our secret plans now? 1 had no answer. Suddenly a woman cradling an infant in her arms broke through and ran toward Doerings. 'Please, do anything to me, only save my baby!,' she begged. An SS guard raised his whip to punish the impudent woman. Doerings stopped him with a motion of his hand. 'You have a choice, woman,' he said calmly, 'you go to the right or you can go with the others.' 'Kind sir, save my baby, my little girl! Have mercy!' The woman was hysterical.

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'Schmeiss doch den Abfall wcg! (Throw away this trash, woman!)' Doerings shouted. With that, he turned to walk away. The woman ran toward him, a kitchen knife in her free hand. The guard shouted a warning, and Doerings fell as he turned toward the lunging mother. His right hand reached mechani­ cally for his hip holster, but he never needed to use his pistol. One blow of the guard's rifle butt, and the woman was falling awkwardly to the ground. Blow upon blow followed, until the woman's skull resembled a mass of blood and tissue even before she'd touched the ground. Through all that, the fright­ ened infant lay next to its mutilated mother weeping loudly. The concerned guard helped his superior to his feet, while care­ fully dusting the dirt off the officer's once spotless uniform. Regulations explicitly called for clean attire in public. 'What do we do with this bastard?,' the guard asked. ’Links! Das geht links!' Doerings yelled. 'To the left, it goes to the left!,' he repeated. The guard picked up the infant by one leg and tossed it into the crowd on the left. I was unable to tell whether someone caught the baby in the crowd in flight or whether it hit the ground. I renewed my vow: I shall never forget! The selection continued for many hours. The SS brought especially trained shepherd dogs to help keep the people at bay. They had been trained to sniff and bark, and they punished those who dared to delay the operation by a last embrace or a farewell message called out across the square. Growling furi­ ously, the animals sprang at their victims, to the delight of their masters. The SS photographer recorded their bravery in count­ less shots, later to be publicized in newspapers and magazines throughout the Third Reich. After all, the dogs' performance was a credit to the ingenuity of their masters. With the arrival of the animals, we exchanged only silent greetings with friends and relatives. Some 6,000 people between the ages of 12 and 45 were assem­ bled to the right of the square. The opposite side numbered many thousands more. The loading of the boxcars began as soon as the selection was finished. I strained to find my mother and Felusia, now in the company of aunt Sabina and her family, but I was unable to identify any of them in the vast mass of people. It seemed an endless procession into the huge freight cars. 'There will be better living conditions and milder treatment in the work-camp of your destination!' The voice over the bull­ horn was encouraging the Jews to 'Get going! Get going!' as they climbed up into the waiting cattle cars.

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As soon as they filled one car to capacity, the sentries drove the Jews to the next empty one. At one point, 1 counted almost 200 to a car. It required a vivid imagination even to picture the interior of the boxcars. I couldn't imagine the conditions under which those hundreds of people would be forced to sustain life for the duration of their interminable journey. I asked myself, what must it be like inside those boxcars? From the looks of it, there must have been standing room only. At best, the move­ ment was restricted to stretching one's neck and, perhaps, an occasional raising of the arms. When they boarded the boxcars, many must have wondered: 'If the Nazis are such a model of efficiency, then how come there aren't any provisions made for food, drink, and relief during the impending journey?' Clouds gathered overhead while the loading continued late into the night. It began to rain torrentially and the earth turned into mud. Thunder sounded through most of the storm, and occasional lightning illumined the eerie procession of people. Morning came, and the sun broke through. In the late after­ noon, more boxcars had come into a second rail terminal to accommodate the remainder of the people. I spotted my mother and Felusia following aunt Sabina up the ramp leading to their freight car. My mother turned before entering, and our eyes met across the square, imploringly. We all waved at them as they did in our direction, my mother with her clean white kerchief, Felusia her small delicate hand. They entered the boxcar and the sliding door was tightly shut and securely locked behind them. In addition, the militia nailed long boards diagonally crisscrossing the doors. Why was the Gestapo taking all these precautions?, I asked myself. Why should anyone want to escape this resettlement toward a better future? The loading was now completed. Only the sentries and their dogs remained. We could hear cries of anguish coming through the cracks in the freight-car walls. The din of voices prevented us from recognizing any of the callers, each trying to be louder than the other. Each competing with the staccato sound of Nazi orders and the barking of their shepherd dogs. Through all that chaos, I kept hearing my mother's voice clearly and vividly: 'Be brave my darlings, be brave!' The evening was humid but cold. They said it heralded a severe winter. I stamped my feet to keep warm. It was now the third day outdoors, and weariness was showing on everyone's face. What's next? We kept wondering. There seemed to be no order in the actions of the Nazis. The resettlement preparation

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had not gone well; there were dead lying on the ground still to be removed. The transport of sealed boxcars had not moved an inch, and those people inside who were still living were gradu­ ally going mad.

The anonymity of language worked to nourish the genocide by controlling the ideology of the Party and the bureaucracy of the state. By distorting the truth through language, the Third Reich was able to confuse general awareness about the fate of the Jewish people. At the same time, the freedom of the German people was being curtailed, because they were not being informed about the activities of their own government. Nazi officials in charge of murdering the Jews were called 'engineers of the Final Solution'. Jewish deportation was referred to as 'political solution to the problem'. These terms were clear distortions of fact. The Party was well aware that admitting openly to the murder of the Jewish people would have met with some public protest. Therefore, taking their distortion of language a step further, the Nazi machine dehumanized the Jews through doublespeak, referring to them as units (Stuecke), thus stripping them of recognition as persons, which made the killing easier. The Jews were looked upon as cargo on the way to the factory, much like any other industrial product to be manufactured on an assembly line. Distorting the language through Argumentuni populutn was done by the Nazis to gain the unquestioning support of the German people. It meant an appeal to the masses' sense of motherhood through speaking in cliches. They asked the people if they loved the state. Then, they told them that Hitler was synonymous with the state. Thus, if they loved their country, they loved Hitler, their Fuhrer. This distortion of facts through the skilful use of language allowed the government to funnel Nazi ideology to the people. It was the same doublespeak that convinced the German people that World War One was not lost by Germany; that the Treaty of Versailles was a stab in the back, signed by Bolshevik Jews. It enabled Hitler to build up an army of spade-bearing workers, while the military was still outlawed in Germany, an army that would 'help build up Germany in economic not militaristic ways'. Soon, the army of workers had become an army of soldiers and well-trained assassins. Anonymity of language is best exemplified in bureaucratic expres­ sion. Adolf Eichmann was an example of the Reich's language rules. These rules limited his vocabulary, so far as to reduce it to mere cliches. Eichmann 'had at his disposal a different elating cliche for each period of his life'.1"2 He was not a very intelligent man, and by choosing to communicate in the restricted vocabulary of the military, he further reduced his language and his spectrum to evaluate situa­ tions. He referred to the deportation of the Jewish people as an

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assembly line ... Officialese became his language because he was gen­ uinely incapable of uttering a single sentence that was not a cliche.'1" Eichmann was a classic example of an agent of butchery. He and people like him were the embodiment of technocracy. This kind of mentality would decide collectively whether a program would succeed and would proceed to execute it; right or wrong, regardless. If these men had been capable of intelligent inquiry into their activities at the first sign of genocide, the Final Solution would have been crip­ pled for lack of competent administration. But Eichmann and many like him submitted to a code of official conduct that precluded any independent judgment. He used the phrase 'Fiihrerworte haben Gesetzkraft' (the Fuhrer's words have the force of law) to justify his actions. Instead of being a truly human creature, interacting materially and morally with his environment, Eichmann and all who followed his path of compromise became cogs in a murder machine. Those sentiments and amoral considerations, the distortions of language, became a weapon against the Jews, who did not expect doublethink from intelligent, well-educated, allegedly enlightened people. Once the killing of the Jewish people had been bureaucratized, and the steps between identifying a Jew and killing him were sepa­ rated and specialized by the anonymity of language, the pace of genocide quickened substantially, identified by the issuance of the yellow star, Jews were well on their way to the killing KZ Lagers. The system worked more like a factory at full production than a mere pogrom. The process itself was efficient. The only problem for the state bureaucracy was keeping the predominantly Christian German public in the dark as to the extent of the butchery; getting the Jews to proceed quietly toward their dark destiny and keeping the perpetra­ tors in the dark as to the implications of their actions. The Jews had to be betrayed, fooled, and bullied for the Final Solution to succeed; the perpetrators had to be isolated from the facts. Lies, promises, and doublespeak did the job in all instances. The problem of internal German opposition to the carnage of the Jews by the Nazis had been underrated as well. Himmler's speech to SS officers in Poznan on October 4,1943 bears this out: 'They all come trudging, 80 million worthy Germans and each has his one decent Jew. Sure, the others are swine, but this one is an A-l Jew.' Such sarcasm and irritation could be taken at face value to mean that the Nazi anti-Jewish ideology derives from a personal contact that Germans had with the Jews. Demonization through language had to be used to affect the German people's opinion: As long as Jewish traders and peasants in the Bavarian countryside were part and parcel of a traditional scheme of social relationships, the peasants could not be persuaded of

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Warning and Hope the Nazi ideology. The change came after the Nazis had succeeded in isolating the Jews and had turned them into mysterious strangers living their lives at the edge of the village. "M

ETHICS IN NAZI MEDICAL RESEARCH: BREAKING THE OATH I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that 1 will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture ... 1 will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. I will keep pure and holv both my life and my art. In whatsoever house I enter, 1 will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm ... Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may 1 gain forever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me. (Oath of Hippocrates)

Question: How could seemingly 'normal' people, healers by profession, commit unspeakable acts of cruelty on their fellow humans, later described as crimes against humanity? Racism stems from the desire for a perfect society and intentions to implement designs to achieve this perfect society through planned and consistent efforts. In the case of the Holocaust, the design was the Third Reich; an empire of the liberated German Spirit. This empire had no room for the Jews. We all agree that this 'problem' confronting society is in need of urgent attention internationally. Nothing is more pressing than the mass killing of defenseless citizens by human beings who act as agents of or with the tacit encourage­ ment of their governments. Genocide was the end result of a total disregard for individual worth and civil rights. One aspect of this design was to find answers to questions that the Germans had about these worthless people - the Jews. They claimed that there must have been a biological basis for the diversity of mankind. 'What makes a Jew a Jew, a Gypsy a Gypsy, an asocial individual an asocial, and the mentally abnormal mentally abnormal, is in their blood, that is to say their genes.'"” Nazi doctors performed capricious medical experiments on captive inmate guinea pigs - without the consent of the 'specimen' as another form of humiliating torment for the already doomed Jews. Psychologically, these experiments posed a significant problem. There were mainly two broad categories of experiments: the first one

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involved traditional research, but was performed on unwilling subjects; the second kind involved neither ordinary method nor was it pursued with ordinary means. Both classes of experiments were the product of a single administrative machine. An experiment was performed when anyone came up with some­ thing they wanted to test; a serum, a hypothesis, or a possible solution to some bizarre problem. An example would be when the chief of the Air Force Medical Service became interested in the effects of altitude on pilots or how half-frozen pilots shot down over the North Sea could be revived. Another doctor had been doing research on jaundice by injecting healthy animals with a virus from jaundiced humans, but now he wanted to reverse the procedure and inject humans with a virus from diseased animals.11* As a rule, doctors asked for permission to use habitual criminals or inmates who had been condemned to death. This was an attempt to make a compromise with their consciences. As it turned out, however, the people that were used were 'race-defiling Jewish habitual criminals'.1"7 In one instance, the choice of a subject was decided on from a racial viewpoint. The experiment involved making seawater drink­ able. One group wanted to use Jews and another wanted to use Gypsies. It was finally concluded that Gypsies were not suitable for seawater experiments due to racial reasons. The SS and the participating doctors were ever watchful for undercurrents of disapproval in the medical profession. In May 1943, Professor Handloser, Chief Medical Officer of the Wehrmacht, called the fourth conference of consulting physicians to the armed forces. The featured speaker at the conference spoke about the transplanta­ tion of human bones. The findings were based on actual experiment­ ation; from the removal of bones from Polish women in Ravensbriick. The lecture was followed by a discussion and no criticisms were raised."* All of these doctors made use of human guinea pigs. Some of the experiments went a step too far; they were done without any desire to help patients. These experiments were identified with Nazi aims. They were performed as part of the total destruction process. Their ultimate goal was to discover a means by which Germany could rule Europe (and the world?) forever. There were many proposals for ways in which the Jews could be sterilized. The aim of the experiments was to find a means by which a victim could be sterilized without becoming aware of what was being done. These experiments were begun in Auschwitz, and performed on a large scale to Jewish women in the camp. The feasibility of x-ray castration of men was also explored. Anyone involved with these ex­ periments pledged secrecy. There were experiments, which confined

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themselves to the study of twins, whose object was to find a quick way to breed the German nation. All of these 'experiments', which cost the lives of countless victims, led to no viable results. In the very conception of these explorations, the destruction process of the European Jews threatened to escape from its narrowly defined channel, to engulf everyone within reach that might be branded as inferior. As a consequence of these failed experiments, there came doom for large sections of the population of Europe.1"" In the spring of 1942 an attempt was made to show that the blood of Gypsies was different from the blood of Germans. Two doctors received permission to perform experiments on Gypsies in Sachsenhausen. Experiments began on 40 Gypsies and, as promised initially, were expanded to include research on Jewish blood as well."" Administratively the medical experiments were only peripheral to the destruction process. Taking advantage of a huge supply of doomed human beings, doctors appropriated unlimited numbers of concentration camp inmates as their unwitting victims. Psychologic­ ally, the experiments posed a wider problem, bringing into focus the enormous extent of latent destructiveness in society. The reality of what happened and what was allowed to take place will have to be dealt with by all present day and future societies. How can one respect the work done by 'scientists' who claimed that they were the only ones who did not know what everyone else knew, and who were engaged in an activity which they refused to discuss? Claims that the scientists had no idea the experiments they were performing were wrong is absolutely ludicrous; the following asser­ tion makes little sense. 'When Professor von Verschuer began to use Dr Mengele as an assistant in his program of research in Auschwitz, he probably did not realize that the experiments would be performed on individuals who were completely without rights.'1" These were men and women of science, even if it is assumed that they were indi­ viduals of lesser intelligence. Thus, to say that they were this naive is unbelievable. As part of their studies, they were trained to ask ques­ tions. It was in the very nature of their profession to be inquisitive. The extent of the cruelty that was inflicted on the 'doomed' indi­ viduals does not seem possible. A basic characteristic all people allegedly posses is that of empathy. These men would not wish the horrible procedures that they performed every day on others to be done on them. And maybe on a more extended scale, they would surely not want someone to sterilize their own daughters or wives. The scientists must have realized that what they were doing was wrong, if they had to perform the experiments without their subjects' consent. Their behavior clearly shows that they knew their actions were morally unjust and professionally unethical. The fact that the experiments were done without anesthetic and, most importantly,

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without the persons' consent, is utterly outrageous and beggars belief, for in every aspect of experimental surgery one must ensure that the subject is experiencing no pain, or what we perceive as pain. One should never become a part of activities that maliciously hurt other human beings. When experiments will not benefit mankind as a whole, they should not be performed. The experiments the Nazi doctors 'dreamed' up were absolutely insane. They attempted to find answers to questions that did not need to be answered. As an example, we can cite the Luftwaffe medical experiments, whose main purpose was to find ways to save the lives of pilots (see above). Dachau inmates were deliberately infected with disease, force-fed seawater, or starved for oxygen in a chamber. They were alternately starved then forced to drink plain or chemically treated seawater. Some of the inmates refused to drink the putrid liquid, for it made them violently ill. They were tied up and force-fed with long tubes inserted down their throats. A number of victims suffered heart seizures and went into comas. Others became seriously wounded when their livers were punctured with a sharp instrument in order to drain the saltwater along with some blood. Those who did not survive the experiments were taken to the camp crematory to be burned. The monumental absurdity of these 'medical' experiments lies in the fact that the subjects were not anywhere close to the normal physical shape of an average pilot, but were underfed, emaci­ ated human specimens. This alone, apart from other adverse conditions, would invalidate them in the view of legitimate science. Many Germans interpreted Germany's 'post-World War One demoralization as an "illness," especially of the Aryan race.'"2 Hitler and his followers were among those who supported this theory. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote: 'anyone who wants to cure this era, which is inwardly sick and rotten, must first of all summon up the courage to make clear the causes of this disease.'"1 Hitler diagnosed racial impurity as the reason for Germany's illness: The only genuine culture-creating race, the Aryans, had permitted them­ selves to be weakened to the point of endangered survival by the destroyers of culture, characterized as the Jews. The Jews were agents of racial pollution and racial tuberculosis as well as parasites and bacteria causing sickness, deterioration, and death in the host peoples they infested. They were the eternal bloodsucker, vampire, germ carrier, people's parasite, and maggot in a rotting corpse. The cure had to be radical: that is (as one scholar put it), by cutting out the canker of decay, propagating the worthwhile elements and letting the less valuable whither away ... [and] the extirpation of all those categories of people considered to be worthless or dangerous.1"

Hitler's cure for this disease of Jews that plagued Europe was

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extermination. The medical sector was one of the places to which Hitler turned to accomplish this cure. How or why the members of this responsible segment of 'healers' accepted their Fuhrer's chal­ lenge is another of the many perplexing questions about German responsibility. Medicalized killing was desirable to Hitler for a couple of reasons. First of all, using a '"surgical'' method of killing large numbers of people by means of controlled technology making use of highly poisonous gas ... became a means of maintaining distance between killers and victim'."5 I have already pointed out that some of the Einsatzgruppen who carried out face-to-face shooting of Jews in eastern Europe suffered from psychological problems because they were forced to confront their victims. Therefore, a 'scientific' method of killing was favored, which provided an alternative to the psychologically damaging method of murder conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. Extermination camps followed this stage of the operation. They were built in remote areas of the Generalgouvernement, near littleknown hamlets, to attract less attention. The more prominent were Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec, which were all equipped with state-ofthe-art gas chambers and crematories during June and July 1942. One year earlier, in June 1941, the killing factory at Oswiecim had been established. In German it was called Auschwitz. Though all of these facilities were known for their efficiency in the art of murder, the latter possessed by far the largest absorptive capacity of the gas chambers. While the Treblinka gas chambers each accommodated only 200 victims daily, the Auschwitz facilities each accommodated 2,000 victims at one time. With the erection of these facilities, the enterprise of killing humans moved into a new phase. The activity was run with the effi­ ciency of an industrial complex. In fact all of the instruments of death, the crematories, the gas and the buildings themselves were put up for bids among legitimate industrial entities. Efficiency and thrift were of the essence. The gas chambers offered the perpetrators these advantages as well as complete anonymity. The perpetrators dropped Zyklon B (a crystallized prussic acid) gas into the death chamber via a small opening. It took from 3 to 15 minutes for the gas to take effect. Throughout this time, the SS supervisor or a desig­ nated inmate of the Sonderkommando observed the dying victims. They knew that when the screaming stopped inside the chamber, then all the people were dead. A waiting period of approximately half an hour was necessary before they opened the chamber doors to transfer the victims' bodies for cremation. This was done after members of the special commando had removed all jewellery from the victims' bodies and extracted the gold fillings from their teeth. Clothing and other usable articles were recycled as well, for the Nazi

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war effort. Thousands of inmates were subjects of medical 'experi­ ments' before they met their death in the gas chambers. Another reason why Hitler chose the medical field as the means to exterminate the Jews was because it gave mass murder an aura of scientific respectability. 'Dangerous Jewish characteristics could be linked with alleged data of scientific disciplines, so that a "main­ stream of racism" formed from "the fusion of anthropology, eugenics, and social thought." The resulting "racial and social biology" could make vicious forms of anti-Semitism seem intellectually respectable to learned men and women.'11" In this way, Hitler accomplished something that earlier, unorganized pogroms could not. The unorga­ nized, unrestricted slaughter of Jewish communities would have alienated many Germans, whereas medicalized killing allowed those Germans who knew what was going on to rationalize and justify the Jewish murders. The medical field began executing its assignment of eliminating Europe's 'life unworthy of life' (lebensunwertes Leben) by coercive ster­ ilization. Later, the medical profession progressed to killing 'impaired' children and then 'impaired' adults, mainly collected from mental hospitals, 'in centers specially equipped with carbon monoxide gas'."7 This mandatory euthanasia was then extended to include 'impaired' inmates in concentration and extermination camps (who were killed in the same 'specially equipped' killing centers), and 'finally, to mass killings, mostly of Jews, in the extermi­ nation camps themselves'."" However, this method of mass murder did not totally satisfy the Nazi regime. The Nazis wanted to find faster, more cost-effective, and more efficient ways of killing larger numbers of Jews in shorter periods of time. They were also enamored with the idea of having 'subhuman' races as their servants and slave laborers. However, this idea was only plausible if the 'subhuman' servants were sterile, since the Nazis had to protect their race against the mixture of Aryan blood with other inferior bloods. Consequently, Hitler's regime was also interested in finding ways to sterilize large groups of people in an efficient manner. The Nazis viewed concentration and execution camps as places where experiments could be conducted on inmates for specific ideological and military purposes. Consequently, the Nazi regime began to sponsor experiments in the concentration and exter­ mination camps. Later, inspired by the wealth of human 'material' available on which to conduct experiments, Nazi doctors and indus­ trial companies (such as I.G. Farben and others) began conducting experiments for their own indulgence and benefit."" The Nazi belief that the Jews were 'subhuman' allowed their doctors to rationalize their participation in these experiments. In their eyes, since Jews Were no better than vermin, experiments conducted on them were

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not morally wrong. A good many saw concentration camp experi­ ments as paths which would lead them to fame and fortune. However, while travelling along these paths of self-interest, many doctors lost their sense of morality and humanity. This was especially true for those doctors who performed experiments at the Auschwitz KZ Lager. Auschwitz' 'Block 10' was notorious for the sterilization experi­ ments which were conducted on both men and women. Here two doctors performed different sterilization experiments. Dr Clauberg's method was to inject a 'caustic substance into the cervix in order to obstruct the fallopian tubes'.121’ As his guinea pigs, he usually chose married women between the ages of 20 and 40, 'preferably those who had borne children'.121 The injections were done in three stages over a course of several months. The goal of the injections was to create 'adhesions in the fallopian tubes that would cause them to be obstructed within a period of about six weeks, as would be demon­ strated by subsequent x-rays'.122 The injections were often painful, causing inflammation of the ovaries after the experiment was over. One woman's description of the agonizing uterine injections was that 'I had the feeling that my stomach would burst with the pain. I began to scream.'12’ However, Clauberg was indifferent to the pain of his experimental subjects. His ultimate goal was to perform the ster­ ilization 'by a single injection made from the entrance of the uterus in the course of the usual customary gynecologic examination'.124 In achieving this goal, Clauberg and the Nazis could sterilize hundreds of women a day without the subject's knowledge that the procedure had occurred. Dr Schumann performed another method of sterilization. It involved the use of x-rays. Since ordinary means of sterilizing those with 'hereditary diseases' was considered too time-consuming and expensive, castration by x-ray seemed the perfect solution because it was relatively cheap and could be performed on thousands in a short period of time. Schumann's experimental subjects were 'relatively healthy young men and women in their late teens or early twenties, who had been obtained by a previous day's order from the Lagers'.11’ Most of the subjects were completely ignorant of their fate: Women were put between plates that pressed against abdomen and back; men placed penis and scrotum on a special plate. Schumann himself turned on the machines, which hummed loudly; and each treatment lasted several minutes ... many of the women emerged with ... substantial burns, which could become infected and take a long time to heal; and many quickly devel­ oped symptoms of peritonitis, including fever and severe pain and vomiting.12''

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Men also received radiation burns around the scrotum from the xray machine. Not long after the radiation treatments, either one or both of the male subject's testicles and either one or both the female subject's ovaries were removed. This was done to confirm that the radiation treatment was successful.127 Postoperative complications could occur that would be fatal for the patients, but 'their deaths mattered little since these guinea pigs [had] already served the func­ tion expected of them'.125 Pharmaceutical companies performed multiple experiments on inmates at Auschwitz. Dr Helmuth Vetter, an agent from I.G. Farben, conducted research on preparations called 3582 and Rhuthenol, which consisted of granulated rhuthenol. The preparations were given to Auschwitz prisoners for experimental purposes regarding typhus, typhoid fever, and various paratyphoid diseases, diarrhea, tuberculosis of the lungs, erysipelas, scarlet fever, and other diseases. The medicines were supposed to have an etiothcrapeutic effect and Vetter tried to convince the prison doctors about their 'beneficial' influence on various etiological diseases.1-' He administered his preparations to inmates suffering from tuberculosis. No other treat­ ment was allowed to be given to the experimental subjects except 3582 or Rhuthenol. The beneficial results Vetter claimed for the medicines did not correspond with the actual results. 'The administration of these preparations ... did not improve the health of the patients, because it caused vomiting, irritation of the mucous membrane of the alimen­ tary canal, had toxic effects on the parentymatous organs (mainly the liver and kidneys), prolonged the pathological process and increased mortality.'11' The preparations also weakened the heart muscle and lowered blood pressure. When told of the negative results from the experiments, Vetter was very dissatisfied, claiming that the prepara­ tions had yielded positive results in other camps. He therefore continued his experiments, even though he was causing more people to die from tuberculosis than normally would have died.111 The Auschwitz episodes were by no means an exception to the rule. Doctors in Nazi Germany took every opportunity to perform atrocious experiments on Lager inmates. One of the most widely discussed projects undertaken by Nazi doctors and scientists was immersion hypothermia testing. The studies took place in Dachau during the fall of 1942 and spring of 1943 (August-May); under the guise of scientific research, the Nazis were now brutalizing Jews in new and terrible ways. The experiments were said to explore 'the response of unanesthetized persons to immersion hypothermia, providing particularly important information on lethal temperatures, specific reactions to cooling, and methods of rewarming'.1’2 The studies used variables such as anesthetized versus unanesthetized

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subjects and clothed versus naked victims. The Jews were immersed in water of varying cold temperatures for different lengths of time. Some died, many were maimed, and all of them suffered irreparable damage. Robert L. Berger, MD, examining the findings resulting from the Nazi experiments, came to the conclusion that the Dachau hypothermia experiments were, and are still, useless. Many of the documents pertaining to the studies were destroyed before the Allies captured the Lager in order to hide evidence that the experiments, such as they were, ever took place.'" Berger cites several reasons for his conclusion that the project resulted in useless information. One, the papers were incomplete, due to the fact that most were destroyed, lost, or generally disorganized. In fact, the only papers that existed at the point of Allied victory were those given to Heinrich Himmler by the conductor of the experiments, Sigmund Rascher.1" Further, the data available proves unreliable and incon­ clusive. The temperature cited as the one resulting in death over a certain period of time in fact varied greatly and was often undocu­ mented. Another fact to consider is that Lager inmates were in no way examples of healthy, well-nourished people.135 No part of the studies can be considered to contain conclusive information. Berger determined that the evidence compiled by the Nazis in Dachau is at best inconclusive, inconsistent, and often inaccurate. The findings were probably frequently falsified. The results have proved unscien­ tific and unusable to scientists today. According to Berger, the ethical question of whether or not the findings can be used should never have come into play, as nothing of benefit can be taken from them.”" There were other experiments, too. Many were simply extermina­ tions under the guise of scientific probing. This included the euthanasia of children and those who were mentally inept.”7 In his work entitled Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis, Robert N. Proctor discusses the concept of racial hygiene, which is a belief that the procreation and taking care of the innately sickly, poor, and weak goes against the natural human biological set-up. This fits in nicely with the Nazi idea of a pure race and was put into practice in the Lagers. Experiments with genes and eugenics were also performed. The idea of manufacturing a perfect race was a common Nazi theme. Eugenics was discussed in a book entitled Rasse, Blut und Gene: Geschichte der Eugenik und Rassenhygiene in Deutschland, by Peter Weingart, Jurgen Kroll, and Kurt Bayertz. In his review of the book, Robert Gellately speaks of a 'utopia based on the selective breeding of the genetically "correct" as a solution'.1" A book reviewed by Gellately on the related subject of mass sterilization entitled Zwangssterilisation ini Nationalsozialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik und

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Frauenpolitik by Gisela Bock speaks of those whose heredity proved 'inferior'. Gellately tells of hereditary weaknesses that were cited by the Nazis as undesirable and which lent themselves to destruction. 'Feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic depressive insanity, genetic epilepsy, Huntington's chorea, genetic blindness or deafness, and severe alcoholism,' were thought to be reasons for sterilization. The Nazi doctors performed more than 400,000 sterilizing opera­ tions. Gellately goes on to state that 'many educated doctors and health officials came to believe that every social problem had a medical and/or racial cause'.IW As I have shown, sterilization experi­ ments were often brutal. Right before the Nuremberg Trials (in 1946) an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that some of the blame for the atrocities committed by Nazi doctors lay with medical organi­ zations and societies in the Reich at the time. They did not 'express in any manner their disapproval of these widely known experiments'. It was further stated that 'physicians have a right to expect that men trained in traditions of medicine would refuse to participate in any way in such acts of inhumanity and brutality'.14" Whether or not medical associations at the time made a statement against the contin­ uation of these experiments should not have mattered. The physicians who participated in the Lager experiments acted of their own accord and of their own consciences, and should be held fully responsible for the evil to which they contributed. Twenty-three doctors were tried at Nuremberg for their roles in the horror of the Holocaust.141 Their experiments were often sense­ less covers for further brutal treatment of the Jews. Clearly, Nazi medical scientists who had experimented on Lager inmates were criminals of the worst kind. These criminals not only committed atrocious, barbaric experiments and caused the deaths of many humans, but they did so while in a position of trust and respect. However, although modern medicine and society at large have easily condemned these individuals as evil, they have thus far neglected to confront the bioethical and moral issues concerning these atrocities. There has been little or no research done by the field of bioethics, which could examine the actions, abuses, crimes, poli­ cies, and rationales of the medical and scientific communities involved in the Nazi experiments, the results of which could serve as guidelines for future societies. Rather, there has been a general acceptance by the field of bioethics of the myths about the experiments and those medical scientists who were involved. These myths help us to realize how little we really know about the Nazi experiments and the medical scientists who conducted them. Some predominant myths are: care professionals who took the Hippocratic Oath and are somewhat

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concerned with their own moral conduct could not possibly have conducted the barbaric experiments; all the Nazi scientists must have been madmen, charlatans, and incompetents; and finally, the indi­ viduals involved must have been coerced by the Nazi regime into participating. Do these myths seem plausible? Could only those indi­ viduals who are mentally unstable have supported Nazism or conducted and helped carry out such a massive genocide program? The technical and logistical problems of collecting, transporting, exploiting, murdering, scavenging, and disposing of the bodies of large numbers of humans required both competence and skill attributes that the so-called scientists and physicians used to conduct their research. Yet, these myths have been able to flourish due to the absence of any analysis concerning the moral rationales used by the medical scientists to justify their motives and actions. The medical scientists attempted to justify why no wrong was done and to explain their direct involvement in the human experi­ mentation. This was often done by couching their defense in moral rationales for murder, torture, and mutilation of innocent victims. Some of the rationales used were that the subjects were 'volunteers' because they were given the prospect of release and pardon if they survived the experimentation. Further, the subjects used were only those condemned to die, and the medical scientists themselves should not be held accountable because they had to act in a value-neutral manner due to their lack of moral expertise. It was, therefore, reason­ able to sacrifice the interests of the few in order for the majority of the people to benefit and, finally, the experiments were done in the name of defense and security of the Third Reich during a time of total war. 'If the experiment is ordered by the state, this moral responsibility of the experimenter toward the experimental subjects relates to the way in which the experiments are performed, not the experiments them­ selves.'142 These rationales, along with the established myths, pose a serious threat. They help to hide the behavior of biomedicine under Nazism. They also explain the relative silence of bioethicists about those individuals who were involved with the Nazi abominations. 'A fog of excuses, lies and exculpation have been laid over the crematoria and laboratories of the concentration camps.'141 In order to attempt to understand the arguments against the moral rationales and the justifications that were used by the medical scientists, a clearer picture of what the experiments entailed needs to be fully explored. It is, at best, controversial whether or not the Nazi activities carried out in the name of science, upon unconsenting and coerced human beings, emaciated inmates, can morally be labeled 'experimentation'. The majority of the 'research' involved not only torture and murder, but also human exploitation, in order to fulfill specific pseudoscientific goals.

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At least 26 different types of experiments conducted for the sole purpose of 'research' used or rather abused inmates in concentration camps. The experiments ranged from injections of phenol (gasoline) and other chemicals; inoculating inmates with diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, and malaria; exposing them in high-altitude decompres­ sion chambers, to lethal temperatures, to high doses of radiation, to electroshock, to induced noma, and to cancerous growths, especially in the reproductive organs of women. Other experiments included bone, muscle and joint transplants, genetic studies on twins (all chil­ dren), dwarfs, and those with congenital defects. From the Nazi documents and records about the experiments, one would think that the results obtained were scientifically valid. Nothing is mentioned about the procedures used on inmates, the cruelty and suffering they experienced, or the conditions under which the experiments were conducted. However, these documents and records underscore the fact that the experiments were done on human beings, and thus are tainted with blood. The chance to conduct any type of experiment upon an unlimited supply of 'research specimens' created an escalating effect within German medical and scientific communities. These 'professionals' willingly took part in experiments on humans. Some of the medical scientists volunteered even before they were asked. For many, their true objection was the method by which the 'objects' of their experimentation were destroyed. Yet, the results were frequently discussed within the medical and scientific circles of Germany's 'intellectual elite'. One must keep in mind the fact that the Nazi experiments lacked scientific integrity (see above). Doubts over the scientific validity of these studies surface when one considers that the data was inspired and administered through racial ideologies which had been invented by the medical scientists even before Hitler came to power. The Nazis went even further by their perversion of scientific termi­ nology - 'sample size' meant truckloads of Jews, 'significant' was an indication of a size, 'response rate' was a measure of the torment. One was unable to surmise from the euphemistic language used that what was being described was the systematic murder of innocent victims. When viewing the larger picture, the question of whether the data should be used to save lives becomes invalid when one stops to consider that by 'conferring a scientific martyrdom on the victims, it would tend to make them our retrospective guinea pigs, and us, their retrospective torturers'.111 Nazi data can never be morally neutral for it crossed that line when the duty to preserve life was completely ignored. Although medical behavior favors the saving of life, the Nazi medical scientists used this medical vision of social cure to

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destroy life, to maim or kill by the use of medicine. If one is not able to trust the person who has performed these atrocious experiments, then how can one justify using the data obtained from them? If the data never existed, we would still have gone on with our lives science would be no worse or better off today. In the end, we ought to place emphasis on human life first. It would be a mistake, however, to view the medical experiments as results of a viciousness of which only the Germans are capable. Still, a thorough examination of all the experiments conducted on the concentration camp inmates is essential. By acknowledging the experiments for what they were - no longer hidden behind a cloud of euphemisms, cold and devoid of any human emotion - one is able to see the Nazi doctors for what they were: perversely insensitive to human needs and suffering. It is tragic, indeed, that those perpetra­ tors were 'normal', ordinary people. Consequently, we cannot discount Nazi 'science' as an aberration. We must remember that mainstream scientific and medical communities embraced it. For the future, society might find it necessary to establish guidelines and define boundaries as to how far science can venture when human beings are involved. A precedent ought to be set now for future human experimentation. Nothing is harder to swallow than the active involvement of doctors in genocide. The broad Nazi 'biomedical vision' involved the systematic and direct medical killings based on lebeiisuirwertes Leben, life unworthy of life. As described above, Nazi physicians often participated in coercive sterilization, killing of 'impaired' children and adults, inmates of concentration camps, and eventually mass killings. This medical killing was referred to as euthanasia, a 'term that camouflaged mass murder'.145 Often the so-called 'impaired' were used as guinea pigs in medical experiments as well. Although it is important to understand the psychology and knowledge of the survivors, one can gain much insight by compre­ hending the psychology and knowledge of the perpetrators. Dr Josef Mengele, commonly referred to as 'Dr Auschwitz', actively partici­ pated in mass killing and medical experimentation. Mengele perfectly embodied the transformation of healer to morbid medical researcher and killer. His credentials were not especially extraordinary. He received his md degree from the University of Frankfurt in 1935 and had three medical publications to his credit prior to his involvement in Auschwitz. What was extraordinary was his association with highranking Nazi officials during his academic years, even Hitler. This initiated his medical interest in the Nazi 'biomedical vision'. Mengele was a member of the Stahlhelme from 1931 to 1934, joined the Nazi Party in 1937, and the SS in 1938. He was part of the Waffen-SS

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medical corps, and eventually served at the Auschwitz extermination camp until 1945.146 Mengele was known as a meticulous physician and researcher. He was fascinated with cleanliness and perfection. Everyone who violated this aesthetic principle would be sent to the gas chamber. The psychotic Nazi doctor never addressed his colleagues directly; instead he spoke to them in a cold, detached linguistic manner. He always focused on his prisoners as if they were toys that served only his selfish pseudoscientific interest. His twisted perversions and exploitation of medical oddities provided an extreme capacity for carrying out the Nazi 'biomedical vision' - a vision of racial purity. Mengele was infamous for his selection process. 'He brought such verve and energy to the task of selection that his image became most associated with it.'N7 He soon became known as the 'Angel of Death', choosing either to preserve or destroy human life that was consid­ ered 'asocial'. He was described as a confident man with a riding crop in his hand, who would look at prisoners for a few seconds declaring right or left, determining their fate. A motion of his riding crop would determine either temporary freedom from bondage or the path to extermination. The Angel of Death determined the fate of thousands of European Jews and other so-called 'asocials'. His vision of medical exploitation was spurred by the powerful dominating position he held over thousands of human lives. Mengele was completely fascinated by and absorbed with his medical research involving absurd experimentation. This was thought to be the reason for his arrival at Auschwitz. He explored the concept of the determination of heredity in man. Therefore, he often had a medical interest in twins because of their high experimentational value. Because of this, they were often spared immediate death. Mengele considered twins a special breed and often rewarded them with personal privileges, such as allowing them to keep their hair and live in special blocks. Research usually consisted of meticu­ lous measurement and comparison, often ending in dissection of corpses. Mengele was also involved in scientific research on dwarfs, noma, and eye color. Finally, he was considered an 'honest' scientist, meaning that he followed strict scientific methods and treated pris­ oners as scientific subjects. He was also involved in mass direct killing, which was accomplished through phenol injections. What seems to be most interesting about Mengele is his double self. Although his morbidity is explicitly clear, many described him as having a 'split personality'; a kind of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There were many instances of grace towards children and Gypsies, whom he especially liked. Often when he spotted a beautiful family, they were isolated from the rest of the camp inmates and allowed to live for a brief time longer, at least, than they would have otherwise. He

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valued other doctors' opinions, even Jewish doctors' opinions, on medical experimentation and theory. In addition, his practice of the scientific method was flawless on a purely tactical level. What would drive a man with such qualities to convert healing to systematic killing of European Jews and other 'asocials'? By understanding the psychology of the individual, influenced by political, economic, and social conditions, one can microscopically examine the capacity of human beings to kill others, the ultimate human atrocity. Mengele pursued and carried out this 'biomedical vision' of the Nazi regime. Mengele had to be the most horrifying individual to those who had experienced his split personality under camp circumstances. His experiments with twins showed his total lack of morality. By doing research on twins, it was thought that one could achieve "'complete and reliable determination of heredity in man" and "the extent of the damage caused by adverse hereditary influences," as well as "rela­ tions between disease, racial types, and miscegenation."'14" Identical twins were Mengele's most treasured research objects, and were often examined together. 'Each one of a pair of twins could be observed under the same diet and living conditions and could be made to "die together ... and in good health" - ideal for post-mortem comparison.'149 Although most of the twins were kept alive and underwent numerous experiments, about 15 percent were killed, 'some as a consequence of experiments performed on them, including surgical operations'.15,1 In his laboratory, Mengele became fanatical and 'if he didn't see blood on his white uniform, he wasn't content'.151 In one experiment, he injected blue coloring into a child's brown eyes in an attempt to change their color. Performed without anesthetic, this caused considerable pain, infection, and even blind­ ness in some cases.152 In the end, the experiments conducted at Auschwitz had little or no scientific value. There were no real positive results in any of the research projects. This was mainly due to the fact that many of the physicians tried to shape the conclusions of their research to fit their preconceived expectations. Doctors ignored results that were contrary to their expectations and only recorded those details that supported their theories. Consequently, thousands of innocent victims were forced to suffer tortuous experimental sessions, and nothing was gained from their pain. Experimentation in death camps was a useless process whose only lasting affect was the severe psychological damage suffered by the experiment's 'guinea pigs', if they survived. Even after many years, survivors continue to experience the results of the trauma they suffered in the Lagers. Though physical recovery is possible, emotional anguish is more difficult to forget (see chapter 10). Rachel Loden's poem, 'Conversations with Dr M-'

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depicts this continuation of emotional distress, which is experienced by survivors: They say it is you at the morgue in Sao Paulo:

skull, bones, shreds of cloth; they say they will know you even from one tooth.

At the grave they paraded your skull for the curious, tossed the remains into a bin, mangled evidence.

There are complaints. But we of infinite patience have endured

your many disinterments in this world, all of them careless. Your dental records have arrived in Brazil; felicitations. In a cold room they count and clean your bones,

assemble your skeleton, much abnormality with recorded injury They want to know if you drowned; we want to know

what images possessed you on the way down.

Herr Doktor, is it you? We of infinite patience whose wounds were never catalogued,

whose bones were never counted, want to know.

In Plato's Crito, Socrates states, 'Both in war and in the law-courts and everywhere else you must do whatever your city and vour country commands, or else persuade it in accordance with universal justice; but violence is a sin even against your parents, and it is a far greater sin against your country.'151 Sigmund Freud delves into the idea as well. In Civilization and its Discontents, he suggests that man is instinctually aggressive and 'that men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved ... whose main instinctual is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness'. He goes on to suggest that man is naturally aggressive and 'his inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbor and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure [of energy]'.151 Thus, the conflicts in communal relations, according to Freud, seem to lie in people's aggressive nature. However, as people are born into the social contract, this inclination must be suppressed so that a healthy unit may survive. With many aggressive forces at play, the unit would never succeed. Hence, this suppression frequently surfaces. In the Third Reich, the Nazi scientists offered a prime example of Freud's theory. There were no restrictions on their practice, and it is plain to see that their aggressive nature showed through the dehumanization process; both of the inmates as well as themselves. Dr Mengele approaches a wooden cage in which two small children are imprisoned. He points to one of the children and orders that the child be brought into the exam­ ining room. The child is laid onto the examining table naked. Its mouth is gagged and eyes are blindfolded. Assistants hold the child down on the table on each side. The doctor steps forward with his scalpel and makes a long incision into the child's left leg and the tibia. He then begins to take scrapings from the bone. When he is finished,

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the leg is bound up and the child returned to the cage ... nothing is given for pain.1,1

The scientist encounters these prominent aspects of his nature during wartime. He must, and often does, act out of his sense of duty to his country. But he ought to be able to suppress his natural impulses to aggression at such a volatile and intense time like war. This suppression is necessary in order to make reasonable choices and decisions. The goal is not to kill or maim, rather to defend and protect. Nazi scientists and physicians abused the power of war with their inhumane treatment of KZ Lager inmates, regardless of the conditions surrounding them. It is the universal laws that the scien­ tist must confront in wartime as one does in peace, and then act responsibly.

Conclusions A clear pattern can be seen in the Nazis' implementation of their Final Solution to the Jewish Question. 1. DEFINITION

The Jew is the enemy of the state. A cancer in society. An inferior object unworthy of living. The Jew's blood is diseased. Therefore the Jew is dismissed from positions of trust, such as education, civil service, science, medicine, etc. The Jew must not employ Aryans; must not conduct business; must forfeit all personal property and effects in favor of the state. Mixed marriages must be dissolved or both parties suffer identical consequences. Children of mixed marriages may remain in the Third Reich as second-class citi­ zens if they renounce their parents. 2. CONCENTRATION

The Jews of Europe are 'resettled' into ghettos in the territories of the Generalgouvernement of Poland. Wearing of the Star of David armbands or yellow star patches as identity marks is mandatory. Food is rationed and inadequate. Outbreaks of epidemics are frequent and first victims are recorded. 3. ANNIHILATION

Extermination Camps (Vernichtungslager) are established in the Generalgouvernement territories, where the Jews of Europe are system­ atically exterminated. Lagers in the Third Reich and occupied territories pursue the implementation of genocide by using the Jews

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as slave labor under starvation conditions. The final phase of the Final Solution is implemented. In Catholic medieval Spain, the Jews were told: 'You cannot live among us as Jews.' Some converted to Catholicism; others fled the peninsula. The Inquisition told the Jews: 'You cannot live among us.' Most of the Jews left the countries where they weren't welcome. Hitler told the Jews: 'You cannot live!' The rest is history. NOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 73. Ibid., 73. Charny, Toward Understanding and Prevention of Genocide, 177. Ibid. Ibid., 178. Staub, Roots of Evil, 29. Gilbert, Holocaust, 28. Charny, Toward Understanding and Prevention of Genocide, 420. Griffin and Moorhead, Organizational Behavior, 487. Ibid., 489. Charny, Toward Understanding and Prevention of Genocide, 408. Broszat, 'Hitler and the Genesis of the Final Solution,' 400. Ibid., 401. Gilbert, The Holocaust, 167. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 364. Ibid., 4. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 203. Ibid., 233. Ibid. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 5. Ibid. Ibid., 61. Ibid., 94. US Govt. Printing Office, 1950, 1: 890. Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (London, 1765-69), 41. Lang, Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide, 23. Marcusen, Genocide Mentality. Samuel, Great Hatred, 11. Weber, 'Modern Antisemitism,' 37. Book of Exodus, 9-11-13-14-22. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 38. Ibid. Ibid., 40. Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 77. Ibid., 69. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 72. Ibid., 58. Ibid., 79. Ibid., 82. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 233. Hilberg, Destruction of the European lews, 137. Weber, 'Modern Antisemitism,' 37. Sartre, Theatre I, 143. Miller, Obedience Experiments, 201. Charny, How Can We Commit the Unthinkable?, 14.

The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 5152.

Miller, Obedience Experiments, 183. Gottlieb, Thinking the Unthinkable, 302. Schleunes, Twisted Road to Auschwitz, 213. Read and Fisher, Kristallnacht. 6. Ibid., 61. Barkai, Front Boycott to Annihilation, 134. Read and Fisher, Kristallnacht. 62.

53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67.

Frances, Victims and Neighbors, 115. Flannery, Anguish of the Jews, 215. Read and Fisher, Kristallnacht, 68. Schleunes, Twisted Road to Auschwitz, 244. Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation, 136. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 432. Graml, Antisemitism in the Third Reich, 9. Flannery, Anguish of the Jews, 217. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 235. Ibid., 230. Hilberg, Destruction of the European lews, 1025. Ibid., 1027. Ibid. Ibid. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 22. Amery, At the Mind's Limits, 70.

68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78.

80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93.

94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106.

23.7

Ibid., quoting Sartre's No Exit, 86. Ibid., 9. Ibid., 19. Ibid., 10. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschu’itz, 187. Fackenheim, To Mend the World, 222f. Heinemann, Gender and Destiny, 3. Ibid., 5. Ibid., 15. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschu’itz, 192.

Ibid. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 60. Ibid., 61. Dawidowicz, War Against the Jews, 325. Braham, Psychological Perspectives of the Holocaust, 30. Rosenberg and Meyers, Echoes from the Holocaust, 13B. Ibid., 448f. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 695. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 143. Braham, Psychological Perspectives, 3 Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., 7. Rosenberg and Meyers, Echoes from the J Jolocaust, 27ft.

Ibid., 264. Bauer, Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness, v\ii. Staudinger, Inner Nazi, 118. Mitchell, ed., Nazism and the Common Man, 91. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 252. Ibid., 230. Ibid., 251. Rosenberg and Meyers, Echoes from the Holocaust, 218. Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 53. Ibid., 45ff. Bauer, Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness,76. Muller-Hill, Murderous Science, 22. Ibid., 75.

218 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155.

Warning and H Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews, 502. Muller-Hill, Murderous Science, 126. Ibid., 149. Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews, 552. Muller-Hill, Murderous Science, 89. Lifton, Nazi Doctors, 16. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., 17. Ibid., 21. Ibid. Ibid., 269. Ibid., 271. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Mendelsohn, Holocaust, 162. Lifton, Nazi Doctors, 280f. Ibid. Ibid , 282. Ibid. Fertig, Nazi Medicine, 15. Ibid., 19. Ibid., 27. Berger, 'Nazi Science, '1435. Ibid. Angell, 'Nazi Hypodermia Experiments', 1462. Berger, 'Nazi Science,' 1437. Ibid., 1440. Lifton, Nazi E)octors, 30. Gellately, 'Medicine and Collaboration,' 479. Ibid., 483. Scolnick, 'Scholars Apply Holocaust Experience,' 575. Ibid. Caplan, When Medicine Went Mad, 74. Ibid., 59. Cohen et al., War and Moral Responsibility, 20. Lifton, Nazi Doctors, 18. Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 971. Lifton, Nazi Doctors, 335. Ibid., 348. Ibid., 351. Ibid , 353. Ibid. Ibid., 362. Plato, Crito, 91. Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 68f. Caplan, When Medicine Went Mad, 12.

PART THREE

Warning Days of Disgrace and Redemption 1939-1945

It does not matter how many people chose moral duty over the rationality of self-preservation what does matter is that some did. Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity in the Holocaust

O Collaborators, Bystanders, Resistors, Deniers, Non-Jewish Victims and the Righteous Gentiles Questions: What was world opinion and how did it react to Nazi acts? How did the Germans react to the Nazi genocide of the Jews - did they aid the Jews? How could they let this happen? Why did some find the courage to aid the persecuted?

Collaborators

In the beginning it was in the first weeks of the Piotrkow ghetto, I recall the Shammes (beadle) paying a visit to my Grandfather Srulko. The Shammes was an important person in the Piotrkow Jewish community; he was the keeper of the Great Synagogue. 'Eventually, the worry over our own and our family's survival will make us act like animals.' The Shammes seldom came directly to the point. Instead, he hedged around the purpose of his coming, and pretended he had come to discuss issues related to the Talmud, as they had so often done in the company of the other Hassidim. My grandfather wasn't easily deceived. 'But the concern for the survival of our souls will keep us from doing unethical acts.' He said with a smile and a twinkle of his wise eyes. 'Besides,' he continued, 'animals do not betray their own kind. Though they might, if they behave the way people do.' Srulko knew the Shammes had come to offer him a position with the Judenrat - the Jewish Council - a body of men who

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represented the will of the Gestapo within the boundaries of the ghetto. The Council comprised 14 Jews, and those 'elders' would govern the ghetto for their masters, the Nazis. The catch was that only those who could pay for the privileged position would be called upon to serve. For as long as wealth was avail­ able, the Council members would enjoy their status, while becoming willing collaborators in the administration of Nazi 'cultural and Jewish programs.' Srulko was not going to do the enemy's job. My grandfather knew he would rather forsake his own safety and that of his family. 'I said no! Do you understand? N-O!' Srulko shouted. Don't count on me!' 'Srulko, my dear friend, the time is here for you to start thinking about your family.' Shlomo Ganev Zaplocki pleaded with my grandfather. 'If you live long enough, you'll have a chance to find out that those you've always considered your dearest and most esteemed friends are really total strangers.' Srulko chanted his response in the fashion of the Hassidim. 'What do you mean by that, Srulko?,' Shlomo asked puzzled. 'What I mean is that I curse the day on which you have come to me with such an offer, thinking I'll accept.' Grandfather continued his singsong response. And I'm wishing it wouldn't be you who asks that I betray my own people.' 'You're taking it all wrong, my friend.' Shlomo sounded hurt. T could have gone to others. There are many takers, you know? Do you realize what's happening out there? Have you been outside lately, Srulko? Wake up, my friend! It's a matter of life and death!' My grandfather listened to the man quietly, his eyes gazing at the ceiling, his lips moving as if in silent prayer. 'What good is it that a man saves his body if he loses his soul in the process.' Srulko hummed softly, but audibly enough for the Shammes to hear. My grandfather delighted in quoting appropriate phrases, without remembering their sources. Still, it had its effect on the repentant Shammes. 'Warszawski himself sent me to see you, Srulko.' He men­ tioned the name of the Council President. The latter was no other than the most powerful man in the Piotrkow community. The owner of the glass factory Hortensia; now used for the manufac­ ture of bottles and jars in which the Nazis supplied drugs to the front lines. 'Don't be a fool, Srulko,' Shlomo continued, 'if vou won't do it, someone else will. They're fighting for the honor.' A fool I may be, my friend,' Srulko said softly, 'but I won't do the enemy's dirty work. I feel sorry for you and the others on the Council. How terribly burdened you must feel. I will not become your accomplice.'

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'I'm sorry you feel this way, Srulko.' Shlomo said sadly. Some day you will wish you had taken the offer.' The Shammes avoided my grandfather's glare. On leaving, he offered Srulko the customary handshake, but my grandfather ignored it. 'Be careful, Shlomo, you're beginning to sound like the rest of the bureaucrats. In my humble opinion, the most despicable char­ acter is that of a bureaucrat without a heart; he'll commit murder in the name of his office. Be very careful, Shlomo, there is a Gestapo soul in every man. Scratch the surface, and you'll find it.' 'But ... I ... please, Srulko ...' The Shammes tried in vain to interrupt my grandfather. 'And, please, don't concern yourself as far as my family is concerned. I've relied on the Almighty's will far too long to place my destiny in the hands of the Gestapo. What the Blessed One wills for us, is going to happen no matter what I'll do; if it is bashaert, so let it be. It is written.' That was my grandfather's way. Loyal to his conscience even at the risk of forfeiting life. Shlomo left my grandfather a defeated man. Not because Srulko had refused to join the native mercenary ranks of hirelings and informers, but because from then on Shlomo would be unable to delude himself about the purpose of having joined the Jewish Council. This was the Gestapo's simple prison psychology; use an inmate to betray an inmate; a Jew to betray a Jew. The promise of life was all too tempting to refuse the offer to serve. Shlomo knew it was like the pact with the devil himself; once you signed it in your own blood, there was no way to renege. Only, the devil delivered on his promises; the Gestapo welshed. Were it not for his fealty to life, Shlomo might have turned honest.

As winter turned to spring, unusual things began to happen. I was able to read cause for concern from bits and pieces of talk which went on in the household, though it was all in hushed voice, and very secretive, lest the 'children hear.' One day, my mother could no longer hold still. 'They can't do this!,' she cried. 'I absolutely won't let them! My children will continue school attendance!' She was referring to the newest decree of the Nazi-occupation authorities barring all Jewish children from attending public schools. 'I'm going to see Jerzy,' she mentioned the school principal, Reszewski, who was an old family friend. It's no use, Mama,' Roman tried to dissuade her. 'We're not the only ones expelled. All Jewish children met with the same fate.' My mother was determined. Her two boys in tow, she asked to see the principal. The latter graciously showed us into his

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office. He listened patiently to our mother, his hands folded in front of him on the desk as if in prayer. 'They're excellent students, Jerzy, you know that, not trouble-makers like some.' She argued. 'We haven't given you any reason for dismissal,' she concluded. 'You know how terribly unpleasant it is for me to let them go, my dear Bela,' the principal responded. T have known your boys since they were infants. It's a crying shame, but my hands are tied. There's absolutely nothing I can do to keep them here. I'm duty bound. Those are the orders. All non-Aryans are to be denied public schooling. As Principal, I must enforce the law. I hope you can appreciate my position, Bela. Can't you?' Aren't you at all afraid, Jerzy?' My mother addressed the principal in a familiar manner. Aren't you even a bit concerned that some day, when all this is over, you'll be called to account for your actions?' The principal smiled with embarrassment. 'I can't think that far ahead, my dear Bela. All I know ...,' he paused suddenly as if to reflect on what he was about to say '... all I know is that 1 have this job, and I have a family to feed, and if I don't fulfill my duty someone else will do the job in my place.' He now spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness and stood up, indicating that the audience was over. 'May God have mercy on you,' my mother said without looking at the principal, as we were leaving his office. She held back her anger bravely until we were outside where she finally let go. 'We'll just have to make the best of the situation, boys. We're not going to sit idly by and fall behind in our schoolwork. We'll find a way.' Knowing mother, we understood that as long as there was breath left in her, we would receive proper schooling. Soon, many clandestine classrooms sprang up in the ghetto where teachers and parents volunteered their time and effort so that all children might continue their formal schooling without delay. Things were almost 'normal' again.

The Polish municipal police and the Jewish ghetto militia were relentless in their implementation of the Nazi orders of resettle­ ment. The police were motivated by incentives ranging from half a liter of vodka and a pound of spicy sausage to monetary awards for each Jew they delivered from his hiding place. The Jewish ghetto militia had other motives. Each time they delivered their daily quotas of people for resettlement they moved up the time of their own deportation and that of their loved ones. A second cousin on my mother's side, Heniek, was

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zealous in his task. Each day, from morning to dusk, he scurried from one place to another, rounding up 'his' Jews for the waiting freight trains. Each day, as the ghetto population declined, Heniek appraised his options. What if he runs out of the numbers required of him? What then? Last week, for the first time, Heniek had to 'deliver' some of his former friends. He tried to be conciliatory. 'Look, I've got to do it. Come on,' he said to the balking friends, 'you're only being resettled. Not like it's a big deal, you know.' Finally, there were no strangers or friends left. Heniek's selection began to center on family. Who will go first? 'Grandfather,' he addressed the old Hassid, his paternal grandfather, 'after all, you've lived your life already. Won't you come with me? 1 can’t very well take Masha and the children.' He pointed at his wife and the two small sons. 'They haven't yet begun to live. You understand, Grandfather, don't you?' The old man looked at his grandson. Then, he glanced at his grandson's family. He understood all too well. His time was up. Would his life redeem the young ones? For how long? No one knew. He prayed silently, but answers were slow in coming. 'You'll forgive me, Grandpa? Won't you?' he heard his grandson say meekly. 'There's nothing to forgive, Heniek,' the old man said. 'Only, let grandmother come with me. Will you?' T will, grandfather, 1 will,' Heniek promised, letting out a sigh of relief. This went much easier than he'd anticipated. He only needed one 'object' for tomorrow's transport, but he was bringing two instead. His superiors would be pleased. Come morning, he led his grandparents to the waiting train along with some other distant family. He embraced each of them stiffly and didn't know what to say. There was no need for words. They understood. It was his duty. He was not respon­ sible for the demands of the enemy. He helped them into the freight car and made them comfort­ able on the wooden floor. 'Goodbye Grandpa. Goodbye Grandma.' He kissed their cheeks. They were as if lifeless already. 'Don't worry, Heniek,' his grandfather said. The last words spoken. The last he would ever hear his grandfather utter. 'I won't, Grandpa,' Heniek whispered, as he helped his grandparents up into the freight car. 'Take care.' No one cried. None complained. He jumped down to the ground and pulled the sliding door to a lock position. All the wagons were loaded to capacity and now they could be secured. The Latvian SS mercenaries clambered into the passenger compartment in the front of the long train, immediately behind the locomotive.

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They laughed and joked about their cargo. Heniek's face was somber. He had bought another day for himself and his dear ones. But at what price? Piotrkow was becoming Judenrein, and Heniek was helping speed up the process. He reported to his superiors. He did his 'duty.' They were pleased. Another day had passed and he was safe. His family was safe, too ... for now ... THE JEWS

Many of the criminals brought to trial for crimes against humanity claimed that they were not responsible for their actions. 'It was the bureaucracy,' they said. Everything had to be done by the book, they testified. They obeyed the law, they said. Their superiors' orders had to be carried out to the minutest detail. The personal killing of Jews was forbidden, yet extermination of the entire minority was state policy. The Nazi's fanatical attention to detail made them lose sight of the larger picture. They had been dehumanized to the extent of not thinking of people as persons but as numbers; cargo to be deliv­ ered to the killing factory. An SS attendant poured the granules of Zyklon B gas and hundreds were gassed. He was only following orders. It is not that the killers would not care, but the way the enter­ prise was conducted; they could not care if they wanted to. No cog can turn the wheel by itself, just as no individual can run a bureau­ cracy by himself. Each cog carried out its purpose in the greater scheme of the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, twisting and turning in a finely tuned machine; performing his or her part loyally. It has been an accepted fact that Nazis guilty of crimes against humanity were to pay for their complicity in the killing of Jews. Some of them have been brought to justice before international as well as local courts of law. In all fairness, it must be said that there were 'Nazis' among the Jewish inmates as well. They were Jews in the service of the Nazis, that is, the ghetto militia, some elders of the Judenrat, the Lager capos, and they, too, ought to have faced a tribunal of peers, to be judged for their crimes against humanity. The capo in particular was well fed by his masters, enjoyed the privileges of his or her position, which rendered him or her physically capable of exercising his or her authority over the other inmates. The ques­ tion, then, comes to mind; if the capo (Jew or Gentile), was strong enough to beat the inmate at will, why didn't they use their strength to resist the Nazis? All in all, there were many instances of Jews aiding the Germans in achieving their goal of racial cleansing. In many ways, the cruelty of the surrogate perpetrators surpassed that of their masters in their attempt to impress; crueler because it was mostly unwarranted and

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because it came from those who were trusted by their own. Granted, the perpetrator was willing to do anything to survive, even for the moment, and none could say they had been coerced into acting, if it meant turning against their brothers and sisters. Although to do harm to others is inexcusable, the motives of the Jewish surrogates were, for the most part, induced by fear and a strong desire to survive. Nevertheless, the choice to act or not to act was theirs. This cannot be said of the Nazis, that is, the SS, SD, Gestapo, the experimenting pseudo-scientists, and all loyal party members. They were not coerced into the murderous service through threats. It was their choice. They were willing assassins. Granted, some of the Jewish collaborators suffered from the common malady of anti-Jewishness as 'self-hating Jews', but they were plentiful in years past as well. This category of Jew was abun­ dant in the Polish ghetto, especially among the assimilated German and Austrian Jews who had been 'resettled' there. They were quick to put the blame for their misfortune in having been banished from 'their Vaterland' on the orthodox Jew, whose refusal, as they claimed, to acquiesce to the ways of the Nazis had brought down the wrath of their Fuhrer on all of the Jews, regardless. With their knowledge of German, and a desire to ingratiate themselves with their coun­ trymen, they proved trustworthy servants of the assassins. As David Klinghoffer states: 'These same German Jews not long ago imitated the manners of rich Protestants and committed apostasy for a spot in the social register.'1 It must be mentioned, however, that there were large numbers of Jews who were good Jews and good Germans. The responsibility for one's actions lies squarely on the shoulders of the individual who chooses to act. Therefore, it is truly amazing that in all of the accounts of Nazi bestiality - which are attributed to Germans and surrogates of non-Jewish faiths - there is a conspicuous absence of those few Jews of various nationalities who acted with a total lack of compassion for the victims, their own people. Albert Camus once said that:

Tragedies of history often fascinate men with approaching horror. Paralyzed, they cannot make up their minds to do anything but wait. So they wait, and one day the Gorgon devours them. But I should like to convince you that the spell can be broken, that there is an illusion of impotence, that strength of heart, intelligence and courage are enough to stop fate and sometimes reverse it'. (The Plague, New York: 1948) It is truly puzzling how circumstances of senseless slaughter could have taken place in a so-called 'sophisticated' German society. How could this happen? Could it be that much of this has to do with the

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human desire to belong and fit in? So when this smooth talking person named Hitler came along, he set standards for what he thought of as the superior group, and branded all the others as subhuman. This horrible pronouncement, as sickening as it was, gave those that qualified for the 'superior' category an ego boost, and a place to fit in. Everyone likes the chance to fit in and be comfort­ able, to have a sense of belonging. Thus, the Nazi club grew quickly among the elite. It wasn't only the hatred of the Jews that joined the Nazis solidly together, but rather their natural need to fit in, while Hitler targeted for persecution all types of minority or religious groups which did not fit his ideal of the superior people. Meanwhile, as Nazis were having their ego-boost sessions, Jews were persecuted and murdered for absolutely no reason at all. One would think that the Nazi guards at the wall of a KZ Lager or ghetto would rethink their actions, even if for just a second, when they saw a helpless, lonely child crying and grown men begging. It seems as if those Nazis had narrowed their mind-frames so much that they questioned nothing. Fact is, when the solitary guard saw that his friends and companions were also participating in the senseless killings, it somehow seemed all right to join in as well. If everyone else was doing it, it must be all right. Sad reality. Hence, it seems that there is a lesson to be drawn from this horrible experience, which is that it is not all right to just join the crowd and become one of many clones. Although unity is powerful in itself and teamwork can become a motivating force to overcome many difficul­ ties, there comes a point where one must act as a free individual. One cannot afford to abandon individuality, for it is in the aura of groupthink that disastrous effects can occur. As long as redefined characteristics of people are accepted and responsibility for one's actions is denied, the potential for a person to be inhumane will exist. The unfathomable behavior of the ordinary person during the Nazi Holocaust should remind us that the ability to destroy one another must not be underestimated. Individually or collectively, people can act responsibly. On the other hand, it is sad that this group unifying force did not take effect among the persecuted. If they could only have recognized the danger signals early on, there was still an opportunity to unite and create a powerful bond, which would have become a deterrent to the murderous pursuits of the Nazis. Alas, it was up to the individual to decide what course of action to support; sadly, many decided too late or never. THE CHRISTIANS

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, you shall love your Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your

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soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like the first: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew, 22:36-39

Question: If Germany was a predominantly 'Christian' nation before and during the advent of Hitler and Nazism, what made the people forget one of the mainstays of Christian teachings, 'Love your neighbor as yourself?

C.S. Lewis, when asked about the outrages of Christianity throughout history, was said to have replied: 'Imagine what they would be like if they weren't Christian?' Cynical though C.S. Lewis' remark may have been, the truth is that anti-Jewish feeling was markedly less rampant in Germany than in Austria long before the Nazis came to power. The Nazis, under orders from Hitler, increased the persecution of the Jews and system­ atized its implementation. In 1933, Germany had a population of 65 million people; among them there were 500,000 Jews. When Hitler proposed to disenfran­ chise the Jews, he acted not only as the head of the Third Reich, but also as a Christian man. There were no protests, which would impede the Nazi agenda. There was expediency. Hitler and his party promised the unhappy Germans 1,000 years of a new heaven and a new earth; both were contingent on the persecution of the Jews. Hence one of the first acts of the Nazi regime was to evict Jews from their appointments in government and teaching positions at universities, to prohibit the practice of medicine, and to destroy their social, political, and economic situation. It is well understood that every Jew who had been run out made a vacancy for some willing Christian Nazi. It should also be understood that the persecution and ultimate annihilation of European Jewry was not limited to Jews alone. It extended to persons of mixed heritage, in whose veins a single particle of 'Jewish blood' may have been present for four generations in all. That is, if one of a person's eight great-grandpar­ ents was a Jew, the great-grandchild was subject to being treated as a Jew in all things. Therefore, persons who were brought up as good practicing Christians, whose associations and associates had been Christians, and who had perhaps no knowledge of their 'Jewish' descent until the Nazi bureaucrats brought it out in evidence against them, were suddenly faced with utter ruin. There were approximately as many as 600,000 such Mischlinge, 'bastard-Jews' - mongrels by Nazi stan­ dards - in the Third Reich. Though they had no claim on the hard-taxed Jewish community, in fact it is mainly from Jewish sources that they received what little assistance there was. Their own Christian coreligionists were for the most part tongue-tied in Germany as well as purse-tied. The lack of compassion on the part of their Christian brethren was indeed deplorable, for those unhappy,

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victimized converts had given up their ancestral faith in the belief that they would be wholeheartedly welcomed into the Christian community. Now, they found themselves pitifully deceived. Even though the idea of exterminating the Jews can be attributed to Adolf Hitler and the Party and the German people as a whole did not come up with this plan, they played a part in the horror for which no one took responsibility when it was over. And while the entire Christian population of the Third Reich may not have played a vital part within the Nazi killing machine, it is hard to believe that they were unaware of the goings on behind the KZ Lager walls, whether solid or barbed wired. It is very unlikely that even a casual onlooker would miss seeing Musselmdnner being marched through towns or being transported in overcrowded boxcars. And even if that were not seen, it is unlikely that German people never saw someone being attacked because they were Jewish,2 or never heard about what was going on.’ Violence towards the Jews and their property should have been an indication that things were not going very well. Despite all the noticeable outside evidence, people turned a blind eye to the plight of the Jews. Ignoring people in need of help does not seem like something a good person would do. And it seems reasonable to assume that most people want to live a good life. Quite often, being good involves following the dictates of a religion. Christians have the Ten Commandments they are supposed to follow; one of which claims it is virtuous to 'love your neighbor as yourself', and a second establishes the sanctity of life in declaring 'you must not kill', Even on an intellectual level, those are good prin­ ciples to follow. So when did the Christian Germans decide that the Jews were no longer their 'neighbors' and could be disposed of so shabbily without the fear of punishment? How was it possible for them to depart from the moral and ethical norms of their faith? It is an accepted fact that the Nazis murdered over six million Jews between the years 1933 and 1945. These men and women were active citizens who represented every walk of community life: lawyers, physicians, bankers, educators, and merchants. They had children who also perished with them. One person acting alone did not cause the deaths of these Jews. It was the involvement of three groups of people that made this happening possible. The first comprised the Jews, who were the murdered victims. The perpetrators make up the second group. The third group comprises the indifferent people, who looked on. Hitler offered the people of Germany an answer to their prob­ lems. He claimed that the solution was to rid the nation of the Jews. At the time when there were no other answers and people wanted to believe that there was an immediate, tangible way to solve their problems, most Germans trusted their Fuhrer and supported his policies, if not actively, then at least tacitly.

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This answer to the passive involvement suggests that the German people were desperate, but also unintelligent, which is difficult to believe. It is even more difficult to believe that Germany's Christians were willing to trade their Christian principles in favor of a quick fix, which was to be achieved at the expense of fellow humans; their suffering, humiliation, anguish and, finally, death. It is well known that Germany was and still is a nation of many scholars and educated men and women. Therefore, one simple answer cannot be the only reasoning behind the bystander mode of the Christian Germans. There are other motives that caused them to remain silent while their Jewish neighbors were being carried off to death camps. This silence of the Christian Germans resulted from a number of reasons, the predominant stemming from two human conditions: greed and fear. In many cases, the death of a Jew meant profit for the Christian. For example, in 1933 when Jewish doctors were restricted from practicing, there was no protest. The Gentile doctors profited from the absence of competition and the increase in the number of avail­ able patients. Quite often, the office of the disenfranchised Jewish physician would be reallocated to his or her Gentile counterpart. The same was true for the legal profession. Also, oftentimes, when Jews were taken away - resettled - to the KZ Lagers or killing factories, the Germans were allowed to plunder the belongings of the abandoned homes and, in many instances, take over the homes themselves. The most prominent beneficiaries of Jewish misery were the Nazi industries. As an example, the Alex Zink felt factory was the recipient of shipments containing tons of human hair. This hair came from Jewish women whose heads were shaved clean before they were subjected to Sonderbehandlung, 'special treatment', a Nazi euphemism for murder. The company did not question the obvious origin of hair shipments; rather they kept quiet while accepting the profit. Profit taking was commonplace. It ranged from such industrial giants as I.G. Farben, Siemens, Krupp, Daimler Benz, Dynamit Nobel, Volkswagen, to name only a few, to the smaller, Erfurt-based manu­ facturers of heating equipment, J.A. Topf & Sohne, that developed 'A Process and Apparatus for Incineration of Carcasses, Cadavers, and Parts Thereof,' to be used in the killing factories of the Nazi technoc­ racy. The story of their business enterprise can be found in the voluminous correspondence discovered in the records of death camps and the SS. » Another important motivating factor that silenced potential protest Was fear of the Nazi regime. In situations where a Gentile German was Etced with the opportunity of saving a Jew or even helping one with Borne bits of useful information, or delivering a message or a morsel of jfood, many a German chose not to act. Fear that they would be found

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out and punished along with the Jew prevented them from doing the moral thing: helping those in need of help. The following example illustrates passivity out of fear, when even the perpetrator is frightened by his own actions, but still fears the Nazis more. A 50-year-old Polish policeman had shot a young girl in a ghetto street, possibly because of an observed transgression. The street emptied immedi­ ately, but one woman could not flee in time. The policeman, deathly pale, took her by the arm, pointed to the dead body, and ordered the blood to be washed away, all the while explaining that the shooting was not his fault and showing the woman a piece of paper that he said contained his orders.4

This fear at the individual level is understandable. It would have been near impossible for the woman to have acted against the policeman successfully without forfeiting her life as well. This situa­ tion explains the difficulty in responding individually, but why was there no mass protest organized within the walls of the many church sanctuaries, where good Christians gathered for their Sunday masses and religious services? The response of the German population has become the object of debate ever since those fatal happenings. One of the suggestions offered in explanation of the Christian passivity in the Third Reich is the possibility that the ordinary citizens were not aware of the mass killings of the Jews by their government; the argument remains doubtful at best, in view of the mounting evidence to the contrary. It is difficult to support the idea of 'see no evil, hear no evil'. Advocates of the theory will point to the Nazi strategies in keeping their actions secret and sowing deceit by camouflaging their actions under the guise of euphemisms. They will say that the Nazis used the media to distort the details of the Final Solution; that Nazi propa­ ganda was relentless in its insistence that Germany must rid itself of the parasitic Jew; that Jews were portrayed simultaneously as conspir­ ators who would destroy the nation, as criminals who would greedily seize what was not theirs, as vermin that plagued superior human life. Still, it was unavoidable that news of such terrible magnitude would seep out, in spite of the strictest secrecy; among the millions of Nazi officials and party membership; the Lager guard hierarchy; the industry workers; the railroad employees, etc., etc., etc. Ten men or women may be able to keep a secret, but thousands cannot. To prepare and carry out the Final Solution, the active partici­ pation of thousands of people in many walks of life was needed. The Lager guards were sworn to secrecy, but in many cases they did not obey their orders and, at the very least, dropped hints to relations, wives, and girlfriends.5 The disappearance of thousands of Jews from

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everyday life was also difficult to conceal, regardless of the terminology used to describe it. The distribution of their property was a strong signal of what was happening. The German beneficiaries of those Nazi outrages ought to have, at least, questioned their own moral conscience, if they feared inquiry into the fate of their benefactors. Needless to say, the German people were aware of the fact that the Jews were disappearing to unknown destinations. Their neigh­ bors were aware that they vanished without a trace, and many knew of their fate. Also banks and insurance companies had to be informed that the Jews were legally dead, and other offices had to be told that these Jews no longer needed food and clothing stamps." People who lived near the KZ Lagers knew what was happening behind the barbed wire fences, and they would often complain to the authorities about the stench of burning bodies. The irony of these complaints lies in the fact that they were lodged not out of compassion for the victims, but for selfish motives; the concern about living conditions in an environment polluted by the illegal activity. Ordinary citizens might have feared retribution and claimed ignorance to legal recourse. But what about the legal profession itself? How could lawyers and judges of all types of courts tolerate such flagrant, massive lawlessness unless they themselves were part of it? These legal professionals were not just passive activists, they overwhelmingly supported the revitalization of Germany that Hitler had promised, and the Gentile majority welcomed ways to curtail the competition brought about by the disproportionate number of Jews in the professions.7 This legal support allowed laws, decrees, and sentences to be handed down in accord with Hitler's wishes by men and women disciplined in German legal training. Many Protestant churches were also willing to contribute to the Nazi cause. Church officials readily opened their registers to verify Nazi demands of Aryan proof. Anyone who could not provide the necessary documentation was suspect. By participating in this crucial step of defining who was and was not Aryan, the churches made the eventual destruction of the Jews easier? This obvious display of support set an example for the citizens who looked to the Church and its ministers for guidance in times of crisis. Thus, Church compli­ ance with the Nazi laws caused many to remain silent and comply or even participate in the Nazi plan. In the face of adversity, it is easier to 'go along without making waves' or standing out. The everyday, ordinary German was a 'normal' human being, and 'normal' people are seldom heroes. Most people worry about their own well-being and that of their families first. This, in part, was the reason for the success of Hitler and the Nazis.

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The passive participation of the Gentile population of the Third Reich in the Nazi scheme was instrumental in its success. Although there were exceptions, the majority of German citizens during the Nazi reign were responsible for the atrocities that occurred in their country and Nazi-occupied Europe between the years 1928 and 1945. The years before the actual death KZ Lagers were created must be included in this period. These were the years when anti-Jewish campaigns were just beginning. It would have been easiest in these years to organize protests against the unfair treatment of fellow citi­ zens, regardless of their ethnicity or political persuasion. The failure to act during this crucial time made it all the more obvious to Hitler that the further he went with his 'solution', the fewer challenges he would encounter on the way. Passive reasoning was, in reality, an active contribution to Hitler's campaign. The choice to remain passive in the face of injustice was an act of its tacit approval. By the end of 1943, Allied raids had become a common occur­ rence in all of the Fuhrer's Reich. The charming city of Weimar - and its honest burghers living under gabled rooftops - the site of the I.G. Farben only seven kilometers from our 'mountain resort' in the Beech Forest (Buchenwald), was not immune to the systematic pounding. At the very outset of these 'atrocities perpetrated on the innocent people of the Third Reich,' the Nazi propaganda machinery attempted to minimize the Allied efforts. But the mountains of debris grew by the hour, and the disrupted life of the civilian population spoke louder than all of Herr Doktor Goebbels' ranting. Clearing the debris from Weimar streets was a welcome relief from picric acid. The factory lay in shambles. From then on, every morning, hundreds of us were marched downhill to the erst­ while cradle of German culture. At sundown, the march uphill, back to the Lager, was lightened with the expectation of another bombardment. The planes came regularly, and we rejoiced at the sound of their engines and the tremors they caused. As days turned into weeks, we had gradually become weary of our daily pilgrimage. The tools we carried seemed heavier. The burden of not knowing when it would all end weighed heavily on our souls. Each day, the mountain seemed steeper, the distance further. Are we the resurrected Jesus, multiplied a thousandfold?' I asked myself this important question time and again. 'Jesus was made to carry his cross up the winding Via Dolorosa only once. Why must we make the ascent indefinitely? Or am I like Sisyphus in his endless quest of pushing his boulder uphill?' My soul cried silently. There was no answer.

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We shuffled through the streets of Weimar. The good citizens gathered to take a look at the 'hardened criminals' who were kept safely under lock and key yonder in the forest on top of the mountain. They had heard rumors. They didn't like having this vermin as their neighbors. Now, what they saw were gaunt, emaciated, bent-over, staggering figures; humans with a touch of death written on their skeletal features. 'Serves them right!' someone yelled. 'See the rubble?' others asked. 'It's all your fault! You must pay for it dearly!' Grown-ups jeered and children wielded whips fashioned of tree twigs with impunity, to the delight of the guards. 'Whip those lazy, no-good criminals!' parents encouraged their small children. 'Jude verrecke!' they shouted. 'Jew die painfully!' As we turned the corner on the Goethe-Schiller Platz, a public square, amidst the rubble stood the larger-than-life monument to the two spiritual giants of the great German period of enlightenment of years past of which they were the guiding lights. The two figures were facing each other, each holding a book in their left hand, their right hands united in a handshake. (It was Goethe who, more than a century before, had stated that some day fate would strike the German people because they 'ingenuously submit to any mad scoundrel who appeals to their lowest instincts, who confirms them in their vices and teaches them to conceive nationalism as isolation and brutality.' He spoke with a voice of prophecy, and for his candor he was banned from German intellectual life, while Hitler and his band of mad scoundrels did the very things he had prophesied.) I was compelled by some inner force to look at the two bronze figures, to examine their serene, dignified features, to probe deeper into the significance of their survival amidst phys­ ical and spiritual ruin. And suddenly it came to me, as I was filled with an overwhelming desire to shout at the top of my voice, to announce to the world that, after all, we were in good company. I knew then that they and their likes, too, had long since been banished from or imprisoned by the new culture of the Third Reich. Just then, a small rock found its mark as it bounced off my shoulderblade with a hollow thud. 1 felt no pain. For that fleeting moment, I felt only exhilaration for the discovery I had just made: and like Sisyphus, I felt the dignity of freedom in my daily descent to hell and the courage of hope at seeing the afflic­ tions heaped upon my enemy.

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Soon, the beatings and jeering stopped altogether. We had ceased being an attraction, and no one came out to see us, save a few children who followed harmlessly, now without the encouragement of their elders to torment us. 'The good citizens of Weimar had tired of beating us,' someone remarked. 'Don't be a fool,' another voice cautioned. 'We have now become part of the scenery. It's that simple. Take a good look at us. Ruins in motion!' There was some faint laughter. It was a strange sound to hear after all that time. Still, it was a sign of hope returned. If we could relearn to laugh, perhaps some day we might also know how to live and to love.

There were not many citizens in the Third Reich, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said: 'Hitler is the Anti-Christ. Therefore we must go on with our work and eliminate him whether he be successful or not.' Furthermore, he told his students in Finkenwalde that One act of disobedience is better than a hundred sermons.' Bonhoeffer also sensed why the Nazi view and practice of history collided with the Jewish people, and why it had found little challenge from Protestant and Catholic 'spirituality'. And so Bonhoeffer's life and subsequent martyrdom was a turning 'away from the phraseological to the real'.’ On April 9, 1945, only days before the liberation, Bonhoeffer was hanged in the Nazi concentration camp at Flossenburg. His death brought to an end a life filled with courage and deep religious commitment. He had preached the need for Christians to identify with, and protect, Jews in the face of the increasingly rampant antiJewish sentiment in prewar Germany. He had chided religious leaders for failing to speak out, and act, against Hitler's abuses. Even in the midst of the overwhelming chaos and evil there were people who persevered in their goals to help those in need. Despite the turmoil of warfare and persecution, there remained among both the Nazis and the Jews, men and women who upheld the ideals of moral conscience, the truth on which the common good is founded, above the temptations of fleeting relativism. Furthermore, these champions of the common good did, indeed, find the greater indi­ vidual blessing as they sought the unity of the soul over the temporary appeasement of the instinct. The light of goodwill illuminated the actions of such men as Unteroffizier Ernst Boost, who risked his life to help me, a young boy, whom he knew to be a Jew. And while it was true that some Germans upheld the virtues of moral conscience despite the demands of the despotic Third Reich, it was the Jewish people for whom the adher­ ence to the principles of moral conscience was most trying. While many of the persecuted abandoned the pursuit of the common good

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in view of the pain and anguish of their own suffering, there were some who never lost sight of it. For these saints, no scourge or ravage surrounding their bodies could diminish the unity which the common good had instilled within their souls. In spite of the over­ whelming tides of hopelessness, they refused to lose faith. It was a faith in God's mercy as well as in man's inherent goodness. The Nazi horror revealed how evil, how well-nigh Satanic, a person can become. One is tempted to ask whether Hitler was a member of a cult. Cults share certain features with the Third Reich. Members of cults display an authoritative obedience to a charismatic and messianic leader, secrecy, loyalty to the group above all other ties; a belief in supernatural possibilities open to members only; a belief in reincarnation; initiation into superhuman sources of power; literal acceptance of the myth of ancient 'giants' or supermen who handed an oral tradition to a chosen people and who are guiding us now; and, in uncommon cases, satanic practices. The relationship between master and disciple is particularly meaningful in the occult tradition. New members must put themselves completely in the master's hands and obey even his most eccentric commands, whether or not these commands violate their own conscience. Closet cultists have always enjoyed a high degree of secrecy surrounding their meetings. Rites and decrees are rarely committed to paper. The dictatorial government conceived by Adolf Hitler typified a state whose true purpose had been perverted in order to serve the will of its leader. While it may be argued by some that Hitler did indeed wish to protect the common good of the Aryan race, his strik­ ingly bold neglect of any semblance of moral conscience or any other virtue indicative of the common good, serves to dismiss his entire regime, and in fact, his ideology, as nothing more than a tyrannical expression of his own megalomania. The right circumstances can produce pliant followers. These are usually people who see no future for themselves and are eager to renounce their selves. They are individuals who are willing to give up their former lives, friends, families, privacy, judgment, and some­ times their names and worldly goods. In return they receive an artificial sense of worth. They are the 'chosen'. A mass movement offers substitutes for the whole self or the elements that make life unbearable. It encourages self-renunciation and provides something larger in which to believe. The movement provides justification and a suitable outlet for pent-up rage. The individual is programmed, molded into conditioned responses. He cannot think, feel or live. He trusts nobody. He becomes a robot. The movement offers a new life, and the individual knows exactly what is expected of him. There is no more ambiguity; he enjoys a state of harmony. He becomes a power in the universe. The supreme law demands absolute, blind obedience of its subjects.

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Hitler: 'A violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth - that is what I am after. Youth must be all those things. It must be indifferent to pain. There must be no weakness or tenderness in it.'1"

Though Hitler saw the Jews as surplus people, in the end it was his nation that he made into a surplus nation. The youth of the late nine­ teenth and early twentieth century felt estranged from the government and from adult society in general. Youth groups filled a vacuum. Leaders became surrogates, groups offered solidity, companionship, immersion in the group, a new modern god, absolute answers. It offered a dreamy haven of refuge from the pressing problems of the day. One youth stated: 'We searched and found Adolf Hitler. What attracted us like a magnet was precisely the fact that he only made demands of us and promised us nothing. He demanded of every person a total commitment to his movement and therefore to Germany.'" So many young people today feel the same. They do not want to think, plan, or use their own conscience. They want someone else to make the decisions for them and take responsibility for their actions. They want to be part of a movement that will make them feel impor­ tant. They join gangs; chemicals with hallucinogenic properties influence many. They do not feel compassion for anyone and are desensitized toward suffering. One of the daytime TV talk shows presented girl gang members who had participated in drive-by shootings. One of the girls had a six-month-old baby, and she was asked if she feared for her baby's life. She replied: 'If the baby gets killed it gets killed. I can have another one.' Hitler was seen as a messiah. Those who now continue in his path, still see in him the messenger of a new wave. He saw himself as sent by providence to save the German people. Instead, he ulti­ mately destroyed them. He saw the Jews as the embodiment of all evil. But among the qualities he considered evil were virtues such as intellect, conscience, intelligence, and the pursuit of absolute truth. In carefully staged rallies he pummeled home the doctrine that he and the people of Germany were one. Lessons in speaking and mass psychology taught Hitler the importance of staging meetings to obtain the greatest dramatic effect. Beliefs had then, and have now, the power to infect. Onlookers at a mass rally where emotions are being stirred up often feel the same intensity of excitement as the participants do. We 'catch' ideas, because we want to be like others. To the German people, the swastika was an occult symbol for the sun, which represented life. What person would not dream of being a part of such a wonderful world and to have someone who is the new messiah to handle all your cares for you? Life would be perfect. Except for the fact that

. A typical ghetto: the ghettoization of Jews in the German-occupied territory of Poland Generalgouvernement). The first ghetto was established in Piotrkow Trybunalski.

. An Orthodox Jew (Hasid). The Nazis humiliated and tormented the Hasidim, who /ere easily identified because of their dress and physical appearance.

3. The Star of David armbands had to be worn by ghetto inhabitants at all times as a means of identification. Non-compliance was punished by death.

4. The Judenrat (Jewish Council) served as the governing body of the ghetto. Its members carried out the commands of the Nazi administration.

Jews humiliated by being forced to scrub the pavement of a street.

Umsiedlung (resettlement) of the Jews from the ghettos to the extermination camps.

Hitler reviewing his Storm Troops (the SS) during a Party rally in Nuremberg.

8. Die Geissel Goffes (The Scourge, or Plague, of God) was a propaganda concept 01 the stereotypical Jew popul ized by the Nazis.

9. Jews were murdered by Einsatzkomniandos (action commandos) and buried in mass graves. The victims had to dig their own graves and sort out clothing and belongings before being shot.

10. Jewish women had to undress before being murdered and buried in mass graves.

11. Jewish victims digging their own graves before being murdered by the Zinsatzkommando unit.

12. Arrival at the concentration or labor camp

13. Appell (assembly) in Buchenwald concentration camp.

14. Buchenwald concentration camp sleeping arrangements.

15. The quarry at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

16. Women in a concentration camp.

17. Children readied for 'medical experimc at the Auschwitz death camp.

18. Crematories were used as instruments of mass murder. Prior to being cremated, the victims were gassed.

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one would lose one's soul, one's ability to breathe freely, to love and care. There are many factors that may lead to the rise of surplus popu­ lations. An increasing population without an increase in resources; the idea that fewer workers are capable of producing an ever­ expanding volume of goods; changes in the demand patterns of a market economy that render millions of workers economically redundant; vocational displacement of a powerless minority community by unemployed members of a majority community; famine or other large-scale material scarcity in which too many people compete for too few goods; and a government determined to create ethnic, class or religious homogeneity among its citizens. After World War One, the democratic regime of Germany symbol­ ized Jewish control. Even as I write, the neo-Nazi revisionists in every part of the globe exploit a similar idea. Conditions after the war were intolerable. Food was impossible to get, and jobs were even scarcer. Wounded war veterans were begging in the streets. The country became a vast starvation camp. In five years the mark had sunk to a one-hundredth of its value, which reduced the middle class to poverty. Everything that was done to the Jews was in complete accordance with the letter of the law; the Nuremberg Laws. No wonder, then, that Charles Clayton Morrison, editor of The Christian Century, dismissed the reports of the liquidation of the Jews as Jewish propaganda, and urged that barriers against Jewish immi­ gration be raised higher. By consistently thwarting every effort to prevent or impede the Nazi liquidation program, by opposing emer­ gency measures to rescue a few, key leaders of Christendom's governments and churches made the successful execution of Hitler's Judeocidal efforts possible. Therefore, of all Hitler's mad dreams and fantastic projects, the only one that had succeeded was the murder of the European Jews. In the 12 years of his thousand-year Reich, there was another millennium that died. Leo Baeck perceived the outcome in 1933, and interpreted Hitler's meaning: 'The thousand-year history of German Jewry is ended.’ Hitler succeeded because, right up to the level of government and church, substantial sections of the German citizenry as well as the leaders of Christendom were helping him, actively or passively. Thus, during the reign of Hitler, one-third of world Jewry was liquidated by a nation which traditionally and professedly is Christian. The evidence of a true faith does not rest only in the teachings of its master and his apostles, but in the consequences of the actions of their followers. In the case of German Christianity in particular and world Christianity in general, virtually all his followers denied every lesson Jesus taught. They not only betrayed the teachings of their master, but turned out to be the betrayers of millions of those

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baptized in his name as well. Think of the mongrel Christian Mischling whom Hitler and his henchmen relegated to the crematoria of the KZ Lagers. THE MERCENARIES

The Warsaw ghetto was a ghastly subculture, a product of the Third Reich's super race principle. The forces that created the ghetto were able to feed off virulent anti-Jewish feelings and the fierce national­ istic sentiments of prewar Poland. Ironically, the treatment meted out by the Germans to the Poles was eerily similar to the abuses suffered by the Jews at the hands of the Poles, their cocitizens. The 1930s were an inhospitable and dangerous decade for Jews living in Poland. Historically, Poland had a deep-rooted tradition of aggressive and intolerant nationalism, as well as traditional laws discriminating against minorities, especially the Jews. This in spite of the fact that they had arrived in Poland originally in the sixteenth century as refugees fleeing persecution in the west on the invitation of the enlightened Polish king, Casimir the Great. Though thousands of Polish Jews had fought for Poland's freedom during the Great War of 1914-18 (my father Harry included), the restoration of Polish inde­ pendence in 1918 launched a violent wave of anti-Jewish sentiment, despite the efforts of the liberator and patriarch of Poland, Josef Pilsudski, who had tried to impose antidiscrimination laws. The Poles stubbornly refused to view Jews as anything other than inassimilable foreigners. Poland, as well as most of the world, experienced national economic hardships in the late 1930s. This caused the status of Polish Jewry to deteriorate further. Furthermore, in the minds of most Poles, membership in the Roman Catholic Church was an essential element of Polish identity. This church actively supported anti-Jewish measures, helping to alienate the Jew from mainstream Poland. Poland was incapable of executing a program of its own for the mass killing of Jews for various reasons, but mainly because it was neither technologically advanced nor secular enough. This is why the Polish nationalistic elements welcomed the opportunity offered them under the tutelage of the Nazis. Many Poles as well as other national­ ities in Nazi-occupied territories became Volksdeutsche (national Germans) or second-class German nationals. They chose to serve in the Nazi units, wore the identity mark of the 'broken cross', and were given favored status in all areas of daily life, including the use of certain streetcars and preferred restaurants. Those serving as ghetto or extermination camp guards were given the right to bear arms. Many of the Polish mercenaries were, indeed, Poles of German background who, at the first opportunity, dyed their Polish military

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uniforms black, placed a swastika on their arm, and zealously joined their victorious Aryan brothers. It was Nazi practice to use these mercenaries in places other than their hometowns. Thus, when the first ghetto in Poland - Piotrkow Trybunalski - was organized, its guards had been brought from the countries to the northeast of Poland: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. They wore their black berets with pride, Nazi insignia emblazoned in front, and they sat near the barbed wire fence surrounding the ghetto, waiting for the opportu­ nity to engage in a shooting match. Always trying to top the record of Jews killed by a display of marksmanship during a day's work, the mercenaries thought only of the pound of sausage and pint of vodka they would receive for their 'total commitment to duty'. Since the 'law' forbade Jews from leaving the ghetto without a valid permit, the newly established mercenary detachments had ample opportunity to implement the new rules. Motivated by incen­ tives ranging from extra foodstuffs to monetary awards and vacations, they delivered violators to the Seventh Bureau of the Gestapo, none of whom was seen or heard of again. The Vichy government in the unoccupied part of France, Hortydominated Nyilas Party in occupied Hungary, the Romanian Iron Cross thugs and the Croatian nationalists, all had pledged allegiance to the Nazi cause and became accessories and willing assassins; perpetrators of crimes against humanity. THE MILITARY

The call to duty in the service of one's country is a powerful invitation. Since earliest history, man has answered the call to defend his home­ land, his family. But to answer a call that starts aggression and does not deter it, can be disastrous. Such was the case in Nazi Germany. Literally millions of Germans from all walks of life answered the call sent out by Adolf Hitler. People carried out heinous crimes against Jewish neighbors who had been loyal fellow Germans, simply because they were told to do so. But why would someone turn against another person without provocation? Does military duty imply and justify participation in the killing of innocent people? Why would a grown-up soldier point a weapon at a child? These are perplexing questions. They may never be resolved. In national emer­ gencies, the performance of one's duty is paramount to the survival of the nation. But a national emergency fabricated by the govern­ ment for its own good reasons does not justify its agents to commit acts that would ordinarily be considered criminal. In wartime, it is certain that casualties will be inflicted and received by participating parties. And during times of crisis, it is usually military personnel who bear the brunt of these actions. But it

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was Nazi Germany that introduced the concept of the Blitzkrieg lightning warfare - allegedly total armed engagement where noncombatants were completely absent. Thus, it is in the military that we must look for and find the greatest number of people who partici­ pated in the extermination of unarmed civilians, and who claimed this activity as part of the fulfillment of their duty. Military participation in mass killings of the Jews occurred on two fronts. The first front was found in the Nazi-occupied territories; it is here that the Einsatzgruppen roamed the countryside in search of subhumans - those classified by Hitler as expendable, the undesir­ ables - for the purpose of destroying them. The second front could be found in the Lagers - all kinds of concentration camps - where much of the killing took place. On both fronts, the military were carrying out the duties assigned to them. These orders should have been, and sometimes were, disobeyed at great personal risk by men who simply could not kill a defenseless person. Though records indi­ cate that regular army personnel frequently carried out genocidal atrocities, there are also instances of Wehrmacht officers intervening in the pillage and murder being carried out by the SS. Here a distinction between the Wehrmacht and the SS ought to be made. The former was the traditional army, led by aristocratic Prussians who, for the most part, did not accept Hitler's ideological beliefs, but still contributed - passively or actively - to the destruction of European Jewry. Why? Because all German men and women in the service of the Third Reich swore allegiance to the Fuhrer rather than to their country and the principles for which it stood before Hitler had taken over. The SS, Schutz Staffel (Protection Echelon), on the other hand, was a relatively new military organization under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler and other fanatical Nazis, and was dedicated solely to the Fuhrer. The SS carried out any and all of his orders without question, and was initially a Party cadre to be used for polit­ ical, technical or strong-arm purposes. 'Within the framework of his decision to conduct a war from a "world philosophy" point of view, Hitler entrusted his SS and the task forces of the Security Police and the Security Service [Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SO] (as they were later known) - with what, in official language, was described as "special political police duties."'12 The Einsatzgruppen also comprised Waffen SS units - military units roughly equivalent to the Special Forces in the US. These were the elite fighting units of the SS who carried out the more traditional forms of combat, but were also used as executioners and must bear the respon­ sibility for the atrocities committed on innocent noncombatants. Why do men commit wartime atrocities simply because they are ordered to do so? Studies of the SS Totenkopfdivision - Death's Head

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Division - revealed that the indoctrination process of young recruits instilled the ability to carry out an order, no matter how revolting. Recruits were drilled to carry out orders without question. They were taught to hate Jews, who were portrayed to them as lethal polit­ ical and racial enemies of the nation. Records show that throughout the war SS personnel performed duties in the Lagers as well as on the front line. In fact, their duties in the Lagers were used as the testing ground for their performance of similar duties on the front. Frequently, SS personnel who showed scruples at performing zealously in the Lagers, would, as a form of punishment, be transferred to the front line. Thus, many SS men, as a rule, competed among themselves in a kind of 'contest of cruelty' which would exempt them from front line duty. In one of his reports, Gert Erren, a Nazi district commissar (Gauleiter), showed how well he understood the phenomenon of fear as he states the obvious: 'Their [the inmates') permanent fear of death makes them willing workers.' He stated merely that frightened Jews make willing workers." Franz Stangl's is altogether another story of obedience. Though he rose through the ranks from police work to commandant of the Treblinka death camp, Stangl insisted that his work was 'a matter of survival'.14 It seems incredible that this same man ended the struggle for survival of five to six thousand Jews every day. Nonetheless, part of him felt morally trapped, obeying orders simply because he feared for his life. The important part is, he remained obedient. At the other end of the spectrum, there were people who not only obeyed, but also invested in the Nazi cause. Men like Himmler, Eichmann, Heydrich, Goebbels, Goering, Kaltenbruner, Speer, and other architects of genocide, willingly carried out the Fuhrer's orders and were so efficient in their endeavor that the Final Solution was well nigh realized. In 1943, Himmler told SS leaders: 'Most of you will know what it means to have seen 100 corpses together, or 500, or 1,000. To have made one's way through that, and - some instances of human weakness aside - to have remained a decent person throughout, that is what has made us hard.'15 (A similar 'hardness' was evoked in Americans in the basement of a Stanford University building, when experimental subjects were randomly assigned the role of 'prisoner' or 'guard'. Within a short period of time the guards resorted to using billy clubs and fire extin­ guishers to force the prisoners to do meaningless, exhausting, and demeaning chores. The guards, like the SS leaders, became hard. Twinges of remorse that came with the destruction of a fellow human being were dismissed as 'instances of human weakness' - this was how people became hard during the process of extinguishing the lives of Jewish victims in World War Two.)

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Because every person is a member of the human community, a crime against one person is a crime against the whole community and ultimately against oneself. The crimes the Nazi leaders committed against the human community were the denial of basic human right to life. Even at the height of Hitler's military blunders at the eastern front, the disenchanted officer corps was opposed to his lack of success rather than to the overt killing of Jews in the KZ Lagers. The plot of July 20, 1944 against Hitler was an attempt to oust him from office to avoid further setbacks due to his military policies, but there were other Nazis waiting in line to carry on. Duty had been so ingrained in the minds of so many Germans that only a purely mili­ tary defeat could have ended the continuing devastation. An anonymous letter that arrived in the SS headquarters best describes the feelings of a soldier whose conscience was moved by the actions of the executioners. It reads: Do you really think we soldiers don't know what bestial murders have been perpetrated by our SS in Russia? Where, for example, are the 114,000 Jews of Lwdw (Lemberg)? We were there in 1942-1943 when they were transported little by little on trucks and shot not far from Lwow. SS officers could not bear to see and hear it any longer and enlisted in the army. Why is Himmler the most despised man in Hitler's entourage?"’

The above statement clearly reflects the feelings of more than one soldier in the war. There were those who in their conscience disagreed with Hitler's policies of mass killings of innocent people, but not enough of them mustered the courage to actively try to prevent the carnage. Bystanders and Appeasers Question: (a) Although a bystander is not an active participant in the ongoing destruction of life, does his/her standing aside in spite of the knowl­ edge of the problem promote genocide? And (b), can a bystanding nation, organization, or person be considered an accomplice?

These questions are best answered by realizing that a nation of bystanders converted into a nation of people actively opposed to mass killings could have prevented millions of deaths. The absence of strong obstructive forces allowed the Nazis to proceed with their plans without hindrance. (Although studies on the likelihood of people helping others do shed some light on the question of silence during the Nazi regime, it is impossible to simulate the circumstances of this era and to analyze

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how people would truly react. One study, for example, conducted in 1991, looked at the impact of cost/reward considerations on the like­ lihood to help. In a study of 37 people, ranging in age from 18 to 78, the most likely factor in determining whether or not they would help another was whether or not it was the right thing to do. Second on the list was if it would make the person 'feel good about him or herself'. The final significant consideration was the question of possible danger to the helper. This study, however, was objective. It asked the subjects if they would help in a given certain situation, but could obviously not put that individual in the actual situation. There must have been thousands, millions of Germans who knew that to help fight the extermination of the 'undesirables' was the right thing to do, yet they did not act. The point can be made, however, that after being engulfed by the Nazi propaganda, promises, and terror, their dedsion-making skills were impaired and their fear and unwilling­ ness to 'swim against the current' increased.) WORLD APATHY

In the years between 1934 and 1944, the world seemed to stand by and watch as Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler murdered countless numbers of Jews under his Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. Silence can be, under the right circumstances, a beautiful way of communicating what words cannot express. Yet, during a crisis such as the Holocaust, in which over 6 million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis, silence was the killer weapon. Important world figures, from Neville Chamberlain to Winston Churchill and Delano Roosevelt, on to the Pope, could have made a difference, had they acknowledged and confronted the crisis that endangered the lives of the Jews - as well as other minorities - but they chose to remain silent. From recently (1996) released US National Security Agency World War Two documents (hitherto marked 'restricted'), it is evident that the British wartime code-breakers were able to extrapolate from the intercepted messages that Nazi Germany planned the destruction of the European Jews. It is also clear that the 'British knew that the Jews were being targeted for atrocities as early as December 1941'. The code-breakers tracked the progress of the German invasion across Europe, as well as the invasion of the then Soviet Union. Such find­ ings, coupled with information provided the British government by various Polish underground sources, could leave no doubt concerning Nazi plans for the eradication of European Jewry. Professor Richard Breitman, a historian at American University, along with a group of American scholars, was instrumental in having the files released under the Freedom of Information Act. What they

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discovered was shocking for its contents but saddening in its revela­ tion of Allied passivity in view of flagrant crimes against humanity. As examples of the decoded messages point out, there could have been no doubt concerning their references: A transcript from the small town of Slonim in Belarus reported that: In yesterday's cleansing action in Slonim by the police regiment Mitte, 1,153 Jewish looters were shot. The message was signed by General von dem Bach-Zelewski, the German commander in Bielarus and transmitted to Himmler and Commander Daluge of the Order Police. In another message, dated August 7, 1941, General von dem Bach-Zelewski wrote with evident self-congratulation: 'The action of the SS cavalry brigade proceeds. By noon today, a further 3,600 were executed, so that the total number by Cavalry Regiment Eastern is 7,819. Thereby, the number of 30,000 in my area has been exceeded.' (New York Times, November 19,1996, p. Al)

On entering the war in October 1941, the United States became privy to the findings of the British code-breakers. Yet, as Professor Breitman wrote in an article in 1985, 'In the eyes of some officials in both London and Washington, virtually any publicized assistance or attention to European Jews jeopardized some requisite of the war effort.' Later Breitman concludes sadly that, 'To a remarkable degree, Adolf Hitler had succeeded in devaluing the lives of European Jews in the eyes of the rest of the world' (New York Times, November 19, 1996, p. Al). The US government was well informed about the contents of the radio transmissions, but chose not to make them public. The Allied powers did not come to the rescue until June 1944; however by that time it was too late. Much of the damage had already been done, and the fall of the Third Reich was imminent. No refuge had been offered to the Jews during the war, which only seemed to have given Hitler more incentive to carry out the Final Solution. Arguably, if the free world had made an effort to help the persecuted, perhaps many lives would have been saved. According to Herbert Druks, Hitler would not have been able to destroy 6 million Jews if the free world had not shut its doors to them.17 Western countries had been aware of Hitler's atrocities since the summer of 1942. The apparent lack of response was not so much due to apathy or misinformation, as it was to self-interest in national and economic security. Although the free world abhorred the immoral racial policies of the Third Reich, it was constrained by national inter­ ests.1" In fact, the western powers used a policy of appeasement in order to secure peace. They figured that by meeting Hitler's demands, he could be controlled. Countries such as the United States and Great Britain refused to ease the restrictions of their immigration policies.

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Meanwhile, Britain severely restricted immigration of Jews into Palestine because of her interest in maintaining good relations with the Arab nations of the Middle East. If more Jews had been allowed to immigrate into Palestine, it would have created tension among the Arab states.1’ In May 1939, Britain prepared a White Paper, which regulated its policy on immigration to Palestine for the period 1939-1944, whereby 75,000 Jews were to be allowed to enter Palestine. This number included 50,000 'regular' immigrants and 25,000 refugees?1 However, after the war it was found that Britain had not even permitted the Jewish refugees into Palestine, as she had promised in the 1939 White Paper (Druks, Failure to Rescue, p.57). In addition, Britain did not want to allow refugees into its own country and later tightened its own immigration policies. The United States was also fearful of liberalizing its immigration policies, particularly since it was still recovering from the Great Depression of the thirties. This country did not even offer temporary asylum to the refugees.21 In fact, the United States hoped to resettle the Jews elsewhere, for example, in Latin America. It was there that United States had hoped to find the primary plans for the resettle­ ment; however, Latin America was reluctant as well. This was not so much because of an anti-Jewish mentality, as it was for the fear that the merchant class of Jews could create keen competition for the local markets.22 President Roosevelt refused to ease the US immigration quotas for fear of spies. According to Herbert Druks, this fear of spies became an obsession with the president, when he warned in May 1940 against 'Modern "Trojan horses" filled with "spies, saboteurs, and traitors.'"21 Roosevelt subsequently signed the Alien Registration Act, which required all aliens to be registered and fingerprinted. This act also required that all visas be reevaluated. No visas were to be issued if there was any doubt concerning the background of the alien? All of this was done in the national interest of the United States, regardless of its further restrictions on immigration policies. Efforts were made to deal with the refugee problem; however, they were not effective. President Roosevelt initiated a conference of 32 nations, which was held in Evian-les-Bains, France, in July 1938. At this conference plans were reviewed on how to deal with Jewish refugees. The Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees (1GC) was thus created with the purpose of organizing emigration and secure places of refuge. There was only one problem: no nation present was willing to offer refuge. The IGC turned out to be merely a 'paper' organization?1 In fact, the failure of the Evian conference to come to grips with the necessity of rescuing European Jewry from the Nazi death trap prompted the Fuhrer's now notorious remark during one of his

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Friedensrcden on the floor of the Reichstag: 'No one else is willing to allow this rabble into their country, then why should we tolerate it in ours?' Indeed, there seemed little hope for the Jews to resettle in other countries. The undeniable fact is, the United States and the free world had been informed by word of mouth and presented with visual evidence of the Nazis' plan to annihilate the European Jewry as early as June 1942. The Jewish Labor Bund in Poland had smuggled a report to London which outlined the Nazis' systematic program of murder, the use of gas chambers and crematoria. The report described in detail the killing centers in Poland, particularly in Chelmno, where the use of gas vans had caused the deaths of thou­ sands. The estimated number of victims was by then 700,000 people. The report was broadcast on the BBC on June 2, 1942. On November 11, 1997, 50 years after the fact, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) handed over 60,000 microfilmed pages of documents from the World War Two era to Israel's Yad Vashem, reported Jack Katzenell of the Associated Press in a news­ paper article. A top official of the ICRC acknowledged the organization's 'moral failure' in keeping silent while the Nazis murdered six million Jews: 'Very clearly, the ICRC's activities with regard to the Holocaust are sensed as a moral failure,' said George Willemin, director of archives for the Geneva­ based International Committee of the Red Cross. 'The ICRC admits - yes - that it has kept silent with regard to the Holocaust, and I would say that this is at the heart of the moral failure,' he added. (New York Times, November 11,1997)

The Red Cross has in the past apologized for 'all possible omis­ sions and mistakes made' during the war years, but Willemin's statement was the most explicit acknowledgment by a Red Cross offi­ cial that the organization could and should have done more. The documents, recorded on 30 reels of microfilm, include reports about mass deportations and killings of Jews, hostages and political detainees. They also include rulings by the organization's governing bodies, orders to field workers, and correspondence with Nazi Germany and the Allied governments. Most significant among their revelations is the Red Cross's discounting of reports of mass murder of Polish Jewish prisoners that took place in 1940 at Lublin, Poland. The ICRC had told the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in August 1940 that 'following a thorough investigation by the German Red Cross representative' the Red Cross had concluded that the reports were unfounded. What is more mind-boggling is the fact that the WJC had accepted the statement

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from the German Red Cross as a de facto report on the status of the Jews under Nazi dominance. Needless to say, the belated 'confession' of the ICRC raises ques­ tions of whether all of the parties privy to the Nazi atrocities should have made public what they knew about the Holocaust and spoken out against it vigorously. Whatever the ICRC's unfounded concerns may have been - jeopardizing their help to Allied prisoners of war or compromising the neutrality of Switzerland - Jean-Claude Favez, whose book The Impossible Mission? details the role of the ICRC during the war, states that the ICRC's intervention on behalf of the Jews would not have jeopardized its aid to the POWs because 'the Germans had as much interest in the protection of their own soldiers in Allied prison camps as was the converse'. Plain and simple, the ICRC did not do its job and was merely a tool of Swiss foreign policy. 'The passivity of the ICRC and the "victory first" policy of the Allies were mutually supportive,' Favez said. 'They share the guilt' (emphasis mine). In all fairness, it must be said that, as the war continued, the ICRC did cooperate with the American Joint Distribution Committee and other groups that tried to ease the plight of the European Jews. In the last stages of the war, it helped rescue large numbers of Jews in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Croatia.

They huddled in dark places, the conversations were animated, the young were eager to take up arms, the aged, in their wisdom, cautioned patience. ’Sha, kinderlech,’ my grandfather said, his forefinger on his lips, 'don't stir up any trouble, and they won't take reprisals.' 'They' meant the Nazis. The concept of exterminating human beings was alien to us. Many asked the question, 'Could they do it?' But the young, the restless, claimed it was only a question of time: 'When will they do it?' was a more appropriate approach to the problem. It was unbelievable what humans could do to humans. Still, it loomed true ... 'They' did it ...

Neville Chamberlain wondered, too. He wondered whether or not the Munich Agreement would achieve 'peace in our time', and he thought it could. Tragically, we know in retrospect, he was wrong. Hitler wasn't just 'blowing off political steam', as many claimed, he meant every word of his threats to annihilate all 'undesirables'. Elie Wiesel recalls (in Voices, p.2) wondering if the Germans were as horrible as rumors claimed they were, 'I myself remember a little shamus (beadle) who had returned from Galicia in 1942, alone, without his family. He told stories that made us shudder: he had seen Jews forced by the Germans to dig their own graves; he had

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witnessed mass executions, massacres ... We thought: "It's not true. Such things can't be.'" Tragically, they were wrong. Are they really capable? It was a natural reaction to the macabre rumors. No one wanted to believe it was true. After all, these are not the Dark Ages; it's the twentieth, enlightened century. Humanity has reached the pinnacle of 'civilized' behavior; the highest degree of technological and scientific advancement. The shock must have been immense, when the Jews realized that the rumors were, indeed, true. Perhaps this is why so many were unable to react and went silently to their graves: '1 don't want to be part of this kind of a world,' many must have said to themselves, before digging their own graves ... before walking into the gas chambers ... Maybe this makes it also more comprehensible why some frantically bought time, selling their souls to the Nazis. Both played into the villain's hands. In August 1942, Dr Gerhard Riegner, a representative of the WJC in Switzerland, cabled additional confirmation of the Final Solution to the US State Department: 'Received alarming information that in Fuhrer's headquarters plan discussed and under consideration according to which all Jews in countries occupied and controlled by Germany numbering three and a half to four millions should after deportation and concentration in the East be exterminated ...' David S. Wyman documents a pattern of anti-Jewish feelings in the highest echelons of the US State Department." There is concrete proof that the State Department deliberately withheld pertinent information from leaders in the Jewish community regarding the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis. A memo signed by Secretaries of State Cordell Hull and Sumner Wells gave specific instructions to the US delegation in Switzerland not to transmit further reports on the treatment of European Jews. State Department officials misled policy makers regarding the severity of the crisis in Europe. Assistant Secretary of State Breckenridge Long knowingly falsified the numbers of Jewish refugees admitted to the US when testifying before the House Foreign Relations Committee. In fact, only 10 percent of the quota allowed by US law was admitted.27 Long's testimony scuttled actions by Congress to respond to rescue proposals. It was not until January 1944 that Roosevelt took a more active stance toward rescuing the Jews by creating the War Refugee Board (WRB). What caused his change of attitude? It was supposedly due to a memorandum submitted to the president by the General Counsel of the Treasury Department, Randolph Paul, entitled 'Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews'." Produced on the orders of the then Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, this document aimed to

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investigate State Department policies on refugees. The investigation uncovered a pattern of deception and misrepresentation. '[State Department] used government machinery to prevent the rescue of those Jews ... They have tried to cover up their guilt by ... the giving of false and misleading explanations.'2’ It was Morgenthau who presented the report to President Roosevelt on January 16, 1944. It was obvious; the secretary would not hesitate to make the report public. On January 22,1944 the pres­ ident issued an executive order establishing the WRB. Even then, the WRB drew much of its funding from private sources, and got weak support from Roosevelt. The problem with it was its limitations. It was not permitted to take any measures that might be 'inconsistent' with the successful prosecution of the war effort, nor could it 'violate' American and British immigration policies relating to Palestine and the United States (Braham, Politics of Genocide, p.1101). Thus, the lack of cooperation from the highest echelons within the US State Department can be clearly construed as collaboration with the delib­ erate plan to murder European Jewry. France was another country that found itself unable (or unwilling) to aid in the rescue of the Jews. Being one of the Allied powers, it found its security weakened as Nazi forces occupied northern France in 1940, leaving only 40 percent of its former territory under French pseudo-sovereignty.1'1 In order to avoid further territorial infringe­ ments by the Nazi forces an armistice between France and Germany was signed on June 22, 1940. Much of French Jewry, which had once mobilized great support for its homeland's war effort, had to make a desperate exodus to southern France in order to avoid impending Nazi persecution. However, the Vichy government soon began to exercise an anti-Jewish policy, which affected the economic and sociopolitical bases of the Jews. Once the Vichy government came to power, its collaboration with the Nazis began, and its effects proved to be similarly disastrous for the Jewish population. Since the 1920s France had been the promised land for millions of refugees and immigrants.” It kept this policy until 1938, with the efforts of Prime Minister Leon Blum (13 March-8 April 1938), who faced much opposition as he struggled to keep France's doors open to immigrants. At this time, Eduard Daladier, the former Minister of Defense, came up with a new immigration policy in which he restricted immigration and reduced the basic rights of residing foreigners in the country.'2 Yet despite this policy, 25,000 Jews fled to France in pursuit of a safe haven. However, by then they were met with the stricter Vichy government, which interned them in their own newly established camps." The United States, in its reluctance to reduce immigration controls, and Britain with its primary interest in Middle East

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relations, proved to be unwilling to take a stand against the Nazi regime's excesses, even at the cost of human lives. In addition, the US policy of appeasement only seemed to further promote Hitler's actions. The US, as a major world power, could have prevented Hitler from continuing his murderous agenda, regardless of its national interest. Just as a child who is appeased is able to manipulate the appeaser, so did Hitler exert more power, as the US and Britain catered to his whimsical demands. Had there been an instant and collective effort on the part of these world powers to stop Hitler before he gained momentum, many lives - across the national and ethnic spectrum - might have been saved. After having entered the war, the US excused its inactivity by claiming that its resources were needed in the war effort rather than rescue operations, since the total defeat of the Third Reich was the most effective way to end the oppression of the Jews. Yet, the US failed to realize (or made a delib­ erate effort to suppress the realities of the situation) that the Jewish people could not wait that long. Although Franklin D. Roosevelt had made token requests for other countries to open their borders to the victims of Nazi oppres­ sion, the US kept its own borders closed. According to Herbert Druks, 'Roosevelt had warned that "all those who share the guilt shall share the punishment" as he appealed (hypocritically!) to all "freedom loving nations" to "rally to this righteous undertaking.'”'4 However, Roosevelt's unwillingness to fight Congress and public opinion, which favored restrictive immigration laws and regulations, only enforced the reality that the US would not take any active part in rescuing or offering refuge to the Jews. In retrospect, it seems cynical and hypocritical of President Roosevelt not to have practiced what he preached. 'I beg you, dear President, as the recognized leader of the forces of democracy and humanity, to initiate action, which if it cannot end the greatest crime ever perpetrated against a people, may yet save the people from utter extinction by offering asylum to its remnants in sanctuaries to be created under the aegis of the UN.' Thus pleaded Rabbi Stephen Wise of the American Jewish Congress, among other pleas emanating from all over the world, with President Roosevelt to stop Hitler. Rabbi Wise feared the total destruction of European Jewry - in retrospect, clearly a valid concern. For many people, intimate exposure to the atrocities of the Nazis came from Lord Rothschild of England. Rothschild toured America in 1939, spreading vivid reports of the concentration camps. In response to these reports, the State Department issued a statement claiming that Rothschild was merely a propagandist. Around this time came a massive outcry for relaxation of American immigration quotas for the European Jews. Samuel Rosenman, one of Roosevelt's

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advisors and also a Jew, shocked many people when he issued a statement declaring that it was not 'desirable or practical to recom­ mend any change in the quota provisions of our immigration laws'.’5 He was a good example of a self-hating Jew. The Jewish community in the United States requires closer retro­ spective examination. One of the more shocking discoveries is that the US Jewish leadership did not unanimously support mass immi­ gration of European Jews to the United States. When pressed, the key issue of division for them was the anti-Jewish sentiment in the United States. American Jews feared that the arrival of multitudes of Jews from Europe might adversely affect their own living conditions, if not the way they had been hitherto accepted in the United States by their Gentile cocitizens. They were worried that an increase in the number of Jews might lead to an increase in anti-Jewish feelings. In the case of many, it was lack of familiarity with the real picture of Nazi intentions, as well as their destructive potential, which led to overconfidence and apathy. The Meyersons, distant cousins of my mother Bela, were a good example of lack of judgment and sheer ignorance regarding the European crisis. My father, Harry, tried to warn of the impending catastrophe, but as the exchange of letters indicates, to no great avail. 14 May 1939 Dear Cousin Mickey, It has really been a long time since 1 last wrote you, and I must tell you that many things have been happening here since then. We'd thought of you very often and planned to write, but in the rush of the day and scarcity of time we had never gotten to it. We hope that this letter finds you and Fay, Victor and Isaac, in the best of health and that your business is coming along well. We're all fine thank God. Roman was Bar Mitzvah in January. Vilek will be 11 come September, and Felusia will be 5 come next month. If you could spare a moment, write them a note. The children keep talking about America. They show the postal stamps to everybody. It's a source of much pride and joy for them, and they are the envy of all their friends. People talk about the threat of Nazi Germany and their Fuhrer Hitler. He makes hysterical speeches, and they are broadcast over the radio, so that all of the Germans living in Poland and elsewhere can hear his promise of taking back German territories soon. He rants about the Treaty of Versailles and the great injustice to the Third Reich. We all think Hitler is serious. After all, in March of last year the Nazis took

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Czechoslovakia and nobody lifted a finger to defend the little country. Is the world going to stand by while Hitler takes all of Europe? We're running out of money and time, Mickey- People are saving their money and work is slow. There's trouble on the horizon. We can see it coming. Love to all, and write soon. Your cousin Henryk

* * **

12 June 1939 Dear Cousin Henryk, Your letter arrived on Friday a week ago, and I didn't have a chance to reply sooner because Fay was hospitalized for gall bladder complications since the end of May. She was released yesterday feeling better, thank God. She's recovering well. I'm sorry to have missed Roman's Bar Mitzvah. You can imagine how hectic it has been over here. Please give our mazal tov to Bela and get a nice gift for Roman for the enclosed $5.00. I know it isn't much, but work is pretty slow here, too. We read our newspapers and listen to broadcasts about the mess in Europe. That fellow Hitler is just blowing off some steam. He's a shrewd politician and plays on the sentiments of his people, but he's not going to make war. America wouldn't stand for it! We have our own troubles here, too. Imagine, the German Bund parading in their brown shirts on the Streets of New York City! The nerve! But that's the price we pay for democracy at work. And Victor, though only 14, is getting into daily street fights with the Bund guys. We're worried. As you can see, we have our own problems right here in America. Needless to say, I'm sorry you're passing through a crisis. I pray God that things will normalize soon. Our love to you all, your cousin Mickey * * * *

22 June 1939 Dear Cousin Mickey, Bless you for your quick reply. Your letter arrived this after­ noon, and I hasten to reply. Roman thanks you for your generous gift. Tell Victor to be careful with the Bund thugs. If they're anything like the Stormtroopers here, they play for keeps. Mickey, I'm sorry to tell you that the situation here is deteri­ orating in spite of the assurances of our allies from the West. The Nazis provoke border incidents, claiming that our soldiers kill

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their border guards. Big lies sound like truths. Even the Swiss inspectors believed them. It's frightening. Without making this letter too long, 1'11 come right to the point: Jews are leaving Poland as fast as they can get exit visas. Without relatives in America, they're fleeing to many other countries, mostly South America. People are running for their lives, Mickey. No exaggeration. Please hear me out, Mickey, if you can't get the affidavit for the USA, then send us about SI,000. For that money we can get visas for Australia. I'll return the money to you as soon as I start working there, I swear! Don't let us down! Time's running out! Love to all of you from us. Let's hear from you soon, please. Your cousin Henryk

* * * *

3 August 1939

Dear Cousin, I've been trying to see my way through this thing, and 1 can't. There's very little I can do for you right now. Fay's sickness has taken the very last dollar out of our savings. My heart cries out to all of you. I'm especially anxious for the children, but... what can I say? Money doesn't grow on trees even in America, contrary to common belief. There's no cash on hand, and we need to replace some old furniture badly. We have other expenses as well. By the way, have you tried the relief organi­ zations there? Maybe they can help. Henryk, I'm terribly sorry that it has to be this way. We spend sleepless nights just thinking about you. It's no use. I know you are anxious to hear from us, so I won't delay this any longer. Love to all. Cousin Mickey ♦ * ♦ *

20 August 1939 Dear Mickey, The interview with the relief organization was wasted time. There was a queue of hundreds asking for help. The official wanted to know how much money I've brought. When he found out I have none, he showed me the door. We've got to have the money immediately! Please, Mickey, we need your help desperately! It's not like I'm asking for a handout. You'll get your money back, I promise! They need

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tailors in Australia, and I'll get a good job as soon as we land there. I hate to burden you with our troubles, but we have no one else to turn to. God help us, our lives are in your hands. Remember, whatever your decision, we love you just the same. God bless you all. Your cousin Henryk

PS Enclosed is a recent photo of the children.

30 August 1939 My dear cousin, Wings of urgency must have caused your letter to get here so fast, and I want to reply immediately. I still don't go along with those who say that Hitler's about to invade Poland. But Fay and I decided to do everything possible to bring you all to America. True, we're crowded in our small apartment, but we'll all manage somehow. Victor picked up the necessary papers from Immigration. First thing tomorrow, the affidavit will be on its way. In a week from now it should reach our embassy in Warsaw. You've worked hard all your lives and now you'll have to leave all your belongings behind, but your safety comes first. Forgive me for hesitating before. Hope we can make it up to you. We loved the children's photo. Wish you had sent one of you and Bela. Well, anyway, we'll see you here soon in person. We wish you a happy Rosh Hashanah, which is around the corner. May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life, amen. Your cousin Mickev

The mailman made a special effort to deliver the envelope to the Meyersons personally. It was Saturday, and they had returned from the early services at the old synagogue. The mailman examined the envelope curiously. There were many seals stamped in German, and he couldn't make out what they said. He knew the letter had been returned from Poland. He was making sure it got back into the hands of the sender. Mickey stood in the doorway turning the envelope every which way and trying to read the significance of the stamped messages. He was unable to understand it even with his knowl­ edge of Yiddish. His heart beat violently at the sight of an eagle clutching the swastika emblem staring at him.

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'Who was that, Mickey?' Fay's voice came from the living room and startled him momentarily. He walked toward her without haste. As he approached his wife, he extended the arm, which held the letter. 'It got there too late, Fay. God help us all.' He buried his face in the palms of his huge hands and sobbed convulsively. Had he been able to read one of the stamped messages beneath the eagle clutching the swastika, he would have known - 'where­ abouts unknown' - 'Adressat unbekannt'

While apathy seemed quite apparent, to portray the United States as doing absolutely nothing would be erroneous. When, at last, President Roosevelt admitted learning of the conditions in Europe, he did take some action. One of his first proclamations was the recall of the US Ambassador to Germany. Yet, the president continued to maintain that due to the immigration laws and a weak economy, the US could not admit any refugees. Roosevelt's attitude was that the US had to influence other countries that would admit the Jews. The sad truth is that those close to the site of power had deliberately misinformed the president. It is critical what their behavior says about the American response to the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust. Red tape, anti-Judaism and a floundering economy conspired to restrict Jewish immigration to the US when it was so desperately needed. An incident that best captures the attitudes of foreign countries involved the ship Sf Louis. The St Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939, with 936 Jewish refugees headed for Cuba. They were fleeing Germany after the horrors of the Kristallnacht the previous November. They each had landing certifi­ cates for Havana, Cuba. Benitez, Cuba's Chief of Immigration, was to make a considerable profit from the $150.00 paid by each passenger for this voyage. However, as a result of his conflict with the then pres­ ident of Cuba, Grau San Martin, Cuba's main port, Havana, was closed to the refugees. The Cuban government invalidated their landing certificates. The United States at first refused to intervene and would not even grant the ship emergency asylum docking along the southern coast of the US or at the Panama Canal Zone on a temporary basis. This decision was frustrating for the refugees, since many of them possessed United States quota numbers, which allowed them to enter the US within three months to three years of their arrival in Cuba. President Grau eventually ordered the Sf Louis to leave the dock. He later declared that he would allow the Jews to dock in Cuba for a fee of $1,000,000. The American Jewish leadership debated the issue, even trying to negotiate the figure, and eventually the money was raised. By that

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time, however, President Grau announced that he considered the issue closed. Subsequently, the St Louis left Cuba bound for Europe. Meanwhile, Joseph Kennedy, the US Ambassador to England, was trying to find a place for the resettlement of the refugees. In June 1939 the passengers of the St Louis were taken to Westerbork camp in Holland after their fruitless voyage to Havana. Many perished in Nazi death camps during the war. Thus, the St Louis became the fore­ runner of thousands of rejected refugee vessels and their myriad boat people, who were to test the world's mercy and tolerance throughout the latter part of the twentieth century, the bloodiest period thus far in recorded history. Although admittedly late, President Roosevelt did act in 1944 to create the War Refugee Board. An interesting aspect of the Board's creation, however, was the involvement of Secretary of the Treasury, Henry J. Morgenthau Jr. In his aforementioned report to Roosevelt dated January 16, 1944, Morgenthau charged the president and his administration with having failed to 'prevent the extermination of Jews in German controlled Europe; with procrastination in the rescue of the persecuted, deception, and with outright censorship of atrocity reports.'1" Morgenthau also stated that unless the United States took some strong action, it would be 'placed in the same posi­ tion as Hitler and share the responsibility for extermination of all the Jews of Europe'.’7 President Roosevelt agreed to create the WRB, however, only after Morgenthau threatened to publicize his report. As a result, on January 22,1944 Roosevelt announced the creation of the Board, composed of Morgenthau, Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, and Under Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius. The WRB was quite active and even partially effective. For example, in the summer of 1944 it intervened to render aid to 45,000 Bulgarian Jews in need of help. In exchange for discontinuing Allied bombing raids, the Bulgarians agreed to abolish all anti-Jewish laws and condemn the originators of these laws. A continuing frustration, nevertheless, was that no country was willing to admit any of the Bulgarian Jews as refugees. It is evident from the records that President Roosevelt seemed indifferent to the plight of the European Jews and their impending fate in the extermination Lagers. He took a token initiative only when threatened with public disclosure by Morgenthau. Herbert Druks makes a frightening, albeit cynical, guess at the reason for President Roosevelt's indifference. He wonders if the Allies did not want to see the murder of the Jews maximized by the Nazis, because the more Jews were exterminated, the fewer they would have to deal with following the end of the war. The American public could easily have been made sympathetic to the plight of the European Jews. Rescuing and aiding them could

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have become the rallying cry behind the American public's involve­ ment in the war, increasing morale and dedication to the cause. The fear that the influx of large numbers of Jews might have posed ethnic problems in the US is unacceptable. This potential problem pales in comparison to the lives that could have been saved through increased immigration. But instead of opening the nation's arms to Jewish refugees, the US government chose to ignore the problem for as long as possible, providing a more effective camouflage for Hitler's crimes than he could have ever created by himself. The US government's desire to remain uninvolved with the European Jews extended beyond the manipulation of the media and the refusal to accept the refugees. By 1944, the Allies had advanced far enough into the Third Reich territory to commence strategic air strikes against Auschwitz and the railroads leading to this and other similar Lagers. However, the military refused to take such actions because, as they claimed, it would require a 'diversion of consider­ able air support essential to the success of the forces engaged in decisive operations'. This assertion is entirely untrue. By March 1944 the Allies controlled the skies above the whole of Europe, and neither the Normandy invasion nor the subsequent drive across France used the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy. This force had the ability to strike at Auschwitz and other Lagers with minimal risk and cost. Not only were such attacks possible, but also the industrial sites near each Lager were considered attractive targets. In fact, many air operations took place within only 40 miles of Auschwitz. It is safe to say that the gas chambers in the camp could have been bombed. And Hitler would not have had the time or resources to repair the resulting damage. Key aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by US bombers on August 25 and December 21,1944 clearly show the exter­ mination installations at Auschwitz. Hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved if this had been done promptly, as the Nazis would have lost their most efficient means of murdering people. Instead, the US military as well as the politicians did nothing, which clearly compounds their guilt of complicity. Although the government was obviously responsible for the majority of the blame for America's apathy while innocent lives were being snuffed out in Europe, the sad truth is that the ordinary citi­ zenry failed to put effective pressure on Roosevelt's administration to take action. This role should have fallen primarily to Jewish leaders in America, who were expected to do more than their Gentile cociti­ zens. Jews chaired all the congressional committees that were central to the rescue effort, namely the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Immigration and Naturalization Committee, yet no pressure was exerted. This lack of action on the

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part of American Jewry relates to the aforementioned fear of ethnic confrontation; a poor excuse for following a course of apathy. Meanwhile, 'for the condemned there was no judge to whom to appeal for a redress of injustice; no government from which to ask protection and punishment for the murders; no neighbor on whose gates to knock and ask for shelter; no God to whom to pray for mercy.'”1 All over Europe and the rest of the free world, there was apathy and indifference toward the happenings in Nazi-occupied Europe. An all too small number of people went out of their way and some­ times even risked their lives to save the lives of Jews. The events of the Holocaust are known mainly for the atrocities and the lives lost, not the lives that were saved through rare acts of courage (see below). This is because many people did nothing to save the millions of Jews and other minorities who perished at the hands of the Nazis. Through denial, justification, apathy and misinformation the responses of the outside world encouraged the implementation of the Nazi plan to murder European Jewry. After the war, when the Third Reich lay defeated, Germany 's citi­ zens were approached with the question, 'How could you have let such atrocities occur?' The common response was, 'I didn't know', or 'I had to do my duty', or 'I was following orders'. This claim of apathy from the German public is far from an acceptable answer. Everyone in the Third Reich knew of Hitler's intention to destroy the Jews. He provided the blueprint for his Final Solution to the Jewish Question, without a trace of doubt or hesitation, in his Mein Kainpf. The book also stipulated the enactment of the Nuremberg Racial and Nationality Laws, which excluded Jews from all civil rights. Much like the Bible itself, Hitler's book, which had become the foun­ dation of Nazi ideology, was present in almost all German households. There was also proof of Hitler's intentions in the observable cruelty to Germans of Jewish origin in the streets of the Third Reich (Austria included), and in the open deportation of the Jews to concentration camps during the very early stages of his ascent to power, not to mention the events in Germany on 9 and 10 November 1938. A study of the German railroad system, one of the most reliable in the world, shows how the bureaucracy of the Third Reich served in the extermination of European Jewry. The transportation of Jews from all over Europe to the extermination camps involved countless numbers of railroad workers and clerical employees. Meticulous records of the deportations were kept on a daily basis. Millions of Reichsmarks in payments were collected for tickets that were marked for one-way trips - payments cynically levied on the hapless victims by the perpetrators. Civilian workers continued to perform their

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daily tasks on the railroads as they had done before the deportations took place. These individuals were never given specific orders or forced to perform these duties. They made individual decisions to continue working and became in a good many instances fully aware of the results of their actions. However, the knowledge of the deportations was not limited to those workers alone. The transports made frequent stops at crowded railway stations and encountered frequent passport checks on the way to the Lagers. These public displays exposed the truth of the 'relocation policy' to the witnessing German citizenry, who frequently jeered at the anguished deportees, as they peered from behind the boarded windows of the boxcars. The excuses of the Germans were invalid and unacceptable because they had knowledge of the ongoing carnage. The public was well aware of the situation, but it was willing to accept the reality of such barbarism. Never before had an ethnic/religious minority been so relentlessly, cold-bloodedly and systematically murdered en masse. True, because of this unprecedented horror, the mass murder program was hard to fathom. Even from the viewpoint of the Einsatzgruppen, it was considered unbelievable. The German people found the concept hard to believe because of the diversion of resources from the war to the killing operation. Manpower and railroad transport was badly needed for the war effort and, instead, was being used for the transportation of the Jews to the killing factories. From an economic and industrial viewpoint, it made no sense whatsoever to kill people who could be used as skilled labor. No one could have foreseen that the 'hatred, arising from quasi-religious fanaticism, would prove stronger than the most pressing practical considerations'.19 The Germans were not the only people who were apathetic toward the fate of the Jews. Most of Europe had much the same knowledge, yet did little to come to the aid of the Jews. For example, when the 90,000 Jewish citizens of France were deported, the French Vichy government did nothing to prevent it, nor did it protest. The French under General Petain cooperated with the Nazis fully. When the Nazis initially marched into France, the French army was the strongest in Europe. It could have easily offered resistance, perhaps preventing the Nazis from overrunning France with the greatest of ease. The opportunity was there to halt Hitler's ambition to gain Lebensraum, living space. Any action showing disapproval of the Nazi plan might have resulted as well in causing a delay - perhaps halt to the persecution of innocent citizens. Instead, the French response helped to start the spread of indif­ ference throughout continental Europe. In Belgium, 40,000 Jews were rounded up and murdered. In Holland, the Jews were placed

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in a ghetto in Amsterdam, from where they were eventually trans­ ported to death camps. Only 10,000 of the 150,000 Jews survived. Most of the 75,000 Jews of Serbia, Yugoslavia, and Croatia were also exterminated. In Greece, almost all of the Jews were taken to Auschwitz, likewise the Jews of Hungary and Romania, where most of them perished in the gas chambers. As the Jews of Europe were being deported to their deaths, the governments of each country turned their backs on them and created no opposition, either overt or covert. This with the exception of Denmark, Bulgaria, and Finland, who rescued as many as they could. (The latter insisted on a military alliance with Germany only. The Finnish Jews were not to be stigma­ tized, and they were not touched.) This lack of action or even expressed disapproval was never looked upon as wrong. There was little or no criticism from countries outside the Nazi sphere of influ­ ence or occupation, not even from the Vatican (see below). A common question asked was 'Where is the United States?' The US had from its very inception been known to offer refuge for victims of religious persecution. Even before the creation of the Republic, the early Pilgrims sought a haven in the US from British intolerance and persecution; so did the Irish for the same reasons. In the early 1900s, east European Jews, victims of pogroms and severe persecution, were quarantined on Ellis Island. Yet, during the 1930s and early 1940s many Jews trying to escape Nazi persecution were turned away after reaching American shores. Part of the reason for this was due to the Red Scare and distrust for foreigners after World War One. Still, millions of Jews were dying at the hands of Nazi assassins, and the US did not come to their aid. The best example of international apathy and unwillingness to take risks in aiding the persecuted was the US-sponsored Evian conference (1938), which was to deliberate on division of responsi­ bility toward the oppressed. By refusing to change its immigration policies, the United States set a precedent for other attending coun­ tries at the conference. Hitler and the Nazi press noticed the wanton inactivity of these countries. Quickly, a Nazi newspaper claimed that the Evian conference was proof that 'no state is prepared to fight the cultural disgrace of central Europe by accepting a few thousand Jews. Thus, the Conference serves to justify Germany's policy against Jewry.'*1 This, coupled with the indifferent response of the Vatican, also acted as a form of approval for Hitler's ideology. Part of the reason for the American indifference is the media's failure to present the information about the plight of the Jews to the public. Specific information was available to the press. William Shirer, then the New York Times reporter in Germany, reported his findings on Nazi lawlessness and barbarism as early as the mid-thirties. At the time, his impassioned articles never reached US shores, sidetracked

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by his London Times boss, who was a Nazi sympathizer. Some of Shirer's information was in the nature of rumors and unconfirmed reports that were treated skeptically by the press. However, official records, including American government sources, the Allies, and even the Germans themselves, confirmed many of his findings. When the American press finally published articles about the mass killings and graves, they did so in an unconvincing manner, which did not inspire credibility. Short articles containing information of importance were often buried under small headlines or in the weather, obituary, or comic pages. How could the New York Times publish articles on the slaughter of at least a million Jews, yet not place the article on the most prominent page? The Seattle Times (1942) buried the news of the systematic murder of European Jewry in an article with a small headline, '700,000 Jews Reported Slain'. This does not place emphasis on the uniqueness of the occurrence, merely reporting a commonplace statistic about the daily carnage of war. One reason why the press hesitated to acknowledge the news was its belief that the reports of World War Two atrocities bore a resemblance to the British propa­ ganda inventions of World War One. Thus, stories of the murder of Jews in Nazi killing factories were easily dismissed by the press as more propaganda fabrication. Hence, the blame for almost 7 million Jewish lives - among them over a million children - did not lie solely on the collective consciences of the German people. As Albert Einstein said (in (Jut of My Later Years), 'the world is too dangerous to live in - not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen'. Had there been a public outcry in protest at the mass killings of innocent citizens, around the globe, whoever they were, there may have been fewer victims of the Holocaust. It is inconceiv­ able that the world was unaware of the Jewish situation in the Third Reich prior to the mass killings. It was aware, and it could have fore­ seen that Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish Problem was the next 'logical' step to what had been taking place in Germany (and Europe) for the past several decades and worldwide for the past 2,000 years. THE GERMANS

Feelings of anti-Judaism were present in Germany long before the Nazis came to power. However, once Hitler became the supreme leader, the Fuhrer, he made the persecution of the Jews state policy. At first, his goal was to get the Jews out of Germany by forced emigration. The Jews could leave the country, provided they left all of their possessions to the Third Reich, save for one 50-pound suit­ case, which they were allowed to carry with them. Under Hitler's

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leadership, the Nazis tried to create a global climate in which cruelty against the Jews was socially acceptable. Judging by the general response, they succeeded admirably. (They were especially successful in Poland, where ordinary people, erstwhile friends and neighbors of the persecuted, were often not ashamed to applaud the violence that they witnessed, and oftentimes followed the example of the perpetrators. Only in Poland were Jewish survivors murdered when they returned to their homes after their miraculous survival and liberation from the Nazi death camps.) From 1933 to 1939 the Nazis became progressively more violent, while the world stood by and watched. Western leaders failed or refused to see the horrors of the Nazi racial policy. That failure was evident in the policy of appeasement. If England and France would not even help a loyal ally like Czechoslovakia against Nazi aggres­ sion, then why would they be sympathetic to the plight of European Jewry? The question will always haunt us whether the British and the French were at fault for giving in to Hitler's every wish at the Munich conference, and whether appeasement gave Hitler the confi­ dence he needed to destroy the Jews and cause the deaths of countless others. Hitler came to power through legal means, and his first mission was to destroy the system that had brought him to power. To mind comes Goebbels's boast and cynically correct statement: 'Es wird immer der bester Witz des deniokratischen Systems sein, dass es seinen Todfeinden die Mittel in die Hand gab es zu zerstoeren' (The best joke on the democratic system will always be that it has handed its deadly enemy the means to destroy it). The Enabling Act gave Hitler the power to become a dictator, and the Jews quickly became a scapegoat for all of Germany's ills. Hitler appealed to middle-class citizens, telling them that the Jews were taking their jobs away. He appealed to the ordinary person through rhetoric and promises to restore Germany to her erstwhile greatness. While he made these promises, no one asked at what cost the reemergence of a strong Germany was to be effected. As it happened, Hitler restored the Germans' pride in their ethnicity while looting minorities, especially the Jews. Yet no one objected, nor did anyone refuse the profits of the persecution of the Jews. The world knew about the injustices of the Third Reich, but did nothing to protest. The countries of western Europe and the United States had a great opportunity to stop or at least deter Hitler on several occasions. The first opportunity arose in 1936 when the Summer Olympics were held in Berlin. Hitler desperately wanted the Olympic Games to be held in Germany, so that he could gain world approval for his new state. The Olympic Committee could have switched the site in protest at Nazi ideology and practices, but chose

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not to do so. If Britain or the United States had boycotted the Berlin Olympics, it would have damaged Hitler's regime both domestically and around the world.41 (Since 1936 other countries have boycotted Olympic Games to prove a point. The United States refused to send athletes to the Moscow Olympics in 1980 to protest the Soviet inva­ sion of Afghanistan. This showed the entire world that the US would not tolerate this type of behavior. Other countries followed suit.) The French and British governments had another opportunity to stop Hitler in 1938. A conflict arose between the Third Reich and Czechoslovakia because Hitler wanted to annex the Sudetenland into the Third Reich, claiming the three million Germans living there as the reason. The Czech government refused to give up the land or the people in it. The negotiations between Hitler and the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as well as the Czech Prime Minister Dr Emil Hacha went on for weeks, but by May 1938 Hitler was ready to invade Czechoslovakia at any moment, which he subsequently did. On the other hand, Czechoslovakia did not feel it had anything to worry about because it had treaties with the Soviet Union and France. France had completed a treaty with the Czechs in 1925 and promised to help them if they were invaded. Similarly, the Soviet Union signed a treaty with the Czech government in 1935, which stated that if France came to the aid of the threatened country, so would the Soviet Union. Britain did not have a treaty with Czechoslovakia, but both sides were looking at the British to see if they were going to get involved. Neville Chamberlain adhered to an ideal goal, which was expressed in his dictum, 'peace at all costs'. The people were weary of war, remembering the Great War which was to have been 'The war to end all wars.' Chamberlain feared Hitler's belligerence, and felt he could appease the dictator on a personal level. Although he knew about the way the Nazis treated the German Jews and other minori­ ties, Chamberlain decided that protesting their treatment was not worth another war; a war which, he felt, the British were unprepared to fight. He therefore tried to justify appeasement by saying that the German army was superior to that of Great Britain, and that there was nothing either France or Britain could do to prevent Hitler from taking over Czechoslovakia. Thus, although Germany was in reality outnumbered by 200 divisions, the French and Czech governments did not stand up to Hitler in 1938. In Chamberlain's view, Stalin posed a greater threat to Europe's stability than Hitler. Another weakness of Chamberlain was his underestimation of Hitler's appetite for expansion. He felt that by giving Hitler Czechoslovakia, he would satisfy the dictator's ambition. The western leaders lacked complete knowledge of Hitler's agenda. Hope for peace induced them to negotiate with the dictator.

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The two men who eventually determined the fate of Hitler's acts of terror were Chamberlain and Hitler. The British prime minister received a hero's welcome at home, waving a piece of paper in his hand and proclaiming 'Peace in our time', while many German Jews saw the fatal 'writing on the wall', which was to seal their tragic end. Moreover, by taking Czechoslovakia, Hitler increased his area of influence dramatically. With Britain and France appeasing Hitler at all costs, the Fiihrer overran Czechoslovakia. With this action he finally convinced the western leaders of his true intentions, and they decided to take a stand. As a result, Great Britain made a treaty with Poland in 1939, which subsequently led to World War Two when Hitler invaded the latter country. Furthermore, after the Munich conference Hitler was sure he could do anything to the Jews and the west would not respond. He was right. The western powers had a track record of appeasement and apathy, and did not react when Hitler, after the conference, raised the level of violence against the Jews. There was Kristallnacht in November 1938, during which many great synagogues were torched and lives lost. Weak reaction from abroad to this barbaric behavior - the first hint of what Hitler was capable of - only encour­ aged the Fuhrer to bolder deeds. By that time, too, Hitler and all those around him felt that the democratic world was too weak, and it wasn't fit to exist. During the war years the western Allies did not give the rescue of the Jews high priority. They did not focus their military efforts or their propaganda on a solution of the 'Jewish Problem', which would have turned public opinion against the Nazi regime. The Jews were simply counted as victims of the war; the totals tallied into millions. The British and Americans argued that the only means of saving Jewish lives was to win the war quickly; this strategy meant the death sentence on the European Jewish community. In the end, the western Allies, with the aid of the Soviet Union, defeated the Third Reich, but only after more than six million European Jews had perished at the hands of Adolf Hitler. The ques­ tion will always remain whether the great powers could have stopped Hitler's expansionist ideas in 1938. Hitler was determined to make war, and the western powers allowed him to progress beyond the boundaries of rational behavior. As Yehuda Bauer points out, mass murder was avoidable because there was a willingness to sell or barter Jews out of the same attitude that produced the readiness to murder them; and that the free world was not prepared to buy the Jews, because its prior­ ities then and now fall short of its declared ethical values. Winning wars was primary; saving human lives was not/2

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In the end, each collaborator, bystander or even apathetic onlooker relinquished their humanity in the hope of creating a new world order where they thought they could garner a larger portion of the action. They denied their own nature and everything they loved, while indulging themselves in the usual lip service of confused rationalizations to explain away their guilt of passivity in the face of insolence and terror. In consequence, they grew more and more distant from their families and from the traditional principles of ethics and morals; the basic tenets of just laws for all people. They gave up teaching their children the traditional values, the things they should love most. Following that, they gave up their relationships with friends, arguing that ideology and self-interest came first. Willingly, they had become instruments of a villainous system and its leader, the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, and stopped asking questions or seeking answers to central issues of humanity. In a final analysis, they regarded the world they saw around themselves as the implacable enemy of everything they believed in. Like the rest of the Nazis and their proxies - the privileged of that world - in the end, they had only one ambition, to be its executioner. THE VATICAN

Questions: (a) How did Hitler make the Christian people, which comprised 90 percent of the Third Reich, believe that the annihilation of one ethnic group would make them stronger?; (b) Did the Vatican use its power to the extent possible to discourage or end the murder of European Jewry and other minorities?; (c) Given the global role and power of the Vatican, could the Pope and Vatican representatives (Nuncios) have made a significant differ­ ence in the outcome of Hitler's mania?

The preconditions for Hitler's Solution of the Jewish Question were, on the one hand, 1,700 years of Christian anti-Jewish feelings and, on the other, a close alliance between popes and totalitarian regimes, which was the norm beginning in the eighteenth century. The atti­ tude of the popes was conditioned by their pessimism in view of globally declining religious faith, their concept of neutrality, Constantinian law and, above all, in recent times, their fear of communism. There were three periods in the process of Nazi violence against the Jews. The first period (1933-39) extended from the attainment of Nazi power in Germany to the outbreak of World War Two. Physical violence was intermittent, coupled with humiliation and degrada­ tion of the Jews. Yet, throughout, the emphasis was on disposition, arbitrary arrest, social ostracism; the tortures and impris­ onment in concentration camps were reserved for some, from which

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they sometimes emerged beaten, crushed in spirit, but still alive. The impunity with which Nazism survived the first period made the next two periods inevitable: 1939 to 1941, when the Final Solution was resolved; and during the years 1941 to 1945, when physical extermi­ nation was the ordained lot of Jews in every land over which Nazi power was established. In order to fully comprehend the actions of the Vatican during the Holocaust, let us review briefly the papacy of Pius XI, the prede­ cessor to Pius XII. Pope Pius XI favored fascism in Italy. He disliked the antifascist Catholic Party and its leader, Luigi Sturzo. The Pope joined the industrialists and army officers who saw in fascism protec­ tion of property rights against the clamor of social reform. The Catholic Party was dissolved and its leader was driven into exile. The Pope signed a concordat and Lateran treaty with Italy in 1929, thus settling the 60-year dispute between the Church and the State. The treaty gave the Pope full sovereignty over the Vatican City and reaffirmed the principle by which the Catholic religion is the only state religion in Italy. On July 20,1933 the Vatican signed a concordat with Germany, in which it was guaranteed the freedom of the Catholic religion and the right of the Church to regulate her own affairs within the Third Reich. Behind the agreement with Hitler stood the Vatican bureau­ cracy and its leader (former Vatican Nuncio to Berlin) Cardinal Pacelli, the Germanophile Secretary of State and future Pope Pius XII. While he visualized an authoritarian state and an authoritarian church directed by Vatican bureaucracy, the Catholic antifascists were inconvenient to Cardinal Pacelli and his subordinates. They were sacrificed without regret in Italy and Germany. (These pacts lent a cloak of Catholic approval to both Hitler and Mussolini when they most needed it. Pius XI had praised them both as the first statesmen to join him in open disavowal of Bolshevism.) Pius XI said nothing in April 1933, when the first two anti-Jewish laws were passed in Germany excluding non-Aryans from public office and the bar. Another concordat was being prepared in record time. Hitler stated: I have been attacked by the way I treat the Jews. For 1500 years the Catholic Church has considered the Jews as pernicious, has relegated them to ghettos and understood what Jews are. With the coming of liberalism, the danger was not seen anymore. 1 join myself to what was done for 1500 years. I do not place race above religion; I consider the representatives of the race in question as pernicious for both State and Church, and in doing so, 1 am rendering the greatest service to Christianity; that is why I expel the Jews from the intellectual professions and the State service. (Quoted Marlis,

Hitler's War and the Germans)

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Pope Pius XI said nothing after the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935, which prohibited sexual relations between Germans and Jews, in order to protect German blood and honor. (Fifty thousand Jews left Germany between July 1933 and September 1935 and many committed suicide, unable to bear the humiliation of disenfranchisement.) The Pope said nothing after the Anschluss in 1938, when antiJewish measures were redoubled and it was made obligatory to declare all Jewish property, so that it could be confiscated. The letter /, Jude (Jew) was stamped in large bold print on Jewish Kennkarten (identification cards) and passports. The Pope said nothing after Kristallnacht, the night when mobs torched 200 synagogues and destroyed 7,500 Jewish shops in a wellorchestrated 'spontaneous' pogrom. As a consequence of that night, 10,500 Jews were sent to Dachau and Buchenwald and all non­ Aryans were eliminated from commercial activity. Pope Pius XI issued the Encyclical Quadrigessimo Anno in 1931, which stated that socialism is irreconcilable with the teachings of the Church. (Though encyclicals are not infallible pronouncements, there can be no doubt about their binding authority for the majority of believers.) The Pope issued the encyclical With Burning Care in 1937. It condemned heathenism and warned against elevating racist and national values to absolute priority; but the word Jew or anti-judaisni did not appear therein, and the encyclical is primarily concerned with the anti-Catholic and anticlerical slander campaign of the Nazis. The one reproach that was made by the Pope was that the concordat had been violated. (Church-supported schools were abolished.) And, so as to obtain a modest guarantee that there would be no further violations, the Pope scrupulously avoided making any clear judg­ ment on the concept of the brutal and grotesque Nazi-inspired racial theories. The only aspect of Nazism criticized by the encyclical was its totalitarianism. Pius concluded by offering Hitler the olive branch of reconciliation, so as to win back for the German Catholic Church its considerable bureaucratic and organizational prosperity. In 1938, Edith Stein, a Jewish convert to Catholicism and a nun, one of the foremost theologians of her time, wrote to Pius imploring him to issue an encyclical concerning the persecution of the Jews. There was no response. In the last years of Pius' pontificate, the Pope underwent a certain re-orientation in his policy toward totalitari­ anism and even managed to utter compassionate words about the Jews. But these, on his part, were more verbal than written, and were usually confidential rather than public. The famous speech that Catholics were spiritual heirs to the Jews 'was made behind closed doors and went unrecorded in the Osservatore Romano'.41

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On July 31,1941, Reinhard Heydrich was charged with making all the preparations for bringing about the Solution of the Jewish Question within the sphere of Nazi influence in Europe. It began with a decree in September 1941, which provided that no Jew was to leave his place of dwelling without special permission. It had already been applied in Poland, and was now extended to the entire Third Reich. It covered Mosaic Jews and those converted after September 15, 1935. (Those married to Aryans were exempt.) Mass deportations of Jews to the east began on the October 15, 1941. The Vatican was silent.

The ghetto population grew. Trainloads were unloaded each day; most of them were from Germany, but there were also Jews from the other countries of Europe. The new arrivals were assigned quarters in the congested ghetto, and conditions were becoming intolerable; to a large degree due to the incompati­ bility of the tenants with their hosts. The Judenrat maintained an accurate census. New arrivals were recorded; health, age and, most importantly, property. The militia paid special attention to the latter before assigning them new quarters. By the time the refugees were settled, few had been left with any means of support. When grandfather heard they might assign some of the German Jews to share our modest apartment, he fumed. 'They're not going to deposit one of those assimilated German shmadnikes in my home!' He shouted at the top of his voice. To my grandfather, all German Jews were shmadnikes, 'converts.' 'Now, Srulko, these are poor, homeless, people,' Grandmother admonished softly. 'They need shelter, and we have space to spare, so why not let a good family from among those defeated people come and live with us? I'm sure, they 'd do the same were it the other way around.' 'A good family? Did you say, a good family?' Srulko mimicked his wife, waving his arms in anger. 'There aren't any good fami­ lies among these converts! They're worse than their Gentile country people!' My grandfather was not alone in his view of the German Jew. Most eastern European Jews were orthodox, but the Piotrkow Jews were ultra-orthodox. To them, any Jew that was less than a Hasid was a convert. The Hasid's appearance was unmistak­ able; the earlocks, fringe garments, the beard, all these had become the target of persecution by Hitler's henchmen: HJ, SS, the Schupo (Police), and the Gestapo, all of whom roamed the ghetto in search of victims. Beards were cut with dull-edged bayonets, and beatings were common daily occurrences. The Hasid had come to feel that he was suffering for the transgres-

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sions of the impious shtnadnikes, the intruders. The latter, the assimilated German Jews, felt similarly about the Hasidim; they were the cause of Hitler's wrath for which he made his 'own Jews' pay the price. In December of 1941, the killing factories - Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek, Auschwitz, and many others - began their operations. Until 1942, half-Jews and quarter-Jews, Mischlinge, as well as non-Aryans married to Aryans, had been exempt from depor­ tation. From then on, they would be deported as well. The killing factories would work relentlessly until October 1944. (Shortly before the outbreak of World War Two, at the Eucharist Congress in Budapest, Cardinal Pacelli made a statement that could only be inter­ preted as a call of arms against godless Bolshevism.) Let us review now the papacy of Pius XII during the last two periods of Nazi violence (1939-1945). On the eve of the death of Pius XI, relations between the Vatican and the Third Reich were strained. Pius XII set about to improve them. In keeping with the outlook of so many pontiffs, he hoped to be a peacemaker in an epoch of horren­ dous conflict. His ascension to the throne coincided with the zenith of the appeasement era: those months between Munich and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia when fear of war and of commu­ nism permitted Hitler to practice blackmail on a global scale and to march from triumph to triumph. Among responsible statesmen and leaders of the time, only wise and prophetic souls saw that, with concession after concession, the West was moving toward catastrophe. Pius XII joined the group in appeals for negotiations and attempts at mediation. Even after the invasion of Poland - a country almost 100 percent Catholic - he refrained from condemning aggression. 'With peace,' he said, 'nothing is lost. With war, everything can be.'44 On the eve of Hitler's invasion of Poland, Pius XII made arrange­ ments with Hitler's government through his nuncio in Berlin for the protection of the rights of the Church in Poland after the occupation. On the eve of the Nazi invasion of Russia, and during the campaign, Pius XII made arrangements concerning new ecclesiastical order in the occupied Soviet territories. Pius XII's political ideas were such that he considered it more important not to stab Hitler in the back by diplomatic means - they might have sufficed, allegedly, to postpone Hitler's Final Solution to the day of victory - because he regarded the Wehrmacht as a strong bulwark against Bolshevism. The Pope was opposed to the Allied imposition of an unconditional surrender on the Third Reich (Casablanca, 1943), and considered it a calamity. Yet, the abandon­ ment of unconditional surrender would have meant a peace treaty with Hitler. And that would have further implied the elimination of

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all objectionable Christians and Catholics or, at least, their deporta­ tion to the east. The Pope broke his silence twice during the war: once when Russia attacked Finland; and, shortly afterward, when the Third Reich violated the neutrality of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. That the Vatican had no intrinsic objection to a policy subjecting the jews to discriminatory legislation and overt persecution again became clear in June 1941, when the Vichy government introduced a series of antiJewish laws, albeit with the disapproval of the cardinals and bishops of France. Leon Berard, Vichy ambassador to the Vatican, was able to report that the Church did not consider such laws in conflict with Catholic teachings: 'It would be unreasonable to allow the Jews to exercise dominion in a Christian State and thus limit the authority of the Catholics. From which it follows that it is legitimate to forbid them access to public office, likewise legitimate to admit them to universities and to the professions only to a limited extent.'15 In August 1941 the consequences of this discriminatory policy could not be clearly seen. But, in 1942, when deportations from France got under way, the papal nuncio (without invoicing the authority of the Vatican), requested that Prime Minister Laval mitigate the severity of the measures taken against the Jews of Vichy France. By that time, however, such pleas could no longer halt the machinery of destruction. The Pope was aware of the atrocities committed in the east; this is well documented, and to further probe it would be fruitless. Yet, when Harold Tittman, assistant to Myron Taylor (President Roosevelt's emissary to the Vatican), requested an infallible state­ ment or an encyclical from the Pope after presenting documented evidence of the atrocities committed, he was handed an informal, unsigned response. Taylor reported to Washington that the Vatican (October 1942) was seeking to circumvent the problem on the grounds that it was impossible to verify the accuracy of the docu­ ments concerning the murder of the Jews. 'It is well known that the Vatican is taking advantage of every opportunity offered to mitigate the suffering of the non-Aryans,' he concluded.1" This leads us to an important conclusion. Up to the time of Pius XII, it was not considered self-evident that the Catholic Church should champion the rights of those outside its fold. Suffragan Bishop Kampe emphasized: 'It is not customary for ecclesiastical pronouncements explicitly to take up the cause of groups adhering to a different philosophy.'17 It explains the lack of encyclicals, radio messages, and so on, in reference to the fate of the Jews, or the thou­ sands of Orthodox Serbs murdered by Catholic Croats, sometimes led by Catholic priests. After the Allies had vigorously denounced the cold-blooded murder of the Jews (1942), Tittman again approached the papal

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Secretary of State, Maglione, for a statement. The Holy See answered that it could not oblige, in line with its policy of neutrality, and had to limit itself to condemning immoral acts in general. Two days later, in the course of a lengthy Christmas message broadcast over Vatican radio, the following statement was read: 'Humanity owed the reso­ lution to build a better world for the hundreds of thousands who, without personal guilt, sometimes for no other reason but on account of their nationality or descent, were doomed to death.'4" In June 1943 the Pontiff spoke of his moral duty to be impartial and to point up moral errors. He had given special attention to the plight of those who were still being harassed because of their nation­ ality or descent and who, without personal guilt, were subjected to measures that spelled destruction. Unfortunately, he added, the Church's plea for compassion and for observance of elementary forms of humanity had encountered doors, which no key was able to open. The precise nature of these interventions is not well known. We do know that Monsignor Orsenigo, papal nuncio in Berlin, made inquiries on several occasions about mass shootings and the fate of deported Jews 'with some embarrassment and without emphasis'. On one occasion, the Nazi ambassador to the Vatican, V. Weizsaecker, told Orsenigo that the Vatican had conducted itself very cleverly in these matters, and that he would hope for a continuation of this policy. The nuncio took the hint and pointed out that he had not really touched this topic and that he had no desire to do so in the future. The topic was never brought up again. (It should be noted that after the war Monsignor Orsenigo was driven into the desert as a scapegoat. He was retired from his posi­ tion and, contrary to all custom, Pius XII refused Orsenigo the usual obituary in the Osservatore Romano when the bishop, far from Rome, died in the early 1950s.) The Pope's policy of neutrality had its biggest test in the fall of 1943, when the Nazis began rounding up the 8,000 Jews of Rome. Before this, the Jews were told to raise 50kg of gold or 3(H) hostages would be taken. The Jews could raise only 35kg, and the Vatican loaned the other 15kg. When, in spite of this, the round-up began on October 15, Bishop Hudal of the German Church in Rome asked the German High Command to stop these arrests in Rome. Otherwise, he said, the Pope would have to take an open stand, which would serve the anti-Nazi propaganda and as a weapon against the fatherland.44 Ambassador Weizsaecker reported back to Berlin: 'People here say that the bishops of French cities, where similar incidents have occurred, have taken a firm stand. The Pope cannot be more reticent than they.' He wrote to the German Foreign Office at the end of October 1943:

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Although the Pope is under heavy pressure from all sides, he has not permitted himself to be drawn into any condemnation of the expulsion of the Jews from Rome. Although he could have expected his attitude to be crit­ icized by our enemies and exploited by Protestants in Anglo-Saxon countries in their propaganda against the Catholics, he has done everything in his power not to strain relations with the German government or with the German circles in Rome?1

The Pope remained silent. One thousand Jews were sent to Auschwitz; only fifteen returned. Of the remaining 7,000, 4,000 were hidden by monasteries and even in the Vatican with the knowledge and approval of the Pope. The Italians hid the remaining 3,000. During that same period, the question of the kidnapping of the Pope arose. These fears were well founded, but they were circulated by the Nazis so as to silence the Pope and Vatican radio. On October 25, 1943 an official communique in the Vatican style, very vague and complicated, was broadcast: 'all men without distinction of nationality, race or religion, benefit from the Pope's paternal solicitude. The continued and varied activities of the Pope have increased lately because of the greater suffering of many unfortunates.'51 In May 1944, on the day that Jewish deportation started in Hungary, the papal nuncio drew the attention of Regent Admiral Horthy to the fact 'that the whole world is acutely aware of the meaning of this action'. But it took the Pope six weeks to send a message to the Regent, which was to be the beginning of a world-wide appeal to the conscience of the Regent. (The belated message extracted from Horthy a promise that only baptized Jews would no longer be deported'.52) When the deportations stopped, through world appeals, more than half the Hungarian Jews had already been killed. The Pope's indifference encouraged the passivity of the German episcopate, which reflected a deeply rooted anti-Jewish sentiment. Rumors of the fate of the 'resettled' Jews had trickled back into Germany by late 1941. A group of students from the University of Munich distributed pamphlets describing the atrocities of the Einsatzgruppen and asked the Germans why they were so apathetic in the face of such revolting crimes. In August 1942, SS Colonel Kurt Gerstein tried to tell the papal nuncio in Berlin about the crimes. Monsignor Orsenigo refused to see him; he then went to Dr Winter, the legal advisor to Bishop Preysing in Berlin. Gerstein requested that the report be sent to the Holy See. During this same period, the bishops, through Catholic channels, were well informed about the systematic murder of the Jews in Poland. It is clear, then, that by the end of 1942 the German episcopate possessed quite accurate knowledge about the atrocities. By then, the

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horrors of the extermination of the Jews had become common knowl­ edge and mass murder was becoming a state industry with by-products. That the German episcopate could react when it wanted to do so is evident from the statement issued through his sermon by Bishop Galen of the city of Munster, as soon as the euthanasia program had started in Germany: 'Why must they suffer, the poor defenseless sick? Woe to mankind! Woe to our German people if the sacred commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' should be transgressed, and if this transgression is tolerable and goes unpunished.'51 Nothing of the sort was said in the Third Reich from the pulpit to condemn the murder of the Jews. It was as if the German priests, supposedly of another ethnicity, were completely outside the quality of Christian compassion to interpret the fate of these victims. Who, then, was competent to say Woe to mankind on behalf of the Jews? While the German episcopate had, in the past, issued strict orders to deny the sacraments to the Catholics who engaged in dueling or having their bodies cremated, the word that would have forbidden the faithful, on pain of excommunication, to go on partici­ pating in the massacres of the Jews was never spoken. At the very least, a public denunciation of the Nazi murder of Jews by the Pope, broadcast over Vatican radio, would have revealed to Jews and Christians alike what the deportations or 'resettlement' really meant. (It is noteworthy that the resolute reaction of the German epis­ copate to the euthanasia program was effective. In 1941, Hitler did not make a martyr out of Bishop Galen, not even when the RAF planes dropped reprints of the bishop's defiant sermons on German cities. On the contrary, as a result, Hitler greatly reduced the practice of mercy killing.) The Pope enjoyed the credibility of the German public, when the broadcasts of the Allies were often shrugged off as war propaganda. The reaction of the deportees would, at least, have been more aggressive; more Christians might have helped and sheltered the Jews; many more lives might have been saved. Whether a papal decree of excommunication would have dissuaded Hitler from carrying out his plan to destroy the European Jewry is, at best, doubtful, judging by his track record. The revocation of the concordat by the Vatican would have bothered him even less. However, a flaming protest against the massacres of the Jews, coupled with an imposition of an interdict upon all of Germany or the excommunication of all Catholics in any way involved with the Final Solution, would have been a formidable weapon. Yet, this was precisely the kind of action the Pope could not take without risking the allegiance of the German Catholics. The Pope said, when asked why he did not protest: 'Do not forget the millions of Catholics in the German army. Shall I bring them into conflicts of conscience?'^ We ask today: why not?

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In the final analysis, the Vatican's silence only reflected the deep feeling of the Catholic masses of Europe, and one is inclined to conclude that the Pope and his advisors - influenced by a long tradition of anti-Jewish sentiments, widely accepted in Vatican circles - did not view the plight of the Jews with a real sense of urgency and moral outrage. Yet, ironic as it may seem, instead of a public declaration against the Nazis, the Vatican chose to protect many indi­ vidual Jews. According to Pinchas E. Lapide, 'the Catholic Church saved more Jewish lives during the war than all other churches, religious institu­ tions and rescue organizations put together ... the Holy See, the nuncios and the entire Catholic Church saved some 4(X),000 Jews from certain death.'” In particular, Pius XII was instrumental in successful efforts to save the lives of 7,000 out of the 8,000 Jews in Rome (see above)? In Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, too, the intervention of the papal nuncios, together with threats of papal denunciation, succeeded in at least postponing Jewish deportation. The word catholic means universal. The text of a hymn widely sung in Catholic churches today, based upon the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, reads: 'Gentile or Jew, servant or free, one in the Lord for all.' Pope Pius XII could have taken these words to heart, and opened his heart universally, extending the love for his neigh­ bors further beyond the walls of the Vatican than he did. He failed the test of Christian universal love. Nevertheless, he certainly cannot be held personally responsible for the execution of any of the millions of innocent Jewish victims. But perhaps his adaptation of the credo of the preservation of life might have, in fact, preserved some Jewish lives or, at least, promoted a truly Christian-like sense of morality and love set forth in the above hymnal.

Resistance CAMPS (KZ LAGERS) AND GHETTOS

Questions: What price were the persecuted willing to pay for moral victory? Would they pay with their lives? Was the life gained from dehumanization a life worth living and fighting for? Arrival at Buchenwald Konzentrazionslager 'Now, it's the KZ Buchenwald and I.G. Farben for us,' my brother Roman sneered bitterly. 'Isn't that what we're here for?,' I asked. 'Aren't we supposed to work at I.G. on munitions?' 'Let's hope so, little brother, let's hope,' Roman said, as we glanced at our fallen comrades whom we left behind. 'You there, Schweinehunde!,' an SS guard shouted in our direc­ tion. I shrunk into the column of men surrounding me, trying

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to be as small and invisible as possible. It was to no avail. The capo rushed over, wielding his billy club, thrashing us with all his fury, as if to impress his superiors who held on to their sides with laughter. I was struck on the shoulder, but I didn't feel the pain; the fear overshadowed it. Suddenly, an SS guard rushed into the melee, clubbing everyone in his wake. He grabbed Menasha, who had come between the capo and myself, by one earlock - that had somehow managed to slip out from under his tight cap - and pulled him from out of our ranks. The guard went berserk, hitting Menasha with great force, soon bringing our friend to his knees. 'Undress, Jew!!' Menasha complied, taking off his jacket and shirt. He was kneeling now, half-clad, in front of his antagonist. 'Praying to your God, Jew?! Will you?!' he yelled, while Menasha's lips moved quickly. 'Louder! Swine!' Without looking at the SS man, Menasha prayed the maariv, the evening services, the time of our arrival at the lager. His face was now covered with blood; one of the blows punctured the skin on the left temple. Snow clung to his body as he fell under the blows, to the delight and amusement of the guards, who had now gathered round him forming a small circle. 'Your God isn't listening, Jew! Maybe He's on vacation, uh, Jude! Or maybe there's no Judengott after all?' Laughing louder, and narrowing the circle round their victim; the guards proceeded to urinate on his face, hair, and on that whole picture of piety. Still, Menasha prayed on. 'See, Jew? This is what we think of your God! We piss on Him! That's all He's good for, that Jewish God of yours, to piss on!' The guards suffered violent hiccups, they laughed so hard. I observed the spectacle with horror, expecting the guards to be struck by some greater force at any moment. But it didn't happen, and I suddenly recalled my friend's prediction, not knowing that Menasha would be right. There would come great suffering to us; sorrow which would make the past events trivial by comparison. And 1 knew then, that there are degrees of evil even as there are degrees of goodness and life itself. And that all of that remains under the umbrella of the great spiritual force, which Menasha called Lord.

To overcome the prayer prohibition, the Hasidim had agreed by word of mouth on set times during which to conduct their prayer sessions, regardless of their whereabouts. It was a mystery to us all, how each man to himself knew when to commence worship; at daybreak, at midday, and for the maariv

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at sundown. Regardless of his activity at the moment, isolated or in the company of others, the Hasidim prayed, and each man knew exactly when to sound the final 'amen' at the conclusion of the memorial Kaddish. It was late evening. I listened to Menasha's supplications, as I had done so many times before. This time, however, it was the tone of his prayer that caught my attention. '1 was unable to stand up to recite the Kaddish, dear Lord,' he muttered, 'forgive me, for I have sinned gravely.' He beat himself on the chest repeatedly; the hollow sound was that of an open grave. 'Whatever the Almighty wills, I shall accept,' he whispered softly, adding, 'blessed be He.' 1 knew then that the evening services had come to an end...

I lay awake the rest of the night. I could not hold my thoughts to myself any longer. 'Menasha, wake up, Menasha!' I nudged him on the side lightly. There was no need. He was seldom asleep nowadays. 'Do you hear, Menasha? The great explosions! You must have courage! We're nearing the end! Your miracle is going to happen after all!' 'The Almighty is merciful, blessed be He!' was all Menasha muttered, as he began his morning worship. I gazed at him with silent, scrutinizing attention. His puffy yellow face was wrought with emotion. The yellow of his eyes screwed up at me attentively. Jaundice had set in. I thought desperately. 'I'm done over here, Vilek,' he suddenly said quietly. T am ready to follow the voice of the Lord, blessed be His Name.' There was a widespread stereotypical belief that the Jew was estranged from the use of arms and devoid of martial qualities throughout his entire history in the diaspora. Even in the Nazi period, they say, there was a general absence of physical resistance among the persecuted Jews. This commonly held myth does no justice to the various types of resistance that occurred in the face of Nazi oppression. Evidence points to forms of resistance ranging from unarmed (passive, i.e. silent prayer), to examples of armed resistance in the Lagers and in ghettos. This will serve to dispel the myth that the Jews went to their deaths without any form of resistance. Facing lack of support from the rest of the world, the Jews were totally dependent on their limited resources and resisted with the knowledge that international conventions governing prisoners of war in combat did not apply to them when captured by or surrendering to the enemy. An ironic contradiction to the myth of nonresistance is the fact that the record of Jewish resistance to Nazism far exceeds that of the combined POW

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camps, notwithstanding the fact that the latter comprised trained military personnel. We owe it to the millions dead of Nazi persecution to examine briefly whether this widespread belief of passivity held by many Jews and non-Jews is justified. It is a fact that the Jews in history were neither born as victims nor were they martyrs. But rather they have at all times included their share of fighters, possessed of a spirit of active resistance to all oppressors. That the Jews of antiquity were martial people is now universally accepted. The Roman Dio Cassius is quoted as saying: 'This people are terrible when aroused to anger' (History of Rome). And Tacitus concludes that 'they hold that the souls of all who perish in battle are immortal' (Dimant, Indestructible Jews). History appears to bear out the words of yet another Roman historian, Josephus, that the Jews were 'men that despise dangers, and are very ready to fight upon any occasion' (The Jewish War). The Jews provided warriors to the great king of the Persian Empire, and this was probably the chief reason why Cyrus restored to the Jews their homeland of Judea and Samaria for, henceforth, they guarded the empire's frontiers. It is rumored that Jews partici­ pated in the campaigns of Alexander of Macedon and accompanied him on his expedition to India. Many Jews remained as military colonists in what is today the country of Afghanistan, and more settled there during the reign of Seleucus, ca. 232-81. The Aryan population of Afghanistan still claims descent from the ten lost tribes. This heritage is especially cherished among the Pathans and the fierce Afridis and Waziris, who claim descent from the tribes of Gad and Ephraim. Nineteen centuries after Josephus, his description of the qualities that made the Jewish rebels against Rome such indomitable fighters has still the power to move not only Jews. Yet, except for their courage and fortitude, the Jews who fought the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto or in the partisan detachments throughout Nazi-occupied territories of Europe appear to have little in common with the reli­ gious defenders of Jerusalem or those who died to a man in the Massada fortress. However, thanks to Josephus' quotations from the work of the Greek historian Hacateus of Abdera, we learn that the Jewish fighting men of antiquity possessed two characteristics that have remained a constant Jewish feature: they made good allies but poor mercenaries, for they refused to serve those who did not respect their beliefs!

Ainsztein places Jewish resistance into four categories: • the actions of individuals and groups in defense of their lives and human dignity

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participation in the partisan war waged on Polish and Soviet soil against the Germans and their local allies • underground activities and revolts in the city ghettos • escapes from and revolts in the death camps.'•

Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, emphasizes that men were not the only soldiers in this battle for dignity. Indeed, 'women knew well that the odds were against them, but they felt as much as the men the responsibility to resist the oppressors and to leave a message to those who came after them: life is worth living only when lived in freedom, and this freedom is worth dying for'.5" Myth: Jews put up no fight. Fact: Jews revolted in five extermina­ tion Lagers, including Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz. Fact: Jews staged revolts in the ghettos of Czestochova, Vilno, Bialystok, Minsk, Lachwa, Warsaw, and others. Fact: Jews created and joined numerous partisan groups, which conducted armed resistance." Much of this individual resistance was non-violent. Such resis­ tance required great amounts of self-discipline and contempt in the face of fear and anger. Face to face with the victim's self-respect, the oppressor loses his own, and the victim becomes victor. Nonviolent resistance forms 'a sort of language or means of communication of ideas'."*1 That is, in a place of oppression where the oppressor will not listen to the victims, passive resistance is the only means of conveying one's beliefs, one's self-respect, one's courage, and one's strength. Resistance, in brief, gives voice to the voiceless. Unarmed struggle took place chiefly before the murder of the Jews began. For as long as the Jew was safely within the family unit, hopeful of survival together, ancient tradition would not allow the safety of loved ones to be jeopardized. Had it not been for their inge­ nuity, the ghetto Jews might have died out much quicker than they did, due to the Nazi brutality and the daily deprivations. However, though their daily food rations had been limited to ca. 350 calories, through illicit means they obtained the food necessary to almost provide the desired sustenance. A given situation and conditions dictated the selection and imple­ mentation of the tactic in resistance. Naturally, the effects of armed resistance were less subtle, thus more popularized in the romanti­ cized fashion than those of passive disobedience. In some cases, this comprised the efforts by individuals to maintain their self-respect and dignity. The Nazis employed a brutal system of moral degrada­ tion to destroy the Jews' sense of humanity; passive resistance activities served as a stumbling block for, at least, that part of Hitler's Final Solution; allowing people to die with dignity. The effects of a spiritual death can often be equated to or surpass that of a physical demise. It is, therefore, essential to realize how

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important the dehumanizing aspect was to the success of the Nazi agenda. As long as the Jews felt that there was cause for survival, some semblance of hope, there would always be that inner strength with which the Nazis would have to contend. Passive disobedience was that great weapon the assassins were unable to root out among their victims. Constant attempts at fleeing the ghetto or camp showed the determination to resist. The territories of the Generalgouvernement as well as all Nazi-occupied areas proved impossible to escape, however. Compatriots who turned bounty-hunter turned in Jews to the Nazi authorities for less than a pound of sausage and a pint of vodka. Nevertheless, attempts at fleeing were quite common. This, in itself, was a sign of great defiance and contempt for the involuntary confinement. It was a form of resistance. Though education of any sort was forbidden in the ghetto, schools were operated secretly for the children. Political parties were outlawed, but most continued underground. Newspapers were illegal, but there were many printed clandestinely. In Warsaw alone there were more than 50 informative papers printed. Under the guid­ ance of Dr Emmanuel Ringelblum, founder of the Oneg Shabbat group, in a show of great defiance to the prohibition, diary notes documented the conditions in the ghetto. These archives were one of the main sources of knowledge regarding Jewish life in the Warsaw ghetto, as well as in Poland proper. Although some protest the inclusion of suicide as a form of resis­ tance, Marrus categorizes it as 'the most radical category of attempts to escape from Nazi terror'. He adds that it should be included because it did indeed disturb or interfere with the Nazis' extermina­ tion process. Several thousand Jews are believed to have committed suicide. Marrus cites old age along with social and professional degradation as factors contributing to the high suicide rate.”1

April and May 1943 - two of the most significant months in the annals of Jewish history. The revolt in the Warsaw ghetto was in every sense a people's uprising. That is to say, it was not confined to the actions of two military organizations, but was made possible by the involve­ ment of thousands of ordinary people. It is this participation of thousands of unarmed civilians that made the revolt a unique event not only in the story of Jewish resistance, but also in the general anti-Nazi resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Warsaw ghetto was created on October 2, 1940, by a decree issued by Dr Ludwig Fischer, the governor of the Warsaw District. A wall 16 kilometers long and 3 meters high

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Kelly, Liberating Faith, 60. Ibid. Ibid., 135. Ibid., 99. Rothfels, German Opposition to Hitler, 99f. Ibid. Ibid, 26. Ibid., 27. Ibid., 29. Gallin, German Resistance to Hitler, 140f. Ibid., 2 Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis of Power, 592f. Prittie, Germans Against Hitler, 20. Ibid. Gallin, German Resistance to Hitler, 20. Ibid., 62. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1028. Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 320. Jacobsen, July 20, 1944, 222. Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 320f. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,1028 Gallin, German Resistance to Hitler, 52 Dulles, Germany's Underground, 26 Rothfels, German Opposition to Hitler, 95 Gallin, German Resistance to Hitler, 50 Rothfels, German Opposition to Hitler, 88 Gallin, German Resistance to Hitler, 237 Rothfels, German Opposition to Hitler, 37f. Gordon, Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question, 149. Ibid. 178. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 258. Meltzer, Rescue: The Story How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust, 80. Ibid., 60. Syrkin, 'What American Jews Did," 923. Frank, Diary of a "Young Girl, 694. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, i. Ibid. Ibid., 10. Ibid., 4f. Ibid., 8f. Cited in Eisenberg, Caring Child, 57. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, 9. Ibid., 50. Ibid. Ibid., 51. Ibid., 62. Ibid., 68. [bid., 69. Ibid., 166. Ibid. Myers and Rittner, Courage to Care, 22. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, 112. Ibid. [bid., 107. [bid. Ibid., 85. Schwarz, NJVC Journal, 1992. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, 113. IbidIbid Ibid., 123.

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139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. 156. 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168.

Ibid., 134 Fein, Genocide Watch, 164 Ibid., 143 Tec, When the Light Pierced the Darkness, 27 Marrus, Nazi Holocaust, vol. 7, 457. Tec, When the Light Pierced the Darkness, 7. Flender, Rescue in Denmark, 257. Ibid. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, 171. Koblik, 'Swedsh Attempts to Aid Jews,' 1173. Rautkallio, Finland and the Holocaust, 248. Koblik, 'Swedish Attempts to Aid Jews,’ 1178. Ibid., 1194. Cohen, Burden of Conscience, 18. Stenberg, All or Nothing, 1. Ibid. Ibid., 426. Ibid., 223. Bierman, Righteous Gentile, 6. Rosenfeld, Wallenberg, 28. Ibid., 33 Ibid., 34 Ibid., 36f. Rosenfeld, Wallenberg, 55ff. Bierman, Righteous Gentile, 6. Ibid., 93. Ibid., 88ff. Ibid., i. The 81st Blow, Israeli Television Documentary on the Holocaust, 1975. Amery, At the Mind's Limits, 28.

Ah, the Children...

Marked for extinction, by merit of birth, the joys of childhood eclipsed by the forces of dark, caused the shouts of joy and laughter give way to the sounds of horror and mourning ... Ah, the little children, where have they all gone? Their laughter and tears? The innocent questions fell on deaf ears.

Alas and alack, to ashes and smoke they've all gone, in the Lagers, my dear, there, by the hand of Hitler's assassins they perished all ... (William Samelson, September 1, 1993)

/ Children during the Holocaust * Questions: Why should children become victims of their heredity? What happens when a child is exposed to the 'evils of the adult world?' How did the Jewish children react to Nazi barbarism? How did they act? How were they affected?

‘Webster defines a child as a 'young person especially between infancy and youth'. Children are so much more than this. They are today's hope and the promise for tomorrow. They are full of inno­ cence, honesty and trust. They also notice things that 'adults' are too busy to look out for or see. Regardless of their society, children often occupy a distinct and special place: they are to be cherished, nurtured and protected.

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Children's reactions to their environment must be put in the perspective of a normal childhood. Childhood is a time for many things: it is a time for learning and growing; a time when, as a person, we learn how to interact with and relate to others. Knowledge gained in childhood is the basis for everything to come. Childhood is the foundation of our lives, and everything after it relates back to that experience. It is a special time in life, practically set aside, when we are allowed to test the world, make mistakes, and learn from them in a positive way. Even when bad things happen, children tend to forget quickly; their attention is caught by other things. But what do children do when the bad things that happen to them never end, and their mistakes are punished all too severely? When people hear of a case when a child has been mistreated or abused, there are always cries of outrage and repulsion. Cries are heard of 'That should never happen to a child!,' or 'Children should be protected from those kinds of people!,' or 'Who could do such a thing to a child!?' Where were such outcries when, on Hitler's instructions, the Nazis murdered approximately 1.3 million Jewish children? The percentage of Jewish children who survived this German infanticide is the lowest of any age group to have come out of the Holocaust.'1 Why? For no other reason than having been born children of Jewish parents. Did anyone cry out for them? Who stood up and said, stop ? Sadly, very few, and most of those who did so were silenced or ignored.

Question: How does a child perceive war? Does the child understand -what is happening? These are hard questions to answer. Research in 1948 showed that children understood what it meant for their father to have been in the 'Forces', although when questioned further they could not explain what was happening. Obviously, their cognitive develop­ ment level determines to what extent the situation is understood. Younger children seem to mind war less than older children, prob­ ably because they do not yet understand the concept of death. It is a confirmed hypothesis that children will form their opinions concerning a conflict with little regard for factual knowledge. Despite this ignorance, children will 'take sides' with little hesitation. To them, it is the typical conflict of good versus evil. But, in the case of the Third Reich, it was even more than that. Those perceived as good, fellow Germans, became the evil enemy for the Jewish chil­ dren. It is realized that those responsible for raising and educating the child will define the child's attitudes toward conflict. This helps explain the calm tenacity the Jewish children displayed during that

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time. The Jewish people are a strong-willed people who believe faith will overcome any hardship. Such strong conviction and faith was passed on to the children and helped them to endure. (An interesting note is the perception of Hitler by 8-year-olds at the time. The children saw Hitler as a new version of evil. At this stage in their development, children see everything as black and white, good or evil. To them, Hitler was simply evil. They were not particularly troubled by this knowledge because it seemed so far removed. This assumption applied only to a limited extent to the Jewish children. Their families had tried to protect them from the knowledge of what was in store for all of them. Thus, Jewish children may not have totally understood the realities of the Nazi enterprise, but they certainly knew it was an act of war, and that it was bad.) The Nazi assassins gave the highest priority to the extermination of Jewish infants and children. What better way to exterminate an entire ethnic group of people than to erase its future? What better way to beat the parents into submission, than by threatening the lives of their children? SS officer Otto Ohlendorf said at his trial at Nuremberg: 'this order did not only try to achieve a temporary secu­ rity but also a permanent security.'2 The victims did not want to believe such horrors could happen, but eventually it became unde­ niable. Jewish children were to be killed, with no mercy, despite 'courageous efforts of Jewish children to carry on'.' Soon, parents as well as their children knew that they were doomed. The Nazis did not attempt to reprogram or change their way of life; they were going to end it. During this time, children were robbed of everything that had given them security. They had no way of coping with such terror. So what did they do? Already, in the ghettos, the children in their innocence fought for their own lives as well as for those of their families. They displayed remarkable vitality, frustrating the Germans with their 'obstinacy, endurance, and moral and physical courage'.4 As soon as they were able to comprehend the critical nature of their situation, they became the lifeline of the ghettos, smuggling food and other necessities to their families. Children developed the skills necessary to negotiate for survival. They displayed a heroism that 'exemplified their will to adhere to decent rules of life'. Adults have mechanisms for coping with bad experiences, but children do not, especially with such extremes. In the ghettos children had to fend for themselves in a world so evil nothing could have prepared them; they 'had to create their life anew from chaos or perish'.’’ Often children were forced to assume leadership positions in the family. Constant humiliation destroyed the parents' self-esteem and their will to resist. Such circumstances forced a reversal of roles and often made the adult dependent on the child.

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'Now, try to get a little sleep, children,' Grandmother said, having finished her task. We closed our eyes, but we were unable to fall asleep. The walls of the mikvah shook repeatedly, people prayed, fear and excitement mingled to form an element of suspense. By now, as a 12-year-old, I had learned to accept the unexpected. Was that part of life? I dared not ask my grand­ mother, for she had enough on her mind already. 1 promised myself I'd ask my mother when she arrived, if I remembered.

Meanwhile, conditions were becoming critical in Nazi-occu­ pied Piotrkow. Food shortages created a black market and, after a while, only the wealthy were able to afford the price of milk and eggs. It was up to me and my brother Roman to take the initiative. 'What are we going to eat, Grandma?,' 1 asked, looking at the furrows of worry on her forehead. 'We'll manage, my dear,' she murmured in response. Don't you worry, Vilusiek, we won't starve.' My grandfather went up into the attic, where he had hidden a large box full of worthless rubles from the time of the tsarist occupation of Poland. He brought it down, counted the money several times and said proudly, 'If only the Russians had come instead of the Germans, we would be rich today.' My grand­ mother shook her head benignly. And though she was thrifty, counting her meager savings and apportioning a certain amount to each day, she began to bicker about the additional mouths to feed when Roman and my mother arrived from Sosnowiec. Hardship was sure to visit our home then. The sun rose on a cold winter morning, and the earth was covered with a thick blanket of snow. I was on my way to the well, the yoke across my shoulders, two buckets hanging, one on each side. Winters could be quite inhospitable in those parts of Poland. Thus far, temperatures had only reached a harmless -15°C. There was no significant wind-chill, and the morning was pleasant by our standards. The well was about 3 kilometers from our home, but it was the only source of fresh water in the neighborhood. On my way back, I took the longer route through Marszalkowska Street, which took me by the front gate of the ancient castle. I stopped to rest, released the buckets, and straightened out my back. I stood in front of the sentry hut, and his eyes peered through the narrow slits of the ski mask, while his breath steamed from beneath the wool into the open air. I raised my hand high into the air in the familiar Nazi salute: 'Heil Hitler!,' I said crisply. 'Heil Hitler!,’ the sentry responded.

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I stomped my feet in place and swung my arms around my back to keep circulation going and shake the stiffness in my joints. The sentry, a huge, potbellied man in his late thirties, came toward me. 'Bist du Deutscher?' He asked in his language whether I was German. 'Mein Vater ist Deutscher,' 1 lied, 'we're from Upper Silesia. My mother is only half German.' 'Ah? Volksdeutsche?' The sentry's attitude was almost friendly, with a grin, as he removed the ski mask. Being a national German meant better treatment than one expected for the rest of the native population; the Untermenschen, inferior people. 'Is there anything 1 could do around here to earn a little food?,' I asked. 'Ja,' a second sentry joined in. 'You have a pretty sister? You know, woman, pretty woman?' He made an unfamiliar hand gesture. 'We want ficky-fucky, you know? Yes?' The sentries laughed uproariously, and I joined them without under­ standing why. 'I have a sister,' I informed them innocently, 'she's six years old ... going on seven ... ' I stammered embarrassed as they kept on laughing. 'Go home, and come back when she's older!' I readied to pick up the yoke and leave the scene, when the first sentry addressed me: 'Hah, young man, we were only joking. We're not going to let one of our own people starve.' He paused, measuring me from head to toe. 'You're awfully small for your age. What's your name?' 'Wilhelm,' I responded without hesitation. 'Good. We'll call you Willi, for short. Okay?' 'That's fine with me,' I said, smiling. 'All I want is to work and earn some food for my family.' The corporal in charge was a tall, skinny man. He wore his uniform well; he was neat, but not overly meticulous. A crop of unruly blond hair covered his rather large head. His hand was gentle when it rested on my shoulder. 'You'll shine our boots, wash dishes, and clean up the place in the evenings,' he said smiling. 'Can you do all this? Will you be our house-boy?' He paused, measuring me with his smiling eyes. 'You know, this could be too big a job for a little fellow such as you.' He grinned, but his eyes now expressed genuine concern. 1 knew this man was the enemy, but I was unable to dislike him. Though my conscience dictated caution, some mysterious voice inside told me to trust him.

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'I know, Herr Unteroffizier, the job might seem too big for me, but I'm not afraid of work, and I cannot afford to be idle.' He smiled again. Each day, from then on, on leaving home in the morning, I took off the white identification armband with the blue Star of David and tucked it into my pocket. I knew what to expect if 1 was caught by the Nazi authorities, but losing the job meant a calamity of equal proportions. This was a great source of worry for my mom. At age 12 I was the breadwinner for the family, because circumstances dictated it that way. Mom learned quickly to accept our fate and hid her thoughts from me. What had seemed unacceptable under 'normal' circumstances now had become the norm. But I saw the telltale wrinkles on my mother's forehead, which pointed to the fear and concern she felt for us all. 'Wish you wouldn't try to hide your fears from me, Mama,' I said one morning before leaving for the castle. She drew me close to herself, kissed my cheek and asked: 'Let's keep it as our own little secret, Vilusiek, all right?' 'If you wish, Mama,' I replied, clinging to her bosom. A provider at the age of 12, street-wise and hardened to the reali­ ties of daily life, I was, nevertheless, in the presence of my mother, her little boy, dependent on her every gesture, the touch of her soft hand as it brushed the hair from my forehead, the tender words of her approval.

The children's fate was the worst of all. Of the 1.3 million Jewish children who perished in the Final Solution, half were deliberately murdered and the rest died from starvation and disease. The Nazis subjected children and adults to the same treatment. In November 1940, ghetto walls were erected and the Jews were segre­ gated and shut in, where they lived under intolerable conditions. A carefully planned policy for starving the Jewish population was instituted. They were allowed 180 grams of dry bread, which is about a two-fifths of a pound (one pound is 453.59 grams) per day and 220 grams of sugar per month (Eisenberg, Lost Generation, p.45). As a result, constant hunger and vitamin deficiency led to tubercu­ losis and scurvy. Death began taking its toll at the rate of 700 victims per month. The number of orphans grew steadily. The ghetto, like the concentration camp, was a preparatory step, an integral part of the overall Nazi plan to 'solve the Jewish problem'. Life in the ghetto was perhaps more diversified than in a KZ Lager, but its final inten­ tion was the same: the liquidation of the Jews. As the end of the ghetto loomed near, it began to look and feel more like a typical concentration camp.

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Mothers were forbidden to take their children with them to the camps when 'resettlement' transports had begun. 'The children were separated by force from their mothers who tried to hide them, murdered and thrown out of trucks in the camps, torn to pieces before their mothers' eyes, their little heads smashed on the ground ... these are the most terrible passages of the tale of slaughter.'7 The Germans allowed them the one favor of permitting the mother to stay in the ghetto and be killed with her children. This privilege, however, did not stop the Germans from tormenting them. 'The Germans would seize some child that was crying in the street, accost any woman they saw, and ask, "is this child yours? Do you want to stay here with him?""1 There were some mothers who denied their children because they did not want to die. Many more chose death together. In some cases, both the father and mother remained in the ghetto and went to their deaths with their children. The children were terribly frightened to die by themselves. Even the little ones cried out not to be left alone at the final moments of their lives. The greatest tragedy of all was that the children were the ones who were least prepared to deal with the inhumane treatment perpetrated against them. They were vulnerable and innocent. The hatred directed against them and the rest of the Jews was altogether incomprehensible to them. The children's only sin was that they belonged to a people targeted for destruction. For this sin, they were forced to suffer terribly ... We were bedded down for the night on the living room floor, as usual. I was about to fall asleep, when 1 heard my little sister Felusia's voice. 'Are you asleep, Mama?' 'No, not yet, little one,' Mother replied, sensitive to the urgency in Felusia's voice. 'Is something keeping you from falling asleep?' 'Yes, Mama,' the little one seemed wide-awake now. 'We're people, Mama, aren't we?' she asked. 'Why aren't we like other people, Mama?' 'What makes you ask such a silly question, Felusia?' Mother chuckled, trying to make light of it. 'Of course, we are people like everyone else.' 'Then, why are we locked up like this, Mama? Like animals. And why does everybody hate us so?' Felusia sat up now and faced my mother. 'Why do they hate us so?' There was a quiver in her voice. 'Whatever makes you think that, child?,' Mother asked softly. 'Put it out of your mind. Everybody does not hate us. That's not

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true at all.' She repeated patiently, and I felt she tried hard to convince herself as much as my little sister. 'Then, we won't be locked up for much longer, Mama? And we won't have to sleep on the floor either?,' Felusia pressed on. 'We're only sleeping like this, because we have house guests, darling.' Mother's patience sustained her. 'Wouldn't you wish that your guests be comfortable?' 'When will our guests leave, so we can sleep in our own beds again?' 'Soon, my dear, they'll be leaving soon.' 'Isn't there anybody on the outside that cares?,' the little one persisted. 'Surely, there is,' Mother said. 'You must believe that.' 'Then will somebody who cares come and let us out of here?' Tears welled up in my mother's eyes, and I decided to come to her rescue. Placing myself between Mother and my little sister, I spoke to her gently but firmly: 'You must let Mama sleep now, Felusia. You, too, must go to sleep and dream the most beautiful dreams.' 'What if those wicked people come into my dreams, Vilusiek?,' the little one asked. 'That's one place out of which we must keep all of the bad people, my little darling,' I said. 'Don't let them enter your imagination. There, in our world of make believe, we are stronger than they are, and we are free,' I explained, but she had already fallen into her uneasy sleep. It didn't matter whether she'd heard what I said. I needed to hear it myself.

Hitler seemed very preoccupied with the future of the Third Reich and instituted programs in German schools designed to ensure the total obedience of future Nazi generations. In these programs, the pupils were taught, among other things, a biased version of German history, chauvinistic literature, and an unquestioned obedience to the Fuhrer and loyalty to the Volk. German children were taught in their schools and at home that the Jews had contaminated blood, that they lacked all the superior qualities and creative power of the master race, and that they were degenerates who had to be eliminated to preserve the strength and superiority of the Aryan race. As early as the 1920s, Der Stiirnier was used as the text in German elemen­ tary schools. It carried obscene photographic illustrations depicting the Jews as devils in human form and ever-present menace to Germany. It poisoned the minds of children and youth. Children were trained to pass on what they learned to their family, neighbors, and friends ... Streicher's Stiirnier utilized every possible avenue to train a generation of Jew-haters?

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The children were the Nazis' first targets in the total destruction of the Jewish people. Hitler and his aides devised and executed programs to kill the unborn. One of the methods the Third Reich used to rid itself of Jewish children was 'designed to root out the unborn by sterilization and castration'.1" This method was imple­ mented within various KZ Lagers. Unfortunately, since the existing means of sterilizing those with 'hereditary diseases' was considered too time consuming and expensive, the Nazis were interested in conducting experiments to find cost-effective methods of sterilizing large numbers of the Jews in a shorter period of time. However, since highest priority was given to the murder of Jewish children in expe­ diting the Final Solution, the Nazis even disposed of the very young by throwing them alive on burning pyres. The children were thus victims of their hapless heredity. The Nazis also eliminated the unborn Jewish population by controlling and reducing the fertility rate of the Jewish people. They accomplished this through the 'segregation of the sexes, marriage bans, and compulsory abortion'." The SS threatened to impose the death penalty for childbirth on the mother, the infant, and her whole family. In addition, pregnant women were immediately sent to the gas chamber when they were discovered in the camps. In this way, the Nazis effectively prevented the birth of Jewish children and succeeded in preventing a whole generation of Jews from experi­ encing life. Already in the ghettos, children experienced some of their most painful losses. Their entire way of life was destroyed, and this destruction: shook the foundations of their emotional and intellectual universe. With the loss of their homes, the children lost the familiar little playthings, the warm blankets, and life's little amenities like a warm roll, a cup of milk, and a piece of candy. Hazy afternoons filled with the laughter and excitement of an excursion to a park, riverbank, forest, or playground became distant and tearful memories.12

Many children were also forced to experience the sight of their family and friends being beaten or murdered by Nazi assassins, and they had to stand by and watch the Nazis strip them of their most precious belongings. The children were also subjected to the jeering of their former, non-Jewish, playmates, and they were given food rations which were inadequate for survival. Parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, and other recreational areas as well as cultural insti­ tutions were declared to be off limits for the Jewish community. In addition, 'any literary art or musical work produced or composed by an Aryan'," was banned in the ghettos. These restrictions isolated the

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children from their surrounding world. The deprivation of freedom was hard to bear and was acutely felt, especially by the children. Consequently, children - especially Jewish children - grew up prematurely during that time of Nazi persecution. Their physical growth was considerably retarded by the lack of proper nourishment and a constant presence of sickness due to congestion and depriva­ tions of the ghetto or Lager: suffering and pain stamped their mark on the children's bodies and psyche. They lived and died with the full knowledge that their actions had ramifica­ tions for those surrounding them ... When offered a sedative in a hideout, a small child of two would say 'I'm not going to cry. I know the Gestapo's upstairs.'14

The constant threat of death that pervaded the ghetto instilled a powerful energy for remaining alive and for grasping every oppor­ tunity to look forward to the future. Children realized that, 'although there were no mystical substitutes for food and warm clothing and sunshine, it was still possible to oppose the invading sense of futility and despair'.15 From the fall of 1942, Jewish children underwent the process of inspection and selection for labor or death. However, the process was not consistently carried out: a Jewish child might be permitted to live because he or she seemed useful or that they might be condemned simply as Jews, however strong and healthy they were. Children might be treated with leniency for a time because there were, occa­ sionally, guards who gave them food from their own rations. It never lasted too long: the guards were the same people who callously packed the children into the cattle-trucks traveling east. Selections were made with a flick of an index finger. Children who knew w hat was happening would stand on their tiptoes and try to look sturdy and tall. Little boys would declare themselves 10 years old, because very few under 10 were allowed to survive. Girls who were with their mothers would give anything, even a bread ration, for cosmetics to make themselves look older before the selection parade began. On the other hand, 'many girls in their teens pretended that they were younger because they were afraid of the brothels more than of any other conceivable fate'."’ Infants during the Nazi regime were killed immediately. Pregnant women were also killed quickly when they were discovered. Usually the women were told to come forward, if they were pregnant, to receive care. They were then either beaten or gassed to death. The Nazis often did not even wait for the birth to occur: if detected, a pregnant woman was immediately sent to the gas chamber. After learning that pregnancy meant death, women started trying to hide

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it. They would give birth forcibly in the barracks and allow the child to be killed by another inmate. This was the only chance a pregnant woman had to remain alive. The only consolation was that by these infanticides the mother was temporarily spared. Birth and death had become synonymous. When a baby was delivered at the infirmary, mother and child were both sent to the gas chamber. Only when the infant was not likely to survive, or if he or she was stillborn, was the mother ever spared and allowed to return to her barrack. 'The conclusion drawn from this was simple: the Germans did not want the newborn to live; if they did, the mother, too, must die.'17 One day, the five women responsible for midwifery at Birkenau-Auschwitz decided to save the mothers. Unfortunately, the fate of the baby was always the same. 'After taking every precau­ tion, they pinched and closed the little tike's nostrils and when it opened its mouth to breathe, they gave it a dose of a lethal product. An injection might have been quicker, but that would have left a trace and they dared not let the Germans suspect the truth.'1" As far as the Lager administration was concerned, this was a still­ birth. The lives of perhaps a Pasteur, a Mozart, or an Einstein were snuffed out on the threshold of life before their first voices had left their tiny lungs. The murder of these Jewish children is tragic because so much human potential was lost. Even if only one of those children could have discovered the cure for Aids or cancer, letting all of those who were murdered live instead would have been justified. Thus, the Nazis were not only cruel to the children to whom they denied life; they were also indifferent to the world because they denied it the potential genius that could have made it a better place. Consequently, these crimes committed by the Nazis can never be mitigated; their toll will continue to affect society for generations; hence, these are crimes against humanity. The dangers that lurked in the ghettos were formidable. Incidents of kidnapping were quite common. Mothers gathered at the ghetto gates to buy sleeping pills for their children before their transporta­ tion to the unknown. A child who had received an injection of Luminal was found dead after he was taken out of the knapsack.'1" Children aged 3 and 4 sensed what was happening and begged to be handed over to their new 'parents' without drugs. They were fully aware of the dangers that awaited them. Any disturbance put them in grave danger. The Gestapo had an exact count of the children imprisoned in the ghettos and was aware that several hundreds of them had slipped through their fingers. These children who remained alive outside the ghetto walls were simply nonexistent: they lived in perpetual danger of being denounced by an overzealous neighbor or of being discov­ ered during police searches. They were not on the food-rationing list

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and subsisted on a minimum allowance from the charity of others. Parents who had refused to part from their children sought, by every possible means, to smuggle them over to the Christian side. How could the children be smuggled across the fence? Three-year-olds were concealed in knapsacks. What does one do with an 8-year-old who is too big to go unnoticed and asks too many questions? Still, they tried, because the parents' deep-felt suffering was somewhat lightened by the fact that their children were beyond the barbed wire of the ghetto prison. The labor and conditions of the camps were so severe that chil­ dren could not have survived at all but for the unselfish care and sacrifice of their parents, and some merciful strangers. Strangers devoted themselves to the orphans whose parents had died. When liberation came to the camps, a few children were found in most of them, who had been kept alive by the efforts of men and women who were themselves on the edge of death. Many of the children had been orphaned before they were released. Others, who had parents alive in their own countries, never saw them again. These children had nobody to rejoice with in the news that they had survived and they had no home to call their own. Knowing that certain death awaited their children in the camp, many parents helped them to flee, reasoning that they might have a chance to survive if they were left entirely on their own. All over Europe, Jewish children wandered in search of hiding places. Some found refuge with friendly families or in convents and monasteries. The children who found refuge with Christians posed another kind of problem: if they were baptized, the Church would refuse to give them up.2" In other instances, the children and their foster families would develop warm ties with each other and they would later refuse to rejoin their real families. The maturity, dignity, and courage the children held in their souls was inspirational. In June 1944,129 Jewish children between the ages of 8 and 14 were brought from Kovno to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and taken straight to the gas chamber in open trucks. The children knew where they were going. Before they entered the death trucks, a boy of 12 made a short speech to the rest of the children. 'We shall soon be united with our murdered parents,' he said, and then, turning to the SS, he went on, 'and we have one more consolation. We know that you, our murderers, will meet your just fate.'21

About 30,000 children under 16 years of age escaped from Germany and Austria from the beginning of Nazi persecution and the outbreak of World War Two. Children were rushed out of Germany to England through Denmark and Holland, whose govern-

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merits waived formalities to speed them through. Those who reached England and Palestine were more fortunate than most of those who remained on the Continent. In France, attempts to help Jewish children cross into Switzerland were often successful while plans for mass rescues from refuge hostels failed. The scars left by hunger and fear left their mark on the children. Many of them had shocked nerves and an incapacity to form confi­ dent, lasting relationships. For a long time, even the young children could scarcely be persuaded that danger was not imminent for them. 'Jewish children from Germany, visiting England, would hang back at the entrance to a restaurant or a park, whispering, "Are you sure Jews are allowed?'" The idea had been driven into the souls of these children that their ethnic origins set them apart from the rest of the world. The slightest neglect from even their guardians would be interpreted as discrimination against them because they were Jews. Even the younger Jewish children who had been rescued and hidden by non-Jewish families experienced great hardships, but they were easier to overcome than in the case of the ones who suffered in the Lagers. Many of these 'rescued' children were orphans at the end of the war, but they did not feel themselves orphaned or alone. They had been rescued and taken out of the jungle of cruelty into a loving home. 'The child clung to his or her new parents and to their home as the one safe haven in an unknown but frightening world of people who had wanted to seize him or her and put them to death.'22 Israel had lost over one million of its children. It could not afford to lose those who had survived. The little orphans were soon claimed even though the thought of separation was dreadful to them and a second uprooting was likely to destroy whatever confidence in life they had gained. The foster-parents suffered as well when a child was taken away. Hence, burdened from their very birth, these chil­ dren now faced a world of conflicting realities and dangers, and faced it alone. Everywhere, except for the vision of the Promised Land, the future seemed to be a void. Tn the Promised Land, they would no longer be aliens living on sufferance, but a self-sufficing community, a brotherhood of those who had suffered together. They believed that they were beginning a life of peace.'21 In the ghettos as well as in some camps, the children did not ignore what was going on around them. They were fully aware of their situation and the dangers that they were destined for in the future. Under such circumstances, play became the child's 'work' and often reflected what the child was feeling or struggling to work out. The children's games, therefore, reflected their awareness of their tragic circumstances. Most of these games were symbolic of life in the ghetto. The boys, especially, concentrated on war games: a group would divide into their roles as Jew and Nazi. The Nazis acted as

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brutes and abused the Jew. Sometimes, one child would be selected as Hitler. He would be imprisoned in a pit, and the rest would taunt and tease him. Another game was labor brigades. Girls tended to focus on the more female realm of ghetto life. They played at waiting in line and bargaining for all sorts of articles, from food to garments. Since death was ever present in the ghettos and Lagers, it is not surprising, then, that death became the central theme for most children, for it surrounded them at all times. Hence, they tried to work out their frustrations, anger, fear, hatred, and realities in the only way they knew how. People may ponder how such children, faced with certain and usually agonizing death could so easily participate in the innocent and mentally liberating action of play'. It was because the play­ ground served many other purposes alongside acting out feelings. Child's play was a reflection of an 'overwhelming desire to stay alive'. Behavior at play was 'directed toward understanding their environ­ ment (assimilating) and learning to respond to its requirements.'2’ The relationship between play and the Holocaust was directly tied to the notion of survival. There were two expressions of play as survival: one, where play was resistance, and the other where play was coping. Games helped the children fight their invading sense of despair; they were a way of escaping the horrible reality of ghetto life; they provided them with a 'buffeted learning mechanism, an activity frame in which one could learn to be safe in an abnormal situation, without worrying about being out of control'.25 Moreover, games helped the children to assimilate the horrors they experienced on their own terms and adapt to their environment more easily. Play was also a way that allowed the children to express anger, frustration, and defiance at the situation in which they found themselves, albeit not one of their own volition. It gave them a power to resist, to change the terrifying course of death and destruction. Although children were aware of the fate of all Jews in the Nazi occu­ pied territories, and they enacted the events with astonishing accuracy, the endings to their games differed from reality in that they 'always portrayed victory of the oppressed'. This was the children's way of negating the Nazis' claim that they would 'conquer the whole world',2*’ for they had often heard the Nazi marching song 'Heute gehdrt uns Deutschland und morgen die ganze Welt!' (Germany belongs to us today, but tomorrow the entire world.) The spirit of protest became very strong in the play of the ghettos. Symbolic resistance to German horrors was evident in various forms, especially when the children refused to be the 'Germans'. Through their make-believe they could express 'desires, though they existed among the adults, (which) could not be voiced openly'.27 They were

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resisting in the only way they could. This led to play as a way of coping: 'It was not merely symbolic because through the games the children actively opposed ... their mental subjugation and physical extermination.'2'1 They were trying to cope by attempting to find ways of accepting their new realities and accommodating them. Play and games thus became a path to psychic accommodation. The Germans realized the benefits of play for children and they drew on this. In 1938, all parks, playgrounds, and the like were put off-limits to Jews. This, however, did not stop the Jewish people. To the Jews, play was a way to protect the child's 'spiritual, emotional, and moral universe'.29 Playgrounds were built and yards set up. Leaders hoped to provide a 'psychological buffer, social stability, and order in the face of chaos'?’ It was also an escape mechanism for the adults, a way to promote mental adaptation; almost a respite from the horror. The act of children playing various games alone or with other chil­ dren was also a tool for trying to comprehend the absurd, and a way of coping with the irrational. Play was not necessarily a hope for survival, but rather a help in familiarizing them with the atrocities that were a daily reality. It also served as a mental aid that enabled children to deal with the horrors of their psychological and physical environment, providing them with a capacity to function in this atmosphere.31 Play, especially as applied to the Holocaust, takes on a definition that does not include silliness and fun. A warm and welcoming envi­ ronment is not a necessary precursor for play: the atmosphere in the ghettos and the camps was of outright vindictiveness, as personified by the Nazis. Children who possessed the capacity for play had no better chances for physical survival than those children too debili­ tated to participate, yet the desire of them to cope with a contaminated world empowered them with the armor of mental defiance and left them within grasping distance of sanity. As difficult as it is for those who did not experience such condi­ tions to understand, these two seemingly polar opposite subjects murder and play - were eerily intertwined by the idea that children's play was not devoid of reality, but actually emulated it. Horrifying as it may be, many children played games that mirrored the sadness and drama that comprised their brief lives. Games bearing such titles as Grave Digging and Sorting the Clothing of the Dead had children acting out these adult rituals with chilling accuracy. It is important to note that the children did not just reenact morbid events verbatim, but instead added their own interpretations and additions. Some children took a partially defiant route and thought up games such as Ponary or Liberation, inspired by the fate of the Vilna Jewry, which was destroyed by the Einsatzgruppen in the

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woods of Ponary, Lithuania, in 1941-42. After the war, a participant in the game recounted that the children playing 'Jews' were led by the 'Gestapo men' to Ponary to be murdered. In a surprise tactic, the 'Jews' overpowered the 'Gestapo men' and beat them with their own weapons - sticks in this rendition. The freed 'Jews' bound the hands of the 'Gestapo men' with strings and took them to the extermination site instead of the 'Jews'. They were then lined up and shot to death with rifles - sticks. Whereas adults were sometimes unable to assimilate into their new world of the ghettos or camps, very few cases of suicides or reck­ less acts were recorded among children and teenagers, in contrast with the statistics that accounted for their parents. This may possibly be attributable to the power of a child's imagination to enact the barbarities they witnessed. Thus, performances and games helped children rationalize a world that repudiated the ethics that their parents had tried to instill in them before the war. This need to institute a defensive outer boundary in any way possible, led adult inhabitants of the ghettos to create such events as 'Children's Month', chess tournaments, play-days, sports days and, occasionally, concerts and theatrical plays with children in starring roles. These activities were vital in boosting the morale and self-esteem of the children as well as their parents, if even for only one brief moment, amidst a life where humiliation and fear were the norm. For the few children in the ghettos who, after several episodes of German looting, still possessed toys, these inanimate objects enabled them to take on the role of the protective parent. Prior to her depor­ tation to Westerbork, Gabrielle Silten gave her most valuable friend, Brunette the bear, to a Gentile friend whom she appointed tempo­ rary guardian until after World War Two. Gabrielle's grandparents had already committed suicide back in Germany, and she did not want to place Brunette the bear in any danger, by taking it to an unfa­ miliar place. 'I think the idea behind this,' she later recounted, 'was that I did not want anything to happen to Brunette, she was too precious. Therefore, I would not take her because, although we did not know where we were going, it could only be a bad place.'1 Another girl who was three years old had a nightmare that her doll was chosen by the Nazis to 'resettle' via the cattle cars that spirited the Jewish children to the killing factories. Many children, such as Gabrielle Silten, made a rare doll or toy the center of their universe and, in return, the inanimate object provided them with a false emotional security. Yet, sadly, it was never the dolls, their cloth bodies stuffed with cotton, that were taken to the trains, but children themselves, made of flesh and bones. Finally, for the majority of children in the Holocaust, play was a dress rehearsal that adapted them to accept the

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final hurdle - death itself. As ironic and heart wrenching as it seems, spontaneous play emerged even while waiting in line for the gas chambers. The ability of some children to brush off death moments before it harvested their precious lives amazed adults as well as some of the Nazi assassins herding them into the extermination centers. Whether intentional or not, the cruel fact remains that many of the areas surrounding the gas chambers and crematoriums were the only places in the camps where flowers blossomed and children eagerly bent to smell them, oblivious of the screams and the stench of burning flesh only feet away. While play did help the children to comprehend their appalling lives, it unfortunately could not persuade death to pass them by. Fear, pain, evil, hatred and death were always in the back of their minds; however, the act of play allowed them to push it back when it surfaced, at least for a time. Play's prime function was to allow chil­ dren to accommodate hell and to teach the younger and more fearful ones the complex art of coping. Through such instruments of coping as diaries, drawings, and poetry, we find that children were aware that they, too, were not immune to death. 'Don't cry, Pista,' one little Hungarian boy comforted his friend on their way to the gas cham­ bers, 'haven't you seen that our grandparents, our fathers, our mothers, and our sisters were killed? It is our turn now.'u A common response was the attempt to carry on with some semblance of normalcy while still in the ghetto. One of the most interesting ways, as a response to chaos, was the emergence of schools. Small groups of 6 to 20 students would meet in the home of the teacher for lessons. There was a complete high school program. By 1941, these secret classes numbered around several hundred. There was a constant danger of being caught since homes were often randomly searched by the Germans. Student groups were also started by 'underground political parties and cultural and educa­ tional institutions that had been shut down'.15 Even in some camps, education continued. Under the guise of'play', subjects were taught and lessons given to the children by other inmates.16 One way children fought onslaughts of despair was by expressing their anguish on paper, where this was possible. Releasing their emotions acted as a catharsis. It helped to ease the pain and suffering they had to undergo. In many of the poems that were written, the young authors described their sense of isolation within the ghetto. They often mentioned the loveliness and freedom just beyond the walls that were forever denied to them. The child poet held out flowers and butterflies to the readers as symbols of freedom and unobtainable joy; attainable by the young poet. A sense of helpless­ ness and fear pervaded many of the poems. Life was fragile and tenuous, and could be extinguished quickly and pitilessly by the

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Nazi henchmen or their collaborators. However, despite this fear and a sense of helplessness, many of the poems and diaries express hope and the will to live. Their pleas were examples of the children's desire to survive, despite the fear and anguish they experienced on a daily basis. Painting (notably in ghettos and Theresienstadt Lager) was another way for children to release their emotions. The colors they used to depict their environment underscored the dreariness of their surroundings. Browns, reds, blues, and blacks were predominant. In contrast, reds, yellows, and greens were used to portray the environ­ ment outside the ghettos. The former color choices seem to have emphasized the ugly, monotonous atmosphere of the ghetto, whereas the latter underlined the beauty of nature that the Nazis forbade the children to enjoy. Another theme prevalent in these paintings involved the entrapment that was experienced by the children. In many paintings, a box or a fence or a boundary was clearly depicted which separated the ghetto from the outside world. The painting of these walls seemed to express the children's sense of isolation and abandon­ ment. Ghetto or camp life, with its numerous restrictions, was a traumatic and psychologically damaging experience for the chil­ dren.17 This trauma was inevitably expressed in their work. Sadly, despite the healing powers of art, it could not save the children from death. Though hundreds of thousands of children died in the ghettos and camps, their art allowed their courage and suffering to be forever immortalized. The Third Reich sent the remaining Jewish children to the killing factories in an attempt to rid itself of them once and for all. When the children reached these places, most were put to death immediately. 'The age limit the Nazis set for immediate extermination was 14 years.'1" Those who did survive the 'selections' were forced to labor for long, difficult days with little sleep and inadequate food rations. Thus, many children who had survived the ghetto died in the camps because of starvation, overwork, illness or lack of loved ones. The degrading and dehumanizing conditions caused many to think of themselves in terms of being equal to animals, inferior beings, that could be used and discarded at the whim of their masters the Nazis.

A hand softly touched my shoulder. I woke, rubbing my eyes with incredulity. The medic had come to feed me. I looked round the rugged, unshaven faces of the American soldiers. Some wept, others clumsily massaged their eyelids with the bent fore­ finger as if to remove some foreign particle. They were silent. Brief fragments of my life passed before my liberators' eyes. Much more has been left untold. The events that were not

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revealed in my narrative were easier to guess than to under­ stand. How did it happen? Is it possible? It must be. I'm here. Is that enough? No. But it must be, else I'll go mad. Aren't you thankful? Not really. Should 1 be? Why? Thankful to the Almighty, you know. It's customary to show gratitude for a deed of such magnanimity. True, I'm here, but I'm also there, in hell. It follows me wher­ ever I journey. I can't hide from it - it is inside me. I can't kill it - or I'll die with it. You're mad, boy. You're raving mad, but you're not old enough at 17 to go mad. It helps, if you want to go on. Alone. 'Your name, please.' A voice inquired. It was the voice of one of my liberators. A pleasant voice. Strange, they should ask my name. '116420!' I answered with deliberate slowness. Was it distrust or force of habit? Both, perhaps. Name? What's a proper name? Does everyone have a name? Joy! I have my very own name! I'm no longer a number, a cipher devoid of individuality! I am someone, after all! There were times I'd rather have been a shepherd dog. The Nazis (my keepers!) gave their dogs meaningful identities: King, Queen, Sultan, Fritz, et cetera. At times, when my jailers were angry at their dogs, they would call them 'Jew'. The dogs did not like to be called by that name, and they tore many an inmate to shreds. That was their vindication. Thereafter, their masters, the SS, restored them to their dignity of being a canine by naming them after royalty. Did I survive? - 1 don't know. Now, safe among my liberators, an eerie feeling of guilt suddenly came over me; questioning my right to have survived and wishing I had perished alongside those countless others.

But all of the courage displayed by the children could not stop the harvest of death. Eventually they were rounded up and 'dealt with' by the Germans. Those children not immediately sent to death camps were sent to labor camps to be worked to death. This was their last chance for survival and it is here that the struggle to live forced adulthood on even the youngest of them. Some survived by escaping into the forests. Others hid in the most unlikely places: deep latrines, inactive furnaces, attics, and so on. Others held on to the belief that to work meant to live. The Germans appointed some children to be

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runners. Such a position meant a little freedom of movement. Often though, this was only a brief reprieve from death. Under such circumstances as these, the children developed adult cunning and resourcefulness. Remarkably, although they were themselves targeted for death, children sought opportunities to help others. Many accounts tell of extraordinary courage and resourcefulness that meant survival. One chance of survival was to be taken in by a Christian family. If this was successful it meant life for the child. If the child was discov­ ered it meant death. It was easier to take in infants. Many children were saved in this manner. But how did it affect the child? Infants and toddlers will search for real mother substitutes. Children under 3 years old will forget their parents. Separation is painful after the first year of life but a strong personal attachment does not occur until the age of 2. Once they accepted a new mother they would bond firmly and completely. But they would be dependent and possessive, because they did remember the painful separation from the real mother. Once an adjustment period had passed and the child felt secure, it would prosper. This chance for survival did work, provided the child was not discovered. By far the vast majority of these children, those who were unable to find shelter, faced humiliation, starvation, torture and daily night­ mares, only to be ultimately murdered. Their life stories comprised war, deportation, hard labor and death of their loved ones.'u They witnessed horror after horror, real events, after which they had no choice but to remember them for the rest of their lives. They saw their parents disappear. They watched their loved ones die of overwork and starvation. All the while they watched helplessly, unable to prevent it. They lived through a nightmare so horrible it 'reminds one of the worst fantasies in fairy tales'.4" It was real, though, and they had to cope. Most importantly, these children were deprived of a childhood. Their very 'struggle to exist was not only hampered by cold, hunger, and disease but also by the unrelenting cruelty and determination ... [of] the SS officers'.41 So what did they do and what did they feel? Once again, they coped the best way they knew; through specific forms of play. One was the development of imaginary friends. They sought to escape their miserable world for the magic of another unconnected one. Their imaginations became powerful tools to survive by 'creating or reshaping new worlds'.42 There was also an intense attachment to a favorite toy. As people disappeared from their lives, these uprooted children needed emotional security. They transferred their love to an inanimate object that they perceived would love them back. Such a process gave them the security they so desperately sought.

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They also repressed normal feeling. The children could not afford to feel or they would never survive. 'These children were robbed of the freedom to vent deep and normal feelings, forced to repress them in order to survive for barely another day.'41 They had to give up the luxury of experiencing a hope in the future that protected them. As a survivor, I can say that even now, as I write these lines and recall all that I experienced in those days, I can hardly believe it. Did 1 actually live through that horrendous ordeal? Often the interviewers of the victims comment on how little emotion there is in their voices. These people cannot afford the pleasure of emotion: their pain is too big and too powerful. Quite a common feeling is guilt. Why did I live while so many others died? These survivors must carry that burden every day. For a child who has lost every loved one, such guilt is tremendous. But what is extremely surprising is the fact that only a few child victims experience severe psychological or emotional disturbances in their newly found lives. This phenomenon might well be the result of the Jewish faith, the commitment to family and life and the tolerance of a persecuted existence. The most telling and consistent aspect of the survivors' testimonies is that they all feel compelled to share their experiences. Not to help themselves, but to make sure no one ever forgets what was done to an entire ethnic group of people. By telling their individual and painful stories, they carry the hope that another Holocaust will be prevented from recurring. These people truly are 'The Lost Generation'/1 In the estimation of the Nazis, there was simply no motivation to prolong the lives of Jewish children. Once in captivity, survival of the Jews depended on their capacity to provide labor, which was valuable to Hitler's regime, especially after the expanded campaign against the Soviets, which demanded a great amount of the Third Reich's manpower. In 1943 a Pole was witness to the reaction of a 5-year-old Jewish girl who had been selected by an SS officer for deportation to a killing center. 'She pleaded for her life by showing him her hands and explaining that she could work,'45 but the child's pleas were in vain. They serve, however, as an indication of just how deeply the notion of survival as synonymous with work had pervaded the understanding of children, whose age alone should have exempted them from facing such issues under any circumstances. Forced to face adulthood head on, these children were being deprived of the foundations of naivete and faith, which underlies most people's motivation to get out of bed in the morning. While few adults consciously attribute their activities to it, there is, in those who did not endure such a childhood trauma as the Holocaust, a small seed of optimism about the world which, while buried in their distant past, influences their thinking about the world today. This

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magic of childhood permeates as a result of the security offered to most children by their families in conjunction with the luxuries of time and resources to engage in childish pursuits. ('You know why God is up in the sky? 1 think because he lives up there. And you can't see him, but sometimes he flies where I can see him.' These spontaneous murmurings of a 3-year-old, in those dream­ like moments before he or she drifts off to an afternoon nap, are reminiscent of the essence of childhood and innocence. Take, for instance, Matthew, who lives in modern America. He has never known hunger or fear, apart from that which results when he wakes up to find the baby-sitter has replaced Mama. Fortunately for Matthew, Mama always returns. The faith and innocence readily asso­ ciated with childhood as they are manifested here, are a precious commodity even in the present day, but for the doomed Jewish chil­ dren of Hitler's Europe, it was a concept to which they most often tried to hold on.) The greatest resource for understanding the effects of the Holocaust on children is to be found in those experiences which are recalled first hand. Throughout those survivors' accounts of their childhood lives in Europe both before and after World War Two and during the Holocaust, perhaps the most frequently noted changes concerned their education. Joy Levy Alakay, a Prague-born Jew, emphasizes the complex social atmosphere that existed in her school prior to the Holocaust. She recalls one girl in particular who poured ink on her blouse and became the first to single her out in a negative way for being Jewish. The motivation for such behavior was consid­ ered to be the fact that Joy and her family were financially better off than the other girl's family. She also notes that the Jewish students had, generally, performed to a higher academic level than many of the Gentile students, and the teachers often tried to make things more difficult for them.46 Yet such inconveniences were deemed minor by Jewish parents who sought to educate their children. Herman Herskovic grew up in a small Czechoslovakian town, but when his parents decided that the Catholic education facilities in town were too limited, they moved to a larger community with a good educational system. His parents, along with the other parents, took an active role in their children's education by quizzing them regularly on what they were learning.4 Marika Frank Abrams, who lived in Hungary shortly before World War Two, attributes the better level of education in Jewish children to the influence of their parents as well. She felt set apart intellectually as well as emotionally, identifying primarily with other Jewish girls who were also products of 'cultured homes with libraries' with 'parents who read books and were interested in the arts and theater and the social issues of the time'.4*

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In addition to pressures within the school system, which distracted young Jewish students from their studies, they had to contend with external stresses of an imminent war as well. Rose Rothchild, a student in Paris in 1939, recalls that air-raid sirens complicated school, as did learning about gas masks. Both of these interrupted the ordinary school routine. Regretfully, she notes, the teachers neglected to discuss Hitler or Germany with the students. Instead, the children suffered from the stress of knowing only the sirens and the drills without truly understanding their implication.4M As the Third Reich grew in strength, it was more difficult for Jewish children to continue with what was, within their culture, the essential tenet of their childhood development: education. There were many difficulties associated with the termination of their right to attend public schools. Robert Spitz explains that when the Jewish teachers and professors were fired from their jobs in the public schools of Budapest, a separate school system was developed both to employ these individuals and to educate the displaced children. However, crowded conditions, coupled with the difficulties resulting from a situation in which educators with a Master's or Ph.D. qualifi­ cation were compelled to relate their learning to elementary schoolchildren, made education difficult.50 Jay Levi Alakay reveals that parental pressure to continue one's studies may have been a mistake in some cases. She relates: 'I was so uncomfortable in school that it made me dislike going to classes ever after.'51

'I don't want to forget the past,' the man said to me, 'but neither do I want to go on suffering. Let the dead be buried. Life must go on.' The man hesitated a moment as if to catch his breath. Then, he asked quickly, as if in search of a better topic of conver­ sation. 'Say, where was your childhood spent?' 'Childhood? It's more like a nightmare than a reality - if it weren't for the scars, I wouldn't know there was a childhood,' 1 said. 'When I was a young boy, they swaddled me behind barbed wire fences. They called it "forced labor", and like a hollow grave, it enveloped me in its confines.' 'There is nothing left? Just like that?' 'Not exactly. Some vague shadows are there - it helps me to understand better now. 1 feel alive,' I replied. 'What do you mean alive?' He seemed astonished at my answer. 'Well, can you see me?' 1 responded with my own question. 'Of course, I can see you.' He smiled faintly. 'You see, all this time, I was nothing, a number,' I continued excitedly. 'It got so I thought that nobody even saw me. Now, I'm alive again - and you can see me. There's your answer.'

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The man looked at me quizzically for a long time. Then, as if resigned to the fact that there was something wrong with me, which he was willing to tolerate, he went on: 'You're fortunate anyway.' 'Uh? How do you mean that?,' I inquired. 'Well, you're a successful survivor. Why worry?' 'If you call survival success, then I'm successful.' 'Don't you believe it? Isn't it what this life's all about?' 'Sure, but there must be more to it than mere survival. There are other things, too.' 'Like what?' 'Like where are all the children? And where is all their laughter and play?' The man looked at me, and he knew the anger welling inside me. For a few moments, he was at a loss for words. 'You mustn't brood about things you can't help,' he said with a benign nod of his head. 'And what about the future?' I was defiant, and I wasn't going to let him off that easily. 'When I think of the future, 1 think that my children won't have grandparents like most normal children have ... neither aunts and uncles, nor cousins ...'I was on the verge of tears again. But I controlled the urge, lest I show weakness to this total stranger. 'When you've been engaged in a dialogue of the dead for so long, words don't come out easily anymore,' I said softly, as if to myself. For now, the stranger would have to remain an unknown. It would take him a while to prove himself trust­ worthy. With the rest of the survivors 1 had a lot in common. Years of shared confinement cemented a bond between us, though it was not something one would call friendship. Friendships are rarely forged in prisons. In my thoughts, I was already in Poland, searching for any of the family that might have been spared. There were rumors that Devorah, my little cousin, with whom I remembered being insanely in love in the Piotrkow ghetto, was with a Gentile family near Radomsko. I had to see for myself... ... And now, I rode alongside the sleigh driver south to Radomsko. The day was tranquil, and the sun reflected from the snow and made my eyes water. I was deep in thought. 'You're new in these parts?' The driver wanted to know. I nodded. 'What's the place you're looking for?,' he asked. 'The Wisiak farm.' I looked up at him. 'I'm looking for the Wisiaks. They told me there is a young girl working there as a farmhand. About my age. They picked her up in the war. Found

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her in the woods nearby. Half-dead. Summer of 41.' I talked quickly in half-sentences, more to myself than to the driver. In Radomsko, they told me the girl had been found near the Wisiak farm, badly beaten and left in the ditch for dead. Near her was her mother, who had been savagely beaten to death by the Nazis. The same sources had told me that the foundling has been unable to utter a coherent word. She'd been taken for mute since that day in the woods. No one knew her name, nor of the dead woman. The Wisiaks, a childless couple, cared for the girl affectionately, and after a year or two, she regained her voice. Still, she would shun strangers and only spoke to her adoptive parents. The Wisiaks called her Maria. 'The Wisiaks are nice people,' the driver said to me after a long silence. 'She's well off with them. They lost a son and a daughter Maria in a Nazi raid.' He spat into the snow. 'The goddamned bastards left their evil mark on everybody.' He spat again. 'The Wisiak farm is just beyond that hill.' He pointed straight ahead. I got off the sleigh and thanked the driver, handing him two American cigarettes. My heart raced as I walked toward the farmhouse in the distance. Despite the bitter cold, I was soaked in sweat as I knocked at the door. A peasant woman in her fifties appeared in the half-opened door. 'Who is it?' A man's voice called from inside. 'I don't know.' The woman replied, and the man came to the door. He, too, was middle-aged. His eyes were blue, yet soft. 'What brings you to us, young man?', he asked. 'I'm looking for a relative of mine, a girl about my age, 17 going on 18. We were separated during the war. She and her mother were on their way to Auschwitz - Oswiecim' - I repeated the name of the Lager in Polish. 'They told me in Radomsko that you saved a young girl during the war. If she were here, I'd very much like to talk to her. Please, will you let me?' My whole body trembled. The couple regarded me for a long while, exchanging glances. The woman was the first to speak. 'My husband, Andrzej, found the girl in the woods some years back. He was on his way to the market, and had to stop at a train crossing. It was one of those trains. Cattle cars filled with Jews on their way to that place.' She didn't mention the name of the Lager, but I knew. 'When the train left, he saw her lying there in the thicket. They must have left her for dead. Poor thing, she was half crazy, starved to a skeleton, and mute.' The woman crossed herself piously. 'The girl. Where can I find her?' I asked anxiously.

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'Where she usually spends her days. Working in the barn.' 'May I go there?' 'Yes, you can, but be gentle.' 'I've come a long way to see her. Thank you.' 'Good luck, young man,' the farmer said with a tenderness I didn't expect from one of his sort, as I walked toward the barn. 'Be gentle,' he cautioned once again. 'She's gone through enough already.' I entered the barn, trying to see through the dim light. Suddenly, I saw her kneeling. She must have been momentarily blinded by the wave of light rushing in behind me, for she placed her small hand over her eyebrows as if to block it out, straining to see through it. She was silent, stroking a small calf. She looked at me as I approached. There was no sign of recognition. It was Devorah. There was no doubt. With every fiber in my being, I yearned to embrace her. Yet, I restrained myself and stood there absorbing her familiar features. 'Devorah?' my voice quivered. She looked up at me, for what seemed an eternity. 'I don't know you,' she said softly. 'My name is Maria. I don't know you,' she repeated. I scrutinized her face. Dismay swept over me. Her eyes were haunted with the knowledge of years of suffering. Pain flooded over me. I had to turn away for a moment. 'It's me, Vilek,' I said slowly. 'Don't you know me?,' I repeated desperately. 'Your cousin Vilek from Piotrkow.' 1 looked at her persistently, and I understood. Unimaginable, cruel, events had turned this once soft creature into granite. To claim ignorance was her protection. Now, momentarily safe, 1 was afraid for the first time. What if I cannot convince her? I began to tremble. Knees beat against each other. My tongue curled throatward; teeth chattered until 1 thought they would break into small fragments. 'My name's Maria,' she repeated mechanically. 'It's me, Vilek, your cousin,' I said slowly. Another eternity passed. 'I've come from far away to see you, Devorah. Looked for you everywhere. Don't send me away,' I was pleading, as though my own life were hanging in a balance. 'Leave this place,' she said suddenly. 'There's nothing here for you. Go away, and don't come back.' There was, for the first time, harshness in her voice. 'Please, Devorah.' My eyes glazed over. 'Come with me.' 'This is my home. The Wisiaks are good to me. I'm fine here.' She looked away.

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'I ... love ... you ... Devorah ...'I spoke with a great deal of pain. 'The thought of you kept me going through all those years. You must come with me.' 'I'm not for anyone ... unclean ... blemished,' she said harshly. 'They raped me.' She added quietly. 'I've not kept ' myself pure.' 'You couldn't have helped that, my darling,' I said trying to enfold her in my arms. She withdrew, then, with a smile, she said: 'The Lord Jesus will not let me down. I speak to Him every day. 1 ask Him to give me strength, and He is always there for me.' 'Devorah ... don't... please ...' I begged. This sudden reve­ lation shocked me to the marrow of my bones, and I couldn't explain why. 'It wasn't always this way,' she continued, and her eyes avoided mine. 'There were times when 1 doubted God's exis­ tence, like the time when those evil men did the horrible things to my mother and me. But then, talking to Jesus, I learned not to hate myself any longer. I'm fine here. Can't you see, Vilek?' She called me by my name for the first time since my arrival, and she looked at me imploringly. My heart beat with renewed hope. 'I love you, Devorah, come away with me.' 'There is no love here for anyone, except for Jesus,' she replied without emotion. My heart stopped with anguish. 'Leave me, and never come back!' She was screaming now, not at me, more like at the world, a world that had treated her with extraordinary cruelty. 'I am with the Lord Jesus now!' I turned to go. There was nothing else I could do, if I wished to respect her privacy, the mystery and pain of a child survivor. It suddenly occurred to me that no one really survived. We were all doomed to carry those dark years with us to our graves. It would not be easy for me to escape the past either. And I knew for certain that I would not see Devorah again. (The February 14, 1991 issue of the Wall Street Journal carried a story of a Jewish woman, Jadwiga Asendrych, who was adopted by a Polish Catholic woman, whose own child had been stillborn. 'The woman was to give the Jewish infant her baby's name and docu­ ments, for a generous fee.' It was only after her adoptive mother's death that Jadwiga Asendrych found that she was really Barbara Zajdler and a Jewess.) Unwilling to disrupt their 'normal' existence, many of these Polish Jews would rather have believed that they were the Catholics they imagined themselves to have been all of their lives. In addition, many

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of them have come to terms with vast anti-Jewish feelings that surfaced time and again around them. Jadwiga Asendrych, for example, was punished when she acted 'like a Jewess'. Her adoptive mother never explained these antagonistic feelings toward her 'daughter' and let Jadwiga continue believing that she was only a worthless, clumsy child. Being told that they were indeed Jewish caused many negative attributes to enter into these 'hidden' children's lives. They have lost many friends, their families cannot seem to grasp the fact that their entire lives and identities have been false and, in some cases, they have been unable to reinstate themselves into their own Jewish community. One woman felt that she had 'lost one identity without gaining another'.52 Yet, when other 'hidden children' were told of their Jewish heritage, they soon learned to embrace their background and have often become prominent members of the Jewish community. Within the group of adopted children who were saved from the ravages of war, we find another group, which now lives with nonJewish families, but came to these families only after they escaped from the hands of the Nazis. These children, after having suffered abuse and humiliation, have somehow found refuge from the trials of war by receiving shelter in Christian homes. Like my cousin Devorah, they came to love their adoptive families and their newly found faith in Jesus, the Christ, who had nursed them back to phys­ ical and psychological health. Although they had suffered immeasurably, they were spared death and, most importantly, they were no longer forced to endure the loneliness of a solitary life or the insensitivity of orphanages. It seems almost inconceivable to imagine having to live through such an ordeal as that of the Nazi persecution of the Jews without the support of loved ones. Yet, these young survivors not only survived without the support of their parents or relatives, but they went on to become valued and respected members of society. The children of the Lagers endured the worst. In addition to hard labor, daily humiliation, hunger and torture, they were without fami­ lies. The task of returning to normalcy was very difficult. They needed to be shown how to trust again, since they had learned throughout their incarceration to distrust adults. After liberation, the child survivors felt completely bewildered. Without their families, they had no idea what the future would bring. In addition to this distrust of others, many felt that they were inferior beings. They had been compelled to watch their grandfathers and respected rabbis as well as dignified town elders being forced to wash latrines or scrub pavements with their bare hands; they had been forced to attend the slaughter of their kinfolk and of their own parents. The only thing that these children could conceive was that 'they were indeed on

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some lower plane for having been born Jews'.5' Many felt that they had to catch up on their lost youth. Some focused on their retarded education and caught up with their schooling in a remarkably short period of time. Others chose to learn their father's trade in an attempt to connect themselves with their prewar lives." The one thing survivors did not do was forget. The children's experiences during the Holocaust shaped their attitudes and responses towards everything in their lives. For those children who did survive Nazi persecution, the road to adulthood was a short but tumultuous one. Early in 1941, a doctor by the name of Isaac Chomski was charged with responsibility for 111 refugee children between the ages of 8 and 15 who, having been rescued, were destined for the United States. In his observation of these children throughout their train journey through France to Lisbon, Portugal, where they would board a ship, he 'was struck by the solemnity of the children, their stoic acceptance of the meager food provisions, and their unlaughing silence'.55 They had undoubt­ edly been irrevocably hardened and damaged by their experiences. Furthermore, the children had to maintain a desire to be hopeful and have the will to live. It was this reinstatement of hope and will that determined whether or not the young survivors of this horren­ dous ordeal would ever be able to function again as human beings after having been treated like animals throughout their terror-filled days of childhood and early adolescence. Many would have to go on dealing with that formidable void that contained the key to their lives. Only when they comprehended the enormity of their attempts to survive physically, would they be able to appreciate the greater effort required to regain their sense of humanity and spiritual well­ being. Coming to terms with their past was one thing; looking forward to a productive future was quite another. Those who accepted their past, realizing that it was not their fault that such a monster as Hitler had the power to cause the deaths of so many of their relatives and friends, went on to become contributing members of society. Many of those who chose to suppress their past and keep within themselves the horror that was Hitler, were plagued with nightmares and the inability to maintain lasting relationships for fear that they would again lose those they loved. The brutal savagery displayed by the Nazis stole from these chil­ dren - as well as humanity itself - a certain innocence and faith in itself. Once they were aware of the evil, of which these ordinary German men and women were capable, they were compelled to face the idea that there lurks within the deep recesses of each human character a potential Hitler. Thus, we are faced with the responsibility of controlling the urge to give in to such inhumanity. But it is still, arguably, the children who stand as the Holocaust's most tragic

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victims. Those who came through this travesty with their lives intact have been robbed of that spark which made them children. And, while in later years their smiles may have returned, there is no way for them to recoup the wonder which resides in the heart and soul of a child. NOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.

Trunk, Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution, 71. Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust, 14. Grudzinska-Gross, Wczlerdziestym nas Matko, xiii. Trunk, Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution, 68. Ibid., 70. Ibid. Eisenberg, Lost Generation, xv. Ibid., 119. Ibid., 2. Ibid., xvi. Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust, 1, 15. Ibid., 59. Ibid., 22. Ibid. Ibid. McCardle, Children of Europe, 111. Eisenberg, Lost Generation, 38. Ibid. Ibid , 48. Ibid., 308. Ibid., 139. McCardle, Children of Europe, 297. Ibid., 267. Ibid. Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust, 92. Ibid., 78. Ibid., 88f. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., 27. Ibid., 41. Ibid., 83,115, 122. Hyatt, Close Calls, 52. Donat, Holocaust Kingdom, 23. (Also Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust, 74.) Lengyel, Five Chimneys, 11 If. Trunk, Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution, 28. Eisen, Children and Play in the Holocaust, 84. Ibid., 63. Eisenberg, Lost Generation. Gross and Grudzinska-Gross, War Through Children's Eyes, xxviii. Ibid., xv. Eisen,op.Cit., 18. Ibid., 72. Gross and Grudzinska-Gross, War Through Children's Eyes, xvi. Eisenberg, Lost Generation, 168. Hilberg, Destination of European Jews, 337. Rothchild, Voices from the I lolocaust, 22. Ibid., 25. Ibid., 49.

Children during the Holocaust 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

Ibid., 31. Cited ibid., 50. Ibid., 105. Eisenberg, Lost Generation, 339. Hemmendinger, Survivors, 139. Friedman, No Haven for the Oppressed, 9.

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PART FOUR

Hope 1945 and After

1 did my duty ... and I did not only obey the orders, I obeyed the law. (Adolf Eichmann, cited Arendt, Eichmann in lerusaleni)

Act in such a way that the Fuhrer, if he knew your action, would approve it ...

(Hans Frank in Die Technik des Staates)

8

The Fall of the Third Reich and the Trials for Crimes against Humanity Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. (Ecclesiastes 9:3)

Questions: Just who is responsible for the slaughter of the Jewish people? Can every Third Reich citizen be considered guilty of crimes against humanity? Could the Germans have taken part in the mass destruction of European Jewry without having totally believed in the cause itself or having some remorse afterwards? Was it a sense of 'duty', a 'moral' obligation to the state, a question of 'obedience to the law' or out of fear that they were able to carry out such harsh orders? If their work was a 'pathway to advancement', then how does that explain the sheer brutality which the Nazis who ran the camps daily inflicted on the inmates? And, finally, if they were ordinary people, how could there be any excuse for what they did?

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The trials In 1942, Rudolf Hess, one of Hitler's most trusted lieutenants, flew his Messerschmitt plane solo to England, to propose an alliance between the Third Reich and Britain against the forces of interna­ tional communism. He was promptly arrested and kept in custody, and while he spent the remainder of the war in safety, his accom­ plices on the European mainland saw their dream of a thousand-year Reich go up in flames. The Third Reich ceased to exist, and Germany lay in a heap of rubble. The next time the world saw Hess was as one of the 21 defendants before the International Military Tribunal (1MT) at Nuremberg, accused of crimes against humanity. The Casablanca, Teheran, and Yalta conferences of the Allied leaders all demanded unconditional surrender of the Nazi Reich. This may have increased the intransigence of the Nazi leadership, and harsh measures were imposed on any soldier who might think of giving up the struggle. On the home front, Hitler was down to very old men - some of them were veterans of the other great world war - and the youngest - Hitler Jugend boys were conscripted - virtu­ ally anyone who could carry arms. The Soviet armies advanced in the east, cutting the Germans off from oil fields in Rumania and Hungary; the western Allies - US, British, and French Forces - made significant advances in the west. Although he suffered defeats on the front lines, and the outlook for victory became dimmer with each passing moment, Hitler's mission to eradicate European Jewry continued with undiminished fervor. The freight trains that kept on transporting victims to the crematoria of the camps were given priority passage in their movement to the killing centers over the sorely needed transportation of troops, materiel, and provisions to the demoralized front lines. The end came on the morning of May 7, 1945, when the repre­ sentatives of the Third Reich signed the unconditional surrender demanded by the Allied victors. It came only days after Hitler and Goebbels had taken their own lives in the bunker of the Berlin chan­ cellery. Germany lay in complete ruin; its people were prisoners of war within their own country, controlled by the Allied victors on whom they depended for order and initial support, where anarchy might otherwise have reigned. As World War Two came to a close and the full dimensions and details of the horror of Hitler's agenda were revealed, the free world experienced a sense of shock and revulsion. The end marked one of the greatest crises in modern German history. It was not only the thousand-year Reich of the National Socialist regime which ended in utter collapse after a mere 12 years of existence. Prussia, which had

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largely determined the fate of German history for the previous 200 years, created by the Prussian Otto von Bismarck, also vanished. Of Prussia, no trace remained. Its very name disappeared. The Prussian ruling class, which had long formed the core of the country's armed forces and bureaucracy, both long renowned for their efficiency, was dispossessed and dispersed. A dark chapter of German history had come to an end. Now, suddenly, no one knew about the Reich's excesses. Everyone wanted a wretched piece of paper to prove their respectability; no one was a willing Nazi; all had been coerced into the ranks of assassins. In June, 1945, the US, French, British, and Soviet military commanders in Germany, declaring that the four governments 'hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany', signed the Berlin Agreement. The commanders issued a statement announcing a pattern of military rule and occupation of Germany and Berlin. The agreement at Yalta in February 1945 featured the heads of government of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. At the meeting, they ratified the two European Advisory Commission (EAC) agreements of November 1944. These points of agreement were a joint occupation of the city of Berlin and the estab­ lishment of a Soviet occupation zone embracing East Germany. The Yalta conference agreed that the French should also receive an occupation zone in Germany as well as participation in the Allied control council. However, the hope of continuing cooperation among the victors soon disappeared. Nevertheless, at the Potsdam conference in February 1945, the confidence in the communist goodwill had been so great that no provision had been made for free access to Berlin for the western Allies. In 1946, the latter had no united policy against the communist threat, nor did they cooperate among themselves. Each occupation zone was tightly insulated from the other. Although the Potsdam agreement regarded Germany under the four-power occu­ pation as an economic unit, it was never treated as such, and each occupying power followed its own economic policy; even to the issuing of four different currencies, called scrip. The black market flourished. Scrip was exchanged for American dollars, gangs operated with audacity, hawking illegal, stolen goods, without fear of being apprehended by the military authority, itself involved in similar activities, in a demoralized, lawless society, now at the mercy of the victors who held it captive as well. Since military personnel governed the zones of occupation, military authority dictated the guidelines of civil conduct. All too often, those who were in charge of upholding the law were themselves implicated in breaking it.

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Points agreed upon at the Potsdam conference were the trials of Nazi war criminals, and the de-Nazification and democratization of German economic and political life. Only the first of these points, however, was carried out in November of 1945, with all of the powers acting in accord, while convening the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg; the origin of Hitler's infamous Nuremberg Laws, and the site of the celebrated Nazi Party mass rallies.

The door opened and Paula Kaiser, a woman in her mid-forties, appeared. 'Won't you come in?,' her voice chimed and, though her eyes did not meet mine, she sensed my hesitation. 'You don't mind if I call you Willi, do you?,' she asked, extending both hands in the general direction where I stood. It was then, I noticed the empty look in her blue eyes. 'Good Lord, she's blind,' I thought to myself. I grasped her hand, and she led me inside. She seemed more confident leading me through a maze of furniture and scattered bric-a-brac of her living room. Fraulein Kaiser was remarkably poised and serenely beautiful, 1 observed silently. When the High School principal suggested my tutor, I expected someone who would be able to lead me out of the morass of illiteracy and intellectual inactivity of the Lagers. Now, I was puzzled and suspicious about the choice the principal had made for me. Can the blind lead the blind? I asked myself. 'You're probably wondering how we will get along, Willi?,' said Paula, as if able to read my thoughts. 'So, before we get on with the lessons, 1'11 have to explain a few things.' I was silent. I blushed, and I was angry at myself for those demeaning thoughts. Paula squinted her eyes as though making an effort to catch a glimpse of my expression. I was no longer certain she could not see. 'Really, Fraulein Kaiser, you don't owe me an explanation,' I said apologetically. She dismissed my protest with a gesture of her hand. 'But I insist. If we are to become good friends, we must put some things behind us, bad things; things that affect both of us in a very significant way.' 'I'm only interested in learning, Miss Kaiser,' 1 insisted. 'What I have to say to you, is also part of the learning process, Willi.' She strained her sightless eyes again in the direction of my voice. 'The things of the past must be forgotten.' 'That won't be an easy task, Miss Kaiser,' I said sadly. 'I've suffered too many losses, and I vowed "never to forget".' 'My own losses won't compare to yours, Willi, I know.' Paula's voice sounded plaintive. 'I, too, have lost some loved ones.'

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There was a long silence, interrupted by her gentle voice, as she narrated slowly, telling me of her own setbacks and misfor­ tune caused by the war. I wondered why she would confess all those things to me; a perfect stranger. 'I was a member of the NSDAR As a teacher, I had to join.' She paused. 'It was like that. Join the National Socialists, or lose your teaching license. But I was not aware of the Lagers and what went on inside them, as God is my witness.' She made the sign of the cross, but I was bored with yet another assertion of innocence. 'I believe you,' I said softly, 'and I don't blame you for anything.' Paula sensed I was lying, for she turned her head away. She sensed the veiled resentment in my voice with that special perception of those afflicted with her infirmity. They're all the same, I thought to myself, they deny any knowledge of that dark period in their history. Like all of the others, she made me feel that in having the effrontery of surviving the Lagers I merited condemnation for evading my preordained fate. 1 was declared dead on so many occasions, that I no longer had any rightful claim to life. My life had become an embarrassment for the entire world. 'No good will come of it, Willi,' she said. 'Justice must be done, and hatred can not turn to love overnight,' I replied. She grasped my shoulder with her strong, stubby fingers of an accomplished pianist. 'For what we've done, we'll stand trial every day for the rest of our lives. And even into many generations.' She paused. 'But you must no longer suffer, Willi. You must seek out the beauty in people, else hatred will consume you.' 'I've got to catch up with so much that has passed me by during those horrible years,' 1 turned my head and spoke almost inaudibly, as if to myself. 'To abandon hatred, 1 must relearn to cry and to laugh before 1 can learn to trust again; to trust people as well as nature ...' My passion for learning became a source of joy to Paula. She showed genuine delight with each conquest on my long journey back. Spongelike, I absorbed each utterance she made. I translated Caesar's Gallic Wars and Rousseau's Emile, and 1 committed to memory the Pythagorean principles much in advance of the desired deadlines. Still and all, I was, it seemed, obsessed with the passage of time. Paula was worried. 'Do you play an instrument?' she asked suddenly during a morning session. Silence. 'I used to ... the violin.' 'The violin? Really? It's a beautiful instrument. Do you still

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play?' Paula was excited. 'You must play it sometime, for me.' 'I'm afraid I can't,' I said. 'I've been away from it far too long. I don't believe it would do any good to start now.' Paula sensed the sadness in my voice, and she insisted. 'Anything beautiful is worth pursuing,' she said softly. 'There are too many things 1 must start anew,' I said without the intention of being cynical. 'I don't know where to begin.' I paused. 'I'll never catch up with the rest of the world,' 1 added. 'That depends on how you look at it.' 'The truth is, no matter how much I'll accomplish in the life ahead, I could have done more were it not for the time lost,' I insisted. 'It doesn't really matter how long it takes a person to reach his goal. All that matters is that you get there.' She smiled, then drew a kerchief and blew her nose. 'It's the only way for you, Willi. You must believe. Save yourself and save us all.' 'I won't promise miracles,' I said almost in a whisper. 'You owe it to yourself,' said Paula gently. Suddenly, 1 couldn't hold back any longer: 'My life's a lie, and I live among assassins. I only tolerate it because still it's better than being buried alive.' 'You mustn't be negative, Willi. It will lead to nowhere,' she reasoned with her peculiar logic. 'There's no future for me because there's no past,' I said stub­ bornly. 'You haven't been singled out by fate for a hard childhood, Willi. There were others. They, too, must cope,' she argued. 'I understand that only too well, Paula,' I replied. 'But 1 also know that it will be harder for me to overcome this accident of my youth. Especially its loneliness. There are none of my people left to lend support, to lift me up when 1 fall, to encourage when I doubt, to praise when I succeed.' A sudden sadness took hold of me. I held back, for fear I'd reveal another me to Paula. I wasn't ready yet. She saw my hesitation. 'I know only too well that you have suffered unspeakable injustice during that horrible war - it hurt terribly, and it left deep scars. There are those, however, who are suffering injustices during the time of peace ... the question is ...' She hesitated, not being able to read the impression her words had on me. 'Which injustice goes deeper?' For me, there was no other suffering, only mine. 'Perhaps another time, Paula,' I said, getting up to leave the premises. 'Why don't you visit with nature occasionally?,' asked Paula. She always knew how to change the subject at crucial moments. 'I haven't the time for such trivial pursuits just now.'

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'You must make time. Get out and enjoy the beauty of the tulips in full bloom. Have you seen them? Would you like to take a walk with me this coming Sunday?' 'If you wish,' 1 replied after some hesitation. I didn't want her to know how completely insensitive I have grown to nature, only having experienced its cruelty and none of its beauty. The Lager mountains, covered with snow in their wintry majesty, offered no glimpses of enjoyment and childhood games, but caused only frostbite and bitter cold during those morning appells, while we waited for our frozen comrades to be piled on a heap in front of our barracks.

Hitler's promises had come true: he was successful in destroying Europe's Jewish culture, if in not eradicating the Jews altogether. He also kept his promise of destroying Germany because, as he claimed: 'The German people were unworthy to carry on, they were the weaker, and there was another, stronger culture to the East, which would hence be the dominant one.'1 (One of his bunker broadcast speeches, shortly before he placed the barrel of the gun to his head.) Thus came to an end the reign of one of the great tyrants of history. Instead of the thousand years the Fuhrer had vowed, it took him only a modest 12 years to make his abhorrent impression on history. Endemic fear pervaded his dictatorship from top to bottom, turning self-preservation into paranoia, then into hyperbolic sadism, only to end in self-destruction, but not before he was able to drag a world of innocent victims down with him. As Germany lay in shambles, so did her political and civic institu­ tions. The Herculean task of restoring order lay in the hands of the military commanders of the occupying forces. The Allied military government issued a Fragebogen - questionnaire - and thousands of Germans hurried to respond to the questions therein. The document was delivered to those suspected of having directed, assisted or collaborated with the Nazi regime. The Fragebogen comprised 131 questions, and was administered with the naive hope that it would be possible to separate the German 'sheep' from the 'goats'. It was to exclude all those responsible for the crimes of National Socialism from the administration of future governments of Germany. As it was, however, there were not enough qualified, 'clean', bureaucrats to take the reins of the 'new' Germany. Thus, many former Nazi officials were engaged in their old business of running a government. Hence, the Fragebogen quickly became a whitewash. Besides admitting testimony of Nazis for the vindication of their former colleagues, it ignored the very nature of political responsi­ bility and, at the same time, did too great an honor and too great a

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dishonor to the German people: an honor, because it implied that though many were guilty, even more were not, and a dishonor, because it implied that to be convicted of National Socialism was necessarily to be convicted of being guilty. The naivete and falsity of the assumptions underlying the Fragebogen was that it addressed the question of responsibility. By far the hardest task for those concerned was the reconstruction of the German judicial system and its legal code. All laws had to be rewritten from scratch, as the Nuremberg Laws were no longer valid with the demise of the Third Reich. It was under the new laws that many of the trials against Nazi criminals were conducted. Many of these trials became a mockery of international law, where witnesses were harassed and tormented as though they, not the criminals, were on trial. One group of former Nazi officials, the leaders of the Third Reich, intimate collaborators of Hitler, who committed major crimes in the service of the party, were put on trial by the Allies before an 1MT at Nuremberg. There were, in all, 21 of them. Heinrich Himmler, master of assassins, was captured by the British as he attempted to flee from Bremen to his native Bavaria. After being questioned by his captors, he swallowed cyanide, which he had concealed in the cavity of his gums. Robert Ley, who was the head of the Arbeitsfront (Labor Front) and who was to face the IMT as well, hanged himself in his cell before the trial began. Societies are characterized as having 'an established, settled, known law, received and allowed by common consent to be the stan­ dard of right and wrong, and the common measure to decide all controversies'.2 John Locke understood the necessity of societal laws in order to maintain order and provide justice. However, Locke had never imagined how members of a future society could have consented to and accepted a set of unjust and cruel laws as the valid laws of their nation. That society was Germany and, under the Nazi regime, those laws were the Nuremberg Laws. The monster respon­ sible for establishing those laws was Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of the Third Reich. It is crucial to mention here that Germany consented to these laws, because it is only on this premise that the events of the Holocaust could have occurred. However, this poses some inter­ esting questions. Even though the Nuremberg Laws were not 'good' or 'just', should the people involved with their execution be held liable for their actions to a higher law, such as international law, which was dictated by moral conscience? Or does a state's sover­ eignty protect its people from the long arm of international law? Similarly, should individuals be held accountable to laws created after the fact?

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In trying to answer these questions, we must go back to the doctrine of natural law, which reflects the age of 'growing interde­ pendence among nations which necessitated effective supranational controls'? Because law is not static, it must adapt to the needs of a changing world. The Nuremberg Trials resulted from the 'desire for effective legal safeguards for personal rights and for the judicial condemnation of aggression and aggressors [which] might be called an instinctive longing, a sense of justice, or the demands of a "conscience of humanity," but it was a key element in an evolu­ tionary, dynamic adaptation of the instrument of law for the betterment of human society'/ It is for this reason the IMT could maintain its international char­ acter because the 'United Nations affirmed the principles applied at Nuremberg and thereby expressed its endorsement of the principles applied by the Court'.5 Consequently, the principles applied in the judgment of the IMT were valid principles of international law and their application was justified. Furthermore, it is clear that the IMT had the sanction of the international community, and could thus be considered an international court of justice. The Nazis were fully aware that committing murder was against the law, and that they could be punished by death for committing such capital offenses. Consequently, they should not have recourse to their claim that 'their' laws sanctioned murder as a state policy, because it is reasonable to assume that what they did was criminally wrong. The only thing that the Nazis doubted, as common criminals often do, was that they would ever get caught in the act. Thus, the courts had to assume the role of applying justice where justice was due. Proponents of the Nuremberg Trials felt that 'regularly enforced world criminal law, applicable to individuals, necessarily makes inroads upon national sovereignty and tends to change the founda­ tions of the international community from a balance of power among sovereign states to a universal federation directly controlling indi­ viduals in all countries on matters covered by international law'? Nuremberg would be the stepping-stone towards a world society that did not tolerate evil or heinous crimes committed by individuals in any country carried out on behalf of its established policies. As a matter of fact, the more one understands the intent of inter­ national law, the more one realizes the validity of the trials. Who can tell, but perhaps these trials will act as a deterrent for future people in power who may contemplate violating other people's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is the natural law doctrine that provides a way to deal with extraordinary circum­ stances. No matter what laws are adopted in a society, certain moral values, which recognize the absolutes of right and wrong, must

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prevail in order that they may transcend societal boundaries and correct iniquities. The tribunal convened on November 20, 1945. It sat for almost a year, for the verdicts were delivered on September 30 and October 1, 1946. The trials of Nazi criminals set a precedent: war crimes against humanity. Seen in retrospect, the most important accomplishment of the trials was the establishment of the principle in international law that 'Aggressive war is a crime against humanity.' In many cases, legal evidence was lacking, the victims were dead, no witnesses would come forward, no Nazi would testify against another. Also, from 1958, trials were to be conducted by German courts before the statute of limitations would run out. However, there was to be no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. Some precedents were established: (a) there was to be punish­ ment of persons guilty of crimes against humanity; (b) evidence of systematic rule of violence against people of occupied territories; (c) administration of concentration camps; (d) terrorism; (e) unneces­ sary brutality; and (f) systematic extermination of Jews, Poles, and other non-Germans. The premise, which the IMT declared, was that war is essentially evil. It affects not only the belligerents but also the whole world. The tribunal rejected the contention made on behalf of some of the defen­ dants who claimed that they were not legally responsible for their acts because they engaged in them on the orders of their superior authorities. 'The true test,' read the judgment, 'which is found in the criminal laws of most nations, is not the existence of the order, but whether moral choice [in executing it] was in fact possible.' As it happens, Germany was signatory to the Kellog-Briand Pact of August 1928, called the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War. Moreover, Nazi groups and organizations that were adjudged to be criminal included: (a) the cabinet of the Third Reich; (b) the lead­ ership of the Nazi (NSDAP) Party; (c) the SA, SS, and SD (Gestapo); and (d) the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The first International War Crimes trials in history returned the indictment under four general headings: (1) The common plan or conspiracy to wage aggressive war (this came about after the breaking of the Kellog-Briand Pact, the 'Pact of Paris', agreement which, in effect, renounced war) (2) Crimes against peace (3) War crimes (4) Crimes against humanity (with no statute of limitations) There is no doubt that a great show was made by the victorious Allied powers of the punishment of Nazi war criminals. The

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Americans in particular were, at first, very interested in seeing the Nazis punished for their crimes. But how does one group of people decide on how justice should be served when these crimes were such a great atrocity? The near eradication of an entire ethnic population seems to be a crime for which the perpetrators, no matter what their penalty, will never fully pay, when one considers the greatness of their transgressions. Hundreds of Nazi officials ended up being charged and tried for war crimes in one court or another. Nevertheless, the most famous trial remains the IMT at Nuremberg during which some of the top Nazi criminals were tried: among them were Reich Marshal Hermann Goering; Governor of occupied Poland, Hans Frank; Reich Organizer of the Labor Front, Robert Ley, who was tried in absentia, as was Heinrich Himmler; Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Alfred Rosenberg; Reich Defense Commissar, Baldur von Schirach; Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop; former editor of the pornographic daily, Der Sturmer, Julius Streicher; Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel; Colonel-General Alfred Jodi; Chief of Nazi War Production (and originator of forced labor), Albert Speer; Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick; Franz von Papen; head of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht and his successor Walther Funk; Hans Fritzsche; head of a 'Secret Cabinet Council' Baron Constantin von Neurath; Commander of the Navy, Admiral Erich Raeder and his successor Admiral Karl Doenitz; Head of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, Arthur Seyss Inquart; Head of the Reich Security Office (Gestapo) Ernst Kaltenbrunner; and Fritz Sauckel. At the start of the trials at Nuremberg, Justice Jackson of the United States noted that the

former high station of these defendants, the notoriety of their acts and the adaptability of their conduct to provoke retaliation make it hard to distin­ guish between the demand for a just and measured retribution and the unthinking cry for vengeance which arises from the anguish of war. It is our task ... to draw the line between the two.’ The problem with a 'just and measured retribution' is that one cannot assess it in terms of the murder of almost six million Jewish victims and the further millions of innocent civilians caught up in the war. There is no formula for transgressions of this magnitude, which says the punishment is equal to the crime. Thus even the limits of the law of retribution and the punishments which were carried out on most of those criminals did not come close to what the silenced victims would demand as 'just retribution'. When the Nuremberg Trials started, the United States had three main goals in mind: (a) the punishment of the perpetrators of the

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crimes; (b) political reorientation of the German people; and (c) the development of a future code of conduct for governments and armies. In retrospect, they failed on all three counts. As far as the punishment of all key figures in the mass murder of European Jewry is concerned, the IMT sentenced to death 14 of the 21 defendants, but only four of these sentences were carried out: Lev, Goering, and Himmler as well as their supreme Fuhrer, who cheated the executioner by committing suicide. By the end of 1958, the remaining defendants were released from prison, except Rudolf Hess, who languished in his solitary cell at Spandau Prison, as the Soviets' token prisoner until his death at the ripe old age of 91. Although all of the defendants had been convicted of being directly involved in the killing of at least two million people, some were released from prison on parole within a few years. Furthermore, some Nazi scientists as well as high-ranking SS and Gestapo ('experts in Soviet affairs'), were recruited for service in the United States by the US government and taken to safety by the OSS, a precursor of the CIA. The competing Soviet government drafted others to work in the erstwhile Soviet Union. They, too, were part of the complex Nazi technocracy, important participants in the killing enterprise of the Third Reich. Many Nazi criminals were aided by various organizations, including the Church, in procuring papers and visas of entry to sanctuaries of their choice. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and some Arab countries (notably Syria) were recipients of these alleged 'experts' in criminology and other useful endeavors. Where was justice? These incidents suggest that the US as well as the other participants in the trials were never really interested in seeing justice served, but rather in keeping up the facade of being just and fair countries. The United States also felt that the trials would help convert the Germans to a democratic way of thinking. The theory was that the trials would be a great opportunity to demonstrate the evils of total­ itarianism and the merits of democracy to the German public. The US wanted to show that under a democratic system even the most heinous of criminals were granted a fair trial. But the vanquished Germans tended to dismiss Nazi war crimes as atrocities, which were intrinsic in every foreign occupation of another country." Toward midnight Greta's mother, Frau von Lutzow entered the room. She had scarcely glanced in my direction, seating herself at the table while Greta poured her a drink. 'Don't expect sympathy, young man,' she said without taking her eyes off her glass. 'We didn't know what went on in the concentration camps.' I was silent. My eyes met Tadzik's. Greta was worried. Frau

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von Lutzow became talkative under the influence of the Rudesheimer Riesling. 'Nothing has changed, nothing, I tell you!,' she shouted. 'Everything is now as it was with the Fuhrer. Only the names are different. We Germans fear change! We fight change! Pure Aryan blood flows in our veins, you know!' 'Mutti ... don't talk like that, please ... mama ... It's not good for you to get excited. Call it a night, yes? You've had enough, Mutti.’ The old woman ignored her daughter. She went on. 'Maybe I'm wrong!' Frau von Lutzow shouted in her shrill, stac­ cato tone. 'Maybe one thing did change. The young have no respect for the old. Now they tell us what to do!' She was approaching hysteria. 'Just look at her! This is my daughter, you're nothing but a piece of trash.' She turned toward Greta. 'You cheap whore. You trashy bitch! So this is what you've been up to. I try to keep the honor of the von Lutzow name, do the things becoming an Aryan aristocrat - then here I find you! Fucking a Slav! Associating with a ... with a ... Lbitermenschl A nonperson!' Her lips kept moving, though no further sound issued forth. She was trembling violently. Suddenly, she rose from the table and slapped Greta across the cheek. Tadzik placed himself between the two women to absorb the second slap. Greta's eyes filled with tears. 'It wasn't respect, Mother, it was fear that made us do things we hated to do.' Now, the daughter shouted. 'Fear of you and your Fuhrer. You told us to die for the fatherland! Now we want to live and we don't intend to die for anyone!' I looked at the two women. 'My mother is dead,' I thought, 'and this unrepentant bitch is alive and well.' Frau von Lutzow found her voice again. 'It's your way to defy tradition, to mock me, to spite me, you're in bed with this ... this ... animal, letting him defile someone of pure German stock ... just to shame me ... your mother who goes on slaving for you ...' 'Mama, please,' Greta begged tearfully. 'Don't ever call me "Mother" again. You should be killed for committing Rassenschande.' The old one used the Fuhrer's favorite expression of warning in reference to the Aryan 'purebloods' being 'racially dishonored'. 'I should have had a son. He would have given his mother respect. German daughters are all whores.' 'Where would 1 be if I were a man?,' Greta challenged. 'I'll tell you where I'd be.' She hastened to respond to her own question before Frau von Lutzow could stop her. 'I'd be where most of our young men are today: in Soviet labor camps or buried under foreign soil.'

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'I'd rather see you dead than whoring with an enemy of the Reich. The only wrong the Fuhrer did was not to win the war. You hear?! That's the only wrong he did!' The old woman was shouting again. 'Do you see those holes up there?' She pointed at shrapnel holes in the ceiling. 'We will repair everything else, rebuild the Reich, but the holes will stay!' Suddenly, she let out with a mad chuckle, 'We'll leave those ugly holes there to remind us of the Amis and the communist Jews' The US attempts at establishing a code of international conduct also failed. In the succession of wars since World War Two, there has not been a marked improvement in the thinking and behavior of some tyrannical national leaders or their military surrogates - Uganda's Idi Amin; Cambodia's Pol Pot; Serbia's Milosevic; Iraq's Hussein, and many others - nor has there been a decrease in the ruthlessness of wars, with an emphasis on the impact of warfare on noncombatant populations. There have been no trials of war criminals based on the Nuremberg example, with the exception of a few meek performances at the rather impotent Hague Tribunal of International Justice. The weak policy implemented by the US after the war did not set a prece­ dent, nor did it send a message to potential tyrants that would strike fear in the hearts of all criminals against humanity. Even as 1 write, such crimes are going on in many parts of the world, and the free world, especially the US, is only beginning its 'police action' in an effort to eliminate potential crimes against humanity. Whether or not such a demanding burden will elicit a lasting response remains to be seen. Political, economic, and other global constraints all too often play havoc with 'humanitarian' intentions. From 1951, the US changed its focus regarding the postwar situa­ tion in Germany. They no longer concentrated on punishing war criminals and reeducating the German public; they were now more concerned with making sure the war criminals' problem would not cause further criticism of the American occupation there in both the United States and Germany. American officials began to institute leniency and sentence revisions, which eventually led to the complete breakdown of the US war crimes operation without too much public opposition back at home.9 The Allied powers backed out of their war criminals program to avoid uncomfortable situa­ tions. Thus the true purpose of the Nuremberg Trials was lost in the political struggle for the Germany after the war. How true justice could have been served in the case of these war criminals is not clear, but the follow-up on the sentences meted out to them proves that the US government was more concerned with its public image than making sure that those who had been proven guilty served their sentences.

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It is hoped that nothing like the Nazi regime will ever happen again, but movements headed by people like the American Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke (and the like) send a cold chill down any law abiding person's spine. The only reassurance that nothing like the Nazi takeover could occur in the US is the fact that, in all likelihood, the majority of the American people would refuse to accept any other laws than those guaranteed by the Constitution. The murder of European Jewry should bring about some good and the people who were victimized by the Nazis ought not to have died in vain. The only way to turn that situation into a positive happening is for future generations to learn about that tragic time in history and to make sure that nothing like it never occurs again. MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

The Nazi reign of terror may definitely be considered to be one of the biggest blights on all human history. The mass slaughter of the Jewish people can never be atoned for or punished, nor can it even be adequately explained. To many, the sheer numbers of individuals murdered in this period is unbelievable. Many people feel that the Nazis ought to have paid for their crimes against humanity. This brings up an interesting question: should we hold accountable all who were involved with the operations of genocide in World War Two, or should the people in charge be the only ones held account­ able and punished? Before going into lengthy discussions on morality, it is first neces­ sary to look exactly at what morality is. Most people surely agree that the subject of morality and ethics deals with individuals and their conduct with one another. There are basically two branches of ethics: metaethics and relativism. Those who adhere to the metaethical train of thought believe that there are certain ethical truths, and any deviation from these is wrong. There is no discussion then about attitudes towards birth control, homosexuality, abortion, murder, and so on. The correct way to deal with these issues is the same for everyone; there is no discus­ sion of it being right for some people, and different for others. The relativists, however, believe that ethics change for different people under varying circumstances. For some people something is good, and for others it is not. The old adage, 'One man's meat is another man's poison' is an apt quote to sum up the relativists' view. Although this view, on first sight, looks fairly attractive, it would also excuse the abhorrent acts of the Nazis and their Final Solution. Metaethics forgoes this problem; however, it also has problems of its own. Just how do we find these ethical truths? Do we look to

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religion? To science? To philosophy? Or do we look to any other of the myriad possible sources? Luckily, for the purpose of our present discussion, genocide is seen as an evil by methaethicists. With this in mind, the argument espoused by many of the Nazis tried in courts of justice, saying that genocide was legal in Germany, cannot hold. Metaethics, and not relativism, shall be the ethical system used for our discussion here. When looking at the problem of trying the Nazi war criminals in court, there can be no doubt that absolute guilt can be traced to the heads of the programs. Names like Hitler, Himmler, Eichmann, and Hoess come to mind. As major figures of the program, senior officers or Lager commandants, these individuals were running the show, ordering others to kill inmates or forcing them to work as slaves under somewhat less than humanely acceptable condi­ tions. The person in charge had the power to grant life or cause death, and chose to cause death. Hitler may have been in charge, but he was not omniscient and, therefore, could not have made sure that every order was fulfilled. Could his minions have turned against his orders? Could they have saved some lives in the Fuhrer's absence? Surely, some feared for their lives or loss of position and power, but it was quite obvious that many of them enjoyed their tasks. Hoess once said that the extermination of the Jews was wrong because it failed: 'It in no way served the cause of anti-Semitism, but on the contrary brought the Jews far closer to their ultimate objective. " Such an obvious lack of remorse shows a character flawed with cruelty. These individuals chose to enforce their commands. With the power they wielded, they could possibly have escaped, helped the Jewish people escape, or even staged a coup. However, instead of taking these actions, they decided to enforce their deadly policy These men were obviously guilty of crimes against humanity, and should have been made to pay for their crimes. Another set of people who were involved in the whole genocidal process were the ordinary citizens of Germany and the Nazioccupied territories. They were the ones who worked in the camps, who turned in the Jewish resistance members or escaped camp inmates, who helped transport the Jews to the concentration camps, guard the inmates, and supervise genocide, to name only some of the tasks. Theirs is not an easy guilt to assign. On the one hand, it is easy to say that these individuals were just as guilty as the rest. They could have chosen to resist, to help the victims. Such acts would have been morally right. However, when looking at the issue from another perspective, they were also caught up in a nightmare of circum­ stances that were out of their control. They themselves were being closely watched, and any act of noncompliance with Nazi laws could

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have resulted in a visit from the Gestapo. Theirs was not an easy deci­ sion to make. Some of these people, of course, probably did enjoy their work. Cruel and evil people abound everywhere, but what of the others? Some of them had to get food on the table for their own families; their own children and babies. What about them? Is it right to demand that they sacrifice their own families in order to try and save others? In the ghettos there were those Jews who turned in their own people to the Nazis for favors and special privileges. Some say that these people were not bad, but just did what they could to stay alive. Why is this argument valid for the Jews, and not for all the non-Jews, the Germans included? The German people were also prisoners: they may just have had a larger prison in which to roam. Initially mesmerized by the grandiose promises of a charismatic charlatan, when they awoke from their mass illusion it was too late to protest openly. There are many examples of defiance among the citizens of the Third Reich. Fear was rampant in the German state, and one did what one had to, to stay alive. Unfortunately, this attitude often led to the deaths of many Jewish people. It is not easy to assign guilt to the ordinary German citizen, past and present. In general, the post World War Two generations of Germans ought not to be stigmatized for the deeds of their ancestors. Even those multitudes of Third Reich citizens who remained passive throughout the tragic ordeal, unable or unwilling to help their Jewish fellow citizens, cannot be held responsible for their wanton assassination. This may not be the most popular opinion among my fellow survivors, but what else can one say? Extreme circumstances some­ times call for extreme measures. If they had resisted, they might have died. How can one decide whose life is more important? No one can fully realize the horrors of the Nazi SS state unless one has lived through it. In a similar vein, how can we judge any ordinary person caught in the grip of this horrible moment in history, if we ourselves have not experienced the same circumstances? In her monumental journals of the Hitler years, Ruth AndreasFriedrich puts it this way:

We, who stand in the eleventh year under Adolf Hitler's rule, do not have much basis for boasting. But when people risked their lives for their Jewish brethren, they were the German non-Jews. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, who risked their heads daily, hourly, to obtain a few miserable bread coupons or transitory emergency quarters. A little, again a little, and yet a little more. Wrested from one's own necessities, gained in a struggle in between the bombings, forced labor, impeded movement and personal curtailment. In defiance of all prohibitions, laws, and propaganda orders.

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No one who has not experienced this can try to imagine how difficult the simplest helping task can become under such circumstances." (Translation mine.) The third and last area to look at for blame is that of the free world. As early as 1942, many reports were coming out of Poland about what was occurring in German-occupied territories.The prime minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other free world leaders had full knowledge of what was going on. They did nothing. Borders were closed to Jewish immigrants, inhibiting any means for them to escape. No one wanted them, which sent a clear signal to the Nazi high command that their policy of extermination could continue unimpeded. If foreign countries had granted the persecuted Jews entry visas to cross their borders, the loss of innocent lives might have been greatly diminished and Hitler's war against the Jews would not have been such a resounding success. However, this did not occur, and many innocents had to die because of it. Roosevelt knew about what was going on, and chose to say nothing at all about it.11 Such a breach of conduct can neither be easily forgotten nor forgiven. Even as the war progressed against the Nazis, routes to Auschwitz could have been destroyed, and camps could have been liberated sooner, had the Allied powers chosen to take this course.14 Ships could have been used to bring the Jewish people to other parts of the world, but none of this was done. The Allies did nothing to help the Jews until the war was over, and the camps were finally liberated. It was then that the western world became 'enraged' at the Germans for their actions. The trials took place, and suddenly the countries which could have stopped or less­ ened the effects of the Nazi persecution of European Jewry, decided to become involved, but it was too little, too late. Even this involve­ ment was not a total commitment. When it served the US interests, many of those convicted for crimes against humanity were released to work for companies in the United States.15 How can these actions be deemed moral, or ethical, in any sense of those words? To have the power to stop the mass slaughter of innocent people and not to use it cannot be excused. It is to these countries that much of the blame should be assigned, especially to the leaders of the free world, who had the power to stop the atrocities, but stood idly by while innocent people were gassed. They should be held accountable for aiding and abetting a good part of the calamity. Those in the SS state who were running the show were directly responsible for the planning and execution of genocidal activities. But there were people who just tried to get by in their day-to-day lives who should not have to shoulder the blame. The individual

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contributions of the so-called righteous among nations, though considerable in number, did not have much of an impact in the larger scheme of things. Although it is hard to look at this problem objec­ tively, one ought to attempt not to become judgmental. One thing is certain: these events should not have happened, and those who could have prevented them should be made to pay for their actions, or for their unwillingness to resist. However, there were these people, trapped in the nightmare, quite powerless to stop it, who should only be pitied, and those who died in the nightmare, who should receive our respect, and our promise to prevent this cata­ strophe from ever happening again. NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Black Book, 38. Locke, Treatise on Government (Cambridge: 1689). Buscher, US War Crime Trial, 55. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., 61. Maser, Nuremberg, 87. Ibid , 3. Ibid. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 246. Andreas-Friedrich, Der Schattenmann, 136. Marrus, Nazi Holocaust, 158. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, tf>7. Ibid., 178. Ibid., 249.

During the greatest crisis in the history of the Jewish people, the world was divided into two camps: one wanted to be rid of the Jews, the other would not accept them. The lack of action on the part of the world led the Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels to utter this statement: 7 believe that both English and the Americans are happy that we are exterminating the Jewish riffraff.' (quoted Hilberg, Destruction of European Jews, p. 159)

9

Genocide: God's Will or Man's Doing? Questions: How can we make sense out of destruction, human or otherwise? If God does not interfere with human actions, then how are we to respond to cosmic reasons; who or what distinguishes reason from unreason? Are we responsible to God or to nature for all our actions? What has the destruction of European Jewry by Hitler's Third Reich — and the rest of the world's tolerance of his actions — done to our religious and moral values? Is God, as we perceive Him, thinkable after the killing centers?

Questions my own children asked and I was unable to answer because I haven't resolved them all for myself: Daddy, where was man, and where was God? Why were the Jews again singled out? What will I do and where will I be when/if it happens again that way? We huddled within the thick mikvah walls. Grandmother, Felusia and I, while outside the Nazi Stukas made the earth tremble. People from all walks of life and of many religions came there to seek safety. Now, they addressed their gods in different languages, some expressing remorse about one thing or another, making amends, and promising change. I was sure God listened to them all, though they

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spoke in so many different languages. Surely, God has many helpers who interpret and keep Him forever informed about the needs of His subjects. 'Why did these people commit all those wicked deeds, Grandma?' I asked in a hushed voice. 'I don't really know, my dear boy. I don't know,' she replied. 'They must know it was bad or they wouldn't ask forgiveness.' 'They feel remorse, child,' Grandmother said softly. 'Do you think God listens to us, Grandmother?,' I asked. 'Surely, He does, child,' she reflected. 'Are we not a people exiled and persecuted?' She responded with her own question. 'I ... I guess so ...' 1 said unconvincingly. 'Are we not hated by most people?,' she asked again. I fell silent, nodding my head without much comprehension.

The Jews kept on praying for a miracle. They prayed, trusting in God's intervention. It was an age-old tradition, this reciprocal trust. Hadn't He, blessed be His Name, performed His mercies for His people throughout millennia? The Jews reasoned. He would not abandon them now. They prayed. But God was taking His time. 'We humans deal in hours and days,' my grandmother explained patiently. 'The Almighty, blessed be His Name, disregards time alto­ gether. He is timeless, my boy. He is timeless.' She repeated for emphasis. 'Meanwhile, what are we to do, Grandma?,' I asked, searching her eyes, but she looked away. 'We must pray, my child.'

'Gotenyu, dear Lord! A miracle now ... give us a miracle, we beseech You. If there ever was a time for miracles, it is now!,' I prayed. We were lined up against the quarry wall, some thirty fugitives rounded up during the night. Now, we were going to pay the penalty for an attempted escape. Our masters were severe, and their penalties met their standards. The world around us suddenly became more beautiful. It was a splendid April afternoon, the birds were chirping, and the sun and the clouds were painfully new to me. 'Dear God,' I prayed, 'I haven't yet begun to live ... don't take me away yet ... let me live a little ... dear God.' The Italians prayed weepingly, kneeling on the ground, their hands piously folded, invoking the mercies of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Everyone prayed for deliverance. There wasn't much time left, the machine gun emplacement stared mercilessly at all of us, and each tried, as best he could, to make peace between God and himself.

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Commandant Tulka came forward. 'Pray to me, you dumb pigs!,' he shouted. 'Your Gods are busy with more important matters! They have no time to listen to a few miserable swine such as you! I'm your god now! You hear?! I'm the one you must pray to!' We ignored the ranting of the glass-eyed SS man, which further infuriated him. 'Now, lie down! Face into the dirt!,' he ordered, and we obeyed. Tulka unbuttoned his britches, as a signal for his subor­ dinates to do likewise, and all commenced to urinate on the prostrate worshippers. Unabated, we continued to pray. 'Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!' - Tn the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!' echoed the Italians. 'I piss on your prayer! I piss on your Gods!' The shrill voice was that of a madman. We expected a thunderbolt to strike the blas­ phemer at any moment. But nothing happened. He went on. I'll make you regret it, you stupid shits!' Tulka looked wildly at the men lying before him. He took out his luger, and aimed it at us. 'Get up now! Over there! Line up against the wall!' Our prayers intensified, but we complied meekly. Tulka ordered the machine gun trained on the line-up. 'You!' He counted off the first group of five on the extreme right. 'Step over there!' The five men stood facing the machine gun barrel; their eyes shut tightly, heads turned toward heaven in supplication. 'Fire!' The salvo was deafening. Five bodies fell lifeless to the ground. Another five took their places. 'Fire!' Another salvo resounded, and then another. I counted between fifteen to twenty men dead, as the firing noise drowned out the mourners' prayers. It took only a few minutes, and then the firing ceased. 'Thank the Almighty!' 'Praised be the Lord!' 'We're alive!' For the moment, we were. 'Thank you, God, for this moment.' 'Bury the dogs!! Schnell'.'. Quickly!!' Tulka ordered. We could hear the rumble of the approaching Soviet Army.

The Nazi-implemented mass killings placed genocide on an entirely different level. The Third Reich eliminated about 15 million defenseless human beings. Mass state-sponsored violence was not new, but the process of this period was new. It is extremely hard to understand how easy it was for a 'civilized' society to turn into a state of brutality. After all, these events took place in the twentieth century. What makes the Nazi killings so amazing is not their numbers, effi­ ciency, or cruelty, but that they occurred in a time when nobody thought it was humanly or socially possible. Thus, if it could happen then, why not again? What can the Nazi era teach us about statesponsored genocide? What can be done in the future to prevent

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further large-scale deaths? What are some of the warning signs one must look for? Genocide has three characteristics: it is Godless; it is ideological; and it is relentless. The Nazis used it as a solution to a situation of strain. There were many factors that caused the persecution of the Jews. Not one of them could have initiated the process in isolation. They had to interact and complement one another to make the process work. Hitler was Nazism. Hitler replaced God in Nazi Germany. He was the creator and the center of the state. All authority came from the Fuhrer. Soldiers swore oaths to Hitler, not to Germany; swore their loyalty to the Fuhrer, not to their parents. Hitler had a strong magnetism. He influenced with his charm. Using the example presented by Nazi mass murder, one can surmise a pattern comprising certain factors that leads to genocide: the creation of 'outsiders'; internal strife; powerful leadership with territorial ambitions; and the definition of the scapegoat that must be destroyed. A certain theory of genocide can be formed, which might in turn be useful in preventing other catastrophes. Every example of genocide in the twentieth century seemed to meet these goals. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia had a highly orga­ nized system of genocide. They had a strong leader, Pol Pot, who emerged during a time of great internal strife. They even had an outside group to blame. Russia under Stalin's rule also met these requirements and the result was many deaths. Theirs were regimes driven by the brutality of oppression, an ideology gone haywire, under whose rule millions perished. Most of the victims were clearly innocent, among them countless children. Why can civilized society not put a stop to genocide? Can people not foresee its gaining momentum? An inmate of the Sachsenhausen Lager wrote: 'The worst crime you can commit today against yourself and society is to forget what happened and sink back into indiffer­ ence. It was the indifference of mankind that let it take place.'1 In the Nuremberg Trials and the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, the world learned firsthand about the private thoughts and motivations of former Nazi leaders. Surprisingly enough, these men did not sound as everyone had expected them to. They were not irra­ tional, hateful, psychopathic killers. They were not by their own nature violent and abusive men. In fact, some of them professed that they did not harbor any racial hatred against Jews. The world watched as they told their stories of being involved in, and in charge of, the Nazi killing machine, which took the lives of 6 million Jews; they told their stories without any emotion, feelings of guilt or remorse. As the trials progressed, the world was horrified and astonished at what it heard. Among those being tried were 'a university professor,

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eight lawyers, a dental surgeon, an architect, an art expert, and even a theologian, and a former pastor'? These were honest men with families, religious beliefs, who even had gentle characters.' How could these people have been driven to attempt to exterminate an entire ethnic group of people? How could they have taken part in the mass destruction of European Jews without having totally believed in the cause itself or else having some remorse afterwards? If they did not feel responsible, as part of the killing machine, then who was respon­ sible? Plagued by these questions at the end of the war, the world still asks them today. How could this unspeakable event have happened? Once the former Nazi leaders began talking and allowed their diaries to be read, it became obvious that there was a large discrepancy between the myth and the reality of who they were. They spoke and acted like normal people. In his trial, Eichmann was seen as an ordi­ nary, sane, and psychologically sound human being. He and the men on trial at Nuremberg talked tenderly of their families and factually about their jobs as merely professionals in a time of war. They spoke about the necessity of their actions in helping the war effort. According to the Auschwitz assassin Hoess: 'Himmler had ordered it and had even explained the necessity and I never really gave it much thought to whether it was wrong. It just seemed a necessity.'^ These were 'ordi­ nary people placed in deranged and degrading circumstances'. Yet, even if they were ordinary people, how could that be an excuse for what they did? If normal people can be driven to take part in such extreme actions, what are the circumstances and motivations necessary? Was it a sense of duty, a moral obligation to the state, a question of blind obedience, or out of fear, that they were able to carry out such harsh orders? According to many scholars, philoso­ phers, and psychologists, it was the combination of all these factors that allowed the Nazi leaders as well as their followers to carry out such heinous tasks without remorse or a sense of responsibility. There is always the argument that they did not really know what was happening. Everyone had their own little job, but no one knew the big picture or the ultimate conclusions. Unfortunately for the Nazi leaders, this myth of not knowing was destroyed during the Nuremberg Trials by SS General Bach-Zelewsky, head of the anti­ partisan campaign of the German armies during the war. He insisted on clarifying the matter, and did so by stating: 'I see that people are still saying: Who knew? Nobody wants to be in the position of having known anything ... I talked to hundreds of generals and thousands of officers of all categories, and it is a fact that extermina­ tions began on the first day of the war. This is the truth; anything else is a lie and a euphemism."’ Another argument often made by Nazi leaders was that they had no choice. They were too afraid and already in too deep to get out.

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They did not want to risk their own personal safety and that of their families by speaking out or asking for other assignments. In an inter­ view just before his death, the imprisoned Franz Stangl, former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka, spoke about joining the Nazi Party: 'It wasn't a matter of choosing to stay in our profession. What it had already become, so quickly, was a question of survival'7 He later mentioned how he felt when he first saw the crematories. He discussed it with someone and they agreed: 'We agreed that what they were doing was a crime. We considered deserting - we discussed it for a long time. But how? Where could we go? What about our families?'" Eichmann reacted similarly at the Wannsee conference, when the plans for the Final Solution were first unveiled. He was - he said at his trial - shocked; yet he realized he could do nothing about it. He realized that those plans were law and that anyone who opposed them would be breaking the law. Another often-used argument was that the Nazi leaders felt they had to remain obedient to Hitler and the state. It was their sense of duty to follow orders. Both Eichmann and Stangl admitted that they did not hate the Jews, but were just doing their duty " Hoess spoke similarly by saying: 'You can be sure that it was not always a pleasure to see those mountains of corpses and smell the continual burning ... but 1 naturally had to obey orders.'"’ Obeying such orders functioned in two ways. It played on the Nazi officials' obedience, but it also kept them from feeling ultimately responsible. With the orders coming from somewhere else, the rest of the officials were not ultimately responsible for their own actions." A Nazi official could be seen as 'trying to do his job well, follow the rules, perhaps support his family'.12 They were able to rationalize the evil they caused by feeling that it was not deliberate evil; as if it were almost an accident. Thus, since it was not intended evil, the individual felt free of the responsibility. In addition, if an official carried out his duties well, he could advance. According to Hannah Arendt, the vigor with which Eichman attacked his task was a pathway to advancement. This argument works well in the case of following orders, but how does it explain the sheer brutality that Nazis running camps daily inflicted on the inmates? There are several ways to explain this phenomenon. One could argue that the SS guards 'were the most shiftless, rootless elements of German society'.13 And even if this did not hold true in all cases, their training and the conditions of the camps would all lead to the imminence of such brutality. The dehumaniza­ tion of the Jews also aided the Nazis in being cruel and brutal to them. After all, these were not humans; they were subhumans who were degraded by being denied cleanliness, food, shelter, and clothing. These forms of degradation caused the guards to be disgusted at the sight of the inmates, because the latter were unable to take care of

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themselves. 'As starvation proceeds, the victim's appearance is so dras­ tically altered that by the time death finally releases him, he hardly seems like a human being worth saving.'" In addition, many of the harsh actions of brutality were known to be preceded and followed by large amounts of alcohol to ease the perpetrators' consciences.1’ Vicious brutality was accepted and praised within the Nazi ranks. Thus, it was also the influence of their peers that helped the guards perform cruelties. Their private moralities were discarded to take on the uniform morality of the Nazi mentality. It becomes more easily understood that 'once brutality becomes standard procedure within an institution, it takes on an added legitimacy'.lB According to Heinrich Himmler, cruelty was not scorned as long as it was disci­ plined and systematized'. It is this institutionalization, ingeniously crafted by the Nazis, that ultimately allowed for everything to work. Bureaucrats carried out all of the tasks strictly as bureaucrats, and not as individuals. In legit­ imate institutions, the goals of the organization are already spelled out; thus, individuals do not have to worry about such matters. The bureaucratic structure also functions as a place for individuals to take their questions. If Nazi officials had done this, the structure would have answered them all incorrectly; the relationship between the rules and commands of an organization and an individual's actions takes away the idea of personal responsibility.17 Thus, the bureau­ cracy allowed for the individual's irresponsibility of his or her actions. The Nazi regime was a perfect example of an efficiently run bureaucracy. 'It was this bureaucratization of evil, the institutional­ ization of murder that marked the Third Reich.'All the way down the hierarchy, people saw the state and the Fuhrer as the authority, and they were obedient to both, regardless of personal feelings. After Kristallnacht, the Nazi bureaucracy decided that they would have to more carefully plan the destruction of the Jews. This new institution­ alized way of handling the Jewish Problem made it possible for so many to take part and not feel the usual remorse or guilt for killing. 'It was only possible to overcome the moral barrier that has in the past prevented the systematic riddance of surplus populations when the project was taken out of the hands of bullies and hoodlums and delegated to bureaucrats.' From then on, it was the 'bureaucratic domination'19 of the Third Reich that ultimately solved the Jewish Problem. Even the bureaucratic language allowed people to ignore their real purposes and hidden meanings. The euphemistic termi­ nology had the Nazi officials so brainwashed and separated from their actions that they could not see otherwise. It was obvious, according to Arendt, that Eichmann could not even speak without using such terminology; that was all he knew.

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This notion of bureaucracy and how it was utilized in the war against the Jews has wider implications for the modern state. It is almost as if the state is able to impose its will on the people, which is exactly what the Third Reich did. Kren and Rappoport argue: 'The modern state may do anything it wishes to those under its control. There is no moral-ethical limit which the state cannot transcend if it wishes to do so, because there is no moral-ethical power higher than the state.'2" Thus, individuals in the Third Reich had roughly the same choices that members of prison camps did. They could either follow the standards and guidelines imposed by the state, or risk the consequences. Psychologically, this system leaves individ­ uals with no moral authority unique to themselves. In Nazi Germany the political power system and the bureaucracy governed individuals' sense of morality; it replaced the notion of an almighty deity.21 Discussion of the state's authority leads to a reiteration of the orig­ inal questions: how did the Holocaust happen and how did those involved rationalize their actions? Nazi officials and scholars have offered lists of reasons and motivations. They were bound by duty, a sense of obedience to the state. They were trapped and afraid of risking their jobs, their own lives, or their families' safety. They were so brainwashed by the bureaucratic jargon and hierarchy that they could not see the actual results or feel responsible for their own actions. They also felt a sense of futility in their resistance. Like the wife of Franz Stangl who said, in protesting, 'It would have made no difference. Not an iota. It all would have gone on just the same as if it and I had never happened.'22 None of these reasons offers enough justification for the system­ atic destruction of six million innocent people. Not even all of them combined make a strong enough argument to excuse the behavior of the Nazi regime during World War Two. These explanations make the situation more understandable, but not excusable. All of those involved were individuals, capable of making their own decisions; having choices and alternatives. Thus, they are responsible for those decisions, their own actions, and the consequences of those actions. It is absurd to think otherwise. If people want to use the excuse that the Nazis were being obedient to the state, then an analysis of the relations between citizens and the modern state is necessary. It is the job of citizens to keep an eye on the activities of the state, especially since the state is supposed to represent the ideas and desires of its citizens. The individual members of the state should question, challenge, and always be vigilant concerning the activities of the state. If not, another tyrannical political system like that of Nazi Germany becomes possible.

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Mrs Stangl's comment about the futility of her resistance shows how much she bought into the state's ideology. It was her job as a citizen to disagree with her government and its activities. She could have questioned the activities of her commandant husband. But she and many others did not see it that way. In a perfect world, people should and would stand up to and resist an ideology as cruel and hateful as that of the Nazis, regardless of the consequences. If everyone resisted the Nazi regime in their own small way, and if enough people had resisted, the course of history might have been different and the destruction of the European Jews might have been avoided, if not altogether, then for the most part. Perhaps this is where the lessons of that dark period lie. The creation of a newly aware citizenry, not afraid to stand up to the state and disagree with its policies; a world community that will not turn its head when hearing of atrocities and human rights violations taking place in another country; an idea of being responsible for one's own actions and their results; and the awareness of the needs and possible problems of minorities; they can all be learned from those horrible experiences. If people keep these lessons in mind, there cannot be a recurrence of such events. But, if the individual chooses to follow the instincts of nature and self-preservation, then where does God come in, and how does the individual respond to the call of divine justice? Unless philosophically inclined, people are generally content to take life as it comes when things are going moderately well. They block out thoughts that question the reason for our existence. In times of trouble, however, these thoughts and questions invade our minds. The more troublesome the times, the harder such questions are forced into our awareness. But no matter how hard our suffering, it becomes more bearable with the thought that the end is in sight. The only end hard to envision is that of death. Only death is absolute, irreversible, and final. Therefore death, when not relieved in our hearts by the thought of an afterlife, becomes the ultimate anxiety and stress. Death is life's ultimate denial and, in some strange way, death is that which gives life its deepest meaning. Whatever people's psychological defenses against death anxiety may have been, they have always broken down in the face of an impending catastrophe. The first such widespread calamity was the Black Death of the Middle Ages that struck the continent of Europe. (Ironically, the Jews were blamed for causing it, in spite of the fact that due to their dietary laws they were spared much of the sickness themselves, though many fell victims to it.) Other catastrophes, such as earthquakes and wars, which continue to cause the deaths of vast numbers of innocent, noncombatant people, have called into ques­ tion the benevolence and wisdom of God, and have somewhat

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shaken people's deep-seated beliefs. In ancient times, such calamities were considered the wrath of God, signaling to people the need to reform their behavior. All that has changed. Present society's extensive knowledge of the natural world has provided people with the resources and the ability to control, to a great extent, the effects of disasters such as earthquakes and disease. But at the same time as people have obtained the knowl­ edge with which to minimize the impact of such disasters, they have developed systems with which to create even more suffering and death. Social and technological advancements, which were meant to bring about greater security and well-being, were used by assassins in the camps to murder millions more efficiently than most natural disasters, and they did it in absolute anonymity. It is when people realize that the catastrophe in which they are caught up is man-made, that they are confronted with the fact that God may not be playing as substantial a role in their actions as they believed. This can make it difficult to ascribe some deeper meaning to those tragic events; something which may have aided those who suffered. It is most harmful to people when the beliefs which gave direction to their lives turn out to be unreliable, when all the defenses they have built up are shattered, leaving them naked and helpless to their fate; a fate they did not choose. It is in such a situation that an individual's personality is subject to complete demoralization, leaving one with nothing of the former self. It is such an experience that the Jews of Europe were put through during the execution of Hitler's Final Solution. It was not only the trauma of the camps that had long-term effects on the victims. The initial psychological shock of unlawful incarcera­ tion and being deprived of their civil rights can be considered separate from the shock of actually arriving at the camp. When taken into custody, the prisoners were not deliberately mistreated. All this changed radically when the prisoners were handed over to the Gestapo to be transported, resettled, as the euphemism had it. As soon as their status changed from police to Gestapo prisoners, they were subjected to severe physical abuse. Thus the transportation to the Lager and the 'initiation' into it were often the first torture that the prisoner had ever experienced; it was, as a rule, physically and psychologically the worst torture to which the majority of inmates were ever exposed. The Gestapo, incidentally, called the initial torture the prisoner's 'welcome' to the Lager. Not only during transportation but also through all the time spent in the camp, prisoners had to convince themselves that this was real and not just a nightmare. They were never completely successful.

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As I say: 'we were not individuals, we were not human beings, we were just robots where we happened to eat and we happened to do things. And they kept us, we had a function ... Now if the function was not good, we don't need you, [we] destroy you ... It is hard really to tell what a feeling that is. You are not an individual. You think you are right, you know all the answers, and you try to find logic and things like that do not exist at all. It is one purpose there: that is, to kill the people, so that's the purpose there. So all the logic doesn't apply there. It is really hard to explain that, to have this feeling. It is easy to tell, but the feeling is very hard really to bring over somebody that understands it, what it really means.11

'Murderers can only kill; they do not have the power to rob us of the wish to live nor of the ability to fight for life.'24 This statement may be true, but finding the will and strength to carry on is hard when you think there's no one else out there for you; neither God nor human. This was the case for those who were imprisoned in the Nazi Lagers. Neither God nor the free world responded to the victims' pleas for relief. It was this knowledge which made camp life all the more unbearable because it contributed to the breakdown of many people's hopes and prayers for a future. Without hope, you have nothing. The majority of prisoners who had been inside the Lagers for an extended period of time could no longer envisage themselves living outside the camp, making free decisions, or taking care of themselves or their families. A political prisoner halfway through the war exemplified the dete­ rioration of the person and the will to live. He told fellow inmates that in his experience no one could survive as he had done for more than six years; at that point he could be considered a completely different person than he had been when he entered. He declared that as far as he was concerned there was no reason to live once 'real life' had ceased to exist. He refused to develop the characteristics he saw develop in those who had been there that long. He decided to commit suicide on the sixth anniversary of his being brought into the camp. Despite supervision by his fellow inmates, he succeeded.25 It was the combination of all the deprivations that led to such desperation; the absence of moral, ethical, and religious sustenance. Once within the realm of terror inside the Lagers any and all respect for one's fellow man was blown out of the window; the omniscience of God was continuously questioned. Inmates were subjected to treatment that had never been heard of before. Animals were treated better. It wasn't just a matter of the Nazis threatening the prisoners' lives; it was a process of reducing them to the lowest form of life possible. Respect, humanity, divine justice, and common decency were nonexistent words in the Nazi vocabulary. Making the

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prisoners feel and act less than human destroyed all traces of dignity in them. Those who were able to survive had to use every ounce of willpower and pretrauma recall of better days not to carry this message with them daily. This legacy of suffering affected almost every aspect of a survivor's existence from that moment on. A question one might ask at this point is: if God is all-powerful and all-good, why does evil exist?' This question has vexed western religious tradition for centuries. Is it rational to believe in an allknowing God in the light of prolonged human suffering and killing? A man once wrote after the death of his 14-year-old son, who had lost a battle to progeria: 'I can worship a God who hates suffering, but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die.' The silence of God during the fateful days of Nazi persecution still challenges God's goodness and omnipotence. Billy Graham once said: 'We may not fully under­ stand why God - who is all-powerful and loving - permits evil in this world. But whatever else we may say, it must be stressed that man, not God, is guilty for the evil of the world. It is man that bears the responsibility, because man was given the ability to make free moral choices, and he chose deliberately to disobey God.'"6 Question: Why do people wish to inflict pain and suffering on other human beings? How can this be morally acceptable? To answer these questions, one should first define the word moral, consider the historical perception of the Jewish community, and contrast the methodology of Adolf Hitler and his followers with approaches generally accepted by western religions. The dictionary defines moral as 'of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior'. Clearly, this definition can be taken one step further in adding that one's peers can judge one's actions. In other words, if one's actions are not 'publicly' denounced or rejected, then it may appear that they are morally acceptable. In western cultures, religion condemns those acts that are not morally acceptable. For example, the taking of human life is deemed to be immoral in most circumstances. Furthermore, it is believed that all people should be treated with equal reverence. With the beginning of the diaspora, the Jewish community in exile lived in separation from its host surroundings, since its exclusive reli­ gious concepts and commitments kept it apart from its neighbors. It paid for this exclusiveness by incurring misconceptions and hatred in the host countries. Christians tolerated the existence of the Jewish minority among them on condition that, politically and socially, the Jews remained on the level of the pariah. They submitted outwardly to Christian dominance, but maintained at the same time a kind of

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mental reservation against its validity and awaited its termination. 'Under the wings of such ideologies, Jews could continue a precarious existence, fulfilling a sometimes not unimportant, but never highly regarded, economic role.'27 They were never permitted to transcend the status of strangers who could be dispensed with, expelled, or physically destroyed. The perennial role as an outcast gave the Jew the image of an almost inhuman being, an image reflected in the connotations of the name Jew in all European languages. The primary role of modern anti-Jewish theories, consequently, was not so much to create an increased animosity against Jews, but to impede the recession of inherited emotions, distortions, and prej­ udices. Once preserved under the cover of modern ideologies, however, anti-Jewish bias and passion tended to become more radical than in the original theological setting. In fact, some clerics, like Martin Luther in Germany, spoke openly about Jewish expatria­ tion and extermination. Ironically, the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe was the action of a western, Christian nation whose people were educated in the rational spirit of the modern world. One would wish to assume that, as part of the western world, Germany was moving essentially in a sane, morally progressive path. Thus, the explanations one might offer for the Holocaust would be in terms of demonstrating just howfar outside the mainstream of western history this event really lies. 'The common story thread of explanation might be condensed as follows: A widespread decay in German morality caused by socioeco­ nomic stress permitted a psychopath and his henchmen to trample freely over law, conscience, and innate goodness.'2" The thinking evidenced here is that something had to have gone wrong with society for the death camps to have been in operation - a breakdown in morality, economy, law or rationality. After all, how could such an atrocity take place in a stable society? Clearly, people were trying to secure their own well-being at the expense of others. Rational human beings began acting as irrational animals. A nation embraced its leader's obsessive nature, dedicated to one all-embracing ideology, which promulgated the destruction of 'surplus' minorities, with particular emphasis on European Jewry. Implicit in this perspective is the idea that if all the institutionally supported values had been intact in 1933, a holocaust might never have occurred. What emerges from this are the conceptions of the Holocaust in terms of individual and group psychopathology, uncritical obedience to authority, and antiJewish feelings. The horror, depravity, hatred, and insanity of Hitler and his henchmen are accentuated therein. 'This general approach presents the Holocaust as a kind of morality play justifying the ideals of western liberal democracy by showing what can happen when madmen gain power and racism is allowed to prevail.'2” Therefore, not

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only can the problem of Nazism and the Final Solution be explained via this methodology, but also liberal, enlightened democracy is made the benefactor of the explanation. Who then is to be blamed for the Holocaust, humans or God? The evil that existed in the time before and during the Holocaust was not God's will - rather it was man attempting to play God. The evil disposition of man cannot be blamed on God but rather on man himself. It was not God's will to have people suffer and die. Society itself must bear the responsibility for the Holocaust, and society must never forget it! The destruction of over 6 million Jews, based solely on their ethnicity, brings forth questions regarding the God and man relation­ ship. One of the most important arenas of this debate is within the Jewish and Christian religious communities. As Rubenstein and Roth wrote: 'The Holocaust was a boundary-crossing event, one of those moments in history which changes everything before and after, even if the substance and direction of the change take time to dawn on human consciousness.'11 One of the ways this human consciousness changed appears in the manner theologians and survivors of the Holocaust think about God's nature and also of God's very existence. A somewhat logical assumption might be that survivors would react theologically to the Holocaust by denying God's existence. Some survivors might feel such embitterment toward a God whom they so trusted - who failed them in their darkest hour - that they would turn away from Him. Others might conclude that God could not possibly exist, since no suffering of the magnitude of the Holocaust could possibly happen if God were a reality. Both of these rejections of God are legitimate emotions that deserve examination. Atheism that stems from turning away from God does not constitute a denial that God ever existed, but rather a feeling that God is now dead or at least has abandoned humankind and no longer deserves adoration. This conclusion could be drawn from both a Christian and a Jewish standpoint. Both traditions hold that God loves the people who worship within the faith. Humankind, by nature, equates God's love with the human form of love; the difference between divine and human love stems from God's ability to love more intensely and powerfully. This love involves a concern for the welfare of the subject that is loved, as well as a motivation to help the loved one whenever possible. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians that of all good traits, the most impor­ tant is love. If Paul were speaking for God, then surely God would agree that this trait is important. And if God does indeed find love important, some type of action was required to prevent the suffering that occurred in the Holocaust. A question then clearly arises for theologians as a result of the Holocaust; if God really loves, why did

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this awesome power remain silent during the entire tragedy endured by the Jewish people? Rubenstein and Roth's work gives three interesting responses to this question. One response came from Paul M. van Buren, a Christian theologian. He responded that God did not forsake the Jews. Instead, he argued that God allows people to make their own choices and that God does not intervene in the doings of humans. This feeling was echoed by the majority of Holocaust survivors in a survey conducted by Reeve, Robert and Brenner in the 1970s; the Holocaust,' they stressed, 'was humanity's doing, not God's.' Van Buren writes that God 'requires that we take unqualified responsi­ bility before Him and His history with us.' God, he asserts - as do other theologians of Judeo-Christian persuasion - purposely limited His own power so that humankind could have freedom. Van Buren gives the example of Christ's crucifixion as a way that God sacrificed control so that the world could control its own destiny. But this opinion contradicts the role that both Christians and Jews have cast for their God. Christians broke away from the Jewish faith not because Jesus was crucified but because he allegedly arose from the dead. The intervention of God caused Christians to believe. If van Buren's theory were true, God would not have exercised the power he held to make possible Christ's resurrection. That use of power would be, under Van Buren's definition, 'sacrificing' humankind's self-deter­ mination; according to him, God would never act in such a manner. Jewish theology also negates van Buren's idea of God allowing human beings total freedom and responsibility. God sent locust plagues and famines upon the Egyptians to punish them for bad behavior. Amos 3:2 states 'therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities'. These and other similar Biblical happenings do not indi­ cate God's refusal to intervene in human affairs. While van Buren's ideas may hold some validity in a nondenominational context, Christians and Jews follow their respective beliefs because of some type of divine revelation. Van Buren's theory leaves behind a deep philosophical question. How can a God that loves also be a God that allows self-determina­ tion for the faithful? Love and nonintervention cannot be compatible. This statement appears to be even truer when another image of God is posited: God the parent. This role is one applied to God in both Jewish and Christian doctrine. Any loving parent would save his or her child if the child's salvation were at all possible. If God does indeed fulfill this role of parent, then unnecessary, unfair perse­ cution and wanton murder should never occur. No one who loves could allow the beloved to suffer. Standing by as 6 million people God's children by any definition - die tragic deaths when they could be saved would hardly fill any concept of love that humankind or God holds.

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The contradiction between love and free will is almost impossible to reconcile. Thinking about the Holocaust in this context brings to mind other contradictory roles that humankind places upon God. But unlike a court of law, irreconcilable contradictions do not justify throwing out the entire case. Turning away from God as a result of the Nazi carnage of World War Two would be tragic and painful for theologians as well as survivors. Denying the concept of God, whether the atheist be of Jewish or Christian background, would also trivialize the deaths of the Holocaust victims. The Jews were wrongly persecuted because of their religious tradition. Even nonbelievers were killed because of their religious ancestors. Negating God's existence would be a denial of the importance of Judaism. Because of this need to remember the religion that caused the Jews' death, many Holocaust survivors who now claim to be atheists feel a great amount of guilt over their denial of the existence of God. These survivors, according to some Jewish theologians, must also grapple with the guilt of not carrying on the Jewish tradition. Only a finite number of European Jews survived the Holocaust, and some philosophers feel that these Jews hold the responsibility to carry on their culture's legacy. One wonders, however, about the philoso­ phers' capacity to conceptualize the event, now commonly called the Holocaust (Shoah), as well as the feelings of the survivors, given the fact that they were not subjected to the horrors of everyday life in Nazi Lagers. It is much easier to intellectualize the meaning of life from the perspective of an observer than to try to be logical and forgiving when motivated by a helpless rage built up over the years of unjust suffering and subsequent disillusionment with God and humanity alike. The Holocaust has, alas, over a period of years spawned a multitude of business-minded entrepreneurs and pseu­ doscholars, who exploit its solemnity, subjecting the event to trivialization through wanton relativism (see below). Before any moral obligations can be set for the survivors, some type of resolution must occur concerning the conflict of God's partic­ ipation in the Holocaust. If the survivors are to teach us about God, they must be certain that God is worthy of such teachings and also that they understand the essence of their religion, which they may have the moral obligation to teach. This same refigion and its spiritual leaders have failed them under circumstances of great need. The importance of this conflict cannot be stated strongly enough. If God were not to allow our planet's self-determination, our actions would merely amount to calculated, mechanical motions. We could neither hold responsibility for our sins nor take credit for our actions under these circumstances. All of us would be trudging along a pre­ determined path. Even our decision to believe in a loving God would

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be irrelevant; the decision would not really be ours, but rather one determined for us. But if humankind is allowed self-determination, the question arises whether or not God deserves our adoration. Should we love someone who claims to be our parent, yet allows our species to make mistakes the size of the Holocaust? Humankind should not worship a God who does not hold ideals that are gentle and good. Love and compassion - the Yiddish rachmones - are the essential human elements that allow us to rise above being mere barbarians. If God does not care to use His powers to prevent barbaric behavior, maybe survivors of the Holocaust should not continue teaching the exulta­ tion of such a 'god'. Perhaps this conflict between divine love and human self-deter­ mination stems from the fact that people can only define God in human terms. We assume that God loves in the same manner that people love, because we do not know any other form of loving. Perhaps a justification for continuing the worship of God comes from a realization that the rhetoric of human beings is not the only way of observing the universe. Another type of love could exist of which we, as humans, are unaware. Disillusionment with God occurs when God fails to meet the expectations that the disillusioned person holds for Him. And, if one views God as a complete noninterventionist, one might suggest that God perhaps intervenes but in a nonhumanistic manner. God must have suffered, seeing His children murdered by the Nazis in great numbers, but He most likely suffered in a nonhuman way. The central issue we ought to address is in a similar vein: How can a person continue in good faith after having lived through the Nazi catastrophe? How can a person of any religion who knows what the victims and survivors of Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish Question went through continue to keep the faith? How can anyone smile? It goes further than asking: 'How can He let children starve in Africa?' or 'How can He let people die of cancer?' or 'children suffer the scourge of AIDS?' When we first began to discuss the God that would allow these things to happen, the God that would allow millions of Jews to be exterminated, we tried to look for a reason whyWhy would God allow these things to happen? What could be the purpose? What is He trying to tell us? At first we tried to tell ourselves that God had used the Holocaust as a warning to humankind. He was trying to show us the horror of mass execution, carried out under the orders of a very small minority by a blind following. Also, many of the broad concepts surrounding the Holocaust have a close tie in with what we are headed for, and can look forward to, in the case of a nuclear war. Maybe God was trying to show us the way to avoid the horrors of a future

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catastrophe on an even grander scale? He was making an effort to help us avoid the complete destruction of humankind. Is it possible that He was trying to make a point and open our eyes? But, then, why make a point by eradicating one-third of the population of an ethnic group of people; His 'chosen people?' To find a partial response to this question, let us briefly examine the theodicy contained in the personal memoir of this author: One Bridge to Life. Many authors have devoted their works to theodicies, compelled by God's often puzzling behavior, and they have come up with a variety of possible answers for the justification of the existence of evil. In my work, I, too, search for some answers to this perennial question. I have some suggestions, but before we delve into the issue itself, let us examine the meaning of the word theodicy. First and foremost, theodicy is the mystery of evil and undeserved human suffering. It takes up the issue of 'If God is good, then why does evil exist?' This question is important in any religion that relies on a supremely good God as the basis of their faith; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, for example. Understanding how their God can allow atrocities like those committed against innocent Jews to happen - throughout recorded history and World War Two in partic­ ular - is perhaps the greatest stumbling block for a religious person to overcome. The concept of theodicy dates back to the very beginnings of reli­ gion, expressing itself in ancient texts, such as the biblical Job. In a book of the same name written in the sixteenth century, Gottfried Leibnitz sought to vindicate God against the problems of evil and suffering. He invented the term theodicy by combining the Greek words meaning 'God' and 'vindication'. In its contemporary sense, theodicy is an attempt to solve the problem of why evil exists in a world supposedly created by a supremely good God, and to shed light on the problem posed by the three assertions of theism (the belief that God has power to interact in the world of humans): • an omnipotent God exists • God is good and eliminates evil • evil exists Since all of the above cannot be true, at least one of them must be false. Though few people deny that evil exists, a believer in God must find a solution to this problem. The following are examples of theodicy in One Bridge to Life: During the Passover services, the Jews of the Piotrkow ghetto ask:

'Have we sinned this much, oh God in heaven?' 'Has not Abraham asked that You forgive his children for generations to

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come? It was then You have made a covenant to forgive them and deliver them from their suffering. Have You not made this promise, God? Have You forgotten, oh Merciful One?”1

The questions inquire into the promise God made to redeem the Jewish people of their suffering. While the worshippers feel that God has forgotten them, they do not dismiss the possibility that they deserved the suffering they have received. They ask God to relieve them of their pain, but their prayer goes unanswered. 'They cried unto the heavens, but there was no answer.'32 To many of the Jews, it seemed that God has forgotten them altogether. In the Lagers, 1 questioned God for allowing me to suffer: 'Does God really answer prayers?' I agonized inwardly. I was young in mv faith, and too many unexplained things had happened to me not to question Him. Was there any use in praying? Did God really care what happened to us?'33 It seemed to me that God had no compas­ sion for the suffering of His people, that He had turned away and allowed the evil of the Nazis to overrun my life, that of my brethren, and of my homeland, Poland. Later, on one of the transports towards 'resettlement', my brother Roman and I revealed our frustration towards God and His handling of evil. My distant cousin Menasha told me: 'God never asks too much of His servants.' To this, my brother replied: 'Then, He's amusing Himself at our expense ... Our God seems to have a poor sense of humor.'M Roman believed this, because our allegedly merciful God had not taken the trouble to elim­ inate the evil and undeserved suffering from our young lives. I was unable to understand why my God refused to eradicate the evil of Nazi Germany, as He had done so repeatedly throughout our people's history, exemplified in His deliverance of my ancestors from slavery and certain annihilation in Pharaoh's Egypt.35 The problem of evil was too much for us all to bear and to under­ stand: the war and suffering we had experienced compelled us to abandon our religious convictions. The stoic rabbis counseled passive acceptance of our fate; the selfish ghetto Judenrat delivered the daily quotas to the Gestapo for 'resettlement' to the killing centers, trying to protect themselves and their loved ones, while my loved ones were driven by the billy clubs of the ghetto militia; finally, there was the Lager capo, frequently a Jewish tough guy, who would go to any length in order to impress his Nazi masters. My father, Harry, raised the theodicy question when we met after the war, when he cried, crushed by the severe loss of life suffered bv our family during the Nazi scourge: Men were dying around me, being killed, killing. God was absent. He was also absent when they took your mother to the killing center; and Felusia;

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and as I marched through Europe, fought the Nazis, death and famine everywhere; there was no God. Only men, cruel men, vicious men, killing or being killed.*' My father could not forgive his God for allowing this kind of evil to occur. As the problem of theodicy suggests, one of the three asser­ tions had to give. My father could not deny the existence of evil. Instead, he chose not to believe in an all-merciful, supremely good God, one who would do everything in His power to prevent evil from happening. The God that my father Harry experienced was one who chose to 'look the other way'.’7 How do I respond to evil in One Bridge to Life? The characters in my war story resort to two traditional responses to the problem of evil and the often-incomprehensible will of God. The first one is a running theme throughout the story, an answer that many charac­ ters give as an explanation for God's lack of action. This response is the allegory of Abraham and Isaac. Genesis 22 tells the story of God's command to Abraham to take his only son to the land of Moria and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering. Without questioning why God wishes him to kill his only child, Abraham journeys to the place God has commanded him and prepares to offer up his son to God. Along the way, Isaac notices that his father has not brought any animals for sacrifice and asks: 'The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'*1 Abraham answers him by saying: 'God Himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”* When they reach the mountain, Abraham binds Isaac to the makeshift altar and reaches out with a knife to kill him. At that moment, an angel appears to Abraham and tells him not to kill his only son. And the Lord provides Abraham and Isaac with a ram for sacrifice. The story is a test of faith for Abraham, one he passes by understanding that God has a reason for everything. Because he obeys and is willing to kill his only son out of love for God, the Lord rewards Abraham with blessings and promises to make his offspring 'as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the sea shore'. This response to the suffering experienced by the Jews is the one my brother and I use to answer our father's question of theodicy. We tell him that the Nazi murder of Jews is a test of obedience to the laws of God, and that God did not 'reveal His plans to Abraham until the very last moment of the journey'.*’ We both expected that God would reward our faith and our obedience to Him just as the Lord rewarded Abraham for his devotion. This theodicy comes up as well when the Jews of the ghetto pray to the Lord about His promises to deliver them from suffering. They remind God that He substituted a ram for Isaac, sparing Abraham the loss of his child; for them, however, God

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has not given a replacement for the killing of their children. Still, 1 keep the hope that if I follow in my faith long enough, God will make His plan clear to me and reward me for my perseverance. Not so with my father, Harry. All my arguments fall on deaf ears. 'Too much bloodshed, already,' he says, 'too many dead, and no end in sight.' He laments. 'Why has the Lord taken my little Felusia, the innocent little lamb, for my sins? She had none of her own, did she? Except that she was born of a Jewish mother?'41 His argument is based on a life-and-death reality, and his emotions will not permit him philosophical relativism. The other response to evil that 1 present in the book is the same one God offers Job after his ordeal of undeserved suffering. I ask my grandmother, 'So all this is only a test... Those poor people who died in the bombing; the burnt bodies of the infants ... all that was onlv a sign that God was testing us?'42 My grandmother replies only that 'We are not to question the ways of our Lord.'41 As a test of Job's faith, God allows Satan to take away all of his wealth, kill his children, and inflict terrible sickness on his body. Job's wife as well as his friends tells him he has not sinned, and God is not punishing him for some­ thing he has done. At the same time, Job does not renounce God. He claims that God does not punish innocent people, and that he must have sinned to deserve such torture. His friends encourage him to repent and admit to his sins so that God might forgive him. Yet, Job has not sinned and there is nothing for him to repent. After weeks of suffering, God finally appears to Job in a whirlwind, and Job tells the Lord that he cannot understand anything at all about the ways of God, and there is no way a mere mortal can question the Lord. In a long, poetic narrative, God answers Job by showing him how little he knows about the ways of nature and the Lord; the implication is that God has a higher plan which cannot be worked out in a human generation or lifetime, and it is not our place to question the ways in which the Lord acts. At the end, God rewards Job for his faith by restoring his health and his wealth many times over and granting him many children. Job's questioning is perhaps the first theodicy in recorded history, and his answer is one which many characters in One Bridge to Life accept as valid and many followers of the Judeo-Christian God main­ tain. Of course, God could have had another reason for allowing (or starting?) the Holocaust. As a survivor of the camp at Chelmno states, the Holocaust could have been used to show us (those of us who survived!) how wonderful life is: 'And if you're alive, it's better to smile.' At least in this man's case, he appreciates life. Those of us who survived the Holocaust must be incredibly thankful for a second chance. Flowers must smell sweeter. The sky must be a more beautiful shade of blue. Relaxing in a home must be a luxury once thought un­

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attainable. The Holocaust could have been an extreme example thrown upon humankind to point out what we have to be thankful for. God may have been responsible for our creation, but that is as far as He went. He could have intervened in so many subtle ways, but He did not. The executions continued for years, and in cases where other people could have helped (e.g. bombing the railroad tracks into the camps), no one did. It leads one to conclude that God does not play an active role in people's lives; therefore, we have to depend firstly upon ourselves. Moreover, the murder of so many people by the Nazis means something different to each individual. For some people who survived, it may have reaffirmed and even strengthened their faith in God and His love and power. For others, it may have led them to believe that God is there, but that He is not a very nice God, or at least He's not a God who is active in their daily lives. Others, still, may have found a logical reason and purpose behind the Holocaust. As a survivor of a family of over 50 relatives, I cannot find solace in rationalization of any kind. What is left for me is the confirmation of a pride in my people; for their remarkable show of dignity in facing the assassins; their tolerance for unspeakable pain and suffering; their tenacity of resistance to tyranny. But at the same time, I have moved further from Judaism as an institutionalized religion. My belief that God is with us, yet will leave us alone in time of plenty or in time of need, has been strengthened. I will continue to have a faith in the existence of a supreme being, however I know that I must depend upon myself first and foremost at all times. Likewise, the responsibility for my actions will rest with me. Maybe that was the message of those terrible events? At least it was the clearest message that I had gleaned from my experiences. The attitude of the Jewish people can best be understood by trying to understand their cultural heritage. Grounded in their reli­ gious teachings was a fundamental optimism, which, from a cynical retrospect, seems rather naive: whatever God does is good; all creation is good. There is justice in the world; good is rewarded and evil punished. Whatever happens serves God's purpose, even if that purpose is too complex for people to comprehend. Furthermore, those horrendous years have pointed to the need to emphasize the goodness and decency of those people who were capable of compassion and charity. In doing so, they exposed them­ selves and their loved ones to extreme danger. Without their aid none of us could have survived. By their acts of mercy, they lent meaning to a meaningless period in history. Thus, rather than dwell on those who have chosen the path of evil and a total disregard for human life and dignity, we ought to emphasize the righteous. Let this be my own version of theodicy.

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NOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

Mazian, Why Genocide?, 241. Poliakov, Harvest of Hate, 132. Ibid. Ibid., 210. Sabini and Silver, 'Destroying the Innocent,' 356. Poliakov, Harvest of Hate, 212. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 358. Ibid., 359. Ibid., 139. Poliakov, Harvest of Hate, 210f. Sabini and Silver, 'Destroying the Innocent,' 339. Ibid., 338. Ibid., 334. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 26. Poliakov, Harvest of Hate, 131. Sabini and Silver, 'Destroying the Innocent,' 353. Ibid., 358. Ibid., 330. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 26f. Kren and Rappoport, Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior, 26f. Ibid., 122. Ibid., 361. Langer, Admitting the Holocaust, 178. Bettleheim, Surviving, 103. Ibid., 69. Graham, IPCRL, Moscow, May, 1982. Bauer and Rotenstreich, Holocaust as Historical Experience, 34. Seitz and Thompson-Seitz, The Imperative of Response, 89. Ibid., 88. Kren and Rappoport, Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior, 26f. Samelson, One Bridge to Life, 122. Ibid. Ibid., 189. Ibid., 199. Book of Exodus, 12:2. Samelson, One Bridge to Life, 462. Ibid., 463. Book of Genesis, 22:7. Ibid., 22:9. Samelson, One Bridge to Life, 463. Ibid , 437. Ibid., 34. Ibid.

The Aryan Nations computer network is designed to bring truth and knowledge to our people on the North-American continent, especially those of our Northern cousins who are now chained by Jew Communist KCB 'thought control' police a la George Orwell's 1984 ... You may ask 'Why the computer technology?' The answer is simple, because it is our Aryan tech­ nology just as is the printing press, radio, airplane, auto, etc., etc. We must use our God-given tech­ nology in calling our race back to our Father's Organic Law. (Richard Butler, Aryan Nations leader, in a fundraising appeal to his followers, October 1984)

10

Xenophobia Revisited: The Politics of Hatred and Blame Questions: Can totalitarian forces dominate the future politics of US society? What are the signposts of sociopolitical change? How do we recognize the potential assassins among us?

There exists only one issue - race! Race is the political issue, the moral issue, the war issue, the religious issue, the economic issue, the cultural issue, and the issue of all law. There exists no issue that does not have race as its foun­ dation. (Richard Butler, October 1984)

Neo-Nazism in the United States The journey through life is a constant process of chance and evolu­ tion, touching virtually every aspect of life; evil, however, remains consistent. Its dark forces have been as humanity's shadow throughout recorded history. From Adam and Eve and the 'original sin', through Hitler's mass murders to Stalin and the great purges, evil has been a force with which people must contend. Perhaps the most vivid example of its full potential, of when evil runs amok, is exemplified in Adolf Hitler and the dark forces of his Third Reich.

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Hitler's absolute power over the German people and his intense hatred of the Jews led to the assassination of millions of innocent people. But even as the atrocities of World War Two fade into the pages of history, remnants of the militant, racist National Socialist movement remains. The neo-Nazi organizations in the United States and abroad are growing stronger, both in number and in force, and are becoming increasingly violent. The American public in general knows little about this movement, and even those who do know tend to be rather complacent, dismissing it as just another radical fringe group not really capable of sowing the seeds of mischief. (A similar attitude was held by the Germans of the 1920s and 1930s as Hitler's 'radical fringe group' prepared itself to, literally, take on the world.) It seems clear, through both their rhetoric and their violence, that the neo-Nazis are a potential threat to the American society as we know it and, as their name indicates, intend to follow the path to racial 'purity' established by their late Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, whom they emulate. Leonard Dinnerstein's book Uneasy at Home includes a study by John Higham, who examined American attitudes toward the Jews from 1839 to 1930. Higham concludes: Americans held contradictory views: they both liked and rejected Jews at the same time. Religious and economic stereotypes included the opinions that the Jews were the 'people of the book,' yet they had rejected Jesus; and in the economic sphere, praiseworthy observations about Jewish industry, thrift and business accomplishments were accompanied by beliefs in the Jewish Shylock who exploited others for pecuniary gain. These conclusions remained the standard interpretation for more than a generation.1 Oscar Handin and Richard Hofstader in the 1950s concluded that the seeds of American anti-Judaism lay in the agrarian protest move­ ments of the late nineteenth century. Nationalism was very popular in the US during that time. There was strong public opinion that only native-born Americans deserved to live in America. America was at the height of its isolationism following World War One. The late 1960s brought Arthur Morse's conclusion that Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration had done shockingly little to prevent European Jewry from being murdered during the onslaught of Nazi Germany. Anti-Jewish sentiment reached its peak in America between the years 1930 and 1945. The German-American Bund Association actu­ ally raised up an American Nazi movement complete with uniforms and armbands, brandishing swastikas and other Nazi paraphernalia. American Jews did not attempt to get the immigration quotas increased. It seems they did not want to stir up trouble and end up

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with even more restrictive immigration laws. The American Jewish organizations made the decision to follow a path of restraint and inactivity. The appeasement of the host country mentality was once again at work here. Their planning efforts were all directed at rebuilding after World War Two. There was even some hint that the Jewish Agency in Palestine did not want the numbers of Jews killed by the Nazis released, because then the world would question whether there were enough surviving Jews left to warrant the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Zionists were of the opinion that the European Jews were weak, and public grieving for them was improper. Dinnerstein's own research found that the Jews of the American South had been almost entirely overlooked by historians. These Jews did not want to stand out in society or appear different from other Southerners. The fear and tension that existed caused the Southern Jews to stress 'how happy they were and how they fitted into the communities throughout the region'.2 Dinnerstein concluded that Southern and other American anti-Judaism was much greater during the war than had been previously acknowledged, and that American Jews were much more ambivalent about their status in America than they had ever before been willing to admit.3 As if the horror of the Nazi blight during World War Two was not enough, the shadow of anti-Jewish sentiment lengthened over the American Jewish community. Congressman Hamilton Fish of New York turned his office into a virtual distribution center for anti-Jewish propaganda, replying to critics: 'It doesn't bother me any. There's been too much Jewism [sic] going around anyway.'4 Senators Wheeler and Nye, Congressmen Fish, Day, Thorkelson, and the America First Committee were showered with praise for their efforts to appease the Nazis and keep the US out of the war. America's aviator hero, Charles Lindbergh, was worshipped as the up-andcoming fuhrer. He had this to say about Jews in a September 11,1949 speech:

The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. A few farsighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still does not. The greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government.’ Others made scathing remarks about Jews and Judaism. A few fitting examples of such an expression follow:

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For the Jew, the whole of history is packing bundles and getting awav. (Arthur Miller)

Hitler had the best answers to everything. (Charles Manson) You Jews have created one eternal legend - that of Judas. Qosef Stalin) Stereotypization of the Jew finds its way into theology by way of church hymnals intended for the 'use of children' as exemplified in the seventeenth-century psalmist's verse:

Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace, And not to chance as others do, That I was born of Christian race, And not a heathen or a Jew. (Isaac Wells, 1674-1748) This harmless song 6, entitled 'Praise for the Gospel', when taken out of context might fuel anti-Jewish sentiment, even indignant anger. While anti-Jewish feelings are supposedly on the decline in the US," it is evident that they do still exist. The Ku Klux Klan's outbursts have 'toned down considerably', and 'many anti-Semitic beliefs have become less widespread since 1963', and 'the level of acceptance of Jewish Americans is much greater than that of African Americans or Japanese Americans'.7 The question asked of a Jewish teacher at a junior college in Central Florida, 'Can you be Jewish and an American, too?'," is, however, a further example of anti-Jewish beliefs in the United States. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the extreme right evolved from an unknown 'freak' group into the sophisticated terrorist and racist oper­ ation that we see today. Estimates of its membership vary, but generally run at between 6,000 and 8,000 people." The organization comprises a variety of white neo-Nazi-type supremacists, who believe Mein Kampf is the last book of the Bible.111 George Stout, a Texas neoNazi leader, says that where recruitment and membership are concerned, their prison network is extensive. Tn one Texas prison alone, more than 300 inmates are on the Aryan Nations' mailing list.'" The neo-Nazi movement is made up of several groups that, although spread throughout the country and abroad, are united in a common philosophy. John Rees, author of a newsletter on fringe political groups, maintains, All of the American Nazi groups share a common philosophy. They are all anti-Black, anti-Jewish.'12 As with the Nazi government of the Third Reich, American Nazi groups are highly personality-based, their leaders playing pivotal roles. Richard Butler was the founder of the Aryan Nations and the associated Church of Jesus Christ Christian, the strongest Nazi orga­ nization in the US. He maintained contact with other Nazi leaders,

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such as Louis Beam of Texas, Glenn Miller of North Carolina, George Dietz, an immigrant from Germany and the largest publisher of neoNazi material in the US, as well as emerging Nazi groups abroad.1' The goals of the American neo-Nazis are simple. One Nazi group member testified in court that a major goal of his group, called both the Silent Brotherhood and the Order, was to raise a 'war chest' through robbery and counterfeiting to finance their 'revolution'. An eventual step would be the assassination of important figures in society - which most Jews are considered to be - and traitors to the race. Included as traitors are judges and journalists, on the premise that 'the news media was responsible for indoctrinating our race, poisoning their minds'.14 They ultimately hope to eradicate all Jews and Blacks and claim that the 'extermination of the white race is the goal of our adversaries'.15 The neo-Nazi groups may be small in number, but they are well organized and strong nonetheless. 'There are enough of them to have a certain capacity to spread their venom.'"’ It has been said that even when their membership was low, 'they cast a longer shadow than their substance would have justified'.17 Part of this strength stems from the fact that ties have been formed between the various organizations. These links are mainly ideological, and are based on the violent anti-Jewish beliefs common to all Nazi organizations. A major portion of neo-Nazi ideology is religion, based on Richard Butler's teachings of Identity Theology. The basic premise is that Jesus was an Aryan, not a Jew, that the lost tribes of Israel were the Anglo-Saxon and other Aryan races. The United States is there­ fore the Promised Land, and the Jews should be destroyed as the children of Satan. Wesley Swift, the originator of Identity, prophesied that soon 'There will not be a Jew in the United States - and by that I mean a Jew that will be able to walk or talk.'1" One neo-Nazi leader preaches that Hitler was the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah and, therefore, Mein Kanipf is really the last book of the Bible. The vision of the Apocalypse is also a fundamental idea of Identity, though in varying forms. 'Sometime it's revolution against the evil US govern­ ment, other times it's the Communist menace ... in any case, the troops are making themselves ready.'1" In conjunction with Identity Theology, the neo-Nazis use a book entitled The Turner Diaries as a guide for their actions, particularly those against the Federal Government. The book, written by American neo-Nazi William Pierce, relates a story of an army of white supremacist 'super-patriots' overthrowing a tyrannical American government that had been overrun by Jews, which is followed by nuclear destruction of the State of Israel, thus ushering in a 'Christian paradise'?’ Members of the Silent Brotherhood, also called the Order - apparently after the group in Pierce's book - have

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engaged in numerous illegal activities, including the robbery of an armored car (in the tradition of The Turner Diaries) as well as the murder of a Denver talk-show host.2' Following the ideas developed in The Turner Diaries, the neo-Nazis have shifted their focus slightly. Instead of targeting individual Blacks and Jews as evil, they have begun to focus on groups, the US government in particular. They choose to call it ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government). One member states that 'It's not the Nigger in the alley who's responsible for what's wrong with this country, it's the traitors in Washington'.22 The adoption of this philos­ ophy led to the signing of the Declaration of War on November 25, 1984. It states that the 'Aryan yeomanry is awakening. A longforgotten wind is starting to blow. Do you hear the approaching thunder? It is that of the awakening Saxon. War is upon the land.' The document goes on to claim a territorial imperative consisting of the entire North American continent north of Mexico. It concludes with the following: 'Let friend and foe alike be made aware, this is war!'2' The neo-Nazis have established a points system whereby one achieves status by killing federal officials, Blacks, or Jews.24 Paramilitary training camps have been established for the purpose of training 'troops' in guerrilla warfare techniques. These camps are large and highly organized, with extensive security systems. Approaching the Aryan Nations camp outside of Hayden Lake, Idaho, a large sign warns, 'Whites only.' Armed men with swastika patches in red, white, and blue man the guardhouse at the entrance. The US flag flies alongside the Bonnie Blue and the Nazi swastika. Propaganda found inside the office bears a cover portraying a soldier armed with a golden sword and two bolts of lightning. He wears large black boots and is shown stomping into submission a dragon embossed with a hammer and sickle and the Jewish Star of David.2 Inside the camps are caches of both legal and illegal weapons and what have been described as 'small but efficient' bomb factories.1. For target practice, they use a cut-out figure of a state trooper with a Star of David drawn on his chest. Such blind, intense hatred, and the actions taken as a result of it, are frightening and, unfortunately, both the right-wing radicals and their opponents agree that escalation is a certainty. There is a definite sense of unrest, especially among the young neo-Nazis. The young lions are replacing the older and less active spokesmen for the fold and faith. These Dragons of God have no time for pamphlets or speeches. They are the armed party, which is being born out of the inability of white male youths to be heard.27 A message left on the Aryan Nations' Liberty Net by Midwest leader Robert Miles predicts, 'soon America becomes Ireland recreated'.14 Through their terrorist

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type of activity, the neo-Nazis have a real opportunity to significantly disrupt American society. The assassination of a public figure, or the bombing of ADL offices, would be certain to focus American atten­ tion on the radical right. Somehow, the hatred, violence, and contempt for the law of the neo-Nazi movement must be checked. They have indicated that they fully intend to follow the steps of Adolf Hitler and entirely purge the United States of Jews and Blacks, and that includes the total destruc­ tion of the government. Their plans for revolution may be crude at this point, but the determination and sources of income are there. (I must repeat, this is not a force to be dismissed as just another radical group. One needs only to recall Hitler's rise to power to realize this.) Clearly, there are still differences between Germany in the 1930s and the present US, but with the recurring bouts of terrorism directed toward the US globally, and the generally precarious state of inter­ national affairs as well as a weakening national moral code, the neo-Nazis need only wait for a major division within the country to make their move. It could be virtually anything; a controversial election; another political, Watergate-type scandal; unwarranted and unpopular US military intervention; any action that would divide the American public. The FBI is on the alert. Many states are taking legislative action. Ten states have enacted laws against paramilitary training; 29 have laws against 'malicious harassment of people for racial or reli­ gious reasons'.29 Also, the Aryan Nations Church has lost its state and federal tax exemption. It appears, however, that the government has done almost all that it can do within the limits of the law. If the Federal Government were to pass any legislation restricting the actions of the neo-Nazi groups, it would meet with great opposition on the grounds that it was intruding on the rights of the First Amendment. The FBI investiga­ tions are undoubtedly a good place to start, for without a clear understanding of these threatening forces little can be done to combat their destructive ideas and actions. However, definitive action must be taken soon in order to prevent a swell of Nazi evils. An obvious idea is to try to imprison those individuals involved in group-devised crimes. However, by punishing the small fry within the organizational structure, the government would be creating martyrs for the Nazis to admire and emulate. Such was the situation when the Aryan Nations' leader Richard Butler described Robert Mathews, a common thug who had died in a shoot-out with an FBI agent, as a man of the 'highest idealism and moral character'. Taking into consideration the personalist nature of neo-Nazi groups, a much more practical approach might be to arrest the orga­ nizations' leaders. The crimes of the Nazi groups should be

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approached in the same way as those of organized crime. By allowing the small fry to go free by providing criminal links to their leaders, the law can reach to the heart of the organization. Without their charismatic leadership, group action as well as its membership dwindles. In Wisconsin, for example, the leaders of a neo-Nazi group called the Posse Comitatus were jailed and, as a result, 'Posse head­ quarters there have evolved from a vigilante stronghold into something of a ghost town.'11 Steps to eradicate the neo-Nazi evil must be taken with the greatest of care. If the government reacts too harshly, the groups will take advantage of this and fight even harder against the oppression of the evil, Jew-run, ZOG. The American people respond to nothing faster than limitations of their or their fellow citizen's freedom. By playing upon the image of an inept, corrupt, and generally evil government, the neo-Nazis, as their German-Nazi idols before them, will gain the support of the restless, frustrated, or simply gullible masses. Although the opportunity for an all-out Nazi revolution and government takeover is slim, the propensity for them to gain power through the mainstream political process is not. The fledgling Nazis of the Third Reich eventually abandoned their ideas of revolution and came to power through legal political means and the charisma of Adolf Hitler, their leader. Action, therefore, ought to be taken against the prejudicial harassment of American citizens by neo-Nazis to protect against the eventual oppression of the entire nation. The danger is real, and steps to avert it must be taken with courage and strong determination. With the advent of the computer age, virtually every business, school, agency and organization from the Federal Government to groups of the radical right have begun to rely in varying degrees on computer technology. The American neo-Nazis have, through computer networks, employed this seemingly benign resource to link up like-minded activists across the country and abroad. These operations are the work of Louis Beam, Grand Dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a leader of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations, and George Dietz, the farm broker from West Virginia. Established by Louis Beam, and fully financed by the Aryan Nation Liberty Net, as it is called, is a pro-American, pro-White, anticommunist network of true believers who serve the one and only God Jesus the Christ, and is 'for Aryan patriots only'. The ease with which one gains access to the system is quite surprising. Anyone with a home computer and a modem can reach the neo-Nazi 'bulletin boards' by telephone. Once connected, the user needs only to follow a simple set of direc­ tions to receive a variety of hate messages attacking Jews, other minorities, and the Federal Government. Thus, as Rabbi Avraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center says, 'Lunatic fringe does

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not translate into lack of sophistication ... The Web has given an unprecedented opportunity to the lunatic fringe for racists to market their ideas to young people' (Time, November 24,1997). One of these cyber hatemongers, a National Socialist White People's Party member named 'Wolf', who is based in Toledo, Ohio, is a good example of a youth recruiter. He uses a lot of catchy slogans not unlike the Nazis did in their efforts to attract the disenchanted youth of the 1920s and 1930s - that have an appeal to kids who are having problems at home. He becomes their father figure. They'll go on talking about their schoolwork, their community, whatever is both­ ering them. They are overcome by the fear of being unloved. Then Wolf brings National Socialism into the chat. He says: 'You can find family here.' The rest may become a repeat of history if proper measures are not taken to prevent the further spread of this hate virus. The use of computer technology signifies a new departure for hate groups, and is a distinct and considerable effort on the part of the extreme right to cultivate a new, modern look. In a statement promoting the new system, Aryan Nations' leader Beam called it a 'patriotic brain thrust' and boasted that 'Computers are now bringing their power and capabilities to the neo-Nazi movement'. The neo-Nazis expect the computer network to benefit them in a variety of ways, all of which reflect the hatred and evil upon which their movement is based. Computer technology attracts young computer buffs, providing the neo-Nazis with a means of extending their hate propaganda among the American youth, who are certainly the most vulnerable to its influence and ready for recruitment. Another 'advantage' of the system is its ability to bypass the embargo on the importation of hate literature into some countries, notably Canada. Thirdly, the network stirs up hatred against 'enemies' of the neo-Nazi movement. By displaying the names and addresses of all Anti-Defamation League offices alongside their venomous attacks on Jews, the system's organizers are clearly encouraging acts of hatred and violence. North Carolina Klan leader Glenn Miller reports, 'we have an up-to-date list of many of the Jew headquarters around the country so that you can pay them a friendly visit'. This 'patriotic brain thrust' signifies an effort of the right-wing extremists to adopt a new, modern look. The network also provides the neo-Nazis with another source of income. There is a $5.00 charge for a password to gain entrance to the system. Also, publications of the radical right are advertised through the system. A listing of other 'patriotic' groups is available, including a variety of neo-Nazi and Klan organizations as well as armed racist groups like the Covenant and the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. Groups desiring to be listed and to have their upcoming events announced need only to send in pertinent information, and pay a $5.00 fee.

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The neo-Nazi computer network is well organized and quite extensive. Its planners shrewdly calculate myriad uses for both the present and the future. Bringing computer technology to the radical right strengthens their ties with each other and also expands the range of recipients of their hate messages. Although this new advance in itself may appear minor, it signifies an effort on the part of the neo-Nazis to become larger and stronger, and is certainly a cause for concern. What is frightening about neo-Nazism in the US is that it is growing, and the various factions (KKK, skinheads, white suprema­ cists, etc.) frequently speak of an impending 'race war'. Several factors in the condition of the US recently are aiding in the rapid growth of such groups: The resentment stirred by the LA riots of 1992, a possible downturn of the economy, and a resurgent xeno­ phobia help swell the ranks of the movement. Many people unwisely dismiss these white supremacist groups as uneducated collections of country boys who should not be taken seriously because they cannot gain enough political power to be able to achieve their goal of a 'white America’. First, it is arguable that these groups are more widespread than is realized, and that individuals such as David Duke have proved that Ku Klux Klan members are capable of attaining political power. Second, we are reminded that in the post-World War One years no one in Germany or abroad took seriously the ranting of an obscure former army corporal named Adolf Hitler. He was relegated to the ranks of crackpot and malcontent. The sad truth is that, as pointed out in chapter 2 of this book, aided by postwar nihilism, economic disaster, and fledgling national pride, this political neophyte and his six derelict companions succeeded in elevating their insignificant political party - the NSDAP - to national prominence. Adolf Hitler was catapulted to a position of absolute power as never before attained by one person. At this point, a brief background on the Klan is called for. The Ku Klux Klan is, most likely, the oldest, most persistent terrorist organi­ zation in the world. Six veterans founded it 127 years ago as a social club - an ironic similarity with the NSDAP - of the Civil War. The six educated, wealthy young men were bored, and founded the club near Pulaske, Tennessee. The charter members dressed in the ghost­ like Klan uniforms to frighten Blacks for entertainment at night. In 1867, though, the Klan was reorganized to be a secret army of the white supremacists. The Whites in the South felt that the abolition of slavery and the subsequent laws protecting former slaves were a direct threat to the 'Southern way of life'. The men felt that if the Blacks gained the ballot, it would not be long before they would be equals in the bedroom as well; sleeping with their white women and

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sullying the master race. This fear of race mixing is important because it was one of Hitler's major issues, and it is also a main fear cited by white supremacist groups today. Between the reorganization and 1869, the Klan spread to a dozen states and gained an estimated half-million members. At this time, the Klan targeted such groups as active Republicans, US Army or state militia officers, Northern carpetbaggers, Unionist 'scalawags', and Blacks who signed up to vote or attended school. This first burst of Klan activity was called to a halt in 1869, when the violence, rapes, and lynching got out of control. Before this, the Democratic Party had sheltered members of the Klan, but their activities had become too scandalous to be associated with anymore. For the next 40 years the Klan stayed out of trouble, but local sher­ iffs, White Cap vigilantes, and unorganized lynch mobs murdered many Blacks every year. This inactivity of the Klan did not last, though. In 1915 a pro-KKK movie, Birth of a Nation, sparked its revival. On Thanksgiving Day 1915, William Simmons, a former minister, led a group on a ride up to the peak of a mountain in Atlanta. At the top, they burned a huge cross and pledged their lives in the defense of God, country, and white womanhood as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This night signaled the beginning of the modern Klan. In addition to the targeted groups listed above, the Klan added Jews, Catholics, most immigrants, and labor unions to their list of enemies. Recruiting was unsuccessful until the 1920s, when Simmons decided to organize a formal recruiting team. In less than a year this team recruited 100,000 new members. A 1921 inves­ tigation into the Klan brought excellent publicity, and membership burgeoned to four million members by 1924. Increased immigration in the 1920s, as well as the migration of Blacks northward, led to the Klan becoming a national, rather than Southern, organization. In 1929 it again experienced an abrupt decline, and membership fell to 100,000. The decline was linked to increasing violence, rape, and murder and to Klan leaders who were drunk, immoral, and corrupt. The next revival of the Klan came in 1954 with the civil rights movement. This revival targeted the working-class Whites because the wealthy whites shied away from the Klan, as it was not 'respectable'. Also, the wealthy Whites fought civil rights by putting pressure on their black employees; the poor Whites had no power over the Blacks other than their imagined 'racial superiority. Black homes and schools were the main targets of attacks, but synagogues were increasingly being attacked because the Klan also imagined a 'Jewish conspiracy'. This era of Klan activity is different from others because the hate acts were punished by law in several states, even in Deep South states such as Mississippi. These punishments and

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increasing negative media coverage forced the Klan into a third decline. The final revival of the Klan was lead by David Duke in the 1980s. From this point on, the Klan was no longer one unified national group. Instead, various factions today rise and fall, unite, break apart, and change forms. There are several different Klan groups in America, just as there are radical neo-Nazi groups on the fringe of the white supremacist movement. It was estimated in 1983 that 24 different white supremacist groups were present in the US (as opposed to 18 groups in 1966). In 1992, Klanwatch estimated that 346 groups existed in America.'2 These small groups are harder to iden­ tify, which makes it more difficult for the press and the police to monitor their activities." Tn recent years, the KKK has fractured into something resembling Middle Eastern terrorist cells, each with a different philosophy and personality and each with an enmity toward their fellow Klan members that almost equaled the hatred of their enemies.'" This hatred among members of the Klan is interesting. Here is a group of people who are all fighting to preserve their white culture from minorities by using fear and hate to motivate them and, at the same time, they hate their fellow Klansmen. Former Klansman Larry Trapp said the following about the Klan: 'The Klan pulls a lot of scams on a lot of people, even their own. For years, they have been backstabbing themselves. Not one Klansman or Nazi can really say he actually trusts the other.'" Today, these hate groups have more sophisticated ways of recruiting members than burning crosses on mountaintops. Public Access cable makes it possible to bring messages directly into the living rooms of many households. Tom Metzger, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, was quoted as saying: 'Public access is the only medium in the US that is totally and truly open to people with controversial views that are uncensored.' Metzger is the host of a long-running cable program called Race and Reason, which is aired by Viacom Cable. This is shown in 55 cities around the country. The most frightening aspect here is that Metzger was found guilty in 1991 of inciting his followers to murder a black student in Oregon. It seems odd to reward a murderer with his own television program to spread his ideas all over the country. Several communities have voiced their displeasure with this program. The Los Angeles Times had the following to say about Metzger's program: 'This is hate TV. Racial slurs are commonplace, the suggestion that Asians and other minori­ ties should be stopped at the border is routine, and the allegations that Jews run the country is frequent.'" It would be one situation if these groups were targeting adults who are mature enough to make their own decisions as to what is right and

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wrong, but it is much worse that the Klan targets youth. Various white supremacist youth corps recruit children between 10 and 17 years old. These children are lured into the Klan by the mystery and excitement, which comes with secret identities, and late night rides. The Klan can make them feel special by telling them that they are members of a master race. The Klan also exploits racial tension that already exists in schools. Leaflets distributed in schools in 1981 asked white children, 'Are you "fed up to here" with Black, Chicano, and "Yang" criminals who break into lockers and steal your clothes and wallets?'17 These youth corps encourage white children to use violent means to protect themselves against nonwhites; they even offer weapon training. In 1980, 12 to 30 Explorer Scouts and Civil Air Patrol Cadets spent the summer at a KKK 'survival' camp. At this camp in Texas, the children learned how to handle guns, and how to strangle and decap­ itate people.18 This focus on the youth is frightening because it instills hate and violence in yet another generation of American children, and it is reminiscent of the Hitler Youth groups within the Third Reich. David Cullen, in a website news feature, reported on the September 23, 1999, shooting spree of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado:

It [Harris' diary] opens with a manifesto, and culminates in his proposal for a 'final solution.’ [It] set the tone for his so-called diary with his opening words: 'I hate the fucking world.' Only later does he reveal what he intends to do with this hate. 'If you recall your history,' a later entry reads, 'the Nazis came up with a "final solution" to the Jewish problem: kill them all. Well in case you haven't figured it out yet, I say "kill mankind." No one should survive.' And later he adds: 'I would love to kill almost all of its residents.' The language these youths use in reference to their targeted hits resonates a familiar tone of vulgarity reminiscent of Nazi par­ lance in their relation to their victims: After I mow down a whole area full of you snotty ass rich mother-fucker high strung Godlike-attitude-having worthless pieces of shit whores, I don't care if I live or die,' reads another entry. True to the Nazi legacy, it concludes: 'We hate niggers, spicks ... and let's not forget you white POS [pieces of shit] also. We hate you.' Their hatred was boundless and often ludicrous. They were equal-opportunity haters, railing against minorities and whites, praising Hitler's 'final solution' and then threatening 'destruction and revenge.' (www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/23/columbine/index. html). New laws are making it harder to punish hate groups for the crimes that they commit. In 1992 the Supreme Court struck down a

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St Paul ordinance to protect free speech. This ordinance prohibited 'Speech or behavior likely to arouse anger or alarm on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, or gender'." The incident which precipi­ tated this change was a cross-burning on the front lawn of a black family. The decision has led to predictions that hate crimes will be harder to prosecute. Many are pessimistic in regard to what the Klan is planning in the near future. One member of Klanwatch says, 'I'm convinced in my heart that we're going to see big, dark days before it gets any better.'411 Author Robert Trapp also sees increased action on the horizon: 'They're going to act, and I think it's going to be very soon. I think what they're going to do is get into smaller terrorist groups, and there's going to be a lot of terrorist acts.'41 Tom Burghardt's exhaustive article on the website regarding Louis Beam's 'Leaderless Resistance' text from Cyberspace Minuteman BBS as a model for the bombing of Oklahoma City's Government Building by Timothy McVeigh on April 23, 1995, presents an inter­ esting study in terrorism. One hundred and fifty persons were killed in this incident and many severely injured. Utilizing the Leaderless Resistance concept, all individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and never report to a central head­ quarters or single leader for direction or instruction ... parricipants in a program of Leaderless Resistance through Phantom Cell or individual action must know exactly what they are doing, and exactly i tow to do it. Further: THE FUNDAMENTAL RULE GUIDING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FREE MILITIA IS GENERAL­

IZED PRINCIPLES AND PLANNING BUT DECENTRALIZED TACTICS AND ACTION.

'The Oklahoma bombing was almost a textbook case of what Aryan Nations/KKK leader, Louis Beam has termed "leaderless resistance." While we are appalled and horrified by the terrifying loss of life, it was only a matter of when, not IF, the violent fascist underground would resort to car or truck bomb tactics,' says Trapp. 'Louis Beam's "leader­ less resistance" or "phantom cell" tactic is but one of a constellation of methodologies used by fascism to achieve political goals.' Reminiscent of the 1939 'Christian Mobilizer' of allegedly patriotic content, which railed against the US's entry into the World War Two conflict (Carlson, Under Cover, p.81), the massacre in Oklahoma City did not emerge from a political vacuum. The Christian Patriot move­ ment in general, and individual militia units in particular, have circulated training manuals that rely almost exclusively on a cell­ structure organizing model, termed 'leaderless resistance' by Louis Beam. One fact is certain. Tens of thousands of 'angry white guys'

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have taken it upon themselves to restore 'the Crown Rights of King Jesus' by any means necessary. The origins of the contemporary Christian Patriot and Militia Movement are racist and fascist to the core. The Michigan Militia was founded in April 1994. The key figures in the organization are the Revd Norman Olsen, a Baptist minister, and ex-military man and intelligence specialist, Mark Koernke. When asked by reporters whether McVeigh or Terry Lynn Nichols, who surrendered to federal authorities in Herington, Kansas, or his brother, James Douglas Nichols, had any involvement with the Michigan Militia, 'Commander' Olsen said: 'Not that we know of... We denounce the entire incident as an act of barbarity. It's totally alien to everything we believe. We are totally defensive. We do not engage in terrorism. We do not believe in answering the tyrant brutality with more brutality' (Robert D. McFadden, 'Links in Blast: Armed "Militia" And a Key Date,' New York Times, April 22, 1995, p. 1).

Anti-Jewish feelings in the United States Michael Curtis, in Midstream, writes that anti-Semitism, though a universal phenomenon, has been tempered in the United States by the nature of our society. These social, economic, and political traits include:

The fluid, pluralistic society with its opportunities for social and geographic mobility, the ability to participate in political activity, the nature of political parties as broad coalitions in which ethnic groups could compete and also be mutually protected, constitutional protection of civil rights in most cases, the competitive economic system, the decentralized congregational structure permitting different expressions of the Jewish faith.42

(Anti-Jewish feelings had been demonstrated however, most notably by General Grant in December 1863 expelling Jews from the Civil War border states, the Leo Frank lynching in 1912, and Henry Ford's anti-Semitic polemics of the 1920s, plus his overt admiration for the Fuhrer.) Jews in the United States make up only 2.5 percent of the total population and are declining. However, they occupy 11 percent of the 'elite sectors' of society. Eighty-five percent of Jews attend college and 30 percent of all elite university faculty are Jewish, as are one-third of all United States Nobel Prize winners. American Jews are also concen­ trated in major metropolitan areas. Why has the American population not reacted more negatively to this 'visible, successful minority?'41 Overt anti-Semitism, according to Curtis, is not respectable in United States society. Memory of the Nazi excesses, the moderate

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political climate, the absence of dissatisfaction - thus far - with the socioeconomic system, the decline of Christian orthodoxy, and a steady growth of the US economy have all further served to temper anti-Jewish feelings. Most anti-Semitism 'stems from a wide diversity of right-wing hate groups, small in size, essentially anti-democratic and estranged from political and social reality, from Neo-Nazi orga­ nizations ... and from small Ku Klux Klan bodies'.*4 These groups share overlapping beliefs in their hostility to government, enmity to Jews and nonwhites, belief that Jewish interests control the media, government and financial institutions, and Christian concepts. According to Curtis, they are involved in 'some' electoral activity and are increasingly using high technology to sell their message. Jerome A. Chanes looks at the Iran-Contra affair, the indictments of Ivan Boesky and Michael Milliken, and the Pollard Spy case and is more impressed with what did not happen. These events each could have triggered anti-Semitic reactions. He concludes, though, At a certain stage of serious social decontrol, or of a breakdown in societal constraints, there could be an increase - perhaps a serious increase of anti-Semitic expression.'45 Before we examine how these paradigms about the low rate of United States anti-Semitism relate to David Duke, let us examine recent (1980s) Republican Party politics. A few disconcerting 'danger signs' have emerged recently at the national level. The National Republican Heritage Groups Council, considered an 'auxiliary' Republican group, assisted former presi­ dent George Bush's advisor, the late Lee Atwater, in 1988. Three aging East European fascists served on this council, two of whom were forced to resign after their pasts were exposed in the Washington Jewish Week. Florian Galdau was a Romanian Orthodox priest linked to the Romanian fascist Iron Guard. Radi Slavoff served in the fascist Bulgarian National Front. Walter Melianovich served in a Byelorussian SS unit.4* President George Bush I has also spoken before a group, which calls itself the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, calling this group 'vital'. Laszlo Pastor, a Hungarian Nazi, was, at the time, one of the vice-presidents of this group and also the founder of the Republican Heritage Groups Council. The 1988 Bush presidential campaign also played off racial fears in what some commentators have termed Atwaterism'. It had 'a clev­ erly packaged racial appeal with a rhetorical escape hatch' and 'fear-mongering campaign tactics'.47 The use of Willie Horton, a black man who was furloughed from jail and murdered a white woman, as a campaign issue was a prime example of this. Atwater claimed that the issue was about 'a flawed furlough program', not about 'a flawed man'. (David Duke used a somewhat similar approach in saying that

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his recommendation to sterilize the poor indicated no animus towards Blacks.) The anti-Semitism of presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan has also became an issue during the presidential campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s. Buchanan served as communications director for Ronald Reagan and served in the White House of two other Republican pres­ idents. Jacob Weisberg writes that Buchanan's worldview is 'deeply disturbing' and 'His instincts are powerfully authoritarian and anti­ democratic.'*1 In 1977, this Republican just recently out of the halls of political power - nevertheless, a significant influence on recent radio and TV talk shows - wrote that Adolf Hitler was 'an individual of great courage, a soldier's soldier in the Great War, a political orga­ nizer of the first rank, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him'.■,‘, Almost as an afterthought, Buchanan added, 'Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic.' While the National Republican Party has bent over backwards to distance itself from David Duke and in no way overtly promotes his program, there appears to be some connection between the emer­ gence of this new racial politics and the more subtle Republican manipulation of symbols. The Republican Party has cultivated the white Southern vote by using images of fear buried deep in the Southern psyche. Former Presidents Reagan and George Bush 1 have opened an era in which it is slightly easier to be anti-Semitic through the inclusion of aging fascists and the Reagan visit to an SS cemetery in Bitburg, Germany. Larry Cohler writes, Tn many ways, [Duke] appears to be the fruit of the GOP's strategy of attracting white southern support through the use of racially loaded images and euphemisms.'5" Thus, it appears that a major US political party has inadvertently pushed the United States closer to a culture in which anti-Semitism and racism are acceptable. The United States of America is a young culture still searching for an identity. Politicians have used racism for short-term political gain, even if it is only subtle toleration of such racism. David Duke has emerged from the ashes with a new, more overt racism. Louisiana has undergone tremendous financial dislocation. Governor Roemer told one reporter, 'There is no question about where we are - we are in trouble.'51 The state suffers rampant pollu­ tion, intense racial division, the highest unemployment in the United States (12%), and one of the lowest per capita incomes. Louisiana demonstrates once again that tolerance decreases when times get tough. The situation in the state does not, however, approach the prewar depression of Germany. If serious economic or social disloca­ tion were to strike, Louisiana points to what waits just under the surface of our supposedly moderate political environment.

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The conditions which Curtis and Chanes lay out as responsible for the lack of intense anti-Semitism in the United States are not perma­ nent. Indeed, the true test of a society occurs during the worst of times. The United States may buckle, as it did in interning Japanese Americans during World War Two. Christian orthodoxy is on the rise, our collective memory of the Holocaust is fading, and with an approaching $5 trillion national debt, governmental mismanagement and bureaucratic ineptness cannot be far behind. With David Duke, one is reminded of the threat Adolf Hitler posed to the Weimar Republic after the abortive Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Most observers did not take his band of social outcasts seri­ ously. In ten years they were in control of the state. While the United States of America has proven resilient to extremist threats from both the right and the left, we should not overlook the possible future of David Duke or someone of his ilk. We would be wise to heed the words of Louisiana State Senator Kip Holden, Anyone who underes­ timates him is a fool.'52 In February 1989 Republican David Earnest Duke was sworn in as a member of the Legislature of the State of Louisiana. Security in Baton Rouge was extremely tight and state troopers searched everyone entering the House of Representatives. Reporters filled the press area. The man to whom the oath of state office had been administered was not a typical legislator. David Duke had been the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and was President of the National Association for the Advancement of White People. The people of Metairie, an almost all-white suburb of New Orleans, either did not hold Duke's affiliations against him or actually approved of them. Only a year later, in October 1990, Duke ran to represent Louisiana in the United States Senate. After a campaign which attracted national attention, he was narrowly defeated as 44 percent of the voters cast their ballots for him. Duke subsequently ran for Governor of Louisiana against the Democratic incumbent Buddy Roemer and former Governor Edward Edwins; a campaign he narrowly lost. What does the election of Duke to the Louisiana House of Representatives and the surprising support he rallied in his run for the US Senate tell us about anti-Semitism and racism in the United States? Was this groundswell of support for a former Klansman related solely to the Atwater strategy of the Republican Party? The future direction of the United States may be tied to the message voters are sending from Louisiana. Let us examine the background and history of David Duke, anti-Semitism in America, the condition of Louisiana in 1989, and the relationship of the Duke phenomenon to US politics, as we seek to answer painful questions about the state of our nation.

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A recently published biography of David Duke by Michael Zatarin states that David Duke can trace his roots back to John Walker and the arrival of the Mayflower. John Duke, his great-great-grandfather, arrived in the United States from Scotland in 1820. The family fought on the Union side in the Civil War and remained staunch Republicans through the Great Depression of the 1930s.51 His family life was troubled. His father, David Hedger Duke, worked for Shell Oil and was called up for military service in World War Two. His father had fallen 'in love with the military' while in college at the University of Kansas in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of major in the army. In 1954, David Earnest Duke was born in Oklahoma. Dorothy 'Dottie' Duke had been born nine years earlier, in Seattle. Now working for Shell Oil again, David Hedger Duke relo­ cated his family to the Hague to take a position in the corporate headquarters of Shell, but settled in New Orleans only one year later, where David Duke was raised. David Duke's father was a stern, conservative, and distant mili­ tary man. His mother became an alcoholic; she was 'withdrawing from her family much of the time'.51 Young David played outside most of the day. Dottie wrote of this period, T wanted just one time to come home from school and find my mom ... waiting for me.'55 His father took the two children to church every Sunday, though he would change churches each time he disagreed with a 'liberal' minister. David did well in school. He was a prodigy of sorts, writing a paper at 14 against integration. In middle school, he would take the bus downtown to visit with members of the White Citizens Council, a pro-segregation group he discovered of his own accord. However, it was at Louisiana State University, which he entered in 1968, that David Duke made his 'political' debut. While in high school in 1967, he had joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This was a turbulent time in the United States - the civil rights movement was progressing, the Vietnam War (which Duke's father volunteered to serve in) was raging, as were protests against it, and many students were becoming involved with psychedelic drug use. Duke reacted by delving into anti-Semitism. 'The news media, in his mind, was controlled by Jews and was soft on communism.' ’'’ The leadership of Students for a Democratic Society and other leftist groups were Jewish. To his father in Vietnam, Duke wrote, 'those who want to stab the American soldier in the back in Vietnam invariably appear Jewish - such as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin ... the Russian Revolution was nothing more than the capture of Russia by the Jews'.57 Duke's campaign for the House seat in Louisiana attracted national attention. The archbishop of Louisiana, after first seeming to

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condemn Duke, later wrote: 'At no time have 1 stated, either verbally or in writing, that I support either of the candidates.'’* Newsweek and Time carried stories about the campaign between Treen and Duke. Mordechai Levi, a rabbi who headed the Jewish Defense Organization, flew into New Orleans and spoke against Duke. Even President Bush and former President Reagan became involved and endorsed Duke's opponent, John Treen. What did Duke campaign on? He released an 11-point program which included no new taxes, the maintenance of the property tax exemption in Louisiana, getting tough on criminals, protection of the highly polluted state environment, a voucher system in education, and the right to bear arms. However, his platform contained a number of unusual points. Duke wanted to eliminate minority setaside programs, end affirmative action, end welfare, and 'reduce the illegitimate welfare birthrate'.5* In October, Duke won by 12J votes out of a total of over 16,000 votes cast. He was relegated to a special seat in the rear of the House of Representatives, but Larry Cohler of the New Republic wrote that Louisiana's Republicans had reacted to Duke with either tactical silence or outright endorsement. The Duke House staff included Patricia Katson, who formerly worked for the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. In March 1989, Duke attended a far-right Populist Party convention in Chicago and shared the stage with Art Jones, a leader of the neo-Nazis. Tn May Duke was found to be selling a wide collec­ tion of neo-Nazi books out of his state-funded district constituents office, including Hitler's Mein Kampf and Did Six Million Die? The Truth at Last."*' William Nungesser, the head of the Louisiana Republican Party, would not censure Duke, as the National Republican Party has, because he feared it would only provide him with further publicity. House Republican delegation chair 'Peppi' Bruneau has taken Duke on as protege and has helped him craft bills. The Louisiana State Legislature quickly proved too small for Duke's ambitions, though. By July 1990, Duke had declared his inten­ tion to run for the open Louisiana United States Senate seat. US News and World Report described his race for this esteemed body as strong'. The electoral system in Louisiana includes a nonpartisan open primary in which the top two candidates, if one fails to receive over 50 percent of the vote, run against each other. One author wrote that Duke was 'eschewing direct racial slurs' and that 'crowds all over Louisiana were greeting him like a rock-star'?1 At the beginning of October, Duke was running second in the polls, behind the Democratic incumbent J. Bennett Johnston but ahead of Republican Ben Bagert, Jr. Somewhat extraordinarily, on October 4, two days before the primary, Bagert withdrew from the election and endorsed Democrat

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Johnston. The Republican National Committee feared that Bagert might force Johnston and Duke into a run-off in November, and that 'would prove a serious liability to the party nationally'."2 Eight Republican Senators even wrote an open letter to the people of Louisiana encouraging them to vote for Johnston. However, the Duke campaign merely stepped up the rhetoric by accusing the 'Washington' insiders of uniting against him. 'The fix is on, and people won't buy it,' said Mark Ellis, a spokesman for Mr Duke."' The Mason-Dixon opinion poll the evening before the election showed Johnston with 53 percent and Duke with only 26 percent. David Duke again surprised the nation, but he did not win. He received 44 percent of the vote to Johnston's 54 percent. Peter Applebome wrote, 'the large showing for Mr. Duke invigorated his political career, but also highlighted his ability to build a national political profile on the back of an almost unbroken record of losing races'.64 A few comments of voters who supported Duke for the Senate show the emotions he is capable of bringing forth. One college-age voter told a reporter, 'You give [Blacks] an inch, and they take a mile. They should be back in chains.' A Republican woman said, 'The reason [national politicians] fear Duke so much is because he is shaking the power structure of this nation. I am so furious I could kill the Democrats myself.'"'' National Review, a right-wing magazine, wrote, 'Duke is running on a perfectly legitimate program of skepti­ cism about affirmative action and Great Society-style welfare ... the kinder, gentler GOP mainstream has let [these issues] slip out of its arsenal.'""

Duke: a Hitler clone David Duke is probably the most famous Klansman ever, due to the enormous amount of publicity he gained by being elected into the Louisiana State Legislature, running for the US Senate, and being a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Despite the fact that he was involved in a neo-Nazi party while he was in college, and was a former Grand Dragon of the KKK, Duke still found strong support from both the middle and working white classes. In his campaign for the Senate in 1990, he lost with 44 percent of the votes, but he had the majority of white votes (57%). Duke appealed to the whites because he claimed to represent the interests of the working man, as well as the middle-class man. He was against welfare and affirmative action, and he professed a belief in individual equality rather than the forced equality of entire racial groups. These policies ensure that the white Christian male will stay on top in America, while gays, women, ethnic and religious minorities continue to

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struggle with poverty and unemployment. Underneath these watered down goals for the white male are deep-seated Nazi ideas, which he vehemently denies having. He says that his Nazi and KKK days were boyhood indiscretions, and yet his bodyguards are Nazis, and he believes that Mein Kampf is the greatest book ever written.' One must look at David Duke on two levels. He has one level of political jargon, beneath which is a more sinister racist side. Much like the way that Hitler hid Nazi killing centers from the eyes of his people behind tall brick walls, Duke deceives his audience in order to maintain his popularity. A perfect example of this is his speech to the Populist Party in Chicago in 1989. The group was made up entirely of either KKK or other white supremacist groups. His bodyguards at the speech were members of the American Nazi Party. He was photographed shaking hands with one of these Nazis, Art Jones, at the press conference after the speech. When he returned to Louisiana and was criticized for the photo, Duke stated that he had never seen that 'Nazi kook' before in his life. In his letter, apologizing to the legislature representatives for the incident, he said that he found Nazism abhorrent, and, as E. Rickey reports, he 'repudiates any effort of extremist groups to capitalize on my victory'."" This was a blatant lie, modeled after Herr Goebbels' big lie concept. Rickey cites another time when Duke lied to the press for no reason. In this instance he went on a trip and had a chemical peel done on his face to smooth out the wrinkles. Instead of admitting that he had gotten plastic surgery, he told the press that he had been in Brazil inspecting the damage to the rain forest."" Besides being a liar, Duke is undeniably a Nazi. He believes that Hoess, Dr Mengele, and Adolf Eichmann were great men who did not deserve the punishments they received; Rudolf Hess deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts at dealing with Winston Churchill, and Mengele did nothing unprofessional in his experi­ ments.7" The reason why these men did not deserve to be punished, Duke maintains, is because the Holocaust never happened. Auschwitz, according to Duke, was never more than a labor camp, and the deaths which occurred there were from starvation and illness, not gassings. He believes that the stench in the camp came from rubber being produced, not from burning bodies. Regarding Zyklon B pellets being dropped in clusters through vents/apertures into the gas chambers at Auschwitz, Duke opines the chambers were used for delousing and nothing else.71 In Duke's eyes, the extermi­ nation camps were a fabrication by Hollywood, which he insists is run by Jews. Another of his delusions is that Hitler never proposed a final solution. He merely intended to round up the Jews in labor camps and then segregate them from the rest of the population, not kill them.72

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The following passage compares Duke's political approach to that of Hitler:

Duke's journey across the political spectrum parallels that of Adolf Hitler, who also began as a revolutionist but acquired power constitutionally as a 'jobs and bread' conservative. As did Hitler, Duke has adapted Nazism to the fears, aspirations, prejudices, and political culture of the nation, thus repre­ senting himself as part of the national political tradition. This process has culminated in his new political image in which his positions are clothed in the rhetoric of equality and democracy.'1 Duke also mirrors many of Hitler's views in that he believes whites are generically superior to any other race, and that a country's nationality is determined by race. Duke sees the presence of Africans, Hispanics, Jews, and some Italians in America as polluting the gene pool and destroying American culture.74 In a 1988 interview Duke said that, 'The white species of humanity, that segment responsible for most of the world's great civilizations, is in grave danger of extinc­ tion ... the most crucial element in the well-being of any society is, ultimately, the biological quality of the people who compose it'.75 Duke's view of Blacks is that they are inferior to Whites in 'Strength, endurance, and finesse sports'. He also sees Blacks as being geneti­ cally predisposed to committing crimes, saying that they have A tendency to act in antisocial ways'. He alludes to the ideas that to eliminate this race would be to eliminate crime.7'’ Duke's view of Jews is strongly influenced by Hitler. To him, Jews are powerful, manipu­ lative, and an Alien elite bent on corrupting American society'.77 He imagines that they dominate the media, and therefore that maga­ zines, newspapers, and television are more a reflection of Jewish values and morals than American ones. No matter how long they live in America, Jews are genetically too different to assimilate into US society. Duke's solution to race problems is identical to that of Hitler in that it stems from a fear that race mixing will destroy the white race. His solution is a separation of the races. From 1984 to 1989 Duke repeatedly suggested that the US be divided into separate nations according to race and wanted to halt Third World immigration. In 1986 he suggested that Jews be deported out of the US, a plan which closely resembles Hitler's Jewish 'resettlement' plans. His explana­ tion for this deportation was as follows: 'I think probably, in a moral sense, the Jewish people have been a blight ... And they probably deserve to go into the ashbin of history ... 1 think the best thing is to resettle them someplace where they can't exploit others.'7" Another theory which Duke shares with Hitler is that he would like to see intelligent, educated, white Christians receiving monetary benefits

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for procreating the master race. He thinks that inferior people (including Whites with illness) should be discouraged from having children. Duke's clean-cut good looks, soft-spoken manner, and college education have broken the 'backwoods idiot' stereotype of a KKK member. People are eager to believe him when he swears that he has turned over a new leaf. It is frightening that he got as far in politics as he has. The Revd Thomas Robb has been described as 'the most influen­ tial and charismatic Klansman since David Duke'?' Like Duke, Robb presents himself in three-piece suits and spouts such rhetoric as, 'This is the 1990s, and we don't hate anybody'.1*’ Also like Duke though, Robb has his sights set on politics, and is deceptively passive about his opinions on race. In 1991 he proposed that his property in the Ozark Mountains be turned into a KKK headquarters where families can come to spend time with other white supremacists. The camp hopes to acquire a facility where pro-Klan movies can be produced. People who have been monitoring the activities of the Klan say that this camp will be a new way of integrating children into the Klan, while they are there with their parents."1 Robb's ideas are just as extreme, if not more so, than Duke's. In public, Robb stresses love for the white race rather than hate for others, but when questioned about specific beliefs, one can hear extremely hateful ideas. Robb carefully avoids using racist terms during interviews and media appearances, and avoids publicly embracing Hitler's ideologies. He also stresses that his branch of the Klan does not advocate violence. Why is Robb so careful about his image? Because he has his sights set on governmental power."2 Robb reflects Hitler's ideas in that he offers the US a cure for its present ills. He states that the present political system is responsible for the problems that the US faces and claims that he can return the country to its former glory. Some of his 'cures' include posting soldiers at the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants, quaranti­ ning all Aids patients, killing drugs dealers, and stopping affirmative action."1 One can see that this is similar to Duke's and Hitler's approach of adapting Nazism to the fears, aspirations, prejudices, and political culture of a nation. Robb has brought the white supremacist ideology down to a level where many agree with it. Whether Nazi or not, they would like to see the drugs and Aids prob­ lems solved. While they may not agree with killing drugs dealers and quarantining Aids patients, many Americans are sufficiently fed up with these problems to lean toward Robb's 'solutions'. The views Robb has about Blacks are more extreme and ignorant. He strongly advocates a separation of the races, which would mean sending the Blacks back to Africa. He sees the Blacks as more of a

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burden on America than a benefit and sees their return to Africa as to their benefit. The following quote sums up his feelings on Blacks:

This is going to sound awful crude to say this, and maybe it will come out wrong, but at least during the time of slavery, they earned their keep. What benefit are they to us today, after food stamps and public housing, and heating their homes and cooling their homes and caring for their children and taking them to the hospital and all the things that are done?" The above statement is mild compared with the ideas Robb used to express before he remade his image. He used to harshly criticize Blacks and gays, and would distribute Jewish flags to his followers for wiping their feet and blowing their noses."5 He idolizes Hitler and suggests murdering all gays. Like Duke, he still swears that the Holocaust never happened and sells copies of Mein Kampf.*' Robb appeals to poor white males by stating that his ultimate goal is to hang a 'Whites only' sign at the US border. Like Duke, he fears that immigration and race mixing will terminate the existence of the supe­ rior white race."7 Many people would see these men as monsters, but the fright­ ening thing is that they have the capability of gaining political power because they appeal to a significant segment of the population. The KKK is similar to the NSDAP in that it offers solutions to the nation's problems. One example of this is that the KKK in Florida has begun a campaign against crack, with members patroling the streets looking for drugs dealers. Another way in which the KKK mimics Hitler is that it uses others as scapegoats for the problems of the US. One can see that Duke used Blacks' genetic makeup as a scapegoat for crime. The Jews are used as scapegoats for the Whites' poverty and unem­ ployment, blaming the 'conspiracy' in which Jews control various institutions, like banks and the media. Others use Jews as a scapegoat for the 'black problem', saying that the Jews are the masterminds behind the Blacks because the Blacks are too inferior intellectually to control their own movement."* Given their sinister influence, the white supremacist parties in America should not be overlooked as a potential problem in the future for US politics. Granted, they cannot gain enough power to achieve anything of the magnitude of the Holocaust for as long as America remains in a stable state. If, however, America were to suffer a catastrophe of such dimensions as another depression or another world war, leaving the country in a severely weakened state, circum­ stances could easily prove conducive to putting a person such as Duke into power. Using deceit, with the aid of biotechnology, he could act upon his plans for a 'final solution' without the American people's knowledge.

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Closet Nazis vs. Founding Fathers It is a tragic irony of our time that the two worst, bloodiest tribes in history, the Nazis of Germany and the Communists of Soviet Russia, both of whom are motivated by brute power-lust and a crudely materialistic greed for the unearned, show respect for the power of philosophy and spend billions of their looted wealth on propaganda and indoctrination, realizing that man's mind is their most dangerous enemy and it is man's mind that they have to destroy - while the United States and other countries of the West, who claim to believe in superiority of the human spirit over matter, neglect philosophy, despise ideas, starve the best minds of the young, offer nothing but the stalest slogans of materialistic altruism in the form of global giveaways, and wonder why they are losing the world to thugs. (Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, New York: 1943) When one studies the atrocities committed against the Jewish people by the Nazis, it seems so historically distant and impossible that anything like that could happen today. How could people let it happen? Germany was considered the land of philosophers and poets. As Alan Bullock puts it: 'Nazism was a complex phenomenon to which many factors - social, economic, historical, psychological contributed.'"9 But this is exactly why the rise of Hitler's National Socialists has not been fully explained. Nazism cannot be dismissed as the result of pure chance. There was no 'magic formula' of ingre­ dients that all happened to mix in Germany at the same time. Thev had been brewing since the unification of Germany in 1871. AntiJewish feelings, racism, and hatred are by no means confined to World War Two Germany. Hitler simply took advantage of the mentality of large groups of people lacking a guiding philosophy in a time of crisis. A similarly dangerous mentality can be observed in the United States. Its founders created the United States as a result of the Age of Enlightenment. It was the first nation to be formed by reason on a basis of ideas; a basis of philosophy. Yet despite this fact, only one single philosophical innovation has come from the new world as a result of its preoccupation with material acquisition: pragmatism. America has always tended to follow the European, most notably German, lead. After the Age of Enlightenment, Europe began to batter the shores of a defenseless America with successive waves of German romantic irrationalism, the same post-Kantian irrationalism that eventually led to the Third Reich. Over the years, Americans unknowingly succumbed to this subversive thought. The result is America today - a strong nation resting upon a severely weakened and confused philosophical, moral base.'*1 The philosophical base is the factor that moves a nation. Philosophy is a guiding principle

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behind a society. Today, unfortunately, many people, including philosophers, believe that philosophy has no practical significance. They think that it is some abstract talk for absurdity lovers. But it was this very neglect of philosophy that lay at the heart of many prob­ lems of the twentieth century. Every society has some sort of philosophical base. The Ancient Greeks of the fifth century BCE chose reason for theirs, and the result was the Age of Reason. After centuries of gradual decline, people chose Christianity and the result was the Dark Ages. After a thousand years in the medieval world, people chose St Thomas Aquinas over Augustine, and the result was the Renaissance. In the seventeenth century people returned to reason and the result was the Enlightenment and a gradual abolition of colonialism in America. Germany's abandonment of reason and her adoption of mythical romanticism set the stage for Hitler. Similarly, America tends to gradually lose her adherence to rational thought and individualism as well as the courage of her Founding Fathers. Significant parallels can be drawn between the US and the Weimar Republic. Michigan historian Stephen Tonsor comments on the similarities of the American youth culture of the 1960s and the German youth culture before 1933:

From my own very extensive investigations, 1 can categorically assert that there is not one value, not a single slogan, not a posture or costume, not a technique of political or cultural position which was not manifested in that earlier movement. [He goes on:] Our universities are the strongholds of German philosophy disseminating every key idea of the post-Kantian axis, down by now to old world racism and romanticism technology hatred. Our culture is modernism worn-out but recycled, with heavy infusions of such Weimarian blends as astrology and Marx or Freud, and Dada, or 'humani­ tarianism' and horror worship, along with five decades of corruption built on this kind of base. Our youth activists, those reared on the latest view­ points at the best universities, are the pre-Hitler youth movements resurrected (this time mostly on the political left and addicted to drugs). "

Americans are showing signs of an irrational emotional basis. Here is an often overlooked example: President John F. Kennedy said in 1961, Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' The idealism of this statement severely limits the concerns of the individual for the interests of the state. This is definitely 'un-American' in terms of what the Founders wanted. These emotional blinders are exactly what Hitler used. They prevent people from thinking, they only trust their feelings; feelings that are misleading, for they are soon turned into hate. This is courting disaster. Thus, ironically, people acting in their own emotional self­

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interests of survival and success, give away their personal identities to the group and conform. Another phenomenon, which promotes this type of conformity, is apathy due to a lack of rational, national, philosophical direction. Hitler performed most of his 'best' atrocities with the public fully informed. German voters who were completely aware of his ideology voted him into power. Mein Katnpf sold more than 200,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. The Nazis filled a gap between the socialists and nationalists; hence the name National Socialists. They meant everything to everybody. Naturally, a good number of the German people did not approve of their activities, but they let it happen. Hitler made his crimes legal. To oppose the Nazis was against the law. So the German people watched with their doors slightly ajar and saw their neighbors being carted off by the thou­ sands. They knew where they were going and that they would never be seen again. But they did not have the courage to say goodbye. They did not want to get involved. Examples of this can be observed daily in most large urban areas. You hear reports of heinous crimes, such as rapes and murders committed in public. No one does anything to help; often people do not even call the police. They feel that it is none of their business, and that someone else will take care of it. They refuse to be concerned. They close their doors, and it does not exist for them. In the past, they allowed the Hitlers, the Robespierres, the KKK, and all of the other thugs of the world to have their fun, as long as it did not affect them. When, at last, it does, it is too late. They become another statistic. This does not mean that the United States is going to become the Fourth Reich tomorrow. But it does need to rediscover its Aristotelian roots - a sense of adventure of the mind in its search for truth - in order to prevent the climate leading toward a dictatorship. True, America has a strong tradition of democracy, and that would be diffi­ cult to take away. This separates it from the Weimar Republic. But the essential elements for a dictatorship are there; even though neoNazis are a rare breed today. We must keep in mind that Hitler, a frustrated Austrian ne'r-do-well artist, joined the National Socialists when it consisted of only seven members. His contemporaries laughed at him. Yet, by 1933 the National Socialist Workers Partv received 43.9 percent of the vote.1'2 The Nazis became popular. Hitler seduced a nation and brought the world to its knees. Hence, we must recognize that the misunderstanding of philos­ ophy creates two distinct trends; emotionalism and apathy - the seeds of dictatorship. 'Closet people' can be observed every day and everywhere; in popular music, movies, sports, fashion, food, in short, anything considered a fad and, as Hitler found, in politics and beliefs. It is a weakness of the human psyche that stems from the survival

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instinct, that causes people to either conform to a group or hide in it. It can be dangerous to conform to a group, for it creates an opportu­ nity for the few to control the many, even in a democracy. Aristotle invites us to 'consider in which of two ways the Good or Summuni Bonurn is present in the universe, or the all-pervading order ... All things are ordered together for the common weal ... The world is not a collection of isolated individuals; all are somehow connected one to another,' he says (quoted Warrington, Aristotle's Metaphysics, London and New York: 1966, 351 ff.). Voter apathy has become an increasing problem in the United States. It would not be that difficult for a Hitler-type to take control today as a result of a serious crisis. The major ingredients for a dicta­ torship consist of a charismatic leader who thrives on doubt, confusion, and emotion in times of crisis; an irrational fanatical following of 'closet people' to do his dirty work; an apathetic, self­ centered society that lets them have their way; and a minority to blame and pick on. Presently, the United States can boast of all of these elements, save the Hitler-type leader and a severe crisis. It is important to recognize these ingredients and neutralize them before they are put into the oven of catastrophe, thus preventing the trans­ formation from 'closet person' to blatant Nazi.

Similarities There are many neo-Nazi groups present in the United States. The strongest party is that founded by Lyndon LaRouche. The word neoNazi can be broken down into neo - a new and different form of an old faith - and Nazi - an adherent to the body of political and economic doctrines held in by the National Socialist German Worker's Party of the Third Reich. This definition holds true for the LaRoucheniks. This is not a party of 50 years past or a faction of the old German Nazi movement, but a modern-day political movement in the United States started by a radical right wing, with its leader Lyndon H. LaRouche. His political platform so closely resembles that which we see in Hitler's Mein Kampf that LaRouche and his party are labeled neo-Nazis. LaRouche's political strategy and ideology are analogous to Hitler's in some very basic ways: (1) the route used to gain political power; (2) the scapegoating of political and ethnic groups for the problems of the world; and (3) the type of reform which will bring about a better world. There are also some significant parallels between Hitler and Lyndon LaRouche, and the two parties which they represent. The first of the similarities is the path used by Hitler and LaRouche. They both started out with a generally Marxist back­ ground. Even Hitler, who abhorred the fact that Karl Marx was a Jew,

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used many Marxist ideas to form his NSDAR In Mein Kampf we see his admiration of the Marxist movement when he says, 'From such spiritual soil the bourgeois camp, you may be assured, cannot draw the strength to carry on the struggle with the organized power of Marxism.'9’ Both Hitler and LaRouche are basic Marxists in several of their beliefs. But because of Marx's Jewish descent they both contend that he was not the originator of these ideas; instead they were all developed long before and known to many people. Marx simply wrote down ideas that were previously unpublished. A case in point is a reference to chapter 1 of Volume 2 of Hitler's Mein Kampf. As Ian Kershaw notes, the two men justify their Marxist style, which brings great popularity at the polls:

And so the commissions come together and revise the program and form a new one (and in doing so the gentlemen change their convictions as a soldier his shirt, which is when the old one is filled with lice!) in which everybody gets his share. The peasant gets protection for his agriculture, the industrialist protection for his product, the consumer protection for his purchase, the teacher's salaries are raised, the civil servant's pension improved, widows and orphans are to be taken care of most liberally by the state, trade is promoted, tariffs are reduced, and taxes pretty much, if not altogether, done away with." With the use of proposals much as the above, the voters will support them. This is the objective of these statements and LaRouche has become the 'King of the Unseen Answer'. His tactics are similar to Hitler's in that he addresses the issues, but he rarely gives public answers. The second of the parallels is the ability of communication with and persuasion of the voter. Hitler was a masterful speaker. He was able to persuade and influence the German people with his mesmer­ izing speeches. In fact the government of Bavaria promptly forbade him to speak in public after the failed putsch. The other states followed suit. The feeling behind this was that a silent Hitler was a defeated Hitler, as ineffective as a handcuffed pugilist in a ring.95 Lyndon LaRouche is also a persuasive speaker. He feels so confi­ dent with his oratory that he saves all of his advertising money for one 15-minute slot of prime time which is shown on all of the major channels simultaneously. LaRoucheniks themselves are as a rule charismatic speakers, and they are powerful persuaders. Their speeches are aimed at the lower middle class and address issues which are very popular with these people. The route to power for the LaRoucheniks has been well planned. Their leader has used commonality of a name in combination with voter ignorance in a manner that would have made Hitler proud.

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Their candidates have names which usually start with letters early in the alphabet to enable them to be first on the ballot. The names are of Anglo-Saxon origin, common to the region in which they are running for office. This allows for a familiarity with the name and supplies the more bigoted voters with an alternative to a name of an obviously alien ethnic descent. LaRoucheniks use a typical persuasion technique, one which was very common to Hitler. They address topics that are mainstream American concerns (i.e., drugs abuse, Aids, national security, and jobs). The candidates promise to cure all of the problems promptly and tell the public they know where to start to accomplish this. They avoid, however, direct questioning on how they intend to accomplish this mass reform. This guarantees them the support of the lesseducated voter and supplies, as well, great appeal to the middle-class voter. This practice resembles Hitler's use of persuasive speeches, which went on endlessly for the wrong reasons. The LaRoucheniks use political prejudice in a way that is similar to that of their idol Hitler. This is, possibly, the one trait in which they are most alike. LaRouche himself states that Communists and Zionists are detrimental to society as a whole and are the basic cause of evil in the world. This is seen in his attacks on the world bankers (i.e., the Jews) as being the major reason for the world's drugs problem. Though it may appear bizarre, those whom LaRouche found offensive to his views he labeled Communists or part of the world drugs problem - as we see in his attacks on Queen Elizabeth II, where he insisted that she was heavily involved in the sale of opium. (The allegation clearly derives from the struggle between Great Britain and China (1839-42), called the 'opium war', over China's restrictions on foreign trade and opium imports which thus threatened British-owned opium stored at Canton.) He has called the former liberal Senator from Maine, Walter Mondale, 'an agent of Soviet influence'. He has made statements to the effect that Italian aristocrats and the Chinese intelligence agency are a part of an anti­ democratic conspiracy, and he insisted that the state of Israel was going to unite with the Soviet Union and attempt to rule the world. The list of absurdities goes on and on, but it is obvious that LaRouche uses the threat of nondemocratic, non-Anglo-Saxon groups taking over the world to unite his followers and to pick up new party members. Janise Hart, a LaRouchenik nominated for the Democratic seat of Secretary of State in the state of Illinois, stated: 'We will ... make sure every human is armed with reason and beauty.' A similar thought to that of Hitler's Aryan race - reason being that higher education and beauty are synonymous with tall, good-looking people, commonly thought of as white.

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The LaRoucheniks contend that there should be mandatory Aids testing for everyone in the United States with a subsequent quaran­ tine of all those who are HIV-positive. This would place the sick in quarantine, and only the perpetrators know how they would be dealt with. Would the 'quarantine' bear the likeness of a Nazi concen­ tration camp? This is almost an outright attack on gays, but it comprises only part of their 'relief program'. These are remedies that are as radical as most of Hitler's. The LaRoucheniks have made it known that they think the best way to handle the drugs dealers, bankers (the Jews), and 'other boys at the top', is by the use of 'Nuremberg tribunals'. If not regulated, the suggested policies of LaRouche could lead to invasion of privacy. The LaRoucheniks believe in control by power. As quoted from Janise Hart: 'We will roll our tanks down State Street ... We will hang traitors and hang the people responsible for feeding our children drugs.' Again, this is a referral to Jewish bankers and 'Communists'. She continues: 'He [LaRouche] will put the fear of God in people like Henry Kissinger and the State Department, the biggest hotbed of treason in this nation since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton.' This has definite overtones of Hitler as well as the brief period of McCarthyism, like the philosophy and ideology that was used in such an extreme and inhumane manner that the world thought it would never occur again. The LaRoucheniks garnered nearly 80,000 votes in the 1984 presi­ dential election. This group uses periodicals, which are similar to the Vblkischcr Beobachter, in that they are propagandist and misleading. They say that it cannot happen here, and yet in Illinois two of LaRouche's candidates were nominated on to the Democratic ticket. They rely on the turmoil of the modern world just as Hitler used the turmoil of post-World War One Germany to come to power. LaRouche goes so far as to denounce the occurrence of the Holocaust, saying that it is all a hoax. His parallels to Hitler are astounding. His most basic similarities can be laid out in the order of his attack: first, to get political authority; second, use political racism to address the problems of the nation; and finally, the exploitation of human ignorance by offering a panacea for the problems of our society. LaRouche, like Hitler, started out in a very small way, but as time went on there has been a great increase in the number of supporters and in the number of candidates for office. LaRouche is now supporting over 1,000 candidates nationwide. These candidates are hidden under the umbrella of the major political parties, and are well picked by LaRouche for the best possible chance of election. Hitler stated in Mein Katnpf, 'we must take advantage of the ignorance of the voters'.* He was very good at mesmerizing his listeners with

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promises. Likewise, LaRouche does this in an even more efficient way, using the modern ballot system to his full advantage, and also something Hitler was best known for - using the politics of prejudice and hate to obtain votes. Hitler used this to gain the support of the German Nationalists. He carried it to major extremes when he intro­ duced the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935.97 These laws were established after the introduction of universal conscription in March of the same year.* LaRouche candidates are well known for their support of Nuremberg-like tribunals for 'drugs dealers, bankers [primarily Jewish], and other boys at the top'.* Hitler had two major groups that worked as his intelligence service. The POI and the POII were in charge of local and interna­ tional intelligence respectively. These two groups were later transformed into the SS and the Brownshirts."” Like Hitler, LaRouche has one of the best private intelligence agencies in the world; an agency that even has meetings with US intelligence officials. LaRouche runs this enterprise out of his fortress-like house in Leesburg, Virginia."" Like Hitler's, it is so large the true extent of its inter/infra-national intelligence is unknown; it is known, however, that it holds more information than any other private institution in the US. Both men have become well known for their use of propaganda and slogans. In Hitler's Mein Kampf we see a continuous use of slogans, and material which justifies them. Hitler went on to include and incorporate his intelligence reports, propaganda and slogans in his Party's newspaper Vblkischer Beobachter. LaRouche is known to disseminate similar material, which appears in periodicals, books, and newspapers. Only the future will tell what is in store for the LaRoucheniks, but there are a great many questions to be asked. Is there a chance of a Hitler era reemerging? Hitler started a small movement that grew exponentially; can this happen again? People will say that the likeli­ hood of this happening in the United States is not great. They will point out that the US governmental system is set up in such a way that one man cannot achieve the ultimate power which was possible to Hitler because of the Division of Powers Act. This is a somewhat comforting statement, but it would seem the presence of neo-Nazism should alert the American people to internal problems within our system. Extremist groups, such as those discussed above, should be a warning to the American people, reminders of the atrocities which came from Hitler's rule, giving society a chance never to let them get out of hand. Let us remember that the Weimar Republic was built on the foundation of western philosophical beliefs in tolerance and equality under the law. And let us never forget that mortal people wrote the laws of the Weimar Republic; people changed and used

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them to suit their own political agenda: the Nazi Third Reich, the culture of impunity. Disquieting events have taken place in the United States recently, some of which are well illustrated in the following headlines and comments: PATRIOT GAMES

Irate, gun-toting white men are forming militias. Are they dangerous or just citizens defending their rights? In a remote meadow in northern Michigan, inside a large tent heated bv a wood stove, 50 white men dressed in combat gear and wielding rifles talk about the insanity of the outside world ... The men's voices subside as 'General' Norman Olson, a Baptist minister, gun-shop owner and militia leader, enters the tent. He tells the men they are the shock troops of a movement that's sweeping America, that the 'end times' are coming, and civil wars are two years away. 'People think we are the ones who bring fear because we have guns,' Olson says. 'But we are really an expression of fear.'103

In April 1991, Parade Magazine featured an article entitled 'We Must Take a Stand,' that dealt with the senseless murder of an African student in Portland, Oregon. Mulugeta Seraw, age 27, an Ethiopian immigrant to the US, 'has been savagely beaten by three white youths with shaved heads and wearing military jackets. Seraw was pronounced dead at a nearby military hospital ... The murder was linked to Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance - a group dedicated to white supremacy.'104 The article goes on to enumerate further excesses of Skinheads and KKK members, and shows photos of small children toting crosses and clad in KKK attire as well as altercations between skinheads and youths at a democratic convention in Atlanta. The essence of the editorial is expressed in the statement: As membership in hate groups grows and incidents of bigoted violence increase, citizens in towns across the country are fighting back.'105 Anti-Jewish sentiment in the US is becoming increasingly evident in university towns and even on campuses. Another article headline proclaims 'Hatred in a Tolerant Town. Anti-Semitism in Madison.' The town is Madison, Wisconsin, a university community, and this is what the article tells us: The hate crimes have been unrelenting. Vandals spray-painted 'think extinction' on the walls of the Hillel Foundation, the Jewish student center at the University of Wisconsin. Swastika and other taunts appeared on the outside of Jewish fraternity and sorority houses. Most frightening of all, someone cut the brake lines of a bus that was supposed to take children to a Jewish day camp. 'What we have here,' said Mayor Paul Soglin, who is

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Jewish, 'is growing bigotry.' And growing fear. While skittish worshipers attended services last week marking Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, armed police stood guard at the city's synagogue."'' Finally, there is an item pointing to the radical changes in the thinking of mainstream Americans regarding the treatment of immi­ gration. 'Shutting the Golden Door' is the headline of an editorial, and the subtitle tells why: 'Economic fears, ethnic prejudice and poli­ tics as usual make the melting pot a pressure cooker.'"ir A photo captioned 'Maginot Line' shows the army's 68th Engineer Company, as they install reinforced fencing along the US-Mexican border near Naco, Arizona. Another photo depicts people holding posters declaring in bold print: 'Send all Illegal Aliens Home,' a slogan which smacks of the historic slogan of the Nazis: 'Auslander Raus' (Foreigners get out!), one frequently heard on the streets of contem­ porary Germany. Not so long ago, on April 20,1935, at 8.30 p.m., people packed the Yorkville Casino in New York City to celebrate the birthday of the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. They were German Americans, members of the German American Bund. On the occasion of George Washington's birthday, Monday, February 20, 1939, Madison Square Garden in New York was filled to capacity. Fritz Kuhn, the Fuhrer of the German American Bund, addressed the crowd. The leaflet promoting the event announced 'Mass Demonstration for True Americanism', urging all 'patriots' to attend the rally. It was only after the US entered the war against the Axis, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, that the German American Bund was declared illegal in the United States.

Deniers: assassins of memory Questions: How does one respond to the blatant lies and cynical denials of the historical relativists? Should historians take a professional stand repudi­ ating denials of the Holocaust? Should members of the academe validate these myths, by allowing the dissemination of untruths and hate-filled messages based on racism, ivithout proper responses?

It seems that long before questionable campus bulletins appeared in university publications there have been deniers among faculties as well. Linguist Noam Chomsky defended Robert Fourisson, a former professor at the University of Lyon, and an avid denier, arguing that the scholar's ideas cannot be censored, regardless of how distasteful they might be, and that Fourisson had a right to maintain an unpop­ ular thesis. Fourisson has argued that he does not believe people were murdered in gas chambers because no death camp inmate has

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ever given eyewitness testimony to actual gassings. This is a weak argument that contradicts any standard evidence. A good analogy is to refuse to imprison a serial killer on the grounds that none of his victims has come forth to say: 'This is the man that killed me.' Subsequently, Fourisson hired a French pharmacist - also a denier Jean-Claude Pressac, to produce evidence supporting his thesis. Upon extensive investigations at the Auschwitz death camp, Pressac published a detailed study in 1996, which presented conclusive proof that Nazi gas chambers served as instruments of extermination. Theodore O'Keefe of the California-based Institute for Historical Review and editor of the Journal of Historical Review, has advanced propositions that are most important to the revisionists: (1) The Nazi Third Reich did not have a policy to kill Jews during World War Two. (2) The number of Jews who died during the war was far less than the six million that has been estimated. (3) Nazi concentration camps did not conduct mass killings, but cremated bodies and used gas chambers to delouse clothing and equipment.

If these claims were not bad enough, he goes on to say that eyewitness accounts and 50 years of accumulated evidence about the Holocaust are 'propaganda' that has 'metastasized and gone wild'. In defense of the revisionist articles appearing in their campus publications, the presidents of the universities involved used the First Amendment in upholding editorial policy. President James Duderstadt of the University of Michigan felt that the freedom of the First Amendment should be protected, even when 'we disagree either with particular opinions, decisions, or actions'. Granted, the Constitution should be upheld, but ideas that are in definite contra­ diction with facts; outright lies, should not be protected. The denial has risen out of racism and the United States should not endorse hateful propaganda. Scholars are at odds with one another on how to react to denial. The Council of the American Historical Association (AHA) decided not to take a public stand against the revisionist view, but rather to study the significance of the Holocaust. They are examining such questions as what happened to individual Jewish communities under Nazi rule, and have also began to look critically at sources, asking how eyewitness accounts should be interpreted, and so forth. But is it enough to let this speak for itself? Some feel, even though horrified, that if people want to deny an occurrence in history, a professional association 'ought not to get into the business of certi­ fying what is and is not history'.

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There are some historians who urge a clearer stand. Susan Socolow, Professor of History at Emory University and a member of the AHA council, disagreed with the above-mentioned decision. 'People who deny something like the Holocaust are distorting history in a particularly horrifying way. If we can't get up and say, "Yes, it did happen," I don't know what good we do as historians.' Some legisla­ tive bodies have put into effect laws that require schools to teach about the Holocaust. In Canada, there are codes that limit speech that causes 'injury or mischief to a public interest'. Several convic­ tions in the 1980s were due to inciting racial hatred. Joyce Appleby, former president of the Organization of American Historians, felt that we should definitely not recognize such views as valid. 'This is not a question of respecting different points of view but rather of recognizing a group which repudiates the very values which bring us together,' she says. Although we open our pages to professional historians, these people are not professionals, and to allow them to advertise is to legitimate them.' Given these dissenting views among historians, it is no wonder that students have demonstrated confusion as well. They ask ques­ tions such as, 'How do we know that there really were gas chambers?' 'What proof do we have that these really were gas cham­ bers?' At Northwestern University, the campus newspaper supported inviting Arthur Butz, a Holocaust denier, to discuss his 'unorthodox view' of the Holocaust. The paper declared that even 'outrageous and repugnant theories deserve a forum,' which echoes Noam Chomsky's viewpoint. Cornell University's Daily Sun justified its publication of an ad from deniers, arguing that its role was not 'to protect readers from offensive ideas or to unjustly censor advertisers' viewpoints'. The very fact that the denier's claim is, somehow, deserving to be called a viewpoint or idea lends legitimacy to the fabri­ cation and trivializes the event. It plants the seeds that, further removed in time, could revise history itself. The technological explosion, particularly the so-called 'informa­ tion highway', raises several areas of concern. These concerns center on intellectual responsibility as well as a duty to tell the world. While the printed word has always been subject to interpretation, there has been a general consensus that 'seeing is believing'. Perhaps General Dwight D. Eisenhower most poignantly expressed this when he insisted on personally visiting sites of the camps following liberation: The same day I saw my first horror camp, I visited every nook and cranny. I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda."1"

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Until recently, the aphorism 'The camera never lies' may have been a true statement. Since the early days of photography and cine­ matography, it was widely accepted that the images captured on film represented an accurate portrayal of the subject, whether of a docu­ mentary or entertaining nature. Consequently, audiences were horrified when first exposed to documentary films of the Nazi camps. Audiences were moved emotionally when viewing reenact­ ments of the Holocaust in motion pictures. These points are made to emphasize that most informed viewers and readers can discern between drama and reality, between fiction and nonfiction. Now, however, technology offers the capability to manipulate not only the printed word, but also the image (witness the digital special effects that placed the fictional movie character, Forrest Gump, with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in historical settings). Image manipulation is now a common technique used in magazine and television advertisements. It would appear that the less educated and less affluent segments of society are the most vulnerable to misinfor­ mation campaigns and manipulated messages. Most free, democratic nations seem to have learned valuable lessons from the legacy of the Third Reich and have imposed policies that prohibit government propaganda activities. However, in governments' zeal to protect rights of 'free speech', there are virtually no limits placed on communication or visual information exchanged between citizens. The information highway is easily accessible to unscrupulous (even dangerous) elements that attempt to distort history, launch misinfor­ mation campaigns, and fuel prejudices and hatreds. This is happening today on a world-wide basis. Misguided followers of bigots such as Willis Carto and the IHR are active in a wide variety of media activities that are virulently anti-Jewish, while promoting the white supremacist movement.11” These extremists have been active on the Internet computer network. For example, the following excerpt from the IHR Spotlight publication was posted on several Internet bulletin boards:

Subject: Part 1, Israeli & US Governments Assassinate US Army Colonels From: PNPJ(adbl.cc.rochester.edu (PATRICIA NEILL) Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 20:19:03 GMT Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,soc.rights.human,talk,politics.guns, soc.veterans THE people's spell breaker

DATE OF PRINTING PRICE:—CENTS THE NEWSPAPER FOR THE PEOPLE OF DELAWARE

•••••morning edition........ editor: John DiNardo PUBLISHER:

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Part 1, Israeli & US Governments Assassinate US Army Colonels Vol. xvn, November 19 ... the spotlight ... May 13,1991

by Mike Blair A voice from the grave has surfaced indicating that President George Bush, while director of the CIA (1976-77), was aware of an illegal CIA-Israeli Mossad operation in Central America. The effort included the smuggling of drugs from Columbia through Panama into the United States. The Spotlight has obtained a copy of a 15-page affidavit of Army Special Forces Colonel Edward R Cutolo, who in 1976 was the commander of missions in Columbia under the codename of 'Operation Watch Tower,' for which he was recruited by high-level CIA operatives, working with Israeli Mossad agents.

And, as further evidence that these extremists will exploit every opportunity to spread their venomous messages, Spotlight editor John DiNardo adds this postscript: This is one of the countless stories unveiling the deeply corrupted and subverted state of our theoretically democratic Government. This story makes disgustingly obvious the fact that patriotism is not the waving of flags, the tying of yellow ribbons and the supporting of Government, just because it happens to be ours. You don't support cancer just because you happen to have it. Patriotism is telling the truth to the people of our country in order that they may unite to conquer the anti-democratic cancer that is gradually destroying our chil­ dren's freedom and ours. So please post the installments of this ongoing series to other news groups, networks and bulletin boards, as well as posting hard copies in public places, both on and off campus.

That would be a truly patriotic deed. John DiNardo""

In reviewing similar postings, one notes that the Spotlight masks its true origins, and that much of the anti-Jewish rhetoric is some­ what veiled and subdued in comparison with most IHR publications. But the neo-Nazis are even more direct and vocal in their hatred on several other computer forums. And the thrust is both in historical revisionism and Holocaust denial, which can be defined as 'a body of work that seeks to prove that there was no systematic attempt by Nazi Germany to exterminate European Jewry'. Although not all of the deniers, who prefer to call themselves 'revisionists' in an attempt to gain scholarly legitimacy, make the same claims, they all share at

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least this one point. They believe that the Jews themselves, usually referred to as 'Zionists', invented the Big Lie in order to gain sympathy for a homeland and to extort, in the form of reparations, payments from Germany. Times of crisis create a mentality of unbelief as well as fanatical gullibility. People believe what they want to believe; hear what they want to hear. Such times enhance the chances for relativism; moral as well as historical. They foster the belief that there are as many truths as there are people. But society cannot thrive on fabrications; freedom needs a sound, responsible foundation in truth. As an example, one can cite the people of some European coun­ tries who attempt to build their future on erasing the past. This type of anaesthetic treatment of history renders memory a casualty and creates collective amnesia. But does it really help in the rebuilding of political and cultural foundations of a society that suffers from this affliction? Is it proper to deal with such issues as the Nazi genocide in an abstract, nonpersonal way? With the actual events of World War Two receding in time, there is a natural tendency to forget. Europeans, especially, have failed to examine their past fully and honestly. (Though the Germans have done more than most.) They have not yet come to grips with the causes of the war and their role in the destruction of European Jewry. By refusing to accept at least part of the blame, they resist accepting responsibility for shaping history. 'Many West European leaders have tried to gloss over or to distort the past in order to build more self-confident, self-reliant, patriotic nations.'"1 Germany's efforts centered on emphasizing the postwar conception of a democratic republic. France's emphasis on its 'glorious resistance to Nazi terror' omits the Vichy excesses in her collaboration with the Third Reich while delivering France's Jews to the crematoria, chiefly as a result of her own, deep-seated, anti-Jewish sentiment. Austria's politically sanctioned perception as Hitler's 'first victim' omits the historical fact of its own widespread enthusiasm for joining the greater pan-Germanic confederation as bedrock of a proto­ Germanic heritage. In their zeal to gloss over their own significant part in the destruction of European Jewry, the Austrians have even tried to reject their historical embrace of their native son, Adolf Hitler. (Only recently has the country moved in the general direction of initiating some mode of restitution for the Austrian Jews who were victims of Nazism.) In truth, the Austrian people were ardent followers of the Hitler regime, exemplified in the high ratio of Austrians among the supreme Nazi hierarchy - notably Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich - as well as commandants of the KZ Lagers. For, as Ruth Beckermann observes: 'Ours is an old, Christian anti-Semitism, as old as the empire; in Austria, even the Jews are anti-Semitic.'"'

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France, too, displayed a sad lack of historical integrity. With the return of General Charles de Gaulle toward the end of World War Two, so began 'the years of occultation, the building of the myth, a period in which France's memory was frozen'.Only with the publi­ cation of Robert Paxton's book Vichy France (1972), as well as the trial of the 'Butcher of Paris', Claus Barbie, and Marcel Ophul's documen­ tary on occupied France entitled 'The Sorrow and the Pity', was the thinking of a new generation of French historians influenced suffi­ ciently to start the destruction of the myth that French fascism was a Nazi-imposed brand. In fact, France possessed its very own fascism long before the Nazi invasion and occupation of France. In France, says Bernard Henri Levi, 'a sense of outrage is missing from daily life. Young people don't get very excited about anti-Semitism, or about anything else for that matter'114 This very indifference presents a danger as great as that posed by revisionist historians, nationalist politicians, or others who seek to reinvent Europe's past. As survivors die, the voices of revisionists become louder, aided by a natural tendency to forget. Society's desire to sanitize its past encourages it to place a final punctuation point on its painful romance with the Nazi Third Reich, so as to begin again with a clean slate. Oddly enough, historical revisionism in the US has been aided by several significant characteristics: foremost is the very inherent optimism of this young nation, disinclined, as it were, to subscribe to the sinister impulses of human nature. Strangely, the very monstrousness of the Nazi attempt to exterminate, globally, the entire Jewish population is hard for decent, well-meaning people to comprehend and to believe. Further, the tendency to relegate histor­ ical events to archivists renders the American youth ignorant as far as being able to conceptualize these facts in real life is concerned. Rather, they prefer to depend on movies or television, media that are taking increasing liberties with the truth and routinely blur fact and fiction. Moreover, these same media present everyday events in so gruesomely violent a manner as to desensitize the young to every last vestige of compassion they might harbor for other people. D.E. Lipstadt points out in her book Denying the Holocaust that such rewriting of history, combined with a growing mood of moral relativism, has the 'potential to alter dramatically the way established truth is transmitted from generation to generation', and this may help to create an intellectual climate in which 'no fact, no event, and no aspect of history has any fixed meaning or content'. She further observes: Any truth can be retold. Any fact can be recast. There is no ultimate historical reality.'"'’ Not surprisingly, though possessing elements of irony, Holocaust denial has also benefited from 'political correctness'; a movement created to redress wrongs against minorities and other groups. Thus,

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in the spirit of political correctness, the deniers can act as though their lies and pronouncements are simply differing points of view, while they petition for equal time and publishing space under the guise of pursuing free inquiry. After all, they claim to assume the role of revising or reinterpreting history, a practice that is commonplace in the academe. Even in the light of new findings, such as those published in Les Crematoires d'Auschwitz, the book by Jean-Claude Pressac, which uncovered architectural drawings, plus memos between contractors and camp authorities, documenting construction of the execution chambers and ovens, proof that the crematoria at Auschwitz were used for the extermination of Jews, the revisionists deniers still main­ tain their stand. (See Gerald Fleming's concrete evidence, citing facts he extracted from the Russian Central State Archive in Moscow [File 17/9, Topf und Soehne, Frankfurt.]) Holocaust deniers claim that poison gas was not used to murder KZ Lager inmates but only to delouse them. They follow, in the US, the example of one of the first revisionist historians, Arthur Butz, an engineering professor at Northwestern University who, in 1977, published a book entitled The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, which became a bible for American Holocaust deniers. The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s witnessed an alarming rise in the socalled 'deconstruction' movement. French-born and the brainchild of Jacques Derrida, this movement gained ascendancy on US campuses. It is a method of textual analysis that has been applied to literature, history, and even law. Deconstructionism focuses on the 'unrelia­ bility' of language and the 'indeterminacy' of texts, while denying the past. Though it is not an overt Nazi tool, it purveys a stylishly negativistic view of the world. It insists that all meaning is relative, that all truth is elusive and therefore futile, thus playing into the hands of the Holocaust deniers. Together with society's eagerness to blur the lines between fact and fantasy, reality and appearance, the deconstructionist and like-minded thinkers foster a climate in which ideologues and propagandists, like the Holocaust deniers, can try to assail those two pillars of human civilization, memory and truth. The stakes in this battle over history are high. For, as George Orwell once observed, 'Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past.' In their insistence on denying the horrific fate suffered by millions of Nazi victims, the deniers illustrate, ironically, the fundamental issues that challenge the preservation of those memories we would sooner forget. Their insistence that the Holocaust never took place, despite irrefutable proof to the contrary (most of it provided, ironi­ cally, by the Nazi propaganda media), is the single most compelling piece of evidence that human beings are capable of the intent to

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exterminate entire ethnic groups. Furthermore, what we must never forget is our own capacity for genocide.

Nazi resurgence abroad The spread of radical neo-Nazi movements in Europe attests to the deconstructionist reinterpretation of history. Headlines such as those that follow are frequent: BLITZKRIEG BY THE ULTRA-RIGHT

Protest votes give xenophobic extremists a strong showing (Time, February 13, 1989) SURGE TO THE RIGHT

From the Atlantic to the Urals, politicians stir fear and loathing of darkskinned immigrants

Italy: A Fascist thanks God he's Italian Germany: More noise than power Austria: Right wing Haider keeps winning France: Le Pen stirs up the crowd at a rightist rally in Paris (Time, January 13,1992) GERMANY'S LEADER DECRIES NEO-NAZIS

(Associated Press, June 1991) GERMANY'S PAST, REFUGEES' PRESENT

Neo-Nazis have rioted against refugees in Rostock and other German cities. The riots have plunged Germans into soul-searching about the country's past ... (San Antonio Light, September 14,1989) NEO-NAZI, LEFTIST PROTESTS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF GERMAN UNITY

A march in Dresden by 600 neo-Nazis shouting, 'Germany for the Germans!' showed that the rightist extremists are a threat that will require more than words to disarm. (San Antonio Light, October 4,1992) GERMANS BEGIN TO RECOGNIZE DANGER IN NEO-NAZIS' SURGE:

A Shadow in Germany There is no indication that the scores of right-wing nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Germany follow a single leader as the Nazis followed Hitler two generations ago, Government officials say. But there is no longer much doubt that the ideology they share and seek to spread has had dangerous consequences. (New York Times, October 7,1993)

Warning and Hope

454 THE SHADOW OE THEIR SWASTIKA

Young Germans, disillusioned play with fire NEO-NAZI LEADER DEVOTED TO HITLER

HITLER'S CHILDREN; YOUNG GERMANS DREAM OF FOURTH REICH

(Newsweek, April 1991)

POLISH PRIEST SUSPENDED

Warsaw (dpa). The Catholic Church in Poland suffered the conse­ quences of an anti-Semitic sermon delivered by the former father confessor of ex-president Lech Walesa. As reported by the Polish radio, the Archbishop of Gdansk, Tadeusz Goclowski, suspended the prelate Henryk Jankowski for one year from his activities as Priest of the Brigit Church in Gdansk. Jankowski had warned in one of his sermons of 'the participation in Poland's government by the Jewish minority. People ought to fear that.' (translated by the author from the German text; Washington Journal, November, 14 1997)

In present-day Germany, neo-Nazi right-wing extremists have committed (roughly estimated) 1,760 attacks, desecrating Jewish cemeteries and memorials and setting fires at two former KZ Lagers. The erstwhile communist region is a social and economic disaster zone that confronts the Germans with problems graver than they imagined. When forced early retirement, unemployment, and make­ work training schemes are taken together, approximately 40 percent of the east's labor force is out of work; almost 3 million jobs have disappeared since unification. Classic symptoms that accompany unemployment, depression, and a sense of powerlessness are quite prevalent today as they were prior to Hitler's appearance on the German political scene. Similarly, the Germans have found it easy to place the blame for their hard times on the millions of refugees from as near as the former Yugoslavia and as far as Afghanistan. Increasing numbers of disen­ chanted youths who seek companionship in neo-Nazi organizations, prompt some urgent questions, among which the most important is: are they a threat to democratic government? The general answer, for the present, is 'Not yet.' The chief basis for this verdict is that, in contrast to the situation in the early 1930s, Germany today has a robust economy, most of its citizens have well-paid jobs and big busi­ ness has no intention of supporting, even remotely, the force of the far right in the way that it did Hitler and the Nazis during the turbu­ lent post-World War One years. Besides, Germany's close economic ties with the now allied European nations, as well as her partnership

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in NATO, presents a pervasive argument against any sort of internal instability. But the 'not yet' remains a carefully qualified answer. Although unemployment in Germany is less than in some other European countries, the fear of it is much greater among people who have already lost everything three times. This may be where the right-wing radicals have their chance. Their appeal to the very young is worri­ some. The young Nazis do not want World War Three or another Auschwitz; the problem is that the young Nazis of 1932 did not want Auschwitz or war either. Furthermore, even the neo-Nazis admit that blatant denial of Third Reich atrocities or the repudiation of war guilt raises the specter of the Fourth Reich and blunts whatever influence they might exert in a well-balanced political system. As one German explained, 'We have enough unemployed. We don't need any foreigners here. They take our jobs, and they take our houses.'"'’ Many of these groups are sending a strong message that it is time for a change. To many, the restoration of order means a Germany without foreigners. Surely, in order to prevent another regime similar to that of the Third Reich, the Federal Government will ultimately have to find a way to defuse the present rise of xenophobia among the German electorate. It will have to ease the feeling of disillusion­ ment, helplessness, and failure among vast numbers of German citizenry, and restore its faith in the democratic process. This will have to happen quickly, if the ranks of extremists are not to swell to an uncontrollable size. CONTEMPORARY POLAND: Anti-Semitism Without Jews The memory of Polish complicity in the extermination of European Jewry has not faded, and Poland's reputation for anti-Semitism con­ tinues ... the most shocking portrayal of anti-Semitism surfaced during the political campaign ... The hatred and fear (of Jews) exhibited during the campaign was bold and forthright ... Two radical nationalist parties came up with a paranoid plot reminiscent of the Elders of Zion. Accord­ ing to their complicated conspiracy theory, the Jews first destroyed Poles through Communism. Then these same Jews delegated other Jews to form an opposition party and came to power as Solidarity ...

(Jenifer Bloomfield, Washington Jewish Week, September 24,1992) CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA KILL THE YIDSI'

A group of thugs, shouting 'Kill the Yids' beat up several members of a liberal writers' group during a meeting in ... Moscow. They report­ edly warned they'd be back - with machine guns. (Newsweek, February 12, 1990) In Leningrad, leaflets were circulated calling for attacks on Jews on

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May 5. The Literatnrnaya Gazeta newspaper reported last week that it had been flooded with calls from concerned readers. 'Excuse me, but will the pogroms be only in Moscow and Leningrad, or also in Kiev?' it quoted one caller as inquiring. (Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1990) CONTEMPORARY INDONESIA THE BLOODY BIRTH OE A MESSY STATE'

The Madurese were met by a large crowd of machete-swinging Dayaks - an indigenous people whose ancestors were animists and cannibals. They beheaded some of the Madurese and ripped open chests to tear out and eat still-beating hearts ... saw a beautiful young woman die. They stabbed her with a spear in the side, then cut off her head and took out her heart. (Newsweek, March 12, 2001) Armed indigenous Dayaks of the Indonesian island of Kalimantan savagely massacred nearly 500 ethnic Muslim immi­ grants from Madura, for no other reason than to sack their property and eliminate the threat of an 'alien' people. In the late 1990s ruthless militias began murdering separatists in East Timor, and Indonesia entered into a seemingly endless cycle of ethnic violence. Christians and Muslims began killing each other in the former Spice Islands and Javanese soldiers have slaughtered civilians while fighting separatist rebels in Aceh.

Contemporary Poland: revisiting a massacre Only recently has Poland come to terms with confronting her own guilt in the Holocaust. In particular, it concerns the Jedwabne massacre. The President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski, stated that it is important that 'the entire truth about the events in Jedwabne 60 years ago be disclosed'. He continued, 'Because of this dramatic event, regardless who inspired it, no matter what were the causes and the historical background, which led to this occurrence, the Jewish population residing there undoubtedly deserves our greatest respect. I believe that the commemorative events on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the murder will be an opportunity to offer this act an apology' (Polish Agency Press, March 12, 2001). The Polish president further stated: 'This was genocide committed by the Poles from Jedwabne on their Jewish neighbors. It was an extremely brutal massacre whose victims were innocent people.'

1,600 Jews in this northeastern town were attacked, tortured, stoned and clubbed as they were murdered individually or in small groups. It happened in 1941 under the Nazi occupation.

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Two young mothers drowned their babies in a pond rather than surrender them - and then drowned themselves. One man was knifed and his tongue was cut out while he was still alive. A young woman's head was cut off and kicked around. Finally, the remaining Jews - men, women, chil­ dren - were herded into a barn, which was doused with kerosene and torched ... It is a tale that, 60 years later, has stunned Poland. (Newsweek, March 5, 2001)

Tsarist Russia is long gone, but its virulent hatred of Jews lives on in such ultranationalist groups as the Pamyat. This party's recent manifesto declares that the Russian fatherland 'has been tortured and robbed by aggressive Zionism, Talmudic atheism, and cosmopolitan usury'."7 Though reports arrive from present-day Europe of a resurgence of Judaism - 'Jews are proudly calling themselves Jews once more, reviving traditions buried in the ashes of Hitler's ovens,' and 'more than remembrance: neither the Holocaust nor Communism could wipe out the Jews of Eastern Europe. Now their faith is flourishing' - they also warn, 'Underneath the surface, anti-Semitism and nation­ alism still stir memories of pogroms past.'11" Finally, alas, the unabated efforts of anti-Jewish elements have made inroads into the electronic age. Neo-Nazi home video games are flooding Germany and Austria, poisoning the minds of thou­ sands of unsuspecting, impressionable children and teenagers. These so-called 'games' have names such as 'Aryan Test', 'Anti-Turk Test', and 'KZ Manager'. They teach hatred of Jews, Turks, gays, and other minority groups. They do it with the latest sophisticated technology - including color graphics of swastikas, tortured prisoners, and pictures glorifying Adolf Hitler. One sadistic game depicts a Gestapo agent torturing a prisoner as part of the 'fun' video game. A congrat­ ulatory message appears on the video screen as the player of KZ Manager scores points for gassing victims: 'The gas has taken effect and you have freed Germany of some parasites.' Another 'game' asks a player to assume the role of commandant of a death camp. The goal is to play for points, which accumulate as the player extracts gold from the teeth of his victims and then sells their remains as dog food. At the time of writing, these 'entertainment' products have been translated into Danish and Dutch from the original German. Their vast commercial potential will, surely, warrant their translation into other languages - notably English - markets as yet to be exploited. Furthermore, in this age of terrorism, every type of intimidation may be expected on part of those who wish to deny human rights and dignity to others. The highest form of vigilance is required, so as not to permit a hijacking of history from its lofty heights as the recorded chronicle of humanity.

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The crimes against humanity committed in World War Two by the Nazi government were implemented in an unprecedented, orga­ nized, and highly institutionalized manner. The actions of the Nazi military and secret police in occupied territories were included in the Nazi concept of 'total war'. They were launched in pursuance of a preconceived plan to terrorize and exploit their adversaries."' The Third Reich persecuted communists, the Social Democrats, and countless members of the European intellectual community as well as Gypsies, gays, lesbians, and the handicapped. It even persecuted prisoners of war. Such pursuits culminated in the emergence of concentration camps. The Nazi acts of terror were, however, most frighteningly obvious in the humiliation, persecution, and ultimate murder of the Jews. The impact of these acts - especially the unique­ ness of the spiritual and physical extermination of the European Jewish community - has had a staggering influence on the structure of modern German politics. Hitler approached the war against the Jews of Europe in an inge­ nious, step-by-step process to suppress and finally utterly destroy the Jews. He began slowly, placating and soothing as he went along, convincing his intended victims that they were not being victimized, and that each step of their victimization would be their last. He slowly stretched human beings well beyond their breaking point. Jews were disenfranchised; they were denied their civil rights; their right to teach and learn; and their right to professional employment. The Fuhrer confiscated their properties, their businesses, and finally even their own and their families' lives. He forced them to wear a yellow or white identity star on their clothing, marking them for suffering and, in most cases, certain death. He preached that so long as the Jew worked, he could earn his life, and perhaps even his freedom - as exemplified in the infamous and devilishly cynical aphorism placed on every entry to the KZ Lagers, Arbeit macht frei (Work will make you free). (Eventually, after years of progressing through his rhetoric, his actions and, finally, through the actions of his subordinates, Hitler accomplished the goal he set for his Reich, as described in Mein Kampf; he made Germany and Nazi-occupied terri­ tories Judenfrei, free of Jews. He had won his war against them. This was Hitler's only lasting legacy.) Although Adolf Hitler did not totally eliminate the Jews of Europe, he did eradicate their virile cultural presence. An incredibly ambitious goal, the Final Solution to the Jewish Question required millions of enterprising Germans, collaborative Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Austrians, French, even some of the very 'cultured' Dutch, as well as token Jews. It enjoyed the support and dedication of every segment of the scientific, technological, and

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business world. It would not have been possible to erase the lives of 6 million Jews and an equal multitude of Gentiles from the face of the earth without massive help. The free world, too, assisted the Fuhrer in his task, by its indifference to the plight of the persecuted. The Nazis were the instruments of death; the world watched the bloody spectacle with cynical fascination. The Nazis murdered an entire ethnic culture for the sake of political ideology. The end justified the means. This wanton murder must not be placed in the perspective of such events as that of the conquest of Carthage, the Mongolian inva­ sions, the Inquisition, the Mexican War, the Japanese relocation camps in the US, Hiroshima, or Vietnam. Furthermore, it was not carried out by lunatics, but by ordinary, 'civilized' people. The killing system was experimented with and perfected until as many as 40,000 Jews a day could be exterminated in the three major killing factories located in Poland (excluding Auschwitz): Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor.1211 This was not a random, bungling operation, but a national industry. In a report by SS Sturmbannfiihrer Wippern, the total mone­ tary value of objects collected from Jews entering the KZ Lagers up to February 1943 was 100,047,983.91 Reichsmarks.121 This included wedding rings, watches, pens, wallets, razors, purses, scissors, artifi­ cial limbs, eyeglasses, hair, and extracted gold fillings.122 The total amount of wealth gathered by the Third Reich during the Endlosun^ (Final Solution) can only be guessed at. 'Despite all necessary attempts to comprehend it, the Nazi system in the end exceeds all comprehension. One cannot comprehend it, but only confront and oppose [it].'1-1 If Fackenheim's advice to 'confront and oppose' the idea of the Final Solution is to be heeded, we might find that we will question the character of our political, religious, and scientific institutions, and even question ourselves. There is a natural tendency to define the Holocaust as an aberration of military history as well as of human nature. In so doing, one makes sense of that event's absurdity. But by categorizing the murder of 6 million innocent, defenseless people as beyond the scope of human understanding, the burden of responsi­ bility might thereby be removed from human beings and human institutions. The message of the Final Solution has manifested itself in many ways. However, the Holocaust's most telling lesson is that human plans, ideas, and devices destroyed Europe's Jewish culture. When we confront the causes leading to the KZ Lagers, we must confront ourselves as well. There are as many responses as there are 'scholars' of the Holocaust's absurdity. Fackenheim suggests that we resign ourselves to its inaccessibility, and simply oppose manifestations of hatred. In his book, The Holocaust and International Relations, Leo Mates takes a different approach, focusing on the benefits of the Holocaust on

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global peace. First, he writes: 'The international community assumed a new role in the movement of humanity towards democracy and human rights.'124 His subsequent claim is that since the destruction of the European Jews, international law has assumed a meaningful importance in world politics.125 To support his argument, he cites the birth of the United Nations and the universal declaration of human rights. Whether or not the Holocaust or the war's devastation precip­ itated these events, one must wait for a more retrospective analysis of more detached minds, perhaps two centuries hence. What is disturbing, however, is that both authors imply a curious compla­ cency with human nature. They seem to view the Holocaust as a random, isolated historical event, despite its very 'uniqueness', its horror, and the persistence of its creators and their appointees. I am not convinced that the Holocaust has made fundamental changes in the way modern states treat their minority groups. Zygmund Bauman expresses a similar view in his book, Modernity and the Holocaust. Recognizing the natural ability of people throughout history to become killers, he says that the Final Solution has not changed 'the products of history, which in all probability contained the potentiality of the Holocaust'.12" Do humans naturally murder those they despise? Is genocide inevitable in spite of the dismal record of the twentieth century? I do not think so, for we have inherited a painful reminder from the European Jews: an admonition, which can still be felt today. The deaths of over six million Jews have effected a revolutionary global change, a reformation of human nature. The most poignant repercus­ sions of the Final Solution (besides, of course, the personal tragedies of each victim) seem to be in the scientific and political communities, though other more subtle implications abound elsewhere. Science and politics were instrumental in the development of each stage of the Final Solution, from the seminal stages in the beer halls, to the terminal entry of the gas chambers and crematoria. Therefore, in the aftermath of the exterminations, we are left with two areas which succinctly express the crimes of the past as well as the lessons for the future; the meaning and function of science and politics. In their book, The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior, Kren and Rappoport take on the Herculean task of recognizing the causes of the Holocaust. One of their conclusions is that, in post-World War One Germany, there was a 'failure of science' which permitted the violation of the Jews.127 They interpret the Nazi obsession with preci­ sion, their ruthless medical experiments, and their desire to rid Germany of its 'disease' as indications of science's failure. Apparently, Kren and Rappoport believe that the scientific commu­ nity had a responsibility to place limitations on its own behavior in order to protect the rights of the powerless. If this view is correct,

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then one could rightly claim that science somehow malfunctioned between 1933 and 1945. Yet, we can also state that science was functioning properly during the Holocaust; as such, the Holocaust was a triumphant victory for the entire scientific community. The scientific method teaches us to identify a problem, offer a solution, test the solution by experimentation and formulate a theory. Nowhere does the rubric provide for ethical standards or definitions of what it means to prac­ tice science morally. Therefore, the Nazi's Final Solution was a case study in scientific decorum: it was clean, efficient, effective, sterile and logical. The Nazis recognized their disease, as would a surgeon, and implemented the best policy to eradicate it. Gottlieb agrees in his book, Thinking the Unthinkable: Meanings of the Holocaust: 'the scientific mode of thought and the methodology attached to it were intrinsic to the mass killings.'ia* At the time of writing, researchers are faced with the question of whether to use data gathered by the Nazis in the concentration camps. Geneticists are making progress in their fields as well, cloning human beings from the genes of embryos. Euthanasia, a standard practice in Nazi Germany, has been a controversial topic in American courts, and some have extolled euthanasia's ardent advocate, Dr. Kevorkian, as a national hero. Americans look to scientists for answers to philosophical issues and ethical controversies. One might think that, if science had, somehow, failed during those crucial years before and during World War Two, then people of the present generation would approach it with reasoned apprehen­ sion. One would expect to see a general distrust of science after it failed to prevent the massacre of over six million innocent victims. However, the contrary is true. It is arguable that since the Holocaust people have replaced their faith in humanity with a faith in science. One obvious yet disturbing message of the Final Solution, which we must all face today, is a basic distrust of people: our politicians, clergy, professors, and even our own family circle. Hitler was instructional in that he made us cynically wary of leaders who promise to fix all of society's ailments. Unfortunately, Hitler's example has not instilled in us a cynicism for the whole scientific method; namely, recognizing a problem and taking steps to alleviate it. In fact, it is common for contemporary leaders to wage 'wars' on social ills, such as Aids, drugs and heart disease. The time might come when groups of people are again seen as a malady, and are exterminated in an orderly, efficient, and scientific manner. Not only has the Nazi Judeocide exposed the potential horrors of science; it has also revealed the disturbing prospect that genocide is perhaps a natural result of modern politics. Hobbes depicts a state of nature in which life is short, brutish, and dominated by those who

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have the most power. But because all humans desire to protect their own self-interest, they will come together and form a social contract, an agreement protecting each person's natural right to lite. According to Hobbes' analysis, the Nazi Final Solution would appear to have been a patent violation of the social contract between the state and its citizens. In the systems of both Hobbes and Locke, mass genocide would be inimical to the purpose of the state. But after the events at the KZ Lagers, one must question the theorv of the social contract and the ability of the modern state to protect its minorities from governmentally sanctioned genocide. Richard Rubenstein pessimistically asserts: 'Genocide is an intrinsic expression of modern civilization as we know it.'12M The Third Reich appealed to the machinery of the modern bureaucratic state to organize and make possible the extermination of six million Jews. Bureaucracy, like science and technology, objectifies the humanity of politics. People are defined by their usefulness to the state, rather than by their character, dignity, or personal achievement. The Nazis showed how bureau­ cracy reduces human beings to expendable 'objects'. The modern, sophisticated, state, contrasted with the more overtly violent states of the Middle Ages, has institutionalized polit­ ical violence, making it harder to detect, and thus more destructive. In the US, we have given our leaders the license to execute criminals, euthanize the infirm, and wage war on small, wealthy countries. Violence is an integral part of western politics, and had been long before Hitler declared himself Fuhrer. But what scholars of the Holocaust might not realize is that the Final Solution distorted the distinction between violence which is just and that which is unjust, sanctioned or rebuked.

Questions: Where is the justice? Why did this occur? How does one possibly comprehend the immensity and truly inhuman qualities of deeds as dastardly and incredibly destructive as the Final Solution and other Nazi excesses of persecution?

These are questions faced by humanity at large, but particularly confronting the nation whose history is handwritten on the walls of the gas chambers: contemporary Germany. On the surface, the Germans seem to have mastered the past, but the superficial tran­ quillity is deceptive. The Federal Republic and its erstwhile counterpart, the German Democratic Republic, went through a type of metamorphosis throughout the decades following their Nazi history. Yet today, Germans are still wrestling with their Nazi past and cannot face up to the fact that they were on the side of the 'bad guys'. They seek remedies to ease their collective guilt, such as pointing out the way the Allies and the Jews 'conspired' after the war

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to make all Germans seem evil. They rail against the wartime brutality of the Soviets - 'the Russian Bolsheviks' - while dismissing the fact that it was the behavior of the invading Nazis in the first place which invited the vengeful behavior of the Soviets. This consti­ tutes a blatant denial of recent history. The change in German views regarding the history of the Third Reich is first evident in the views of West German historians. In the late 1940s and early 1950s these individuals were initially shellshocked by the Nazi experience; while they acknowledged the mistakes of National Socialism, the worst crimes were left unex­ plored. In the shallowest accounts of the Nazi past, German historians portrayed the Third Reich as an historical accident, caused only by the social, political, and economic forces of 1933.11" A second, more complete historical analysis of the German past began in the 1960s. A new generation of German historians, particu­ larly K.D. Bracher, began examining and hypothesizing on the sociostructural conditions that had prompted the rise of Hitler, such as the critical role of the structure of the Weimar government. By the 1970s research had expanded into delicate topics, including the reasons for the extermination of the European Jews, as well as the persecution of political and intellectual members of German society in the years of Nazi domination.1,1 So side-by-side, we have a large body of evidence, and a curious refusal, based on politics, to acknowledge it. But even these discussions were extremely superficial, and historians were still ambiguous. Not until 1983 did international historians meet in Stuttgart specifically to explore the Final Solution.112 By the end of the 1980s the amount of historical literature on the Holocaust had prolif­ erated to immense proportions. In fact, many German historians are now arguing that so many different images of Nazi Germany have been introduced, that German history from 1933 to the end of World War Two has become somewhat blurred; the very momentum of historiography might well serve to 'neutralize the past'.111 Attitudes toward the past within popular political West German culture also evolved in stages. In the period immediately following the war, the Allies were caretakers of Germany's reconstruction overseeing the drafting of a new constitution to prevent the emer­ gence of another, even more powerful Reich. The Allies also constructed the Nuremberg Trials, which attempted to define in legal terms the crimes against humanity, and also documented 'for posterity' many of Nazi Germany's most heinous crimes, committed by a 'society of impunity'. Nuremberg today symbolizes the meager triumph of civilized justice over the appalling crimes of civilized, institutionalized criminality. During the second phase of rebuilding and restructuring the German economy and political system, the memory of the past was

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deemphasized. The two Germanys needed to recover from their extensive war losses, and the past was not an encouraging factor; however, memories, although suppressed, were still vivid.114 But this latent period of memory was succeeded by a third stage, the leftist rebellions of the 1960s. In Germany, and also in France, student riots were a statement about, among other things, 'the silence of the fathers'."5 (Here, it ought to be noted that denial on a national, mass level is altogether easier to achieve than the 'cleansing' of one's own conscience.) The trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann served as the triggering device for these angry protestations against a questionable national past. All the media extensively covered the gruesome testi­ mony of the witnesses. Eichmann's pathetic figure was an unwelcome guest in countless homes, as it appeared on televised newscasts. Sadly, even the memories and questions posed by the Eichmann trial were not enough to bring about an acceptance of their past by German society. Developments in the 1980s showed that a thorough reckoning with the past has still to take place. Collective guilt assumed the nature of revisionism, taking refuge in outright denial of the crimes and the past. One such denial attempts to compare Hitler's crimes with those of Stalin's purges. True, Stalin may have killed more people than Hitler. That does not, however, diminish the monstrosity of the former. Or, as the Greens and other leftists in Germany are so fond of noting, the United States dropped the bomb on Japan."* On November 10,1988, Phillip Jenninger, a well-known Christian Democrat, organized a memorial session in Parliament to commem­ orate Kristallnacht. In his address, Jenninger portrayed the Third Reich as being 'blinded and seduced' by Hitler.117 He conjured up images of a Germany humiliated after World War One, and frighten­ ingly glorified the accomplishments of Hitler: 'Did not Hitler make into reality what was only a promise under Wilhelm II, that is, to bring wonderful times to the Germans? Was not Hitler selected by Providence, a leader who was given to a people once in a thousand years?'"" He bravely addressed the topic of the Jews: And as for the Jews, hadn't they in the past, after all, sought a position that was not their place? Mustn't they now accept a bit of curbing? Hadn't they, in fact, earned to be put in their place?'IW It was clear to those reading the speech that Jenninger neither shared nor condoned such sentiments, that he was merely quoting what Germans had said all along. But that was not what the listening parliamentarians understood. A series of protests and strikes occurred, throwing the German political scene into turmoil. Much of the criticism in his speech, Jenninger later explained, was politically motivated.14" He also added that many of those listening had not

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wanted to hear the type of speech he delivered. 'They wanted a funeral oration, a eulogy. But 1 gave them a history lesson. Many did not want that; they wanted to excuse themselves.'141 But even if Jenninger's comments were actually intended to glorify Hitler and justify the murder of European Jewry, the reaction of the German politicians and the public still clearly illustrate the unwillingness of Germany to deal with its Nazi past. The German people are conspicuously disassociated from any connection with the perpetration of the Holocaust; they want to distance themselves from it, almost wishing for it to go away. These feelings of with­ drawal and denial are illustrated vividly by the decision in 1988 to destroy 'one of the last remnants of traditional Jewish life in Germany', the ruins of the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto, to make space available for a municipal center. What was even more disturbing to many opposition politicians and prominent Jews around the world was that the German government 'had the audacity to deliver Kristallnacht commemoration speeches', such as Jenninger's, 'in a Frankfurt synagogue as the bulldozers rolled.'142 Issues of political significance are often motivated by the past. For example, the Bundestag debated for a long time whether or not to strengthen the armed forces - the Bundeswehr - for fear that it would tend to frighten the rest of Europe, because of what had happened before. Another hot issue was that of tightening controls on the influx of refugees into Germany. It was tabled, for fear of appearing overly nationalistic. While some Germans sought to accept guilt and blame when none was warranted, others claimed that there was never a need for shame. They agonized whether to admit that neo-Nazi violence has become endemic to their society, thereby confessing that they still have not reined in their own worst instincts. They would much rather regard neo-Nazis as isolated examples of thuggery, but this only invites crit­ icism that they are again ignoring a horror in the making. Though Germany has the potential for asserting leadership in the European Union - which, as things stand, is very unlikely - such action may bring forth whispers that the country has again become a bully. Should Germany decide to disengage from the union, she would be accused of retreating into dangerous nationalism. It is this specter of doubt that is manifest in the anxiety of the younger gener­ ation, the majority of which is well-meaning and earnest in rectifying the errors of their elders. The consequences of the Third Reich on the European Jews were immeasurable and continue to be so. The child survivors who suffered mentally as well as physically are still feeling the effect, as is reflected in the entire Jewish community throughout the world. Whether or not child survivors were able to return to some sort of

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mental and physical stability after the war ended, we should look upon them, as a whole, as the ideal of what we all hope to be if such an occurrence marred our lives. The strength encompassed in their young bodies and minds is a strength that many may only wish they could possess. It is this endurance that has led to the continuation of a Jewish tradition and the foundation of a free Jewish state in Israel. A unified Germany may not wish to deal with the shadow of its past, but it eventually must. The political effects engendered by the Holocaust are far from over, in fact, they may have only partially begun to surface. Although Germany is now one, the rest of the world has not yet forgotten the past. Only when Germany persuades the international community that it will not become a Fourth Reich, will the world comfortably accept a unified Germany. But before this can occur, Germany itself must come to grips with its own past; it must remember its own helplessness and the promises made during the years preceding the Nazi takeover and the subsequent debacle promises made to the communists about release; to the Social Democrats about reform; to the intellectuals about tolerance; and to the Jews about their lives. Jenninger's comments hold more truth than Germans realize: Germans were, indeed, manipulated and captivated by Hitler. Until they recognize and admit their surrender to one of the most brutal murderers in history, Germany will never be free of the ghost of her past. Until she recognizes her own partici­ pation in these murders and persecutions, her conscience will forever plague her. If she eventually comes to terms with her past, Germany must ask: 'Why did it happen?' and 'How did it happen?' instead of asking merely 'What may we do to atone for the sins of our fathers?' These are questions humankind may never be able to answer, and perhaps will not want to answer. But if humanity cannot learn from this, its most ghastly mistake, then multiple millions of innocent men, women, and children have met their deaths for no reason. This could yet become our greatest crime.

Afterthought Two news items that appeared in national magazines spark renewed concerns about sociopolitical conditions in the United States. One appeared in Newsweek as far back as 1991, the other in US News and World Report in 1994. THE NEW POLITICS OF RACE

As distrust and resentment grow between Blacks and Whites, Washington strategists manipulate the tension with clever slogans and divisive labels. In this murky atmosphere, moral leadership has given way to the

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scheming of Washington operatives armed with clever slogans and divisive labels. This is the politics of race where notions of fairness and equality are lost in a scramble of 'get yours.' In a society that is becoming increasingly multicolored, there is no escaping the ancient conflicts of race ... Racial outbursts are no longer limited to extremist groups, to rednecks in white robes. With disturbing frequency, uppermiddle-class college students shout racial slurs.145 THE WHITE UNDERCLASS

Does the rise in out-of-wedlock babies and white slums foretell a social catastrophe? While its roots are diverse, the white underclass often sprouts in the shadows of shuttered factories and what were once hard-drinking, blue-collar sections of town. The list of cities with white ghettos including Detroit, Flint and Jackson, Mich., and Duluth, Minn. - reads like a roll call of rust belt decay ... Predominantly white gangs, like those in Detroit, have proliferated in a number of white ghettos.144 The past is inviolate. But we must make an effort to safeguard the tomorrows ... if there are to be tomorrows. No further comment is necessary. The global society has been put on urgent notice. NOTES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

L. Dinnerstein, Uneasy at Home, 4. Ibid., 8. Ibid. Volk, Legacy of Hale, 24. Ibid., 41. Dinnerstein, Uneasy at Home, 143. Martire and Clark, Anti-Semitism in the United States, 114. Perlmutter and Perlmutter, Real Anti-Semitism in America, 48. W. King, 'Twenty Held in Seven-State Sweep of Nazis Arming for War on US,' New York Times, March 3,1985, 20. Newsweek, 'Violence on the Right,' March 4, 1985, 26. Ibid., 25. L. Latimer, 'Arlington Nazi Says Partv Plans to Shift to Midwest,' Washington Post, December 25, 1982, bl. D. Lowe, ‘Computerized Network of Hate,' USA Today, Vol. 114, July 1985, 12. D. King, 'Neo-Nazi Describes Assassination Plans,' New York Times, September 14, 1985. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 23. Ibid., 24. Latimer, 'Arlington Nazi,' 1. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 26. Ibid., 25. Ibid., 24. R T. Zinti, 'Dreams of a Bigot's Revolution,' Time, March 1985, 42. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 23. King,'Twenty Held,'22. Ibid., 18. Newsuvek, 'Violence,' 27.

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King, 'Twenty Held,' 22. Ibid., 18. Lowe, 'Network of Hate,' 12. Zinti, 'Bigot's Revolution,' 42. Lowe, 'Network of Hate,' 12. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 26. M. Riley, 'White or Wrong: New Klan Old Hatred,' Time, September 3,1982, 25. M. Newton and J.A. Newton, The Ku Klux Klan, An Encyclopedia (New York: 1991), xiif. M. Swartz, 'Vidor: In Black and White,' Texas Monthly, December 1993, 160f. D.S. Levy, 'The Cantor and the Klansman,' Time, February 17, 1992, 16. I? Marcotte, 'Klan Cable Suit: Claims Right to Air Kansas City on Public Access TV,' ABA Journal, May 1989, 38. 37. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 18. 38. Ibid. 39. Riley, 'White or Wrong,' 25. 40. Ibid. 41. Levy, 'Cantor and the Clansman,' 16. 42. M. Curtis, 'Anti-Semitism in the United States,' Midstream, January 1992, 20. 43. Ibid., 21. 44. Ibid., 24. 45. J. Chanes, 'Anti-Semitism in the United States: on the Rise or on the Decline?’, Midstream, January 1990, 24. 46. D. Corn, 'GOP Anti-Semites,' The Nation, October 24,1988, 369. 47. 'Atwaterism,' The Nation, April 3, 1989, 440. 48. J. Weisberg, 'The Heresies of Pat Buchanan,' New Republic, October 22, 1990, 22-7. 49. Ibid., 26. 50. M. Cohler, 'Republican Racist,' New Republic, September 18-25,1989, 12. 51. W. King, 'Bad Times on the Bayou,' Nau York Times Magazine, June 11,1989,120. 52. M. Cooper, 'David Duke's White Appeal,' US Naus and World Report, July 23,1990,24f. 53. Zatarin, Evolution of a Klansman, 55ff. 54. Ibid., 67. 55. Ibid., 69. 56. Ibid., 107. 57. Ibid., 108. 58. Ibid., 36. 59. Ibid. 60. Cohler, 'Republican Racist,' New Republic, September 18-25, 1989, 12. 61. Cooper,'Duke's White Appeal', 25. 62. Nau York Times, October 5,1990, Al. 63. Ibid., A18. 64. New York Times, October 8,1990, Al. 65. Ibid., A12. 66. Ibid., September 3, 1990, A12. 67. L. Hill, 'Nazi Race Doctrine in the Political Thought of David Duke,' in The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race, 95. 68. E. Rickey, 'The Nazi and the Republicans: an Insider View of the Response of Ihe Louisiana Republican Party to David Duke,' in The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race, 62ff. 69. Ibid., 74. 70. Ibid., 73. 71. Ibid. 72. Ibid., 173. 73. Hill, Nazi Race Doctrines,'95. 74. Ibid., lOOff. 75. Ibid., 102ff. 76. Ibid., 103ff. 77. Ibid. 78. Ibid. 79. G. Carroll, 'Coming Soon: Klub KKK: A Dream Resort for White Supremacists,' in Newsweek, July 8, 1991, 30. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

Xenophobia Revisited: The Politics of Hatred and Blame gfl. al g2 83. 84. g5 gO 87. g8. g9. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110.

111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 136.

469

Ibid. Ibid. Riley, 'White or Wrong,’ 26. [bld Ib'd Carroll, 'Coming Soon,' 30. Riley, White or Wrong,' 27. Ibid. Newsweek, 'Violence,' 20. Bullock, Hitler: A Study, 27. Peitkoff, Ominous Parallels, 101-43. Ibid., 318. Kershaw, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent, 76. Ibid., 375. Ibid., 375ff. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 117. Ibid., 392. Heiden, History of National Socialism, 255. Ibid., 249. Cooper et al., 'LaRoushed in Illinois,' Newstveek, March 22, 1988, 31. Deighton, Blitzkrieg, 18. Ibid. R. Stengel, 'Politics from the Twilight Zone,' Time, Vol. 127, no. 13, March 31,1986, 29. Time, December 19,1994. Parade, April 1994,4. Ibid. Newsweek, October 1,1990. US News, October 3,1994. D.D. Eisenhower, Letter to G. Marshall (documentary film), April 12, 1945. K.N. MacVay, Holocaust FAQ: Willis Cartho and the Insititute for Historical Review, October 23,1994. J. DiNardo, 'Israeli and US Governments Assassinate US Army Colonels,' Usernet newsgroup, October 18, 1984. Miller, New York Times, November 16, 1986. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust, 24. D. Benjamin, 'Foreigners, Go Home,' Time, November 23,1992, 48f. Sh. Samuels, The Wiesenthal Centre, Paris, France. Time, February 6,1995. Russel, Scorge of the Swastika, 1. Feig, Hitler's Death Camps, 326. Ibid. Ibid. Mates, Holocaust and International Relations, 93. Ibid., 131. Ibid., 135. Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 86. Rubenstein and Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, 346. Gottlieb, Thinking the Unthinkable, 357. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz, 123. Miller, One by One by One, 35. Ibid., 33. Ibid. Ibid. K.H. Jarausch, 'Removing the Nazi Stain? The Quarrel of the German Historians,' in Quantitative Methods for Historians (Chapel Hill: 1991), 287ff. Miller, One by One by One, 39. Jarausch, 'Removing the Nazi Stain?,' 298.

470 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144.

Warning and Hope S. Schmemann, 'A Very German Storm: Dust Settles and Unsettles,' New York Times, December 14, 1988, A4. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Miller, One by One by One, 39. Fineman et al., Newsweek, May 6,1991, 22ff. Whiteman et al., US News & World Report, October 17, 1994, 40ff.

Warning Legacy and Conclusions

Each day I have lived after my liberation from the KZ Lagers years ago has been a great gift; the gift of life. Hatred for the perpetrators has long been replaced by a quiet, introspective, return into the mainstream of society. I only ask that the passage of time will not dull my memory, which might trivialize the evil of Hitler and the suffering and the ensuing murder of my people. (William Samelson, 1998)

Legacy and Conclusions History is indeed the witness of the times, the light of truth. (Cicero)

Questions: What can you tell about a country in which the Jews were 'legally sanctioned' to be murdered? What can you tell about a country where it was NOT a crime to kill Jews, but on the contrary, that it was more of a crime not to kill them? Answer: That was the Third Reich.

Night after night ... sleep doesn't come easy. I lie awake, with my eyes shut tightly to avoid seeing the faces that lurk in the dark corners. I try to put the demons inside me to rest ... Battling ... Whispering mad incantations ... 'If I survive, Mama, 1 want to be a doctor. A violinist-doctor, Mama. Do you like that?' She holds me tightly in her arms, swaying back and forth, grieving. She applies cold towels to my burning forehead. There's no remedy to the fever. 'Where are all the other chil­ dren, Mama?' 'They're all gone, Velvele,' she says softly, gently wiping the sweat from my brow, 'those that are still here, have suffered too much to remain children.' I hear machine gun fire outside ... rat-ta-ta-ta ... rat-ta-ta-ta ... rat-ta-ta-ta. 'They're shooting our people again, Mama? Why don't they let them starve in peace? Why don't they, Mama?'

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She continues to sway in silence. ‘Marnushka, I don't want to grow up, ever. Do you hear? Marnushka? I don't want to be a grownup! Grownups murder children.' She hums a sad melody. I hear the beautiful voice, and 1 strain to see the face, but all I can see are sunken cheeks, sad deep-set sockets with brightly burning flames inside, and the bared teeth of an anaemic smile. 'Why don't you talk to me, Mama?' 'I'm mute with grief, my dearest son.' 'I'm frightened, Mama.' 'What are you afraid of, my darling?' 'I fear that I no longer care for the other children, Mama. I'm hungry and I want food, Marnushka. And I don't care what becomes of the others.' 'You mustn't abandon concern for others, my son. It's the only thing left us, the only worthwhile feeling left.' Her lips are moving, but there's no sound. I can hear her thoughts, while she fades from sight as well. Her bent-over figure fades in the distance ... children ... skeletal children lying everywhere ... motionless and silent in their anguish ...' Why the little chil­ dren?' a voice asks into the dark of the night... The brightness ahead is almost blinding, there are golden, paisley patterns of exotic flowers, lush vegetation, and bright shooting stars, all at once, intense, and overpowering. I know 1 have to reach them, and I'm moving toward the apparition, moving my feet as fast as I'm able, occasionally looking over my shoulder - is it with fear? - into the dark abyss beneath from which I came, pursued by demons - monsters in the form of razor-sharp, broken crosses, engulfed in a cataclysm of exploding flames that cut into everything in their path - insa­ tiable, they dissect the flesh, wreaking havoc ... I have to get away ... now ... with a thrust of courage ... they're after me ... now ... the light ahead comes closer, but so do the demonic creatures ... I climb the tall cliff, rocks cut deep into my bleeding palms, a multitude of obstacles appear out of nowhere... my legs feel as if they are made of lead and I lose my footing ... pieces of rock fall into the hollow pit of space ... 1 look down after them, human bodies explode as they hit the hard surface below, into bits of bloody ectoplasm ... The broken crosses are gaining on me ... now stronger than before, blood-nourished, devouring one another and thirsting for more ... I move with increased effort, but I can't seem to distance myself from my pursuers ... I gasp for breath ... 1 fight the darkness ... approaching ... I keep telling myself 'You'll be okay ... just hang in there ...

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you'll be okay ... you can't die now ... not after all that risk you've been taking ... not now ... you're almost there ... ... I feel their crooked blades cutting into the soles of my naked feet ... aaah ... what pain ... I scream without a sound. The light is near. I reach out and almost touch its soothing edge. If only they would slow down in their pursuit ... relentless ... they cut deeper now and deeper ... I'm too young!!! Not ready to die!! I want to live ... oh, how much I want to live ... to get away ... to rest awhile ... to rest ... to sleep awhile ... to forget the pungent smell of sweat... the running feet ... the cries and groans of plummeting souls, cut down by the pursuing broken crosses ... Nooo! I Won't let you touch me!

Not

Not ever! Aargh ... What pain! What Why me!

now!

anguish endured!

I wake bathed in cold sweat. Another night of these recurring excursions into my private hell. Enough. I've seen the face of death, and now, to live, and tell my story ... The year was 1947. Soon it was going to be September, the month of my birth, but 1 could not bring myself to rejoice at the thought of my impending birthday. It was now more than two years since that war had ended, and things seemed 'normal' once again. Only I wasn't sure they were. We had joined the legions of surplus people, living on the fringes of society. A feeling of alienation, homelessness, and being alone pervaded our existence. And though I'd wished for acceptance, it was soli­ tude I sought. There was much living to catch up on. Six and a half years make for a long time of waste, if you'd languished senselessly in camps, being used (or used up) as a slave laborer. My mind kept going back to those places, only because I believed that to give them any semblance of meaning, I had to search out the rare positive experiences they'd provided; the love between siblings and trusted friends that endured in the midst of despair; refusal to succumb to the constant threat of death; the choice offered a desperate mother to accompany her small child on a terminal journey, and the mother's courage in accepting that challenge; the subtle decency of a stern Nazi foreman's oversight in inven­ torying his lunch-box; the kindnesses of those not expected to show compassion; the treachery of those you'd trusted; the ghettos with their countless epidemics, hunger and death, and the many selfless caretakers; my mother's tender kisses and a strong, final, hug before she and my seven-year-old sister Felusia were taken on their terminal journey.

476

Warning and Hope

Aware that I survived repeated life-threatening episodes, I lived with the certainty of their impending return. ' Vilusiek, you must love one another, and mind your brother Roman,' My mother's last admonishments resounded in my memory. Two years my elder, Roman was due proper respect. 'Love will make you strong for the hard times ahead,' she quickly added while warding off the blows of an overzealous Gestapo thug. These were the last words my mother uttered to my brother Roman and me, followed by shouts that came our way through the crevices of the rolling freight cars. Soon, we were embarking on our own odyssey of labor and concentration camps, throughout Poland and the Third Reich; it was 'resettlement', they had told us, though our final destination was a concentra­ tion camp called Buchenwald, situated in the picturesque Thuringian hills all covered with beech trees, a stone's throw from Weimar, the cradle of German 'Kultur' and the erstwhile home of Goethe, Schiller, and Beethoven. There was, not long ago, only a narrow, one-way, dirt road leading to Buchenwald. The new regime has widened it as an invitation to visitors. I'll not be enticed to return, to enter through the wrought-iron gate announcing 'Arbeit macht frei.' I'm not much for memorials; especially those encapsulating death and humanity's dark side ... I must press onward, to live without guilt, with no regrets, for the love of life only and at peace with myself. Of one thing I was certain now: 1 will know how to relish the pure enjoyment of life, for I have had more than one man's share of flirting with death.

I glance at the bent-over frame of my father Henryk. He is a man in his late forties, who once boasted he hadn't been sick a day in his life. Now, after having spent three years in the Soviet gulag, a subsequent conscription in the Soviet army, and the conquest of Berlin in a Soviet soldier's uniform, he is a mere shadow of the man he was when he left our home in 1939, before that war had begun ... 1 was a small boy of ten then, but 1 understood that he was leaving to fight the invading Nazi hordes. Before climbing into the waiting military truck, he took me aside, knelt next to me and held me in a fast embrace. 'Remember to practice your violin, my son,' he admonished, and I thought I caught him brushing away a tear. 'You have a God-given talent, but only through diligent work will you be able to refine your skill.' 'I'll make you proud, Papa,' I'd promised, nearing tears myself, though trying to be brave.

Legacy and Conclusions

477

'And take care of Mama, Vilek,' he added hastily, climbing into the truck. 'Your brother Roman will have his hands full looking after Felusia.' Having assigned responsibilities, my father joined his comrades on the truck. 1 followed the vehicle with my tear-filled eyes till it had disappeared behind a bend in the road. That was the last time 1 saw my father, until we met again at war's end. As for violin practice, 1 did what I could. Even to the very moment of the ghetto liquidation, I played each day, keeping my fingers nimble and my memory sharp. After all, 1 was destined to become a great violinist. Now, in retrospect, for the first time in as long as 1 can remember, I find myself in a no-win situation. My past flashes before my eyes; a promising future of concerts interrupted by an accident of life. What followed were the six and a half years of Nazi famine; a black hole of history devouring all that was good and worthwhile in its path. There was no music, no artistic expression. In fact, there was no violin. 1 would have played in the camp orchestra, had 1 not feared separation from my brother. Besides, an enraged SS man broke my violin with one strike against my head. Virtuosity was quickly replaced by the daily struggle for survival. And my bleeding forehead healed much faster than the wounded pride. 'But you're still my child,' my father insists, 'and I'm respon­ sible for you.' Ever since our reunion, 1 resented my father's protective attitude. I wanted to remind him that I became a man when he abandoned me at almost age eleven; that I had done well through all those dark years, with no one looking after me save the Nazi thugs in all those camps. But I kept my silence. What did it matter now? His two sons held out a promise of continuity to this shell of a man. Words should not be allowed to destroy anyone's illusions, 1 thought. I'm his son, and I understand. He's my father. Does he understand? Does he know how many times during those years I cried out his name? The issue is not even that. Fact is, I don't know that I can play the role of a son any more than he ought to play that of a father. Let's leave it at trying to be civil to one another. Perhaps friends, without pretense and the camouflage of lies. That isn't very much to ask for, is it? Love is uncondi­ tional, after all. I was a son once, I remember through the passage of time. Today, I'm a recovering fatherless person, and I don't know that I would be able to retrieve my own soul with the weight of Henryk's anchored at my feet. If it's support he's looking for, he has come to the wrong place. 1 had lost that father long ago, the

478

Warning and Hope

day he walked out and shut the door behind him. The father I longed for and imagined, the one that sustained me throughout flood and drought, was no longer here, and this stranger sitting across from me at the dinner table with a worried look on his parched face is but a faint image of that once revered man. My father was that tall, strong man who could fix any problem, no matter how great. He would take time out of a busy day to comfort me. That was the good time; the time when I was growing up. Am I being too severe in my judgment of this white-haired man sitting across from me? But then he went off and left his family behind. And those wicked people had sent me to those terrible places. No one had taken the time even once to work with me, to show me the ropes, to tell me I'm worth something. I had become handi­ capped, and an illiterate. And my keepers would not teach me to be more productive. On the contrary, I had the best role models showing me how to steal, lie, and even kill. I've gone through the best schools for assassins ever invented in this civi­ lized world of ours; the Lagers. 1 robbed, lied, and I killed, but I didn't know any better at the time. It wasn't my fault I couldn't read nor write. I was evil, but I survived, and now 1 have to live with all that because I can't take it back. What happened then, during the evil time, is indelibly etched into my self. I know Henryk has his problems. But I'm trying hard to solve my own. Once I get to the core of my own humanity, I might be able to help Henryk out of his own prison. Not for a while, though. Right now, I'm powerless, struggling to unlock my own doors and let out the howling demons, while keeping what's left of my worthwhile self inside. That'll be quite a juggling act, I feel, if I can manage it. Come what may, I'm sure that I'll do my level best to try and help myself and, in the process, I might help him too. I've made progress already, after all, for not long ago there was a time I didn't know what I wanted to do or become, nor did 1 care; I was only aware of the things I didn't want to do and the person I didn't want to be. But that, too, has changed, like all things do, and now I'm beginning to care for myself and for others as well. I understood the blind rage that swept over my father. 'I'll never be free of the pain of what happened!' he shouted, 'and I'll never forgive those murdering savages!' His whole body shook uncontrollably. I was silent. I was no longer inclined to share my father's hatred for all that was German, having spent the last couple of years searching for answers while enrolled at the University of

Legacy and Conclusions

479

Heidelberg. I couldn't dream of unraveling them for someone else, least of all my father. On the day of liberation, I found myself streetwise but socially dysfunctional and a virtual illiterate. I faced the future with dismay. I spoke a number of languages; it was 'understand or die' in the camps, but I spoke no language correctly. A 17-yearold sixth-grader, I was unwilling to play catch-up with the rest of the world. I was filled with bitterness and self-pity, having just begun to sense the injustice of it all, the damage I'd suffered because of the war. I demanded retribution. Study became my top priority. I was haunted by thoughts of inadequacy, both mental and physical. Would I be able to catch up? There were many questions and few answers. Dear Fraulein Paula Kaiser, my mentor, tried to put some order into my distraught mind. Nearly blind though she was from birth, she did more than teach me the basic requisites of academic rigor. She guided my return to a gradual appreciation of nature by encouraging excursions through the imported tulips filling the middle of the Kaiser Friedrich Ring in Wiesbaden; one among many popular parks and recreational areas. She knew that for me to find peace with my fellow man, I had better first be in harmony with nature and with my self. But I was far from being grateful or accommodating. I accompanied her to concerts at the famed Kurhaus and we heard some of the most renowned virtuosi, among them the violinists Yasha Heifetz, David Oistrakh, and Yehudi Menuhin. She did that hoping to rekindle the dormant musical genie which lay bottled up deep within my soul. Instead, while the soloists would bring the house to its feet, I remained seated, against my conscious will, my fingers gripping Paula's, my heart ready to burst; my soul was invaded by demons of envy bent on upsetting the pure joy of music: 'It could have been me up there ... it could have been me' a voice kept repeating, and I shook with an inexplicable rage. Softly, Paula massaged my convulsive fingers, whispering calming words; all to no avail. The venom of rivalry flooded my veins. The awareness that the past could not be recaptured brought with it a feeling of helplessness and resignation. I stopped frequenting concert halls altogether. 'All this is such a waste of time, Paula,' I said to her impa­ tiently. She argued, trying to resensitize my psyche. 'Let's get on with more important matters. 1 can't afford to waste my time on trivialities.' Her empty eyes glazed over and, trying to avoid

480

Warning and Hope

another emotional scene, I humored her, with promises, but my heart wasn't in it, and I knew she'd sensed that. 'It's not that some people are more important than others,' she argued, 'there are those who bring something to life that others can only observe or listen to. You have a God-given talent. You are the lucky one.' She echoed the long-forgotten words of my father, and that brought about more resentment. 'They took it away from me long ago,' I murmured to myself. And then aloud: 'It's quite out of the question for me to play the violin again. 1 wonder whether the fleeting moments of victories are not out of proportion with the endless grinding effort to reach perfection.' I paused. 'Anyway, it demands total commitment and passion, and I have neither. I know I won't ever reach the heights I could have reached were it not for ... for ...' She interrupted me in mid-sentence. 'Forget self-pity and thoughts of revenge, my dear William,' she pleaded, 'love is the only way.' I wanted to believe her, but the venom of hate had settled inside me for a long time, and I'd forgotten what it meant to love or to be loved. Besides, everyone I was capable of loving was dead or lost somewhere without a trace. I kept thinking, what if they are not lost at all, but I am, and they are searching for me? After all, I'm lost in transit; a displaced person. Homeless, belonging nowhere, an uprooted victim of war. I have recollections of the departed; distant embraces, kiss­ able lips, bodies I want to feel. I sense dejection wherever I turn, for there is no one there who cares. There is helplessness around me, and helplessness brings on frustration and rage. What was love? Would I ever again be capable of it? Once it now seems so very long ago - I had experienced love; my mother's unbridled affection, which complemented my father's sternness, and the curious, on-again-off-again affection of my siblings, Felusia and Roman. It endured long after we had been separated by war. Time had taught me to keep my emotions under control. It had become a necessary measure of caution, a way to survive, a guarantee against games of fortune whose illusory magic might vanish with a sleight of hand. I was not one to let fate get the better of me. Not now, not ever. 'How do you expect to become a respected member of society, with your distrust of people and lack of confidence in others as well as yourself?,' Paula asked perplexed. 'You must begin by trusting someone, else no one will trust you either.' She raised her voice slightly, and I knew it was for emphasis not anger. 'After all,' she continued softly, 'you are an educated

Legacy and Conclusions

481

person. Educated people take a gamble on life. It's more than just going through the motions of existence. Risk-taking makes life exciting, worth living.' 'I've had enough excitement and risk-taking for awhile, haven't I?,' I asked half in jest. But at times like these, Paula would stare at me that empty stare of hers, and turn her face away, denying me closer scrutiny of her emotions. I'd embar­ rass her unintentionally, and she would assume that far-away look, disarming me with a furtive tear that rolled slowly down her cheek. She would then reach up and wipe it, signaling the need for a temporary reprieve from my line of inquiry. There were so many lessons to be learned from our rela­ tionship. And I often wondered how much longer my impoverishment might have lasted had 1 not taken a risk on Paula. Dear friend that she was, she was unable to understand my caution. Trust was a natural consequence of her handicap; a weakness when dealing with mine.

The former slaves were unable to accept their good fortune. They had to work hard at experiencing feelings of contentment and joy. Deep inside, beneath the veneer of accommodation, they viewed everyday matters with suspicion, expecting the worst. Rather than accept the reality of their liberation in good faith, they braced themselves against the possibility that this might all be an illusory state. It snow-rained for four days uninterruptedly, and on the fifth day it had decided to rain solo; at first softly, then harder, until at last the rain was falling solid from the skies. 1 ran into the open yard. I wanted to feel the elements, become part of them, now of my own volition, without being driven by armed jailers. I felt the streaming waters pounding at my drenched body, and 1 perceived the essence of life itself, a oneness with the all, and I thought, life. For the first time 1 experienced a oneness with nature. It occurred to me during those few moments of unity that the ancient Greeks must have been wrong after all; we were here, not merely for the amuse­ ment of the gods, but as their playmates. The rain had finally stopped. The people rejoiced. How resilient these survivors are!, I marveled. Only yesterday, gloom and despair seemed an accepted reality. Now the sun has emerged, its rays appeared to infuse certain energy into their hearts. Clearly, they were easy to please. When people are happy, they sing and they dance. We formed a large circle, arms intertwined shoulder to shoulder, and someone produced a small mouth harmonica; that was all that was necessary for our traditional folk dance, the hora.

482

Warning and Hope

The circle kept swirling round and round, accelerating to a dizzying tempo, growing bigger as more people joined in. The dancers' faces lit up as if in a trance, happy to forget their daily concerns. The dancers' feet pounded through the wooden floor as they kicked up a dust cloud that sparkled with a kaleido­ scope of colors against the incoming sun's rays. I looked on, astonished. Suddenly, it occurred to me that these were not ordinary people at all; they were from a world unlike the commonplace, for they had lived through experi­ ences that 'ordinary' people only dare to read about or speak of in hushed voices. Strange things. Shockingly dreadful things. In their erstwhile universe, kindness was an exception and wickedness and cruelty were the accepted norms; laughter was forbidden and unwarranted; tears were habitually shed, until there were none left. And suddenly I understood; these people yearned for happiness all along. Like other people, they wanted to laugh, to love, and to be carefree. Like others, they had the right to display that yearning without fear of repression. Only, there had been obstacles erected in their path as far back as I was able to remember, and even farther into ancient history. It also occurred to me that this might have been the reason why these ancient people had mastered the art of weeping unlike any other people, and why mastering the art of laughter was occasionally achieved only with the greatest of effort. Momentarily, all the weeping, praying, and cursing were forgotten. A strange exhilaration had unleashed its magic and loud, spontaneous laughter was heard; a most unfamiliar sound to my ears. It was good to know that these people were once again capable of it. Soon, I hoped, rituals, symbols, and story­ telling would once again become important elements in their lives; a whole store of enjoyment, which they had unknowingly preserved from better days, would once again surface. They would continue to survive and flourish despite the over­ whelming odds laid in their path. They would survive long enough to give tolerance another chance; to make coexistence palpable.

Survivors: the numbered and the numb On the day of liberation, I vent my anger at my benefactor, the American GI. Instead of gratitude, I keep asking: 'Why did it take all those years for someone to care? Why did it take so many lives for someone to listen? Wasn't one life lost enough?

Legacy and Conclusions

483

Why didn't my rescuers react to human rights abuses without vested interests? Because we were Jews, without a home of our own, without proper representation, we were forgotten and abandoned. Why did they have to wait till some of their own were killed, to come to our aid?' By that time, we were only a remnant of a people. The shame of their insensitive behavior will not easily be forgotten. Not while I'm alive.

In retrospect, I realize that I may never know the answers to my many questions. I also know that my gratitude for the American GI transcends the anger I felt toward the outside world, which stood by passively while the Nazis slaughtered my family. Even after so many years, I feel special warmth in my heart toward that AfricanAmerican corporal, Bill Blake - himself a descendant of slaves - who had come to emancipate me from the slavery of the Third Reich. He was my present-day Moses. I know he cared. And I also remember those Americans who gave their lives on the battlefield, so that some of us could live. I know they would have come sooner, had they been given the sign to do so. We were all victims of political contingencies and circumstances. Even after all these years, I am troubled by the knowledge that I belong to that group the Nazis persecuted, who as survivors placed the struggle to remain alive above all else. We sought our well-being ahead of all else; despite moral lessons we may have learned before our imprisonment. We adopted the basic principle governing emer­ gency situations: fend for yourself, for no one else will do it for you. I cannot deny that many of the Lager survivors found themselves performing acts that violated the conventional moral code. However, they cannot be held accountable, for they were not given the luxury of choice. The deeds they performed were beyond their control. Their only choice hovered between life and death. I have heard it said that we live in a world of realities; that only the practical survives; that it is easy to remain an idealist when one is removed from the real problems. I must admit, there is some truth in that. But, then, if people were completely stripped of their idealism, their imagination gone, what would there remain to distinguish them from the wild beast? Though I lived with the pervasive thought of surviving at any cost, 1 also knew that the Nazis were monsters that made monsters of all of their victims. This was their most sinister crime, their deepest shame. As time wore on during my confinement, the civilized half of me gradually gave way to my instinctive desire to adjust to my envi­ ronment. Immersed in deep hatred toward the perpetrators and the insensitive world outside, I searched constantly for a purpose to justify my struggle for survival; Nazi hatred and the promise of

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Warning and Hope

vengeance both seemed inadequate reasons. I quickly learned that if one is not able to overcome the evils and handicaps of one's life, one is condemned to live with them forever. To submit to that would offer an easy triumph to my tormentors. And then I realized also that there are worse things than suffering, and hating is one of them. I am reminded here of a thought expressed in one of his verses by the foremost German wit and cartoonist, Wilhelm Busch:

Hass und minus und vergeblich wird im Leben abgeschrieben. Aufgezeigt im Buch des Lebens Sind die Stunden die wir lieben. (Hate and negation are, in vain, written off in our lives. Take a note; only the hours of love Are recorded in the book of life.) (Translation mine) I regarded survival as my second chance at 'making it' on this earth. After an eerie existence without my own identity; robbed of a sense of connectedness with family, society, nature, and learning; stuck behind barbed wire fences, locked gates, sentries at the readv to punish or kill at the wink of an eyelash, I was free. I remember one of my liberators asking: 'You been in a long time?' A question I found difficult to answer. Finally, I responded: 'One moment spent in invol­ untary confinement is a moment too long.' Seen in retrospect, my life was a series of coincidences - of course, some things may have been genetically predetermined, such as my ethnicity, the color of my eyes, the shape of my head, nose, and cheekbones, as well as other physical features - but, for the most part, my fate was determined by chance. Time and place may have played an important role in that determination. However, because condi­ tions changed constantly, I had to learn to adjust and arrive at the best possible decisions under the worst possible circumstances. What are the behavior adjustments one can make during times of suppression and a total absence of human rights? Foremost is the acceptance of the truth about a given situation; in the case of Nazi persecution, awareness that reports of the Final Solution were absolutely true. It was hard to accept the reality of the things happening, while the logical mind tried to reject them, but you finally arrived at a grudging admission, while telling yourself: 'It can't be happening to me,' immediately followed by:' Why is it happening to me?' What followed was a time of adjustment; coping with indignities of a subhuman existence; suffering silently; learning to wait and hope for an opportunity to resist in a world where hope was a luxury. Subsequently, I learned how to cope with family separation, how to

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rely on myself at the age of 12, how to come to terms with the reali­ ties of life as a child who had been denied a normal and happy childhood. I learned to cope without proper nourishment, living on food rations insufficient to sustain life; to work as an adult, without pay, without regular hours. 1 also learned to accept simple deprivations without anger; to live near a river and not be able to go fishing or sit on its bank and let your feet cool in the water, or skip a stone, or paddle a boat; not to have a free day, to be able to go to a movie, or to a special soccer game; not to be able to go for a walk in the park, or hike in the countryside; not to be able to attend school. Those simple deprivations seemed harsher than not being able to vote or travel to a distant town. Though my own choices were hard to reach, I was awed at the decisions grown-ups were faced with; parents who left their children during selection; husbands who turned away from their wives and vice versa; the young who had abandoned the aged and the feeble to their obvious fate at a time when a simple motion of a Gestapo offi­ cial's index finger meant life or death. Meanwhile we all wondered: what is happening on the 'outside'? Do they know what is happening here to us? Do they care? Does anyone out there still think we have a right to live? And as life ebbed slowly out of us, we agonized that the world knew nothing, or else it would not have remained silent while an entire people were being put to death. Then suddenly, painfully, it had all become clear: The world outside knew all along what was happening in the KZ Lagers, but it did not care! The day of liberation arrived. The renewal process after the libera­ tion meant relearning old rituals, such as how to use a toothbrush; toilet paper; handkerchiefs; knives and forks; how to smile; to remember such common things as the smell of a hot-cooked meal and enjoyment of a flower; the feel of clean clothes and linens; the taste of anything but stale bread; to become an engaged member of society; to renew faith in God and friendships; to practice one's very own signa­ ture! As survivors, we were faced not only with reconstructing ourselves on the inside, but also readjusting on the outside, even when faced with hostile questions we met upon our return. At first, we had to accept the reality of what had happened to us as well as of what we, as survivors, intended to do about it. It was not only a matter of remembering the event in order to deal with it, but a matter of trying to fathom what had occurred. When we, at last, came face to face with its reality, most of us were unable to accept it and went into denial. It was at this point that we began our next battle: survivorship. This most arduous process came in two phases: original trauma and lifelong aftereffects. The original trauma consisted of realigning

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oneself in order to be mentally capable of piecing one's life together. Having been separated for such a long time from all customary support systems (family, friends, social standing), while being subjected to terrorization and degradation, the struggle consisted of regaining sanity without going insane. Dealing with the lifelong aftereffects was a matter of learning to live with the mental agony of knowing that what happened could never be reversed. There were three general responses by survivors to having to inte­ grate their experience into their future lives; one group allowed the experience to destroy them; another tried to deny it in order to avoid any lasting impact; a third engaged in a lifelong struggle to cope with and be aware of having been traumatized to the extremest degree possible. The most destructive of these three was to conclude that to rebuild one's lost personality was impossible and pointless. The survivors were aware of their inability to cope, thinking that their lives had been so shattered that picking up the pieces was too insur­ mountable a task. Everything that had given life its meaning before the Holocaust was now gone; those closest to us had been murdered; to survive, we had at times acted in a manner we deemed unforgiv­ able; besides, there was no point in rebuilding one's life when all that surrounded us (new-found freedom, society, people) was untrust­ worthy. Everything we had trusted and believed in before had let us down; who was to guarantee it couldn't happen again? I was one of the 'lucky' ones. I concluded that in order to cope with my experiences, 1 had to create a 'normal' existence for myself, and I began to think about the future; to replenish the family tree and make a contribution to society. To do this, I had to garner the positive KZ Lager experiences, rather than brood about my losses, and dwell on the evil aspects of camp life. Having been a mere child when the Nazis happened, 1 decided that my real life began at liberation. From now on, I would celebrate two 'birthdays': one would be my biolog­ ical birth, the second was to remind me of my liberation, my 'rebirth'. I was aided in my endeavor by my inability to think in terms of material gain. Education was uppermost in my mind, an area where 1 had to start anew. My point of departure was the sixth grade (where I had left off in 1939), but because of my age (I was almost 17 years old at liberation), my recovery was more complicated than I anticipated. The process was slow and cumbersome, but I progressed. The one major drawback that almost all of the survivors experi­ enced in common was the guilt of survival. Struggling with the problem of survival does not, necessarily, require one to have been subjected to starvation, torture or degradation; nor that one was forced to stand by helplessly while others like oneself were murdered daily. Having been subjected to living for years under the immediate threat of being killed, and having to live with the knowledge that

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friends and family members were being murdered, was enough to send one on a lifelong ordeal of having to struggle with the question: Why was I spared? My sense of guilt was more direct, more personal than the guilt a person would feel who had not experienced the KZ Lager. My life was altered entirely; I was certain I could never again trust my inte­ gration into society, even if I were to attain access to it. 1 was haunted by nightmares and depressed by the fact that I was unable to mourn the departed. I remember having wept bitterly and uninterruptedly for over 24 hours on being separated from my mother and my little sister, Felusia, when they were taken by force on their terminal journey to the killing factory in Treblinka. But that was in the privacy of my barrack, in the company of my brother, Rubin. I withheld my grief from my Christian friends at the Hortensia ghetto glass factory, lest they mock my losses. That inability to mourn my loved ones adequately was what made coping with the losses more difficult. Thus, for years after, I clung to the idea that they would, somehow, miraculously resurface. But my entire search, personal and through various agencies, proved in vain. Only their names live on, being memorialized in my life's work and at the various shrines which society has erected for the Nazi victims. 1 have come to grips with my losses and with my own regenera­ tion through the catharsis of telling. When 1 had recovered the facility to speak about my past experiences, I convinced myself that this was the reason for my survival; to tell the world. My search for life's meaning was over, it seemed. 1 was a survivor; an eyewitness to the most horrific event in modern human history. I would, hence­ forth, serve as a memory capsule. In trying to tell, I did not attempt to explain. How can one explain the inexplicable? People pretend or seem to be marveling at the fact that I appear 'normal', in harmony with the universe, and capable of functioning, rationally, in society. What they do not know is that, in the privacy of my inner life, 1 continue to weep for the departed. I mourn my wasted childhood and the lost potential of fulfilling my childhood dreams. When facing the world, however, 1 don my armor of optimism in the face of adver­ sity and smile the grin of a victor, for I have won in having decided to go on. This is my tribute to life. What I want to tell the world is that the Holocaust was only a pilot project for global destruction; a foreboding of the death rattle in the thermo-nuclear age; a warning that the tendency of high technology is to bring out the worst in us. Mine is the eyewitness testimony and the warning that ordinary people are capable of the vilest evil. It also illumines an aura of hope in that, as evidence suggests, they are equally capable of displaying a big heart. It is through madness only that humanity may transform the planet earth into a crematorium serving the Ultimate Final Solution.

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In my work, I plead that we have mercy for one another. I plead against punishment without reason, and I beseech humanity to seek life and abandon its suicidal tendencies. What saved my life was an obsession to see the demise of those that suppressed me and destroyed my family, as they did all vestiges of human dignity. I wanted to survive in order to live and not merely to exist; to live and to love even after Buchenwald; enjoy the kind of life I had envisioned in some distant dreams. Above all, I wished to follow that inner compelling drive to tell my story and, thereby, repay my debt. My experiences have taught me that just as there exists exuberance for joy, a person possesses as well an enormous reservoir of tolerance for suffering. And though the naked beast in all humanity raises its ugly head now and then, what redeems us in the end is our nobility of character.

Questions: Where does one begin, when given the task of telling a tale so frightfully horrendous that it cannot be fathomed by the imagination? How does one speak the unspeakable? Finding words in our language to describe the Nazi horrors seems inadequate. Words such as 'horrible', 'cruel', 'unconscionable', or even 'inhuman' do not possess the right intensity anymore. Today, people speak of having a 'horrible day', and their main complaint is that the computers went down in their office or there wasn't any coffee left when they arrived at work. How, then, can anyone use that term to describe the Holocaust and the fate of European Jewry? Even words like 'extermination' and 'annihilation' do not bring up the correct image. In our society, we exterminate vermin or kill unde­ sirable weeds on our lawns and gardens. (Showings of such films as Mortal Combat: Annihilation, The Exterminator, and other products of like quality, desensitize viewers to the suffering of others by depicting grotesque scenes of destruction.) How does one relate the fate of Nazi-persecuted Jews in a way that would make the uninitiated listener grasp the full meaning of that event? The men, women, and children who became the victims of Nazi persecution can never all be remembered. In many instances, entire families were obliterated, families that comprised brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers, grand­ mothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles, cousins; no one was left to tell their story; no one was left to put a name in a face of a picture. The million-plus children who were led to slaughter by the Nazi thugs truly have no way to be remembered. They were denied the right to become someone's memory. Gut-wrenching though it may be, it now remains the task of the survivors of the Holocaust to bear witness for as long as they breathe, to tell it all, for only one who has experienced that tragic occurrence can truly understand what happened and, in turn, make others try to become sensitive to the issue as well.

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To those who read the documents, diaries, and poems and who look at the scattered works of KZ Lager art - the total body of testi­ mony - the unimaginable becomes imaginable. Although they will never know the horror as outsiders, they must imagine. Bearing witness is not effected through novels, films or television; fiction about the Holocaust is, after all, fiction. The countless 'stories' of outsiders, fictionalized to enhance their value as a medium of enter­ tainment, must be denounced as pure fraud before zero time is upon us; before the last survivor is no longer present. Thus, every anniver­ sary of our liberation from the Lagers is an appropriate time for setting the record straight.

Questions: How do we, the survivors, talk about this time in our lives when darkness rapidly descended on the Jews trapped in the twilight nightmare of Nazi Europe? How do we go back and dig deep into the consciousness we thought we had buried? How do we bear opening the wounds again and again, though each time the pain increases? How do we bring forth words that will make the listener feel the pain, degradation, the horror, the sadness, the faith, and the lack of faith? How do we go from trusting to never being able to trust again? How do we speak about all this in such a way that people ivill not feel sorry for of us and pity us? Foremost in our message is that the survivors do not want pity and sorrow from those on the outside. After all, we do not portray ourselves as victims and, though we came from the deepest wells of defeat, we have overcome the handicaps to become victorious. We want to make sure our stories are heard without embellishment, and are believed for what they tell, to be used as guideposts for the prevention of a recurrence of such tragic events. To ensure, also, that no other group of people will suffer the fate of the persecuted. What makes the story worth retelling is the hope that our message will be afforded the attention it deserves. Those of the survivors who have come to terms with their past are eyes and ears for all those on the outside who will never know or experience personally the mental and physical anguish we had to endure. Telling means educating; this is our healing process. But in educating, the questions ought not to be analyzed in a purely clin­ ical manner, devoid of human emotion and stripped of human dignity, in the manner of those who were victimized. 'Holocaust scholars' may attempt to explain the Nazi Judeocide by recounting the 'course of historical events', by 'invoking structural and ideolog­ ical antecedents', or 'historical frustrations and conflicts'. But the problem still remains to understand the wanton killing of entire families, children in front of parents, parents witnessing the murder of children; grown-ups pointing their guns at children. Such events

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can only be described by eyewitnesses; they cannot, must not, be intellectualized. We must tell. The world must know the truth before all of us are gone. Generations to come will dismiss the details of this grave event as folklore. History books will mention it only in a few paragraphs, perhaps less; there will always be history in the making to be concerned with. Those who are nonbelievers must be made to believe. The photos, the diaries, the paintings must be shared with the world of today and of tomorrow.

Questions: Once told, how does one make the outsider see what you saw? How does one make people equate the numbers in terms they can relate to? How can anyone grasp the enormity of this crime against humanity? How does one separate the religious from human aspects? How does one get the bigots to put aside their prejudices, to see the Holocaust as an assault on all vestiges of humanity which are embodied in decency, compassion, freedom to ivorship, to seek knowledge, and to be equal under the lazv?

Though the Jews suffered the most, giving up their lives and those of their future generations, the human race as a whole suffered as well; and still does. The world will never know what it lost; who can tell what beauty and grandeur six million and their descendants might have contributed to the betterment of society? Who can estimate it? How does one compare it? How does one add it all up? The Holocaust is an admonition to all. Its message is clear: distrust any proposition that advocates the superiority of one class of individuals above another; reject leadership that offers rewards at the expense of the others'. Warning signs

1 am convinced that the legacy of Hitler's terror lives on in all of us today, regardless of who we are or where we came from. The Holocaust was so devastating an occurrence, it makes almost everyone turn inward to reflect upon what happened. As humans, we must realize that the Holocaust teaches us many lessons for the future of our civilized world. First of all, the Third Reich left us with an important question to ponder: 'Just how truly civilized are we as humans?' This may seem like a silly question, until one looks at the incredible atrocities committed by the Nazis. The fact that people could murder so many innocent people staggers our imagination. It makes us wonder just how far we have come in our maturation as humans. Up until the time of the Holocaust, common belief was that people were getting better and better as time went by. We were convinced that society

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was truly becoming more civilized. What we have come to under­ stand since is that 'civilization' is not synonymous with 'good'. Deep doubts have been implanted in our collective psyche, questioning our ability to discern 'right' from 'wrong'. Hitler's Final Solution provided us with a unique and important lesson about what it means to be 'civilized'. We have come to realize that it is possible to be simultaneously a killer as well as a family man, a professor, and a lover of music. A doctor could perform hideous experiments on Jewish Lager inmates in the morning, attend his daughter's piano recital in the afternoon, have dinner with his family, and then go to sleep, so that he could wake up early and go down to the Lager and kill some more Jews. It was possible for these kinds of contradictions to exist. The Nazis were scholars, artists, lawyers, philosophers, teachers, and theologians. These were civi­ lized men and women, yet they committed the most barbaric acts in history. We have learned that such a situation is always possible. Another unique lesson that we have gleaned from the Holocaust is that the institutions in which we have placed so much faith and trust will not always help us when we are in need of help. One of these institutions is organized religion. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, was the single most important institution for the fostering of religious and moral values in the Third Reich and the western world. The Protestant or Lutheran Church held a close second. We would like to think that these institutions would have put up a strong protest in the knowledge that millions of innocent people were being tortured and killed. This would act in concert with the beliefs that we hold about the functions and responsibilities of religion. However, no such massive public protests ever occurred. For the most part, both churches were silent on the issue, though many brave individuals within their framework raised their objections in the spoken and written word. To many people of the period, silence meant approval and acceptance of the status quo. In Germany, not only were church leaders complacent about the murder of innocent people, they often sympathized with the Nazi aim of getting rid of the cultural and religious presence of the Jews. Both the Catholic and Protestant Churches endorsed a homogeneous Christian fatherland. Hitler knew this, so he played upon it, portray­ ing his killing program as a kind of crusade. Soon after the Holocaust, church leaders condemned the way that the Jews were eliminated, but they never did condemn the ideas and the philosophy behind the elimination. They persisted in their antiJewish philosophy. In the Polish town of Kielce, 70 Jewish Holocaust survivors who had returned to their roots were killed by the towns­ people after being accused of kidnapping and performing a ritual murder on a Christian boy. Bishop Wyszynski of Lublin refused to

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condemn the murder. He also added that it was possible that Jews sometimes do commit ritual murder (the boy in question eventually returned home after spending a night at a friend's home without the knowledge of his parents). Another concept in which we have always had reasonable faith was that of a political system, for we felt that it could stop wide­ spread destruction and persecution. It is still hard for us to understand, for instance, why the United States did not do more to halt the killings of innocent people. Even on a shallow, greedy level it would seem that it would make good propaganda for democracy. It seems that the United States government did not consider the European Jews worthy of the effort to save them. The most pronounced legacy of the Holocaust is a blatant disre­ gard for justice, which ushered in the eruption of unbridled global violence. One obvious way in which this has noticeably changed civi­ lization is in the widespread toleration of one person's cruelty to another. Violence has become more acceptable because Hitler's Final Solution raised the threshold of evil to an unprecedented level. At the time of writing, society has become so complacent about extreme behavior that, unless a political or personal transgression takes on the form of mass genocide, it will be tolerated. There were no public outcries of anger and indignation when the Khmer Rouge slaughtered a million plus of its own people, because Cambodia was far off. Similarly, no one objected when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds, because we had nothing in common with the victims. The free world was silent when Idi Amin Dada stored countless skulls of his murdered opponents in deep freeze; the 1944 Rwanda genocide in which the Hutus massacred Tutsi civilians remains society's open wound, for nobody took steps that might have curbed the blood-letting; they weren't our kin either. And when the Serbs raped and murdered young Muslim women, we closed our eyes to their plight, as we did during other similar atrocities. To recall the immortal words of Pastor Niemoller: if the time of need came, who would be there to aid us? The free global community stands by and waits for another Hitler. Hitler taught the world that life is expendable, and young people everywhere are getting the message. We have been left with a destructive and socially debilitating legacy. Absent in society are ageold, tried values: reverence for the sanctity of family life; regard for the aged and disabled; care for the young. History is witness to the tragic demise of great and powerful civilizations, which followed in this path. Roger Gottlieb writes: 'The Holocaust has dwarfed all remembered and inherited images of evil.’1 He goes on to say that violence has been accepted as a way to achieve one's goals, as is borne out in daily

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media reports. Whether the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Problem caused this spread of violence or whether it simply laid bare an inherent characteristic of human nature (as Freud would argue), the legacy of the Holocaust will be felt for centuries to come.

Questions: Is there a remedy to the tolerance of violence? Can politically sanctioned genocide be thwarted by the state? Have we lost control of science, and are we destined to look for another 'final solution' to our problems?

Perhaps there are no answers. But one fact that does seem to be clear is that we should continue to ask ourselves these questions and make a commitment to instill the legacy of the Holocaust into our collective memory and that of future generations. For, as time moves further and further away from these events, the world itself will become more vulnerable to falling into a type of complacency that could render it blind to the signposts which herald their recurrence. As education systems deteriorate, so, too, will society's collective memory of those events, along with its ability to decipher minute signs of impending trouble. In the Third Reich, the legal and political systems were the vehi­ cles whereby the Jews were stripped of their human character. The Nazis broke their social contract. Till then, the Jews were valued members of the German community. Many of them had served their country in World War One with distinction. This brings up another point; in most cases, the reason a person is punished (either fairly or unfairly), by a judicial or political system is because that person does something to actively oppose the system. In the case of the Final Solution, the Jews were murdered because they were of Jewish birth, no matter what they did. This tells us that people are willing to take away the basic human rights of others if they perceive it will benefit them. It means that humans can be persuaded to go against the rules they are taught, even if it is part of their religion to respect the rights of others. Another aspect of this is the willingness to follow the dictates of authority without question. Hence, when people give up the initiative to choose what they know is right or wrong and simply follow orders, they abdicate their right to freedom. Another legacy of the Holocaust is that it changed forever people's relationship with God. People can no longer have the faith that God will provide for them if they are good. Faith must stand on its own, for God will not use His power to protect the meek from the strong and influence people's destiny, as evidenced in His abandon­ ment of His chosen people the Jews. It would seem after the Nazi Lagers that the place and power of God in people's minds could no longer be as high as it used to be. It used to be that God was all­ powerful, all-knowing, and all-merciful. He was the protector of the

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good and the destroyer of evil. The Book of Genesis states that God saw the world was evil so He destroyed all but a select few. In the Book of Revelation it is written that one day God will destroy the earth, and the good will be separated from the bad. Only God has the power to destroy all of life. It is hard for people to believe those concepts any longer, when faced with the awesome technology of today. The Nazis almost created their own version of Judgment Day, except that in this case the good were not separated from the bad. The Holocaust showed us that not only God could destroy on a massive scale. One psychotic, evil man can destroy an entire people as well. A person no longer seems as insignificant within the scheme of the universe as in the past; God does not seem as awesomely powerful as He used to seem. Thus we have learned that so-called 'civilized' human beings can commit unspeakable acts; that our trusted institutions can sometimes fail and deceive us; that God will not always use His power to save those who deserve to be saved and punish those who deserve to be punished. But we have also learned that people are capable of supreme personal sacrifice in helping those in need; that such kindness transcends polit­ ical, social, and religious boundaries. We have learned that the righteous is the only beacon of hope for future generations; the only journey toward harmony; toward love and peace. Following the Lager experience a person can no longer be defined; no longer can one understand oneself in terms of God, in terms of society, indeed, in terms of any entity, real or imagined, outside of one's own particular and individual self. It is now, perhaps more than at any other time in recorded history, incumbent upon people to first and foremost follow that Delphic principle to 'know yourself'. In no other manner is it possible to endure, to live in a genuine and procreative sense, for our 'old' world is in shambles, torn asunder by human action. For some reason, Americans in particular have developed a false sense of security, perhaps because of the lack of a precedent on the continent. Too often people forget that Hitler did not follow a prece­ dent. He made his own rules and his word was law. In this particular saga, the Jews were the victims. But the tragedy of the Holocaust cuts across all time; all nations; all people. Any time, anywhere, any group, depending upon the circumstance, could be deemed 'surplus'. One of the first signposts of impending danger deals with society's treatment of the individual. Individualism should be the basis for any truly free society. But within the nationalistic society of Nazi Germany, the individual became dwarfed in relation to the best interests of the state. It is safe to say that this was not only an occurrence in Nazi Germany, but also one that can be observed in totalitarian states around the globe. Individualism must be

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maintained in order to give the spark of life to the nation itself. Although nationalistic fervor may provide that spark for a limited period of time, eventually people are no longer able (whether by choice or force) to think and make decisions for themselves, leading to the decline of the nation itself. During Hitler's time as Fuhrer of the Third Reich, pride in one's own 'German-Aryan blood' was at the forefront of Nazi doctrine. The Nazi's wanted Germanic culture to dominate all other cultures of Europe, indeed the world, as they professed it to be superior to all others. Slowly and methodically laws were enacted that pushed all other cultures within Germany out of the picture in order to bring German culture to the position in which it was 'all or none'.2 The Jewish minority, in particular, was singled out as one unworthy to exist within Aryan society, as it was considered subhuman and, therefore, would contaminate the superior race. In reality, this 'race­ dominant' thinking was not new to Germany, or the world for that matter. For hundreds of years, 'intellectuals' and religious leaders had been expressing distaste for the Jews. Not only were the Jews in danger within the Reich, but in other European countries as well. According to one 'race researcher', the survival of the original Germanic language (Ursprache) made the German people the only original people (Urvolk) in Europe.' Fichte as well as other significant thinkers of the period believed this and, with that simple conception the rise of modern German nationalism began/ Another disturbing signpost is the stifling of creative thinking. Every minute aspect of German creativity depended entirely upon the Fuhrer's whim. Discreetly, beginning with the press, and further on to all parts of German society itself, the Nazis began to squeeze the creativity out of their people. Thus, they were able to contain it, so as not to infringe upon their own policies. But where the worst damage was done was in the universities. Professors and administrators were dismissed if they refused to give in to Nazi wishes.5 Without some type of intellectual dissension, there remained few options for ques­ tioning the policies of the Reich. One after another, policies and laws were implemented, and at each juncture, little protest was made. Thus, the events of the Holocaust unfolded. The methodical imple­ mentation of these policies was made possible by the systematic process itself. Allowing their own as well as world society to adjust to small doses of injustice enabled the entire event to occur. Had Hitler tried to implement all of these policies at once, there would have been more of a public outcry. However, to the Jews of the time, these events occurred quickly because they were the ones receiving the injustice. No matter what the time frame, all societies should take note of the process. Even the smallest discrepancies will become larger if they are not brought to the forefront immediately.

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Another signpost of impending danger that I would like to high­ light is covert oppression. Society was shown the horrible pictures of the death camps, the beating of elderly men at the hands of the SS, and many other hideous acts. These scenes of brutality catch the attention of the population in a sensational way, yet they must not be kept from the public eye. They were meant to initiate the call for justice. But what about 'covert' oppression, the mental and cultural brutality against a people which remains hidden from the public eye? Few people look for that kind of oppression, yet it is as impor­ tant as overt acts of injustice, and just as harmful. The Reich accomplished this covert oppression in many ways, as it strove to take the 'humanness' away from people. For example, the Jews were made to wear a Star of David to separate them from the rest of the population. In combination with the propaganda-drenched Germans, the mental abuse must have been quite unsettling. Even without physical harm being done, the Jews were being oppressed. They were subhuman in the minds of 'others', which eventually would cause injustices of all kinds.” This is just one example of the many that occurred. Unfortunately, the ordinary person does not look for these kinds of signs. This must change. If complacency takes hold of society, horror will be able to creep in unnoticed by the back door. First of all, we must all strive for an awareness of history. People who study the history of the Holocaust will gain an understanding of the reasons and conditions for and during the events. By knowing these conditions, a compar­ ison can be made between past and present. However, superficial examination will not do. One must look for hidden meanings and consequences, even if none are apparent at first sight. Mindful to cast an objective eye, the student will refrain from hasty judgments without first being exposed to the views of different or opposing sides. Biased judgment is bound to return society to circumstances similar to those that caused the cataclysm in the first place. If one's emotions lean more to one side when examining or acting upon a matter, one is in danger of creating a bigoted response. Just as impor­ tantly, one ought to study not only the event in and for itself, but the preexisting conditions as well. This will expand the periphery of people's vision and judgment. Children must be taught tolerance and fairness at a very young age. Social responsibility and understanding of differences of all kinds are necessary for cohesiveness and peace. We must expose ourselves and our children to other cultures and ways of life in order to drive home the realization that no threat exists from mere differ­ ence, only from intolerance toward it. Educating people in the basics of economics is also essential. People who are in critical need are willing to accept any offer that might improve their situation,

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whatever the cost. This was all too obvious in post-World War One Germany. Economic stability for citizens must be at the forefront of all government agendas. Through education in these basics, people might be better equipped to understand the need for global economic stability. Finally, society needs a nonproselytizing religious education. It is easy to see the enormity of the impact that religion exercises in war and peace. Prejudice runs rampant with respect to religion. The Holocaust was the epitome of such prejudice. Young people must be taught early on that the spiritual beliefs of another person are non­ threatening. They have absolutely no bearing on their own value as humans. An effort must be made by all to familiarize themselves with different beliefs. One need only try to acquire some detail, in order to gain an understanding of the 'others'. How easy it is to blame others for our troubles. 'I didn't get a promotion at work because the person that was promoted belongs to a minority and I don't.' Why not think, 'Maybe that person does a better job than I.' It is easy to look externally for an excuse, and much harder to look internally for a reason and a solution. We ought to instill in ourselves a sense of'ownership'. If we 'own' the problem, we do not blame others, instead we look to ourselves to solve the problem or at least admit there is a problem, and we not to blame someone else for our own shortcomings. To be a responsible person, as free individuals ought to be, means to be liberated and do not feel threatened. People are afraid to admit they made an error of judg­ ment. They would rather blame someone else. 'I robbed a bank and killed people in the process, because I saw a movie that made me do it. I'm not responsible; the movie is.' Retrospect provides a weapon against human error. However, if people forget about history and refuse to learn about and from it, or feel that it is useless, then the benefits it can render are lost. This must be the priority of society - to look at the past in order to map out a future. By doing so, recurring human rights violations may be averted. If from the past we cannot gain ways to define the causes for impending calamities, then all of the past violations are truly trivial­ ized; they will have to be experienced over and over again, while humanity wanders blindly through the labyrinth of destiny. Seen from the twenty-first century's historical perspective, the twentieth century might be viewed as the great moral failure of humanity in history. The century produced a chain of 'World Wars', beginning with the one 'to end all wars', World War One. It then proceeded to engage humanity in the most calamitous World War Two and in subsequent 'minor wars'. By the turn of its bloodstained history, the century had claimed over 200 million victims - only a small part of those accounted for were military vs. military on the

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battlefield. Most of those casualties were exacted on civilian popula­ tions, not least in the annihilation of countless innocent children. The tragedy brought about in creating whole new migratory/homeless people - victims of 'racial cleansing' and disenfranchisement - can only be surpassed by that of countless orphaned children. To commemorate the murder of children by irresponsible and paranoiac rulers, I have taken the liberty to include here a modest poem, which I composed many years ago, when I myself became an orphaned child: I weep for those children who were put to their untimely death, after having been starved and humiliated, tortured and dehumanized by their murderers ...

after they were forced to witness hatred and violence, humiliation and death of their elders ... I lament their faith shaken to the core, their innocence smitten in premature growth ... I weep for their hunger, for their isolation, and their daily torment at the assassins hand.. I weep for the injustice done to all of our people during this period of utter madness ...

1 weep for the orphaned, calling out the names of their loved ones, only to suffer the silence of the unknown graves, and the howling echo of the winds that carried their ashes ... I weep for humanity's redemption ... The Nazis used the Jews as economic tools. Their enterprise weeded out the weak and old, those unable to labor, for immediate extermination. They made elaborate plans to work the rest to death. In less dramatic terms, some telltale conditions exist today. US industries are moving their manufacturing to third world countries, where people are being used for cheap labor without due considera­ tion given for their human rights or needs. Inside the US we find a demoralized labor force, with less and less dignity and respect for human rights. Corporate America regards the worker as a consum­ able commodity (resource), holding others in reserve when the available workforce drops. Of course, this is still a far cry from what happened to the Jewish people during the Nazi oppression, but one ought to try to see the warning signs and beginnings of patterns that may lead to extreme conditions. We must continue to remain aware

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of what is going on; put human rights ahead of everything else; learn to give up some of our basic comforts of life now, so that we may secure a better future for generations ahead. This will take a thor­ ough reorientation of a deep-seated mentality of instant gratification, and it should be seen as the only path our society can follow that does not lead to eventual self-destruction. The Nazi regime created a siege mentality, introducing what soci­ ologists now choose to call a 'culture of impunity'. It ushered in an era of unprecedented lawlessness and created generations of eye­ witnesses, accusers, and deniers - the assertions of the deniers are so terribly absurd, they hardly merit response. Though we now live in the 'age of communication', we are also experiencing a period of 'unbelief'; a time wherein 'commercial gullibility' is rampant and the arrogance of deception is ever present. It has been said that history cautions those whose ears are peeled at attention, as it speaks the signposts of oncoming errors; it provides evidence of society's follies as a warning, lest they be repeated; and it offers hope where hope was all but abandoned, that if only we are determined to heed the lessons of the past, then we can avoid the major errors committed to our immense detriment by preceding generations.

Christian responses

A significant amount of post-Holocaust literature has been written about the failure of Christians to live up to the principles of their reli­ gion during the Nazi persecution and destruction of the European Jews. Members of the Jewish faith have written most of this litera­ ture. This is understandable. It is far easier to identify injustices in a given tradition when you are the victim of those injustices. It is diffi­ cult when you are personally involved in the faith aspect of that tradition, and have to point the finger at yourself. Realizing that the main objection the Nazis had against the European Jews was a racial prejudice and not so much a religious dispute, it is, nevertheless, necessary to examine what conditions allowed such an atrocity as the Holocaust to develop and why. Criticism of certain aspects of Christianity by members of the Jewish faith has brought about the much-needed exposure to a modern problem that has existed for centuries. But since the most effective way to solve a problem is to attack it at its roots, the most powerful criticism of the contradictions of the Christian faith must come from members of that faith. By examining examples of critical responses made by Christians concerning anti-Semitism in the Christian tradition, one sees a movement slowly emerging; a move­ ment begun by Christians tracing anti-Judaism through history and how it has been justified and sometimes propelled by the Christian

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tradition. This grew into the official recognition of many church leaders that anti-Jewish polemic was not in line with the spirit of mature Christianity. The most recent phases have been the directives of certain Christian scholars to remove the anti-Jewish polemic from the New Testament texts and to enforce certain changes within the practical tradition. This self-criticism is vital to the development of a mutual respect between Christianity and Judaism. One of the most recognized post-Holocaust accounts of historical anti-Judaism in the Christian tradition written by a Christian, is Edward Flannery's book, The Anguish of the Jews. Flannery, a Catholic priest, first published this classic history of anti-Semitism in 1964. In his introduction he explains why there is such a need for Christians to address the problem of anti-Semitism: The vast majority of Christians, even well-educated, are all but totally igno­ rant of what happened to Jews in history and of the culpable involvement of the Church. They are ignorant of this because, excepting a few recent inclusions, the anti-Semitic record does not appear in Christian history books or social studies, and because Christians are not inclined to read histo­ ries of anti-Semitism. Jews on the other hand are by and large acutely aware of this page of history if for no other reason than that it is so extensively and intimately intermingled with the history of Jews and Judaism.7

Flannery's book traces anti-Judaism in the ancient world and points to individuals and their publications. When speaking about the Holocaust, he never fails to emphasize the absolute need for Christians to acknowledge and confront the polemic which was able to allow such horror to occur. By admitting to the guilt, Christians would exor­ cise the demons of their past, Flannery says. It would give the Christian world an opportunity to reassess the 'quality of their faith and the truth of their theology. This, in turn might lead to an attitude of maturity and responsibility, essential to the mutual understanding and cooperation with Jews to which the Church is committed.'" Another example of a response is Alice and Roy Eckardt's book Long Night's Journey into Day, wherein the authors trace the historical persecution of the Jewish people within the Christian tradition, with a particular focus on the events of the Holocaust. They single out what they consider the most damaging piece of Christian polemic used against the Jewish people and they refute it by asserting: 'The claims that the Jewish people are deservedly chastised by God for rejecting the one true faith is among the most socially fateful Christian traditions. The Christian revolutionary will identify this allegation for what it is, a calumny/'' The Eckardts mention someone whom they term as a 'Christian revolutionary', supporting the notion of a movement occurring

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within the Christian faith. They continue by stressing the need to reshape the Christian faith so that nothing like the Holocaust can ever happen again, no matter who would be the victimized minority. This is to be effected by educating the Christian collective memory about the historic plight of the Jewish people. In their words: The memory of the Holocaust must be a life-shaping force that makes us significantly more sensitive to individual suffering, to the frailty and preciousness of human life, to the fragile fabric of society, and to the insid­ ious ways by which religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas can lead us to justify life-destroying behavior. We have the freedom to transform our faith, our attitudes, and our teachings so that they will not carry the geno­ cidal impulse to subordinate any group or class of people.

Strong assertions, such as these made by the Eckardts, suggest that Christians can and must transform attitudes and lead directly into the second phase of the movement; the official acknowledgment of the falsity of anti-Judaism. Beginning with the end of World War Two, several official Christian organizations admitted publicly to the wrongness of anti-Judaism in the Christian tradition of the polemic in the New Testament. Such organizations include the World Council of Churches since 1948; the Lutheran World Federation and the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church since 1964; the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church since 1965; the Lutheran Council in the USA since 1971; and the American Lutheran Church since 1974.“ Although these groups do not represent every organization of the upper echelon of Christian Church administrations world-wide, they are certainly enough of a starring point in breaking the barrier for others to follow. They also provide a basis for more aggressive attacks on specific injustices and other distinguishable sources in the tradi­ tion of anti-Judaism. For Catholic Harry James Cargas, this means redefining Christianity from a post-Holocaust viewpoint. He refers to himself as a 'post-Auschwitz Christian',12 and describes the need for this reevaluation by proposing that For a period at least, we need to modify a traditional question as we try to gain perspective on history, on events. Many of us have been taught to judge relevance by asking: What is this in the light of eternity? For a time, let us put it this way: What is this in the light of the flames of Auschwitz, when humanity ratified Hell?11

Another Christian theologian-author, Franklin H. Littell, agrees with Cargas that the Holocaust questions the fundamental credibility of Christianity. His approach to this issue challenges the reader to

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contemplate and reflect upon some of the most basic Christian beliefs, as it stimulates serious reevaluation of common assumptions the reader might habitually make about Christianity. He explains: The truth about the murder of European Jews by baptized Christians is this: it raises in a most fundamental way the question of the credibility of Christianity. Was Jesus a false messiah? No one can be a true messiah whose followers feel compelled to torture and destroy other human persons who think differently. Is the Jewish people, after all and in spite of two millennia of Christian calumny, the true Suffering Servant promised to Isaiah?14

It is hoped that the response to these questions by Christians will be to reform the faith by attacking the obvious areas of anti-Judaism, not just in word, but in deed as well. This final phase of the move­ ment to reform Christianity in light of its anti-Jewish traditions expresses this intention. Rather broadly, Harry James Cargas provides a list of active solutions that he considers necessary to fully acknowledge and repudiate the anti-Jewish aspects of the Christian faith. He admits that it will take experts in various disciplines to more fully elaborate on each of the points, but they are as follows: (1) The Catholic Church should excommunicate Adolf Hitler. (2) The Christian liturgical calendar should include an annual memorial service for Jewish victims of the Holocaust. (3) We Christians must publicly and officially admit the errors of our teachers where they were wrong concerning Jews. (4) The Christian churches must insist on the essential Jewishness of Christianity. (5) Jesus should be recognized as a link between Jews and Christians. (6) The churches' teaching on the subject of evil needs to be reevaluated. (7) Traditional Christian theologies of history must be reexamined. (8) The Vatican historical archives for the twentieth century need to be opened to historians. (9) Chairs of Judaic studies ought to be established at more Christian colleges and universities. (10) Christian schools should adopt Holocaust curricula as integral segments of their overall instructional plans. (11) Christian seminaries should teach future ministers the history of theo­ logical implications of anti-Judaism in general and of the Holocaust specifically. (12) We might look and see if a redefinition of the notion or inspiration in Christian Scripture is appropriate. (13) Christians must find new terminology for what we now designate as the Old Testament and the New Testament. (14) Catholics must demand an encyclical letter that deals specifically with

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the sins of anti-Judaism and with the sins of Christians in their actions toward Jews. (15) The heavy Christian emphasis on missionizing should be redirected toward perfecting individual lives. (16) We Christians need to get on our knees and repent our sins against the Jewish people.15

Although some of Cargas' propositions may not be immediately realistic, he certainly exposes a range of specific areas that need atten­ tion. He admits that his proposals need the help of experts to be implemented. One such expert is Lutheran minister and renowned biblical scholar Norman Beck. In his book, Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament, Beck identifies pieces of the Jewish polemic in the Bible, which he categorizes as belonging to one of three types: Christological; supersessionist; and defamatory. It is the defamatory polemic that Beck tries to convince the biblical editors to 'prune''" into foot­ note status or leave out altogether. He justifies his position by comparing Christian reform through time. He explains his view: Past reformers such as Martin Luther have reduced the authoritative status of certain portions, even of entire books, both of Old and of New Testament material, while emphasizing others. Following in this tradition, the present study makes literary critical evaluations of segments of New Testament writ­ ings that may be considered damaging to the Jewish people, dehumanizing to Christians, and detrimental to Christianity.17

Realizing the accomplishments of Beck and others like him, it is frustrating to admit that most of the changes occurring within the Christian tradition are still in word and not deed. (It is most encour­ aging to note that Pope John Paul II, in his recognition of the State of Israel in 1993, proclaimed in his encyclical of the same year that antiJudaism is 'un-Christian and sinful'.) Much more distressing are recent international news headlines reporting a resurgence of antiJudaism in the erstwhile Eastern Bloc countries commensurate with the regeneration of Christian orthodoxy due to the post-Communist lifting of religious sanctions. It seems that for every small step forward that the reformist move­ ment takes, those searching for scapegoats take it another three steps back. This is the very reason why it is crucial to ensure change in a global, collective consciousness through reforms in the very structure of Christian traditional institutions. Only a mutual respect among Christians and Jews, in spite of their differences regarding belief, can prevent the spread of another round of persecutions. Some people already think that it would not happen again. But, then, who could have imagined the Holocaust happening in the first place?

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The hope of future generations Through hope we can learn about humanity in the midst of inhu­ manity. In its perseverance, hope comes a close second to faith. Even during the most desperate hours of our existence in the Lagers, we were unwilling to forsake it. Those who did, renounced life as well. This was the greatest loss of the Holocaust. It would be easy to point a finger at someone and say: 'You caused my problems, and I'm going to get rid of you, and along with you, my problems will also be gone. Then, there would be a better place for me.' This has been tried, and it did not work. Only I can make a better place for myself; by being the one responsible for my successes as well as for my failures. We must all take a collective responsibility for our future, fueled by a collective conscience. Short of following these principles, we might be perpetually driven by a collective guilt. Our children must be taught through the testimony of the eyewitnesses, who experienced humanity's darkest potential. The world must be taught to rebuild trust between human beings and restore its faith in humanity, so that our children's children will look boldly toward the future, unafraid of being betrayed as their ancestors were betrayed. Knowing this, the survivors will grow old without trepidation, but with the knowledge and joy of continuity. We must, therefore, speak about Jewish history, with emphasis on our legacy as free humans among the community of nations. And not only must we share our experiences with the Jewish people, but the torch of our memory must be passed on to all generations as a shield for all, no matter where they come from and who they may be. Together, we will all build a secure future. The global community ought to pay special attention to the needs of the survivors, make them feel they belong, so that the fear of being alone will be allayed forever. I am reminded of the words uttered by one of the Righteous, Marie Chotel, a concierge of an apartment house who harbored Jews, thereby saving their lives: "The heart,' she said, 'is like an apartment. If it's messy and there is nothing to offer its guests, no food or drink, nobody will want to come. If it's clean and dusted every day, and if it's pretty and there are flowers, and food, and drink for guests, people will want to come, and they will want to stay for dinner. And if it's super nice, God Himself will want to come.' In today's society, we are molded by what others do; we dress a certain way; our peers and the media dictate our feelings and atti­ tudes toward others. It is easy to see how peer pressure might influence the minds of the young and inexperienced. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to persuade the coming generation to espouse time-proven moral values and have the courage to stand by them in

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the face of adversity. It is easy to recognize the enemy we face, but it is more difficult to admit that enemies exist within us, in our own prejudices and within our own society. Just as I was able to reacquaint myself with mother nature and appreciate anew the smell of a flower, the beauty of a tree, the fresh­ ness of a mountain stream, to reconstruct my trust in humankind, I also learned that our actions ought to be value-oriented and socially sensitive. We are the custodians of such enduring human values as justice, religion, and education, which personify an insistence on morally rational behavior. This is the only weapon of human intelli­ gence against ignorance, superstition, prejudice, and other infectious maladies of the human spirit. This is an important lesson that we must heed, particularly in the light of the developments within the last 25 years, wherein it has again become fashionable for some well-publicized social scientists as well as historians to retreat behind the protective pose of valueless moral and historical relativism, and a mere quantification as the invi­ olable requirements of society. Future generations must see unlimited horizons and regard this planet as their temporary dwelling, which they must one day leave. They need to strive to leave it a better place than they have found it. They must become the moral conscience of the world, to live and act with an historical awareness, as participants and not as bystanders, for bystanders soon become unwitting perpetrators. Though we, the survivors, have chosen to become an early warning system for intended genocide, as well as for the absence of human rights everywhere, we also realize that the ebb of time is against us. The legacy we leave behind states clearly that our message can only survive the test of time if future generations do not permit the memory of the victims to become trivialized by a collec­ tive amnesia. Historic responsibility is a common venture, a responsibility that can be met but only through a united effort. Together, it is our duty to accept the true and living history, because otherwise our conclusions will be inaccurate; conclusions that need to be drawn from history to the present, if we are to secure a future without the pitfalls of the past. Together we must translate the meaningful lesson of the past into becoming ethically conscious and morally responsible in our response to all sorts of violations of human rights everywhere. The task of maintaining an awareness of history cannot be left up to the Jews alone. We all live in and with history. None of us can escape this fact. We must conclude that the forces responsible for the inferno caused by World War Two, the National Socialist regime in Germany, jolted and changed the entire world. Not only the Jews of Europe, but rather all of us everywhere, are no longer able to live and act like we used to, as if nothing

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happened. We must consider it our duty to assume a warning role whenever we have reason to fear a decline in sensitivity to this salient question and we feel that negligence, thoughtlessness, and the loss of historical awareness have blurred people's perception of the past. Let us face the fact that freedom and responsibility are insepa­ rable. The young people of the present are not responsible for what happened in the past. But they are, indeed, responsible for what becomes of past experience in the future. Important are the young people who feel concern as a result of past unrest and who are not satisfied with superficial statements and platitudes. 1 want to salute a young generation that does not spare its parents and grandparents critical questions, exposing to the light of day the darkest period of recorded human history, despite all those who feel that suppressing it is their salvation. I call upon this young generation not to relax its efforts and not to accept evasive answers. Through inquiry, they will give themselves and all of us cause for reflection. By demanding answers, they will refer us to history and to the fact that we must seize the moment, accept our responsibility, and act accordingly. In the proverbs of our ancestors it is written: 'You are not obliged to complete this task, but at the same time neither are you free to with­ draw from it.' This might prove the proper principle in building a new generation that will radically change its outlook on life; to whom life will have a significance on a different level than that of present-day politicians and economists. Why can't we value a tree for what it is in nature? Must it be cut into a piece of furniture in order to denote real value? Why should moral conscience become one of those intangibles that we are unable to define? Even the existing legal tenets in our culture permit shading of what is outright good or evil. Once this state has been reached, we have arrived at moral relativism. Hence, it is important to reestablish uncompromising moral standards for our children, for we are experiencing a conflict that is not political or financial, but rather spiritual and moral. The vast majority of today's population were either infants then or had not been born. But whether they accept it or not, all of them are affected by the consequences of the Holocaust. Therefore, we must all accept the past; young and old alike, we must help each other to understand it. Our greatest challenge of today is the future. We must forge it in accordance with our moral and ethical tradition. It is our obligation to create the type of world in which our children and their children can flourish as sensitive, concerned human beings; in which a recurrence of this most vile evil will be impossible. Until its imprisonment by the Nazi regime of the Third Reich, Europe - especially its eastern territories - had been for centuries the

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cradle of Judaic scholarship and spiritual vigor. The Nazi extirpation of that human vitality constitutes a most tragic loss in the annals of recorded history. The Jewish people remember. They will always remember, for only through remembrance can a better future be secured. If we remember that the Third Reich was possible in the midst of a civilized society, we will be better able to serve as the people's conscience in the future; to warn of impending abuses of human rights. Memory is one of the main features of human development. I recall the time of mental and physical abuse at the hands of the Nazi assassins in the many Lagers of my confinement. While I remember my own anguish, I remain more sensitive to the needs of those who are persecuted for the same reasons that I was; I will respond to their cries for help, knowing that the free world turned a deaf ear to my entreaties during those not-too-distant crucial moments. As a result of Hitler's war, Europe became a huge cemetery; both a physical and spiritual graveyard. The Thousand-year Reich has indeed left a legacy that will not be erased in a thousand years. It serves as a reminder, assuring a sense of finality to the tragedy that claimed the lives of many millions, combatants and innocents alike. There may never be a final chapter to the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. It must be told and retold to our children and their children. On my first return visit to Germany in the year 1970, as an exchange scholar from the United States, I visited the Russian ceme­ tery in East Berlin. A huge, red marble statue of Mother Russia marked the entrance. She was weeping for her fallen sons and daughters. An honor guard of impeccably dressed Soviet soldiers silently paid homage to the 5,000 graves of Russians who had died in the battle for Berlin. They were all buried facing east - toward their motherland, Russia. My final journey had taken me to the place of my erstwhile internment; KZ Lager Buchenwald. I remember the neatly arranged graves of the fallen Russian soldiers, and I recall that I wondered what a cemetery for all of the Jews murdered might look like. After all, 5,000 cemetery plots was an awesome sight. How could 1 fathom millions of burial plots? Instead, they share anonymous mass graves, if their ashes are not gone to the four winds. I know that proper burials for all of the murdered Jews are not in the realm of possibility. What is possible, however, and demanded by their mute outcry from the past, is for us to honor their memory by making sure we will never forget their living legacy. I want to leave a special thought: I believe that human beings are, as a general rule, gentle and decent. Knowing the human propensity for evil, however, we must always bear in mind the surviving human capacity for doing what is right. It would behoove the global community to

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nurture its poor in order to prevent poverty from taking a foothold even in the smallest of hamlets. Poverty eventually leads to the poli­ tics of extremism. Postscript: exploitation of the Shoah Who can forget the ghetto of Piotrkow or the Kara and Hortensia glass works? KZ Buchenwald? KZ Colditz? What about the Nazi death factories? Only 62 years ago, as an 11-year-old, I was forced by life-threatening circumstances to master the craft of glass blowing in a mere two weeks. Ordinarily, this is a lifelong task for those who practice it as a means of making a living, a unique skill carried down from fathers to sons. I labored henceforth, shoulder-to-shoulder with grown men. Both my childhood as well as my innocent view of the world had come to an abrupt end. The vision of my dear mother Bela and my little sister Felusia peering from behind the boarded up freight car window has never left me. After the liquidation of the Piotrkow ghetto, the bulk of my family went with that transport. The Nazis called it cynically Umsiedlung, resettlement. It was their euphemism for extermination. The Nazi goons locked the sliding doors behind those gentle people, while our Polish neighbors jeered, calling out derisive phrases to bid the victims a less than fond farewell. On that day, my loved ones left their hometown on their terminal journey to a place called Treblinka. 1 cried for two nights and a day; alone with my grief, surrounded by the furnaces spewing red-hot glass lava and observed by the cold, insensitive eyes of the Christian Poles. I was cast on my interminable journey of remembrance on that day. Never a youth, permanently an adult in an infantile world, I fought hunger, the elements, and the lethal enemy, always time and, sadly, my own injured soul. I learned early on that the world is a place that includes real demons and a real hell. But I have come this far and without rancor or hatred have learned to love again and to resume my trust in people (by far the most difficult task in the recovery process), only to learn that the real world has its strange rules, prejudices, and wry pronouncements. Despite being trained by assassins, the enemies of Enlightenment, I became a teacher. Having experienced the depths of lawlessness, I chose to abide by the rules of society. Surrounded by thievery, intrigue, and villainy, I purged my past to venture forward into a 'purer world'. Since that murky period in the annals of human events, whole generations have passed, now only visible as small specks on the horizon of history. It has been during this time that we, the survivors and eyewitnesses to Hitler's agenda of murder, continued to carry

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the memory of those dark days in our hearts and souls; we gave testi­ mony in word and print, so that the truth may be served, without embellishment or sentimentality. But even now there are those whom we have come to call 'assas­ sins of memory'. They come forth to deny the truth, in their attempt to destroy the last vestiges of decency in granting a lasting homage to the hapless victims of genocide. These acts of denial, in fact, perpetuate the act of their murder at the hands of Nazi assassins. Time and again, absurd challenges have been heaped on us. These had already surfaced during the very first trials for crimes against humanity and continued through the years in informal public debate. Pseudoscholars come forth, spawned by the desire to gain notoriety and driven by hatred toward the remaining Jews. They claim to serve the 'truth', their truth, whilst they pollute it with every cynical means at their disposal during the ongoing struggle. Clearly, their goal is to obliterate memory. I can perceive the battle lines being drawn on the not too distant horizon, when the survivors will be gone, no longer able to serve as the guardians of this tragic memory. The battle will then be fought between the 'faithful' who uphold the testimony of eyewitnesses, and the lie-spewing 'deniers'. The former comprise zealots who profess their sincere belief in the verity of historical facts written with the innocent blood of our loved ones; the latter, subscribing to the absurd notions of historical revisionism. They will engage in a battle to reestablish the grotesque Reich of their fallen idols. Both extremes exploit what we might call the game of 'holocausting'. And while both try to lend legitimacy to their avowed positions, they trivialize the central issue. Each ought to cease their pursuit, unqualified as they are to speak for the silenced victims. Nor is the term 'Holocaust' appropriate when speaking about human beings driven to their deaths by relentless assassins - not willing martyrs for a cause - the Nazi act lacking the piety of 'a burnt offering to a god', which the term implies. Pure and simple, we ought to keep religion out of the debate, and separate myth from reality once and for all, while we, the eyewitnesses of the Shoah, are still alive and visibly active. Though we can only admire the power of true faith, we cannot underestimate a blatant lie spoken boldly, which may enhance the effectiveness of denial. Time will take its toll. As it moves relentlessly onward, future generations will be unable to comprehend fully the significance of such uniquely tragic events, while these are relegated to the mundane regard of 'objective' history in general and lucrative fiction in particular. The temptation to put these 'deplorable' and 'unfortunate' happenings behind us - a recurring human character­ istic - will usher in a new era of collective amnesia. Legions of deniers will find succor in society's willingness to forget and, alas,

510

Warning and Hope

search for a way to ease its collective conscience. What easier way is there, as history has proven time and again, than to forget its embar­ rassing moments or to wallow in self-pity and sanctimonious sentimentalities in order to relieve the burden of personal responsi­ bility and guilt? As someone once said, 'Not all were guilty, but every one was responsible.' On the one hand, the zealots on the extreme right will intellectualize while fabricating their points of denial. On the other, the stalwarts of virtue will do all in their power to convince the public to the contrary. Both will engage in phony kneejerk emotional outpour­ ings in the process. In their eagerness, they will dress up distant history in an aura of romantic drivel bordering on folklore. Both will defile the memory of the victims of Nazi persecution. To defy the truth is blasphemy; to lend it sentimental notions of 'martyrdom' flies in the face of reality. Both trivialize the suffering, humiliation, starvation, torture, agony, and, lastly, the murder of the silenced victims; their desperate attempts at staying alive against all odds; the everyday struggle of merely getting by under adverse circumstances at any cost; the helplessness of defying a mighty force bent on striking the final blow. Can the zealots feel the pain of the individual KZ inmate? Can they understand the feelings of such struggling, desperate individuals? I think not. What was, was; what happened cannot, should not, be denied, just as those who have been mass-murdered cannot be brought back to life to give testimony or to forgive the perpetrators. To those who deny that it happened, I can only reply: if only it hadn't happened, my children would know the love of their grandparents, uncles and aunts, their cousins and distant relatives. We would now read books that have not been written; listen to music that hasn't been composed; be saved from a dread illness, by a cure which hasn't been developed. Those murdered children might have been privileged to experience the trials of life, its ups and downs, all that it has to offer. But this was not so. Why? Because the victims were denied the right to live, to work, to remain an integral part of society everywhere. In the summer of 1941, coinciding with Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the erstwhile Soviet Union, the Nazis decided to establish a 'museum to an extinct race', to be housed in the great synagogue of Prague, the oldest in Europe. They did not succeed. We, the survivors, are testimony that strong cultural roots can overcome the evils of savage barbarism, albeit at great sacrifice. We were not supposed to survive. And yet, some of us did and lived to build new families and memorials to our departed loved ones. And we managed to embarrass the apathetic world in the process. The Nazis' plan for a 'museum to an extinct race' has not become a reality. Instead, they, the minions of savagery, are extinct and

Legacy and Conclusions

511

trampled in the dust of history. Small segments of imitators remain and serve as a reminder that 'history can repeat itself', lest we forget. The sprinklings of memorials we have erected to the memory of our loved ones give testimony not only to the bestiality of man, but also to the heights to which human altruism can reach. For there are those righteous humans who dared defy the grain of bigotry and wickedness. It is in large part due to them that we are here today. At great risk of forfeiting their own lives, they saved ours. They saved humanity's soul in the process. 'To save one life is to redeem the universe,' the Tsaddikim tell us. The tragedy of the Nazi plague is not that the murderers were all out of the ordinary, criminal minds. It lies, precisely, in the sad reality that they were ordinary people, like you and I; teachers, scientists, physicians, railroad workers, civil servants - people from all walks of life who labored together to fulfill one mad man's prophecy of doom. And we must always remember that if it happened once, it can happen again, given fertile circumstances. Therefore it is incumbent upon us, the eyewitnesses, to remain vigilant, lest the distortions of truths by pseudohistorians take root and contaminate the minds of coming generations like the poison of the deniers into whose hands they unwittingly play. We feel compelled to support institutions dedicated to the promulgation of truth through education and the display of memorabilia. Like a beacon of hope and a warning for future generations, they admonish us never to let down our vigi­ lance, lest demagogues rule again. It is our task not only to give living testimony of those events that happened more than half a century ago, but also to serve as a reminder for decades, no, centuries ahead. The salient issue here is one of ethics. One must raise the question of the legitimacy of 'outsiders', nonsurvivors, using the Shoah as a source of personal gain and self-aggrandizement. This issue is likely to become more urgent as the last of us is gone and our legacy is left in the hands of unscrupulous administrators insensitive to the horrors of the Shoah. The sad truth is that no vision of the Shoah can go beyond the victims and survivors. The dynamics of modern life has shortened the span of memory. There exists a serious danger that nothing will create a permanent impression on future generations. Even the survivors have long put behind them the dread of the Umschlagplatz and the fear of an assassin's finger deciding their fate. Have they also forgotten the solemn promises they made to one another of continued faith in and solidarity with the spirit of survivorship? Never forget! Never again! As a Shoah survivor, 1 am compelled to remove the mask of pretentious respectability of certain cynical entrepreneurs who cash in on the now familiar issue of the Shoah. Their cynicism and hypocrisy are implicit in their Holocausting. 1 must speak out against

512

Warning and Hope

the wanton misuse of a sacred trust by Jew and Christian alike, corrupted by the processes of the day, unwilling, as 1 am, to sweep it under the rug. It was my hope that the rest of the public might be strong enough to face up to the reality of the great injustices perpe­ trated on helpless victims in the name of 'charity'. But no more. Through the sobering Nazi experience, we have learned how one people can hate another to the point of trying to exterminate the object of their hatred. Unfortunately for us Jews, we were the prime targets of Nazi hatred. At present, the capo spirit lives on. Though the methods are less crude, and circumstances have changed, the many are still exploited by the few. It is an outrage that a whole new generation of Holocausters benefits materially at the expense of the remaining survivors. They pose as administrators of the recovered properties of Nazi victims and government-allocated moneys, while they indulge in wanton personal frivolity. These funds ought to be uncondition­ ally returned to the survivors and heirs respectively. The legitimacy of these outsiders is questionable at best. Preying on the helplessness and vulnerability of the elderly survivors, insensitive to their suffering and trauma, these scam artists insult and trivialize the memory of the millions who perished. Exploitation is their avowed profession; they are not given to compassion and sincere under­ standing. When a Jew-hadng Nazi robbed, humiliated, tortured, and killed the Jews of Europe, there was no trace of hypocrisy in his actions. When one Jew exploits another only half a century after the Shoah tragedy for personal gain, old wounds are reopened. Forgotten are the promises we made before our liberation to aid our fellow katzetniks, and the pus of greed infects the opened wound. Hitler's legacy is a culture of suspicion, complaint, blame, and hatred. He reduced the standard of acceptable morality and ethics. Must we, too, succumb to those temptations instead of upholding a higher ideal? We must continue the annual memorial services for the millions of Jews murdered in Nazi KZ Lagers; erect museums to the dead victims, and use them as resources to educate and to promote life's endeavors; to celebrate joyous events of cultural significance, to praise the living, not only to mourn the dead. The very absence of those decent, gentle, highly creative people among us today, and the void that has not been replenished (and never will be), remains a legacy the human race must heed, and in remembering, honor its roots ... lest we forget and recreate the hellish nightmare a thou­ sandfold ...

Legacy and Conclusions NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Gottlieb, Thinking the Unthinkable, 121. L. Dawidowicz, War Against the Jews, 25ff. Fichte, Way Towards the Blessed Life, 101 ff. Alan, 'Racism and German Protestant Theology', vol. 450, 28. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 248. Dawidowicz, War Against the Jews, 147ff. Flannerv, Anguish of the Jews, 1. Ibid., 2.' Eckardt and Eckardt, Long Night's Journey Into Day, 128. Ibid., 14. Beck, Mature Christianity, 285. Cargas, Shadows of Auschwitz, 1. Ibid., 25. Ibid., 161. Ibid., 162ff. Beck, Mature Christianitys, 284ff. Ibid., 13.

513

Warning Appendices

Appendix 1 Persecution of the Jewish people throughout history and methods of extermination

ca. 1308-1290 bce 722 bce 586 bcf. ca. 356-323 bce 167 BCE 164 BCE 38 ce 66-70 ce 70 ce 1096 ce 1215 ce

1290 ce 1306 ce 1492 ce 1543-1546 ce

1894 ce 1881 ce 1882 ce 1933-1945 ce

1948-present

Egyptian Bondage (male infants killed) Assyrian Conquest (taken into captivity) Babylonian Invasion (taken into captivity) Greek Control (disenfranchisement) Syrian Rule (destruction of religious institutions) Revolt under Judas Maccabeus and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem First Roman pogrom under the rule of Emperor Caligula Judeo-Roman War (annihilation and dispersion) Rebellion of the Zealots and the fall of Massada The Christian Crusades massacres The Lateran Council (edict for Jewish identity badges to be worn on clothing) Qews blamed for the plague that swept continental Europe) Pogroms in England and expulsion Pogroms in France and expulsion The Spanish Inquisition and expulsion Martin Luther and the German Reformation (conversion and persecution) The Dreyfus trial in France Tzar Alexander II assassinated by a revolutionary terrorist (the Jews are blamed and pogroms follow) The 'May Laws' are instituted in Russia disenfranchising the Jews Nazi murder of European Jewry (mass killings, firing squads, gassing, cremation, executions by hanging, starvation in death and labor camps) Combined Arab countries' warfare against the State of Israel in their concerted effort to annihilate it

518

Warning and Hope

Appendix 2 Chronology of events related to the Nazi murder of European Jewry 1933

January 30 February 27 March 5 March 23

March 27

April 1 April 7 April 21 April 26 May 2 May 10 July 14 October 19

Adolf Hitler appointed Reich Chancellor of Germany. Burning of the Reichstag; Nazis unleash terror to ensure election results Nazi Party secures narrow victory in Reichstag elections First Koiizentrationslager (KZ Lager or concentration camp) established at Dachau to train the SS in procedures of extermination (school for assassins) The enactment of the Enabling Act, suspending civil liberties and giving the Fuhrer absolute power, is passed by the Reichstag Nationwide boycott of Jewish shops and businesses Jewish professionals are barred from entering their offices First anti-Jewish decree passed. Jews are dismissed from civil service and denied admission to the bar Ritual slaughter of animals in accordance with Jewish law is prohibited in Germany The Gestapo is established Trade unions are dissolved Public burning of books authored by Jews and Jewish in origin as well as by opponents of Nazism NSDAP (National Socialist Workers Party - 'Nazi') is established as the only legal party in the Third Reich The Third Reich leaves the League of Nations and the Disarmament Conference

1934

June 26 June 30 August 2

German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed 'Night of the Long Knives'; Nazis kill Hitler crony Captain Roehm and purge leadership of the SA (Stormtroops) and opponents of Nazism Hitler becomes President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Death of Von Hindenburg; offices of Head-ofState and Chancellor become one. Hitler is Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor

1935

March 16 May 31 September 15

November 14

In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Third Reich renews conscription Jews are barred from serving in the armed forces The Nuremberg Laws are enacted, disenfranchising the Jews. Racial laws are in effect. Signs saying ludeii Verboten (Jews stay out) appear outside towns, villages, restaurants, and stores The Third Reich defines Jews as anyone with three Jewish grandparents or someone with two Jewish grandparents who

519

Appendices

has identified him or herself as a Jew in one of the following ways: a) belonging to the official Jewish community b) being married to a Jew c) being a child of a Jewish parent 1936

March 3 March 7 May 5 June 17 October 25 November 25

Jewish physicians are barred from practicing medicine in government institutions Nazis march into the Rhineland and withdraw from the Locarno Pact Ethiopia is occupied by Italy Himmler is appointed Reichsfuhrer SS (Chief of Police) Hitler and Mussolini form the Berlin-Rome Axis The Third Reich and Japan sign military pact

1937

July 16 November 5

Buchenwald Konzcntrationslager (concentration camp) opens Hitler informs his military commanders and the Foreign Minister about his war plans

1938

March 13

Austria joins (Anschluss) the Third Reich and the Nuremberg Laws are implemented there April 26 Third Reich Jews must register all property with the authorities July 6 International conference convenes at Evian, France, and fails to provide refuge for persecuted Jews August 17 Law forbids all Jewish name changes. Male Jews must add the name 'Israel' and females must add 'Sarah' as middle names September 29-30 France and England agree to turn over Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) to the Third Reich at the Munich Conference October 5 All Jewish passports are marked with a large 'J' (for Jude, Jew) October 28 Jews with Polish citizenship living in the lliird Reich are expelled, but the Polish government refuses to admit them. 17,000 are crowded into the small frontier town of Zbaszyn November 7 Herschel Grynszpan, a student in Paris and son of one of the stranded Polish-Jewish families, mortally wounds a Third Secretary of the Reich Embassy in Paris November 9-10 Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), the November Pogrom erupts Anti-Jewish pogroms are orchestrated in the Third Reich and Austria; 200 synagogues are torched, 7,500 Jewish shops are looted and 30,000 male Jews are sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen) November 12 'Aryanization' - decree forces all Jews to transfer retail businesses to Aryans November 15 All Jewish children are expelled from schools

520

Warning and Hope

1939

January 30 March 15

March 22 April 28 July 26

September 1 September 3 September 17 September 27 November 28

Hitler promises in Reichstag speech to exterminate (Vernichten) all European Jews if war erupts Nazis occupy Sudetenland (Bohemia and Moravia). Slovakia is made independent satellite state The Nazis occupy Memel Nazis cancel German-British Naval Agreement of 1935 and the German-Polish Agreement of 1934 Adolf Eichmann establishes Office of Jewish Emigration in Prague to speed up forced emigration Nazi Third Reich invades Poland and World War Two begins Britain and France declare war on Third Reich The Soviets occupy eastern Poland Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland are forced to wear a distinguishing badge First ghetto in Poland is established in the town of Piotrkow Trybunalski. Ghetto inhabitants are made to wear white identity armbands with blue Star of David on their sleeve

1940

Nazis occupy Denmark and Norway Himmler issues order to establish a concentration camp at Oswi^cim (Auschwitz) Lodz ghetto established; approximately 165,000 Jews in May 7 1.6 square meters Nazis invade Holland, Belgium, and France May 10 France surrenders June 22 The Battle of Britain begins August 8 Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis is completed September 27 Hitler meets with Franco of Spain and Petain of Vichy France October 23-24 respectively Italy begins war with Greece October 28 Warsaw ghetto is sealed off; approximately 500,(XX) Jews in an November 15 area of 1.3 square meters November 20-24 Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania ally themselves with the Third Reich and the Axis

April 9 April 27

1941

January 21-26 March 11

March 20 March 22 April 6 June 2 June 22

Anti-Jewish pogroms initiated by the Iron Guard in Romania; hundreds of Jews are butchered Lend-Lease Treaty between the US and Great Britain comes into effect Adolf Eichmann appointed head of Gestapo section for Jewish Affairs The Axis counterattacks in North Africa Start of the Balkan campaign; Nazis occupy Greece and Yugoslavia The Vichy government deprives Jews of French North Africa of their rights as citizens 'Operation Barbarossa'; the Nazis invade the Soviet Union from June through December Nazi Einsatzgruppen (special mobile killing units) carry out

Appendices

521

mass murder of Jews in occupied Poland and territories of the Soviet Union Compulsory wearing of the Star of David is decreed in NaziJuly 8 occupied Baltic States Heydrich appointed to implement a solution to the Jewish July 31 problem Jews in Third Reich forced to wear the Yellow Star of David September 1 on their clothing September 21 (?) Jedwabne Massacre - Poles kill their Jewish neighbors (1,600 people) and blame the carnage on the Nazis Experiments with gassing are made in Auschwitz September 23 September 29-30 Massacre of Jews at Babi Yar near occupied Kiev; 34,OCX) Jews murdered October 10 Theresienstadt ghetto is established in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia Deportation of German Jews to the East begins October 14 October 23 24,000 Jews are murdered in Odessa October 28 KZ Birkenau established as a gateway to Auschwitz and the extermination of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and other minorities begins November 6 15,000 massacred in Rovno November 7 Pearl Harbor attacked by the Japanese December 8 The United States enters World War Two. Chelmno killing factory on the Ned River begins operations. By April 1943, 340,000 Jews and 20,000 Poles and Czechs will be liquidated there December 11 The Third Reich declares war on the United States December 22 Massacre in Vilna; 32,000 Jews dead 1942

January 20 January 24 March 1 March 17 March 23 June 1 June 30 July 28

Summer October 17 November

The Wannsee Conference convenes; Heydrich unveils official plan to murder European Jewry, as the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Question Jewish partisan units are established in the Vilna and Kovno ghettos Extermination by gassing begins at the Sobibor killing center; by October 1943 there will be 9,000 Jews murdered there Extermination by gassing begins at the Belzec death camp; by the end of 1942, 600,000 Jews are murdered Deportations from Nazi-occupied territories to Auschwitz begin Treblinka death camp begins operations; by August 1943, 700,000 Jews (including the entire family of the author of this book) are murdered All Jewish schools in the Third Reich are shut down The Jewish Resistance Organization (ZOB) is established in the Warsaw ghetto. Deportation of Jews from Poland, Holland, France, Belgium, and Croatia to death camps Allied nations pledge to punish Nazis for crimes of genocide Allied forces land in North Africa. Nazis defeated at El Alamein Late winter deportation of Jews from Norway, Germany, and Greece to death camps in Poland

522

Warning and Hope

1943

January 18-21 February 2 March 21 April 19

June 14 August 2 September 23 October 2 October 14 October 20

The Warsaw ghetto Jews resist deportation Nazi Sixth Army surrenders at Stalingrad Liquidation of Cracow ghetto Warsaw ghetto uprising begins and lasts until early June, when the superior force of the SS and Army (Wehrmacht) units effect the liquidation of the ghetto Himmler orders liquidation of all ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union. Armed resistance breaks out in many of the ghettos Armed revolt in the Treblinka death camp Liquidation of the Minsk, Vilna, and Riga ghettos The Danish people rescue their Jewish citizens Armed revolt at the Sobibor death camp United Nations War Crimes Commission is established

1944

March 19 May 15 June 4 June 6 Spring-Summer July 20 July 22-30 July 24 summer

September 11 October 7

October 31 November 8 November 11

November 24

The Nazis occupy Hungary The Nazis begin deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz Allies in Rome Allied invasion of Normandy; 'D-Day' The Red Army repels Nazi forces German officers under the leadership of Count Stauffenberg attempt to assassinate Hitler Mass arrests of the July 20th conspirators and subsequent execution of hundreds of those involved as well as innocent 'suspects' Soviet troops liberate Majdanek Liquidation of ghettos in Kovno (Kaunas), Shavil (Siauliai), and Lodz. All remaining inmates sent to death camps US troops cross the Third Reich border Revolt by inmates in Auschwitz; they blow up one of the crematoriums The last Slovakian Jews deported to Auschwitz 40,000 Hungarian Jews on a death march from Budapest to Austria Last remaining Theresienstadt Jews are deported to Auschwitz Himmler orders the destruction of Auschwitz crematoria to hide evidence of genocide

1945

January 17

February 4-11 March 5 April 3 April 6-10 April 11 April 15 April 25 April 30

Evacuation of Auschwitz; inmates begin death march Soviet troops enter Warsaw The Yalta Conference convenes US troops reach the River Rhine Soviet Army enters the Third Reich from the east Evacuated Buchenwald inmates begin death march US troops liberate Buchenwald British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen US and Soviet troops meet at the Elbe River Hitler commits suicide

Appendices May 1 May 8 August 15 November 22

523 KZ Colditz liberated; I’m a free man! The Third Reich surrenders unconditionally Japan surrenders unconditionally; end of World War Two The Nuremberg International Tribunal convenes to try the perpetrators of crimes against humanity

524

Warning and Hope

Appendix 3 Number of Jews murdered in Nazi-occupied countries; percentage of the prewar Jewish population Country Albania Austria Belgium Bessarabia/Bukovina Czechoslovakia Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Soviet Union Thrace Yugoslavia

Jews killed

200 50,000 40,000 324,632 315,000 130 1,500 8 70,000 170,000 60,000 200,000 8,000 80,000 217,000 3,000 7,122 105,000 728 2,850,000 125,000 1,252,000 4,221 60,000

90 23 67 92 88 2 33 1 30 32 80 50 16 84 97 23 93 75 42 88 50 44 87 80

525

Appendices

Appendix 4 The price tag: European victims (totals)

Russian POWs Poles Yugoslavians Gypsies Christians killed in Lagers or by Einsatzgruppen Jews of all nationalities Civilians killed in military actions

2,000,000 1,500,000 1,380,000 500,000 6,150,000 6,350,000 18,000,000

German victims (totals)

Battle casualties Killed in bombings Wounded casualties

3,250,000 3,350,000 5,000,000

Buildings destroyed

7,000,000

Approximate cost of war

$272,000,000,000

526

Warning and Hope

Appendix 5 A brief survey of groups of Europeans killed under various circumstances

Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) - the November Pogrom November 10, 1938, 20,000 imprisoned, 244 killed at Buchenwald; 20,000 imprisoned at Dachau; 20,000 imprisoned at Sachsenhausen Poland Invasion September 1-November 13, 1939,16,336 civilians murdered in 714 localities, of whom 30% were Jews. 61,000 Jewish uniformed soldiers taken prisoner; 6,000 of them killed Nazi Euthanasia Campaign, 1940 70,273 sick, handicapped, and mentally ill killed Babi Yar, Kiel’ (the Ukraine) September 29-30, 1941: 33,771 Jewish men, women, and children shot or buried alive

Poland (Jedwabne) Massacre Summer of 1941, Poles kill their Jewish neighbors (1,600) Ustashi-Nazi Genocide (Croatia) Between 1941 and 1944, 28,400 shot, beaten or starved to death

Medical 'Experimental' Campaign First 100 Dutch women used as laboratory guinea pigs in Auschwitz against their will, July 19, 1942 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 66,701 still alive in July 1942 deported and killed in Treblinka; over 45,IKK) starved to death

Italian Massacre October 9-November 21, 1943, 3,000 Italian prisoners murdered by SS and Ukrainian Mercenaries at La Risera di San Sabba, near Trieste Belzec Polish Massacre 1,500 Poles who aided Jews were shot in September 1943 (600,000 Jews were gassed here also)

Greece Massacre Between 1941 and 1945 over 65,000 Greek Jews were killed, the majority from Salonika; their ancestry here went back more than 2,200 years

Hungarian Death March November 1944, over 50,000 prisoners were evacuated from the Budapest area; 10,000 died during the march. Many were killed by Hungarian fascists (Arrow Cross)

Appendices Belzec Annual Report June 1942-June 1943, 434,329 Jews incinerated; report signed by the Commandant, SS Obersturmfuhrer Christian Wirth

527

528

Warning and Hope

Appendix 6 Hitler's political testament

In his political testament, Hitler repeats his often expressed hatred towards the Jews. He also voices regret that his peace overtures toward the British have failed. He glorifies 'his' war as the most glorious manifestation of a people's will to live. And lastly, he justifies his decision to commit suicide, 'rather than fall into the hands of the enemies.' Hitler's political testament is an extraordinary document, not for its candor but for its perverse insistence, to the last breath, of the Fuhrer's goodwill and loyalty toward the German people. Since 1914 when, as a volunteer, 1 made my modest contribution in the World War, which was forced upon the Reich, over thirty years have passed. In these three decades only love for my people and loyalty to my people have guided me in all my thoughts, actions, and life. They gave me the strength to make the most difficult decisions, such as no mortal has yet had to face. I have exhausted my time, my working energy, and my health in these three decades. It is untrue that 1 or anybody else in Germany wanted war in 1939. It was desired and instigated exclusively by those international statesmen who were either of Jewish origin or working for Jewish interests. I have made so many offers for the reduction and limitation of armaments, which posterity cannot explain away for all eternity, that the responsibility for the outbreak of this war cannot rest on me. Furthermore, I never desired that after the first terrible World War a second war should arise against England or even against America. Centuries may pass, but out of the ruins of our cities and monuments of art there will arise anew the hatred for the people who alone are ultimately responsible: international Jewry and its helpers! As late as three days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war, I proposed to the British Ambassador in Berlin a solution of the German-Polish problem similar to the problem of the Saar area, under international control. This offer cannot be explained away, either. It was only rejected because the responsible circles in English politics wanted the war, partly in the expectation of business advantages, partly driven by propaganda promoted by international Jewry. But I left no doubt about the fact that if the peoples of Europe were again to be treated as so many packages of shares by these international money and finance conspirators, then the people who bear the real guilt for this murderous struggle would also have to answer for it: the Jews! It also left no doubt that this time we would not permit millions of European children of Aryan descent to die of hunger, or millions of grown-up men to suffer death, or hundreds of thousands of women and children to be burned and bombed to death in the cities, without the real culprit suffering his due punishment. Though in a more humane way. After six years of struggle, which in spite of all reverses will go down in history as the most glorious and most courageous manifestation of a people's will to live, I cannot separate myself from the city which is the capital of this Reich. Because our forces are too few to permit any further resistance against the enemy's assaults, and because individual resistance is rendered valueless by blinded and characterless scoundrels, 1 desire to share the fate that millions of others have taken upon themselves. In that 1 shall remain in this city. Furthermore, I do not want to fall into the hands of enemies who for the delectation of the hate-riddled masses require a new spectacle promoted by the Jews.

529

Appendices

1 have therefore resolved to remain in Berlin and there to choose death of my own will at the very moment when, as I believe, the seat of the Fuhrer and Chancellor can no longer be defended. 1 die with a joyful heart in the awareness of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at the front, of our women at home, the achievements of our peasants and workers, and the contribution, unique in history, of our youth, which bears my name. It goes without saying that I thank them all from the bottom of my heart and that it is also my desire that in spite of everything they should not give up the struggle, but continue fighting wherever they may be, faithful to the great Clausewitz, against the enemies of the Fatherland. From the sacrifices of our soldiers and from my own comradeship with them, there will come in one way or another into German history the seed of a brilliant renaissance of the National Socialist movement and thus the realization of a true national community. Many very brave men and women have resolved to link their lives to mine to the very end. 1 have requested them, and finally ordered them, not to do so, but instead to take part in the continuing struggle of the nation. 1 ask the commanders of the army, navy, and air force to strengthen by all possible means the spirit of resistance of our soldiers in the spirit of National Socialism, emphasizing especially that I too, as founder and creator of this movement, have preferred death to cowardly flight or even capitulation. May it be one day a part of the code of honor, as it is already in the navy, that the surrender of an area or of a town is impossible, and above all in this respect the leaders should give a shining example of faithful devotion to duty unto death. Second part of the political testament Before my death 1 expel the former Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering and deprive him of all the rights he may enjoy by virtue of the decree of June 29, 1941, and also by virtue of my statement in the Reichstag on September 1, 1939, I appoint in his place Grossadmiral Doenitz as President of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Before my death I expel the former Reichsfiihrer-SS and Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler from the Party and all offices of state. In his place I appoint Gauleiter Karl Hanke as Reichsfilhrer-SS and Chief of the German Police and Gauleiter Paul Giesler as Reich Minister of the Interior. Goering and Himmler, by their secret negotiations with the enemy, without my knowledge or approval, and by their illegal attempts to seize power in the state, quite apart from their treachery to my person, have brought irreparable shame to the country and the whole people. In order to give the German people a government composed of honorable men, who will fulfill their duty of continuing the war by all available means, 1, as the Fuhrer of the nation, nominate the following members of the new Cabinet:

President of the Reich Chancellor of the Reich Party Minister Foreign Minister Minister of the Interior Minister for War C.-in-C. of the Army C. in-C. of the Navy C. in-C. of the Air Force Reichsfiihrer-.SS and Chief of Police

Doenitz Dr. Goebbels Bormann Seyss-Inquart Gauleiter Giesler Doenitz Schoerner Doenitz Greim Gauleiter Hanke

530

Warning and Hope

Economics Agriculture Justice Culture Propaganda Finance Labor Munitions Leader of the German Labor Front and Member of the Reich Cabinet

Funk Backe Thierack Dr. Scheel Dr. Naumann Schwerin-Krossigk Dr. Haupfauer Saur

Reichminister Dr. Ley

Several of these men, such as Martin Bormann, Dr. Goebbels, etc., together with their wives, have joined me by their own free will and do not wish to leave the capital of the Reich under any circumstances, but on the contrary are willing to perish with me here. Yet 1 must ask them to obey my request, and in this instance place the interests of the nation above their own feelings. Through their work and loyalty they will remain just as close to me as companions after my death, just as I hope that my spirit will remain amongst them and will always accompany them. Let them be hard, but never unjust; above all, let them never allow fear to counsel their actions, but may they place the honor of the nation above everything on this earth. Finally, may they be conscious of the fact that our task of building a National Socialist state represents the labor of the coming centuries, and this places every single person under an obligation always to serve the common interest and to subordinate his own interests. 1 demand of all Germans, all National Socialists, men and women and all soldiers of the Armed Forces, that they remain faithful and obedient to the new government and to their President unto death. Above all I charge the leadership of the nation and their followers with the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples, international Jewry. Given in Berlin, April 29, 1945, 4 am ADOLF HITLER

As witnesses: Dr. JOSEPH GOEBBELS MARTIN BORMANN

WILHELM BURGDORF HANS KREBS

Select bibliography and works cited Books on related topics Adam, Peter. Art of the Third Reich. New York: 1992. Ainsztein, Reuben, Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe. London: 1974. Allen, Robert C. Channels of Discourse, Reassembled. Chapel Hill: 1992. Allport, Gordon W. The Nature of Prejudice. New York: 1989. Amery, Jean. At the Mind's Limits. New York: 1990. Andreas-Friedrich, Ruth. Der Schattenmann. Berlin: 1947. Annas, George J. and Grodin, Michael A., eds. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code. New York: 1992. Anthelme, Robert. The Human Race (trans. Jeffrey Haight and Annie Mahler). New York: 1992. Arendt, Hannah. A Report on the Banality of Evil: Eichmann in Jerusalem. New York: 1963. Astor, G. The Last Nazi: the Life and Times of Dr. Mengele. New York: 1985. Axmann, Arthur. Hitler-Jugend, 1933-1945, die Chronik eines Jahrzehnts. Berlin: 1943. Bailey, Martin J. and Gilbert, Douglas. The Steps of Bonhoeffer. Boston: 1969. Baird, Jay W. The Mythical World of Nazi Propaganda. Minneapolis: 1974. Barkai, Avraham. From Boycott to Annihilation: the Economic Struggle of German lews, 1933-1943. Hanover: 1989. Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: the Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. Chapel Hill: 1994. Bartoszewski, Wladyslaw and Levin, Zofia. The Samaritans. New York: 1970. Bartrop, Paul R. False Heavens: the British Empire and the Holocaust. Lanham: 1995. Batson, Daniel C. The Altruism Question. New Jersey: 1991. Bauer, Tom. The Paperclip Conspiracy. Boston: 1978. Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust. New York: 1982. __________ . The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness. Toronto; 1979. Bauer, Yehuda and Rotenstreich, Nathan. The Holocaust as Historical Experience. New York: 1981. Baum, Rainer C. The Holocaust and the German Elite. New Jersey: 1981. Bauman, Zygmund. Modernity and the Holocaust. New York: 1989. Beck, Norman. Mature Christianity: the Recognition and Repudiation of the AntiJewish Polemic of the New Testament. London: 1985. Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: 1973. Bein, Alex. The Jewish Question. New York: 1988. Bendiner, Elmer. A Time for Angels: the Tragicomic History of the League of Nations. New York: 1975. Bennet, Edward. Germany and the Diplomacy of the Financial Crisis of 1931. Cambridge: 1971. Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. Boston: 1993. Berger, Alan L. Crisis and Covenant. Albany: 1985. Bergman, Martin S. and Jucovy, Milton E. Generations of the Holocaust. New York: 1954. Bergmann, Martin S. Generations of the Holocaust. New York: 1982. Bernstein, Victor. Final Judgment. New York: 1947.

532

Warning and Hope

Bessel, Richard. Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism. London: 1984. Bethell, Nicholas. The War Hitler Won. New York: 1973. Bettleheim, Bruno. Surviving and Other Essays. New York: 1979. Beyerchen, Alan D. Scientists Under Hitler. New Haven: 1977. Bierman, John. Righteous Gentile. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Binion, Rudolph. Hitler Among the Germans. DeKalb: 1976. Blatter, Janet and Milton, Sybil. Art of the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. San Francisco: 1954. Bosch, William. Judgment at Nuremberg. Chapel Hill: 1970. Braham, Randolph L. Antisemitism and the Treatment of the Holocaust in Post­ Communist Eastern Europe. New York: 1994. __________ . Contemporary Views on the Holocaust. Boston: 1983. __________ . The Politics of Genocide. New York: 1981. Brenner, R.R. et al. The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors. New York: 1980. Browning, Christopher R. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office. New York: 1978. . Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: 1992. Bullock, Alan. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: 1964. __________ . Hitler and Stalin, Parallel Lives. New York: 1991 Burlingham, Dorothy and Freud, Anna. War and Children. New York: 1944. Buscher, Frank M. The US War Crimes Trial Program in Germany, 1956-1955. New York: 1989. Butler, Rohan. The Roots of National Socialism. London: 1942. Canedy, Susan. America's Nazis: a Democratic Dilemma. Menlo Park: 1990. Caplan, Arthur L., ed. When Medicine Went Mad. Totowa: 1992. Carell, Paul. Hitler Moves East 1941-1943. New York: 1964. Carlson, John R. Under Cover; My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld Of America. New York: 1943. Cargas, Harry J. Reflections of Post-Auschwitz Christian. Detroit: 1989. . Shadows of Auschwitz: a Christian Response to the Holocaust. New York: 1990. __________ . When God and Man Failed. New York: 1981. Carr, William. Hitler: a Study in Personality and Politics. New York: 1979. Carsten, F. L. The Rise of Fascism. Los Angeles: 1967. Charny, Israel W. Toward Understanding and Prevention of Genocide. Boulder: 1984. . How Can We Commit the Unthinkable? Genocide: the Human Cancer. Boulder: 1982. Chicago, Judy. Holocaust Project. New York: 1991. Childers, Thomas. The Nazi Voter. Chapel Hill: 1983. Chuikov, Vasili. The Battle for Stalingrad. New York: 1964. Cohen, Elie A. Human Behavior in the Concentration Camp. London: 1988. Cohen, Marshall, et al. War and Moral Responsibility. Princeton: 1974. Cohen, Richard I. The Burden of Conscience. Bloomington: 1987. Cohn, Norman. Warrant for Genocide. New York: 1967. Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg. New York: 1983. Cranston, Allan. The Killing of the Peace. New York: 1945. Davidson, Eugene. The Trials of the Germans. New York: 1966. __________ . The Unmaking of Hitler. Columbia, London: 1996 Dawidowicz, Lucy S. A Holocaust Reader. New York: 1976. __________ . The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945. Toronto, London, Sydney: 1975. Day, Thomas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Christian Community and Common Sense. New York: 1982.

Selected Biography

533

DeConde, Alexander. A History of American Foreign Policy. New York: 1964. Deighton, Len. Blitzkrieg. New York: 1980. DeJager, Charles. The Linz File: Hitler's Plunder of Europe's Art. London: 1981. Des Pres, Terrence. The Survivor. New York: 1976. Dework, Deborah. Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe. New Haven: 1991. Dexter, Byron. The Years of Opportunity: the League of Nations 1920-1926. New York: 1967. Dietrich, Donald J. Catholic Citizens in the Third Reich. New Jersey: 1988. Dimant, Max I. The Indestructible lews. New York: 1971. Dimsdale, Joel E., ed. Survivors, Victims, and Perpetrators. New York: 1980. Dinnerstein, Leonard. Uneasy at Home. New York: 1987. Drews, Richard and Kantorowicz, Alfred, eds. Verboten und Verbrannt. Deutsche Literatur- 12 Jahre Unterdriickt. Berlin: 1947. Druks, Herbert. The Failure to Rescue. New York: 1977. Dubnov, S.M. History of the lews in Russia and Poland. Philadelphia: 1916. Dulles, Allen W. Germany's Underground. Washington, DC: 1978. Dupuy, Ernest R. World War 11. New York: 1969. Dyson, Freeman. Disturbing the Universe. New York: 1979. Eckardt, Alice and Roy. Long Night's Journey into Day. Detroit: 1988. Edwards, Mark, Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics. London: 1983. Ehrenburg, Ilya and Grossman, Vasily, eds. The Black Book. New York: 1980. Eisen, George. Children and Play in the Holocaust. Amherst: 1988. Eisenberg, Azriel. The Lost Generation; Children in the Holocaust. New York: 1982. Eisenberg, Nancy. The Caring Child. Cambridge, MA: 1992. __________ . Witness to the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Engleman, Bernt. In Hitler's Germany: Daily Life in the Third Reich. New York: 1986. Epstein, Helen. Children of the Holocaust. Toronto: 1979. Eubank, Keith. Munich. Norman: 1963. Fackenheim, Emil L. Jewish Return into History: Reflections in the Age of Auschwitz and New Jerusalem. New York: 1978. __________ . To Mend the World. New York: 1989. Falk, Gerhard. The Jew in Christian Theology. London: 1992. Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps. New York: 1981. Fein, Helen. Accounting for Genocide. London: 1979. __________ . Genocide Watch. New Haven: 1992. Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue. New Jersey: 1970. Fenelon, Fania. Playing for Time. New York: 1977. Fermi, Laura. Illustrious Immigrants. Chicago: 1971. Fertig, Howard. Nazi Medicine. New York: 1986. Feuerlicht, Roberta S. The Fate of the lews. New York: 1983. Finkelstein, Louis, ed. The Jews, Their History, Culture, and Religion. New York: 1960. Firster, Richard and Levin, Nora, eds. The Living Witness: Art in the Concentration Camp. Philadelphia: 1978. Fischer, George. Soviet Opposition to Stalin. Cambridge, MA: 1952. Fiske, D.W. and Maddi, S.R., eds. Functions of a Varied Experience. Homewood: 1961. Flannery, Harry W. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of AntiSemitism. New York: 1985. Flannery, Harry W. and Seger, Gerhart. Which Way Germany? New York: 1968. Fleischner, Eva, ed. Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era? New York: 1977. Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley: 1982. Frances, Henry, ed. Victims and Neighbors. New York: 1984.

534

Warning and Hope

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. New York: 1984. Flender, Harold. Rescue in Denmark. New York: 1963. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. New York: 1961. Frey, Robert S. and Thompson, Nancy. The Imperative of Response. New York: 1985. Frey, Arthur. Cross and Swastika. London: 1938. Friedlander, Saul. Pious Xll and the Third Reich. New York: 1966. Friedlander, Henry, ed. The Holocaust: Ideology, Bureaucracy, and Genocide. New York: 1980. Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. Detroit: 1973. Friedmann, Phillip. Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. New York: 1980. Frye, Northrup. The Great Code: the Bible and Literature. San Diego: 1982. Gallin, Mary A. German Resistance to Hitler. Washington, DC: 1961. Gilbert, G.M. Nuremberg Diary. New York: 1947. Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: 1952. . The Boys; the Untold Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors. New York: 1997. __________ . The Holocaust - The Jewish Tragedy. London: 1986. . Holocaust Journey. New York: 1997. Gisevius, Hans B. To the Bitter End. New York: 1947. Glueck, Sheldon. The Nuremberg Trial and Aggressive War. New York: 1946. Goldberger, Leo. The Rescue of the Danish Jews. New York: 1987. Goldhagen, Daniel J. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: 1996. Golding, Louis. The Jewish Problem. Harmondsworth: 1939. Gordon, Harold J., Jr. Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch. Princeton: 1972. Gordon, S. Hitler, Germans, and the 'Jewish Question.' Princeton: 1984. Gottlieb, Roger S. Thinking the Unthinkable. New Jersey: 1990. Graf, Jakob, Dr. Biologic fur Oberschule und Gymnasium, 3. Band. Munich/Berlin: 1940. Graml, Hermann. The Anti-Semitism in the Third Reich. Oxford: 1988. Graml, Hermann, et al. The German Resistance to Hitler. Berkeley: 1978. Griffin, Ricky and Moorhead, Gregory. Organizational Behavior. Boston: 1986. Grobman, Alex and Landes, Daniel. Genocide: Critical Issues of the Holocaust. Los Angeles: 1983. Grosshans, Henry. Hitler and the Artists. New York: 1983. Grossman, Mendel. With a Camera in the Ghetto. New York: 1977. Grossman, Vasily and Ehrenberg, Ilya. The Black Boots. Jerusalem: 1980. Grudzinska-Gross, Irena. Czterdziestym nas Matko na Sybir zeslali. London: 1984. Grunberger, Richard. The Twelve-Year Reich: a Social History of Nazi Germany 1933-1945. New York: 1971. Gutman, Israel. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. New York: 1990. __________ . Resistance. New York: 1994. Gutman, Yisrael. The Jews of Warsaw 1939-1943 Ghetto, Underground Revolt. Bloomington: 1982. Haas, Peter J. Morality After Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge of the Nazi Ethic. Philadelphia: 1988. Haffner, Sebastian. The Meaning of Hitler. Cambridge, MA: 1979. __________ . The Meaning of Hitler's Use of Power, His Successes and Failures. (trans. Owens, Ewald). New York: 1979. Hallie, Peter. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. New York: 1979. Hamilton, Richard F. Who Voted for Hitler? Princeton: 1982. Hayes, Peter, ed. Lessons and Legacies. Evanston: 1991. Heiden, Konrad. A History of National Socialism. New York: 1971. Heinemann, Marlene E. Gender and Destiny. New York: 1986.

Selected Biography

535

Hemmendinger, Judith. Survivors: Children of the Holocaust. Bethesda: 1986. Henry, Frances. Victims and Neighbors: a Small Town in Nazi Germany Remembered. South Hadley: 1984. Herczl, Moshe, Y. Christianity and the Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. New York: 1993. Higgins, Trumbull. Hitler and Russia. New York: 1966. Higham, Charles. American Swastika. New York: 1985. Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of European Jews. New York: 1985. __________ . Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders. New York: 1992. Hinz, Renate, ed. Kathe Kollwitz: Graphics, Posters, Drawings. New York: 1981. Hirschfield, Gerhard, ed. The Policies of Genocide. Boston: 1986. Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Mannheim. Boston: 1943. __________ . My New Order. New York: 1941. Hochman, Elaine S. Architecture of Fortune. New York: 1989. Hoffman, Eva. Shtetl; The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews. Boston: 1997. Hoffman, Peter. The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945. Trans. Richard Barry. Cambridge, MA: 1977. Howard, Ephraim M. and Yoheved. Towards the Understanding and Prevention of Genocide. Ed. Israel Charny. Boulder: 1984. Hughes, Robert. Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America. Cambridge: 1994. Hughes, Stuart H. The Sea-Change. New York: 1975. Hunt, Morton. The Compassionate Beast. New York: 1990. Jabotinsky, V. The Jewish Front. London: 1940. Jacobsen, Hans A. July 20, 1944: The German Opposition to Hitler as Viewed by Foreign Historians. Trans. Allan and Liselotte Yahraes. Berlin: 1969. Jaeckel, Eberhard. Hitler's Weltanschauung: A Blueprint for Power. Trans. Arnold Herber. Middletown: 1972. Jaeckel, Eberhard & Rohwer, Juergen. Der Mord der luden im Zweiten Weltgrieg. Stuttgart: 1985. Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. New York: 1987. Joyce, James A. The Story of International Cooperation. New York: 1964. Kagan, D., et al. The Western Heritage. New York: 1873. Karas, Joza. Music in Terezin 1941-1945. New York: 1985. Katz, Jacob. From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism, 1700-1933. Cambridge: 1980. Katz, Steven T. Historicism, the Holocaust and Zionism. New York: 1992. Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. New York: 1993. Keller, Ulrich. The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs. New York: 1984. Kelly, Alfred. The Descent of Darwin: The Popularization of Darwin in Germany, 1860-1914. Chapel Hill: 1981. Kelly, Geffrey. Liberating Faith: Bonhoeffer's Message for Today. Minneapolis: 1984. Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage. New York: 1964. Kershaw, lan. Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris. New York, London: 1995. __________ . Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis. New York, London: 2000. __________ . Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich. Oxford: 1983. Keynes, John M. The Economic Consequences of Peace. New York: 1920. Koch, H.W. Aspects of the Third Reich. London: 1985. Kowalski, Isaac. A Secret Press in Nazi Europe. New York: 1969. Krausnick, Helmut, and Broszat, Martin. Anatomy of the SS State. New York: 1970. Kren, G. and Rappoport, L. The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior. New York: 1980. Krzesinski, Andrew J. Religion and Nazi Germany. Boston: 1945. Kuper, Leo. Genocide. New Haven: 1981.

536

Warning and Hope

Lambert, Marjorie. Jewish Activism in Imperial Germany: the Struggle for Civil Equality. New Haven: 1978. Lang, Berel. Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide. Chicago: 1990. Lang, Johen and Claus, Sibyll. Eichmann Interrogated. New York: 1983. Langer, Lawrence L. Admitting the Holocaust. New York: 1995. __________ . ed. Art from the Ashes. New York: 1995. Langer, Walter C. The Mind of Adolf Hitler. New York: 1972. Lanzmann, Claude. Shoah: an Oral History of the Holocaust. New York: 1985. Laquer, Walter. The Terrible Secret. Boston: 1980. Laska, Vera, ed. Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust. Westport: 1983. Le Blanc, Lawrence J. The United States and the Genocide Convention. Durham: 1991. Leboucher, Fernande. Incredible Mission. New York: 1969. Lehman, David. Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man. New York: 1994. Lehmann, Hans. Die Weimarer Republik; Darstellung und Dokumente. Munich: 1961 Letgers, Lyman H. ed. Western Society After the Holocaust. Boulder: 1983. Levin, Dov. Fighting Back: Lithuanian Jewry's Armed Resistance to the Nazis, 1941-1945. New York: 1985. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of the European Jewry (1933-1945). New York: 1968. Levinger, Lee J. Anti-Semitism in the United States. Westport: 1925. Lewin, Ronald. Hitler's Mistakes. New York: 1984. Lewis, Rhoda G. Witnesses to the Holocaust. Indianapolis: 1991. Lewy, Gunther. The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany. New York: 1964. Lieblein, Julius. Toward the Understanding and Prevention of Genocide (ed. Israel Charny). Boulder: 1984. Lifton, Robert J. The Genocidal Mentality. New York:1990. __________ . The Nazi Doctors. New York: 1986. Lipman, Steve. Laughter in Hell: the Use of Humor During the Holocaust. Northvale: 1991. Lipset, Martin and Altbach, Philip G. Students in Revolt. Boston: 1969. Lipstadt, Deborah E. Denying the Holocaust: the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: 1994. Loftus, John and Aarons, Mark. The Secret War Against the Jews. New York: 1994. Lorenz, K. On Aggression. New York: 1966. McLean, French. The Cruel Hunters. Atglen: 1998. Manuell, Roger and Fraenkel, Heinrich. The Incomparable Crime: Mass Extermination in the Twentieth Century. The Legacy of Guilt. New York: 1967. Margulies, Herbert F. The Mild Preservationists and the League of Nations Controversy in the Senate. Columbia, London: 1989. Markusen, Eric. The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and Nuclear Threat. New York: 1990. Marlis, S.G. Hitler's War and the Germans; Public Mood During the Second World War. Athens, OH: 1977. Marrus, Michael. The Holocaust in History. Hanover: 1987. _________ . The Nazi Holocaust. Vol. 7. Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust. Westport: 1989. Martin, Hugh. Christian Counter-Attack: Europe's Churches Against Nazism. New York: 1944. Martire, Gregory and Clark, Ruth. Anti-Semitism in the United States. New York: 1982. Maser, Werner. Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf; Geschichte, Auszuege, Kommentare. Eslingen: 1981. . Hitler: Legend, Myth, Reality. New York: 1971.

Selected Biography

537

__________ . Nuremberg: a Nation on Trial. New York: 1979. Mates, Len. The Holocaust and International Relations. New York: 1983. Matter, Joseph A. Love, Altruism, and the World Crisis: the Challenge of Pitirim Sorokin. Chicago: 1974. Mazian, Florence. Why Genocide? Ames: 1990. McAllister, Pam. You Can't Kill the Spirit. Philadelphia: 1988. McCardle, Dorothy. Children of Europe. Boston: 1951. McClellan, Grant S. The Two Germanys. New York: 1959. McRandle, James H. The Track of the Wolf. Evanston: 1965. Means, Paul B. Things That Are Caesar's: the Genesis of the German Church Conflict. New York: 1935? Medoff, Rafael. The Deafening Silence. New York: 1987. Melson, Robert, F. Revolution and Genocide. Chicago: 1992. Meltzer, Milton. Resent’; the Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust. New York: 1988. Mendelsohn, John. The Holocaust. New York: 1982. Miller, Arthur G. The Obedience Experiments. New York: 1986. Millu, Liana. Smoke Over Birkenau. Philadelphia: 1991. Mitchell, Otis C., ed. Nazism and the Common Man: Essays in German History, 1929-1938. New York: 1981. . The Psychological Perspectives of the Holocaust and its Aftermath. Boston: 1988. Morely, John F. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews During the Holocaust, 1939-1943. New York: 1980. Mosse, George L. Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural, and Social Life in the Third Reich. New York: 1966. Muller-Hill, Benno. Murderous Science. New York: 1988. Myers, Sondra and Rittner, Carol, eds. The Courage to Care. New York: 1986. Nicholls, A.J. Weimar and the Rise of Hitler. New York: 1968. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Harmondsworth: 1986. Noakes J. Nazism: State, Economy, and Society, 1933-1945. Exeter: 1984. Noakes, J. and Pridham, G. eds. Nazism, 1919-1945. Exeter: 1984. Novack, George E. Genocide Against Indians. New York: 1970. Oliner, Samuel P and Pearl M. The Altruistic Personality. New York: 1988. Overstreet, Bobaro W. Courage for Crisis. New York: 1943. Palmer, Alan. The Lands Between. New York: 1970. Palmer, R.R. A History of the Modern World. New York: 1984. Parkes, James. The Conflict of the Church and Synagogue. New York: 1979. Passant, E.J. A Short History of Germany, 1815-1945. Cambridge: 1972. Patai, Raphael. The Jewish Mind. New York: 1977. Payne, Robert. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. New York: 1973. Pearlman, Moshe. The Capture of Adolf Eichmann. New York: 1961. Peck, Abraham J. Jews and Christians After the Holocaust. New York: 1982. Reitkoff, Leonard. The Ominous Parallels: the End of Freedom in America. New York: 1982. Penkower, Monty N. The Jews Were Expendable. Atlanta: 1987. Perlmutter, Nathan and Perlmutter, Ruth A. The Real Anti-Semitism in America. New York: 1982. Peterson, Edward N. The Limits of Hitler's Power. Princeton: 1969. Piliavin, Jane. Emergency Intervention. New York: 1981. Plato. The Republic and Other Works. Garden City: 1973. Plato. The Last Days of Socrates. London: 1954. Poliakov, Leon. Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of Jews in Europe. Westport: 1975.

538

Warning and Hope

Porter, Jack N. Genocide and Human Rights, a Global Anthology. New York: 1982. Prittie, Terrence. Germans Against Hitler. Boston: 1964. Przytyk-Nomberg, Sara. Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land. Chapel Hill1985. Quinley, Harold E. and Glock, Charles Y. Anti-Semitism in America. New York: 1979. Rachman, SJ. Fear and Courage. San Francisco: 1978. Rauschning, Hermann. Hitler Speaks. London: 1939. Rautkallio, Hannu. Finland and the Holocaust. New York: 1987. Read, Anthony and Fisher, David. Kristallnacht: the Nazi Night of Terror. New York 1989. Reitlinger, Gerald. The SS: Alibi of a Nation. London: 1981. Rempel, Gerhard. Hitler's Children: the Hitler Youth and the SS. Chapel Hill: 1989. Rhodes, Anthony. The Vatican in the Age of Dictators. New York: 1973. Rhodes, James M. The Hitler Movement. California: 1980. Ritter, Carol and Meyers, Sondra. The Courage to Care. New York: 1986. Roberts, Stephen H. The House that Hitler Built. New York: 1938. Rosenbaum, Alan S. Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals. Columbia, London: 1996. Rosenberg, Alan and Myers, Gerald E., eds. Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a Dark Time. Pennsylvania: 1988. Rosenfeld, Alvin H. A Double Dying. Bloomington: 1980. __________ . Imagining Hitler. Bloomington: 1985. Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue. New York: 1982. Ross, Robert. So It Was True. Minneapolis: 1980. Roth, John K. and Berenbaum, Michael. Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications. New York: 1989. Rothchild, Sylvia. Voices from the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Rothfels, Hans. The German Opposition to Hitler: An Appraisal. Trans. Lawrence Wilson. Chicago: 1962. Rousmaniere, John. A Bridge to Dialogue: the Story of ]ewish-Christian Relations. New York: 1991. Roxan, David and Wanstall, Ken. The Rape of Art: The Story of Hitler's Plunder of the Great Masterpieces of Europe. New York: 1964. Rubenstein, Richard L. After Auschwitz; History, Theology, and Contemporary Judaism. Maryland: 1992. __________ . The Cunning of History. New York: 1975. Rubenstein, Richard L. and Roth, John K. Approaches to Auschwitz. Atlanta: 1987. Rudavsky, Joseph. To Live With Hope To Die With Dignity. Lanham: 1987. Russell, E. Lord. The Scourge of the Swastika. London: 1956. Russell, Francis. Germany. New York: 1973. Ryan, Michael D. Human Responses to the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Sachar, Abram L. The Course of our Times. Boston: 1972. . A History of the lews. New York: 1967. Samuel, Maurice. The Gentleman and the lew. New York: 1950. . The Great Hatred. New York: 1940. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Theatre I, Les Mouches. Paris: 1947. Schlabrendorff, Fabian von. The Secret War Against Hitler. New York: 1965. Schleunes, Karl A. The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-1939. Chicago: 1970. Schneider, Gertrude. Journey Into Terror: Story of the Riga Ghetto. New York: 1979. Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942-1943. Middletown: 1983. Schreiber, Hermann. Teuton and Slav. New York: 1973. Schwarzberg, Gunther. The Murders at Bullenhauser Damm: The SS Doctor and the Children (trans, from Der SS Artzt und die Kinder: Bericht uber den Mord win Bullenhauser Damm, by Erna B. Rosenfeld and H. Alvin) Bloomington: 1984.

Selected Biography

539

Schwertfeger, Ruth. Women of Theresienstadt: Voices from a Concentration Camp. New York: 1989. Seitz, Frey, Robert and Thompson Frey, Nancy. The Imperative of Response. Lanham: 1985. Sereny, Gita. Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth. New York: 1995 Shirer, William. The Nightmare Years. New York: 1984. __________ . The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler. New York: 1961. __________ . The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: 1960. Shur, Irene. The Annals. Philadelphia: 1980. _________ . Reflections on the Holocaust: Historical, Philosophical, and Educational Dimensions. Philadelphia: 1980. Sibley, Mulford, ed. The Quiet Battle. Boston: 1963. Sichrovsky, Peter. Born Guilty. New York: 1986. Sigal, John and Weinfeld, Morton. Trauma and Rebirth: Intergenerational Effects of the Holocaust. New York: 1989. Silver, Eric. The Book of the Just. New York: 1992. Sington, Derrick. The Goebbels Experiment. New Haven: 1943. Sklar, Dusty. The Nazis and the Occult. New York: 1989. Smith, Bradley F. Adolf Hitler, His Family, Childhood and Youth. Stanford: 1967. __________ . Reaching judgment at Nuremberg. New York: 1977. Snyder, Louis L. Hitler's Elite. New York: 1989. __________ . Hitler and Nazism. New York: 1967. Sorge, Martin K. The Other Price of Hitler's War. New York: 1986. Sorokin, Pitirim A., ed. Explorations in Altruistic Love and Behavior. New York: 1970. Spielvogel, Jackson. Hitler and Nazi Germany. Englewood Cliffs: 1988. Spotts, Frederic. The Churches and Politics in Germany. New Haven: 1973. Stachura, Peter D. The German Youth Movement 1900-45. New York: 1981. Stackelberg, Roderick. Idealism Debased. Kent, OH: 1981. Staub, Irving. The Roots of Evil: the Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. Cambridge: 1989. Staudinger, Hans. The Inner Nazi: A Critical Analysis of Mein Kampf. Baton Rouge: 1981. Steel, Johannes. Hitler as Frankenstein. Bristol: 1957. Steinbach, Peter and Tuchel, Johannes. Lexicon des Widerstandes, 1933-1945. Munchen: 1994. Steinberg, Jonathan. All or Nothing. New York: 1990. Steinert, Marlis G. Hitler's War and the Germans. Athens, OH: 1977. Strom-Stern, Margot and Parsons, William S., eds. Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior. Watertown: 1982. Suster, Gerald. Hitler: The Occult Messiah. New York: 1981. Sydnor, Charles W. Soldiers of Destruction. Princeton: 1977. Szajkowski, Zosia. An Illustrated Sourcebook on the Holocaust. New York: 1977. Tardieu, Andre. The Truth About the Treaty. Indianapolis: 1921. Taylor, Brandon, and Van der Will, Wilifried, eds. The Nazification of Art. Winchester: 1990. Taylor James and Shaw, Warren. The Third Reich Almanac. New York: 1987. Taylor, Robert. The Word in Stone. Berkeley: 1974. Tec, Nechama. When the Light Pierced the Darkness. New York: 1986. Tenenbaum, Joseph. Race and Reich: The Story of an Epoch. Connecticut: 1956. Thompson, W.D. and Cargill, James. The Political Thought of Martin Luther. Totowa: 1984. Tierney, Brian. Western Societies. New York: 1984. Tobin, Gary A. Jewish Perception of Anti-Semitism. New York: 1988. Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. New York: 1976.

540

Warning and Hope

Trevor-Roper, Hugh, ed. Hitler's Secret Conversations, 1941-1944. New York: 1953. Trailer, Norbert. Theresienstadt: Hitler's Gift to the lews. Chapel Hill: 1991. Trolley, Howard, Jr. Children and War: Political Socialization to International Conflict. New York: 1973. Trunk, Isaiah. Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution. New York: 1979. Turner, Henry A., Jr. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler. New York: 1985. Tylor, Simon. Prelude to Genocide. London: 1985. Van den Berghe, Pierre L. State Violence and Ethnicity. Boulder: 1990. Vashem, Y. Holocaust and Rebirth. Jerusalem: 1974. Vidal-Naquet, Pierre. Assassins of Memory: Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust. New York: 1994. Vogt, Hannah. Burden of Guilt. Oxford: 1964. __________ . The lews: a Chronicle for Christian Conscience. New York: 1967. Volk, Ernest. A Legacy of Hate. New York: 1982. Waite, Robert G.L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: 1977. Walker, Lawrence D. Hitler Youth and Catholic Youth, 1933-36. Washington, DC: 1970. Walliman, Isidor and Dobnowski, Michael. Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death. New York: 1987. Weeramantry, C.G. Nuclear Weapons and Scientific Responsibility. Wolfeboro: 1987. Wertham, Fredric. The German Euthanasia Program. New York: 1980. Wheeler-Bennett, John. The Nemisis of Power: the German Army in Politics. London: 1964 Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: 1992. Wistrich, Robert. Hitler's Apocalypse. London: 1985. Wolman, Benjamin B. The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of History. New York: 1971. Woodward, Herbert N. The Human Dilemma. New York: 1971. Wright, Susan, ed. Preventing a Biological Arms Race. Cambridge, MA: 1990. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews. New York: 1984. Yahil, Leni. The Holocaust. Oxford: 1991. Zatarin, Michael. David Duke: Evolution of a Klansman. Gretna: 1990. Zimmels, HJ. The Echo of the Nazi Holocaust. New York: 1977. Zipperstein, Steven J. The Jews of Odessa: a Cultural History. Stanford: 1991. Zuckerman, Sir Solly. Scientists at War. London: 1966.

Diaries, letters, memoirs, poetry and oral history Arad, Yitzhak. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Bloomington: 1987. Camus, Albert. The Plague. New York: 1948. Donat, Alexander. The Holocaust Kingdom. New York: 1978. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. From a letter to Chief of Staff George Marshall, April 12,1945 - cited in direct mailing from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, undated. Eliach, Yaffa. Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. New York: 1982. Epstein, Helen. Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors. New York: 1979. Flam, Gila. Singing For Survival. Chicago: 1992. Frank, Anne. Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex. Trans. Ralph Manheim and Michael Mole. New York: 1984. Frankl, Viktor E. From Death Camp to Existentialism. A Psychiatrist's Path to a New Therapy. Trans. Ilse Lasch. Boston: 1959.

Selected Biography

541

Green, Gerald. The Artists of Terezin. New York: 1979. Hart, Kitty. Return to Auschwitz: the Remarkable Life of a Girl Who Survived the Holocaust. New York: 1981. Heck, Alfons. The Burden of Hitler's Legacy. Frederick, MD: 1988. __________ . A Child of Hitler. Frederick, MD: 1988. Hess, Sales R Dachau: Eine Welt ohne Gott. Nuremberg: 1946. Hyatt, Felicia B. Close Calls: the Autobiography of a Survivor. New York: 1991. Irving, David. The Secret Diaries of Hitler's Doctor. New York: 1983. Kalish, Shoshana and Meistev, Barbara. Yes, We Sang: Songs of the Ghettos and Concentration Camps. New York: 1985. Kollwitz, Kathe. Diary and Letters. Chicago: 1955. Kuper, Jack. Child of the Holocaust. Toronto: 1967. Langer, Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimonies: the Ruins of Memory. New Haven: 1991. Lengyel, Olga. Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz. New York: 1983. Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved. New York: 1986. __________ . The Reawakening. New York: 1987. __________ . Survival in Auschwitz. New York: 1963. McVay, Kenneth N. Holocaust FAQ: Willis Carlo and the Institute for Historical Review. Usenet news, answers. Available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit. edu in pub/usenet/news.answers/Holocaust/ihr/parfll and part02, October 23,1994 Mee, Charles L., Jr. Meeting at Potsdam. New York: 1975. Neruda, Pablo. Selected Poems. New York: 1961. Reck-Malleczewen, Friedrich R Diary Of A Man In Despair (trans. Paul Rubens). London: 1970. Rilke, Raine M. Selected Poetry. New York: 1982. Sachs, Nelly. O the Chimneys: Selected Poems (trans, by several translators). New York: 1967. __________ . The Seeker and Other Poems (trans. Ruth Mead and Matthew and Michael Hamburger). New York: 1970. Samelson, William. Near and Distant; Selected Poems. San Antonio: 1991. __________ . One Bridge to Life. Darnestown: 1989. Stein, Erwin, ed. Arnold Schoenberg's Letters. New York: 1965. Waterford, Helen. Commitment to the Dead. Frederick: 1993. Wiesel, EUe. Night. New York: 1982. . Voices. New York: 1972.

Articles and official documents Adam, Uwe D. 'How Spontaneous was the Pogrom?' In Walter H. Pehle, ed., Kristallnacht to Genocide. New York: 1991. Angell, Marcia, M.D. 'The Nazi Hypothermia Experiments and Unethical Research Today.' In New England Journal of Medicine. May 17,1990. 'Anti-Semitism, Left and Right.' New Republic. October 3,1988. Applebome, Peter. 'Louisiana Tally is Seen as Sign of Voter Unrest.' New York Times. October 8,1990. . 'Republican Quits Louisiana Race in Effort to Defeat ExKlansman.' New York Times. October 5,1990. 'Atwaterism.' In The Nation. April 3,1989. Beard, C.A. 'Education Under the Nazis.' Foreign Affairs. Vol. 14, issue 3. April 1936. 437-52 Bell-Fialkoff, Andrew. A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing.' Foreign Affairs. Vol. 72. Summer 1993.

542

Warning and Hope

Benjamin, Daniel. 'Foreigners, Go Home!' In Time. November 23,1992. Berger, Robert L.,M.D. 'Nazi Science - The Dachau Hypothermia Experiments.' In New England Journal of Medicine. May 17,1990. Bethell, Tom. 'The Hazards of David Duke.' National Review. August 20,1990. Black, Peter. 'Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the Final Solution.' In Contemporary Virws of the Holocaust. Ed. Randolph L. Braham. Boston: 1983. Braham, Randolph L. 'The Psychological Perspectives of the Holocaust and of its Aftermath.' In Holocaust Studies Series. Boston: 1988. Broszat, Martin. 'Hitler and the Genesis of the Final Solution: An Assessment of David Irving's Thesis.' In H.W. Koch, ed. Aspects of the Third Reich. London: 1985. 'Bureaucracy.' International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. David L. Sills. New York: 1968. 'Bush on the Road to Bitburg.' The Nation. August 27,1988. Carroll, Ginny. 'Coming Soon: Klub KKK: a Dream Resort for White Supremacists.' In Newsweek. July 8,1991. Chanes, Gerome A. Anti-Semitism in The United States: On the Rise or on the Decline?' Midstream. January 1990. Cohen, Baruch. 'Ethics of Using Medical Data from Nazi Experiments.' Midstream. June/July 1989. Cohler, Larry. 'Republican Racist.' The New Republic. September 18 and 25, 1989. Cooper, Matthew. 'Bonfire on the Bayou.' US News and World Report. January 14, 1991. . 'David Duke's White Appeal.' US News and World Report. July 23, 1990. Cooper, Nancy, et al. 'LaRouched in Illinois.' Newsweek. March 31, 1988. Corn, David. 'G.O.R Anti-Semites.' The Nation. October 24,1988. Craney, Glen. 'Johnston Overcomes Duke; Runoff in New Orleans.' Congressional Quarterly. October 13,1990. Curtis, Michael. 'Anti-Semitism in the United States.' Midstream. January 1990. Davies, Alan. 'Racism and German Protestant Theology: A Prelude to the Holocaust.' In The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Vol. 450: 1980. Dinardo, John. Israeli and US Government Assassinate US Army Colonels (Multiple Internet/Usenet newsgroups, 18 October 1994). 'Doubling up on Duke.' Time. October 15,1990. 'Duke for Senator?' National Review. September 3, 1990. 'Duke's a Hazzard.' New Statesman and Society. October 12,1990. Dwyer, Paula and Ivey, Mark. 'Fear and Loathing in Louisiana.' Business Week. July 23,1990. Feingold, Henry L. 'Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.' The Nazi Holocaust - Bystanders to the Holocaust. Westport: 1989. Fogelman, Eva. 'Moral Heroes of Our Time: Christian Rescuers.' America. December 9,1989. Gandhi, Mahatma. 'I Cannot Hate Him.' Eye-Witness: Hitler. New York: 1979. Gellately, Robert. 'Medicine and Collaboration Under Hitler.' Canadian Journal of History. December, 1991. German Resistance Movement, 1933-1945. 'Information and Documentation Exhibition Arranged by the Federal Republic of Germany. 1988. Goldman, Nachum. 'The Influence of the Holocaust on the Change in the Attitude of World Jewry to Zionism and the State of Israel.' Holocaust and Rebirth (trans. Efraim Zuroff). Jerusalem: 1974. Gorman, Christine. 'A Conspiracy of Goodness.' Time. March 16,1992. Greenberg, Irving. 'Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and

Selected Biography

543

Modernity After the Holocaust. In Eva Fleischner, ed. Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era? New York: 1977. Henthoff, Nat. 'An Ad That Offends.' The Progressive. May 1992. Hill, Lance. 'Nazi Race Doctrine in the Political Thoughts of David Duke.' The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race. Chapel Hill: 1992. Hundert, Gershon. 'The Implications of Jewish Economic Activities for ChristianJewish Relations in the Polish Commonwealth.' The Jews in Poland. Ed. Abramsky, Chimen, et al. New York: 1986. Johanssohn, Kurt. 'Famine, Genocide, And Refugees.' Society. Vol. 30, Issue 6, September 1993. Joyce, Christopher and Stover, Eric. 'DNA Testing Enlisted to Exorcise Ghost of Mengele.' In New Scientist. September 23,1989. Kemp, Frederick. 'Hidden Heritage.' Wall Street Journal. February 14,1991. Kershaw, I. 'The Persecution of the Jews and German Popular Opinion in the Third Reich.' Michael R. Marrus, ed. The Nazi Holocaust: sec. 5 Public Opinion and Relations to the Jews in Nazi Europe. Vol. 1. Westport: 1981. King, Wayne. 'Bad Times on the Bayou.' New York Times Magazine. June 11,1989. Knoll, Erwin. 'The Uses of the Holocaust.' The Progressive. July 1993. Koblik, Steven. 'Swedish Attempts To Aid Jews, 1939-1945.' In The Nazi Holocaust - Bystanders to the Holocaust. Wesport: 1989. Landau, Ronnie. "Never Again.' History Today. Vol. 44, issue 3. March 1994. Lifton, Robert J. 'The Genocidal Mentality.' Tikkum. May/June 1990. Loden, Rachel. 'Conversations with Dr. M.' In Stewart J. Florsheim, ed. Ghosts of the Holocaust. Detroit: 1985. 'Loose Buchanan.' New Republic. October 15,1990. Luther, Martin. 'On the Jews and Their Lies.' In Luther's Works. Vol. 47. Philadelphia: 1962. __________ . That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew.' In Luther's Works. Vol. 45. Philadelphia: 1962. Mahler, Raphael. 'Anti-Semitism in Poland.' In Koppel S. Pinson, ed. Essays in Antisemitism. New York: 1946. Miller, Judith. One by One: Facing the Holocaust. New York: 1990. Morgan, Michael L. 'Jewish Philosophy and Historical Self-Consciousness.' Journal of Religion. January 1991. 'Most Remember, Some Begin to Deny.' Time Magazine. May 3,1993. Nazi Concentration Camps. International Historical Conference. Jerusalem: 1980. 'Nazi Data: Dissociation from Evil.' The Hastings Center Report. July/August, 1989. Nemeth, Mary. 'Deny, Deny, Deny.' Maclean. June 1994. Oliner, S.P 'The Need to Recognize the Heroes of the Nazi Era.' In Michael R. Marrus, ed. The Nazi Holocaust: Sec. 5, Public Opinion and Relations to the Jews in Nazi Europe. (Vol.2) Westport: 1981. Peck, Sarah E. 'The Campaign for an American Response to the Nazi Holocaust, 1943-1945.' Nazi Holocaust - Bystanders to the Holocaust. Westport: 1989. Powell, Lawrence N. 'Read My Liposuction.' New Republic. October 15, 1990. Rickey, Elizabeth. 'The Nazi and the Republicans: an Insider View of the Response of the Louisiana Republican Party to David Duke.' In The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race. Chapel Hill: 1992. 'The Rising of the Whites.' The Economist. October 13,1990. Sabini, John P and Silver, Maury. 'Destroying the Innocent with a Clear Conscience: a Sociopsychology of the Holocaust.' In Survivors, Victims, and Perpetrators: Essays on the Nazi Holocaust. Ed. Joel E. Dimsdale. Washington, DC: 1980. Scolnick, A.A. 'Museum Scholars Apply Holocaust Experience to 1990s Biomedical Issues.' Journal of the American Medical Association. August 5,1992.

544

Warning and Hope

Stengel, Richard. 'Politics from the Twilight Zone.' Time. March 31,1986. Stokes, L.D. 'The German People and the Destruction of the European Jews.' In Michael R. Marrus, ed., The Nazi Holocaust: Sec. 5, Public Opinion and Relations to the Jews in Nazi Europe. (Vol.l). Westport: 1973. Strickland, Carol. 'Clean Sheets for the Klan.' Commonweal. February 23, 1990. Syrkin, Marie. 'What American Jews Did Chiring the Holocaust.' In The Nazi Holocaust - Bystanders to the Holocaust. Westport: 1989. Talmon, Jacob L. 'European History as the Seedbed of the Holocaust.' In Holocaust and Rebirth. Jerusalem: 1974. Toner, Robin. 'Running for Senate, Ex Head of Klan Trails in Polls but Shakes Louisiana.' New York Times. October 1,1990. 'Treaty of Versailles.' Articles 1-26. Covenant, League of Nations. Tregenza, Michael. 'Belzec-Das vergessene Lager.' 'Arisierung' in National Sozialismus, Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust. Ed. Fritz Bauer. Munich: 2001. Violence, the Ku Klux Klan and the Struggle for Equality. Hartford: 1981. Visniak, Mark. 'Anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia: a Study in Government-Fostered Anti-Semitism. In Essays in Antisemitism. New York: 1946. Weber, Eugen. 'Modern Antisemitism.' In The Holocaust: Ideology, Bureaucracy, and Genocide. Ed. Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton. New York: 1980. Weisberg, Jacob. 'The Heresis of Pat Buchanan.' New Republic. October 22,1990. Ziporyn, Terra. 'What the Nazis called "Medical Research" Haunts the Scientific Community to this Day.' Journal of the American Medical Association, February 9, 1990.

Index Adam, Uwe Dietrich, cleverly staged pogrom, 161 ADL (Anti-Defamation League): bombing of, 417; on the KKK list, 419 Afghanistan: Jewish military colonists, 279; refugees in Germany, 454 Age of Enlightenment, and the US Founders, 436 Age of Reason, and Ancient Greece, 437 Ainsztein, Reuben, on resistance, 279-80 AJDC (American Jewish Defense Committee), cooperation with 1CRC, 244 Alexander I (tsar of Russia, 1777-1825), 42 Alexander II (tsar of Russia, 1818-81), 42 Alexander of Macedon, Jewish soldiers, 279 Alien Registration Act, Roosevelt signing, 247 Allies: advance, 121; advance in the West, 370; breaking the spell, 91; control of Europe's skies, 259; division of Germany into zones of occupation/Berlin jointly occupied, 371; invasion, 99; leaders, 100; missed opportunities, 18,33,77,370; passivity-aid in 1944,246 Alois, Hibbler (Adolf Hitler's father), fits of violence, 86 Allport, Gordon, prejudice, 46-8 Alsace-Lorraine, French occupation, 68 Alt Aussce, salt mines used for plundered art storage, 121 Amalek, 11-12 America: 56; universities; and the influx of European scholarship, 112 America First Committee, anti-Jewish, 413 American GI's, rescuers, 483 American Indians, victims of Manifest Destiny, 179 Amery, Jean, degradation of Jews, 25,168,331 Amin, Idi Dada, genocide, 11,79,289,382,492 Amos 3:2,402 Andri, Ferdinand, Nazi art, 118 Andreas-Friedrich, Ruth, Journals, 385 angels, 39 Anglo-Saxon, lost tribes, 415 Anielewicz, Mordecai, Warsaw uprising, 283 anonymity, of language, 196 Anschluss, preparations for, 78 Anti-Christ, 236,296 (seealso Bonhoeffer) Anti-Judaism: action minimized, 166; activities on the Internet, 448; Austria-Germany, 229; beginning campaigns, 234; falsity of (Flannery), 500-1 and Martin Luther, 137; peak in the US, 412,415,425; racial-Germany, 33, 35, 37,40,44,50,51,53,55,57,65; stereotypes, 152; and Wagner, 90; anti-Semitism: cloaked in science, 203; French-German, 38—40; religious, 33;

social decontrol, 426-7 traditional, 34 Apache Indians, examples of willpower, 87 apathy, 144, 245 appeasers, 244 Applebome, Peter, on Duke, 431 Appleby, Joyce, do not legitimate deniers, 447 Aquinas, Thomas, 437 Arabs, good relations with Britain, 247 Arad, Yitzhak: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, 54 Arbeistlager, 184 Arendt, Hanna, on Eichmann, 57, 393 Argumentuni Populum, distortion of language, 196 Aristotle, Summum Bonum, 438—9 Armenians, persecution by the Turks, 4,179 Arm of the Lord, 419 Aryan(s): art, 112; dominant over the Slavs, 95; hate Jews, 52,150; Hitler's prediction, 85; intermarriage, 138; job promise, 137; non-Aryans barred from schools, 106; Nordic blood, protection of, 64,203; professionals profit from Jewish misfortune, 143; school indoctrination, 108; SS brothels, 110; superiority, 50,139 Aryan Nation, 401 ff.; no longer tax-exempt, 417 Asendrych, Jadwiga, a returned Jewish infant to its faith, 361 Asiatic, 56-62 assassins of memory, 509 Assyria, enslavement of the Jews, 150 atheist, 25,401 Atwater, Lee, Atwaterism', 426 Augustine, 38,437 Auschwitz: access to, 386; and children, 345; gas chambers, 169,202; Mengele, 210; orchestra, 2,124; sterilization (Block 10), 199-204; US Air force operations near, 259 Austria: anti-Jewish, 229; art looting, 120; home video games, 457; pro-Nazism and pan-Germanism, 450; welcomes unification with Third Reich, 37,78 Austria-Hungary, 42 Australia, emigration to, 255

Babylon, first destruction of the Great Temple in Jerusalem, 150-1 Bach-Zalewski, von dem, admission of genocide activities, 246, 392 Baeck, Leo, 239 Baird, J.W, 51 Bauer, Elvira, anti-Jewish propaganda, 52 Barnet, Richard, bureaucratization of homicide, 136 Barth, Karl, denounces Hitler and Third Reich, 299

546 Bartok, Bela, in the US, 112 Bauer, Yehuda, mass murder was avoidable, 266 Bauman, Zygmund: moral duty, 221; human potential, 460 Bayertz, Kurt, utopia, 206 Beam, Louis, computer networks, 415-18 Beck, Ludwig von, of the Beck-Goerdeler Group, 302-^4 Beck, Norman, defamatory Christian polemic, 503 Beckermann, Ruth, 'in Austria, even the Jews are anti-Semitic' (seminal stage for the Holocaust), 460 Beer Hall Putsch, 33,41,47,71 Belgian Jews murdered, 261 Belzec, first gas chambers, 184,202,459 Benditt, Theodore, legal positivism, 143 Benoit, Father, priest rescuer, 323 Berard, Leon, Vichy representative in the Vatican, 272 Berger, Robert, LMD, medical Lager experiments useless, 206 Berlin: Allied 'Berlin Agreement', 371 city in ruin, 101; Hitler's bunker, 20,62 Berran, Heinrich, Nazi art, 118-19 Best, Werner, Dr, justification for murder, 57 Bible, brothels, 11, 173 Bierman, John, on Wallenberg, 329 Big Lie (see Mein Katnpf) Bioethics, guidelines for future experimentation, 207 Birkenau: bandstand, 345; children, 345 Bismarck, Otto von, vanished Prussia, 371 Black Book, 85 Black Death (Black Plague), Jews blamed for, 7,151,179 Blacks, anti-Black Aryan Nations, 414 Blackstone, William Sir, coeval with mankind, 143 Blake, Bill, GI rescuer, 483 blitzkrieg, killing unarmed civilians, 242 Bloomfield, Jenifer, 455 Blum, Leon, refugee policies, 251 Blutschutzgesetz (The Law for the Protection of the Blood), 64,203 (see also Aryan(s)) Boesky, Ivan, 426 Bolshevism: Bolshevik Jews, 196; Jewish refugees from, 93 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich: Hitler anti-Christ, 236; legacy, 299; protests extermination of Jews, 297-8 Book of Esther, 309 Book of Exodus, Egyptian enslavement of the Jews, 150-1 Book of Genesis, God saw the world evil and He destroyed it, 407,494 Book of Revelations, God will destroy the earth, 494 Boost, Ernst, Righteous Gentile, 236 Borowski, Tadeusz, women gassed, 171 Bosch, Robert, industrialist, Goerdeler's employer, 309 Bosnia, 289

Warning and Hope Braham, Randolph: the Nazis' genocidal self, 181; surgical killing, 185 Braque, Georges, works saved, 120 Braun, Eva, Hitler's bride, 101 Breitman, Richard, files release, 245-6 Breslau, defense of, 99 Broszat, Martin, 61 Bruckner, Anton, Third Symphony, 101 Brueghel, Pieter, 120 Bruening, Heinrich, appointed German Chancellor, 1930-32,71 Buchanan, Patrick, Hitler's admirer, 427 Buchenwald: 1,12,13,15,17; and clergy, 300; and l.G. Farben, 234,312; pogrom aftermath, 159 Buchheim, Hans, elimination of 'unwanted elements', 64 Bulgarian Jews: refused admission to other countries, 258; rescuers, 262 Bullock, Alan: Hitler and Stalin, 88; Nazism 'a complex phenomenon', 436 Bund Deutscher Maedel (BDM): conditions for joining, 105; Edelweiss infiltration, 294; indoctrination, 102; whores of the State, 110 bureaucracy: detachment and efficiency, 162; rationalization, 165 Busch, Wilhelm, 484 Bush, George, H.W: against Duke, 426-30; alleged drugs trafficking, 449 Butler, Richard, founder of Aryan Nation: 411,414,417 Butz, Arthur: at Northwestern University, 447; The Hoax, 452 bystanders, 244

Caesar, Julius, Gallic Wars, 373 Cambodia, Pol Pot, genocide, 179,289, 382, 391 Camus, Albert, The Plague, 227 'Canada': capitalism at work, 125; Jew's tool for conquest, 65 Canaris, Wilhelm, 304 capos, special zeal, 178 Cargas, James H., redefining Christianity from a post-Holocaust viewpoint, 501 ft. Carthage, 70 Carto, Willis, Internet hate propaganda, 448 Casablanca, 271 Casimir Ill, the Great (1310-70), invites Jews to Poland, 7, 151 Catherine, the Great (tsarina of Russia, 1726-96), 41-2 Catholic Church: 40,44; and Hitler lugend, 104; as Universal Church, 276 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, National Socialism and racism, 61,90 Chamberlain, Neville: Munich Agreement, 79,245-9; 'peace at all costs', 265 Chambonais, farmers as rescuers, 315-22 Chanes, Jerome A., 426 Chelmno: carbon monoxide killings, 184; Jewish Bund London presentation of genocide evidence, 248

Index Chesterton, Gilbert K., on courage, 308 Chestochowa, steelmill slave labor, 1 children: and games, 346-8; in the ghetto, 337; 'hidden children', 362; and Israel, 346-8; refuge with strangers, 346-8 China, Mao's'cleansing', 179 Chomsky, Noam, in defense of Fourisson, 445 Chotel, Marie, Righteous Christian, 504 Christ (see Jesus) Christian: abandonment, 103; antiJudaism, 3,6,25, 26,33, 35; Church, 36, 38,40; German Christianity and Jesus as hero/Hitler sent by God to the rescue of the German race, 290; merchants, 44; Nazi, 229; non-Aryans, 50; pastors neutral to Nazi Party, 291; profit from Jewish disenfranchisement, 231; responses, 499; US Christian orthodoxy, 428; the US Christian Patriot Movement, 424-5 Christianity: Church, Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic, 41; compliance with Nazi laws, 233; denying Jesus' lessons, 239; 'enlightened', 53; flying Nazi banner in and out of church, 291; and the Jews, 137; Jews as the enemy of, 153; myths on Jewish violations of sacraments, 34,38,42, 45; and the Nazi F^rty, 290; Nazi revolution the work of God, 291; no mass protest to genocide, 232 Churchill, Winston: great orator, 91; informed of Nazi genocide before assuming post of Prime Minister, 245,306; lack of action, 386; Yalta Conference, 100 Cicero, on history, 473 civil war, 420 Clauberg, Carl, MD, sterilization experiments, 204 Clemenceau, Georges, architect of the Versailles Treaty, 69 Cohler, Larry, 430 Cold Pogrom, 94 Cold War, 136 Colditz, Pnnzerfaust Werke, 1 collaborators, 221 Columbine HS shootings, Nazi-inspired, 423 communism, anti-, 50 communists, 77 seats in the Reichstag, 72 Compte, August, the term 'altruism', 316 concentration camps: artists in, 118; change of mental makeup, 175-6; first established, 94; hidden behind masonry walls in Germany, 144 Constantin, 34 Constitution, US, 383 Cooper, Avraham, Rabbi, warnings, 418-19 Corporate America, expendable work force, 498 Covenant, the, 419 Cranach, Lucas, 120 crimes against humanity: and children, 345; and the Hitler Jugend, 105 Croatian: mercenaries, 241; rescuers, 249

547 Crusades, the, 33 Cuba, St Louis, the, 257 culture of impunity, and siege mentality, 499 Curtis, Michael, Judaism tempered in the US, 425 cyanide, gassings, 184 Cyrus, King, Jews guard the Persian Empire, 279 Czechoslovakia: Hiller irritant as ally of France and the Soviet Union, 79; museum of an 'extinct race', 54; Prague occupied by Third Reich, 79; treaties with Soviet Union and France, 80

Dachau (first model) concentration camp: after Kristallnacht, 159; immersion hypothermia experiments, 205; medical experiments, 201; opened in 1932 for the training of SS assassins, 1,6,23 Daimler Benz: profits from slave labor, 231 US loans, 78 Daladier, Eduard, restricts immigration, 251 Danish Jews rescued, 262 Dannecker, Theodore, Eichmann's deputy in Budapest, 330 Dante, Alighieri, 24 Dark Ages, 250,437 Darwin, Charles, struggle for existence, 21, 60 Dawes, Charles, Wall Street loans to the Third Reich, 78 Dayaks, 456 deconstructionist historians, 444ff. De Gaulle, Charles, France's memory frozen, 451 deicide, 50 Delp, Alfred, the Kreisau Circle Group, 302 Delphi, 'know yourself', 494 democracy, and the Klan, 421 Deniers, 445ff. Denmark, Righteous among Nations, 323—4 Depression, the: 51, 71,247; consequences of, 117 Derrida, Jacques, deconstructionist, 452 Descartes, Rene, 38 Diaspora: Babylonian invasion, 38,151; Jew devoid of martial qualities, 278; Jews lived in separation from their hosts, 399 Die Weisse Rose (The White Rose), 305-6 Dietz, George, 415 Diktat, non-acceptance of the Versailles Treaty, 73 de-Nazification, Nazi whitewash, 371 DiNardo, John, the Spotlight editor, 448-9 Dinnerstein, Leonard, 412 Dio Cassius, 279 Dix, Otto: art versus state, 116; 'degenerate art', 120 doctors (Nazi), victims as 'objects', 187 Doenitz, Karl, Hitler's successor, 529 Dolchstoss, treachery of Jews, 74 Donde, Leif, Consul and Righteous Gentile, 324 Dreyfus, Alfred: enlightened France, 153-4;

548 French anti-Semitism, 138 Drucker, Malka, rescuers, 320 Druks, Herbert: cynical assumption, 258; the free world shut its doors, 246; US doors closed, 252 Drumont, Eduard, and the Dreyfus Affair, 153 Duderstadt, James, protection of the First Amendment, 446 Duke, David: Hitler clone denying the Holocaust, 431-2; and the Ku Klux Klan, 383,422; political agenda, 430; power by legal means, 420; and the Republican Party, 426; sterilization of the poor, 426-7 Duncker, Karl, suicide in the US, 112 Duerer, Albrecht, 120 Durkheim, Emile, 319 Dyby, Knud, Danish rescuer, 324 Dynamit Nobel: slave labor profits, 231; US loans, 78

East Berlin, statue of Mother Russia, 507 Eastern Europe, 27 Eber, Elk, Nazi art, 119 Ebert, Friedrich (President of the Weimar Republic), denounces the Treaty of Versailles, 70 Ecclesiastes, 369 Eckardt, Alice and Roy, Christian tradition, 500 Eckart, Dietrich, Hitler's mentor, 62,90 economic stability, 497 economic consequences, Allied Zones and their currency, democratization, 371 Edelmann, Amadeus, Righteous Gentile, 311 Edelweiss, 294 Edict of Nantes, 40 Edwins, Edward, 428 Egypt: Exodus from, 12; God intervenes, 18,402 Egyptians, enslavement and slaughter of Jews, 179 Eichmann, Adolf: anonymity of language, 196-7; and mass murder, 140; native Austrian, 450; tenderness for his family, 391; trial, 136,393,464; and Wallenberg, 329; willing executioner, 243, 359 Einsatzgruppen: charged with the killing of Jews, 182,242; mass killing is psychologically damaging to the assassins, 202,261 Einstein, Albert: books burned, 111; protest, 263 Eisenhower, Dwight D., eyewitness testimony, 447 Elders of Zion, in Poland, 455 Elizabeth II, Queen of England, and LaRouche, 441 EUis, Island, East European Jews quarantined, 262 Emergency Act, 75 Enabling Act: instituted, 94; Jews as scapegoats, 264

Warning and Hope Endloesung (see Final Solution) Engels, Friedrich, books burned. 111 England: anti-Semitism, 40; expulsion from, 151; World War Two code breakers, 245 Erren, Gert, fear to make inmates work, 243 Esther, Book of, 11 Estonian, mercenaries, 241 Eternal Jew, the, stereotype, 52 eugenics, Nazi dominated evolution, 61 Europe, warning of future conflict, 56, 70 Europeans: destruction of Jews 58; Jews and technocracy, 182; Jewish culture, 137; lack of introspective, 450; Nazi resurgence, 453; Union with East Germany, 465; Western, 28,33,34,41 euthanasia: in Germany, 210; in the US, 289,461 Evian Conference, no one offers refuge, 247,262 Exodus, and the guest syndrome, 152 extermination camps: medical killing of Jews from Serbia, Yugoslavia and Croatia, 202-3; surviving the 'first selection', 167 Fackenheim, Emil, Rabbi, confronts and opposes the Holocaust, 459 Faulhaber, Michael Cardinal, condemns Hitler, 295 FBI, on alert, 419 fear, 231-2 Federal Republic of Germany, 464 Felusia, 24, 189-90 Fenelon, Fania, 125-127 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, Hitler's favorite philosopher, 90 Final Solution: common effort, 226; and Eichmann, 329; eugenics, 61; euphemisms, 182; and God, 397; and Himmler, 134,243; and Heydrich, 270; the implementation, 26,33,39,53; in keeping with the law, 141; meaning of, 137; Nazi ideology, 60; newspeak, 165; realization of truth, 484; and Reigner, 270; relativism's excuses, 383; science and politics, 460; social Darwinism, 64; and technocracy, 181; Wannsee Conference, Himmler's responsibility 183; unique lesson, 491 Finnish Jews rescued, 262 Finland, questionable banking practices, 121 Fish, Hamilton, anti-Jewish propaganda, 413 Fischer, Ludwig, Warsaw ghetto, 281 Flannery, Edward, problem of antiSemitism, 500 Fleming, Gerald: questioning humanity, 141; proof, 452 Flossenburg prison, Bonhoeffer hanged, 236 Ford, Henry, support of the Third Reich, 78 Foreign Office of the Third Reich, conspiracy of 20 July 1944,302 (see also Wolfsschanze)

Index Forest Gump, 448 Fourisson, Robert, denying gassing, 445 Fourth Reich, 438,454—5 Fragebogen, Nazi whitewash, 375-6 France: anti-Judaism, 40-2; appeasements, 76;; art looting, 120; at Versailles, 68; 135; and Great Britain, 77; Jewish expulsion, 151; lack of initiative in rescue, 251; post­ revolution, 153; war declaration, 80 (see also Vichy France) Frank, Anne, 315 Frank, Hans: Fuhrer approval, 369; governor of occupied Polish territories (Generalgouvernement), 182 Frankenberg, Jacob, employer of Hitler's grandmother, 86 Frankfurt, Main, Jewish ghetto, 465 Frankl, Victor, ego suffers loss of values, 177 Frederick the Great, propaganda tool, 180 freedom, 27-9 French occupation, resistance as rescue, 323 Freud, Sigmund: disputed, 315; and Hitler, 290; implications of psychology, 36, 111; human self-destruction, 135; man's aggressiveness, 214; self-survival, 153; the visionary and the Third Reich, 316; Frick, Hans, Nazi education, 120 Friedensreden: claims of peaceful intent, 79; on the Evian Conference, 248 Fuhrer Prinzip, establishment of, 95 Galdau, Florian, Romanian Fascist priest, 426 Galen, Bishop of Munster, sermon, 275 gas chambers, anonymous killing, 163 gays: demonization of, 458; and the Klan, 435; prey for capos, 124; subhuman, 109 Gellately, Robert, mass sterilization, 206 Generalgouvernement, killings of Jews, 182 genocide: administrative outlook, 156; blind obedience, 155; convenient means and expendable populations, 179; definition, 134; dehumanization and systematic killing, 144 8; demonizing of victims, 25,28,48; denial of individuality, 198; and the doctors, 208; foregone conclusion, 182; Gentiles as victims, 12, 326; meaning of, 64; pace quickened, 197; racial, 55; rejection of responsibility, 58; religion as ideology, 149; as political policy, 154; synonymous with the State, 196,390ff.; three factors: ideology, bureaucracy, technology, 163 George, Stefan, Hitler as anti-Christ, 303 German American Bund, in Brooklyn, 254 German Democratic Republic, 462 German Red Cross, report-negating rumors, 249 Germanism: mythology, 63; Hegel and pan-Germanism, 90 Germans: American German Bund, 445; Christian Germans departure from moral-ethical norms, 230-1; instances of defiance in the Third Reich, 385; and Gobineau, 62; love of music, 126; Nazi

549 scientists aided by the US and the Soviet Union, 380; passive participation, 233; Polish Jews' view of their German co­ religionists, 270; and propaganda, 6,20, 21,53; rationalizing murder, 57; responsibility, 58; and the swastika, 238; war against Jews, 187 Germany: anti-Judaism, 5, 7,23,42,229; Aryan Church, 376; child rearing, 109; colonial territories confiscated, 69; devalued currency, 77; excluded from the covenants of Versailles, 68; food rations, 340; forced emigration, 263; German Christian misplaced objections, 376;; home video games, 457; illness, 201; invades Poland, 80; and Jesus, 228, 237; justice, 141; looting, 190; and natural law, 457; new judicial system, 376; positive Christianity, 376; riots and damages, 159; schooling as resistance, 281,351; three periods of persecution, 267; ties with the Allied West and NATO, 396ff., 454 Gerstein, Kurt, SS Col., tried informing Catholic authorities, 274 Gestapo: 175; in Budapest, 329; change in status, 397-406; executions, 270; torment of Hassidic Jews, 294 ghettos: and Einsatzgruppen, 182; resettlement, 182; looting, 190 Piotrkow, 188; prostitution, 171; survival ethics, 166 Gobineau, Joseph Count: 61; and National Socialism, 90 Goclowski, Tadeusz, Archbishop, 454 God: 9,12,16,26,35,36,38,39,60; absence of God was absence of hope, 398; and the Aryan Nations, 418; in the child's fantasy; where was He?, 388ff.; and conversion, 361; at roll call, 287; God's children, 277, 293,356; Hitler, instrument of, 100; Holocaust changed people's relationship to, 493; and the Jews, 153; music, 122; in the name of, 179; and natural law, 143; and the Nazi revolution, 291; new concepts, not in human terms, 404; rejection of, 401; the parent, 412; pray for mercy, 260; and the LaRouchenicks, 442; Reich before God, 104; reliance on, and liberation, 353; renewed faith in, 485; and the Shoah, 509; survivor's view, 179; trust in God, 172-3 Goebbels, (Paul) Joseph: advocate of extermination, 139; and art, 118; Big Lie concept, 432; cynical observation, 388; and Kristallnacht, makes Jews pay for damages, 157-9; on democracy, 264; on purity of race, 293; propaganda, 97-8; suicide with family, 371,380; whisper propaganda campaign, 99; willing executioner, 243 Goedsche, Herrmann, Biarritz, 43 Goerdeler, Carl F. Dr, the soul of July 20 Plot on Hitler's life, 303—4 (see also Wolfsschanze)

550 Goering, Hermann, looting art, 58,120, 157; orders pogrom damages paid by the Jews, 243; suicide, 380; willing executioner, 380 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: books banned, 111; monument and prophecy, 235 Gospels, the: accusations against Jews, 34—5; Jewish parricide, 36; of John, 39; Mathew, 228 Gottlieb, Roger: scientific mode intrinsic to mass killings, 461; violence accepted as way to achieve goals, 492 goys, 8 Graf, Jacob, racialist biology text, 55 Graf, Willie, member of Die Wrisst* Rose, 309 Graham, Billy, man is responsible, 399 Graml, Hermann, inciting pogrom, 161 Grau, San Martin, 257 Great Britain: al Versailles, 68; appeasement and growing pacifism, 76-7; declares war on Germany, 80; no easing of immigration policies to Palestine, 246; interest in the Middle East resources, 251-2; treaty with Poland, 265 Greeks, extermination, 262 Gross, George, art versus state, 116 Grossman, Vasily, revolts in KZs, 286 groupthink: cause of persecution, 138; loss of individuality, killing legitimized, 140 Gruentzner, Hans, 120 Grynszpan, Herschel, avenges his parents, 93,157 Gutman, Israel, resistance, 283 Gypsies: abnormal, 200; medical experiments, 458; subhuman, 25,109,198

Hacateus of Abdera, 279 Hacha, Emil, Sudetenland negotiations, 265 Hague, The, Tribunal of International Justice, 382 Haman, 11 Handin, Oscar, 412 handicapped, 25 Hanukkah: 11; in Auschwitz, 286 Hart, Janice, and LaRouche, 441 Hartley, Shawcross, Sir, face-to-face killing, 186 Hassidic: life, 7,8,9; women, 10,11,19 Hebrew, 7 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, romantic influences leading to pan-Germanism, 90 Heifetz, Yasha, 479 Heine, Heinrich, Die Lorelei, 95 Hess, Rudolf: flight to England, 370; life imprisonment, 380 Hesse, Herman, Steppenwolf, 307 Hevrah Kadishnh, 7 Heydrich, Reinhard: arrests of wealthy Jews, 160; the Final Solution, 270; native Austrian, 450 Hiedler, Johann Georg (Alois' uncle).

Warning and Hope marries Anna Maria Schilkgruber, 88 Hiedler, Johann Nepomuk (Georg's brother). Hitler's alleged father, 88 Higham, John, US attitudes toward Jews, 412 Hilberg, Raul: 154; orders, 388; physical and political hygiene, 165 Hillel Foundation, attacked, 444 Himmler, Heinrich: cruelty desirable of the disciplined and systematized, 394; executioner of the Final Solution, 243; visit to Birkenau, 131; suicide, 380 Hindenburg, Paul von, appoints Bruening, 71 Hippocrates, oath, 198,207 Hiroshima, 459 Hitler, Adolf: adolescent immaturity, 87; analogous to the Pharaohs, 152; and art, 110; art plunderer, 121; ascendancy to power, chancellor and Fuhrer 27,51,57, 73,86; barrier against Bolshevism, 78; Bavarian Triumvirate, 75; the British Navy, and the industrial community, 77; and bureaucracy, 164; champion of Christianity, 268; charisma, 418; childhood 86; commits suicide, 371; community architecture, 115; control over religious life, 295; criticism punishable, 106; and David Duke, 432; death of millions, 85; denying God’s existence, 403; devaluing Jewish lives, 246; duty, 21,33,54; early youth, 87; evil run amuck, 41 ff.; and Great Britain, 77; hatred for Vienna as an art center, 113; hatred, ideology of 136,187; hatred of Jews, 23,25, 33,41,47; 'ideal solution', 170; initial threats, 12,19, 20; increased persecution of Jews, 229; Jewish blood, 86; killing Jews is a moral obligation, 140; Jews are a 'surplus people', 237-8; last birthday, 101; leaves for Munich, 113; the master builder, 114—15; megalomania, 237-8; Mein Kampf, 58-62; military blunders, 244; more appeasement-more demands, 252; Munich Conference, 79; nationalism and virulent anti-Judaism, 55; nature of Jews, 201; not omniscient, 384; NSDAP and the Putsch, 71; opportunities to stop Hitler missed, 306; oratory skills, 90-1; outside of enlightened history, 400; Party ideology, 63; perceived as a messiah, 237-8; perverted state, 237-8; prevents opposition through organized youth, 296-7; promise to eradicate unemployment, 95; 'rational' antiJudaism, 182; reincarnation of Elija, 415; replaces religious schooling, 110; replaces the Church with a Nazi movement, 291; responsibility, 58-9; result of group psychopathology, 400; solidifies political platform, 88-9; sanctions murder, 135; spirit of, 22; the State a biological entity, 148; stronger

Index culture to the East, 375; successes of, 99; and the Third Reich, 342; three racial values, 65-6; trust of the German people, 230; ultimate power, 66; unlimited power, 391; use of propaganda, 91; the Versailles Treaty, 80; on video games, 457; Vienna Bohemian, sadomasochism, 88; war against the Jews as a success legacy, 458 Western Allies tools of, 267 Hitler Jugend (HJ): character, 105; indoctrination and purpose, 102-3; Party rallies: 98; peer pressure, 105; the SS, 105 HIV, and Aids, 461 Hobbs, Thomas, 461 ff. Hoffman, Abbie, 429 Hoess, Rudolf, initiated orchestra at Auschwitz, 125 Hofstader, Richard, US anti-Judaism, 412 Hohenzollern, bureaucracy, 164 Holder, Kip (US Senator): and David Duke, 428 Holland: art looting and banking practices, 120-1; ghetto, 261-2 Holocaust: armed resistance, 286; blind obedience, 155; the children, 336ff.; children play-acting, 349; doctors on trial, 207; early signs, 1, 2, 5, 7; survivors, 20-1; hatred and guilt, 23; Holy See, neutrality, 273; homosexuals, 25; and Jew hate, 28, 30, 38,53; Jews deemed undesirable, 179; killing babies, 170; legacy, 110; legal positivism, 143; lessons from, 141; moralethical decisions, 167; motivation for, 136; Nuremberg Laws, 376; rational explanation, 58-59; rationalization, 164; red tape, 257; scholarship and the survivors, 489; silence, apathy, and the free world, 245-8; technology does not kill, people do, 185 Horst Wessel, Hitlers suicide elegy, 101 Hortensia Glass factory, ghetto slave labor, 311 Horthy, Nicholas, Admiral, Nyilas Party, 241 Horton, Willy, 426 Huber, Kurt, the Scholls teacher, 305 Hudal, Bishop, 273 Huguenots, 40 human rights, 25 Hull, Cordell, 250 Hungarian, Jews to Auschwitz, 262-74 Hussein, Saddam, murder of Kurds, 382,492 Hutus, 492 (see Rwanda)

Identity Theology, Jesus an Aryan, 415 I.G. Farbcn: Allied raids, 234; Hitler support and US loans, 16-18,78; medical experiments, 203; profit from slave labor, 231; women laborers and music, 125 individualism, importance of, 494 Indonesia, 456 Information highway, 448 Innocent, Pbpe, identity badges, 151 Inquart, Arthur S., 78

551 Inquisition (Spanish): comparison, 459; expulsion, the Second Exodus, 33,151; expulsion and conversion, 216; in the name of God, 179 International Military Tribunal (1MT): 21; crimes against humanity, 370; high Nazi officials, 376-9; International Red Cross, report falsified, 249 Iron Cross, 241 Israel: State of, 40; and Holocaust survivor children, 466; and LaRouche, 466 Italy: art looting, 120; efforts to rescue Jews, 326; US Air Force, 259; at Versailles, 68 Iwanski, Henryk and Victoria, military commanders of the Warsaw uprising, 283

Jackson, Robert (Justice) 379 Jankowski, Henryk, 454 Japan, Manchuria invasion, 76 Japanese Americans, World War Two internment, 427 Jedwabne, Poland's admission to the Jewish massacre, 456 Jefferson, Thomas, The Declaration of Independence, 29,60 Jenninger, Phillip, the Reich 'blinded, seduced by Hitler', 464-5 Jerusalem: Babylonian destruction, 150; Eichmann trial, 136; Great Temple, 34—5, 38 Jesus: 36,37,38,39,41,62; Jesus not Jew but Aryan, 62; refusal to acknowledge as Messiah, 152; resurrected, 234 (see Christ) Jews: abandoned by all, 178; 'abnormal', 198;'agents of Satan' propaganda, 136; aiding the enemy, 226-7; an 'anti-race', 65; assimilated, 226-7; blamed for all ills, 154; chastised by God, 500; child victims, 3; collaborators, 175; destroyers of culture, 201; Eastern European workers, 93; European, 5; in government and white collar jobs, 93; the image of an inhuman being, 400; imposed problems, 394; killing as a duty, 54; a minority, 35, 37,40; as Negroid, Nomad and parasite, 43-56; passing as Christian, 323; Polish, 4,6, 7; reason for persecution, 13,20, 22, 25,27; persecution, 52; in the professions, 253; reason for conversion, 216; removed from positions of trust, 94; Sarah and Israel added as proper names, 94; scapegoating, 103; special ghetto privileges, 385; sterilized, 199; stripped of humanity, 142-3; subhuman, 109-24; US Jews and refugees, 257; used in experiments as part of extermination, 200; viewed with distrust and excluded from economy, 151-60; violence toward, 230; whipping boy of history, 149 Jewish: authors banned, 95; babies, 170; blood, 229; intermarriage forbidden, 95; looting of art, 120; militia, 178; mother, 28; people, 21; professors denounced, 106; refugees, 7,40; robbery of material

552 wealth, 121; Russian ghettos, 42; tradition, 27 Jewish Agency, refusal to reveal number of Nazi victims, 413 Job, Theodicy, 405 Jones, Art, neo-Nazi leader, 430 Joshua, 12 Judaism: 7,34, 37,38; and Marx, 56; synonym for Marxism, 66,95; resurgence in Europe, 4 57 Judas, 414 lude, on Jewish ID cards, 269 Judenrat, occasional collaboration, 178,406 Judenrein: medieval custom, 95; Nazi renewal, of, 183 Judeocide, exposed horrors of science, 137, 461 Judeo-Roman War, second dispersion of Jews, 34,151 Jules, Isaac, 34 July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler (see Wolfsschanze) Jungvolk, and Hitler Jugend, 105 Junker, Hitler's faithful subjects, 67 KZ Lager: duty to remember, 27-9; iberlebn, 313; and the ghetto, 340; killing children and the unborn, 343 Kabbalah, 7 kaddish, 278 Kaiser, Jacob, and von Stauffenberg, 303 Kaiser, Paula, 372 Kakutani, Michiko, 2 Kaltenbrunner, Ernst, willing executioner, 243 Kampfbund, Hitler was member, 74 Kampuchea (see Cambodia) Kandinsky, Vasily, 'degenerate' art, 120 Kapp Putsch, the, inequity of justice, 73 Katson, Patricia, of Liberty Lobby, 430 Katzenel), Jack, report of 1CRC, 248 Keitel, Wilhelm, IMT Court, 379 Keller, Helen, books burned, 111 Kellog-Briant Pact, 378 Kelly, Alfred, Germany and the fittest, 61 Kennedy, John E: Profiles in Courage, 314; State above individual, 437 Kennedy, Joseph, Hitler sympathizer, 258 Kershaw, lan, Marx and Hitler, 440 Kevorkian, Jack, MD, euthanasia in the US, 461 Keynes, John Maynard, 'Carthaginian Peace', 70 Khmer Rouge, no outcries of protest, 391-2 (see also Pbl Pot) Kielce, killing survivors, 491 Kiep, Otto C., the Soft Circle, 302 killing camps: SS proofing grounds, 243; in full operation, 271 Kissinger, Henry, 442 KKK (Ku Klux Klan): computer networking, 418-20; diminished outbursts since 1963,414; expanding power, 418-20; fragmentation, 422-3; the

Warning and Hope NSDATJ 418-20; survival camps reminiscent of Hiller Jugend, 444; targets and victims, 421 Klara, Polzl (Adolf Hitler's mother), 88-9 Klee, Paul, 'degenerate art', 120 Kleist, Ewald von, resistance 'ordained by God', 304 Klemperer, Otto, correspondence with Schoenberg, 112 Klinghoffer, David, apostasy, 227 Koernke, Mark, and the Christian Patriot Movement, 425 Kokoschka, Oskar, 'degenerate art', 120 Kollwitz, Kaethe (Schmidt): despair and anger, 116; 'degenerate art', 116; warning against war, 119 Kramer, Josef, 127 Krausnick, Helmut, 61 Kreisau Circle, the (see Wolfsschanze) Kron, George: the State lacking moralethical power, 395; failure of science in post-World War One Germany, 460 Kristallnacht: the stage is set, 93; signpost for genocide, 156; and von Stauffenberg, 303,394 Kroll, Juergen, selective breeding, 206 Krupp: US loans, 78; profits from slave labor, 231 Kuhn, Fritz, German Bund leader in the US, 445 Kurds, and Hussein, 492 Kwasniewski, Alexander, 456 Labor Bund (Jewish), report to London, 248 Lammers, Hans, the executors of the Final Solution, 183 Langer, Walter C., 92 language, anonymity, 185 Lapide, Pinchas, E., 276 LaRouche, Lyndon: and Hitler, 349ff.; Holocaust denier, 442; persuasive speaker, 441; solutions, 442 Latheran Treaty, 258 Latvian, SS mercenaries, 225—41 Laval, Pierre, 272 law of the land, 58 Le Chambon, rescue of Jews, 314-15 League of Nations: Germany withdraws (1933), 76; protests, 77 Lebensraum: conquest of Poland and the Ukraine, 76 (see also Thousand Year Reich) Leber, Julius, leading Putsch of 20 July conspirator, 302 (see also Wolfsschanze) Leboucher, Fernande, rescuer, 323 Leibnitz, Gottfried, Theodicy, 405 lesbians, 458 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, books banned, 111 Levi, Bernard H., indifference among youth,451 Lewis, Clive S., and the Christians, 229 Ley, Robert, suicide, 380 Lichtenberg, Bernard, prayer for the Jews, 299

Index Liebenfels, Jorg Lanz, von, influence, 89 Lindbergh, Charles, pro-Hitler, 78,413 Linz, (City), the Mecca of Nazi art, 114 List, Guido, influence, 89 Lipstadt, Deborah, R., no historic reality, 451 Lithuanian mercenaries: greed, 121; looting, 241 Littell, Franklin H., common assumptions about Christianity, 501 ff. Locarno Agreements, breach of, 77 Locke, John, 376 Loden, Rachel, poem, 213 Long, Breckenridge, falsifies numbers of Jewish refugees, 250 Louis XIV, 40 Louisiana, State of, David Duke elected to office, 428 Ludendorff, Erich , leads Berr Hall Putsch, 71 Luftwaffe, medical experiments, 201 Luther, Martin: compelled by faith to act, 298; on expatriation and extermination of Jews, 400; and the Jews, 137; and the New Testament, 503; the Reformation and the Jews, 152ff. Lutheran Council, 'Hitler acted on the will of God', 299 Lw6w, Jews murdered by the SS, 244 Madame Butterfly, camp performances, 125 Madison, Wisconsin, USA, anti-Semitism at the University of, 444 Madurese, murdered by the Dayaks, 456 Mahler, Gustav, 129 Mahler, Raphael, the Hassidim and the Jewish Enlightenment, nobility and the Jews, 44ff. Maimonides, 10 Makkabi, 11 Mann, Heinrich, books burned, 111 Mann, Thomas, books burned, 111 Manson, Charles, Hitler admirer, 414 Mao Tse Tung, political cleansing, 179 Marcusen, Eric: dehumanizing the victim, 146; genocidal mentality, 162 Marrus, Michael, R., suicide as resistance, 281 ff. Marxism: books burned, 111; equated with Judaism, 95; Jewish intellectuals, 66; a Jewish tool for conquest, 65; and Jews, 51; and LaRouche-Hitler, 439; Marx as Jew, 56 Massada, 35,279 mass murder, 55 Mates, Leo, benefits of the Holocaust, 459ff. Mathews, Robert, Aryan Nations hero, 417 Mauthausen concentration camp, 1 May, Karl, Hitler's early reading material, 87 May Laws, the, 43 McVeigh, Timothy, leaderless resistance movement, 424 medical research: ethics, 185,198;

553 experiments, 198ff. Mein Kampf: Big Lie, 92; Duke's 'greatest book', 432; as history text, 108; Hitler's goals, 51; intent on killing Jews, 260; Jews as a disease, 201; in majority of German households, 96; musings on German youth, 103ff.; plan of Nazi conquests, 79; purification of Germany, 76; quotes Freud, 290ff.; regarded as the last book of the Bible, 414,438; removal of Jews, 55; the State, 60; voters' ignorance, 442; written in prison, 71 Melianovich, Walter, Bielorussian SS, 426 Mendelssohn, Felix, Midsummer Night 's Dream, 111 Mendes, Aristide de Sousa, rescuer, 326 Mengele, Josef Dr: killer for 'racial purity', 210-12; medical experiments, 200; and Nazi ideology, 212 Menuhin, Yehudi, 479 Mercenaries, Poland, 189,240 Messiah, the: new, 35; false, 36; deicide, 38 Metaethics, 383ff. Metzger, Tom, public access and the Klan, 422; murder of Ethiopian student, 444 Middle Ages, the: 40; Black Death, 179; new culture, 95; massacres, 153; violent state, 462 Midrash, the, 309 Miles, Robert, Liberty Net, 416 Milgram Experiment, ordinary people, 155 militarism, Hitler's tool to combat Judaism, 65ff. militia, resettlement, 224,406 Miller, Arthur, critical of Jews, 414 Miller, Glenn, encouragement to violence, 415-19 Milliken, Michael, 426 Milosevich, Slobodan, 382 Ministry of Propaganda (Nazi), and Goebbels' challenge, 99 Mischlinge: bastard Jews, 229; victims of their brethren's passivity, 240 Molotov, Vyacheslav, pact with Germany, 80 Moltke, Helmuth von, July 20 Plot founder, 302 (see also Wotfsschanze) Mondale, Waller, 441 Mongolian, invasion comparison, 459 moral relativism, 383ff. morality, values, 383ff., 388 Morgan, J.P, German loans, 78 Morgenthau, 1 lenry, US State Department policies on refugees, investigation, 250ff., 258 Morrison, Charles C., through denial abetting extermination, 239 Morse, Arthur, FDR's lack of action, 412 Mosaic Jews, restricted, 270 Moses, 36 Mozart, Wolfgang, Amadeus, 13, 122 Munch, Edvard, works saved, 120 Munich Conference, 79 murder legalized, 57,58,64,65

554 Muslim versus Christian in Indonesia, 456 Musselmfinner, seen by the German population, 230 Mussolini, Benito: opposition to the Anschluss, 78; Munich Conference, 79

Napoleon, Bonaparte: Prussia's defeat of, 90; tomb in Paris, 114 NSDAP: absolute power, 92; answers the call, 71; camouflaging the Final Solution, 232; control of the media, 297; embraces racial purity, 63; growth, 33,53; Hitler's tool, 64; inclusion of'workers', 64-6; and the KKK, 435; National Socialist regime, based on Marxist doctrine, 28,56; news manipulation, 114; Nazi State and Hitler as 'Divine occurrences', 291; the only Party, 94; 'social utopia', 97; wins election (1932) by plurality, 72 National Socialist White People's Party, youth recruitment, 419 Nationalism: source of success, 72; and the professions, 107 Natural Law, knowing right from wrong, 143 Naumann, Werner, Minister of Propaganda, 101 Nazi Civil Service, technocrats, 161 Nazi regime (1933—45): 1,2,5,13,16,18,20, 22; book-burning, 111; bureaucracy, 59, 136; 107; business enterprise, 188; call to duty, 241; crime as the law of the land, 141; death camps, 134; high priority to killing of Jewish children and infants, 337; ideology and youth, 51-2,105,188; intellectual restrictions, 110; Jews as economic tools, 498; Lager life degrading, 177; laws, 28,37,45; legacy, 25-6; manufacture of corpses, 187; mindset manipulation and groupthink, 114,139; Nazi data ignored life, 209; Nebuchadnezzar, 150ff.; Negroid/Jewish roots, 55; occupied territories, 24; perfect race, 206; seats in the Reichstag, 107; ultimate opportunity, 157; use of recyclable items, 54; war criminals, 384 Neo-Nazism: 22,41 Iff.; computer technology, 419; in Germany, 455-65; publications 415 Neruda, Pablo, 20 New Orleans, David Duke election, 428 New Testament: and Cardinal Faulhaber, 295; revisions, 500 New York Times, the, deliberate disregard of the news, 263 Nibelungen, new culture, 95 Nicholas 1 (tsar of Russia, 1796-1855), 42 Niebuhr, Reinhold, individual versus mass, 135 Niemoeller, Martin: tactic of isolation, 290; and the Pfarrer Notbund, 296, 492 Nobel Prize, and US Jews, 425 Nolde, Emil, 'degenerate art', 120 Nordic, superior Aryan, 50

Warning and Hope Nungesser, William, Louisiana Republican, 430 Nuremberg Laws: Blutschutzgesetz (protection of Aryan blood), 57,86; copy of medieval Spain, 45; degradation, 168; Jews disenfranchised, 94, 142; lacking validity, 144; Nazi racial laws, 25; Poland, 140; reconstruction post-World War Two, record of 'society of impunity', 463; separation of Christian and Jew, 291,376; serving a criminal purpose, 142 Nuremberg Trials, the doctors, 136, 391 (sir also International Military Tribunal) Nye, Gerald P 413

Oberamegau, rehabilitation of hatred, 149 O'Keefe, Theodore, denying the Holocaust, 446 oath, to Hitler, the military and civil service, 301 Oedipal, guilt: 36; Klara and Adolf, 86 Oklahoma bombing, 479; and Louis Beam, 424 Old Testament, Christian, 38 Old Testament, Jewish, 38; German Christians' need of, 295 Oliner, Pearl and Samuel: circumstances demand action, 316; on altruism, 309 Olson, Norman, Christian Patriot Movement, 425-^44 Olympic Games, (1936), no protest from West, 264 Operation Barbarossa, and Karl May, 87 Ophul, Marcel, France's fascism, 451 opposition, 144 Order, the, 415 Orientals, Jews as, 36-56 Orsenigo, Cesare Bishop: some inquiries about mass murder, 273; rationale for indifference, 291 Orthodox Serbs, murdered by Catholic Croats, 272 Orwell, George: newspeak, 185; control of past, 452 Osservatore Romano, bias, 269 Overstreet, Bonaro, Courage for Crisis, 315

Palestine, 12-13 Pamyat, aggression versus Zionism, 457 Panama Canal Zone, 257 Paris, World War One: settlement, 68; German embassy attempt, 93 partisans, 280-3 Passover, myths, 45 Pastor, Laszlo, Hungarian Nazi, 426 Paul, Gospel of, love, most important, 36, 401 Paul, Randolph, on the 'Murder of the Jews' 250 Paxton, Robert O., on Barbie, Klaus, 451 Payne, Robert, Hitler 'mama's boy', 87 People's Guard, partisans, 284 Petain, Henry P, cooperation with Nazis, 261

Index Petrula, Simon, Ukraine pogrom, 138 Pfarrer Notbund, resistance to Party takeover, 296 Picasso, Pablo (Ruiz y): 'degenerate art', 118; works saved, 120 Pilsudski, Josef, Poland's liberator, 240 Piotrkow: 1; eyewitness account, 188; ghetto council, Judenrat, 221; looting, 120, 190; Judenrein, 226; first ghetto in occupied territory, 241,338 Plato, Crito, 214 Podole, 1 Poland: 1,7,13,25; admission of the Jedwabne massacre, 455-6; art looting, 120; Christian merchant class and nobility, 41,44; discrimination and the Church; 240,246; fate sealed, 80; Hitler's plans for, 79; independence and antiSemitism, 40,182; invasion of, 139, 271ff.; Jews invited to settle, 151; Lateran Treaty, 245-6ff.; the Lebensborn program, 110; pogroms, 140; Pope Pius XI, favored Fascism in Italy, 245-6ff.; Pope Pius XII, a Germanophile, 268; refuses re-entry to refugees from Germany, 93,157; survivors murdered after the war, 264; the underground, 245 Populist Party, and Duke, 432 Portugal, questionable bank practices, 121 POWs, not jeopardized by ICRC report, 249 Prague: 43-54; occupied, 79; Museum to an Extinct Race, 510 prejudice, 40,44,48 Pressac, Claude: evidence contradicting the deniers, 446; proof of exterminations, 452 Probst, Christoph, member of Die Weisse Rose, 305 Proctor, Robert, racial hygiene, 206 propaganda, as film broadcast, 97 Protestant Church: Aryan proof, 233; Martin Luther and the Jews, 152-3,294; Party installed 'Reich Bishop', 295-6 Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 43 Prussian, old traditions, end with German defeat, 371 pure blood, 381 Purim, 11 Putsch, the Beer Hall (str Beer Hall Putsch) Quadrissimo Anno, 269 Quigley, Carrol, the 'Dawes Plan', 78 racism: and the Aryan Nation, 411; and political/social Darwinism, 60 Radom, 1 Raeder, Erich, war crimes trial, 370 Rand, Ayn, 436 Rappoport, Leon, failure of science, 395, 460 (str Kren) Rascher, Sigmund, MD, sterilization, 199, 204 Rassenschande, 381 Rath, Ernst vom: shot, 93; vom Rath dies,

555 157-9, damages levied on Jews, 160 Ratner, Rina, passing for Christian, 323 Raubal, Geli, Hitler's niece and lover, 88 Ravensbriick: experiments in bone transplants, 199; murder of Jewish babies, 170 Reagan, Ronald: and Buchanan and the Bitburg cemetery visit, 427; against David Duke, 430 refuge for former Nazis, in foreign countries, 380 Rees, John, on fringe political groups, 414 Reichstag, burning of the, 93-^4 Renaissance, 437 Republican Party: and David Duke, 426; and the Southern vote, 427 Resistance: attitudes toward Jews, 328-9; for payment, 323; and the Klan, 421 rescue operations, 318ff. responsibility, 25,276-80 retrospect, as weapon against human error, 497 Retcliffe, Sir John, 43 (see Protocols of tJw Elders of Zion) revisionist historians, Nazi, 3,108 Ribbentrop, Joahim von. Pact with the Soviet Union, 80 Riefenstahl, Leni: Hitler's favorite propaganda films director, 97-8; Triumph of the Will, 92 Riegner, Gerhard Dr, and Final Solution, 250 Righteous: Among Nations, 308ff., 317, 323-4; Gentiles, 26-8,236,311,322,324, 329ff.; responses, 319; types of help, 318 Ringelblum, Emmanuel, resister, historian, fighter, 281 Robb, Thomas, Revd, KKK and Hitler ideology, 434 Roemer, Buddy, Louisiana social dislocation, 427-8 Romans, 35-6 Romanies (see Gypsies) Rome, Jews expelled from, 34—5,274 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano: action, lack of, 386; action, too late for, 257; fear of spies, 247; Morgenthau Report, 251; passive silence, 245; Yalta Conference, 100 Rosenberg, Alfred, Hitler's philosopher mentor, 62,90 Rosenfeld, Harvey, on Wallenberg, 329 Rosenman, Samuel, self-hating Jew, 252-3 Roth, John K., 37-8 Rothfels, Hans, on German resistance, 300 Rothshild, Nathan M., Lord, news to the US, 252 Rousseau, Jean J., Emile, 373 RSHA, charged with the Final Solution, 183 Rubenstein, Richard L.: 37-8; genocide expression of modern civilization, 400ff., 462 Ruhr, French occupation, 74 Romanians: Iron Cross, the, 41,241; Jews to Auschwitz, 262; rescue, 249 Russia: Bolsheviks takeover, 78;

556 contemporary Russia, 455; Duke on Russian Revolution, 429; Jewish massacres, 40; peasants attack, 45; shtetls, 42; tsarist Russia, hatred of Jews, 457; tsarist Russia, persecution, 41-3; Tsarist, Russia, state-sponsored murder and looting, 8,121 Russians: advance into the Reich, 100; nobility, 42; subhuman, 109 Rwanda, slaughter of Tutsis by the Hutus, 492

SA (Sturm Abteilung), instrument of terror, 71; and Kristallnacht, 157; Party rallies, 98 Saarland, French occupation, 68 Sabbath, observance of, 9-11 Sachsenhausen: blood experiments on the Gypsies, 200; use after the November FVgrom, 159 Samelson, William, One Bridge to Life, 405 Samuel, Maurice, anti-Judaism, 149 Sanhedrin, 35 Santayana, George, echoes of Freud, 315 Sartre, Jean Paul: the anti-Semite and the Jew, 38; anti-Semitism, 168; condemned to freedom, 155 Satan, Jews children of, 39,415 Sauerbruch, Peter, and Stauffenberg, 303 Sauvage, Pierre, world devoid of humanity, 141 Savior, 36 Schacht, Hjalmar, 370 Schallmayer, Wilhelm, socially hygienic control, 63 Scheidemann, Philipp, the Weimar Republic, 57,70 Schicklgruber, Maria Anna, Hitler's grandmother, 86 Schiller, Friedrich von: books burned, 111; monument, 235 Schirach, Baldur von, Germany equals Hitler, 104; blind obedience and Hitler worship, 104; on war crimes trial, 109 Schmahling, Julius, German Righteous Gentile, 322 Schmorell, Alexander, member of Die Wcisse Rose, 305 Schoenberg, Arnold, disillusion with the US, 112 Schoenheimer, Rudolff, suicide in the US, 112 Scholl, Hans, co-founder of Die Weisse Rose, 305 Scholl, Sophie, co-founder of Die Weisse Rose, 305 schools, non-Aryans expelled, 224 Schumann, Horst, MD, sterilization experiments, 199-204 Schuschnigg, Kurt von, resistance to the Anschluss, 78 Schwarzbart, Shalom, Petrula's assassin, 1, 38 Scriptures, 9 Seraw, Mulugeta, African student murdered in the US, 444

Warning and Hope Serbs, slaughter of Muslims, 492 Shabbat~Goy, 9 Shabbat-Yidn, 8 Shekhinah, 8 Shirer, William, Scheideman: Hitler's boycott of Jews, 142; reports from the Third Reich, 262-3; statement, 51,68 Shoah, 508-11 Shteeble, 7-8 shtetls: 8-9 (see also Russia) Sichrovsky, Peter, Born Guilty, 49 Siemens: profit from slave labor, 231; US loans, 78 Silent Brotherhood, 415 Silten, Gabrielle, a toy bear 'Brunette', 350, Simmons, William, and the KKK, 421 Sinclair, Upton, books burned, 111 Sisyphus, slave camp labor, 234 Skinheads: growing movement, 420; murder of African student, 444 Slonin, massacre, 246 Slovakia, rescue, 249 Social Democrats, Third Reich, persecution of, 458 Sobibor, Extermination Camp, gas chambers, 202,259 Social Darwinism: distortion of theory, 61-2; Hitler's credo, 65; racism, 64; Third Reich ideology, 63 Socolov, Susan, against deniers of the Holocaust, 447 Socrates, in Plato's Last Days, 313-14 Sonderbehandlung, euphemism for 'extermination', 202 Sonderkommando, transfer of victims to cremation, 202 Sorokin, Pilrikim, altruism as a sociological phenomenon, 316 South America, emigration, 255 Soviet Union: advance into Germany, 370; barbarisms, 463; excluded from Versailles covenants, 68; genocide, 179; negotiations with Hitler, 80; occupied East Germany, 371; Olympic Games boycott, 265; 'Operation Barbarossa', 183; Spain, rescue of Jews, 40,325; 'those Redskins', 87 Speer, Albert: conversation with Hitler, 101; on trial, 379-80; principal architect of slave labor, 115,243 Spencer, Herbert, on altruism, 316 Spotlight, internet venom, 449 SS (Schutzstaffcl, Protection Echelon): 14,16, 18,23; and the Hitler Youth, 105; dedication to Hitler, 242; killing rationale, 57; Kristallnacht, 157; music in camps, 125; psychological effects from killings, 162-3; logic of destruction, 169; rationalizing crimes, 49; and slave labor, 184 St Louis, the odyssey, 255 Stackelberg, Roderick, Volk as term of racial purity, 63 Stahlhelme, Mengele, 210

Index Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich: Chamberlain's view, of, 265; genocide, 179; Hitler comparison, 464; on Jews, 391,414; Yalta Conference, the, 100 Stangl, Franz, Treblinka-Sobibor commandant, 243, 393,395 Star of David: 25,197, 291, 311, 416; as covert oppression, 496 Stauffenberg, Claus von: missed opportunity, 307; plants bomb for July 20 attempt on Hitler's life, 303 (see also Wolfsschanze) Stein, Edith, appeal to the Pope, 269 Steinberg, Fela, alone in survival, 323 Stettinius, Edward, 258 Stimson, Henry, 258 Stout, George, Aryan Nation recruitment in prisons, 414 Streicher, Julius: Der Sturmer, propaganda, 50-2,96; and German children, 342 Sturzo, Luigi, anti-Fascist, 268 Sudetenland, occupied, 79 Suhr, Friedrich, Eichmann's associate in murder, 140 Sweden: questionable banking practices, 121; rescue of Jews from Denmark, 323-5 Swift, Wesley, originator of 'Identity Theology', 415 Swiss: mandate not to report, 250 questionable banking practices, 121 Sword, the, 419

Taylor, Myron, representative to the Vatican, 272 Technocracy: dehumanizing perpetrators, 163; relentless brutality, 181 Ten Commandments, 308, 330 Tenenbaum, Joseph, Nazi 'moral mission', 65 Tensor, Stephen, the Lost Generation, 355 Terespol, 284 Teutonic myths: 61; past and present, 113 The White Rose (see Die Weisse Rose) Theis, Edouard, rescuer at Le Chambon, 314 Theodicy, 405ff. Theresienstadt, model concentration camp: children's paintings, 352; orchestra, 124 Third Punic War, destruction of Carthage by Rome, 70 Third Reich, the: 1,4-5,21; advantages for industry, 184; anti-Judaism, 51,52,54,55; barrier against Bolshevism, 78; breaking the social contract, 493; Christian passivity, 232; concordat with, 268; crime legalized, 141-2; culture of impunity, 444; design for perfection, 198; distortion of truth through language, 196; Europe imprisoned, 506; existence based on the destruction of Jews, 27; 28, 29, 33, 34, 40, 41; groupthink, 139; Hitler's immaturity, 87; institutionalized murder, 394; imposing its will on the people, 395; and Jewish children, 336; judiciary, 77; justification of Judeocide, 64; and

557 Kantian irrationalism, 436; Laws of'pure blood', 45; persecution, 50; medical experimentation rationale, 208; Mein Kampf more popular than the Bible, 96; Nazi art, 118; new culture, 235; on the defensive, 99; preparation for expansion, 115; and the professions, 107; racism and political activity, 65; removal of 'degenerate art', 120; resettlement, 194; satanic cult, 237; silent opposition to, 300; and social Darwinism, 57-63; some opposition to, 144; state-sponsored annihilation of Jews, 143; surrender, 101, 370; virtual reality, 137; world crisis of unparalleled measure, 315 Thorkelson, Jacob, 413 Thousand Year Reich: figment of imagination, 97; Lebensraum, 64; legacy, 507 (see also Third Reich) Tille, Alexander, 63 Tittman, Harold, request of Papal statement, 272 Toller, Ernst, suicide, 112 Tonsor, Stephen, 437 Topfu. Sohne, crematory profits, 231 Torah and Talmud: study, 8, 11,27; tales, 43 Totenkopf division, SS unit, 242 Trapp, Larry: distrust in the Klan ranks, 422; foreseen violence, 424 Treaty of Versailles (see Versailles Treaty) Treblinka, extermination camp: 1,13,54; gas chambers, 202, 289,459 Tregenza, Michael, Belzec killings, 184 Treitschke, Heinrich von, admiration for, 90 Tresckow, Henning von, member of July 20 Plot, 302 (see also Wolfsschanze) Trocme, Andre, pastor of Le Chambon, 314-15,322 Trott, Adam, von zu Solz, the Kreisau Circle, 302 tsarist Russia (see Russia) Turner Diaries, the, destruction of Israel, 415 Twelve Tribes of Israel, the, 43 Twentieth Century, great moral failure of humanity in history, 497

Umsiedlung (resettlement), 24 United States: 1; anti-Semitism, 427ff.; defeat of the Third Reich and the rescue of Jews, 252; doubts regarding the Holocaust, 141; Foreign Affairs Committee, 259; German Bund declared illegal, 445; Germany declares war on the US, 445; growing pacifism, 77; the IMT, 379; intellectual immigration, 110; Jewish reaction, 253; Mexican border plans, 445; no easing of immigration policies, pragmatism, sign of emotional irrationalism, 246-7,436-7; State Department's insensitivity to the murder of the European Jewry, 257; United Nations, as result of the Holocaust, 460; US declares war on Japan, 445; at Versailles, 68